And du-du-du-duuuuu! Here we go, moving into the Age of Ultron timeline! Woo! We're pretty much at the half-way point of this story, and I just have to say how absolutely pleased I am at the feedback Tessa's journey has been getting! Almost 15,000 views and counting and your support just never ceases to amaze me! Your words of encouragement always give me the feels guys and I can't wait to keep sharing this story with you! Per usual, I need to throw out that mandatory disclaimer that I have no rights of anything Marvel before I let you move along! Hope you keep enjoying! Xoxo-NickyLynn
As time would reveal, Bucky was incredibly proficient at being a ghost. Tessa and Steve searched, and searched and searched, but no matter how many times they thought they made a breakthrough in his trail, he would be gone before they could even step foot where they would trace him down to. They tracked down every potential lead. The tracked down every possible sighting, but he would always seem to slip right through their fingers before they could even come close to him. The months past by quickly, and they were no closer to finding him than had been after taking down S.H.I.E.L.D.
And now that all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s and Hydra's secrets were out there, the fame and knowledge of Tessa and the others only grew. She found it almost impossible to go out without being noticed anymore, and now that her cover had been completely blown, Tessa knew she had to be careful. As much as she hoped Hydra was done for, she knew that, if anything, they all had just buried themselves deep underground. She felt like she always had to watch her back now, terrified that they would sneak up on her when she wasn't expecting it.
Her and Steve had moved out of their apartment in Brooklyn and temporarily moved into the Stark tower, now redesigned and used as the Avengers' official headquarters. They all were working together as a team, taking down every trace of Hydra they could find, all while Tessa and Steve continued their search for their friend. Clint, Natasha, Steve, Bruce, Thor, Tony, and herself all had a private wing located in the top floors of the tower, making it the most secure building in Manhattan.
In the security of the tall tower, all of them had begun to really delve into building friendships with each other, coming to find that they all seemed to understand what it meant to be dealt shit cards in life. It was the only place they were free to be themselves, knowing there was no judgment on any of their mistakes, no matter how heinous they seemed. For the first time in a long time, Tessa felt like she had a home. Somewhere she was accepted and felt like she wasn't alone.
As hard as it was going after Hydra, as it turned out there were a lot more of them to hunt down and extinguish than they had originally expected, and as hard as it was to not make any breakthroughs in their search for Bucky…Tessa found herself enjoying life more than she had in a long while. Everyone's support seemed to make things that much more bearable. She was currently in the gym that had been put in just under their apartment levels, running around the circular track in the early hours of the morning. The sun had not even crested over the horizon yet, but Tessa hadn't been able to sleep well the night before, as she had been woken up by another nightmare of ghosts who never stopped haunting her.
She was running around the room, earbuds in her ears and listening to a playlist Tony had put together for her, having been going at it for over an hour now. She had her hair pulled into a ponytail, it having now grown down to her waist now. She had just begun to break a sweat as she pushed herself around the large open room, trying to rid herself of the thoughts that plagued her.
As she rounded a corner towards the entrance of the space once again, Tessa caught sight of Steve walking in, a set of jogging short on. She ran up to him, pulling out the earbuds as she came to a stop in front of him. "Hey." She greeted him, catching her breath.
"How long you been down here?" he asked her, bringing his foot up behind him to stretch out his legs.
"An hour maybe." She responded, looking out the windows to see the beginning traces of light coming in through the glass.
"Couldn't sleep again?" he asked her knowingly.
"Well, I've no shortage of trauma to work though, so you know, nightmares kind of come with the territory. Though Sam's been having me start writing things down in a journal. Actually seems to be helping somewhat." She said with a shrug.
"You want to talk about it?" he asked her.
Tessa shook her head at him. "Nah. But I could use some company." She said, nodding her head back to the track. "Race ya." She said, taking off again, leaving him behind her. "Loser cooks breakfast." She called back to him as he took off after her. He quickly caught up to her and the two of them ran around the track. It had started out nothing more than a jog, but they kept picking up their speed more and more, and soon they were pushing themselves around the circle as fast as their legs could take them.
After going full speed for a good twenty minutes, Tessa jogged back down to a stop, bringing her hands down to her knees as she tried to catch her breath, having actually exerted herself a great deal. Steve was panting along with her, but had his hands pressed into the small of his back instead. "Alright, I yield." Tessa said in between breaths. "Let's call it a tie."
"I was still a good three inches ahead of you, admit it." He told her, also trying to bring his breathing back down as he swiped up the sweat from his forehead.
"Nope. It was definitely a tie." She insisted, pushing herself up and walking towards where she had her water bottle sitting by the door.
