The compound
It's Monday morning, Tony Stark arrives at the meeting room covering his eyes with glasses to hide his mood. The others are already there, and Maria Hill starts placing the Documents with the "to-do-list" for the following days.
Rhodes takes the papers and starts reading the content: -Just two Issues?
-Yes but that's enough for today, just take a look at what we are discussing within these two issues -said Banner from the other side of the table.
Rhodes started to search for the details in the following pages and pressed his lips when he discovered the main topics.
-Come on Guys, this is important – Said Steve from his place
-You are right Cap – Maria turned on the monitor and showed the content with remarkable seriousness. -Topic number one: Your new friend Steve; you asked us to look for more information about her, and we go it.
-Wait, I do not want to interrupt you, but I think that we have another topic which is far more important now- Said Tony without even taking a sit. -May I?
Everybody turned back and saw what Tony had in his hands
-The Winter soldier code? -Natasha recognized the book immediately and Steve felt as if a Stone had fallen over his hearth -What about it?
-Maria? – Tony changed the content of the monitor -An image of a book, similar to the one he had in his hand appeared -Do you know what this book could be? -He said while the entire expression on his face changed -Natasha, you are a Hydra expert, How many books like this one in my hand have you seen before?
-just one, the one in your hand
-Does that make impossible that Hydra had made another one… with a second code?
Steve jumped from his sit, at the same time, Wanda and Rhodes got frozen, Vision moved and just like Sam placed himself between Steve and Tony ready to act.
-Explain it -Said Steve trying to calm down while pressing his teeth
-Let her answer my question – Tony was altered but not more than Steve
Natasha knew that her answer would mean the future for them
-Tony, I had never seen, heard or thought about such a possibility, that is already so good as facts -then, she hesitated before going on – but it does not mean that is impossible.
Everybody complained an anger inundated the air
-What do you want Tony? I though that we already had this conversation before, it costed us everything, and you already know my Standpoint. - Steve felt his own fury to grow
-After what happened to Morgan I made my own little detective work, I was ready to let the Winter Soldier go, I even spoke with Sury, she worked on the code and she did broke the chain of it, I believe her… but I also visited Zemo.
-oh Come on! – Steve became loud and was overtaken for his frustration - Zemo would said everything to divide us again.
-That is exactly what I though… still I took my time to search for the true -said Tony
-and what Is the truth? -Wanda could not believe that they had to speak again about this.
-The truth is that there is a second code, and we do not have it -Said Tony – actually, at this very moment, there could be a second or even a third code
-that is ridiculous Tony – Steve was whispering now, his face was red, and they could see how he was holding back but his hand was over a chair and this one started to lose stability.
-so, what are we doing? -asked Sam with low voice
-we will freeze him again -Said Tony with determination
-NO! Steve reacted with real panic in his face – If he goes back into ice we … I will never come back the same. The last time he did it, he came back broken
-he was freed -exclaimed Natasha
-Nat, you know that he is far from feeling free, his life is an authentic nightmare
-guys… I do not want to narrow the Options that you have but Sury left the earth with Fury some days ago, do you remember? -Banners was right, Sury was not to come back in the next months or years.
-He can wait in the frig until she comes back -Tony repeated – He will agree that this is the best he can do.
-I said no – Steve was making huge efforts to control himself. – Let me try others options before.
-there is not such a thing Steve … -Tony knew that the conversation was turning in the direction that he did not wanted.
-Steve? – Maria went in the middle of the room and changed the image of the monitor again. -I think that if you are looking for Options I have one that would lead us directly into the next issue of the day. Maria gave a step back and showed the image: it was a picture taken years ago showing four children smiling in the middle of a meadow.
-She comes from Switzerland, but she was not born there, she was transferred from her original home to a place in the middle of the Alps to hide her condition – Maria was making reference to the first Issue of the day: Mia!
-Who brought her there? -asked Natascha
-her parents, I know that -Steve answered – They locked her somewhere in the mountains, the found a calm, remoted place where she could safely grow up without many problems.
