Author's Note: I feel like I've been apologizing a lot lately over taking so long to update but I really am sorry. It's just that the past couple chapters have been really hard to get through because I just want to get to a certain part of the story so my excitement has been making my motivation to write the in between chapters really difficult. This chapter was probably the most difficult to write because it's the chapter right before shit finally goes down which is why it took me forever. I also don't want to force myself into it so I just paced myself over the past month, writing here and there whenever I was free from my other stories or free from holiday stuff. I originally wanted to update this yesterday but Christmas decorating got in the way. Anyways...I don't think it'll take me long to write the next chapter because I'm super excited about it but it still may be a couple weeks because it's going to be really long and I don't want really see myself being able to split everything up into parts...unless you want me to. If I don't split it up into parts then it won't take as long so I don't really know what to do. Just tell me what you think, actually. That might be really helpful.
I'm trying to think of any new artists I've been listening to recently because I know I always recommend stuff but all I can currently think of is Khalid. He's not very new but he's new to me. I love his music and I can't believe I didn't listen to him before now. I've lost track of the amount of times I've listened to '8teen' and 'Therapy'.
Who's excited for the Avenger's 4 trailer? I'm dying to know when they'll release the trailer. I first heard rumors about a Black Friday release and then everyone thought last Wednesday would be the day but another rumor was that it was coming out today but there's still nothing. I, however, am holding out hope that it'll come out this Wednesday. I've never been more anxious for a movie trailer in my entire life.
glagla60800: I know Peter crying is super sad. It's sad for me to write too but he's not really a tough and overtly masculine guy. Peter's really sensitive which I think is cute but he's also really young so he doesn't have as much of a handle on his emotions. You'll also find out some more about what was on the USB drive in this chapter. I'm not really going to answer the rest because the chapter kind of explains itself.
Thank you for giving me the author's name by the way because that was a really popular title to go by. I'm so glad you told me about it too because I'm already on the sequel and I love it. There's also this other Bucky/OC story I came across last week called 'Chasing Memories' and I'm really in love with that one too. I read the whole thing in a night when I was kind of being lazy about updating this fic so you can blame the brilliant author of that story for the late update on this one. I really recommend it if you don't already know it. It's a Steve's sister story but it's not cliché. It's actually really amazing.
Tyninja1: I'm always super happy about getting new fans of the story so thank you for reading. Shuri's in the story a little bit in this chapter but I'm not sure how often she'll be in it once this whole Hydra thing is over. Maybe a lot of facetime from Wakanda. I also kind of want Emma and Shuri to bond over the ridiculousness of their family. Like, I could picture Shuri showing Emma that video of T'Challa getting thrown across the room from that suit in the Black Panther movie while Emma would show Shuri videos of Steve doing those lame educational videos. They'd probably share a lot of laughs.
Mabel: So there won't be any interaction between Michelle, Ned, and the Avengers in this chapter. There probably won't be any interaction for a couple chapters because there's a shit ton of stuff going on.
LittleGinger1216: Thank you so much! That means so much and I'm so glad you like the story as well as Emma and Peter together. It's even hard for me to read other stories with a Peter/OC pairing because I think a part of me believes that Peter and Emma are real. Well, they're real to me, at least. I'm so happy you've enjoyed the story so much. That means a lot so thank you.
JustJoyce: I honestly don't remember if I started the story with the idea of connecting the deaths of Peter's parents and Emma's parents together but I'm glad it turned out that way. It really worked out for the plot of the story. It's also not so much understanding the motivation behind Loki's character but just the language he uses when he speaks. It's very eloquent. I can sort of write Thor but I'll probably have to rewatch all the movies with Loki in it to get it just right. Or maybe I'll just watch Ragnarok again since that's the version of Loki that'll be in the sequel. I honestly think if Emma was a guy she'd probably be just like Loki because Loki's main problem is that male ego he and Thor seem to share. Emma's selfish and manipulative at times but she also doesn't have a thirst to prove herself and show up Steve like Loki who always had this desire to prove he was just as good and if not better than Thor. She just doesn't give a shit about that. She only cares of being worthy enough to be Steve's granddaughter.
Thanks for your support by the way. Sometimes reviews like that kind of make me doubt myself but I have to remember that everyone has different opinions and I have to just write what makes me happy.
Another random account: I would absolutely love to see your fanart of the Iron Viper Suit. That's amazing! I'm really flattered you went to the trouble of doing that. It means a lot.
moocella: Darcy will show them the videos but I'm thinking of just including it after things cool down so it'll still be a couple chapters away.
iamalive0: I'm so happy get another fan of the story. Your review means a lot to me and I'm glad you love Emma so much. I really love writing her so it always means a lot when people love her just as much as I do. I feel like I might've PM'd you about story suggestions but I'll just put down my recommendation again. The only one I can really think of currently is the Flower Lady and the Pest(or it's called something similar). It's a super slow burn and it's in it's early stages but it's also really good.
Emma: I actually hadn't heard of Skip Wescott so I had no idea that was ever in the comics. It's really sad but I also understand that Marvel was trying warn kids about being careful and wary of certain people.
I know I didn't answer a lot of reviews but a lot of them were questions about the Winter Viper Project and I decided to just let the chapter speak for itself rather than spoil anything. I also just really wanted to update the chapter which I'm sure you understand. Once again, sorry that I've been slow with updates recently. I plan to do a quick update of One Word from You next and then another update of STNS right after.
Thanks for all your reviews and please let me know what you think of the chapter.
"Where the hell were you?" Steve said demandingly, a harsh glare on his face as the three teenagers walked into the conference room. The moment they arrived back at the compound Steve, Tony, her father, and the others were waiting outside for them with furious looks on their faces. Emma would be lying if she said it wasn't something she expected.
The moment they stepped out of the car, Steve practically dragged her into the building. Michelle and Ned were with them too but even Ned, in all his excitement of seeing Captain America and the other Avengers, shut up because of the pissed look on Steve's face. It was a look he often saw on Emma's face so he knew better than to open his mouth and say anything. Pepper, Susan, and Darcy made sure Emma and Peter's friends stayed out on the main floor of the compound while the others made sure Emma, Peter, and Shuri were alright...or yelled at them in the very least.
It had been a tough car ride on the way back to the compound. Emma had a lot on her mind and she knew Peter did too. Ned seemed awfully chatty as usual but no one else really seemed to be in the mood to talk. Emma knew Peter was probably thinking a lot about his parents and Hydra but something else was on Emma's mind. Something that was severely bothering her even though she deleted it.
