CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
― Søren Kierkegaard
Amelia was sure that Steve had said something about the element of surprise, and yet moments after arriving she found herself surrounded by agents. A part of her wondered if any of them knew her, if any of them had been agents which use to work at her old base, but in the end she figured they weren't because if they had been, they'd have known to run away the moment they saw her.
She smiled at each individual one, turning to face them all, looking down the barrels of their guns with her teeth bared animalistically. And then she raised up her hands, quickly, not giving them any time to react and even if any of them had been trigger happy enough to send a bullet at her slightest twitch they were all vaulted up into the sky before they could notice any movement. "How's the weather up there?" She asked, laughing at her own joke (as she normally would) before clenching her hands, pulling back all the energy she was using to hold up their bodies, making them fall to the ground. Painful cracks were heard as they made contact with the woodland floor, their moans of disdain ringing out through the woods.
A satisfactory look was on her face as she began to walk deeper into the woods, closer to the Sokovian castle. The look dropped as soon as she saw the two vehicles that were driving in her direction, as she was trying to come up with a plan the noise of an engine could be heard approaching her from behind.
Thinking that it was another Hydra vehicle drawing closer to her she turned with arms raised, ready to blow them away with her powers. Thankfully it was instead Steve, dressed in his suit, arriving on a motorcycle. "Need a lift?" He asked, nodding towards the back of the motorcycle. Steve Rogers had never looked so much like a knight on a stead coming to rescue a damsel in distress, and Amelia had never felt so charmed.
She wasted no time, getting onto the back of his motorbike, wrapping her arms around his chest and pressing herself closely against him. "Let's go," she cheered, smiling ear to ear as her soldier set off, driving them, together, further into battle.
They continued to take out agents on their way. Amelia released her hold on Steve so that she could keep back any bullets or lasers from reaching them, knocking them back into other agents to make them immobile.
On their journey they ended up passing the Hulk who charged forward, jumping over their motorbike and knocking away people with the same ease a human would have when knocking away flies. Amelia's eyes widened and her attention was momentarily taken as she watched him demolish everything. Part of her was impressed and part of her felt scared but she tried not to judge, trying to afford Banner something she had never been given.
Tony was in the air doing aerial attacks and moving in on Hydra's base seen as he was the only one with the technology to locate the scepter, meanwhile Thor, Natasha and Clint were working alongside Amelia and Steve on the ground, fighting through the army Hydra had sent out to stop them. But it would definitely take more than an army to take them down.
Iron Man sped ahead of them, aiming for the building but instead being bashed away by a forcefield, "shit!" He yelled, more surprised than hurt.
"Watch your language," Steve replied, Tony's curse being heard across the comms.
Behind him, Amelia raised an eyebrow, "how is someone meant to watch their language? Words aren't visible, are they?"
Her questions went on ignored as Steve chose to, instead, concentrate on the mission. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?" By 'upstairs', the soldier meant all the way from space as Tony had his own satellite orbiting the earth and at that moment it was directly above sokovia.
"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield," the AI responded into the ear comms, "Strucker's technology is well beyond any other Hydra base we've taken."
"Loki's scepter must be here then," Thor stated, voicing the conclusion everyone had come to, "Strucker couldn't mount this defence without it. At long last."
Amelia and Steve continued to drive forward, more and more agents appearing and targeting the runaway pair. The brunette did the best she could, deflecting the energy beams they shot from their advanced technology, choosing to use her telekinesis rather than create a forcefield around them as she'd learnt that a forcefield cost her much more energy than she had.
Over the past year Amelia had trained her powers to be stronger and more powerful, she could actually use them continuously in a battle unlike before when she barely ever used her powers, but it still came at a cost. It was like running, by the end, the person would be out of breath and their body would hurt, when it came to Amelia's powers if she overexerted them too much then she would pass out or simply become very weak.
"At long last is lasting a little long," Natasha quipped as she surprised some of the agents that were trying to fire at Steve's bike, knocking them to the ground with a single punch.
