**A/N: Hey all my amazing readers :D So, I posted another video on my tumblr page, Sorry Ever After. Please check it out if you get the chance. There's also the cover art for the next story, Through the Storm there, and I love it so much, so you should all check it out! I take a lot of pride in it.
Also, I may just end up posting on Tuesdays, since it's really convenient. As long as the betas edit it before Tuesday/on Tuesday, I'll continue to post it then.
Chapter 35- All These Little Strings
"And sometimes I get lose in time. Sometimes I fear I'm lost in here. All these little strings holding us together. All these precious things can make them last. All these little strings keep holding us together. All these precious things, make them last forever."
~Strings and Attractor, How to Destroy Angels
When she felt like she had finished her path down self-pity, she picked herself up and headed back up to the lab. Jamie was fussing, and she knew he was ready for bed, but she didn't want to let him out of her arms just yet. She would rock him lovingly until he finally drifted off, and hope that nothing would wake him up.
Now, however, Jamie was still trying to stay awake, as if he was scared that if he let Bethany out of his sight even for a moment, she'd be gone forever. On occasion, she was proud that he was so self-aware and perceptive, but at moments like these, she wished he understood less. "I'm not going anywhere," she whispered to him, playing with his curls as the elevator moved up to the lab.
She walked slowly to the lab until she saw Steve, followed by the Maximoff twins just a few steps ahead of her, making their way to the lab. She quickly picked up her pace, remaining only a few feet away from them.
"I'm gonna say this once," Steve announced, the sound of his voice gathering Jamie's attention, his little arm reaching out to him.
"How about nonce?" Tony offered instead.
"Shut it down," Steve commanded, leaving no room for compromise.
"Nope, not gonna happen," Tony replied, not letting the extra company distract him in the slightest.
"You don't know what you're doing," Steve insisted. Bethany could feel her breath catch in her throat when she took a better look at the Maximoff twins. Everything around her seemed to become distant, the sounds becoming mere hums as panic started to rise inside of her. Flashes of seeing them earlier surrounded her. Pietro hovering on top of her, a smug look written all over his face. It had made her sick then, and even now in her memories, the image was overwhelming. That smile, as if he had all the power over her, that mischievous twinkle in his eye… she had seen that look before. It was only now, when adrenaline wasn't clouding her thoughts, that she could pinpoint where she'd seen that look before, hovering over her, knowing that she was powerless.
Jason.
She had seen it in his eyes every single time he brought her to his bed.
But it wasn't just Pietro. It was Wanda too, knowing that she could pick any little string in Bethany's mind and unravel it until it incapacitated her. Wanda knew all of Bethany's fears, her happiest moments, her pleasures. And she had the ability to play with all of it, in any way she wanted to.
It was a soft call that brought her back to the present, Jamie's sweet little voice questioning her, a hand reaching up towards her face. Feeling air coming back into her lungs, the extreme situation going on around her took precedence. "You don't know what's in there!" Wanda insisted.
"This isn't a game!" Steve insisted, the air in the room getting thick again, but this time Bethany refused to lose her focus again.
"Enough!" Bethany begged, panting as she held onto Jamie closer. Her command had been followed, but not by her doing. A blue flash zipped around the room, causing sparks of electricity, humming from the computers and a light breeze of smoke.
"No, no," Pietro said as he came to a stop, everyone looking at him in shock. "Go on. You were saying?"
A shot of a gun filled the air, along with glass breaking and Pietro falling to the next level, his sister calling out to him. The sound startled Jamie, the infant immediately breaking out into a series of loud cries. Tony said something, but Bethany couldn´t hear over her son's cries.
"Shhh," she whispered to Jamie, rocking him, but the situation only got worse as Steve tossed his shield across the room to stop Tony. The man immediately reacted, his Iron Man arm flying towards him and shooting Steve back.
"Stop it!" Bethany shouted to them, placing a hand over one of Jamie's ears. Bruce decided to make it worse, taking Wanda into his arms and holding her close. Everyone in the room continued to fight against each other, Bethany ducking and narrowly missing a blast coming from Tony that was directed towards Steve.
"Watch it!" Steve cried, lunging forward towards Tony as Bethany crotched on the ground, clutching onto the still crying baby. The two men came towards each other before being flung back. It was like a nightmare coming to life for Bethany, watching her husband and her nephew fighting each other, and not just with words, but with actual physical contact in an effort to maim the other enough so that they could get their way.