The Winter Viper Project.
Emma knew Hydra was sick but she never thought they would ever go that far. However, she shouldn't have been surprised. All Emma and her father were to Hydra was possessions. Hydra never saw them as actual human-beings. Even so, it still made Emma just sick to think what would've happened to her father and her had they stayed at Hydra.
Well, Emma knew exactly what.
The file she deleted explained everything in more detail than she cared to know. Hydra's plans for Emma and her father were sadistic and just plain sick.
Hydra planned for Emma and her father to have children together.
That was their plan all along. When Emma got old enough, they would force her and her father into a room together while they hoped for the best. It made sense now that Emma thought about it. Emma and her father were the only ones in Hydra that had survived the super soldier serum even though their serums were different. No other human had managed to survive the serum so it made sense that Hydra would try to create more super soldiers in the only way they could. It was just that even the vaguest thought of Hydra's plans for her and her father made Emma sick to her stomach.
"Look, I get that you're pissed but save your anger until all this is over." Emma told her grandfather calmly.
"I think saying that we're pissed is the understatement of the year." Tony said, looking equally as angry as he glared at both Emma and Peter.
"Do you even know how close we came to raiding the city?" T'Challa said, a dark look on his face as he glared at his sister who didn't seem to have something to say for the first time in her life. "Okoye and I were worried sick."
"I know what it looks like but I promise Emma, Shuri, and I were doing something really important while you were gone." Peter said defensively, a little scared of how pissed Mr. Stark looked.
"I thought I told you to make sure Emma was safe?" Steve said coldly as he turned to glare at Peter. A glare of her own crossed Emma's face as she looked between her grandfather and boyfriend.
"Make sure I was safe?" Emma questioned incredulously. "What the hell do you-" Peter laughed nervously as he interrupted her before she got mad at him. He didn't know why Emma's grandfather was trying to get him in trouble. Didn't he know how scary Emma was when she was mad? Not to mention the fact that she didn't let him so much as touch her when she was angry at him. It probably wasn't Peter's largest concern right now but still.
"Mr. Rogers, we found out something really big while you were away." Peter said as he tried to explain his and Emma's actions before they got into anymore trouble. Hopefully the team would be understanding and not as angry when they found out what Peter and Emma knew.
"You better have found out where Rumlow takes his shit or you'll never see the light of day again." Tony told the boy angrily. "I'm going to be calling May too. I'm sure she'd like to know the insane shit her nephew has been up to."
"Hydra killed Peter's parents." Emma said bluntly, hoping that would calm their anger and bring their attention to a more important matter at hand. Everyone fell silent at Emma's words.
Almost the whole team was in the conference room at this point. Tony, Steve, and T'Challa had been the only ones speaking but mostly because all of them were responsible for the teenagers who escaped the compound. Bucky was responsible for Emma too but he was honestly a little scared to yell at her. He was already on thin ice with her and he kind of blamed himself for letting her get out of his sight. Steve trusted him to keep her safe and he let her go.
"What?" Tony questioned, not believing he heard the girl right. Emma knew she had to say it because she wouldn't be able to get their attention and make them listen any other way. Peter sighed.
"Emma watched Steve's interrogation with Collins and noticed something that stuck out." Peter tried to explain before looking over at Emma to elaborate a bit more.
"He mentioned that someone tried to warn my parents about Hydra but Hydra stopped them." Emma mentioned, drawing Steve, Bucky, and Natasha's curious eyes while the others just looked confused. Steve remembered that Collins mentioned something like that but he hadn't considered it very important at the time. Not when he was trying to get info about Rumlow's whereabouts. "I thought it was suspicious and then I thought about Peter's parents who mysteriously died in a plane crash. They were secretly in the CIA and their names have already come up in this matter numerous times."
"So Emma cross referenced a list of passengers from that flight with a leaked list of known affiliates of Hydra." Peter told them, his eyes wide as he told them everything they had been up to in the past few hours. "We found a match in the form of a man named William Huntington. He was an aid to Senator Stern who was another member of Hydra."
"Trust me, I'm more than aware of the fact that Stern was a member of Hydra. It makes a lot of sense, actually." Tony quipped before giving the teenagers a confused look. "What does this have to do with you two going out and about while Hydra's on the move?" Emma scoffed.
"Haven't you been listening to anything?" Emma said before explaining herself further. "It's no coincidence that a member of Hydra just so happened to be on the same flight as Peter's parents, two CIA agents, who we believed were about to blow the whistle on Hydra."
"How do you even know that Peter's parents knew anything about Hydra?" Clint questioned, voicing everyone else's thoughts.
"We weren't sure how they would know either so Emma thought if my parents did know something then they would've hidden it somewhere for her parents to find." Peter explained as he then pulled out his dad's journal, that he had been storing inside his hoodie, and tossed it onto the table much to everyone's surprise. "That's why we left to go to my apartment. Aunt May has a lot of my parents' things around the apartment."
"Michelle and I found Mr. Parker's old briefcase in a closet in Peter's apartment." Shuri said, speaking up for the first time since they walked into the conference room. Her brother still seemed angry but he listened to her silently nevertheless. "He kept the journal inside a secret pocket in the briefcase which Emma managed to find."
"He and my mom went on a mission for the CIA." Peter explained to the Avengers as each of them passed the journal around to each other, making sure that everyone had a chance to look at the contents. "They soon discovered Hydra's existence inside various government agencies and became so paranoid that they never even reported their discovery to the CIA. My father kept journal entries in the hopes that if anything happened then someone could read the journal and find out about Hydra."
"The journal entries are addressed to my parents." Emma said quietly when Peter finished speaking. "They found out Hydra's plans for me and wanted to warn my parents before it was too late. They just placed their trust in the wrong person...Alexander Pierce."
Nearly everyone in the room winced when Emma said the name. Alexander Pierce was a sadistic monster who had his own daughter murdered before having his granddaughter tortured and made into a weapon. Nick Fury killing the man wasn't frown upon in any form around the Avengers.
"They also left us a flashdrive containing a lot of Hydra files we've never seen before." Peter said as he nodded towards Emma, indicating for her to show them the flashdrive. She took it out of her pocket and tossed it on the table much like Peter had tossed the journal onto the table. "We didn't really have a chance to look at any of the files. We wanted to get back to the compound before we ran into any trouble."