Meanwhile, Clint was throwing arrow after arrow, hitting all his targets and never missing which was something to be expected from the world's greatest marksman, "yeah I think we lost the element of surprise."
"You think?" Amelia asked, chuckling as she whipped another energy blast away from Steve's head and back towards the agent that had thrown it.
Steve could see that she was getting slower, more breathless. He'd been the one to help her train so he was quite aware of her abilities and how they worked, so he knew how he could help them in battle. They were more defenceless when on the bike, at least on foot they could turn and defend themselves quicker, which meant Steve had only one option. "Get ready to jump off!" He yelled to Amelia over the passing wind and roar of the bike's engine.
She nodded her head, placing her hands down on Steve's shoulder and putting up a momentary forcefield to keep them safe until he executed whatever plan he had in his head. Using his shoulders to keep herself balanced, Amelia stood up on the back of his bike, awaiting his next order.
"Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just told me to 'watch my language?" Tony asked incredulously into the comms.
"I know," Steve mumbled, hesitating one more second before he told Amelia to jump off. As the brunette levitated herself off the back, landing peacefully onto the ground, Steve pressed down on the bikes break and jumped forward, doing a backflip and using the momentum of the movement to throw the motorbike at an upcoming vehicle that was carrying agents to their location. "It just sort of slipped out."
Amelia gawked at the wreckage before looking at Steve, placing her hands on her hips, "you know you could have just asked me to take care of it, you didn't need to throw you motorcycle at them."
Steve's hands fell to his belt as he turned to face the brunette, a smile full of boyish charm filling the bottom half of his face which wasn't covered by the navy blue mask he wore, "What? You don't think it looked cool?"
Despite herself, the corners of Amelia's lips rose, falling meagerly for Steve's glamour. "Well, now, I didn't say that."
"Please stop flirting," Tony's voice appeared again, interrupting their private moment.
The pair listened for once, going silent as they concentrated on moving further into the forest and defeating all agents that came their way. It was easier when they were together. After their year of never being apart, it would probably feel uncomfortable for them to not be fighting together. They never had to share a word, the other always knowing what their partner's next move would be.
As Steve threw his shield she'd use her powers to guide it, keeping up the momentum Steve had given it with his throw and adding to its strength, causing multiple agents to fall unconscious to the ground. Whenever Steve moved in for a close range attack she'd do her best to assist, either keeping bullets away from him or fighting off any other agents in the vicinity. And if ever someone approached her from behind, Steve was normally there or he'd thrown his shield to defend in his place.
In no time their surroundings had been emptied of agents, most laid unconscious on the floor whilst others had chosen to flee. Steve and Amelia were in the middle of high-fiving each other when an invisible force knocked them down. Whilst the soldier had managed to use his experts in gymnastics to land on his feet, Amelia had ended up sprawled on the floor. "What are you, a cat?" She wheezed, taking Steve's offered hand so he could pull her back onto her feet.
"We have an enhanced in the field," Steve explained to the others, not wasting any time before running in the direction he believed the enhanced had gone. He couldn't be sure though, as whatever it was that had pushed them down was fast, impossibly fast. Amelia trailed behind, holding onto her stomach which had been where whatever impossible creation had hit her.
"Clint's been hit," Natasha announced, proceeding to request someone deal with the bunker. No reply through the earcomms came but Amelia did hear somewhere in the woods the mighty roar of the Hulk and then a large smashing noise.
Steve and Amelia reached more agents, whilst Steve charged forward and used his shield, Amelia stood back to avoid getting hit again. She did, however, use her powers to cause some agents to fly up and then crash land back on the floor. "Stark, we really need to get into the tower."
"I'm working on it," came her brother's quick reply and not moments later did he speak again, "drawbridge is down people."
Amelia wasn't sure what her brother had done but she was grateful, they were getting closer to the end of their little mission which meant she could then work on figuring out her past. It had been plaguing her mind for far too long, the mysterious 'lost year'.
Thor joined Amelia and Steve in fighting off the agents, landing and hammering down on the ground which sent a surge of electricity to all the agents that were near him. "The enhanced?" Thor asked, wondering if the soldier had seen any more of him.
