I went a little crazy with this one, but I had a lot to squeeze in. Finally the Avengers come into the story and Rory gets to meet two of them. You'll just have to read it and see what happens next.
BuckyBarnes07: Thank you! I think this is my favorite chapter so far!
ArtemisLuna85: Definitely poor Rory and it's not over yet! The Avengers finally come in, in this chapter!
yasmina1: Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Tony had been sleeping well for the first time in weeks. Of course, he had been forced into bed and forced to sleep but it had worked, and he had been sleeping until the blaring alarm woke him. He reaches over blindly, trying to find his phone. Bruce shifts beside him in the bed, reaching for his own phone. Tony squints and the screen, seeing the security alert flashing. He sits up, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
"Talk to me JARVIS."
"A young woman in physical distress has entered the tower and asked to speak to the Avengers."
Tony brings up the security footage from a few moments ago, letting it play. The girl was young and obviously hurt, leaving blood all over his lobby. She had asked to speak to the Avengers, mentioning HYDRA before she had fallen, going limp on the floor. Tony is out of bed instantly, pulling on his clothes.
"Prep the med bay. I'm going to go down there and see what's going on." He says to Bruce, pulling on his shoes before hurrying to the elevator.
The elevator stops to pick up Steve on the way to the lobby.
"Did you get the alert too?" He asks as the soldier joins him.
"Everyone did. Nat's analyzing the footage and sending it to Hill, seeing if we can't get any information on the girl."
Tony nods. "I'll have JARVIS take a look too. Something about this doesn't feel right."
Steve can hardly disagree. He had been awake, pouring over Sam's latest updates on his search for Bucky when the alert had come in. He had hoped for a moment maybe it was Bucky, but perhaps that was just his sleep-deprived brain. But when he had seen the mention of HYDRA, he knew it was worth looking into. They had been raiding HYDRA bases for the past two months and if this girl could help them, then it would be all the better.
Security has closed off the lobby when they arrive. The girl had made a bloody mess, her handprints stuck on the doors and a trail leading to the desk sticking out stark crimson against the white tile. There was a pool of blood forming under her as well, one of the guards putting pressure on the source. Tony speaks with the front desk man while Steve looks over the girl. She's young, younger than he had thought in the video. Her face is covered in streaks of blood and so were her hands. She was pale and he could see the sweat beaded on her forehead. He doesn't think twice, scooping her up and carrying her back to the elevator.
Bruce is waiting in the med bay, JARVIS already running a diagnostic on the girl. The gunshot wound was the most pressing, as was the potential fever she was running. Bruce hardly acknowledges Steve as he lays the girl down, already going to work with one of his assistants to get the girl stabilized.
Steve leaves the med bay, knowing he can't be of any help right now. They had to keep her alive, and then he could question her. He looks down at his hands, stained from the girl's blood. He feels his stomach twist painfully at the thoughts running through his head, going back to his room to clean up and maybe get some information on the mystery girl.
Nat is waiting for him when he arrives back in his room. He nods to her before going to the bathroom to clean up. Nat hands the tablet over to him when he comes out, a picture of the girl standing out to him.
"We don't have much yet but Hill is looking through HYDRA's files that we gained when the files were dumped on the internet. Her name is Aurora Davis, she's sixteen years old from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She was reported missing by her school when she was 10."
Steve nods, looking through the file. She was right, there wasn't much. Maybe Hill and Stark could come up with more. Now it was just up to Bruce to make sure she made it through the night.
Rory feels like she's trying to swim through peanut butter. She's exhausted and in pain, but there's an infernal beeping that won't quit, disturbing her rest. She peels her eyes open, trying to remember what happened. She had been with Bucky running, and then HYDRA had captured her. She had tried to escape and run...but had she succeeded? She can't remember most of what happened after she started using her powers. When she burned the guards.
She blinks away the blurriness, finding herself looking up at a man in a white lab coat. Her mind immediately goes back to when she had been tested on by HYDRA, seeing the men in lab coats standing over her, feeling the pain of what they did to her. She immediately starts to panic, her body heating up, ready to defend her.
The man holds his hands up, speaking to her. It takes her a moment to register his voice, her blood pulsing in her ears. The machines that had been beeping are beeping faster now, more than one beeping now too.
"It's alright. You're safe. I'm not going to hurt you."
She doesn't want to believe him, but his voice is calm and quiet and it makes her want to calm down. She takes a few breaths, trying to get herself to cool off. Her hospital gown is sticking to her skin, sweat dripping down her forehead.