"There's stuff about the super soldier serum that Howard Stark created, Diego Ugalde, and the Viper Assassin program on there. Basically everything about Hydra is on this flashdrive." Emma informed them and Steve held the flashdrive in his hand, curiously looking at it before glancing over at Emma.
"This could be really useful." Natasha said quietly. "We just captured Ugalde and he gave us the location of Hydra Headquarters where Rumlow is also located. This might give us some more intel in what we can expect." Emma wasn't exactly surprised that they had captured Ugalde since more than half the team went on the mission. They probably retrieved a shit load of those weapons too.
"Not that we don't appreciate the length all three of you went to so you could get us this information but do you know how dangerous it was for you to leave the compound?" Steve said carefully. He didn't look as mad as before but it was clear that Emma was going to be grounded for a long time after this whole thing was over.
"Steve, we knew none of you would've let us do this. I didn't know how long your mission would take so I didn't want to waste any time." Emma told him truthfully and her father shook his head, speaking for the first time in the conversation.
"Emma, you don't know how badly Rumlow wants you. You put yourself at risk going out there. They could've taken you at any moment." Her father told her and Emma stared at him, not knowing what to say to him. They hadn't been on the best of terms ever since her father tried to forbid her from seeing Peter.
"Emma was safe with me." Peter told him protectively and it was clear that Bucky didn't care much for his answer but he didn't say so. He didn't want to make it worse between him and Emma.
"What and we're just supposed to trust you when you say that?" Sam said doubtfully. "We don't even know you, kid."
"I don't need protection. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself." Emma said as she glared at Sam.
"Obviously you're not if you would do something so stupid as to go back into the city with Hydra on the loose." Tony pointed out and Emma shifted her glare over to him.
"Hydra almost completely destroyed the compound. It doesn't matter if I'm here or out there." Emma said in response. "Everywhere's dangerous."
"Perhaps we should take a look at the flashdrive Emma and Peter retrieved for us." Vision said carefully as he looked between all the angry heroes. He was usually the only logical one in a situation like this one. Much more logical than the others, at least.
"Vision's right." Wanda said in agreement, giving the android a small smile before nodding towards the flashdrive which was still lying on the table. Everyone seemed to calm down a bit after that, their focus turning to the problem at hand. Tony just sighed as he took the flashdrive and immediately plugged it into the USB port on the table. It didn't take long for McConaughey to download all the files from the tiny device.
Some of the other Avengers at the table couldn't help but be reminded of the time they were in a similar situation when Bucky sent them a flashdrive which eventually led them to Emma. Last time there was a lot less of them and two of those Avengers were noticeably missing this time. However, there were more this time around and they were going to need everyone if they were going to go up against Hydra again. This time Hydra was nearly as big as last time.
This time the Avengers wanted to make sure that Hydra went extinct. No more heads to take the others' place.
It didn't take long for the files to start popping up on the holographic screen. Everyone in the room was driven speechless and curious by the amount of information displayed on the screen in front of them. It was almost too much to comprehend as their eyes darted across the screen. The files contained more information than they could ever imagine.
"There's so much here." Maria Hill mused as her eyes remained glued to the screen. "Look at all these files. I haven't seen this much intel since Hydragate."
"Winter Soldier Program, Viper Assassin Program, Ugalde, Hydra Base Locations…" Natasha said as she read the files as well. "This file basically has everything."
"Howard Stark's Super Soldier Serum." Tony murmured as he found himself unable to look away from the screen. Emma was just glad to see that she managed to erase the file about her and her father from the flashdrive. It was gone and she could prevent everyone else from knowing. There was no use in them knowing anyways.
"Wasn't that the one that-" Clint started to say but Emma didn't let him finish.
"The one that Hydra injected me with? Yes." Emma finished for him as everyone turned to look at her. "I never knew what was in it. I just knew that it burned."
"And it's what got my parents killed." Tony mumbled as he cast a dirty look in Bucky's direction before looking back at the file. Bucky pretended that he didn't see the look but everyone knew that he had. Emma didn't really appreciate the look but she knew that it was already extremely difficult for Tony just to be under the same roof as her father. Telling him to like her father would be asking too much.
"Do you know what's in it?" Shuri couldn't help but asking, looking between Emma and Tony. Tony only glanced at Emma for a second before looking at everyone else at the table. Emma just remained silent.
"I looked through all of dad's research, anything that could've pointed us in a helpful direction, but I've never found a single thing about this super soldier serum." Tony explained to everyone. "There's no evidence that he was even working on the serum. The only evidence is Mini Cap."
"Do you know anything about the serum?" Steve asked Fury who he had never really thought to ask before. Maybe it was because the last time he had seen the former director of Shield, they had been up against Ultron so the question never occurred to him until now. Fury just cleared his throat before shaking his head.
"Howard never told Shield about any serum he was working on. Whatever he was doing, he was keeping it to himself." Fury said and Natasha nodded as Tony started to comb through the file, looking for any details that could give him an inkling as to why Emma was of such value to Hydra. They needed find out what made her different from Steve and Bucky. Whatever difference there was, that's what made her more valuable than the two combined.
"Makes sense. Maybe he didn't totally trust Shield. Maybe he thought the only one he could trust was himself." Natasha said just when something got Emma and everyone else's eyes. The blonde narrowed her eyes as she read something very interesting on screen...something that proved to her that maybe Howard Stark was a little too much like his son.
"Or maybe he knew what he was doing was wrong and he didn't want Shield to find out about it." Emma said much to everyone's confusion but she nodded towards the screen where a whole treasure trove of information was listed. "Just look at what he was doing."
And everyone's attention was taken away by the very clear picture of the Tesseract in all it's glory. Not only was there a photo of it in the file but there was also a diagram with notes attached to it in what must have been Howard Stark's handwriting. The file was filled with Howard's notes which clearly told the story of what Emma's super soldier serum contained.
Suddenly everything made sense.
Emma's flying abilities...her very fast healing factor as well as her speed and strength which was superior to Steve and Bucky's speed and strength the more she aged. This was why the Viper Assassin was the more advanced version of the super soldier. This was why Hydra was after her. They had spent a lot of time, money, and effort on her so they very much wanted her back. Rumlow for other reasons but Hydra as an organization wanted her back more than anything.
"I don't understand." Bucky said in confusion as he stared at the screen. Everyone else seemed as equally confused. He tried to recall his memories from that time but everything was blurry. Shuri had fixed him in a lot of ways but his mind still had some work to do. He knew there was a lot he didn't want to remember from his time in Hydra so maybe that was the problem.