"Whatever, you sore loser." He said, following behind her.
"I think you need your eyesight checked, old man." She told him. "That was one hundred percent a tie."
Steve rolled his eyes at her. "Fine. How about we just make breakfast together." He said.
"Blueberry pancakes." Tessa said with a nod, grabbing up her water bottle and taking a large swig of it. The two of them made their way back up to the main living space, where there was a shared kitchen and large a large, open space to gather when they all wanted to spend time together. By the time they walked into the kitchen, the sun had fully risen over the horizon, illuminating the room in bright, warm light.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., can you start a pot of coffee." Tessa asked the A.I. system as they walked into the room.
"Of course, Ms. Rogers." The system responded before starting to run the automatic coffee machine.
"You want bacon?" Tessa asked Steve, pulling open the door to the fridge to get her ingredients out.
"I mean, not sure I would ever say no to bacon." He told her with a smile.
She shot a smile back to him as she got to work bringing out the ingredients for the pancakes, and vegan mixing them all together in a large bowl. "Hey Jar, can we get some background music going?" Tessa asked as she whisked the batter. After a moment, the upbeat song "The Twist" by Chubby Checker began filling the room as Tessa began pouring the batter out on the large, preheated griddle top stove. Once she had poured out the batter, she set the bowl back down on the counter as she began dancing along to the music. She turned and shot Steve a wide grin as she made her way closer to him, motioning for him to join her on the makeshift dance floor. "Come on Steve, I know you miss them dancehalls." She told him, twisting her legs together as the music coursed through the room.
Steve chuckled as he watched her dancing around like they had back in the day. She grabbed hold of him and pulled him up to his feet as the music continued, and Steve wanted to protest, but found between the catchy jingle and his sister's infectious smile, he couldn't help but start twisting about with her, moving his hips back and forth like she was. They danced around each other as the music flowed around them, Steve even grabbing hold of her and spinning her around a few times as the music would crescendo.
"Your pancakes are burning." Came Tony's groggy voice, breaking them out of their moment. Tessa shot around at his interruption before registering his words and running over to the smoking stove with a yelp and a laugh. She quickly flipped the pancakes over as the music came to an end and J.A.R.V.I.S. played the next melody. The bottom side of the pancaked were darker than she would have liked, but they were still edible, and Tessa decided to stay by the griddle after that, not wanting to risk burning them again. "God, it's too early for that much giddiness." Tony complained as he moved over to the coffee machine, pulling out the carafe and pouring a large cup. "Don't they warn against the elderly moving around so recklessly?" he tossed out at them. "Do I need to get you a life alert in case you fall and break a hip or something?"
"Who's breaking a hip?" came Bruce's tired voice as he joined them all, his hair still a mess and his long stretched out shirt he had slept in still on his body.
"No one's breaking anything." Tessa told him with a roll of her eyes.
"You're pretty sprightly for a couple of senior citizens. You should teach some classes at the local nursing home." Tony comment dryly.
"Oh, don't listen to him Steve." Tessa said as he poured a cup of coffee for himself with a shake of his head. "Tony's just jealous because he knows his ass won't look half as good as mine when he's our age." She told him with a smirk. "Or yours." She then added with a shrug.
The sip Steve had been drinking sprayed back out of his mouth at that, which made Tessa grin even wider. "She's right you know." Natasha said, walking into the room then. "You do have a pretty nice ass." She commented with a smirk, reveling in the delight his blush brought her.
"I think I'm gonna puke." Mumbled Tony, dropping himself down at the long table.
"Jealloouuss." Tessa sing-songed as she scooped up the pancakes and loaded them onto a large platter. Once she had all of the batter used up and the bacon made, she made her way over to the table, dropping it down in the middle of everyone who had sat down. They all began digging into the food before them, enjoying the meal together.
"So, what time are we heading out for Sokovia?" Bruce said through a bite a food.
"We should all try to be ready to leave by zero nine hundred." Steve said.
"Nine o'clock. Why can't you just say nine o'clock?" Tony asked before shoving an entire slice of bacon into his mouth.
"Fine. Everyone meet on the launch pad by nine o'clock." Steve amended, giving Tony an exasperated look.
"Do we really think Strucker will be there?" Bruce asked.
"Don't see why not." Natasha said, shrugging. "All the information we've been able to gather makes it seem pretty promising."
"The locals say they're paying out the ass for security personal out there." Tessa added after taking a drink to wash down her food. "Whatever's in there, they're trying awfully hard to protect it. We have to be careful though, there's been rumors floating around the area that they've been doing experimentations in there."
"Do you think they have the scepter?" Bruce asked, looking around the table.
