Disclaimer: I don't own anything marvel.
Chapter 36
Broken Family
Pick-up duty wasn't exactly what Anna thought she'd be doing after all these years. She supposed it made sense back when she was eighteen to pick up Captain Rogers to and from Fury's Cabin since she was young, and needed more experience to do much bigger cases on her own (though she was capable of doing much more, which had already been proved by her track record), but not after having saved the world, and the universe. She figured she was a little beyond that now.
But Tony had asked Anna to take one of his cars to pick up Happy and the new guy from the airport in Berlin, and seeing as she wasn't doing anything (except coordinating with Steve and the other fugitives), she wasn't left with many options. That was how she found herself sitting out in the pickup line at the airport waiting for the two to come outside. At least she didn't have to get out of the car and into the mass of people scurrying about, and she was far more comfortable in her leggings and jacket that she'd changed into after meeting with Steve and the others. The mission wasn't happening yet, and though it would've been far faster to just keep it on in case it came out of nowhere, it wasn't comfortable for long periods of time.
There was a knock on the glass of the window, and Anna looked up to see a rather annoyed looking Happy. He motioned for her to step out of the car. Most likely because he'd want to drive. He was, after all, first hired by Tony as a driver (that almost never drove). She unbuckled and stepped out of the car. As she stepped out, Anna's eyes landed on the kid beside him with his phone filming everything around him. His brown eyes were massive, amazed at pretty much everything.
The boyish face turned to her, his smile dropping into a gaping mess. His brown eyes staring right at her as she raised a brow at his reaction. Other than the people at SHIELD, Anna never really got the whole starstruck reaction from people. The general public didn't really know who she was. She just worked at the building for all they knew. But this kid's reaction showed he knew something.
Perhaps it should've been more surprising and upsetting that the Spider recruit was a child, but having grown up the way she had it didn't seem as big of a deal if that was really what the kid wanted. Nobody would've been able to stop Anna when she was younger, and they definitely hadn't despite all of her struggles. She'd do everything in her power to make sure this kid would be okay though. She didn't want him to have to go through the pain she had.
"You're Annie O'Connell," he gaped. "You're Mr. Stark's kid. Or ward. Or uh, I don't know what to call you."
Anna chuckled. "It's been a long time since anyone's referred to me by that name," she said. "That was my cover name. My name's Anna Barnes," she introduced, offering her hand. The kid took her hand and eagerly shook it a bit harder than was normal for someone's arm. Anna stored that info away in her brain for future reference.
"I'm Peter, Peter Parker," he introduced.
"Here," Anna said, opening the door for him to get in. "Hop in, Peter."
"Thanks!" he exclaimed eagerly.
He got in, and Anna moved to the passenger seat and got in, much to Happy's dismay. The car pulled away from the curb with complete silence amongst the passengers. Peter was watching the two, but trying to do so inconspicuously. He was dividing his time between them and his phone, though it was clear he wasn't really doing anything on it anymore.
After it had been outed that Anna was an undercover agent, Pepper and Happy had resented the girl. Pepper was cordial to her for Tony's sake, seeing as most of the time when the women say one another, Tony was there as well. Happy, on the other hand, didn't care if his boss knew his disdain towards the young woman. He didn't care that Tony and Anna had made up. In his mind, she had betrayed them all. And she had. She wasn't going to apologize for doing her job, but she did apologize to each of them for hurting them and betraying their trust. She'd tried to show them through her actions that she was being honest, but there was only so much one could do if the other didn't want to put in the effort too.
"What's the plan?" Anna asked Happy.
Happy didn't answer. Anna stared at him just waiting for a response. After a few minutes, she pressed again. "Seriously, Happy? The silent treatment? That's very mature for the head of security."
"Ouch," Peter muttered.
"The kid's gonna tour around a bit, then we're going to go head to the hotel," Happy said. "Not that you need to know. I don't even get why you're here."