"Did Howard Stark experiment with the Tesseract like Hydra experimented with the Mind Stone?" Wanda said, the first one to utter what everyone else was thinking.
"That's what's running through Emma's veins?" Steve questioned, looking more worried than ever. "The Tesseract? Howard made his very own super soldier serum using the Tesseract?"
"It explains a lot. Hydra must've gotten a whiff of what he was doing and went after the serum to make something better than the Winter Soldier." Bucky said quietly although he looked quite sad.
It was then that they heard someone laughing amongst all the shock and confusion. Everyone turned to look at the person in question only to see that it was Emma herself. She had been pretty quiet since she made the discovery of what was truly hidden inside her but it wasn't until she started laughing that people remembered that she was still in the room. Peter looked at his girlfriend in concern because it was rare that she ever laughed but it was also pretty odd that she chose to laugh in a serious circumstance like this one.
"Emma?" Peter asked in concern as he stared back at her, a worried look in his brown eyes. Everyone else looked just as concerned, probably thinking that the blonde had finally lost her mind...if she hadn't already. Emma, however, just shook her head as she looked at Tony of all people.
"I'm your dad's Ultron." She said, a sarcastic smile on her face. "Don't you see how ironic this is?"
"What are you talking about?" Tony said, not quite understanding what the blonde was saying. She sighed before answering.
"I always wondered where your love of messing with shit you don't understand came from. Now I know." Emma told him and Tony swallowed hard as he looked back at the tall blonde, a wave of different emotions washing over him.
"You're not my dad's Ultron, Emma." Tony tried to tell her but Emma scoffed.
"Aren't I? He was experimenting with the Tesseract, which was well beyond his understanding, and now we're all here in this situation." Emma said as she looked around at everyone. "Isn't it messed up that I didn't know what was even in my body until five minutes ago. I had no fucking clue that I had Tesseract energy inside me. What does that even mean?"
"Emma, calm down." Steve tried to tell her because he knew she was panicking. She always got angry and frustrated when she panicked. Steve knew that for a fact.
"I can't calm down." Emma argued as she tried to remain calm but it was becoming incredibly difficult to remain calm in a situation like this one. "I can't calm down because apparently Tony's dad had the brilliant idea to mess with an Infinity Stone. That's what Thor called them, right? The Tesseract and the Mind Stone, I mean."
"There's no need to panic. We're going to figure this thing out, okay?" Tony tried to tell the blonde but she wasn't listening.
"No one knows what this means. What does having that kind of power even entail? Will it kill me? Make me sick?" Emma said cynically and Peter started to panic himself.
"Emma, don't say that." Peter tried to tell her, not liking what she was saying at all. He didn't want to think of Emma getting sick from the Tesseract energy. He had to admit when he first learned the news, he thought it was kind of cool. The fact that Emma basically had the power of the Tesseract, the super cool cube thing Loki used in his attempt to take over the world, running through her veins was awesome. He was sure Ned would think it was the coolest thing ever too. However, the other stuff didn't occur to Peter until Emma mentioned it. This could actually be very bad.
"Well, it's not good." Emma said, ignoring the worried look on her boyfriend's face. "You do know that Hydra took hundreds of samples of my blood while I was there, right? Who knows what the hell they did with those samples."
"You think that they might have experimented with your blood samples?" Vision inquired and Emma shrugged.
"Rumlow has something up his sleeve. That's why we haven't seen him yet and that's why Hydra broke Dr. List out of Raft. Rumlow's just waiting until the last second to show all his cards." Emma told them, a deadly serious look in her eyes. "Maybe this is what he has waiting for us."
"I just don't understand how your serum was made using Tesseract energy." Shuri said in confusion. "The Tesseract emits low levels of gamma radiation. It actually explains the readings Peter and I found within the compound which must've come from you. How could you have been able to survive those levels of gamma radiation? You should be dead."
Emma honestly hadn't thought of the gamma radiation part of it. It didn't occur to her until then that her serum being infused with Tesseract energy would also mean that the serum contained gamma radiation in it too. Probably nowhere near as high as Bruce's levels of gamma radiation but still.
"It's because Steve's serum was passed down to her." Tony said quietly as everyone looked back at the billionaire. "Think about it. All the other assassins at Hydra were driven insane by the serum. They psychologically couldn't handle the new serum but maybe they couldn't physically handle it either." Tony only briefly paused for a second before continuing.
"Steve's serum was probably washed down by the time it got to Emma but it was still there." Tony explained to everyone. "Even before Hydra, Emma couldn't get sick. It was impossible just like it was for her dad. Emma wasn't going to get radiation poisoning or cancer because she can't."
"She's immune to cancer? Can someone even be immune to cancer?" Rhodey questioned in surprise as Steve just looked at his granddaughter who was remarkably quiet during all of this. Peter seemed concerned too but he was a little relieved to hear that it was impossible for Emma to get sick. He supposed it would be reassuring for everyone to hear that their significant other couldn't get sick. Peter hadn't known that about Emma but he supposed it made a lot of sense. She couldn't get drunk either so it made sense that she couldn't get sick.
"My dad used to believe that Steve's blood could be the cure for the common cold." Tony said as he answered Rhodey.
"Shouldn't we have known Emma had even low levels of gamma radiation in her bloodstream?" Natasha questioned incredulously. "Wouldn't have Jarvis found that in his scans when we first brought her back to the tower three years ago?" Tony immediately shook his head.
"There's a loophole in that. Jarvis only would've alerted us of that if he found the gamma radiation to be a threat to her health." Tony told her as everyone took in that explanation. "The same way McConaughey never alerted us to any levels of gamma radiation Wanda or Vision might have from the Mind Stone."
Everyone had to admit that made sense. They never thought of Wanda or Vision having any levels of gamma radiation in them but if Emma did then it was likely they did too since the Tesseract and Mind Stone were very similar. In other words, maybe Emma wasn't too different from Wanda and Vision.
"So Rumlow has his hands on this serum?" Sam said, finally bringing the conversation to yet another problem they were facing.
Steve nodded solemnly although he was still immensely worried about what this could mean for Emma. He always knew Emma had the potential to be a lot more stronger than him but he never knew it was to this extent. Could the ability to fly really be the extent of her abilities if her serum was infused with Tesseract energy? Steve doubted it but now wasn't the time to muse about how much more danger Emma would be in if people discovered the true contents of her super soldier serum.