"It's plausible." Natsha responded with a lifted brow.
"Well, whatever it is they've got hidden in there, we're going to find out." Steve said, with a sigh. "Thor still going to be joining us?" he said then, directing the question at Tessa.
"As far as I know." She told him, shoving another bite into her mouth. "He said he had something quick to finish up on Alfiem and then he'd be here." She told them all after chewing and swallowing the food.
After everyone finished eating, they all got ready and loaded up. They took the quin jet and flew across the globe, meeting up with the local response team several hours later. Thor had dropped down by the Bifrost while everyone was being debriefed on the plans. After working through it all, they all set out through the heavily wooded outskirts of Sokovia, heading towards the Hydra base they had managed to track down. Natasha and Clint were riding in one of the reinforced jeeps. Tony and Thor flew above them, Tessa was clinging to Steve on the back of a motorcycle, and Bruce was….well he was Hulking out. Remarkably, Bruce seemed to be getting a better handle on his alter ego. It seemed the trust between the group went a long way with his green form, and while Bruce didn't have 'control' of him, Hulk a least seemed on board and understood every mission we was brought out on.
As they raced through the woods, enclosing upon the Hydra facility, Tony's voice came over their com system. "Super Secret Lair five hundred yards out." He informed them all, as he had a good arial view of the area.
They could see Tony began to fire out blasts from his stabilizers as he tore ahead of them, and soon they began to have shots fired out at them as well. Tessa brought up a shield of power in front of her and Steve's bike and began firing back with at them with the large gun she had picked up from the local forces. She brought her aim down on the soldiers poking out from around the trees that surrounded them, catching them in the chest as Steve carefully maneuvered them through the forest, careful to avoid the trees and other foliage.
Tessa noticed a watch tower coming into view, where there were several men firing down at them. She holstered her gun onto her back before grabbing onto Steve's shield in front of her. "I'm gonna borrow this." She told him as she lifted it up and teleported herself off of the bike, landing on the tower in the middle of the group of men. She thrust out the shield, knocking it into several of the men, throwing them from the high structure to the ground below. She swung around just as Thor landed behind her, swinging his hammer out at the other men she hadn't gotten to yet. In a matter of seconds, they had everyone cleared off of it and he reached out and wrapped his hand around her waist before taking off into the sky again, catching back up with the others who had continued on land.
As they flew back over Steve, Tessa transported herself down to the ground just as Steve called out for his shield. Tessa threw it through the air towards him as she took off in a run, grabbing hold of her gun instead. She flashed through the forest, popping up behind every soldier she could come across, and shot them down before moving on to the next one. As they rounded a corner, Tessa took sight of the tank moving down the makeshift road towards them and she quickly dropped herself down in front after holstering her weapon again. She latched onto the thick metal vehicle with her powers and, with a loud grunt, lifted it into the air before swinging it upside down and bringing it back down to the ground as hard as she could, causing an explosion of flames to burst into the air as Steve swerved around it.
Tessa braced herself before moving herself through space, carefully bringing herself down right on the back of the motorcycle again as Steve sped by. They came upon a wide barricade and Tessa wrapped her powers around the bike as they came up to it, moving it up into the air above it, giving them a boost over the wall of sandbags. Steve braced his shoulders as they came out into the air, along side all of the Avengers before the wheels hit the ground and he took control of the bike again.
Steve drove them closer to the facility as Tony flew ahead, trying to get a better sight on things from above. Tessa heard an echo come through the earpieces, like Tony had struck something before his voice followed. "Shit!" he yelled out as he rebounded off the invisible shield surrounding the entire compound.
"Language!" Steve reprimanded, almost on instinct, causing Tessa to roll her eyes.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., what's the view from upstairs?" She asked the A.I. now built into the entire communication system, which relayed off of a private satellite they had managed to send off into the atmosphere a few months back. It had been a hefty price tag, but the added aid had proven to be incredibly useful on recent missions.
"The main compound is protected by some kind of energy shield." Its response came as it surveyed the area with the massive lenses built into the satellite.
"Strucker's technology is well beyond any Hydra base we've taken yet." Tessa commented, the advanced weapons the soldiers all had been carrying very reminiscent of the Hydra weapons Schmidt had created years ago.
"Loki's scepter must be here." Came Thor's response. "Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it." He gathered. "At long last."
"At long last is taking a while." Natasha said back to that.
"Well, they seem awfully determined to protect whatever it is that's in there." Tessa said as she brought the gun back down and began firing more bullets at the soldiers who were beginning to fill the area more frequently.
