Empty.
Jack felt completely empty.
As if a void was slowly growing in his mind and body, eating away at him each time he reminded himself that he was drinking to forget. Beer after beer, until he craved something stronger and starting drinking whiskey straight from the bottle.
He was drinking his sorrows away at a bar in a small town half an hour away from the Compound because he didn't want Danielle to see him this way. He didn't want anyone to see him like this, but what did it matter? Who the hell cared about what other people saw when they looked at a twenty-one year old kid drinking like there's no tomorrow? They didn't know his shitty life story, they didn't know all that he'd been through, they didn't know what pain he was experiencing.
See, losing his mom the first time, that he could handle. She died with the image of being a good mother in Jack's mind. But this time, all Jack thought of was how much of a monster she was.
After Maria Hill and a bunch of other Avengers agents came storming the warehouse Jack had been knocked out in, it was revealed all that his mother had been planning.
Assignment 204 was a kill order put on Steve Rogers' head by Brock Rumlow a.k.a Crossbones. Apparently, when Strucker had kidnapped Jack and Dani, Rumlow was the one sent to kill their mother, only instead of killing her, he recruited her by using them as blackmail. Her skills for their lives, the deal of a lifetime, and she took it.
Jack didn't blame her for all those assassinations the Silencer took part of, Jack would kill people too if it meant keeping his little sister safe. But what he was upset about was the fact that she got out, she no longer needed to kill anybody because him and Dani were safe and out of HYDRA's grasp. But that didn't seem to be enough for her.
She paid people to kidnap Dani, torture her, beat her, cut her, make her scream, beg, and plead until she was left half-dead in a pool of her own blood. Their mother did that. And for what? A test of whether or not they were safe? She put her own daughter through immeasurable amounts of physical, emotional, and mental trauma for a stupid test? Then she took her away to live some normal life as if that would just fix everything.
She probably took Danielle away to put distance between her and Steve. Jack knew that had to be the reason she tried to convince him to leave as well. Their mom didn't want them to be close to the soldier she would eventually attempt to assassinate.
Disgusting.
It was disgusting at how far his mother had fallen.
"Hey, kid," Jack's head snapped up to look at the burly bartender behind the counter. "It's coming up five a.m. I gotta close shop soon," he explained.
Jack frowned before pulling a one hundred dollar bill from his pocket and sliding it over to him. "I can find my way out after you close up," he replied.
The bartender looked down at the money before reluctantly taking it. "Just don't get too hammered," he advised the brunet boy.
Jack only nodded before the bartender walked off, leaving him alone in the empty bar.
He let out a heavy sigh before taking another drink of the whiskey in his hand. It burned going down his throat, like lava mixed with glass, thorns, and needles, but it helped try and fill that empty void within him.
However, his little pity party was soon called to a close when the small bell above the bar entrance rang. Jack winced from the noise, his head sensitive from all the drinking. He listened carefully to the sounds of footsteps approaching, he didn't bother turning around to see who had walked in because by the looks of the expensive looking car outside, he knew exactly who it was.
"This seat taken?" Tony Stark asked, gesturing to the bar stool beside Jack. The enhanced young man didn't answer, but his expression didn't look very inviting. The billionaire sat down anyway.
Jack hunched his shoulders and tried to ignore the man sitting beside him, much to Tony's dismay. The billionaire rolled his eyes. "Come on, kid. What are you doing? Drinking your troubles away with..." Tony snatched the bottle of liquor from Jack's hands and read the label with a look of disgust on his face. "Cheap whiskey? What are you – a middle-aged trucker from Kansas?"
Jack glowered at Tony before snatching the bottle back and taking a swig, continuing to try and ignore his presence.
"Look, Jack, I know losing your mom sucks, okay?" The billionaire began. "But you can't just try to get over it with alcohol, pal. You still have a virgin liver, and trust me when I tell you, it won't be long before you have your head in a toilet barfing your brains out."
"Screw off, Tony," Jack grumbled.
Tony sighed. It was surprisingly hard to get through to Jack, considering how much time the billionaire spent with the electro-kinetic kid. It was like being best friends with a tree who grew money, only better for Tony since he already had so much money and needed a fun pal to play scientific toys with now that Bruce was gone. And to be truthful, Tony actually kind of liked the kid – all cool super powers aside. He was smart, quirky, a huge trouble maker, and had a great sense of humor – Tony saw a lot of himself in Jack.
But seeing him drunk and half out of his mind with grief? How was Tony supposed to fix that? Fixing things was what Tony did best, but when it came to human feelings? Hell, he could barely process his own in a healthy, non-alcoholic way... Damn, this kid was more like him than he previously thought, and he was starting to think that was a bad thing.