"He's a blur," Steve replied, turning around momentarily so that he could check on Amelia's wellbeing. She was walking a little slower and still holding her stomach but she was fine, it would take a lot more than a punch to bring her down. "All the new players we've faced, I've never seen this. In fact, I still haven't."
"I'm guessing super speed but I don't know for sure," Amelia supplied her own conclusion as she joined the two men.
"Clint's hit pretty bad guys. We're going to need an evac." Nat interrupted the little guessing game they were all playing, sat a few metres away from them on the woodland floor with an aching Clint Barton by her side. She'd managed to place a bandage on his wound but that was all she could do in the middle of the woods.
"I can get Barton to the jet," Thor offered, the trio nonplussed as they watched a tank drive over a hill, moving towards them with numerous weaponised agents by its side, "the sooner we're gone the better. You and the Stark's secure the scepter."
It felt slightly weird to have Thor refer to her as a Stark, Amelia still not fully use to the name but she was glad that Thor trusted her enough to give her the duty of retrieving the staff. He'd learnt about her past the night he'd arrived whilst Steve and Tony were arguing, her brother had explained through a messy drunken haze all about how she was a killer in the past and Steve had been the one to step up and try to add more to the story (whilst Pepper dragged Tony away to go and sober him up). Amelia had automatically assumed he'd share the same reaction as her brother but he'd been a little bit more understanding.
He'd shared with her on the quinjet over to Amelia's old base the story of his own sibling. His brother, Loki (a name Amelia had recognised from the stories Steve had told her), had done some villainous stuff but he'd died a hero and that was the important part. That in his last moments, he'd chosen to do the right thing. That's all Thor cared about in the end, and it was the same with her. As long as she did the right thing, he vowed to ignore her past.
"Alright," Amelia agreed with his plan, "but can you take care of those guys first, please?" She pointed at the approaching enemies, knowing full well her powers wouldn't probably be of much use against a tank and ten agents.
"It looks like they're lining up," Thor mused, practically smiling at their aggressive behaviours.
"Well, they're excited." Steve brought up his shield for the asgardian, Thor throwing his hammer down onto the adamantium shield and sending a shockwave which knocked back all the soldiers and the tank.
"Find the scepter." Thor reminded, flying off so that he could go and assist Clint.
"And for gosh sake, watch your language!" Tony quipped.
Steve's head fell down slightly as he released a sigh that deflated his body, "that's not going away anytime soon."
The brunette beside him sympathetically brought out her hand and patted his shoulder. She then held out the hand to him, "need a lift?" He took her hand and watched as the familiar white light glided across his skin, making it tingle as it swept like water across his form, eventually covering him entirely. Seconds after both his and Amelia's body were coated in the white energy they began to fly upwards, moving towards Hydra's base.
This was by far Steve's favourite part of Amelia's abilities. It was beautiful to look at, and even more beautiful to experience.
"We're locked down out here," Natasha reported as Steve and Amelia arrived, entering the building through a window.
As soon as Amelia landed she dropped to her knees and placed both her palms onto the ground, allowing her energy to pass through the ground and surge through the building so that she could get a read on its halls and whoever was walking them.
"Then get to Banner, time for a lullaby."
The 'lullaby' Steve spoke about had come as a surprise to both the soldier and the brunette. Whilst Steve was surprised they managed to find a working method to make the Hulk transform back into Bruce, Amelia had been surprised to hear just exactly how much time her friend had spent with the scientist/green raging monster. It had made her even more suspicious of what they were, especially because before arriving at Tony's she'd never even heard of Bruce Banner, not when it came to Nat. She'd heard of the Hulk from passing mentionings in Steve's stories, but the soldier had never gone into detail about him being a huge green thing, Amelia had thought he was just a very strong, kind of angry sounding, guy.
A minute of silence passed as she worked on familiarising herself with the building's layout: she spotted numerous guards and some peculiar things. Once she was done she released her hold on the ground and stood back up so she could face her soldier, wiping off all the dirt from her hands, "find anything interesting?"
