I couldn't just leave Peter to be alone in the infirmary. I also knew he didn't want to be there. He had screamed, he threw things, he cried, and now he was silent. He looked out the glass window into the hall where the different doctors looked over a variety of things, looking in every so often just to see how things were going in here. "Peter" I finally said, "It's a big adjustment on her part, I am not saying how she acted was right, but I think she will come around. I did for Ruby when I found out she existed." He said nothing in return, he didn't even move to look at me. I let silence fall over us again, briefly. "Kid, what can I say to help you? What can I do?" My voice was barely above a whisper, I just wanted to ease some of the pain he was feeling, but I had no idea how to. Silence began to fall again. "Peter, you can stay with me as long as you need. You can come with us if we leave, and if you don't want to do that, you can stay here in the tower. I will build a home for you if you want. I promise, I will help you, I won't leave you."
"I don't want to stay in the infirmary." He said, his voice raw.
I quickly stood up, "Okay, then let's go." I said. I helped him up, he was obviously hurting and sore. He was all around beat. None of the doctors tried to stop us, I took him to the elevator and got us on our way to the apartment.
"Mr. Stark" Peter said as we rode in the elevator silently, and this time he looked up to me, looked into my eyes for the first time tonight, "will you still make sure she is okay. MAke sure she is safe."
"Of course, Peter." I said, my heart continuing to break for him.
He turned to look away from me again, but then stopped and looked back up, "I'm sorry that I lead them right to Ruby."
"Peter, don't you ever apologize. None of that is on you." I quickly said.
He turned back to face the elevator door just as it dinged. I helped him out of the elevator and up the stairs, I put him in the guest bedroom. "You can sleep here, Peter. I'll stay here as long as you need. I promise, I won't leave" I said as I got him in the bed. Tears continued to streak his face as I pulled the recliner closer to his bed.
We sat in silence for hours. I honestly thought he was asleep when I started to doze off myself, but then his raw, cracked voice made me jump. "She's the only one who stands a chance against them, isn't she?"
It felt like, for a brief moment, the world stopped spinning. I thought about what he was saying, about how badly we had all been defeated, and she was the only one who had been able to even hold them off. Fire with fire in a sense. "No." I quickly said, "We just have to keep trying different things. I won't let her do this. That isn't an option."
He looked at me, staring at me, like he had something to say, but then he just turned back away from me. He rolled onto his side facing away from me. I knew he wanted to argue, but he just didn't have it in him, and I was somewhat grateful for it. I heard him snore lightly, I knew exhaustion had finally taken its grip on him, and I let it do the same for me too even if the sky was already beginning to lighten up.
The first week he barely left that room. He wouldn't talk to Ruby, not at all. It was a month when he finally did say more than a sentence to her. She hung in there for him, and I was proud of her for it, because I knew it was hard on her. In that time, I focused on both of them, but I made sure to make it a point to make sure she was okay. She worked hard to control her powers, she spent hours in the gym. At first she was wearing herself out more than anything. Sometimes I wondered if she spent all the time at the gym to just get away, to act like everything wasn't happening like this. It was like her escape. I was grateful the press never got wind of her being one, I didn't know how to even try to handle that situation.
It wasn't until one day Loki 'found' my daughter in the gym alone that she started doing better with it, controlling it better, finding out more things she could do. She started growing stronger. I watched her workout everyday after that, and he was always there. I wanted to snap his neck some days- but I kept reminding myself what Thor had said about him being an expert on mutants of all different species, and I made myself take into consideration how much better she was doing because of him.
The mutants didn't stay hidden by any means, but they mainly just terrorized us. They didn't try to wreak havoc, but it was apparent that they were hiding something, and there were a lot of them. They were distracting us. I knew that there were different plans in the works, but I trusted them to work on it while I worked on keeping my family safe, and Ruby preoccupied.
Pepper, the love of my life that proved it to me over and over on a daily basis, not only took it upon herself to help me watch over Peter, but showed no fear with Ruby. She wasn't afraid of her as others in the building were, in fact, they were like best friends, and I knew that a best friend was exactly what Ruby needed.
I had fallen asleep on the couch as I watched TV, but really was thinking more about Ruby and Peter and the situation we were in, but I couldn't have been asleep for more than an hour or two when Nick was shaking me awake. "We have a plan, but you need to take your family out of town for a few days." He whispered.
