Leaving her post, she got to the second floor of the airport terminal. She left her rifle in its perch; it was too big to be lugging around with her, and entirely unnecessary. Her handgun was tucked in the waistband of her pants, just in case the spider thing decided to engage with her too. She carefully followed the path of destruction, knowing it would lead her to where Bucky and Sam were. She muted her comms, not wanting to be distracted by the fight going on outside; she could hear enough through the windows. Plus, she wasn't really focused on the fight happening between friends.
Instead, she was more focused on who she saw in the scope of her rifle. Her younger sister, of all people. Another unexpected variable. This one much more personal than she had planned for in the beginning when she was plotting different strategies.
Coming to the escalators, she found her friends trapped in what could only be some sort of spider's web. Part of her wanted to laugh; seeing them stuck to the floor, literally webbed up. The looks on their faces told her that wasn't the best idea.
"What the hell -" she started to ask, only to be cut off.
"Everyone's got a gimmick now." Sam sighed out heavily as Bucky directed her to the knife in his thigh holder. She dropped into a crouch to grab the knife, quickly cutting through the webbing that bound their hands either together or to the terminal floor. The webbing itself was much stronger than any sort of spiderwebs Q had accidentally walked through in her life. Still, she managed to free both of them.
"Any chance you saw a small teenage girl run by?" she asked as they got to their feet. Both of them gave her a confused look, answering her question for her, "Never mind," she waved her question off, "Go help Steve. He could use the back up." she instructed with a glance out the window to where the fight was getting progressively worse for both sides. This wasn't how she wanted it to go, but she had figured something like it would happen; it was never easy as plan A.
"What about you?" Bucky asked, not wanting to leave her on her own. She let out a heavy sigh, tossing her head back a bit before answering,
"I have to go find my sister. Make sure she doesn't get caught in the crossfire." she ignored both of their surprised and confused looks. There wasn't enough time to explain, and frankly, she was still trying to figure out the whys and the hows of Molly even being there, "I'll be fine. Go help Steve." she held Bucky's knife out to him, intent on giving it back, only for him to push it toward her.
"Keep it." he advised, indicating that it was his way of making sure she was protected. She hesitated, but then nodded, slipping the knife into the back pocket of her jeans.
The group of them dispersed - Bucky and Sam in the direction of the fight, Q retracing her steps again in an effort to figure out where Molly had ended up. It had been a long time since she had last seen her sister, and she certainly wasn't expecting her to show up in the middle of what was turning out to be a mini civil war.
Stepping out of the women's restroom - where there was no sign of her, Q glanced to the side to see her sister's curls bouncing in tune to the slight jog she was keeping up. A brief sense of relief washed over her. At least she was still in the building.
"Molly!" she called out to her, taking off into a slight jog of her own despite her aversion to it. Molly whirled around at the sound of her name, eyes widening at the sight of Q. Instead of stopping, she started to back away - as if she wanted to put as much distance between them. Realizing this, Q grumbled under her breath; that's how it was going to go then, "Molly Elizabeth Proctor, I swear to God -!" she yelled out, picking up her pace a bit to catch up with her youngest sibling.
She chased after her sister for a moment before coming up with a better plan to get her to stop. One that didn't include her having to run anymore either. Pulling her gun out of the waistband of her pants, she raised it up above her head and pulled the trigger. The sound alone was enough to make Molly flinch, cower, then whirl around in fear.
"Did you just shoot at me?!" she cried out, still a few feet away from her sister. Q let out a scoff, lowering her arm and using Molly's surprise to her advantage. Quickly closing the space between them, she grabbed Molly's wrist tightly, knowing she didn't know the proper way to get herself free.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked while Molly struggled to get out of Q's grip, "Is that my sweater?" she glanced over her sister's attire, noticing the familiar black sweater that she had cut thumb holes into the cuffs. It was even stained with bleach in the same place.
"Let me go -" she responded through gritted teeth.
"Why are you here, Molly? Who brought you here?" she continued to ask her questions while pretty much dragging Molly through the airport. Thankfully, she was tiny enough, and light enough, where she could.