"Yeah, I think we've lost the element of surprise." Clint noted, finding the amount of resistance they were coming across surprising.
"Wait a second." Tony said then. "No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'Language'?"
"I know." Steve sighed, having regretted saying it the moment it fell past his lips. A large vehicle full of men came careening around the corner then, and Tessa brought her feet up under her. She transported herself off the back of the bike again, and landed right in front of the jeep, sending out a powerful blast that crashed into the vehicle, sending it into a ball of fire that went sweeping to the side as she sent it rolling. "It just slipped out." He told them.
Suddenly they heard Clint let out a grunt of pain before Natasha yelled out his name in response. Tessa went to transport herself over to where she knew Clint was at, having assumed he was hit, but as soon as she spun around something hit her from behind, sending her flipping through the air, and landing flat on her back before she knew what happened. She let out a grunt as the force form it sent the air rushing out of her. She blinked up at the canopies she was suddenly left looking up at before pushing herself back up. "Uh, guys, I think we have an enhanced in the field." Tessa told everyone, having sworn someone hit yet, she as she pushed herself up and look around, there was no one around.
"Clint's hit!" Natasha yelled over the earpiece, sliding down on the ground next to him. "Does someone want to deal with that bunker?" she said then, looking over to the hideaway where the bullet that had ripped into him had come from. Hulk suddenly went crashing through the stone walls of it, sending it exploding in a burst of rubble as he let out a victorious roar. "Thank you." Natasha told him as she began patching up Clint as quick as she could.
"How bad is he?" Tessa asked through the speakers. "Do you need me?"
"Nothing vital. I think I've got him." Natasha told her as she worked on mending him as best she could before they could get him proper help.
"Good. Tony, we really need to get inside." Tessa said as she and Steve pressed forward on foot, taking down any soldier that stepped in their path. "How are things on your end?" she asked him.
"I'm closing in." he responded as he flew closer to the large building, taking out anything and everything he could send a missile or blast at.
Tessa teleported herself over to where Steve had managed to get his shield embedded into a thick tree after sending it at a couple men, pulling it out with a sharp tug before sending it out at more of the enemies. it bounced off of them and went flying back towards Steve, who reached up and caught it as it flew back towards him.
"Drawbridge is down people." Tony told them after sending a missile down to where the shield's power source was emanating out of, bringing down their wall of protection.
Tessa teleported herself over to where she seen Thor slam down, sending out a current through the ground that took down the men surrounding him in one hit. "The enhanced?" Thor asked her as she appeared next to him.
"He's a blur. He knocked me down before I could even land eyes on him." Tessa responded, finding it disconcerting to come across other enhanced people in the field.
"I take it back, Tess." Came Natasha's voice then. "Clint's hit pretty bad. We're going to need evac."
"Can you get Clint back to the jet?" Tessa asked Thor as she watched another wave of men running up to them. "Now that we're close enough, I can get in there and help Tony secure the scepter."
"I can do that." He told her before nodding over to the approaching row of men. "It's looks like they're lining up for us." He commented.
Tessa smirked over at him before bringing up a shield and bracing herself as he brought his hammer down on her. She sent out a blast just as he made connection with her shield of energy, the two powers clashing against each other. Tessa sent the combined forces out at the group of soldiers, it slamming into them and sending everyone flying back as the blast hit them. "Find the scepter." Thor told Tessa, pointing Mjolnir at her.
She gave him a nod before he swung the hammer around and went flying up into the air as Steve jogged up to where he had just taken off from. "Ready?" she asked him. Tessa grabbed onto Steve after he gave her a nod and flashed them out of the woods, landing behind the walls of the Hydra facility. "Tony, we're in, where are you?" she asked.
"About to take over their operating system." He responded. "Something tells me they're hiding all kinds of dirty secrets in here."
"Alright, I'm picking up traces of the scepter." Tessa said, looking down at her wrist where the display attached to her forearm was blinking with the location of gamma readings. She looked back up at Steve. "You go after Strucker." She told him. "I'll get the scepter." Without waiting for a response, she transported herself through the building, heading towards the source as Steve took off, looking for the lead Hydra operative.
"We're locked down out here." Natasha told them all, the last of the soldiers having surrendered and were being taken into custody.
"Then get to Banner." Steve's voice responded. "It's time for a lullaby."
Tessa eventually came out in a dark tunnel, lights strung up on the walls, leading down into a larger, open room. She carefully walked down the hall, straining her ears to listen for any enemies that may not have abandoned the area. Her footsteps echoed through the tunnel as she slowly walked down the passageway.
