Hope was lost in thought that morning as she was working her biceps at the weight machine, which was located inside their lab's gym. Her mind was fixed on Maria, as it often had been. Ever since their parting three days prior, Hope had a dark cloud looming over her head. She had it in her brain that she was going to get a phone call to inform her that Maria had been killed in the field, or if not that, something else almost as horrible. It was to the point that every time her phone rang, her heart would jump.
Hope was quickly pulled out of her thoughts when Scott interrupted her silence as he loudly stumbled out of the elevator in a rushed mess.
"You're late," Hope called out to him. Their morning training was set to begin a half-hour ago.
"Yeah, sorry." He hurried in. "I had to go get my gym bag." He dropped the mentioned item on the ground next to their sparring mat.
"Go get it?" Hope stood up from the equipment. "Get it from where?" She slowly started making her way over towards him.
He sheepishly looked down. "Home," he answered while unzipping his duffle.
Hope's curiosity got a hold of her as she asked with a hint of excitement, "Did you not sleep at your house last night?"
She genuinely wished that he'd spent the night with someone, not only because she loved him and wanted him to find happiness in a partner, but also because, deep down, she still held some guilt from their break up. Even despite him showing both her and Maria nothing but support, she still was not entirely comfortable discussing their relationship with him, or showing her love for Maria in front of him. She was scared that she'd hurt his feelings. However, if he'd found love, it would ease her conscious.
Scott shook his head as if he were trying to come across as if it were nothing."I just crashed at Maggie's."
Hope crossed her arms while she studied him intently. "What do you mean 'you crashed at Maggie's' ?"
He looked up from his bag, his workout shirt and sweatpants in hand. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
She was now thinking back to when she'd last seen Scott interacting with Maggie and Paxton, and the odd way they were acting around each other.
"What time did you go home after Cassie's party the other night?"
He awkwardly started swinging the clothes in his hand as he muttered under his breath, "I – ah – may have crashed at their place then too."
"Scott?" She threw her hands upwards as if she were begging for him to spill.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you," he nervously blurted. "I've kinda sorta started seeing them."
"Them?"
"Maggie and Paxton. Okay?"
"What?" she gasped through a smile of shocked intrigue.
"What! What?" It was now his turn to throw his hands out to his sides, his gym clothes flapping along with.
"'What', as in, 'you're going to have to give me a little more information here'." She stepped closer to him, a smile on her face as she was desperate for clarification.
"I don't know how it happened, alright?" He exclaimed as he began pacing the floor in front of her. "We were having drinks that night after the party, everyone was gone and Cassie was asleep, and then one thing led to another."
Hope practically laughed out in glee, "Oh my god!"
"I know!" He threw his hands down as he stilled himself in one spot.
"Paxton too?"
"He's a beautiful man, I couldn't help it! Don't judge me."
She shook her head, still in shock. "I'm not."
She started wondering about his sexuality. Something that she'd speculated about before; it's not like he was ever shy in acknowledging his crushes on men. "But Maggie andPaxton," she harped on it again as she wanted to know if he'd identified as a bisexual like her, "So you're…"
"I don't know!"
"You don't know?"
"I don't know," He repeated. "This is completely new to me," he said as if he were truly confused. "All I know is, people are pretty, and I like pretty people."
She smirked while taking a step towards him. "You and me both." She slid her arm around his shoulder to reassure him. He smiled softly at her as he threw his arm around her too. "So." She cocked her head while studying him. "The three of you are all in a relationship then?"
"I guess, yeah." He stepped away from her before dropping his head, shaking it. "I think. I don't know, it's only happened twice." He looked off into the distance. "Three times," he corrected himself.
"What about Cassie? Does she know?" Hope was curious if the girl was aware that all three of her guardians were now an item.
"No." He shook his head. "We've been careful."
"You don't want to complicate things for her until you guys figure it out." Hope nodded in understanding.
"Yeah." He looked at her gently like he was relieved by how she was responding to his news.
"Are you happy with them?" she asked softly.
He smiled before looking off to the side like he was too embarrassed by his feelings to look her in the eye. "Yeah." He kept his gaze fixed on the heavy bag that hung from the rafters. "Maggie was my first love. She was my high school sweetheart. I always thought we'd be together forever." He huffed a suppressed chuckle like he was in blissful realisation. "And now I suddenly have her back, and this time with this awesome guy too who loves her probably just as much as I always have."
Hope had pure joy in her heart in hearing his words, which prompted her to step towards him and envelope him into a hug. "I'm so happy for you."
"Thanks." he wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her back. "And like, no offence" – he patted her back with his hand – "but I'm so glad you and I broke up."