"Stop," Bethany said again, but her voice was too quiet under all the noise to be heard by anyone. But once again, everyone came to a halt by someone else's actions; Thor appearing seemingly from nowhere and jumping onto the cradle.
"Wait!" Bruce called out as Thor raised his hammer, calling on lightning. Bethany's hand moved to cover Jamie's eyes opposed to his ears, the bright light from the lightning filling the room. Suddenly, the back of Steve's shield was covering her view, protecting her and Jamie from what could happen at any moment. She looked up to him, one of Steve's arms wrapped around his family to protect them.
The room got quiet for a moment before she could hear the breaking of metal and glass, Steve taking a closer hold of her and Jamie, ducking his head over the shield to see what was happening, but she could tell from the look on his face that he wasn't even considering leaving their side. If it was just Bethany there, it would be a different story, but Jamie was vulnerable to anything that could happen. Even if no one was trying to hurt him, accidents happened and they already had a close call with a repulsor beam.
Jamie was still crying, his lips right next to Bethany's ears. Moving her hand to rub his back in a soothing motion, she dared to look over the shield to see what was going on. Her jaw fell open when she saw the man who had previously been in the cradle standing tall and looking like he was out for blood.
A long breath of air fell from her lips, fear overtaking her body. She could feel the hand on her arm tightening, but whether Steve was trying to comfort her or he too was feeling fear, she wasn't sure. Suddenly, the man and Thor flew from her sight and into the next room, the shattering of more glass only feeding Jamie's cries.
Steve and Bethany got up from their places, craning their heads to get a glimpse of the situation. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Wanda moving towards them, a raised hand with red dancing through her fingertips gesturing towards Jamie.
"NO," Bethany said strongly, one of her legs moving out to intertwine with Wanda's legs to bring her down, but her brother caught her and was about to get retaliation when Steve grabbed Pietro's arm.
"Stop this," Steve ordered, his voice leaving no room for argument. Another crash from the other room caught all their attention, Bethany nodding at Steve to go, the man jumping up to the next level.
"I only meant to get him to stop crying," Wanda told Bethany quietly, only making Bethany take an impossibly closer hold of her son.
"You don't even think about him," Bethany spat, kissing Jamie's forehead and promising him that everything was okay. His cries were getting softer as silence filled the room.
"Kind of hard not to think about him when he's making all that noise," Pietro stated with a smug attitude.
"Watch what you say, this is our turf," Clint warned the twins, placing a hand on Bethany's arm and guiding her up to see what was happening.
"Shhh, Munchkin," Bethany whispered, not knowing if going up towards that thing was the best idea, not with her son in tow. Jamie's eyes were opening now, his little fist rubbing at them stubbornly as his crying stilled and his hiccups began.
Everyone was standing in the communal living area, staring in awe at the newly born man in front of them. Bethany naturally rooted herself beside Steve, knowing that Jamie would be safest between her and him. The man, who had been floating mere seconds before, landed next to Thor, but made no move to attack.
"I'm sorry," he apologized. "That was… odd. Thank you."
There was a moment of silence as the man and Thor shared a look before the man produced a cape from nowhere, clearly mimicking the look the demi-god wore.
"Thor," Steve said, interrupting the uncomfortable silence. "You helped create this?"
"I've had a vision," Thor enlightened them. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at its center is that."
"What, the gem?" Bruce asked, taking two careful steps forward.
"It's the Mind Stone," Thor continued. "It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."
Steve's words echoed Bethany's own thoughts. "Then why would you bring it-"
"Because Stark is right," Thor rushed to explain.
"Oh, it's definitely the end times," Bruce commented, knowing that Thor and Tony never agreed on anything.
"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron," Thor added.
"Not alone," the man agreed.
"Why does your 'vision' sound like JARVIS?" Steve asked as the man started to walk forward slowly.
"We reconfigured Jarvis' matrix to create something new," Tony explained.
"I think I've had my fill of new," Steve shared.
"You think I'm a child of Ultron," The man stated, now standing right next to Bethany, his eyes flickering down to Jamie. Bethany watched her son's reaction, the little boy looking up at him in awe before reaching out a curious hand, but not being able to reach him.
"You're not?"