"None of your business!" Molly cried out in turn, "Why are you here?" she went to keep talking, demand some answers of her own, but Q wasn't listening,
"Do Mom and Dad even know where you are right now?" she talked over her sister, ignoring her question, but answering her own for herself as she haphazardly dragged Molly toward the parking garage, "No, of course not, because they wouldn't be stupid enough to let you come here -"
"It's not like they even care about me anyway!" she budged in, having gave up trying to get out of Q's grip, but still making it as hard as she possibly could for Q to drag her into the garage. She tried to plant her feet on the floor, but ended up tripping over herself since Q didn't stop, "They didn't even blink when I told them that Mr. Stark was taking me and Peter to Germany for a conference." she sarcastically said the word, meaning the conference was anything but. Not that it mattered cause Q already jumped on the most important part of what Molly had said, talking over her,
"Tony brought you here?" her eyebrows shot up to her hairline, glancing over her shoulder at her younger sister, "You're thirteen -"
"Almost fourteen!"
"-years old, Molly! Why the fuck would he bring you here?!" Still holding onto Molly's wrist, she pushed her out a bit so that they were facing each other instead of Molly being behind her.
"Because Peter didn't want to go, but I said he should so he had to take me too because it was the only way for Peter to go!" Molly matched Q's volume level, but Q wasn't focused on that. Instead eyes going wide and shaking her head a bit because,
"Who the fuck is Peter?!" she couldn't remember her sister ever having any friends let alone some guy named Peter. Nor did she remember seeing anyone around her sister's age in Tony's lineup, or named Peter in the Avengers. Unless…
"Hey!" Dawson's voice cut through her thoughts, getting her attention. The Proctor sisters turned to see him stalking up to them, gun raised.
Immediately, Q pushed Molly behind her, still holding her by the wrist, and held up her own gun at Dawson with her other hand. The two of them stared at each other from behind the barrels of their guns, waiting for the other to make a move first. Tension was thick in the air, silence only being broken by echoes of the fight from below. They hadn't seen each other since the CIA building in Berlin. Neither one of them knew what the other had been doing since then, what agreements had been made or what directives had been given.
"What are you doing here?" she kept her tone level. She wasn't surprised that he was there; she figured he would follow Nat. It was more of a question of what his orders were. Dawson made a face, then shrugged a bit,
"Not sure. Depends on what you're doing here." he eyed her carefully, but Q didn't move a muscle - only her arm being jerked around behind her from where Molly was trying to twist herself out of her grip. Another beat of tension passed. Then, Dawson's eyebrows furrowed,
"Who's the kid?" a small moment passed before he followed up with, "Did you kidnap someone?" his confusion turned to immediate concern, eyebrows raising up and out of the furrow while his eyes glanced over to where Molly was desperately trying to escape.
"Yes!" she cried out, jumping up a bit to be seen over Q's shoulders, "Help me please!"
"Shut up." Q gritted out, jerking her sister forward a bit, then answering Dawson directly, "She's my sister -"
"I've never seen this woman in my life!" Molly cut in, playing the part exceptionally well. Q rolled her eyes, while Dawson added,
"I didn't know you had a sister." he eyed Molly suspiciously. The younger girl continued to twist and pull, but Q held firm. He knew from first hand experience how tight that grip was - despite her lacking any sort of muscle mass. It was like a real life Chinese finger trap.
"Well, I do, and she's here because apparently Tony brought her here." she sighed, waving her gun around a bit. The mention of Tony was be enough to set him off. He let out an annoyed groan, not really a fan of the side he had chosen to begin with, but even less so now that he knew Stark had brought a literal child into it..
"God, what?! She's like twelve -!" Dawson went to object, only to have Molly cut him off.
"Fourteen!"
"Thirteen." Q corrected all of them with a pointed look. Molly grumbled under her breath about how technically she was almost fourteen, even if it was still a good six months away.
"Goddamnit." he let his head drop back, lowering his gun as he did so. Q did the same, clicking the safety back on so she could shove it into the pocket of her jacket, "This is getting out of control." she nodded in agreement, moving Molly back so she was standing next to her rather than behind.
"That doctor, wasn't actually the man who was supposed to be examining Bucky," Q quickly filled in Dawson, "He activated the Winter Soldier in order to use him to get information." they started walking to where Steve had parked the Volkswagen.
"Information on what?" Dawson asked, glancing at Molly a bit uneasily. Kids weren't his favorite type of humans. Especially teenagers. They were the most dangerous kind.
"Siberia." she didn't want to get into it with Molly right there, but the location was enough for Dawson to understand. Both of them had read what was on the Hydra black box. Knew what went down in Siberia, and what was still waiting there for either their salvation or their damnation. She wasn't sure which was which and who was going to do what.
"Shit." he breathed out as they got to the Volkswagen, "So that's what they're trying to do; get to Siberia." he summed up to Q's nod. One handed, Q was able to open the trunk and pull out the zip ties from one of the remaining duffels.