Peter winced again, but didn't utter a word. The words that came from Happy were a bit harsher than Anna pointing out the man's immature actions. Peter clearly could tell there was history between the two, but he didn't know what it was. He wasn't so sure he wanted to know.
"I'm here because Tony asked me to," Anna answered. "You don't have to like it, Happy, but you do have to deal with it. The least you can do is be polite to me as a professional courtesy."
"I'm not offering you anything," Happy said. "You can't be trusted. Once a spy, always a spy."
"Do you treat Natasha with the same hostility, or just me?" Anna asked.
"That's-"
"No different than what I was doing," Anna said. "You're just acting like a butt-hurt, spoiled child. So either suck it up and act like an actual adult, or actually put the effort into forgiving me like you did with Natasha, because I'm not going anywhere, Happy. Tony's moved passed it, and we all know he's far more immature than any of us. So I don't get why you can't, unless you just refuse to try."
Anna and Peter hung back as Happy checked himself and Peter into the hotel. Peter had a great time seeing some of the most famous sights in Berlin. She'd found that he'd never been outside of the United States before, the furthest he'd ever gone had been to Flushing when he was a small boy, for the very event that had been ruined by Ivan Vanko. So this trip was extremely exciting for him, even if it was for "work."
"So, can I ask you something?" Peter asked hesitantly.
"Sure," Anna said. "What's up?"
"What happened between you guys?" Peter asked. "I mean, Happy has always kinda been a little annoyed having to drive me around, but he wasn't mean."
Anna nodded. "He used to be a lot nicer too," Anna said. "I think part of the reason he's acting like that with you is because of me, so I'm sorry for that."
"What happened?"
"My parents were SHIELD agents, as was my brother, and myself. We were in this program that put a whole family undercover to pass off as more realistic than just two agents pretending to be a married couple. Most of the time nobody ever expected anything from a family of four. So I've been doing spy work since I was born.
"When I was seventeen, SHIELD put me on a mission as Annie O'Connell," Anna said, watching as a look of realization crossed over Peter's face. "Yeah, I got close to all of them. And eventually Tony found out through Jarvis, and that was the end of that. Eventually Tony forgave me for what happened after numerous apologies and my actions, plus him finding out some other stuff he didn't know, but Pepper and Happy still hold it against me."
"I mean, I can see it from both sides, I guess," Peter said.
"That's good," Anna said, pointing at him. "Don't lose that. Always consider every option. It'll be very useful if you want to keep doing this sort of work."
"I hope things between you two get better," Peter said.
"Thanks, Peter," Anna said, patting him on the shoulder.
It was the second time that day that Anna found herself at Flughafen Leipzig-Halle, or Leipzig-Halle Airport. This time wasn't for such a light occasion as delivering a vehicle as a favor. The airport was nearly evacuated already, the only remaining individuals were the two sides of the superhero civil war that was underway. Tony had called right after Happy had gotten the key cards for their hotel rooms, and after their wardrobe changes, Anna took Peter with her as Spider-Man to meet up with Tony.
Tony filled them in on the situation at hand and gave them a small plan. It wasn't great, but it wasn't really a bad plan either. Anna just knew how the other side was going to do things, as it had been her plan to begin with. That was, if Steve ended up going with the plan she'd told Sam that afternoon.
Anna stood off in the shadows with Natasha. They were doing their best to stay out of sight while keeping their eyes out for Steve and the others. Anna was fidgety. She shifted from foot to foot, turning her wedding ring around and around with her thumb. Nat exchanged a look with her. She was dreading this as much as Anna, but perhaps not necessarily for the same reasons.
Steve finally emerged from the underpass, and jogged onto the private runway. He was headed directly for the grounded chopper, just as Tony had predicted. Tony flew out, shooting a small emp at the chopper. It stuck to the side, disabling it. Tony descended, followed by the silver War Machine clad Rhodey.
"Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport," Tony said. "Don't you think that's weird?"
"Definitely weird," Rhodey added.
"Hear me out, Tony," Steve called out. "That doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this."
"Yeah, Anna tried to tell me that," Tony said. "Didn't pan out."