"I'm not Ultron," the man promised. Bethany couldn't help but hear how sad he sounded. "I'm not JARVIS. I am… I am."
They were all quiet as they absorbed this. There was relief about him not having any immediate ties to Ultron, but the entire reason Tony and Bruce wanted to input JARVIS into the body was so that they could have someone they trusted. Now, all they had was a wild card.
"I looked in your head and saw annihilation," Wanda broke the silence, taking a few steps forward.
"Look again," the man prompted.
Clint let out a laugh that sounded more like a scoff. "Yeah, her seal of approval means jack to me."
"Their powers, the horrors in our head, Ultron himself," Thor began to explain. "They all came from the Mind Stone, and they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side-"
"Is it?" Steve interrupted before turning to face the man. "Are you? On our side?"
"I don't think it's that simple," the man replied.
"Enlighten us then," Bethany spoke up for the first time. "I think we've suffered enough anticipation, wouldn't you?"
"I am on the side of life," the man tried to explain, looking back over to Jamie, as if Jamie was the very thing he wanted to protect. "Ultron isn't. He will end it all."
"Then why hasn't he already?" Bethany asked, knowing that's what everyone was thinking.
"Yeah, what's he waiting for?" Tony added.
"You," the man said as if it was that simple.
"Where?" Thor asked.
"Sokovia," Clint answered. "He's got Nat there too."
Bruce started walking towards the man, slowly and cautiously like he always did, but with a shadow of the monster inside of him just right behind him, reminding them all of his power. "If we're wrong about you... if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be…"
"What will you do?" The man questioned, no one able to really give an answer. "I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique. And he's in pain."
Bethany wasn't able to suppress her scoff and the roll of her eyes, knowing that Ultron's pain couldn't compare to the pain they had all felt by his hand. "But that pain will roll over the earth, so he must be destroyed," the man continued, ignoring Bethany. "Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net, we have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others."
Those last words were directed at Bethany, as if he knew of Bethany's desire to stay at the Tower. But how could he know? And would he really hold that against her? This man had no idea what it was to love, to be a parent. And if Bethany had to fight, she would, but that didn't mean that this man, simply stating she needed to be there was going to make it any easier. And Jamie resting his head on her shoulder, finally ready to sleep, his little fist clutching her shirt, only made it worse.
"Maybe I am a monster," the man continued. "I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go."
Through the past few days, Bethany had been shocked more than she wanted. Not only by her friends or by science, but also by herself. But this, the man swiping up Thor's hammer as if it was a piece of paper, took the cake. The entire room just stared, unable to move as the man offered the hammer for Thor to take.
Thor looked absolutely speechless, accepting the hammer as the man walked away from them. "Right," the blond finally said, awkwardly trying not to let the fact that someone else could wield his hammer get to him. "Well done," Thor offered Tony, clapping him on the shoulder as the demi-god followed the man out of the room.
"Three minutes," Steve announced, taking the reins once again. "Get what you need."
"Make it five, Rogers, or I swear-" Bethany breathed, knowing those two extra minutes were desperately needed.
"Five," Steve replied with a nod, his voice soft and his eyes understanding. If anyone else were asking, he would have refused, but she could see the pity he felt for her, knowing that he would be dragging her back out into the fight.
"You two, come with me," Clint prompted to the twins, the group scattering as they went to prepare.
When they were alone, Steve pulled her into his arms, kissing her deeply. "Now's not the time for 'I-told-you-so'," he told her, a little smile on his face, referring to everything that just happened.
"I was going to wait until all this was over before abusing my bragging rights," Bethany teased before getting emotional. "I don't want to, Steve."
"I know," he whispered. "But we need to listen to him. To… 'The Vision'. And if he says it'll take all of us, we need to trust him. You know that you'll be coming home to Jamie no matter what happens, so I need you there. You'll always be there for him, so I need you there for me."
Letting out a ragged breath, she fought back her need to cry. "Tell me we're coming home together. Please Steve."
He attempted to give her a comforting smile, but even Steve knew it wasn't good enough. "I told you, Beth. I have two amazing reasons to come home to. I'm not going to give that up if I don't have to."
She nodded, breathing in deeply to try and keep her tears at bay. "Okay."
"We don't have time to waste," Steve told her sternly, trying to keep his mind on the mission on hand.
"This isn't wasting time," Bethany whispered, knowing being in his arms would never be a waste of time.
