Here we go, moving right along with Age of Ultron! Whoop Whoop! Other than a quick thank you to the reviews that have been left (yep, you are awesome readers!), I'll just throw out that same old reminder that I have no rights whatsoever to anything Marvel and let you get to it! Enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn
A dream…..the horrible things Tessa had seen had all been nothing more than a fear-driven nightmare induced by the Maximoff girl. But that didn't do anything to quell the dark feelings that had risen in the pit of her. The image may not have been real, but the fear had been more than real….and it had burrowed itself so deep in her chest that she couldn't seem to shake it and there was something about it that left her shaken beyond measure. She wasn't the only one either. Wanda had managed to slip inside nearly everyone's mind and mess around inside. Other than Clint and Tony, everyone had been sucked into their own private torment and it had taken its toll on them all.
None felt as burdened by it than Bruce, however. Wanda had managed to get her hands on him, too and that fear sent the Hulk on a terrible rampage. The local city had fallen victim to Hulk's incredible capacity to wreak havoc. They had been terrorized by his large green form and the only way Tony had been able to stop him was to drop him through a large skyscraper that had been in the process of behind constructed. The building had collapsed in on itself from the damage, and the amount of chaos left behind his wake had been great.
Clint and Tony had managed to get everyone back onto the quin jet and they were back in the air, everyone lost in the recesses of their minds. Tessa had to hand it to Wanda Maximoff…..in a matter of minutes, she had managed to take down nearly the entire team and they were still finding themselves affected by the visions they had enured. Tessa, herself, couldn't stop seeing the faces of everyone she cared about, staring up at her with empty eyes. She rubbed at the skin where Loki's touch had felt so real and had to suck in a sharp breath to try to stop the thoughts from spiraling out of control again.
"The news is loving you guys." Hill was saying through the display Tony had pulled up next to him, her voice drifting around the silent jet. "Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air." she told them.
"The Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony asked her.
"Already on the scene." Hill responded. "How's the team?"
"Everyone's…." Tony began, letting out a deep sigh. "We took a hit. We'll shake it off."
"Well, for now, I'd stay in stealth mode and stay away from here." Hill suggested.
"So, run and hide?" Tony asked her.
"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer." Hill told him remorsefully.
"Neither do we." Tony responded with another sigh before ending the communication.
Tony moved to the front of the plane to talk to Clint and Tessa's eyes trailed after him for a moment before they pulled over to Thor who couldn't seem to bring himself to sit, and was currently pacing back and forth in front of her. "I'm sorry." Tessa told him, speaking for the first time since she had been brought back onto the jet. Thor looked down at her, having been pulled out of his own thoughts. "I'm sorry for everything. Ultron, losing the scepter, Malekith and the Aether, Frigga, Loki…." She listed, trailing off after the last name. "Maybe Ultron was right. Maybe the world really does need protection from me." She told him, her gaze dropping down to the floor. "Afterall, no matter how many times I think I'm doing the right thing, I just end up doing more harm than good." She admitted, letting her head drop back down into her hands.
Thor let out a sigh and dropped himself down on the seat next to her. "It's not your fault, Tessa." He told her softly, eyes staring down at her bent over form. "Mother used to have this saying about fate….no matter how you may try to sway it, it will never falter under the force of our desires." He told her, dropping his hand down on her back in comfort. "Sometimes things are just meant to happen no matter how hard we try to avoid them."
"So, I'm just destined to be a screw-up?" she asked him, lifting her head back up to look over at him with a frown.
"You're not a screw-up." Thor said, looking over at her with soft eyes, finding that his previous anger with her was dissipating as he watched the pain she was enduring. "And you're not the only one who's made mistakes." He admitted bringing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her up against his side. Tessa let Thor pull her into him, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Sometimes it feels like it." Tessa told him quietly.
The rest of the flight was quiet and uneventful. Clint brought them down a few hours later and they all filed out of the hatch, stepping out onto an open field of what looked like a large farmhouse. Tessa looked around in confusion, having no idea where Clint had brought them. As they walked up the porch steps, Clint leading their way while helping Natasha along, Thor voiced the question everyone was thinking. "What is this place?" he asked, eyes sweeping around curiously.
"A safe house." Tony responded, relaying what Clint had told him on the jet.
"Well, let's hope so." Tessa said with a sigh, knowing they could all really use somewhere safe right now.
Clint pushed open the door and stepped inside with Nat and everyone else followed suit. Once they were all inside, Tessa's eyebrows furrowed down even more as, based on the toys on the floor, pictures on the walls, and possessions scattered through out the room, it seemed that they were in someone's actual home, not a baren safe house like she was expecting.