Anna gritted her teeth. Anna knew for a fact that something was up, they all knew it, but finding the evidence wasn't as easy as she'd hoped it would be. It was the way Tony had said it though that really bothered her. He made it sound like it was just an attempt to let her husband run free. It was really getting old how many people just assumed that's what was going on with her.
T'Challa decided it was his chance to jump out over one of the trucks. "Captain," he greeted. It was cold, but still rather respectful.
"Your highness," Steve replied in the same tone.
"Anyway, Ross gave me thirty-six hours to bring you in," Tony said. "That was twenty-four hours ago. Can you help a brother out?"
"You're after the wrong guy," Steve said.
"Your judgement is askew," Tony accused. "Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday."
"Is that why you won't listen to me?" Anna asked. "When have you known how to get swayed by my emotions. Clearly I still got the job done when I was staying with you," Anna said, standing next to Tony. "You going to tell me I'm making it up when I'm standing on the same side as you?"
Tony shot Anna a "Don't test me" look, that received a glare on her part.
"And there are five more super soldiers just like him," Steve said. "I can't let the doctor find them first, Tony. I can't."
"Steve, you know what's about to happen. Do you really wanna punch your way out of this one?" Nat asked, joining Anna.
"Alright," Tony muttered. "I've run out of patience. Underoos!" Peter shot out a web to steal Steve's shield. He flipped out and landed on top of the truck, catching the shield with ease. "Nice job, kid."
"Thanks," Peter answered. "Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit-well, it's nothing, Mr. Stark. It's-it's perfect. Thank you." Anna couldn't help but smirk as she watched Peter awkwardly ramble nervously. It was clear the youth just wanted to do a good job and make the billionaire proud.
"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation," Tony said.
"Okay," Peter said, turning to Steve. "Cap-Captain. Big fan. I'm Spider-Man."
"Yeah, we'll talk about it later. Just-"
"Hey everyone," Peter greeted with a wave. Anna just chuckled and shook her head.
Tony just shook his head and muttered, "Good job."
"You've been busy," Steve pointed out.
"And you've been a complete idiot. Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place. I'm trying to keep-" Tony paused and sighed exasperatedly "-I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart."
"You did that when you signed," Steve said.
Now that was a little uncalled for, Anna thought. Signing wasn't really the biggest issue. It was the human rights violations that were blatantly being broken. But it wasn't really the issue that had to be addressed that moment. It needed to be addressed, but the biggest thing was stopping a madman from getting control over five winter soldiers. Then Anna was going to raise hell for the Accords. Hopefully, putting their ragtag family back together in the process.
"Alright, we're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us. Now! Because it's us! Or a squad of J-Soc guys with no compunction about being impolite," Tony ordered. "Come on."
While Anna would've preferred to be connected to Steve's comms, it would've been too easy for Tony and Friday to tell she was connected. Even if Tony had made the system much lik Jarvis and Friday, Tadashi was still one of his systems. And if there was one thing Anna knew best about Tony, was that he could always get into his own tech.
Steve muttered a few things, but it wasn't distinguishable from their distance. He raised his hands up into the air, and an arrow threw out and released his hands from the webbing Peter had bound them with.
"Hey, guys, something-" Peter never got to finish what he was saying. Anna's plan had worked. Ant-Man grew out of Steve's shield, kicking the teenager in the face. He backflipped into a standing position with the shield now in his possession.
"Whoa. What-what the hell was that?" Rhodey asked.
Scott reunited with Steve and handed his shield over. "I believe this is yours, Captain America," she said a bit too dramatically.
"Aw, great. Alright, there's two on the parking deck. One of them's Maximoff. I'm going to grab her. Rhodey, you want to take Cap?"
"Got two in the terminal, Wilson and Barnes," Rhodey answered, starting to move from his position. Steve threw his shield and made him backtrack though.
"Barnes is mine!" T'Challa stated. As
"Hey, Mr. Stark, what should I do?" Peter asked.
"What we discussed. Keep your distance. Web 'em up," Tony instructed.