"No," Tony finally answered Jack – taking him by surprise. "I'm not going to screw off. You wanna know why?" Jack only spared him a curious glance from over his shoulder. "Because, I've been exactly where you are. When my parents died, I did nothing but lock myself in my built-in bar at home, drink until I was seeing four of everything, and not interact with the outside world. You know where that got me?"
"Not dead, I assume," Jack quipped back.
"Shut up, I'm trying to be helpful here and you're not helping," Tony retorted, receiving a small chuckle from the young man. "It got me half-dead on my floor in a puddle of my own barf. And I wished that someone would have cut me off. I wished someone would have helped me to get through that hard time," the billionaire explained. "So, I'm here now to cut you off and keep you from turning into me. For both our sakes because like Hell I'm gonna be mopping up your puke."
Jack laughed. He actually laughed. And Tony smiled, he'd gotten through to him.
"So, what do you say you put that shit down-" he gestured to the bottle in his hands. "And we head back to the Compound before I send Natasha out here to drag your ass back?"
Jack's eyes widened slightly before he quickly set the half-empty bottle of alcohol back behind the bar counter and stood up. "Compound sounds good right about now. I miss my bed," he stated matter-of-factly.
Tony chuckled. "And you're probably going to be dying for some greasy food in a few hours after a long nap," he added as he led Jack out of the bar and to the orange sports car waiting outside in the parking lot.
"Hey, Tony," Jack stopped at the passenger's side door. The billionaire looked over the hood at the kid as he smiled. "Thanks."
Tony nodded, but didn't reply before he climbed into the car. Jack followed in suit.
Once they were both buckled in, Tony broke the silence. "Oh! I almost forgot to tell you," Jack looked up at him expectantly, unsure of what was to come out of his mouth next. "There's another reason I came out here to get you."
"What?" Jack asked in confusion.
"We need your help trying to coax your sister from her room..."
Danielle sat in the middle of the bed in her room back at the Compound. It was still barren and deserted from when she'd moved to go live with her Mom in Rhode Island... Danielle cringed from the bitter memories, the pains till fresh in her mind.
Unlike Jack, Danielle didn't feel empty. She felt something else: anger. And it fueled her. Her body was like a raging fire, each terrible thing her mother had done to her, Jack, and everyone else was the gasoline being thrown into her burning fire of rage and sorrow. At this point, Danielle was shocked that she hadn't combusted yet.
She didn't know where to begin at how upset she was. Should she start with the fact that she was a pawn in her mother's sick little game since the beginning? That Alisson – she had no right to be classified as her mom anymore – used the pain from her falsified death to win over Danielle? To trick her into believing she was actually her mother, the same woman who tucked her in every night, sang her to sleep, read her books, taught her to play piano?!
It was revolting and left a sick feeling in Danielle's gut that someone could be so cruel and manipulative enough to do that. And that wasn't even where it ended.
After winning Danielle and Jack over, Alisson had the nerve to pay HYDRA agents to kidnap her? Was she ever really Alisson Harper? Did HYDRA brainwash her? Danielle wished that were the case, but it wasn't. Her own mother had actually, by choice, hired people to kidnap her. They tortured her, scarred her in every way they could, fueled themselves with her screams – her screams that she cried out to for Her! Danielle cried for her mother to save her! What a sick joke!
Danielle hated life. She hated the crappy hand she was dealt in life, she hated her mother, she hated her father, she hated whatever monster resided within her, she hated her powers, she hated how innocent and pure she viewed the world, she hated HYDRA, she hated SHIELD, she hated the stupid Mind Stone on Vision's head, she hated how blind she was for believing that she could actually have a happy life!
All that anger, and all that rage finally exploded from within her. She had to do something, she wanted to do something.
That's when Danielle's eyes landed on the portable keyboard in the corner of her room that she'd left here from the move. Without warning, the teenage girl crawled off her bed and walked over to the piano. She grabbed both the keyboard and the stand before stalking out of her room for the first time in days.
Danielle walked through the Compound hallway past a few of her teammates who gave her odd looks as they watched her walk into the kitchen and shove the piano into the disposal bin. She pushed and crammed it into the trash can before stomping back to her room and slamming the door shut.
That felt good, she thought to herself. She wanted to do something else to ease the anger. But what?
Danielle walked over to her closet then and opened it up, this was a good place to start. Inside was an array of colors. Apparently, a couple of Avengers agents had been sent to the house in Rhode Island to collect some of Danielle's clothes (even though all she had been wearing this past week was black leggings, a black hoodie, and some black socks). They all hung neatly before her. It was like looking at a rainbow of pink blouses, blue jeans, and yellow jackets. She hated how bright and cute it all looked. Time to change that.
