First of all, massive apologies for not updating this week or last week, I honestly don't know why I didn't update! Very sorry!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters that may be used or any Marvel storylines or arcs.
Claimer: I only own the character Elizabeth Jones (Lowri Jones and any other names she uses) and her story past, present and future.
Recap
"Something's eating at you." Tony pointed out. "You can tell me."
"I know. It's Steve. He's being... I don't even know how to explain it." Lowri replied.
"Has he said something?" Tony asked.
"He's said something stupid. I don't think he meant it but it hurts." Lowri sighed. "He's angry at me over something I can't control."
"That doesn't sound like Cap." Tony said,
"It's what that witch showed him. She showed him a vision of a family that we had in the 1960's and now he blames me because I can't give him that vision." Lowri explained.
"That sounds far too happy. But it also sounds like him. you two need to talk it out." Tony said. "You both need to man-up."
"For a moment there, I thought you were being sincere." Lowri remarked with a smile.
"You know me too well, Ri." Tony said. "Come on, this pace is too slow. Grab hold and I'll speed up."
Lowri did what he said and grabbed hold, she kinda knew that she couldn't keep up with him.
The flight was cut short considerably and in no time at all, Lowri and Tony landed in the Hub in Oslo. The employees at the Hub was more than happy to admit them both into the hub and Tony was led to the centre of the network so he could begin his work while Lowri was shown to the staff shower block and one of the girls gave her some civilian clothes since Lowri's suit was riddled with bullet holes.
Lowri approached the platform where Tony and the other members of the Nexus Hub were all stood. Tony was bust typing on the keyboard.
"It's pretty simple. You bring a magnet." Tony said as Lowri stepped up onto the platform beside him. She gazed around at the technology around her and she felt very out of place. "Oh, I'm decrypting nuclear codes and you don't want me to." Tony sang as he typed furiously and then he looked up with a flourish. "Come and get me."
"Any luck yet?" Lowri as she stepped beside him and looked at the computer he worked on.
"Not yet." Tony replied as his hands were flying over the keyboard. "These nuclear codes are tough to hack."
"Even for you?" Lowri asked with a smirk, Tony looked over at her and saw the smirk on her face.
"Even for me." Tony admitted, "How're you feeling now?"
"Still kinda angry." Lowri shrugged her shoulders and she looked around the room. "I can remember when all computers had wires coming out of them and they didn't have the internet."
"Times have changed." Tony said with a knowing smile. He glanced at Lowri and then froze. "Ri, you don't need to be here."
"I know. I thought you'd want the company." Lowri replied.
Tony gave her a knowing look and behind them, there was movement behind them and Lowri turned her head slightly to see the supervisor of the workers were making them move away from Lowri and Tony.
"Do you wanna hear my advice?" Tony asked.
"Shoot." Lowri said, "You're gonna tell me anyway if I disagree." She looked back at Tony.
"Like I said before, you need to man up and talk to him." Tony said, "You can't help being what you are and he's gonna have to live with it. You should go to him now. I don't need you here and you'd be better on recon, you know this, you're just trying to hide from him."
"You just wanna be alone with the tech." Lowri said with a small smile, she was already pulling her phone out of her pocket.
"You know me too well." Tony replied with a smirk.
Lowri stepped away from Tony with a smile on her face as she called someone she knew she could trust and would bring her a really fast jet.
"It's a new prototype we've got up and running. You'll like it. It's fast. Faster than any jet around."
"Great. That's exactly what I need it for. I need to get to Seoul from Oslo, like quick." Lowri said as she paced outside.
"Don't worry. I think you'll be happy with it."
Lowri suddenly heard the tell-tale sound of a jet engine and she turned and looked up. In the air, hovering above her was a jet.
"Bloody hell that was fast." Lowri laughed.
"Told you. It's a new prototype."
The jet landed in the car park she stood in and she headed over, still on the phone, she glanced in as the back of the jet opened up and she found there was no pilot.
"No pilot?" Lowri asked with a hint of a smile.
"At the moment, it's on autopilot. But it can be flown with a pilot. I know you like to fly."
"Thanks." Lowri breathed out, she stepped into the back of the jet and walked right up to the cockpit, the door closed behind her and she slid into the pilot's seat and she began familiarising herself with the jet.
She got the jet into the air swiftly and headed for Seoul, with the new navigation system, she tracked her flight plan and found that instead of a long thirteen-hour long flight, it would only be three hours. It amazed her, this jet was capable of new speeds.
As she flew, her mind went back to her argument with Steve. She hates arguing full stop, let alone arguing with the man she loves. She knew he was wrong, to blame her for something she couldn't control, but she was in the wrong too.
They needed to talk this through, which is exactly what Tony had suggested.
Lowri reached Seoul in record time but she had no way of communicating with Steve, Clint or Nat because she had left her earpiece with her suit, in Oslo.
She had no idea how the recon mission was going.