"Okay, copy that!"
Anna was uncomfortably standing in the same spot she'd stopped in. Natasha had moved away, and was not engaged with Scott, but Anna just didn't know what to really do. Who was she going to fight? How was she supposed to make it look realistic like she was trying to stop them when she was trying to make it as easy for them to escape as possible to stop the real threat?
Before she could figure out just how she was going to accomplish this feat, something jumped over her while simultaneously grabbing onto her arm, flipping her over top of it and throwing her behind one of the large trucks and out of sight of the other Avengers on her side, and the "enemy" side.
Rey was now standing in front of her at the size of a clydesdale horse. He released her arm, leaving several bleeding indentations behind to ooze down over her sleeveless forearms. Anna tried to wipe some of it away, but synced as the small stinging coming from the tiny open wounds. Anna looked up at Rey with a raised brow, Did you really have to break skin?
"It needed to appear believable."
Begrudgingly, Anna nodded and glanced under the truck to see how everything was going. Anna quickly switched off her comms. "How is everyone holding up?"
"They are anxious," Rey answered. "They do not wish to be here, nor do they wish to inflict damage to their comrades. These actions we are taking amongst ourselves, it feels traitorous."
She supposed it was. It was betraying the trust of the team as a whole, individually, and to many outsiders looking in. Not one person really knew exactly what the other was going through, but of all the people in the world that could relate, they all knew how eachother felt with the other side not agreeing with them. Most were taking it personally. But there was so much information that both sides weren't taking into account that it was partially their own fault for how things were going.
"I don't know if there's any coming back from this," Anna muttered, watching as her family fought one another.
"Perhaps not," Rey said. "But we must focus on what needs to be done in the present. There are too many lives at stake to dwell on what we cannot change. Prevent what we can in the now."
Anna nodded, standing up from her spot. Just over her shoulder, Anna could hear Steve yell to his group, "Come on!" She looked over to see them collectively running towards the Quinjet in the hanging. Anna turned back to her companion and nodded. He ran off to join the others, while Anna prepared herself to, hopefully, not have to intervene.
Fate wouldn't have that though. Vision used a beam to fault their movements, overing overhead as the patriotic side faulted. "Captain Rogers, I know you believe what you are doing is right, but for the collective good you must surrender now."
Anna sighed. That's my queue, she thought, rushing out as the other members of the team joined her. There was an eary quiet that overtook the tarmac as the two sides stood in a standoff. Nobody wanted to do what was to come next, but it seemed the inevitable was finally truly about to happen. The Avengers were going to face off.
Steve's side started to move forward, and glancing to Tony to see what he wanted, their group moved forward too. "This is gonna end well," Nat muttered sarcastically.
When the other side sped into a job, it wasd Peter's time to speak up. "They're not stopping," he said.
"Neither are we," Tony said.
With that, they took off into full on sprints, with Rhodey and Tony lifting into the air with Vision, and on the other side Wanda and Sam taking flight. The rest were left on the ground ready to make contact with the other side. The only option here for Anna was to stick with Rey and sparr like they always did. She couldn't bring herself to fight against her family in a real fight, and as Rey literally knew what was going on in her head, she was much more comfortable going up against the alien. This left Tony with Steve, Wanda with Peter, Falcon and Rhodey, Scott and Clint with Natasha, Bucky with T'Challa, and Vision assisting anyone he could.
Rey leapt forward and was ready to attack Anna head on. Her hand instantly shot to Jern Slange at her thigh and pulled it out, twisting her wrist just to extend it to it's full length. Rey's mouth was stopped a few inches from her head as he descended. The force of his weight knocked her off balance, toppling them backwards, but Anna already knew the second she decided to counter with her Asgardian weapon that she'd need to roll backwards and propell Rey overtop her with the power of both her feet.