"This means we have to act fast but cautiously." Steve said, a serious and determined look on his face as he began to announce the plan he had in mind for going up against Hydra. "Ugalde gave us the location of Hydra Headquarters where we believe Rumlow and a large number of other Hydra operatives are located at. The Swiss Alps. The same location as the old Hydra Headquarters Red Skull built."
"I never knew Rumlow to be nostalgic." Bucky said dryly and Emma had to agree with her father on that. No, this was something else. Rumlow definitely had something in store for them and it wouldn't surprise her if it was her serum.
"He has something planned for us. I think we all know that which is why we have to be extra careful." Steve informed the group of superheroes. "He'll be expecting to catch us off guard in whatever way he can."
"When are we heading out for the mission, Cap?" Clint finally asked and this question seemed to be on everyone's minds as well.
"It's already in the early hours of the morning. Some of us are functioning on zero hours of sleep right now." Steve said calmly but Emma could tell he was on edge right now. All of them were. "Go get a couple hours of sleep and then we'll get ready to leave at dawn."
"Sounds like a plan, Cap." Tony said, the first one to speak out of the rest of them. It was clear this conversation was over since they learned what they needed to learn from the flashdrive. Natasha and Steve were probably going to stick around to look at the remaining info on the flashdrive but everyone else wasn't needed that much.
Everyone nodded amongst each other as they began to file out of the room but Emma still stood in the middle of the room, trying to process everything she just learned. It was a lot for anyone to comprehend but for Emma it was even more difficult. Just when she thought she knew everything there was to know about herself, there was even more. First with the Winter Viper project and now with Tony's dad using the Tesseract to experiment with her super soldier serum. She was even more of a freak than before. Emma just never knew that was possible.
"Emma, are you alright?" Peter asked his girlfriend in concern and Emma was finally broken out of her thoughts. She glanced up at him and noticed that he wasn't the only one who looked concerned either. The other Avengers, the ones who hadn't left yet, looked worried as they stared back at her. Tony. Natasha. Rhodey. Clint. Steve. Her father. Wanda. Vision. Sam. Peter. Everyone who knew her best also knew that not even she could handle everything at times.
"Yes, I'm...fine. I'm great." Emma said hurriedly but Peter could tell that she certainly didn't feel fine. He knew her well enough to know when something was bothering her. Peter could already tell that the news of the true origin of her powers was taking a toll on her. In fact, Emma had also been acting weird ever since they left the apartment. Peter was starting to think that maybe it wasn't just the Tesseract thing. Maybe it was something else too.
"Emma, do you need a moment to-" Steve started to say out of concern but the blonde just shook her head before he could finish as she started to abruptly leave the room. She couldn't take being in the room for a second longer. Not with everyone staring at her like that...like they didn't know what to make of her.
"I need to go." She managed to mutter as she walked out of the room. Both Steve and Peter made a move to follow after her but Bucky and Tony stopped them. Bucky just shook his head at Steve as he rested his hand on his arm, stopping his friend from intervening while Tony was a little more vocal in his transgressions of stopping Peter from going after her too.
"I think she wants to be alone right now, kid." Tony told the teenage boy quietly but Peter furiously shook his head.
"No. Emma needs me right now. She-" Peter started to say but Tony interrupted him.
"She needs to be alone right now." Tony added, looking Peter in the eyes as he made sure the boy understood him. "Emma just needs time to process this by herself. She'll be alright."
"Emma will always be alright. She can take care of herself." Bucky told Steve quietly and he knew this better than anyone else. Steve couldn't help but listen to the words of his long time best friend who probably knew Emma best. Peter listened to him too for that matter.
"Just give her some time, Steve." Natasha told the super soldier to try and ease his mind a little. "Let's look at the flashdrive in the meantime. We're leaving for the mission in a few hours so we should gather all the intel we can in the meantime. Who knows when we'll get another opportunity like this." Steve slowly nodded although he didn't like this one bit.
"You're right. Let's check out that file about the Hydra operatives." Steve said with his eyes still glued to the door his granddaughter had just walked out of. He didn't seem too keen on letting Emma go like that but he knew that Bucky and Tony had a point. She just needed time to process it all.
"Lets go get you something to eat, Peter. You must be starving." Tony told the teenager, wanting to get the kid's mind off Emma but he knew that was going to be an impossible task. Peter was always worried about Emma. Especially now with everything about Hydra going on.
"I uh-I don't know, Mr. Stark. Emma-" Peter started to say but Tony stopped him before he could protest anymore. He threw his arm around the young boy's shoulders and began to lead him out of the room. It was for the best, really. He knew better than anyone else that Emma didn't like to be pushed. She just needed a little time to process everything and then maybe she could sit down and have an actual conversation with Peter, Steve, and Bucky.
"It'll be okay, kid. You'll see." Tony told Peter as he quickly began to lead him out of the room. Bucky watched them go with a thoughtful look on his face. Thoughtful because he was slowly realizing that maybe the boy did care about Emma, after all. After the talk with Darcy and now seeing the boy with a worried look on his face, he was realizing that Peter might not have been just a sex crazed idiot, after all.
Maybe there was more to him.
Tesseract.
Emma tried to process the name as she came to terms with this new information. She knew more than well what the Tesseract was. Loki's attack on New York was enough to make her more than aware of what it was. She also knew that it was an Infinity Stone. Thor informed everyone as much before he took his leave to find the other Infinity Stones. And to think that Emma had something like that in her body. The weapons powered by the Tesseract were one thing but those were just chunks of metal put together by engineers. Emma was a person yet she had the same thing in her that those weapons had.
Gamma radiation too? It made sense that she probably had gamma radiation in her bloodstream as well since the Tesseract emitted low levels of gamma radiation but it was such an alarming thing to hear. She knew that meant that she wasn't completely different from Peter who also had radiation in him. Although...Peter's radiation came from a spider bite while Emma's radiation apparently came from an Infinity Stone. The same Infinity Stone that opened that giant portal in New York when Loki launched his attack all those years ago.
It certainly explained how her powers were different from Steve and her father but Emma just didn't think she liked the idea of something like that inside of her. She mentally cursed Tony's dad for fucking with things he didn't understand. Why did he have to be so much like his son? Why couldn't he have left things alone? Experimenting with things beyond human understanding never had any good results. Emma was evidence enough of that.