"We have a second enhanced." Steve's voice warned Tessa as she crept closer. "Female. Do not engage." He said, Tessa's eyebrows shooting up as she stepped into the large room, looking up at the monolith creature strung up high above her. "Guys, I got Strucker." He said then.
"I've got something bigger." Tessa responded, looking up at the Chitauri carcass, it halfway dismantled, but still taking up the entire length of the massive room. "I think I figured out how our friends here have been making such powerful weapons." She told them all, her voice echoing through the eerie room. "They've got one of those Chitauri ships strung up in here like a God damn Christmas decoration."
"What?" Steve asked back. "How's that even possible? I thought we were in charge of all clean-up operations."
"I have no idea." She admitted as she walked further into the room, looking around at all the technology that was half-way assembled.
"Do you have eyes on the scepter?" he asked her then.
Tessa transported herself further to the center of the room, spinning around, trying to look around the massive amount of items before she paused when her eyes landed on a familiar blue glow. She moved herself over to it, looking up at the floating scepter, surrounded by a force that kept it suspended in the air. She stared up at the blade, memories of Loki holding it washing over her before she had to force the image from her head with great effort. "Thor, I've got it." She told him, giving her head a shake.
Tessa suddenly felt a strange wave wash over her, the hairs on the back of her neck rising. She slowly spun around, feeling something moving behind her, and stumbled back in fear as the large alien ship behind her had suddenly come alive and was snapping it's jaw down on her, not even five feet away from her face. It moved through the air above her, sending her falling to the ground as she scrambled back from it, terror taking over her. She watched it fly up into the strangely open air above her and she nearly let out a scream as her back hit up against something behind her. She spun around on her hands and knees, only to come face to face with Steve's bloody face, eyelids closed and face slack.
She jumped back from him, letting out a scream. She looked up, realizing he wasn't the only one laid out on the ground in front of her. Tessa didn't understand how, but she was suddenly staring down at the bloody corpses of everyone she cared about. Steve, Tony, Thor, Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Sam, even Bucky..…they all were staring up at her with empty eyes and Tessa's breathing went haywire as her wide eyes took in face after face of everyone she loved, laying motionless and covered in blood.
She rushed over to Steve and dropped down next to him as she was pulled under an ocean of sheer terror. She reached out to him, trying to shake him awake. "STEVE!" she cried out, trying to rouse him, his skin feeling too unbelievable cold under her fingers. Steve's hand suddenly snaked out and wrapped around her wrist as his eyes snapped open, making Tessa jump in fright. She stared wide eyes down at him as his pain-filled eyes bore into her.
"You have to…save us." His strained voice told her between shallow breaths. "Y-you have to…" he went to repeat, but his voice trailed off as he went still again, and the light faded out of his eyes, leaving him staring over at her, unseeing.
"Steve?!" Tessa cried out, her breathing coming out so quickly, she found her vision going blurry with dizziness.
"Why couldn't you save us?" Came the whispers of all her friend all at one, causing her terrified eyes to sweep around the faces of everyone around her. The whispers all began talking over each other, demanding answers from her. Why didn't you stop it? Where were you? Why did you let us die? Why couldn't you save us? All of the questions came out as different voices, all surrounding her in a sea of torment. Tessa slapped her hands over her ears, trying to drown them out, as tears fell down her cheeks, never before being filled with so much absolute terror.
She squeezed her eyes shut as the voices all continued, growing louder and louder until she could hear nothing but them screaming at her. Tessa's own screams joined there's as she was taken over by panic, her body trembling as she tucked her head down between her knees, trying desperately to make them all stop.
Suddenly it went silent, and Tessa's head snapped up. To her alarm, the bodies of her friends were no longer in front of her. Instead, she was staring back up at the Tesseract, the room around her turning back into the same, less-horror ridden, scene that it had been only moments ago. Tessa drew in a sharp breath as her eyes swung around, trying to register what had just happened. It was like she had woken from a dream all of a sudden, yet the images and feelings had all been so real.
Tessa scrambled back up to her feet, spinning around and she frantically tried to sort through her racing thoughts. When she found nothing amiss, she let out a breath, and tried to regain control of her rapid breathing.
"Tess?" she heard Tony's voice call through the earpiece.
"I…I got it." She responded, swallowing down the confusion and fear that had overtaken her like a waking nightmare. She forced herself into action, reaching up and wrapping her powers around the staff of the blade. She retracted her powers back towards her, pulling the scepter out of the energy field it was sitting in. It slammed into her palm, and she wrapped her fingers around it, the power of it washing over her as her skin made contact with it. "I got the scepter." She told everyone, her eyes sweeping around the room again, still finding it hard to bring herself back down into reality. "Let's get the Hell out of here."