"I'm Dr. Banner. You were hurt pretty bad. I stitched you up." He glances at something over her head. "Your body temperature is really high. I need you to try and relax."
Rory closes her eyes, focusing on her breathing. The beeping slows as she calms down, relaxing back into the pillows. She remembers being shot, escaping the base, teleporting herself to Avengers Tower. She had made it inside and then everything had gone dark. Perhaps they had helped her. Maybe they could help her find Bucky.
"Can I have some water?" She asks, her voice barely more than a whisper.
"Sure."
She opens her eyes as the doctor walks over to the sink, filling a paper cup with water. He brings it back over, helping her drink from it. It's cool and tastes better than anything she's had in a long time, even though it's just water.
"Thank you."
Bruce nods. "You're welcome. Do you remember what happened to you?"
Rory sits still for a moment, thinking it over. "I...I don't really remember."
Bruce nods again. "It's okay. Sometimes it takes a while to remember after something so traumatic."
Rory swallows the lump in her throat, nodding. She felt uncomfortable being around someone so...nice. Genuinely nice. The HYDRA agents had been nice to her when she first was taken, but that was quickly revealed to be a ruse. Dr. Banner could be acting as well, but part of her was saying he wasn't acting.
Rory looks down at the mark on her arm. Her chest started to hurt at the thought of Bucky. He was somewhere out there, somewhere on his own. At least she hoped that was the case. What if HYDRA had found him again? What if he was being tortured again? Rory pushes herself into a sitting position, ignoring the protest from her aching side.
"I need to see Captain America."
Dr. Banner is on his feet quickly, trying to get her to lay back down. "I don't think you're ready for that yet."
"I need to talk to Captain America."
Bruce grips her shoulders lightly, his fingers brushing against the bare skin on her arm revealed by the hospital gown. Rory's stomach lurches, almost like she had been on a ship that had suddenly been tossed by a wave. Or on a roller coaster that had suddenly dropped vertically. Electricity shoots through her body, stemming from where his fingers are on her bare skin.
He looks just as surprised as she does. His soft brown eyes are open wide, staring at her with disbelief and she's sure her own green eyes are mirroring the feeling. Her skin starts to tingle and she knows there's a mark appearing where his hand is. He blinks a few times before pulling his hand away, looking unsure of what to do with himself.
"I...I...Wasn't expecting that."
Rory can't bring words to her lips so she just shakes her head. The beeping has returned to a fast pace and she realizes that must be her heart. Rory looks down at her shoulder, pulling the sleeve of the gown up a bit. Forming on her skin is a spiral, thick black lines spiraling out from the center, working their way around her upper arm. She looks back up at Dr. Banner, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach. She had more than one soulmate. She had thought Bucky would be it, but she had one more. She knew it wasn't uncommon for people to have more than one soulmate, but generally, it topped out at two or three. Did she have more? It wasn't like she was going to go around touching people, searching for her soulmate. She knew some people did that, but she was always told fate would bring them together somehow. You didn't have a soulmate and then never get to meet them. That's not how it worked. So maybe fate had brought her to New York and helped her escape HYDRA. But if that was the case, why had it taken Bucky from her?
Rory wants to curl up in a ball, but the pain in her side keeps her from doing it. Bruce looks like he wants to be anywhere else, looking uncomfortable where he's standing. Rory's hand is moving before she can realize what she's doing, reaching out for him again. He hesitates for a moment before stepping closer, taking her hand. His hand is rough, reminding her of Bucky's hand. She swallows down the memory, clinging to Dr. Banner's hand.
"This is uh, rather unexpected."
Rory nods. "Yeah. It certainly complicates things."
Bruce runs his thumb over the back of her hand. Her skin tingles where he touches it, but it's not overwhelming. It seems almost to be an unconscious movement. "You've done this before."
Rory nods, glancing down at Bucky's mark. "We were together for a while. But we got separated. He's out there somewhere. I'm going to find him again."
Bruce nods, squeezing her hand. "You should get some rest. You need to heal more before I can let you move too much."
Rory nods, relaxing back against the bed. Bruce releases her hand, letting it fall back to the bed. He turns, leaving the room, leaving Rory alone.
Rory's not sure how long she sleeps for. It's dark out when she wakes again, the room quiet. She looks back down at her arm, the two marks almost touching. She had met another soulmate. She had two soulmates. She had been driven from the arms of one right into the arms of another. Her mother used to believe that everything happens for a reason. She didn't want to believe that. But if she hadn't been taken by HYDRA, she wouldn't have met Bucky. If she hadn't been taken from Bucky, she might never have met her other soulmate. Even though her mother may have been right, she still hated the idea. She had gone through so much at HYDRA's hands all for what? The chance to meet her soulmates?