"What are you talking about?" I asked as I sat up, forcing my eyes to adjust, "What plan?"
"A plan to stop the mutants. Bruce came up with something that should stop them in their tracks. I don't want Ruby getting caught in the middle, and I know you don't want that either. It is clear that they're after her, so take her and Pepper and just go somewhere far for a few days." Nick said.
"Peter comes too. He stays with me until he is ready to not stay with me." I said.
Nick nodded, "You only have a couple of hours. You should stay completely off the grid. You need to hurry."
I woke Peter up first- I promised I wouldn't leave him and I meant it. "Peter, they have a plan to stop them. Nick just told me. He told me to get my family out of here for a few days… I consider you my family, but I know that I can't make you come. You can if you want though. I already told Nick. It's up to you, kid."
He stared at me, then nodded his head, "I want to come with you." He said.
"Alright, get what you need. He said we need to go off the grid, so be ready for that."
Pepper was less than enthused when I told her we needed to go off the grid, but she also understood. She knew how dangerous this situation clearly was. I knew Ruby would be the biggest challenge, so I saved her for last. In fact, I packed before telling her. Pepper packed stuff for her and Ruby both, along with camping gear. I knew where we would go, my parents had an old cabin in the rough of Maine, it burned some time ago, but it still had lots of land. We had camped not too far from where it had stood many of times, and I would take them there. It would be off the grid, and it would be far away.
I let Ruby wake up on her own, and when she shuffled from her room, I quickly stopped her. "We need to talk really quick." I said, and we went back into her room and sat on her bed. "They think they found a way to stop the mutants." I said, and her eyes widened, they became more alert, she was ready for the battle to stop them, "Nick told me to get you and Pepper out of here. If they are after you it could put a big kink in the plan. Bruce came up with something that should stop them. So, Pepper, you, Peter, and myself are leaving. He said we need to stay off the grid, so we are going to my parents old place in Maine, we will take the jet there. We will stay there until they come back for us, until it's over. Pepper packed some stuff for you, but you will still need some more clothes- pack warm. And pack your pillows and blankets."
It was a lot for her to take in all at once, "I could help." She finally said, "I could distract them long enough for them to do what they need to do to stop them."
"No, Ruby, Nick told me that you could complicate matters, it could be way bad for you to be there. We just need to go, please, don't argue… Besides, Peter, he needs you to come too." I said.
She sucked in a breath as if she was going to continue to fight, but then she just let it out. "I'll get dressed." She said.
I kissed her forehead, relief washing over my body. I just needed her to be safe, and I hated arguing with her. The thought of this being over, it was like a weight lifted off my body. It felt like I could breathe again.
We packed our things and boarded the jet. All the avengers were escorting us. "Did Nick tell you what is was?" Natasha asked in a whisper once we were in the air for around 20 minutes, and once I got away from my family.
"What what was?" I asked, confused.
"The plan. What was stopping them. The real reason Ruby can't be here." She said. My confused look with furrowed brows was answer enough. "They called it a cure. It will suppress the mutant gene. Make them human, basically. Just the bad ones, of course."
"They're kids." I said. "I mean, most of them, they're teenagers, Ruby's age, does it wear off?" I asked.
She shook her head no, it was clear why she was telling me. She was giving me an alternative for Ruby. "I don't know how to feel about it either, but I can't help but to wonder if it will give them a shot at a more normal life. At a future that doesn't involve a maximum security prison for mutants."
"How do they know it works?" I asked.
"Bruce… He… You know how the government can be. They force your hand in these situations." She said. He tried it on the ones we had already captured. "He sped up aging on two of them too." She said once she knew I knew what had happened.
My stomach hurt. Had Ruby not found me she could have been one of them. Had I not found her that night after our fight, she could have been one of them. She could have been one of the two he killed. Natasha let me be there with my thought on everything she had just told me. All stuff I realized she wasn't supposed to tell me.
Peter sat in a chair, but I realized Ruby wasn't where I had left her. As my eyes searched the plane, I was slightly shocked, but more angry, to see Loki had pulled her into a dark corner. I stomped over to them, and the closer I got the more I felt like he had cornered her. "Loki, Ruby, what's going on?" I asked, my voice booming across the plane and everybody's eyes silently turning to us.