Hope burst out laughing as she pulled away to look at him. "Are you saying I couldn't have been the fourth in your guys' relationship?" she joked.
"No way, you'd be a terrible addition." He smirked. "You'd just constantly be making us all feel inadequate while you compared us to Maria, who is clearly the epitome of perfection in your eyes." She had to bite down a grin; he wasn't wrong, no one could hold a candle to Maria in her opinion. "And besides, I don't think Maggie swings towards the ladies."
"I don't know," Hope teased, "she seemed pretty taken by Maria's hotness."
"Pretty sure she called her stunning and not hot. There's a difference." He gently snapped his clothes at her hip where she giggled.
Suddenly, the elevator doors opened and Janet called urgently from the lift, "Hope! Scott! Something's happening. The Avenger's tower was just hit."
"What?" Hope gasped, her lighthearted mood now completely gone. "What do you mean, it was hit?"
Janet didn't answer her question, instead, she just waved them over. "Come upstairs. Quick!"
Scott moved to the beckoning woman as Hope speedily ran to her phone, grabbing it from the side of the room, before making haste for the elevator, her head already in a frenzy. Her fears were evidently coming true.
Soon they were in her parent's former apartment that they currently used as a break area. Hank was already standing in front of the large flat screen that was showing news coverage of a toppled building that was on fire.
"What the—" Hope beelined it to the T.V., studying the image. It was definitely the Avengers Tower, now in shambles. Her heart pounded so hard that she could hear it echoing inside of her ears; all she could think of was Maria, and how she hoped to god that she wasn't in the building when it was hit.
Hope eventually found her voice again as she asked, "survivours?"
"They interviewed Stark," her dad answered. "He said they had enough warning to successfully evacuated the building."
Hope sighed in relief.
"You think it was the self destruct again?" Scott asked her.
"Maybe," Hope said as she started going through her contacts on her phone. She selected the one number that they were given after joining the Avengers.
When the phone started dialling, she put it on speaker so that Scott could hear it too. After a few rings they heard Natasha's voice.
"Hope, I was just about to contact you guys."
"What's going on?"
"Not here. Our phone call may be compromised," the agent explained. "At fifteen hundred we'll meet you guys at the place where you and sleepyhead had your first pillow party at." Hope instantly knew that she was talking about the house where she and Maria had been intimate in. "And, as a precaution, make sure you move your lab to another location." Before Hope could reply, Natasha hung up on her.
"Wait, where are we meeting?" Scott asked her in complete confusion.
"A house just North of Santa Rosa."
"Oh god, I just got that reference," Hank muttered in complete disgust; clearly realising what his daughter had done that evening at her rendezvous with Maria those few months back.
Hope ignored her father as she turned to her mother. "You guys should just shrink the lab and lock it inside the house vault."
She referenced her childhood home, the one that her parents had moved back into ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. had granted them their freedom so they could come out of hiding.
Her mother nodded before Hope turned to Scott.
"I'm gonna go pack a bag, you might as well go home and do the same. I'll pick you up from your place at two o'clock and drive us upstate."
"Why did she mention the lab?" Scott's mind seemed to still be on the latter part of Natasha's message as he asked in concern, "Should I be worried about my family?"
Hope shook her head. "I don't know." Her mind started racing, trying to figure out what was going on.
Janet suggested, "How about your family stay with us?"
"Yeah, we've got the resources they don't," Hank agreed, which made Hope suddenly recall back to when Maria had told her that she had many resources and to use them.
"Really?" Scott seemed relieved. "That would be great, thank you," he said, looking back and forth between her parents with gratitude written all over his face.
As according to plan, Scott had gotten his family to report to the Pyms, as Paxton – who was a police officer – was insistent that he'd defend both his family and Hope's if need be. Though – in all honesty – Hope felt that their families would be relatively safe together mostly because of her dad, who had a knack for hiding.
It was quarter to three when Hope pulled up the empty driveway of the familiar modern house, which was surrounded by trees, with Scott next to her in the passenger seat.
They found the house unlocked, but when they did a quick search of the interior, they discovered it to be empty. They'd been the first to arrive which made sense since they were a little early.
After they realised they were the only ones there, Scott collapsed onto the sofa. "Well, I guess we wait," he sighed.
Hope nodded, but instead of sitting down next to him she stepped to the carpet in front of the fireplace. She looked down as she reminisced over the fight that she and Maria had which ended in their first kiss, right there on that very spot on the floor.
Even now, Hope couldn't believe that Maria had allowed her to kiss her that day. That she'd accepted her instantly and then proceeded to take her right back after their time spent apart.