He leaned down to kiss her again, giving her butt a quick squeeze. "Okay, now let me have some time with our son, and you go get ready."
Bethany looked at Jamie, who was seconds away from sleeping. She placed a soft kiss on the side of his head before handing him to Steve and turning around. Taking in a deep breath, she pressed herself to move to what they referred to as the locker room. Wanda, Pietro and Clint were already in there, the three of them prepping themselves for battle.
"You," Bethany said towards Wanda, not slowing down as she went to her station, three of her suits hung up on hangers. She pulled a random one and began to pull it on under her skirt. "If you ever try to mess with my head again, or my son's, or my husband's, you'll regret everything you've ever done, got it?"
When Bethany looked over to Wanda, the woman didn't reply to her, but the look on her face showed that she did understand what Bethany was saying and would be careful. "Be nice," Pietro said, not as a taunt, but very much the attitude of a tired father, as if he even knew what that could ever be like.
"And you," Bethany began, this time towards Pietro as she took the entirety of her maxi dress off to pull the rest of her suit on. Pietro's eyes fell to Bethany's chest, her bra leaving very little to the imagination. Bethany used his moment of weakness to grab his chin pulling his eyes up to hers. "If you so much as think of me in any sexual way, and I know you have and probably continue to because you're a weak boy and you all do, I'll personally remove your dick. Got it?"
Any semblance of smugness fell from Pietro's face when he realized she was serious. This was her own security of keeping herself strong while on this mission. She couldn't deal with him even sending her one smug smile, knowing it would only remind her of Jason and her weakness. "Got it," he said with a hard swallow when Bethany let go of his chin, finishing to pull her suit on, zipping it all the way up despite the tight fit.
"Good," Bethany said with an honest smile, sitting down and pulling her boots from her locker. "Now, look. I don't care what you two did in the past. All I care about, from this point on, is what you do in the future. You two only have each other. I get that. I only had my brother at one point. But the rest of us? We have families that we'd like to come home to at the end of the day. So don't mess that up for us, okay?"
"Aren't you being a little harsh?" Clint asked, sitting next to Bethany to lace his own boots.
"Maybe," Bethany admitted, even to the twins. "But trust is an issue, is it not?"
"You can trust us," Wanda spoke up finally. "I know why you have trust issues."
"Then you know exactly why it's hard to trust people I barely know, let alone people I do know who have got into HYDRA's grips," Bethany said, thinking towards Jen who was a few floors down. Bethany hadn't yet properly thanked Jen, but she knew she would have to soon enough.
"We want to fix our mistakes," Pietro told her truthfully.
Bethany stood up and started to take some weapons out of her locker and attached them to her belt or put them in her boot. "Yeah, I know what that's like," she mumbled softly.
Bruce, Tony and Steve were all by the quinjet, waiting for the rest of the group to be ready, Steve filling them in on what happened on the chase for Ultron. Jamie was still in Steve's arms, the baby now sleeping slightly, his mouth slightly ajar just like his mother's did when she was sleeping. He was so beautiful, it physically hurt Steve to leave him, and to take his mother with him, but Jamie's complete innocence is what reminded Steve that they had to do this. It wasn't just for Jamie, but for all the Jamies of the world, all the people who were innocent and didn't deserve what Ultron was dishing out.
"No way we all get through this," Tony started. "If even one tin soldier is left standing, we've lost. It's gonna be blood on the floor."
"I've got no plans tomorrow night," Steve joked softly, still looking down at Jamie. In all actuality, he didn't have plans, but he would very much like to. For there to be soft candles and the slight crackle from the record player's needle. For an amazing dinner and his family to sit at their table, smiles on their faces as they teased each other.
"Don't let Bethany hear you say that," Bruce pointed out. "I think she already wants to kill you. Or at least she will when she finds out about all you did on that Ultron chase."
Steve let out a heavy sigh with a chuckle caught in it, shaking his head. "Yeah, I could feel her disapproval while I was doing it. She's getting too protective."
"I'll second that," Tony agreed. "Listen, I get first crack at the Big Guy. Iron Man's the one he's waiting for."
"That's true," they all heard, Vision walking by them. "He hates you the most."
"Alright, we've got to go," Steve announced, standing up and going to fetch the rest of the group. He barely got into the Tower when the group made their way up. "It's time to go," Steve told them, but looking at Bethany. Everyone else made their way to the quinjet, but Bethany stopped in front of Steve and Jamie, touching the baby's curls.