Danielle tore each and every item of brightly colored clothing off their hangers and threw them to the ground. Once they all laid in a pile in the middle of the room, she walked back outside to the kitchen and grabbed a trash bag before returning to her room to shove all of it inside. When she was finished, she tied up the bag of clothes and tossed it by the door.
What next?
The photo album in the box at the foot of her bed Wanda had brought in a couple of days ago.
Danielle walked over and opened it up. One of the first pictures on one of the pages was one of Jack, Wanda, Danielle, and Her. Danielle ground her teeth together before stalking over to her desk and pulling out a pair of scissors from the drawer. She walked to the picture and tore it out before sloppily chopping Alisson Harper from the photo. She continued to repeat this process until every last picture she was in had been rid of Her presence.
After Danielle had finished that, she caught the reflection of herself in the shiny metal part of the scissors as she held them up. The first thing she noticed was how much she looked like her mother, her cheeks, her lips, her smile, her ears, her nose, her eyebrows, her hair... she hated it. Hated it so much, Danielle stormed off to the restroom with the scissors still in hand, and began to cut her hair. Her long dark brown locks that once reached past her hips was now just above her shoulders.
But it wasn't enough. That fire still raged within her. All that anger was only being fanned by all these new changes she was making to her life and herself. What more did she need to do to put it out? To satisfy that rage inside her?
Fight fire with fire... Fire.
Danielle walked out of her restroom, picked up all the cut outs of Alisson and the bag of clothes on the ground, and teleported herself outside of the Compound, a few yards out into the open field. She dropped all the items on the ground before teleporting back inside where she appeared in the kitchen.
All of the Avengers team turned around from their seats in the living room to see what she was doing as she scavenged through the kitchen cabinets and drawers.
"Danielle," her brother spoke up, having just arrived with Tony. "What are you doing?"
She didn't reply as she pulled out a small pack of matches from inside one of the drawers. Everyone in the room was starting to worry.
"Did you... cut your hair, Dani?" Wanda asked, perplexed by the unusual sight of her sister with short hair.
Again, Danielle didn't reply as she reached one of the top cabinets with her tip-toes to grab hold of a bottle of alcohol.
This time, Steve spoke up. "Danielle, what are you doing?"
"What I have to," was her simple response before she vanished again.
"Whoa," Sam exclaimed. "Where'd she go?"
"Uh, guys..." Rhodey began as he stared out one of the many windows lining the walls. "Found her."
All of the team followed his gaze out the window and caught sight of the small silhouette of Danielle pouring the contents of the bottle of liquor onto what looked to be a giant pile of junk.
"Crap," Natasha muttered before Jack, Wanda, and Steve went dashing outside.
Danielle had emptied out the entire bottle of liquor by the time the other two enhanced and the super soldier came dashing out from the Compound exit towards where she stood in the field. There were tears threatening to fall from her eyes as she pulled out a single match from the tiny box and slid it against the black part on the side. She did it once, twice, until a flame caught on the third time.
She held it above the pile of clothing, but before she could even drop it, it was knocked from her hands. Danielle watched as the tiny match fell from her fingers to the ground before being stomped out. "No, no, no!" She cried, quickly struggling to pull out another match.
"Dani, stop!" Jack exclaimed as he snatched the box of matches from her grasp and held it just out of her reach.
"Jack!" She shouted in protest, jumping up and down trying to reach for it. "What are you doing? Give it back!"
"No- Danielle, stop it!" Jack tried to push her back when his sister began to try and climb his body to reach for the matches. He then turned slightly and tossed them to Wanda who stood a few feet away.
"No!" Danielle cried out again as she made a move to pounce at Wanda to grab the matches.
Luckily, Jack was able to catch his sister mid-jump and pull her back. She kicked and squirmed to try and get her brother to release her, but Jack didn't loosen his grip on her. Instead, he turned her away from Wanda and the matches and set her down to the ground. She then tried to run around him. "Danielle!" He shouted forcefully as he grabbed both her shoulders in his hands and held her in place in front of him. "Stop it!"
"No! You don't understand-!"
"Understand what? That you're trying to burn all this crap?!" He retorted.
"I'm trying to make it stop!"
"What, Danielle? Make what stop?" Danielle shook her head and averted her gaze, tears slowly trickling down her pale cheeks. "Tell me," Jack begged. He wanted to know– no! He needed to know. To know why she was doing this, so he could help her. He always needed to help her, that was his job. To look after her, to kiss the boo boos she had, to scare away the monsters in her closet, to pick her up when she fell, and give her a head start when she's learning to ride her bike because he was her brother and she was his baby sister. "Tell me, please."