Hope brought her hand up to her mouth as she started biting her fingernails, a bad habit that she'd long outgrown and only seemed to do in the tensest of situations. Though – admittedly – those situations were starting to become more frequent in her life. She had such a bad feeling like she'd been experiencing over the past few days, but now significantly worse. She felt so certain that Maria wasn't going to show up at the house, that she was off in a horrible situation of her own.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Scott's voice brought her out of her head.
"Huh?" She looked over to him.
"You alright over there?" he asked softly.
She didn't get the chance to respond to his question for that her attention was ripped away by the sound of tires coming up the drive. They looked out the window to see Tony pulling up. He was soon exiting his car with Clint, Sam, and Bruce, who were his passengers.
Just as the foursome reached the door, a motorbike revved towards the building with another car tailing it. As the boys entered the house, Hope saw that it was Natasha on the bike and Steve in the other car.
Soon everyone was piled into the living room where greetings were short and quick.
The group organically started to form a circle around the floor as Clint was the first to bring their meeting into session as he asked the first question.
"Why are we meeting here?"
Natasha placed her helmet atop the coffee table as she answered, "Because most of our safehouses got hit."
The mood in the room quickly turned serious as Clint followed up, "Were there any casualties?"
"Yes," Natasha said gravely. "I mean, as far as I can guess. It's not like we're firing on all cylinders here. I can only keep track of so much in this current state."
"So." Tony looked about the room. "Why is this place still standing?"
"It's not S.H.I.E.L.D.'s," Natasha explained, "It belongs to one of my contacts. One with no relations to the agency."
"Who?" Tony asked.
"Never you mind," she said almost coyly, which seemed to be her default tone when she communicated.
"Guys," Bruce interjected like he was annoyed that they weren't getting to the important topic at hand, "What's happening?"
Steve took a deep breath before he announced to the room, "S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been infiltrated."
Hope gulped while she could feel the atmosphere in the room shift. She swore that she could hear anxiety in the exhales of her teammates.
"Many of our bases have either been destroyed or taken over," Natasha started to fill them in, "DC's headquarters being the largest one that's been commandeered by them, according to my sources."
"By who?" Bruce asked.
"A.I.M." Steve said.
"Did they get this intel from the Avengers tower?" Scott asked. "Did we get hacked after all?"
"No." Natasha shook her head. "This runs so much deeper than any file in that system. They're hitting places that don't even exist according to our records."
"It sounds more like they have a spy in our agency," Sam suggested.
"They'd have to have access to our most secure intel," Clint addressed his speculation. "Like, someone with high clearance."
Sam nodded. "Someone at the top."
"Where's Fury?" Bruce asked, "What's he got to say about all this?"
"I've been trying to contact him since the attacks." Natasha sighed. "But so far, no luck."
"Do you think they got to him?" Bruce seemed agitated as he asked.
"I don't know." Natasha shook her head.
Sam wondered asked, "What about Maria?"
"She's been off the radar for over two weeks now." Natasha rubbed at her temple. "She's even missed her last three check-ins."
Hope cocked her head in confusion, but before she could say anything, Scott had done it for her.
"What?" Her partner sounded just as baffled as she felt. "We literally just saw her on Saturday."
"Come again?" Natasha stared them down like she was even more perplexed than they were.
"Yeah, she came to my kid's birthday party."
"She what?" Natasha almost snapped before settling herself as she followed up with, "Did she say anything?"
"Ah." Scott looked around the room as if he were suddenly aware of all the eyes on him. "She asked for tofu instead of chicken?" he said nervously.
Natash gave him a look of annoyance before shifting her gaze over to his partner. "Hope?" But Hope was lost in reflection, reminiscing over her time with Maria that Saturday. She was indeed acting peculiar that evening, but Hope still didn't know exactly why. "She said something, didn't she?" Natasha interrupted her thoughts as she studied her.
"No," Hope said in a small voice, though her attention soon went to their discussion revolving around moral dilemmas, which made her rethink her answer. "I don't know." Hope shook her head.
Natash said softly, as if she could read her mind, "It's what she didn't say."
"Yeah." Hope slowly nodded. "I think she knew this was gonna happen."
"So, what are you saying?" Tony jumped in. "Maria was privy to this information and didn't think to warn us? Why would she do that?" He put his arms out, palms facing upwards. "Huh?"
"Because she's with them!" The room turned to see a woman with long blonde hair, waltz into the house.
"Sharon," Steve addressed the new arrival like he'd known her well. "You look rough," he said taking in her dishevelled appearance.
"Yeah," she snapped at him, "thanks to the fact I barely escaped headquarters with my life – you know – after my own fucking commander tried to have me killed by a bunch of A.I.M. goons."
"What?" Steve's jaw fell open.
"Oh yeah," Sharon nodded as she said spitefully, "Maria's working for A.I.M. now."