As Anna rolled back onto her feet and twirled around so as not to keep her eyes off of her opponent, Rey landed spun around to face her. Anna, with practiced precision, swung the staff around her as Rey growled and lunged forward again. Using her weapon this way kept them both at a distance. Rey was fast, of course, so he could dodge any hit that came his way, and Anna knew that. They just needed to make this look good enough to fool the others. Not that they were wearing too much mind towards them as they fought. They had their own fights to worry about.
The alien beast rolled to the side after Anna swung, but this allowed for her to move in to grab a hold of the fur on his side and propel herself up overtop him. With another twist of her wrist the weapon in her hand went slack, and she used it to arap around his neck, pulling him head back and preventing too much movement.
"We aren't really fighting, yes?" he asked.
"Yes," Anna huffed, her voice breathy.
"Good, so you won't be offended if I do this." Rey leaned back onto his two hind legs and tipped backwards until he body slammed her onto the tarmac. Rey didn't necessarily take in how heavy he was in that movement as he crushed her, effectively bruising many places on her small frame, and knocking the air clear out of her chest. Anna could already picture his wolfie grin as she stepped back and looked at her. She rolled her her side as she gasped for air, and lifted one hand up flat with all five fingers spread out.
The blast hit Rey before he even knew what was coming. Payback's a bitch, she thought, staggering to her feet just in time to see Steve kick Peter back several feet under a gangway. He said a few things before he threw his shield at the brace, sending it toppling over on Peter. Peter, with his amazing reflexes and strength, caught it, but was clearly struggling as the two exchanged a few more words.
Anna ran over as best she could. "Steve, what the hell!" Anna yelled as she ran over to wear Peter was just barely preventing himself from getting crushed. "He's just a kid."
Steve smirked and gave a sheepish shrug. "He can handle it," he said, before running off.
Anna just rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to peter. "Go, stop him!" he instructed. "I'm good."
Anna just shook her head and pulled Jern Slange to it's full solid extent before she twisted and let it so lack. After she knew it was flaccid enough, she used it like a wipe and got it to wrap around his torso before she quickly, with all the strength she had in her small body, pulling him out from under the collapsing gangway and to her safely.
"What is up with the Avengers have weapons that don't obey the laws of physics?" Peter asked as breathlessly as Anna.
"Yeah, well, science was never my strong suit," she answered. "You good?"
"Yeah, you?"
Anna shrugged. There was no proper way to answer that honestly at the moment, so a shrug would have to suffice. The young woman patted Peter on the shoulder and started to step back towards the fight to rejoin. "Come on, let's-"
Out of nowhere, Scott grew several stories tall, grabbed a hold of Rhodey's food as he flew by him, and held on tight so he couldn't go anywhere. Anna had only thought he could shrink things. This was something completely new, though she supposed it shouldn't shock her. If they'd figured out to shrink things, why couldn't Hank Pym figure out how to operate the opposite way?
"What the fuck?" Anna muttered.
"Holy shit!" Peter exclaimed.
"Okay, tiny dude is big now. He's big now," Rhodey mumbled more to himself than to the others, because clearly they could see the now behemoth before them.
"Give me back my Rhodey!" Tony demanded as he flew in, only to be flown feet first into him by Sam.
"I think I'm a little out of my depths here," Anna muttered, just staring up at Scott.
Scott threw Rhodes, and Peter decided to run up one of the conveyors, shooting out a web to stop him. "I got him!"
It felt like a freight train rammed right into her as Anna found herself flying several yards sideways to the ground. She groaned again and looked up to see Rey sliding a few more feet before he stopped after running into her. He growled at her for dramatic effect, but waited until he knew she could move and was okay before he did anything else. He grabbed ahold of her hair and pulled her away from the rest of the group.
"Okay, does anybody on our side hiding any shocking and fantastic abilities they'd like to disclose? I'm open to suggestions," Tony said.
"You do not look well," Rey said.
"That's because you keep body slamming me. You're fucking heavy."
"Are you calling me fat?"
"Did you just make a joke?"
"Shut up," he grumbled. "This has gone on far longer than any of us believed it would. We need a better plan."