Ruby's face was slightly pale, her face slightly scrunched up as if she was confused. "Just talking with your lovely daughter. Telling her how important it is to continue to train." He said, but I couldn't help but feel it was more than that. "Loki, get away from her." Thor's voice boomed over the plane, and Loki, not breaking eye contact with me, ignored him, keeping himself firmly planted between me and my daughter. "Now, Loki." He said. This time, he smirked. "My brother thinks he controls me, but he is mistaken." He said.
Suddenly, Peter was between me and Loki. "Why don't you do what's best for you and listen to him." He snapped. His voice was low and dark.
Loki raised his brow, but then Thor suddenly had him and drug him away. Peter and I looked at Ruby, she stared back at us. "Are you okay?" Peter asked as he stuck his hand out to her.
"Do you know what they are doing to them?" Ruby asked, her eyes were dark as they met mine.
I hesitated at first, considering lying. I let out a long breath, "I just heard." I said, "Moments before you did."
"They can't do that! You have to stop them!" Her eyes went from dark, scared almost, to pleading with me, "It's not right! Two of them died!" She yelled.
"Rubes… Sometimes we have to do stuff we don't like for the greater good." I said, "No one wants to do that, but it could make mutant's futures brighter, give them a normal life, or at least a shot at one, and it could be the difference in stopping them from continuing to commit the terrible acts they are commiting."
She took in a sharp breath she furrowed her brows, staring at me harder, then she looked away and took a step back. "Is that really how you feel?" She asked, still not meeting my eyes.
"Ruby… I don't mean that every mutants should be forced into this. This is part of who you are, but what if you wanted to change it? What if it was something else- something debilitating. The main thing is for the ones who want to do bad things."
She rubbed her arm, taking in what I was saying, "Do you want me to take it?" She asked, and suddenly all eyes were on me. Peter stared at me, Ruby burned holes into me, and I could feel Pepper's eyes on me too. I knew, without even looking, that Loki had a grin on his face. He was amused. "Ruby, I love you. Every single part of you. Do I wish in some ways that you weren't- yes- but only because you would be safer. However, I only ever want what is best for you, and what you want. What makes you happy and keeps you safe. If you don't want to get rid of what you can do, then neither do I. It is part of what makes you, you. You don't hurt anyone with it, so I think that decision should be left up to you, but it makes no difference to me. You will be the same in my eyes. My Ruby. My daughter. I will love you no matter what."
Now it all shifted back to her. She had tears in her eyes, and I knew she was feeling a ton of emotions. "They think they're disposable just because they're different. The government feels that way of me too, doesn't it? If they knew I was one, they would make Bruce test it on me, or give me the final product, wouldn't they?"
I didn't know the answer to her question, and I wasn't going to lie to her. "I don't know, Rubes. Maybe. I know people make crazy decisions out of fear, they make ones that might not be right, so yeah, they may do that, but I would defend you until my last breath to give you the right to make that choice for yourself."
She nodded her head, not saying anything more. I sat her down in the chair next to Peter- I almost went and ripped Loki's head off, but I knew the day would come, it just wasn't today. The rest of the flight was uneventful. Once we landed, we quickly got off, and they quickly left again. The sun was just getting ready to set as we entered the woods, and out of all the things I thought my daughter might be scared of, never once did I think that the woods at night would be one of them; however, despite how brave she is and how well she can suppress fear, it quickly became apparent that this was one of her biggest.
We reach our campsite at nightfall, her hands trembled as she tried to maneuver her own tent, her eyes darting all around her. I went to give her a hand, and she jumped when I took the rod out of her hand. "Ruby, are you alright?" I asked.
She bit her lip as she nodded her head slowly. "I just… I don't really like being outside in the woods at night." She said.
"That's okay. You're allowed to be scared." I said, and almost instantly I knew this was the wrong thing to say.
"I'm not scared." She scoffed, "I lived basically on my own for years. I am not scared of the dark. I just don't like it."
"Whoa, whoa, I didn't mean to upset you. You just… You're literally shaking."
"I'm chilly. That's all." She snapped back.
I nodded my head, letting it go, and helping her in silence. When we were almost finished, I decided to bring it up again. "You know, Ruby, I know that you have bad history with the woods at night, and having traumatic things happen to you, it can create fear. There is nothing wrong with that. It is completely normal."