God...what would Peter even think of her now? He already knew she was fucked up to begin with but now it seemed like she was even more fucked up than before. Who knew what this Tesseract thing meant. She might not be able to die from radiation poisoning but what other side effects did it have? Was she capable of doing more than just flying? Emma didn't know. There was so much that she still didn't understand about herself. She just hoped the others didn't feel as afraid of her as she felt afraid of herself.
"Redwood. Knox. Pecan." Emma started to say to herself as everything suddenly felt so overwhelming to her. Jessica had given her the advice of repeatedly saying street names from her childhood whenever she felt like she was about to fall off the edge. Of course the advice was intended to be for whenever Emma's PTSD about the rape got really bad but she thought it might apply to this situation too. "Redwood. Knox. Pecan."
"What does that mean?" Emma immediately turned around when she heard the voice from behind her. She relaxed a bit when she saw that it was only Clint. The blonde just shook her head as she turned back around to stare out the window of the empty conference room they were in. There seemed to be an abundance of empty conference rooms around the compound. Probably because there hadn't been a lot going on until this Hydra thing started up again.
"Nothing. I was just talking to myself." Emma said quietly, feeling a little bit awkward being alone in a room with Clint. Not because she thought he was creepy or anything but just because she had rarely been in a room with him without any of the others. Emma didn't think she had talked to him for more than a couple minutes either. He wasn't an Avenger she was very close to but it wasn't by choice. Clint was just never around long enough for her to establish that kind of relationship with him. She assumed it was because he had kids and maybe he thought she was dangerous too. Emma didn't blame him for that. She was dangerous.
"I didn't think you were someone who did that." Clint said observantly and Emma just shrugged.
"Well, I don't do it often." Emma told him softly before looking over at the older man. "Why are you here anyways? Did Steve send you?" Clint just shook his head.
"I came here on my own volition." Clint informed her. "You look like you might've wanted someone to talk to."
"You're wrong. Talking to someone is the last thing I need right now." Emma said, giving him a doubtful look. "If you want to discuss your concern about the serum Tony's genius of a dad created then I'm not in the mood."
"That's not what I wanted to talk about." Clint tried to say but it clear that Emma was in a less than pleasant mood right now which was to be expected.
"I don't need you lecturing me about the running off thing either. I already have Steve and my father for that." Emma added and Clint was getting a little overwhelmed at this point because he didn't know how he was going to say what he wanted to say. It was a conversation he had practiced in his head for the past sixteen years. He used to think he would be having this conversation with Margot but it was too late for that now but maybe he could have this conversation with her daughter.
"That's not it either." Clint tried to tell her and Emma just gave him a confused look.
"I don't understand you. For the past three years I can literally count the times we've talked on one hand which I understand to a point." Emma said, thinking she knew the reason why Clint had always kept his distance from her. "I mean, I didn't expect all the Avengers to automatically like me. I knew one or two might be cautious. I'm not stupid. I know that I was an assassin for a terrorist organization. I've murdered a lot of people."
"That's not why I stayed away from you." Clint said, feeling more and more guilty the longer he stood there in front of her.
"I don't even know why you're here." Emma said, ignoring his comment. "Shouldn't you be at home with your wife and kids? Lang went home to his daughter."
"I can't go home, Emma." Clint told her softly. "I have a lot of unfinished business."
"You're not making any sense." Emma said, looking more confused than ever. "Are you on something, Clint?" Clint sighed heavily before finally telling her the thing he should've told her a long time ago.
"The reason I've stayed away from you is because you make me think of Margot." Clint finally said much to both his and Emma's surprise. She didn't completely understand what he was saying at first. It was just so unexpected and random that it was probably the last thing she expected to hear from Clint.
"What?" Emma asked in confusion, clearly thinking she had misheard him or at least misunderstood what he was saying. Clint sighed once more before elaborating because he knew Emma was either going to listen to him and accept his apology or she'd hate him forever.
"Your mother. I knew her." Clint tried to explain and Emma didn't seem bothered as she nodded in response.
"I know. You were both in Shield. It only makes sense. You knew my dad too." Emma said, not knowing why Clint was making such a big deal out of this. He just shook his head.
"No, I meant that I knew her in a bigger way than that. She was more to me than just another agent." Clint attempted to explain to her much to Emma's horror.
"Are you saying you had sex with my mom?" Emma questioned, her eyes wide with fear and disgust. Clint's eyes widened in surprise as well as he furiously shook his head. "Ew. Gross. Why would you even tell me something like that? Just keep it to yourself. Wait...is this your way of telling me that you're my real dad?"
"Of course not. That's not what I meant either." Clint said nervously, blushing a bright red, as he remarked at how difficult this was. He didn't think it was possible for him to embarrass himself further so he just continued without thinking too much about it. "It wasn't like that with your mom and I. She was my friend...my best friend, actually."
"You're saying that you were friends with her?" Emma asked in confusion, feeling very perplexed by the situation at hand. Clint nodded slowly.
"She kind of took me under her wing when I first came to Shield." Clint mentioned with a soft look on his face. "She was my partner."
"I thought Natasha was your partner." Emma said, still not totally wrapping her mind around what Clint was telling her. She remembered the close friendship of the archer and former assassin. There were a great amount of famous tales of the two's adventures. During their Shield days, Natasha and Clint were inseparable. Emma couldn't deny that the two worked well together either.
"She is but your mother was my partner before I even knew Natasha." Clint explained to her and Emma scoffed, still in disbelief over this news.
"I'm sorry but did everyone secretly know my parents? First Tony and now you. Is Bruce going to walk in here someday telling me that he's secretly my uncle too?" Emma said sarcastically although she was just really frustrated at this point. Sometimes she felt like the whole team was keeping secrets from her and it was entirely exhausting. Emotionally wise anyways.
"I know this is a lot and you've been through a lot too but I've been holding this in for a while and...well, you just need to know." Clint said as he then went on to explain his relationship with her mother. "No one really believed in me when I first got to Shield. I mean, Fury recruited me but no one else really spared me a second glance. I was a high school drop out...just some circus freak, really." Emma raised her eyebrows in surprise at that. She hadn't known that about Clint. Well, she barely knew Clint but still. All Emma knew about Clint was that he had a wife and kids.
"Your mother though...Margot. She didn't look down at me. She just took me under her wing without any complaint." Clint said as he smiled fondly at the memory of Margot's kind and encouraging smile on his first mission. "Margot was very kind. Maybe too kind to be a Shield agent. I always thought she'd be a better kindergarten teacher or nurse. Her bedside manner was always great although she was very chatty. Just ask Maria and Fury and they'll tell you the same thing."