Anna flicked off her comms and peaked around their hiding spot. She could just see Steve and Bucky running off to the hanger in the distance. "What I need is for you to follow them. As far as you can."
"I believe this-"
"Rey, I'm begging you," Anna interrupted. "Please, just stick with Bucky and make sure he's okay? Just from a distance. Keep a watchful eye out. I don't care. Just…"
She could hear the sign in her head as he nodded. He took off as quickly as he could to join the others. Just as Anna got up and turned to rejoin, Peter went flowing over her head right through several wooden crates, and several feet farther before he rolled to a stop.
Shit, she thought, running after Peter. She got there just as Tony joined them. Peter was laying on his side, unmoving.
"Kid, you alright?" Tony asked as he knelt down beside him.
"Peter, honey, can you hear me?" Anna asked desperately as she moved to his other side.
Peter jumped and yelled, while half of his mask was pulled off his face. "Hey, get off me!"
"Same side. Guess who. Hi it's me."
"Oh, hey man," Peter signed, finally relaxing. "That was scary."
"Yeah, you're done. Alright?"
"What?"
"You did a good job. Stay down."
"No, I'm good. I'm fine."
"Stay down."
"No, it's good. I gotta get him back!"
"You're going home, or I'll call Aunt May. You're done! Anna, stay with him!"
"Wait, Mr. Stark, wait! I'm not done. I'm not.." Peter tried to get back up, but groaned and fell back to the ground holding his side.
"You done now?" Anna asked patiently.
"Okay, I'm done. I'm done," he muttered.
"Okay," Anna said, taking his mask the rest of the way off his head. "You feeling okay? Where does it hurt?"
"Where doesn't it hurt?" he groaned. "I'm okay, just tired. Sore. I'll be okay."
"Vision, I got a bandit on my six," War Machine said over the comms as he and Tony went after Steve, Bucky, and Rey. Anna looked up to the sky in the direction they were all flying in. "Vision! You copy? Target his thrusters, turn him into a glider!"
A beam of yellow light shot through the sky towards Falcon, who retracted his wings and let himself fall several feet before opening them back up again to miss the shot. The beam went by him, and directly hit War Machine. Smoke replaced the blue sky around him, and left a trail as he started a quick decent.
That's too fast, Anna thought, shooting to her feet as she bolted it into the field in their direction. Her fears were only confirmed when she heard him speak over the radio. He's not slowing down.
"Tony, I'm flying dead stick."
As Anna ran, she instructed Tadashi to call for an ambulance. Tony and Sam were racing as fast as they could to get to Rhodey, but he was gaining more and more speed with each foot he fell. They weren't going to reach him in time, and if there was any hope for saving him if he survived impact, he would need the medical personnel to be there as soon as possible. There was no time to wait to see if they'd catch him, or anything else. She needed to prepare.
By the time she got to Rhodes, the sirens were already ringing in her ears. Tony was sitting next to him on the ground looking utterly defeated. That wasn't a good sign. Anna, huffing like crazy, stopped next to Sam, who was kneeling on the ground watching. "Is he…?"
Sam looked up at her guiltily and said, "He's alive."
Anna signed, and nearly collapsed right then. Sam instantly reached out and grabbed her to stop that from happening, but he was just as exhausted as she was, and ended up getting pulled down into a sitting position with her in the dirt.
"I'm sorry," he told her.
Anna shook her head. "It's not your fault, Sam."
Really, if there was someone to blame, Anna didn't know who to pin it on. Maybe all of them really deserved it.
This chapter really isn't that long, but it was so tedious to write. It was hard to fit Anna in without messing up the flow of the fight scenes, and you didn't want to change the scenes because they're so brilliant on their own. But I guess I'm content with how it is. I'm more eager to move on anyway, so I'm not going to dwell on it. I hope you guys liked it, at least. Let me know what you thought.
Thanks for to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter:
SomebodyWhoCares - There will be plenty soon, I promise!
Jedi Jesla777 - I wanted to try and have a moment with everyone as best as I could. I was rather pleased with it.