"I have bad history with the woods at night, that's what you're going to say? Bad history, really-" She started to snap, then clenched her eyes shut and took in a sharp inhale. "Yeah, I'm not afraid." She said as she grabbed her bag and threw it into the tent, then followed it in.
I let out a long sigh as I tried to decide whether or not I should go in and talk to her. "Tony, why don't you give her a little bit. Let's get the fire going." Pepper said. I turned and realized that Pepper and Peter had just witnessed the whole incident.
I helped Pepper get a fire going, and we cooked hotdogs over it, but Ruby didn't even come out to eat. I took Peter one, and he did eat it, but he also didn't leave the confinement of his own tent. "Do you think I should go try and talk to her?" I asked Pepper.
"No, I think you hurt her feelings. You should probably leave her alone for the night. This hasn't been an easy day." She said, "She'll be okay, Tony."
I nodded in agreement. We sat and stared up at the stars for a long time, letting the fire slowly die out. We were just about to head into our tent to go to sleep when Ruby came shooting out of her own tent, ready and alert. "There's someone else out there." She said.
"Rubes, you probably just heard something. There's no one out here. Just animals, it's okay." I said, thinking she was still just afraid of the dark.
She took in slow steady breaths as her eyes searched the treeline. "No, it's one of them." Her voice was barely above a whisper, and I knew it wasn't just her imagination. Peter quickly came from his tent, and just as he did, one of them came out of the treeline. Without even moving, Ruby suddenly had the three of us in her shield. "Ruby, no!" I yelled as I slammed into the side of it. She gave me a quick glance over her shoulder before turning back to the trespasser.
"Well well well, look at what we have here." The unknown female mutant said, "They really did send you all the way out here for your own protection."
"Leave" Ruby barked.
"Do you know what your friends tried to do to some of us?" She asked.
Ruby took in a sharp breath and looked away from her for a brief moment, "Yeah, I heard." She said.
"They'll turn on you too, Ruby. If they were to beat us, you would be the next target." She said.
"You're wrong." Ruby quickly said.
The strange mutant let out a cackle, "So naive. Just like your friends. They really didn't stand much of a chance. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely a surprise, and at first it was one hell of a drop on us, but we weren't going down that easy."
"What do you guys want? Why are you doing this?" Ruby asked.
The girl hesitated, looking over at us. "Make it so they can't hear us and I will tell you." She said.
"I don't know how." Ruby replied after a brief moment of silence while she tried.
"Then move them." She said, then silence fell between the two of them. "Trust me, Ruby. You want to send them away, because if this gets ugly, then they at least have a chance, and believe me, this could get ugly."
"Ruby, don't do it, let us out, we can help you." I begged.
"They're all just simple humans right now, you're putting them in danger by having them here." The girl said.
Ruby turned and looked at us, not making eye contact, and then with just the simple twitch of her hand, she sent the three of us flying through the air. "NO!" I screamed as we took off, begging her not to do this, to leave herself there to fight alone. We landed in a nearby bend of the river. The ball of energy kept us trapped, but out of the shallow water. The water moved around us as it would a rock, just gently rippling past. I hit the orb we were trapped, doing anything to break it, and Peter did the same. I tore at it, doing anything to get free,but it just absorbed every blow, rippling around my hand as if I had just thrown a stone on water, it didn't compromise its structure even in the slightest. We had been doing it for at least 10 minutes, when Pepper grabbed my shoulder, "Look you guys" She said. I looked at where she was pointing- light blazed through the tops of the trees, purple light, and as we continued to watch, we saw smoke rising too. After a few seconds, the ground shook so hard it knocked us over, then as it stopped the light disappeared, and with it, so did the orb we were trapped in, dropping us into the river.
We all quickly scrambled to the shore. "We have to go there." I said, and then Peter grabbed me, "I can get us there faster." He said, his voice was low. I nodded then turned to Pepper, "You stay here. Hide. Quietly move away if they come to this area, run if they see you, and scream if they try to take you." I ordered and she nodded. I held onto Peter as he shot his web and we went soaring through the air, swinging tree to tree. He was right, it was much faster than running.
The campsite was destroyed. Smoke still rose from the burnt, black tents. Part of the ground was cracked and split open. My eyes searched the demolished place, there was no sign of anything living. The mutants were gone without even the slightest trace- and so was Ruby.