Lowri made contact with Seoul airspace and managed to get permission to land on a shut off road just so she could scout the area better. The main road was shut off and traffic was diverted away. She switched off the controls and stepped out of the jet.
People stared. Of course, when this happens, people expected military personnel of high ranking to step out instead of a woman in civilian clothing.
As Lowri locked up the jet, her phone rang so she pulled it out of her jacket pocket.
"Hello?" She asked. She paused just outside the jet and looked at all the possible routes she could go.
"Ri. Where are you? Are you still with Stark? Are you at the Tower?" Clint asked sharply, he sounded panicked.
"No, I just landed in Seoul. Where are you?" Lowri asked. "Is Nat and Steve with you?"
"No." Clint answered. "I've got the body Ultron was building and I'm taking that back to the Tower. Steve's on the ground somewhere and Nat's been taken by Ultron."
Lowri cussed loudly and then turned to face the jet.
"Do you know where Steve is?" She asked.
"He was on a train the last I heard of him. But I lost track of the train." Clint said, just as he finished talking, Lowri heard an ear-splitting screech to the right of her and she spun to see a large train in the distance, coming down the road at her. The train was braking, it was clear and there was a gentle red mist surrounding the train and there was flashes of blue in front and at the side of the slowing down train.
The train was digging up the concrete road and tearing through the market stalls set up on the side of the street, Lowri dropped the phone and she was about to step off, to see if she could help but then all of a sudden, all of the pedestrians were safely out of the way and Pietro Maximoff collapsed onto an upturned crate, breathing heavily and just in front of the train that was now stationary.
The gathering audience immediately stepped forward and surged towards the train as the civilians onboard the train tried to get out.
Lowri picked up the phone and checked to see if the call was still active, luckily it was and Clint's voice was coming through the speaker, panicked, asking what was going on.
"The train is off tracks and on the street. Call in clean-up. The road is destroyed." Lowri said, "It's manic down here, one of the Maximoff twins just saved loads of people, he ran around the train and moved them out of the way and the other one, the witch, I think she stopped the train."
"Are they with us now?" Clint asked with a scoff.
"I'll find out." Lowri promised. "You focus on getting that body to Tony and Bruce."
"On it." Clint said then he hung up and Lowri slid her phone away into her jacket pocket, she stepped off for the commotion down the street, somewhat thankful for the distraction so all eyes were on the train instead of the strange jet parked up the road.
Lowri was hidden by the crowds as she neared, she saw the hundreds of estranged civilians practically falling off the train into the arms of waiting helpers. They looked shaken, pale and sweaty.
She spied the witch tumble from the train, recover her footing and she dashed for her brother and almost threw herself at him with such a worried look and for a long moment, Lowri was taken away from this terrible moment and taken back to another.
Her mind went back to just after her thirteenth birthday when she found out that her brothers had no choice but to find work down in the mines since their home farm was struggling, there had been an accident down the mines when her brothers were down there. She remembered the horror and the worry and the scared feeling. She could remember herself throwing herself at her brothers, relieved to see that all had survived.
Lowri was snapped back to reality when Steve stepped out of the train and rounded the front to meet the Maximoff twins, his chest was heaving and his suit looked worse for the wear, and he had a split lip.
Worry immediately took root in her stomach and she forgot that she was angry at him and he was angry at her.
How the hell did this mess happen?
Lowri pushed forward again so she neared the Maximoff twins and Steve. She could hear what they were saying.
"I'm very tempted not to give you one." Steve said in a serious tone, from behind him, Lowri could tell that he was on the verge of being exhausted, but even so, the Maximoff twins looked up at Steve with the look of a child being scolded.
"The cradle, did you get it?" The witch asked, she turned towards Steve and looked at him unblinking.
"Stark will take care of it." Steve replied.
Wanda took a step backwards, as if Steve had stung her or something.
"No, he won't." Wanda breathed.
Steve was silent for a moment, probably watching Wanda carefully.
"You don't know what you're talking about." Steve said, "Stark is not crazy."
"He will do anything to make things right." Wanda insisted.
Steve turned away from Wanda and away from Lowri.
"Stark, come in. Stark?" Steve said, he sighed, "Anyone on comms?"
"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that from?" Wanda asked after a moment's silence.
Lowri finally made it out of the surging crowds and she stepped over to Steve and the Maximoff twins, who spotted her first and looked at her with a hint of terror and caution.
"I'm here, Steve." Lowri said as she stepped closer. Steve froze and seemed to listen harder, then he turned and looked at her with mild concern and surprise in his eyes.
"What are you doing here?" He asked quickly.
"Tony decided that I was better suited to a recon mission." Lowri said smoothly, she looked up at him, trying hard to forget that she was angry with him. "And it's a good thing I'm here. Clean up is on the way."
"So, he's not with you?" Steve asked, he looked away from her and looked around.
"I left him in Oslo." Lowri answered, "I've got a jet down the road. We need to go."