"Hey little one," Bethany whispered. "Mama's gotta go… again. But I'll be back. I promise."
"He'll be fine," Steve tried to convince her.
"There's a reason he hasn't come after him," they heard, turning to see Vision standing there. "Ultron wants human extinction, yes. But he knows that with you, with him," he explained, pointing at the baby. "You're already at the next evolutionary scale. He can't kill you. And he won't waste his time trying."
"But if Ultron was smart, and he is, he isn't going to kill each and every person one by one. He's going to do mass extinction. How can I be sure that-"
"You know what is true, as does Ultron," Vision interrupted Bethany. "He wants to evolve. He wants the world to evolve. You cannot be killed. The baby cannot be killed. Trust in this. Trust in me."
Letting out a sigh, Bethany took Jamie into her arms. "Yeah, that seems to be the real struggle in my life lately. Trust."
"Welcome to my life," Steve said softly, giving her a soft smile. "Bring him down to Jackson, but we've lingered too long. We've got to go."
"I'll be quick," Bethany promised, immediately going to do as Steve asked. Letting out a deep sigh, he made his way back to the quinjet. This was never going to get easier. He knew that Bethany thought it was only a struggle for her, but he never liked leaving his family. He always did what he had to do. Wanda looked at him, and he knew that she understood exactly what he was feeling in that moment.
"It'll just be a moment and then we can take off," Steve told them, the group silently waiting for Bethany to return. She did as she was promised and was quick, marching up to the ramp of the quinjet filled with so much anger and pain that Steve knew it was going to power everything she did, including wanting to single-handedly destroy Ultron.
"I'm flying," she said, her voice strong, stronger than he had heard it in a long time. He watched as she slid into the pilot's seat and immediately took off, the group quickly holding onto something to keep themselves from falling over.
"Any words, Cap?" Tony asked when they leveled out in the sky.
Steve sighed, nodding. "Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are, we'll be riding into heavy fire. And that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace and that's not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done."
He could see Bethany's head slightly turned, so she could clearly hear what he had to say. All they want is to live their lives in peace and that's not going to happen today. Steve knew in particular that those words struck a chord in her. "We find out what Ultron's been building. We find Romanoff and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us," he ordered, knowing that they needed to contain the fight as best they could. After New York, they had suffered a lot of flack about the damage and the amount of hurt civilians. Steve had done his best then, and would continue to now, to keep people out of the fight, but he knew that he couldn't do it alone.
"Ultron thinks we're monsters and are what's wrong with the world," Steve continued, his voice lowering a little. Everyone in that quinjet had a resume of reasons why this could be true. But they had an equally, maybe even a longer list of reasons why it wasn't true. "This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right. I don't think he is. But unless we do this, and we're successful, it's up in the air."
"He's been doing his best to tear us apart," Bethany began, her back still turned to them, but the entire group looking at her. "He wants to convince us that we're all broken pieces in the game and that we can't do anything. Not just stop him, but anything. But I guess… He's right. We're all broken. But at the same time, you can't break what's already broken, can you? I don't think he can bring us down any farther than we've already been. And that's why we can do this."
Steve slowly walked to her, taking the co-pilot's seat and taking her free hand. He offered her no words of comfort because he couldn't think of anything that would comfort her in any way. Instead, he stayed by her side while he turned in the seat and began to devise a battle plan.
**A/N: Don't forget to check out the tumblr page! Link in my bio :)
anonymouscsifan: I'm hoping the wait won't be completely unbearable! Hey, I will never complain regarding the length of a review! The long ones always make me super excited :) Well, I didn't exactly have Steve being green with envy/ just purely angry, but it might happen in the future with another man... Okay spoiler, it will.
Jo: Well here's the answer to your question!
FeliciaFelicis: Aw, yay! I was hoping their reunion would be a good one. I really do want to write a short Agent Carter story. There wouldn't be much plot to it, since Bethany is kinda super depressed and unsociable, but this season has a lot of opportunities for Bethany I feel, so I may get around to it eventually. I had ideas for the first season as well, but I'd have to go back and re-watch the entire thing to figure everything out. Right now, I'm kinda obsessed with Degrassi though, and there's so much for me to watch, so that may take a while.