"Honey?" Clint called out, causing Tessa's eyebrows to drop further. "I'm home." He said as he led them into a sitting area. A woman with brunette hair and a large belly came around the corner then, and Tessa's eyebrows shot into her hair in surprise. "Company. Sorry, didn't call ahead." He told the woman who was looking over the group in equal surprise.
She stepped forward with a smile then, pulling Clint into a kiss and it all clicked into place. It suddenly made sense why Clint had always been so evasive when it came to questions about his private life. "It's an agent of some kind." Tony said, whipping his head over towards Tessa, having been caught completely off guard by the revelation.
"Right, and her obviously swollen womb is just a cleaver ploy." Tessa shot back to him with a roll of her eyes.
"This is Laura." Clint said then in introduction, his arm around her back.
"I know all of your names." Laura said to them with a chuckle and bright smile.
Everyone was staring at the couple in shock, not knowing how to respond to the news that Clint had managed to keep an entire life hidden from them all. "Uh…hi." Tessa said, lifting her hand hesitantly in a small wave.
The sound of small feet running across the floor drew Tessa's attention to the other room as Clint called out, "Incoming." Two children came running into view then and Tessa wasn't sure she could be more surprised.
"Daddy!" a little girl with blonde, braided hair called out excitedly, running up and throwing herself at Clint, followed by an older boy with dark hair just like Clint's.
"Hi, Sweetheart!" Clint said to her as he scooped her up and held her on his side as the boy clung to his other side. "Hey, Buddy. How are you guys doing?"
Tony leaned over towards Tessa as he watched Clint shower the children in affection. "These are…smaller agents." He told her.
"Or, you know, the other only logical conclusion…." Tessa said rolling her eyes again. "Clint is very good at keeping secrets."
"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" the little girl asked as she was set back down on her feet. Natasha stepped forward into the little girl's line of sight, causing a wide smile to stretch across the child's face as she ran up to her to throw her arms around her as well.
"Annnnd apparently so is Natasha." Tessa said watching the intimidating woman scoop the child up and dote on her like she had known her for her entire life, which Tessa assumed she had. "Clint, are you sure this is okay?" she asked, looking over to find him with his arms wrapped around his wife and son. Truthfully, she was beginning to feel incredibly burdensome on the family. She couldn't blame him for trying so hard to keep his family secret and safe from the chaos their lives wrought. She felt terrible for having been brought here, and his carefully constructed cover blown.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Clint told her with a nod. "Fury helped me set this place up when I joined. He kept if off S.H.I.E.L.D.S.'s files, so they only ones who know about it are the people in this room. I figured it was the best place to lay low. And besides, I trust you guys not to go spreading the news."
"I think you'll find that everyone here is pretty good with secrets." Tessa told Clint and his wife, trying her best to give them a smile despite the anxiety filling her. Tessa heard a crunching sound below her then, causing her eyes to drop down to find Thor's foot lifting up to reveal some lego pieces that he had crushed under his boot. He brought his eyes up to her in embarrassment and Tessa couldn't help the small smile that pulled up her lip then. She pulled the pieces up into the air with her powers, assembling them back together into the small house they had made before Thor had stepped on it.
She turned to find Clint's daughter in front of her, watching her blue powers put together her toy in wonder. "Sorry about that." She told her, moving the reassembled toy through the air and dropping it into her small awaiting hand. "There. Just like new." She said with a smile. The girl wrapped her fingers around the toy, her eyes still wide in amazement. "I think my brother here is just naturally prone to destroy things." She said with a chuckle. Thor suddenly moved away, walking out of the living room, without so much as a word. Tessa's eyebrows furrowed down as he rushed out of the room. She gave the child another smile before stepping around her and following her brother out of the house.
"Thor!" she called out to him, wondering what had gotten into him all of a sudden. "It was just a toy, you don't have to get all in a fluster about it."
"I saw something." He told her, spinning around to face her. "In that dream."
"I think we all saw something." Tessa responded as the memories of the waking nightmare she had experienced flashed through her mind.
"No. There was something more to it." He insisted with a shake of his head. "I need answers and I won't find them here."
"Wait. What are you….you can't leave!" she said, suddenly realizing that was exactly what he was doing. "Thor, we need your help!" she pleaded with him. "I need your help."
"Trust me." He told her, walking over to her and placing a hand down on her shoulder. "I will return, but there's something I must see to."