Danielle couldn't hold back any longer. Tears were pouring down her face as she sobbed and let it all out. "The pain," she finally hiccuped.
Jack felt his heart shatter into a million pieces as if it were a glass window being shot with a bullet. He quickly wrapped his arms around his kid sister and sunk to the ground with her crying in his arms. Just like she let go, he had too. He was sobbing, letting his tears fall into her hair that smelled like coconuts and waterfalls and morning dew.
"I'm sorry," he cried as he squeezed her tighter, worried if he let go she'd slip from his grip and vanish like their mother had. "I'm so, so sorry."
"It's not your fault," Danielle whispered into his chest through her sniffles. "I still love you."
Jack had fallen into a million broken pieces, but with that one sentence, he was put back together better than ever. "I love you too," he replied.
After their crying subsided to small sniffles and little hiccups, Jack let go do his sister with one arm and turned around to face Wanda and Steve who were watching with pained expressions behind him. "The matches?" Jack requested, holding out his hand.
Wanda hesitated for a moment before reluctantly handing them over.
Jack took them and opened up a match. He didn't need the little box to create a flame, instead using a small spark from his finger to set it ablaze. Danielle looked up from her brother's chest to see the lit match in her brother's fingers. Jack looked down at his sister and asked, "Will this help make the pain go away?"
Danielle was silent for a moment, thinking it over. "I don't know," she answered trurhfully.
"Well, let's see," Jack replied before tossing the match onto the pile of junk. Within moments, the fire caught into the alcohol soaked pile and the entire thing was in flames.
Jack and Dani shifted to where they were both sitting cross-legged, watching the small fire burn in front of them. Jack had an arm wrapped around Dani's shoulders and she had her head leaning on his shoulder. The orange of the fire reflecting off the silent tears trickling down their faces. The pain still wasn't gone, but at least this proved that it would get better for them. It had to.
A/N: Sorry for the semi-late chapter, I've been traveling. I recently traveled back for a surprise visit to my hometown for a week and got to go see the musical Wicked. It was fucking amazing and my voice is still soar from singing musical songs all the way there and on the ride home. So, yeah, that was my weekend hope you all are having a great start to your week, hope this slightly depressing chapter doesn't get you too down. Enjoy the update though.
Chapter songs are Good Cry by Noah Cyrus (completely obsessed with this child. I love her music, voice, and simply because she is selling whole bottles of her own tears for thousands of dollars. I hope one day to be making profit off my sadness, id be a fucking billionaire. We stan a queen) and Carry On by fun.
Reviews:
DarkLordofMemes: I laughed when I read this review. Thanks for making my day, sorry for causing you pain. :) more to come, but on the bright side at least we're closing in on Civil War plot. Right? Right? No...?
PondLake: Thank you for the air kisses! I send you back virtual hugs! Glad you enjoyed the chap.
RedDragon395: Glad it was a wild ride for you. The reason she knew they were going to the warehouse was because she had planned this to the T. Alisson isn't the best fighter. Her skillet lies within her ability to plan and execute from far away, so when she was going around killing all the HYDRA agents she had hired to kidnap Dani to cover up, she let one live because she wanted him to be captured by the Avengers so he could tell them the truth. She also made sure that her killing the kidnappers was made public near the same warehouse Dani was killed to basically lead them to her. Sorry if this doesn't make sense or something, it's hard to explain through writing. And the other answer to the her knowing how Dani was in the basement was because she had already notified her she'd be back home soon, already having her become worried when she wasn't. And then leaving the basement door and light on to also lead Danielle down there. Hope this answers your questions.
Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:
[And now for a special Incorrect Quote of the Chapter known as 'Poetry Night']
Danielle: I want to beat you to death with a blunt object!
Danielle: I wanna grab one of those high-end fashion mannequins but the ankles and bash your rib cage in!
Danielle: I wanna sharpen fifty pencils, bind them with a rubber band, stick the lead in your mouth, and punch the erasers!
Danielle: I want to strap you to a bed of nails, then strap that bed of nails to the hood of my car so I can watch you suffer as we drive over speed bumps in a mall parking lot during an earthquake!
Danielle: I want you to somehow survive a terrible car crash, and somehow not survive a small fender bender on the way back from the hospital. *rings chimes*
Danielle: Thank you, that's called 'Mom'.
Steve: ...
Wanda: ...
Tony: ...
Everyone else: ...
Jack: *snapping* Yes, beautiful, brilliant, I Stan.