Emma usually didn't like hearing stories about her parents. She usually just liked to forget about them if she could because it hurt a little bit to know that she would never know them like Tony or Clint apparently had. Emma even felt a little envious of the people who knew her parents. It was much easier to forget about them and be grateful that she had Steve and her father. Emma loved Steve and her father more than anything. So much that she didn't want to imagine a life without them in it. However, Emma still had a lingering fascination about her parents. She supposed any orphan would.
"I loved your mother but in a more brotherly way." Clint said, breaking Emma out of her thoughts as she looked back at him.
"I don't understand. You've barely said more than a few words to me in the entire time we've known each other." Emma said, still very much confused and Clint sighed heavily.
"Your mom and I had a falling out before you were born." Clint informed her much to Emma's surprise but she remained silent as she listened to what he had to say. The sad look in his eyes didn't escape her notice. "I was a really stupid and selfish kid back then. Your mother was all I had left. My family died a long time ago and I was never great at making friends so she was kind of like my family in a way, I guess."
Emma could tell that this was really difficult for him to talk about. He was being vulnerable with her and Emma understood how difficult that was. She always hated being vulnerable as well. This was obviously a hard topic for him to talk about so she wanted to respect that and just listen quietly.
"When she told me that she and your father were quitting Shield and moving away, I got scared. I was terrified of being alone." Clint admitted, looking quite guilty as he did so. "She assured me that I could visit whenever I wanted but I was so angry. I ignored her for years, thinking that someday we'd make up but I wasn't ready. I wasted all that time being angry and then she was gone."
"You mean she died." Emma said softly and Clint nodded sadly before continuing.
"I realized that I'd never be able to tell her how sorry I was." Clint said quietly and Emma just stared at him.
"That's why you've avoided me all this time?" Emma asked incredulously, not believing that these words were coming from a grown man's mouth. "That's ridiculous. What happened between you and my mom has nothing to do with me."
"But it does." Clint argued, still feeling the guilt resting heavily upon his shoulders. "Maybe if I hadn't stayed away from you and your parents then they'd still be alive. Maybe you never would've been taken by Hydra. Maybe you wouldn't have been…"
"Raped?" Emma finished for him after he trailed off. Clint's gaze hardened as he looked back at her as if the mere word was some kind of trigger word for him. Emma thought that was remarkably stupid of him. The word should've been a trigger word for her. Not him.
He wasn't the one who had been raped so she didn't think he deserved to be so angry about it. She actually didn't think anyone but her was allowed to be angry about it. All the men in her life were contemplating ways of killing Rumlow and wallowing in their own guilt but Emma was sick and tired of it. Emma didn't think they had the right to be angry and guilty over what happened. Only she did. She was the only one that was actually there, after all. Emma understood why they were angry but she hated them thinking she was a broken and damaged damsel in distress waiting to be saved by them. That wasn't who she was.
"I just had this same conversation with Peter. I don't deal with 'What-If' scenarios. Neither should you." Emma told him, sounding wise beyond her years. "My parents blood is on Hydra's hands. No one else's. I don't blame you for their deaths and while I didn't know my parents that well, I know they wouldn't blame you either."
"I know but I just…" Clint trailed off again, trying to find the right words to say. "I guess what I'm asking for is forgiveness."
Emma felt odd as she looked into Clint's pleading blue eyes. She felt like she also had this conversation with Tony last year. Wasn't it strange that both her mother and father meant so much to these two men who were now strangely a part of her life too? She never would've imagined something like this in a hundred years. Her dad had meant a lot to Tony but it turned out that her mom meant a lot to Clint as well. Now here they all were gearing up to go into a fight together to avenge their deaths. The world really was a small place.
"You already have it, Clint." Emma told him and it was true. There was nothing for her to forgive him for but she knew it was what he wanted to hear.
"Thank you." He said softly and Emma gave him a small smile.
"No problem." She managed to say, not knowing what else to say. There was a brief moment of silence between them before Clint spoke up again. However, what he said ultimately surprised Emma.
"Your mom was a really good person, you know." He mentioned much to Emma's curiosity. "The best, really."
"I've heard as much." Emma said, sounding unsure. Not because she didn't think her mother was a good person but because she usually didn't tend to dwell on the subject of her parents too often.
"I really mean it though." Clint said seriously as he remembered Margot's kindness and her light while he talked about her to her daughter. He just found it sad that he had to tell Emma these things about her mother because she would never know otherwise. Sometimes he even felt guilty for knowing Emma because he knew Margot never really got the chance. "Every good decision I made was because of her. Laura and the kids, Natasha, The Avengers...everything."
"Natasha?" Emma asked in confusion and Clint nodded.
"That day when I came face to face with the Black Widow, all those years ago, was the first time since your mother's death that I was faced with a tough decision. My orders were to shoot on sight but when it came to down to it, I just couldn't." Clint explained to Emma who watched him in fascination. "She was just a kid at the time and then I thought about what Margot would do. She wouldn't have killed the girl. Margot would've helped her so I did the same."
"Margot helped me when no one else would so I knew I had to help Natasha because one else would either." Clint said, a distant look in his eyes. "It's why I joined the others for the fight in New York even after Loki's mind control took a toll on me. I knew Margot would've stepped in and helped out."
"Maybe she wasn't the reason you made all those decisions." Emma told him quietly. Clint looked up at her in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Clint asked her and Emma shrugged nonchalantly although she was anything but nonchalant.
"You said every good decision you made was because of her but maybe it wasn't." Emma said as she explained her words. "Maybe you didn't make those decisions because of her. Maybe she just made you want to be a better person and that's why you made those decisions...because you're a better person now."
"I uh...never thought of it that way before." Clint said, still taking in the blonde's wise words.
It was in that moment that he realized that perhaps she wasn't her mother's daughter or even Steve's granddaughter. Perhaps she was her own person. Perhaps she was just Emma Rogers because he couldn't find a person to compare her to. Maybe comparing her to her mother had been his problem all along and especially since they weren't much alike. While Margot had always been full of advice, she had never been as eloquent as Emma was. She always struggled to find the right words to say and hilariously failed in doing so sometimes.
"I think everyone should have a person that does that to them." Emma said, seeming a bit more shy than usual. Clint raised an eyebrow at the way she glanced down at her shoes. That didn't seem like Emma very much even though Clint didn't know her on a personal level.