Tessa watched him take a step back and swing his hammer around before taking off into the sky without so much as another word. She was left staring up into the open sky, watching his body grow smaller and smaller until he disappeared from view, leaving her standing alone and completely perplexed. She let out a sigh as she brought her gaze back down to the ground. She shook her head before walking over to the pile of wood a few feet away, using one of the larger stumps to drop herself down on. She raked her fingers through her hair, letting out a sigh as she tried to organize her thoughts and figure out what in the hell they were supposed to do now.
She looked up to find Steve walking out of the house towards her. "Where's Thor?" he asked as he moved closer, not seeing him anywhere.
"No idea." She told him honestly. "He said there was something he needed to do. Answers to find. It was all very cryptic." She told him, crossing her arms.
"He left?" he asked, just as confused as her.
"Said he'd be back, but…" she said shrugging. "He said he seen something in that dream. Not sure what it was, but whatever it was, it obviously affected him a great deal." She told him, rubbing her neck as a shiver ran down her spine as her own vision came back to her.
"And what about you?" Steve asked as he came to a stop in front of her.
"Well, I'm not about to run off to deal with my demons, if that's what you're worried about." She sighed.
"I know. I just….I'm here if you want to talk." He told her then.
"You want to talk about whatever it was that you saw." She shot back at him.
"Not really." He told her, knowing both of them were more likely to simmer in their own misery than talk it out with a deep heart-to-heart. He let out a sigh of his own as he swung his eyes around the farm. "What now?"
"Well…" Tessa said, looking down at the pile of wood next to them. "You can always take your frustration out of this timber." She suggested with a raised brow.
There was a part of Tessa who had been mostly kidding when she had suggested Steve pick up an axe and start swinging away at the wood, but with nothing else to do, and no punching bag at hand to take his stress out on, it turned out to be a good suggestion. He brought the axe down on log after log, splitting the wood into smaller pieces while Tessa watched, taking hold of the cut wood after they split apart and tossing them over to the growing pile using her powers.
"We gonna be making marshmallows around a campfire or something?" Tony asked, walking up to them with his hands shoved down into his pockets.
"Makeshift therapy." Tessa tossed back at him as she threw a few more pieces onto the pile, looking up at him.
"Where's Pointbreak?" he asked then, looking around.
"Gone." Steve said as he swung down on yet another log.
Tony brought confused eyes down to Tessa who just shook her head. "Yeah, I have no clue. Something about needing to find answers and he just…phew." She said, bringing her hand up to mimic Thor's liftoff into the air.
"Huh." Tony said, letting out a breath of surprise.
"Want to let some frustration out?" she asked him then, motioning to the other axe that had been stuck into a large log on her other side. "I hear it's a wonderful stress relief."
Tony walked over to the axe, wrapped his hand around the handle, and pried it out of the wood. "So, he didn't say where he was going for answers?" he asked.
"Nope." Tessa said, popping the p.
"Yeah, turns out this team is really good at not telling each other things." Steve commented as he picked up another log and carried it over to where he was splitting them. "I was kind of hoping Thor would be the exception."
"Low blow Steve." Tessa told him, letting her hand that had been propping up her chin drop down to her lap. Steve just lifted an eyebrow at her. "Thor will be back." She said then. "I don't know what he seen in that vision, but if it was anything like what I saw….maybe he just needs time." She said, shaking her head.
"Earth's mightiest heroes." Steve said then with a scoff. "That Maximoff kid pulled us apart like cotton candy."
"Seems like you walked away just fine." Tony told him.
Steve paused to look over at him. "Is that a problem?" he asked indignantly.
"I don't trust a guy without a dark side." Tony responded, bringing down the axe onto the log he had set up. "Call me old-fashioned."
"Some people are just better at hiding their struggles than others, Tony." Tessa told him, coming to Steve's defense. She knew Steve….and while the others may not have been able to tell…she could see him struggling under his hard surface.
"Let's just say you just haven't seen it yet, Stark." Steve said for himself then.
"You know Ultron is trying to tear up apart, right?" Tony asked them, walking towards Steve.
"Well, I guess you'd know." Steve shot out at him. "Whether you'd tell us is a bit of a question." He then added in snark.
"Oh, come on Steve." Tessa said, tired of the relentless guilt trip.
"Tessa, Bruce and I were doing research." Tony said, stepping right up to Steve.
"That would affect the team!" Steve said, refusing to back down.
"That would end the team!" Tony said in correction. "Isn't that the mission? Isn't that the 'Why we fight?' So we can end the fight? So we get to go home!"
Steve in a burst of anger, ripped the log he had in his grip apart with his bare hands. "Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die." Steve shot back at him. "Every time."