The idea didn't sit well with her.
But thankfully she's distracted from that thought when realization hits her. Just a few inches below Bucky's mark, near her wrist, is a small white scar. She hadn't even thought of it until that moment. Maybe she had been looking at it wrong all along.
Rory disconnects herself from all the wires hooked to her, disconnecting her IV before sliding out of bed. Pain ripples through her side but she pushes through, going to the cabinets and digging through them, looking for a scalpel and some tweezers. She finds what she needs, going over to a table and opening them up. She takes a few deep breaths, her left hand shaking as she holds the scalpel. It was going to hurt, but she had to do it.
She bites her lip, digging the scalpel into her skin over the scar. She makes a cut two inches long, digging the scalpel in deep. Tears roll down her cheeks as she holds in her screams, hot pain burning through her. Her body heats up in defense, but she pushes it back, taking a couple of steadying breaths. The machines she had been hooked to are beeping wildly, and she knows it'll be only a matter of time before someone comes in to check on her. She takes a deep breath before pulling the skin she cut apart, reaching in with the tweezers. She braces herself on the table, her legs going weak from the pain. She lets out a sob, the tweezers hitting something inside her arm that almost makes her blackout. She chases the spots from her vision, looking in and seeing the small chip in her arm. She vaguely hears the doors slide open, two people shouting as they enter. She feels like she's listening underwater, yanking the chip out of her arm as her legs give out.
She's caught before she hits the floor, her vision going black for a few moments. She comes back to as Bruce hooks her back up to the machines. There's someone else there in the room, looking at the chip she had pulled from her arm.
"Destroy it." She says, looking up at him. She recognizes him from when she was a kid. She had seen his pictures all the time on the cover of magazines and on TV. "They were...tracking me."
"That is definitely not the best way to remove a tracking chip, kid." Tony Stark says to her.
"You should have said something," Bruce says, putting pressure on the cut. "We could have done it for you, without the pain."
"I had to get it out. They were gonna find me." Tears roll down her cheeks again. She was just tired of HYDRA and tired of constantly feeling like they were breathing down her neck. She was tired of being in pain and tired of being afraid.
"Hey, kid. It's okay. I get it." Tony puts the tracking chip down, leaning on the side of her bed. "But you're safe here, alright? They wouldn't dare come here looking for you. You have the Avengers at your back now. They'd have to get through us before they'd ever get you again."
Rory's stomach lurches again and this time she nearly pukes. She looks down at where Tony Stark is holding onto her hand. She can't tell if it's the sensation of Bruce stitching the wound on her arm or the fact that she was meeting another soulmate not even 24 hours after meeting her second, or perhaps both. Rory struggles to breathe, her body heat spiking once again. The machines start beeping, Tony and Bruce both looking up at them.
"Hey, kid, breathe." Tony puts his other hand on her shoulder. "No need to go all supernova on us."
Rory shakes her head, feeling her control slipping, nearly hyperventilating. "I can't. I can't."
Something gets put over her face, blowing cool air over her mouth and nose. She grips the sides of the bed, feeling the plastic melting under her hands as she closes her eyes, trying to control her breathing. The oxygen mask helps, letting her take deeper, fuller breaths. Eventually, her body cools down, relaxing back against the bed.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean...I'm sorry."
Both Tony and Bruce are watching her, Bruce looking at her with a knowing look of pity and Tony looking at her in a fascinated way.
"You have any control over that, kid?"
Rory keeps her gaze down, shaking her head. "No."
Tony takes a step closer, his movements slow and calculated, trying not to scare her into burning down his tower. "We can help you with that. Teach you to control it."
Rory leans her head back against the pillow. "HYDRA tried to help me. They couldn't do it."
Tony is silent for a moment. "We're not HYDRA. We do things differently than they do."
Rory wants to believe him, but seeing as she had no other experience aside from HYDRA, she can't trust his words completely. She knows she should, she had been the one to seek them out. But she hadn't exactly expected her soul to complicate things like it loved to.
"Look, you've had a rough couple of days," Bruce says, wrapping gauze around her stitched up arm to cover it. "Why don't you focus on healing first, and then we can think about what happens next."
Rory nods, taking a few deep breaths. He was right, so much had happened ever since Bucky helped her escape HYDRA and even though she shouldn't have felt safe, she was comforted knowing she was in a tower full of people like her, people who hated HYDRA as much as she did.