"Hey!" Molly cried out as Q zip tied her wrists together. The withering look Q gave her did nothing to stop the pouting from the younger girl.
"It's a losing battle." she continued, "On both sides. And they're not gonna stop until they get there." she used the group pronoun, but was really referring to Steve. He would do anything for Bucky, even if that meant turning against people he once considered friends.
"Yeah, it's not looking too good out there." he glanced out toward the battlefield, remembering what he saw in the brief time he had tried to hold his own, "Stark has a task force coming in as back up -"
"I figured." she cut him off, opening the back door of the Volkswagen only to unceremoniously shove Molly inside. She leaned in to zip tie her sister's already zip tied wrists to the hook above her by the door.
"What the hell are you doing!?" she cried out, attempting to break free from the zip ties. She kicked at her, hoisting herself up as much as she could and trying to yank herself down hard enough to break the zip ties. It didn't work, "You can't do this! It's basically child abuse!" she yelled, eyes wide, "Mom and Dad are going to be so pissed when they find out that you -" she was cut off as Q slammed the door shut. Molly's empty threat meant nothing to her. She wasn't going to tell their parents about what happened because that meant admitting that she wasn't actually at some conference. Implicating herself too. Dawson looked back at Q and let out a heavy sigh,
"Definitely related." he agreed, finally seeing the family resemblance. It was the wild, almost feral, look in her eyes and her desperate attempts to get free from a bad situation despite being surrounded by people who were trying to help her. She gave him a small, amused smile, one hand on her hip, the other going to shove through her hair.
"I need you to get her out of here. With the task force coming...she's already involved too much as it is." she finished with a sigh. Dawson hesitated, obviously having more questions that time didn't allow for, but then nodded.
"Yeah, of course." he agreed, taking the keys from Q and heading for the driver's side while Q went around to the passenger side and opened the back door opposite of where Molly was. Crouching down, she made it so she was eye level with her sister.
"Molls, hey," she got her sister's attention, ignoring the fierce glare that she was being given, "Dawson's gonna take care of you, alright?" her sister eyed her for a moment before opening her mouth,
"When you say it like that, it sounds like he's going to kill me. You do know that right?" she snapped out, with a squint of her eyes. Q let out a slight laugh,
"Well, he's not." she glanced over to where Dawson was getting into the driver's seat, sharing a pointed look with him. He raised his hands up innocently, but didn't comment, "But if anyone does try to…" she pulled Bucky's knife out from the back pocket of her jeans. Placing it just out of Molly's reach, she met her younger sister's eyes, "you can use this." she gave her a small smile, then added, "We'll talk about this later." she got an eye roll from her sister.
"Okay, Mom." she droned out. Q let out a huff of a laugh, then moved back to shut the door. She stepped around to the driver's side, tilting her head down so that she could see Dawson and he could see her. Mouthing out a quick thank you, she received a mock salute in response.
After Dawson drove off with Molly angry pouting in the backseat, Q turned her comms back on. She stepped up to the edge of the parking deck so she could peer out onto the field - being met with the aftermath of a superheroes' fight. Planes were destroyed, small fires were sprouting up here and there, but none of that even mattered considering the giant fifteen foot tall man that was lumbering around the tarmac. As much as she wanted to stop and stare and just watch it bat around their opponents like flies, her gaze was pulled to where hangar five was. Just in time to watch a signal tower fall to the ground - only barely being slowed down by the familiar red tendrils of Wanda's powers.
"Steve?" she pressed her finger to her earpiece, hearing static instead of Steve's voice. Again, she tried to connect with him, waiting through another moment of static before hearing his response.
"We're on the jet." he responded simply, but it was enough to make her shoulders relax. She wasn't sure who was included in the we, though it didn't matter; as long as someone did.
Q heard the task force before she saw the task force. Their vehicles came to a screeching halt behind her and she immediately raised her hands up above her head - well-versed in how arrests happened.
Even if she had been arrested before, it never got any easier. The soldier who grabbed her, forced her to her knees roughly. Then zip tied her hands together behind her back tight enough where it was impossible to get free. She was disarmed, her earpiece taken out and crushed beneath a boot, and patted down aggressively before being yanked to her feet again. Still, she stayed quiet. This was always going to happen.
What wasn't supposed to happen was the supermax prison the remaining members of the team were transported to. Sure, she'd been expecting a prison or a holding cell of some sort - that made sense. They were enemies of the state, and had directly disobeyed the Sokovia Accords, meaning they had to face the punishment that came with the crimes they had committed. But, there wasn't even any sort of hearing or anything of the sort in order for them to plead their innocence and share their version of the events.