"And how long before we end up dying Steve?" Tessa challenged, coming to a stand, placing herself in between the two men. "We almost lost Barton!" she told him, motioning behind her to the home they had been brought into. "That baby in Laura's womb almost wound up with a father he would have never gotten the chance to meet. Every mission we go on, we're pushing the statistics further and further. How long until one us doesn't make it out?" she asked him seriously. "How long before none of us do?"
Steve and Tessa locked eyes for a minute, and she could see something in him shifting as he took in her words, but yet he refused to admit that there was a part of her that was right. "What you did was wrong." She told her, his eyebrows drawing down. "Whatever happens. However, many people end up paying the price…its on you." He said, looking from her over to Tony before moving back to the pile of logs.
Tessa let out an angry breath. She could feel her heart rate picking up as her anger spiked. She could feel her control beginning to slip, so she transported herself away from them, bringing herself into the seclusion of the barn, hoping to get a moment alone to try to calm herself back down. Once she appeared inside the old building, she could feel her breathing coming in and out quickly as the power inside her gut swirled around, begging to be released. She drew in a deep, shaky breath, closing her eyes and focusing on the sound of her beating heart. She concentrated on the sound, trying to slow it back down before a noise behind her caught her attention and she spun around with glowing eyes, too on edge to deal with any sudden intrusions.
Instead of seeing Tony, or anyone else she was expecting, instead she found herself staring over at one Nicholas Fury. Tessa let out sigh. "Is it like a hobby of yours to hang out in dark corners, just waiting to make the most grand entrance possible?" she asked him sarcastically.
Fury chose to ignore her comment as he strode up to her, and Tessa found it strange seeing him in anything but his iconic trench coat. "Hill called." He told her.
"Of course, she did." Tessa responded, rubbing her tired eyes as she tried to reign in her power.
"Artificial intelligence." Fury said then. "You and Stark never even hesitated."
"Oh, I've had just about all I can handle with the self-righteous lectures." She told him, suddenly finding it increasingly more difficult to put a lid on the energy wanting to slip from her. "So, if you're not going to be offering any actual help, you can go right back to wherever it is you've been hiding these past few months." She warned him.
"Look me in the eye and tell me you're going to shut him down." Fury said seriously.
"I'm sorry, I think you missed the part where you're no longer the director of me." She tossed back at him, crossing her arms, having already been in a sour mood.
"I'm not the director of anybody." Fury told her with a sigh, dropping himself down on the haybale behind him. "I'm just an old man…who cares very much about you."
That caught Tessa off guard, and she blinked down at him in surprise, a lump beginning to grow in the back of her throat, suddenly feeling bad for being so harsh with him. Tessa started down at him, letting herself see him at the friend she once considered him, before the image of his empty eyes staring up at her flashed through her vision. She drew in a breath, trying to shake the thought. "And I'm just the woman who's managed to bring about a world-threatening catastrophe…again." She sighed, shaking her head. "And kill the Avengers along the way." He looked up at her with a dropped eyebrow, thrown off by her words. "I saw it, Nick." She told him. "I saw you dead….all of you….and I didn't just see it. I…I felt it. I felt the emptiness left behind….and it wasn't just the Avengers….it was the entire world. Everyone….dead at my feet. All because I was wasn't able to save them." She admitted, feeling the tears burn in her eyes as the dark images filled her mind again.
"That Maximoff girl is working you, Tess." Fury told her, his eyes growing soft as he watched her struggle. "Playing on your fear."
"It was more than that." Tessa told him, shaking her head. "I know fear Nick, it's been my companion as long as I can remember, but this….there's something inside me, emanating from the Tesseract's power, that's screaming at me. It's screaming that something is coming and I don't think Wanda manipulated that vision….I think it was trying to show me something. And at first I just tried to brush it off as nothing but a nightmare, but now Thor's off finding his own answers and I can't help but feel like this vision was trying to show me where this path was leading…..the path I started us all on when I fell from the sky a century ago."
Fury rose to his feet as Tessa was having a hard time keeping eye contact with him, her emotions threatening to take over. "You've managed some impressive feats in your life." He told her. "And of all the things you've managed to create….war is not one of them."
"Fury, I watched everyone I love die." She told him seriously. "And that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was…" she began, having to swallow past the lump growing in her throat again. "The worst part was that I was the only one who didn't. Ultron is right. I'm terrified…..I'm terrified that you're all going to die and I'm going to end up alone." She told him. "Now look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't have done the exact same, had you been in my shoes."