"I found Tony, he's closing in on the scepter. And I know where all the guards are, but there was this one guy who was running." She explained her findings, closing her eyes and picturing everything she saw again.
"You think that guy was Strucker?"
Amelia shrugged her shoulders, "I think he's the one who'd be most likely running away right now."
Steve nodded, agreeing with her guess and he allowed her to guide him through the hallways. Following her every step and assisting in taking down any agents that blocked their path. Amelia had to stop a couple of times to search the building for the man she sensed running but eventually they reached the staircase just as he was running up it.
"Baron Strucker," Steve smiled at their find, proud of his girl for doing so well in locating the criminal. "Hydra's number one thug."
Strucker wasn't paying any mind to Steve though, no, all of his attention was on the brunette standing beside him. "You don't recognise me, do you?" He asked her, noticing the empty expression she had on her face as she stared at him. "That's a pity, I am the one who made you after all."
The second Strucker stepped forward Steve had lifted his shield up in front of Amelia, though she'd quite easily destroy Strucker, the soldier couldn't stop his protective urges.
"So you admit to illegal human experimentation?" Amelia asked as they began to circle each other, Strucker moving to press himself against the wall. She was doing very well at keeping her shock hidden, as was Steve. He must have been talking about the lost year, Amelia would have been able to remember him if it was at any other time and considering what Baron Strucker had been doing with the enhanced on the field it wasn't that much of a jump to assume he'd experimented on her at one point. Perhaps he had been the cause behind the crazy behaviour her powers would sometimes demonstrate.
"I make improvements, if that's what you're referring to." Strucker's eyes flashed to behind them and both noticed, but it was already too late. Another force hit them and pushed them down the staircase that willingly walked in front of, it wasn't like the speeding force they'd met earlier. Amelia had only managed a quick glance but she'd spotted a girl, hair a lighter shade of brunette to hers, and a red energy that had been emitted from her swaying fingers.
They recovered quickly but the girl had already disappeared, leaving Strucker to them. "We have a second enhanced," Steve announced to the rest of the team, "female. Do not engage."
Strucker was smiling, only slightly, and he was looking at Amelia as he did so. His gaze swept slowly over to Cap, a smirk edging his lips, "you'll have to be faster than-"
Steve was done listening to him. He used his shield to knock the man out, allowing his body to fall harshly against the cold stone floor of his own base. The soldier turned to Amelia, finding her gaze stuck on the fallen Hydra agent, he'd definitely got her curious and Steve could understand why, he was just as invested into finding out about her mysterious lost year. "We'll interview him later," Steve promised, reaching out and wrapping his hand around her open palm.
She closed her fingers around his, giving his welcomed hand a satisfied squeeze. "Okay." Now that they had Baron Strucker taken care of Amelia wanted to go check on her brother; before, when she had examined the layout of the building, she had noticed something very large and very strange down where her brother was heading. The thing she sensed wasn't alive, but it also wasn't something she'd ever sensed before. "You head back with Strucker, I'm going to check up on my brother."
"Alright, be safe." It wasn't a request but a demand. Amelia rolled her eyes at his concern and began to wander off, not releasing his hand until the very last second.
Most of the guards had already given up, meaning most of the hallways Amelia wandered through were empty. She found a room which agents were hobbling out of, obvious injuries bleeding out on different limbs and that was proof enough for her that she'd found where her brother was. After entering the room she found her brother's suit, open and empty. Wandering further, she found computers which had a Stark device attached that was downloading everything from their computers, Amelia wondered for a moment if there would be anything about her past on there but she'd decided to instead concentrate on finding her brother and making sure he was safe before she tried to delve any further into the lost year.
Amelia wasn't surprised when she found a secret door. For some reason Hydra just loved having secret doors. She delved into the shadowy depths and wandered downwards, somewhere the brunette suspected was underground.
When she reached the room, she had to hold onto the wall in order to stay standing. Stretching the length of the room there seemed to be some sort of monster. It reminded her of a whale with fins at its side but it definitely wasn't one she'd ever seen on her animal shows. All around its body there seemed to be an armour. There was no face, just hundreds of long teeth that were the size of two humans on top of each other. And standing in front of it, was her brother.