Instead, the five of them - Sam, Clint, Lang and Wanda, (meaning Bucky and Steve were the only ones who made it onto the jet) were transported from the airport back to the CIA building. Where the four of them were handcuffed, Wanda had a heavy duty collar around her neck. A power dampener of some sort. For once, Q wished for those red tendrils of energy.
There was no sign of Tony, Natasha or Rhodey, but Sam helpfully explained what happened on the airfield while Q was getting arrested. Rhodey had been accidentally shot out of the sky by Vision's laser beam. Sam's explanation made it clear that he felt guilty for it happening - even if he was just dodging the beam himself.
No one talked to them inside the CIA. No one told them what would be the next steps, or where they would be taken. They were at the mercy of the armed guards and the ones in charge. Which was bad enough as it was.
The helicopter they were loaded onto was small enough to make everyone feel cramped. It took them to some sort of retrofitted supermax prison in the middle of the ocean. The worst part was that it seemed that the cells themselves were actually under the water.
"Fuck me." she breathed out, looking down at the anchored center among the dark, choppy waves. She had read about this particular prison before. The Raft.
It was created for the sole purpose of detaining and incarcerating enhanced individuals. She could understand putting someone like Wanda there, but her, Sam, Clint and Lang were still just regular people - or at least that's what they thought of Q. Being jailed without trial was bad enough, but being jailed in the middle of the ocean with no way off was even worse. This was a lifetime sentence, no matter how they tried to spin it.
Despite the intensity of the jail, the aspects of it were the same. Once off the helicopter, the five of them were split up, each taken to different rooms by two armed guards. Q was stripped naked - all of her belongings going into a plastic bag she would never see again, then searched very thoroughly to make sure that she wasn't hiding anything. The familiar sense of unwanted exposure and violation came back to her, making her just as vulnerable as when she had been arrested as a teenager. Though unlike last time, she stayed quiet. Didn't argue, try to yell about her rights or snap back with any sort of commentary. Just let it happen. It didn't make it any easier though.
She was given a uniform to put on: a grey long sleeved t-shirt to wear under the blue short sleeved scrub-like shirt and matching pants, along with the necessary underwear and socks combo. The shoes were black slip-ons that had absolutely no traction whatsoever, but fit fine. She knew better than to complain.
The handcuffs were only on her until she was inside her cell. It was bigger than the one she was given before, and she didn't have to share it with anyone. Sam was stationed next to her, letting her take solace in the fact that she had a friend of some sort. They hadn't gotten a real chance to talk since everything came to light - though now, it seemed like they had all the time in the world.
Still, both of them were quiet. Keeping to themselves, thinking about what went wrong. How they ended up where they were. And the consequences of it. Q's brain was already working to try and figure out a solution. A way out. While she knew Steve would try his best to rescue them, it all depended on what happened in Siberia. Unfortunately there was no way of knowing until it happened. It could be days or weeks until a rescue mission of any sort was formed, from any party - Dawson included.
The large door to the room of the round circle of cells creaked open heavily. It wasn't a friendly face. Secretary Ross stepped into the room, flanked by two armed guards. Q watched him carefully as he did a lap around the room, taking in his new prisoners.
"I hope you all understand why you are here." he spoke, voice clear and level. Yet almost smug at the same time, "You went against the Sokovia Accords, aided and abetted an international terrorist, and turned your back on your country." Despite what he had just said, he still decided to remind them of what they did. Q let out a slight scoff that Ross ignored, "Now, I am willing to make a deal with any one of you who will tell me where Barnes and Rogers went off to." he paused for a moment, obviously expecting someone to speak up. Q was the only one who did,
"What about a trial?" she called out, getting his attention, "Most of us here are citizens of the United States. We're owed a fair trial." she went on to explain the obvious. Ross wasn't fazed in the slightest, instead stepping toward her cell to say,
"You surrendered your right to a trial when you went against the American government." he answered her seriously. She opened her mouth to argue, because that was incorrect, but was cut off by one of the guards stepping up to him to whisper in his ear. His face became hard and his jaw clenched for a moment; whatever the guard had said had briefly ticked him off.
"Enjoy the rest of your lives." he finished with an air of finality, walking back out the way he came in with the guards flanking him the entire way. The door shut with a heavy, final sound that echoed throughout the room.
A/N: Uh ohhhhhh Q is not in a great position right now! I appreciate all your thoughts and comments about this chapter! We're almost to the end of Civil War AND to 100 chapters! Wowow I can't believe it!