-Do you also know that she was not alone? -Maria spoke soft. In the picture, two little girls and two boys were hugging each other. -These are her original neighbors at the age of five. Mia is in the middle, Maya at the left and Benn on the right side. The children were victims of a multiple kidnap case in their original hometown. They found them in a boot without any crew very close to the coast after one week. They did not had signs of damage but weeks later they all developed Issues.
-What kind of Issues? – Tony placed his glasses on the table.
-I think you know what Mia can do -said Maria – the fourth of them were brought to an institution in the Alps where they grew up without being disturbed or questioned. Benn's father financed their stay and their education. Mia left the place some years ago, since then, she has been living and studying here and deals with her "situation" by herself.
-What about the others? – Sam realized that the problem could be bigger as he thought before.
-We still do not know what exactly Maya is capable of doing, but we know that Benn became a master in manipulation, they are both still in Switzerland so far we know.
-What about the fourth boy? -said Vision, at the same time, Tony made another question: -Did you knew something of this? -Tony asked to Steve looking him gravely.
Steve dropped his shoulders and answered -Yes… not everything, but some parts. –Tony placed a hand over his face, he knew that Steve was hiding something from the beginning – And you were not planning to tell us?
-I did want to tell you, but I was waiting for today. -I knew that she was kidnapped at the age of five and that she could not remember what happened during those days. I also knew that her issues started after that and that she was sent away to a safer place for her. I knew that she was not alone, but she did not tell me anything from the other capacities of the children.
Maria had researched enough to be able to ask - And I suppose that you do not know that once she absorbs energy, she cannot give it away without absorbing an important part of it.
-What you mean Maria?
-It means that as more destructive energy she absorbs, as more destructive she will get. Energy is changing her all the time, for good or bad.
Steve did not have more words to say, during the last days he had the feeling that his new friend was a sensible, quiet person looking for some peace, but that did not have sense anymore because that city was the last place where a person with such a problem would have peace.
-So, what are we doing? Should we bring her back to Switzerland? – asked Banner
-Not so fast- replied Maria – Not everything is so bad on her, she can also concentrate the energy and do something better with it.
-Like what? Tony started to get an allergy from like Mia
-Magnetic fields… Do you still remember the Molotov? Steve mentioned it. Well, it is not the first time she has done that. -Maria showed another picture of a place in the Alps where an avalanche had destroyed a bunch of houses. – This is the place where she was living with her friends, until an avalanche destroyed everything. They were there when everything happened. Only one point in this picture was saved of the devastation – she pointed a standing tree in the middle of the scene.
-The tree survived -said Vision, he had remained in silence until that moment because he was trying to understand Mia's mechanisms.
-That is the place where Maya and Benn were standing … do you still want to know what happened to the fourth boy?
Everybody kept silent
-He was not with them when the avalanche came, his name was Aaron, he died in one of the houses. You will not find the story in the news papers but there is only one person that could stop this amount of energy of graving these Kids At that moment and she is an Avenger. Maria pointed Wanda. - Unless somebody else also can
-Mia? -asked Steve
-With a camp made of the same energy that released the avalanche.
-What? – Sam was having real problems to understand.
-she saved her friends. – Wanda's expression softened
-but the things were never good after that… they never accepted the fact that she did not protected Aaron too. Her parents brought her back to home, She was fifteen a that time. Two years later she came here.
Tony was shocked by the fact that somebody could be so powerful for that; in his imagination, only Wanda would be able to do it, with her own energy. – I have a question here … said finally – If she only manipulates others energy and she could manipulate the avalanche… that means…
-that somebody caused the avalanche -Vision was faster to think than him
The silence was heavy but Steve took a breath and said…
- well, if she could manipulate an avalanche, then she can manipulate the Winter Soldier's energy and transform it … Bucky stays.
Vision smiled - Better than that -she can control and alter his emotions
-He does not have to go back to the frig -though Sam
-Let's do something -said Tony -we bring both of them here and lock them in the undergrounds until we find a solution for them.
He was being cynic and sarcastic, but Steve understood that this one was the only chance that Bucky had.