She kept herself to the walls because she didn't want to get too close to the creature, only leaving them when she had to move over to her brother. She reached out for his arm to get his attention but the moment her skin had touched his arm he lashed out, only stopping when he realised it was her. "Tony?" She asked, concern lacing her voice but no reply came from her shaking brother, he just stared at her wide eyed. "What happened?"
He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, pathetic noises being the only thing that came out because Tony wasn't sure what happened.
Seeing that he couldn't speak she slowly (so she wouldn't spook him) she raised her hands upward and moved them towards his head, "I'm just going to take a look, I promise I won't look at anything else, okay?" Tony wouldn't have been able to say no even if he wanted to, so shaken by what he had just seen. As her fingers pressed themselves benign onto his forehead, Amelia closed her eyes, allowing herself to be carried into his most recent memory.
She saw everything from her brother's point of view. Turning around, the monster suddenly came to life, releasing a ghastly roar and charging forward which caused her to fall back in terror to the ground, eyes always remaining on the threat but eventually dropping down to the scene behind her.
Everyone. They were all dead. The Hulk had multiple Chitauri weapons piercing his body, he seemed alive but she knew he wouldn't last much longer, he'd been defeated which seemed like such an impossibility and yet the evidence was in front of her. Her eyes fell downward, spotting Natasha who stared back at her, not defeated, but dead. At her feet was Clint, bow still in hand, arrow at the ready. She wondered if perhaps that arrow could have saved her life but after a quick sweep of the devastation, she knew there was never a chance for them. Thor, the God, was also among the dead bodies, and though he looked peaceful it did nothing to ease the grieving pain which rotted her heart. And then, there was the familiar shield, cracked in half. She wanted to stop looking, she wanted to turn away but she wasn't in charge of the movements, Tony was.
His eyes, and therefore her eyes, dropped onto Steve and a scream caught in her throat. He was pale, chiselled face bruised and bloodied. And in his arms was herself, looking similar to how she did at that moment. She moved forward, hoping that perhaps if she tried hard enough she could bring him back to life. As she leant forward his hand reached out though, and with his last dying breath, he uttered the words: "You could have saved us."
The image was too much for both her and Tony, her brother recoiling at it and throwing her out of his memories.
It took her a moment to take everything in, everything they'd seen. She understood why her brother had looked so haunted, though she wished that she didn't. Perhaps the most horrifying thing was that she knew it wasn't just a memory, it was a vision.
"We won't let it happen," she said, a panic attack rising inside of her but she forced it to go back down, there was no need to panic because she would never let that happen. "I promise, Tony, we won't let it happen." She reached out and hugged her brother, Tony returning the gesture and allowing himself one moment of weakness where he could place his head against his little sister's shoulder and share the pain he felt.
A/N: And we're into AOU! Whoop!
To JohnnyStormsGirl, did he forgive her? Or did he just say they'd forget about it? Also I just a scene where they cuddle but it was very depressing to write lemme tell u
To Cash1122, make sure you take breaks between your binge reading to drink fluids and stuff but also THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENTS I'M SO HAPPY
To Sam0728, Tony gets really brotherly in chapter 33, it's quite sweet. This isn't me saying look forward to chapter 33 because it most certainly is not a Good Time. Also, I just finished writing the scene where Wanda makes Amelia see shit and I feel bad but also kinda proud.
To OfSeashellsandStars, thank you so much!
To AlexShah, I can confirm they do indeed get closer, feel like it's already kinda confirmed with this chapter. But yes, thank you for the review, I hope you enjoyed this one too :)
To BigBangVIP, Amelia just has such a way with words!
To Hannah Banana, she just needs to get comfortable, both with herself and others
To BlueBloodsSVUOrder, hope this chapter was alright for you and that you enjoyed her reaction to the Hulk
To Kuppcake, hope the action soothed your tears lol
And a big thanks to everyone else that read the chapter!