"Do you?" He questioned even though he felt like he knew the answer to that already. No one could seem to stop talking about Emma and her new boyfriend. Even Clint had to admit that he was still a bit in disbelief over the fact that she had a boyfriend. Margot's daughter seemed very moody and even unpleasant at times. She wasn't very nice either but everyone still loved her. Emma was everyone's soft spot which made a lot of sense. She was Cap's last living relative as well as the daughter of Margot and Steven Rogers Jr., after all.
This was why everyone was a tad bit overprotective of her. It seemed only logical that the Avengers could be reunited because of her but because of their overprotectiveness everyone was still a little wary over her boyfriend. At least he, Steve, and Sam were while Bucky was a whole other level of protective that was kind of scary to watch. Clint and Sam had been tempted to scare the kid but they decided not to because they were positive that Bucky already terrified the teenage boy. Clint actually pitied the kid a bit.
"Yes, I do, actually." Emma said quietly and Clint smiled at her.
"I'm glad." He told her before a more serious look crossed his face. "I guess we should all catch some sleep before the mission."
"You're probably right." Emma said as she returned his smile. She was then taken by surprise at the hopeful look that suddenly came across the archer's face.
"How about a hug for old time's sake?" Clint asked and Emma gave him an odd look.
"Old time's sake? I barely know you." Emma retorted, not liking the idea of hugging Clint who she barely knew. She wasn't really a hugger. Maybe where Peter was involved but that's only because he was her boyfriend.
"Then just a hug in memory of your mother." Clint said as he held out his arms, signaling that he was going to hug her whether she liked it or not. Emma just sighed heavily before going over to the older man and awkwardly stepping into his arms. He smiled at the grumpy teenager as he embraced her, patting her on the back as Emma stood there silently. She reluctantly wrapped her arms around him too but it was only for a brief moment. Clint thought he almost imagined it.
"If you tell anyone about this then I'll kill you." Emma threatened once they pulled away but Clint didn't take her seriously. He just smiled at her in amusement.
"Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me, Rogers." Clint said before he finally stepped away and went to leave the room, feeling a huge weight lifted off his shoulders from Emma's forgiveness. He knew she didn't understand his guilt that much but it still meant the world to him that she forgave him for the way he left things between himself and her mother.
"Hey, Clint!" Emma called out as he was about to leave the room. He turned back to look at her with a curious look on his face. She bit her lip nervously which was something Clint didn't think he had ever seen her do. A mixture of sadness and warmth came over him as he remembered that it was something he had seen Margot do on occasion. Maybe she was her mother's daughter but just in a smaller way than he would've originally imagined.
"Yes?" Clint questioned as he raised his eyebrows at her, waiting for her to say whatever was on her mind. Emma finally took the final step in approaching a topic she was always unsure about. That topic was the one about her parents.
"Do you think that you could maybe tell me something about my mom?" Emma asked hesitantly and Clint could tell she was curious although she also was seemingly scared. It was like she wanted to know but didn't want to know at the same time.
"Like what?" He asked her and Emma shrugged, trying to think of something to ask him. Something she didn't already know about her mother.
"What kind of music did she like?" Emma asked after careful consideration. Clint smiled at her again but it was clear that he wasn't smiling at her question and instead at a memory. Emma could tell from the distant look in his eyes.
"Your mother listened to the corniest eighties music you could ever possibly imagine. From Foreigner to Bonnie Tyler. Her music library was just full of that stuff." Clint told the curious teenager happily and Emma smiled at his answer, somehow feeling amused by her mother's music taste which sounded very different from hers. "I used to always make fun of her for her awful taste in music. She used to carry around this CD player everywhere she went, this was before MP3 players and iPods of course, and I could always hear Kim Carnes or Journey blaring from her headphones. Margot never left anywhere without that stupid CD player."
"Thank you, Clint." Emma said softly once she processed that new information. "I really appreciate it." Clint returned her smile as he nodded at her.
"Of course. Just let me know if there's anything else you want to know. I'll always be here if you need me." Clint promised her and Emma could tell he meant it. She knew that they weren't necessarily close and he was only doing this because he loved her mother but Emma appreciated his kindness. Despite how weird it was that people cared about her, it was still nice knowing that she had people around her like that.
"Okay." Emma said quietly and it was a short response but it seemed to be enough for Clint as he finally gave her one last smile and nod before vacating the room, leaving Emma with a lot to think about. Today hadn't turned out to be the best day for her. She was still processing all the information she learned from the USB drive but the vulnerable moment she shared with Clint was enough to bring her spirits back up despite the inevitability that she was finally going to face Rumlow after all this time.
Even so, Emma felt something different from before as she recalled Clint's earlier guilt over everything that happened to her in that Hydra base which included her rape. She recalled the reactions of all the men in her life to her rape. Steve. Papa. Tony. Clint. And Peter especially. All of them were angry and filled with guilt over everything that had happened...that they somehow couldn't have prevented it or they couldn't have saved her from that fate.
Emma wasn't an idiot.
She knew that those same men just weren't looking to infiltrate this Hydra base to stop Hydra once and for all. They also wanted revenge against Rumlow. They wanted to make him pay for what he had done to her and they wanted to right a wrong so she would never have to end up in Rumlow's hands again. She understood their anger and she even understood their guilt to a point.
But it wasn't their revenge to seek.
It was hers and hers alone.
Emma had spent years wanting to kill Rumlow for murdering her parents. She learned a lot from him while she was in Hydra but it was only so that she could use everything he taught her against him. Emma knew what seeking revenge felt like but she just didn't know what it was like to finally get it.
The former assassin had to admit that she lost her will to seek said revenge for a while. The rape threw her off. He invoked a certain type of fear in her after that and Emma became afraid of him. She still was afraid too but she wasn't going to let her fear control anymore. Not when all those men, the ones she held most dear, were at risk. Emma wouldn't let her fear jeopardize their lives.
It was time to finally seek the revenge she had been dreaming about since the day Rumlow killed her parents. Emma really hoped the sick fuck was happy wherever the hell he was because this was going to be his last day on earth.
Rumlow was already dead as far as she was concerned.
Author's Note: So another quick message. I'll try to be a little bit faster with the next update. I'm super excited for the next chapter. There will be a lot more discussion Emma has with the others about the origins of the super soldier serum too. I also know the others didn't really acknowledge Peter's parents' death in this chapter but they were really caught up in the flashdrive. However, there will be a cute moment with him and Tony in the next chapter so don't think I forgot because I definitely didn't.
Thanks for your patience and please leave a review.