Her statement hit Hope like a ton of bricks as she could feel her breath falling shorter.
"Okay, that makes no sense." Steve put up his hand as if he were trying to stop her accusations. "Maria would never betray us. She's like the personification of loyalty."
"Yeah?" Sharon lifted an eyebrow at him. "Well she certainly showed her loyalties as she ambushed me and Fury, and then proceeded to take him as a hostage for a terrorist organisation," she spat at him.
Steve seemed dumbfounded as Clint suggested an explanation, filling the newly formed silence, "Mind control?"
Scott acknowledge his idea. "She definitely seemed herself when we last saw her."
"Advanced mind control?" Clint timidly shrugged like he didn't quite believe that as a viable answer himself.
Hope thought on how Maria was that last evening, how so completely intimate she'd been, how entirely herself she was, even with the secret that she was obviously keeping grin them.
"No," Hope said quietly, shaking her head before she looked up to the room. "She wasn't under mind control," she said with purpose as she was suddenly holding back tears.
Natasha nodded sympathetically at her before she suggested to the room, "Maybe she's infiltrating them."
"That's what I first thought too," Sharon said, "until the moment Strucker" – who Hope new to be the leader of A.I.M. – "had ordered for two of his men to kill me." Sharon then forcefully pointed her finger in the air. "And Maria told him to send two more men in to do the job, because – and I quote – I have a tendency to get a little feisty." The woman threw her hands out to her side. "Then she turned and walked out of the room with him and their men – you know – minus my four executioners like it was absolutely nothing to her." She muttered under her breath, "Luckily those A.I.M. hacks weren't trained for shit." She made it sound like she had easily gotten the upper hand on the four men.
Steve looked to Sharon like he was genuinely appalled by the situation she'd been in, yet still seemed like he couldn't quite come to grips with her story. "This doesn't make any sense." He dug his fingertips into the skin at his forehead.
Sharon sighed, her anger seemingly coming down as she spoke in a calmer manner, "It might not make sense, but – unfortunately – this is our current situation." She scanned the room, making a connection with the rest of the Avengers. "Our Director is presently a hostage, assuming he's still alive, and A.I.M. has access to an inordinate amount of extremely sensitive information with Hill in their services."
"Well," Tony asked, "what are we supposed to do about this? What now?"
The room went silent as everyone darted their eyes around, seemingly, hoping that someone had a brilliant suggestion.
Eventually, it was Scott who spoken up as he said, "We do nothing."
"What?" Natasha looked to him in befuddlement.
"We wait and do nothing," Scott said again.
"Are you insane?" Sharon looked at him like he was a complete moron.
"What is it that Maria said when she was solving that impossible puzzle?" Scott looked over to Hope. "Something about when you focus on the individual steps, independent of the system, they might seem counterintuitive, it's not until you look at the problem as a whole that you can find your solution." He then addressed the room, "What if all this horrible stuff that's happening is just a single step, one that seems counterintuitive, but is necessary for a bigger plan?"
"A bigger plan?" Sharon crossed her arms. "As in allowing A.I.M. to terrorise the planet?"
"No, I was thinking of something good." Scott used his hands like he was pushing her suggestion away. "Like, the opposite of what you just said."
She glared at him until Steve spoken up.
We can't just – on good faith – ignore this." He sighed. "As much as I need to believe Maria is still somehow on our side, we can't risk the well being of the masses based off these hopes."
"She's already responsible for dozens of deaths as it stands, our own people's, nonetheless." Sharon nodded, yet her tone came a little softer, and a lot sadder. "No matter how you want to look at it, she's got innocent blood on her hands."
The woman's words were too much as Hope suddenly couldn't catch her breath as her heart pounded in her chest.
"I'll be right back," Hope quickly muttered as she excused herself and speedily exited the house, desperate for fresh air.
When she got outside she threw her hands on top of her hips as she tried to catch her breath while her feet took her towards the side of the house and towards the treeline. She caught sight of a path in the forest as she quickly moved to it. She walked through it for about a minute until she found a large boulder where she collapsed on top of it, putting her head between her legs as she slowly regulated her breathing.
She had such strong emotions coursing through her body that they were giving her the urge to puke. Maria betrayed them, she'd betrayed her, and yet – for some reason – she didn't feel betrayed, all she felt was scared. Scared for Maria in her ghastly fucked up situation that she found herself at the centre of.
Hope looked up, past the treetops as she realised that she agreed with Steve, that this didn't make any sense, it wasn't adding up, and she'd be damned if she'd just give up on Maria, even though her heart was breaking in that moment. She needed for Maria to pull through and prove that her horrific actions were somehow justified, or Hope would completely crumble with no chance of recovery.