Steve was looking at Lowri in a way that she had no idea how to explain and in a way that he had never looked at her in that way before.
Then he looked away from her and turned to the Maximoff twins with one of his stern looks.
"You two are coming with us." Steve said and the two of them looked up at him with a deer-in-the-headlights look on their faces. "You just proved that you're no longer with Ultron. Either you stay here or you come with us and fight against him."
Lowri turned from them and headed back down the road, the gathering crowds simply parted for her. As she walked away, her stomach churned uncomfortably. She knew there was a big fight coming up and that they may not all walk away.
She heard Steve move after her with two more sets of footsteps, she led them to the jet and climbed in first.
This jet was smaller than the jets she's used to flying so it was a bit of a squeeze for Steve and the Maximoff twins in the back.
Lowri spent about five minutes talking with Seoul airspace to organise the safe departure and got them to alert the authorities about the train in the middle of the street then she finally got the jet into the air and back to New York.
"I didn't know you could speak Korean." Steve's voice startled her from behind. He stood in the doorway separating the cockpit from the rest of the jet and he looked a little uncomfortable. His shield and his helmet were off and he looked down at her.
"One of the few things I picked up along the way." Lowri replied with a smile, Steve gave her a small smile then looked serious again.
"Can we talk?" He asked.
Lowri tapped the co-pilot's seat for him to sit down and Lowri tried to work out the auto-pilot. Steve got himself into the seat, just as Lowri worked out the auto-pilot and then she turned her body to face him.
"I think we need to address the train issue, lying in the centre of a busy Seoul road." Lowri said, "Why?"
"That's on Ultron." Steve said slowly.
"I think you need to explain more." Lowri prompted him.
"Nat and Clint worked to get the body away from Ultron's suits. I distracted Ultron. This did mean fighting on top of a moving truck and then we crashed into the train. I wouldn't have picked that route of distraction if I had the choice. But, as far as I know, no civilians were injured." Steve said, giving her a report.
"I've already assigned Clint to clean up, and I've alerted the authorities. And Clint is moving the body to Stark Tower." Lowri said, "Hopefully, this incident won't come back to bite us on the ass. We need to keep low."
"I'm sorry." Steve said slowly.
"What for?" Lowri asked.
"For everything." Steve said firmly. "But mostly for saying the stupid things I said. It was uncalled for, you didn't deserve it."
Lowri pressed her lips together and looked down at the floor with her hands clasped.
"I really shouldn't have said what I said, but it's just… seeing that dream made me realise what we can't have and it rocked me." Steve continued.
"That hurt me, Steve." Lowri said looking up. "You're angry at me for something I can't control."
"I know, I know. And I apologise. It was stupid at me to shout at you like I did." Steve said quickly
"Yeah," Lowri said, she locked eyes with him, "It was stupid of you." Steve looked at her with slight hurt in his eyes but he didn't say anything. "Seventy years later and you still don't have a bloody clue about women."
Steve's expression changed immediately and he chuckled.
"I can only agree with that." Steve chuckled.
Lowri smiled, they were back on good terms once more and it felt so damn good.
"Good. Let's agree to forget about this little issue… we've been through enough as it is. We don't need any more drama." Lowri said.
"Agreed." Steve smiled. He leant back in the seat and looked out at the horizon. "How long have you known about Clint's wife and kids?"
"Since the beginning." Lowri said, "I kinda chose the plot of land."
"Wow." Steve said slowly, he looked back at her with one of his eyebrows raised. "So, a long time then."
"Yeah. When Clint came to us, he was newly married and Cooper wasn't on the way yet, but he was there pretty quickly. They wanted to settle down in a nice home so Nick and I got the farm up and running. Laura is great at it." Lowri explained.
Her phone bleeped in her pocket and pulled it out, it was Clint.
The cradle is with Stark. He's happy like a kid at Christmas. Have you got Cap? No sign of Nat? – Clint
No sign yet, but she'll show up. Try using the old spy network, my kind of stuff. And yeah, got Cap. – Lowri
"Who's that?" Steve asked, nodding towards the phone.
"Clint." Lowri said, sliding her phone away. "He's asking if I had you and if Nat was still missing."
"I don't know what happened to her." Steve said, shaking his head.
"I think Ultron got her. But, she's smart. She'll try to use the old spy stuff that I taught her. I told Clint to look out of for those." Lowri said, "I hope she's okay."
Steve nodded his head to agree.
He stayed with her throughout the short journey back to America, chatting about the simple things and once Lowri landed the jet atop of the Tower, Steve headed back out to the Maximoff twins to escort them down to the others while Lowri stayed up with the jet to contact the supplier.
She had to leave a message because her contact wasn't picking up the phone. Lowri locked down the jet and then headed down to the labs, where she guessed where the others would be.
She neared an open door and heard raised voices.
Again, I am sorry for not updating these last two weeks, it baffles me!
Thanks for reading!
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