PAST AND PRESENT...
Disclaimer: I own no part of the Avengers (I wish I did). All rights belong to Marvel. I only own the character Tess Rogers / Tesseract / Amalia Schmidt and her plot and dialogue.
THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO LuckyGo, NicoleR85 AND Gwendolyn Yuki. I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER!
Gwendolyn Yuki: Yeah, Tess and Bucky have the same close-friend-relationship but it was never explored in the last version of this story. Now, I'm adding flashback scenes in to show the bond they had.
Maria walked beside the Rogers siblings, debriefing the pair on the trail Ultron was leaving, "He's all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place."
"Fatalities?" Steve asked in a low voice and Maria shook her head.
"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see."
Tess set her jaw, her vibrant eyes narrowed, "Maximoffs. Well, that makes sense he'd go to them, they have someone in common. Is Strucker still active?"
"Not anymore." Maria handed Steve a tablet showing photo of Strucker's dead body. The word 'PEACE' was written in blood on the wall next to him. Steve passed the tablet over to his sister, who glanced at the image for a moment and mock-winced with a mumbled, "Ouch."
Steve called Clint over, who was speaking on his phone, "Barton, we might have something."
"Who was that?" Steve asked Clint as he muttered 'gotta go' into the phone.
Clint wandered over, shoving his phone back into his pocket, "Girlfriend."
Steve missed the wink that Clint shot to the Rogers' girl as she swaggered past and made kissy-faces like a teenager.
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After Steve had gathered the rest of the team, Tess showed them the photo of Strucker's body. A half-annoyed, half-victorious look was on her face, which the others all understood. Tess, although annoyed that a life had been lost, was glad that it was the life of someone like Strucker—who, terrifyingly enough, had reminded Tess of a low-level version of her father.
"What's this?" Tony bit out, eyes fixed on the image.
"A message. Ultron killed Strucker." Tony's godmother commented bitingly, "Thanks for that by the way."
Tony didn't understand why his only remaining family was so angry at him—she was angry because Tony had become quite similar to the mad scientists of HYDRA—but the billionaire shrugged it off. "And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us."
"This is a smokescreen." Natasha stated as she analysed the picture. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss," Steve added contemplatively.
"Yeah, I bet he…" Natasha trailed off and looked at the computer screen. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."
Tony smirked, "Not everything."
"No," Tess stated with narrowed eyes. "Don't even think about it. No."
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The team went through the physical files they had on Strucker. Tess scoffed at the amount of paper piled on the table, specifically the document she was reading. "Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends." The young woman leveled a glare at the back of Tony's head, "I said 'no,' but here we are, poring over all the files we have."
Bruce smiled sheepishly at Tess' last comment, and nodded, "Well, these people are all horrible."
"Wait. I know that guy." Tony stated and Bruce passed him the photo he was looking at, "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms."
Steve gave him an accusing look and Tess nudged Tony, who continued. "There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything."
The bright-blue-eyed hero stared at the photo. She knew him, and he was extremely bad news. Ulysses Klaue was tightly placed in the criminal underground; Tess was worried for Tony, more than he knew.
"'Conventions,' yeah right," the young woman muttered before turning back to the file and reading the information.
"He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very 'Ahab.'"
Thor pointed to a scar on Klaue's neck, everyone leaning in closer to look, "This."
"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it..." Tony supplied but Thor shook his head.
"No, those are tattoos," Thor waved vaguely at the black ink marring Klaue's neck, before he gestured to skin that looked more risen and corded, "This is a brand."
Bruce reached for his tablet, to identify the brand on Klaue's neck. "Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way."
Steve furrowed his brow, "What dialect?"
"Wakanada...? Wa…Wa…" Bruce attempted but Tess hurried over to him and sharply cut him off.
"It can't be…" She shared a look with Tony and Steve, "It's from Wakanda."
Tony looked anxious, "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..."
Steve caught on just as quickly as Tony and his sister, "I thought your father said he got the last of it?"
"I don't follow." Bruce looked between the Rogers' siblings and Tony, "What comes out of Wakanda?"
Tony, Steve and Tess looked over, staring at Steve's shield, worry written on their faces.
"The strongest metal on earth."
Tess tightened her hands into fists, blue energy starting to float around them, "Where is this guy now?"
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"Don't compare me with Stark! Stark is…he's a sickness!" Ultron snarled angrily at the criminal, as he kicked a now-one-armed Klaue down the stairs.
Tony flew down in his Iron Man suit, landing with a clink on the metal catwalk, "Ahh, Junior." Thor and Steve walked in behind Tony, and Tess stepped through an electric blue portal and onto the catwalk between Steve and Thor. "You're gonna break your old man's heart."
Ultron stepped forward, "If I have to."
Thor tried to remain civil, "We don't have to break anything."
"Clearly you've never made an omelet."
Tony let out a humorless chuckle at Ultron's words, "He beat me by one second."
"Ah, this is funny, Mr Stark. It's what, comfortable?" Pietro questioned, "Like old times?"
"This was never my life." Tony muttered, somber. His eyes had followed Pietro's to a small stock of missiles below them. Tess knew for a fact, that Anthony Stark was not a good man, but he tried exceptionally hard to try to be.
Tess looked at the twins, subconsciously grabbing her brother's hand, "You two can still walk away from this."
"Oh, we will." Wanda sneered at the girl, assuming that Tess had not even the slightest idea about what the Maximoff twins had gone through at the hands of Tony and HYDRA.
"We know you've suffered." Steve attempted but Ultron cut him off.
"Uuughh! Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. And Tesseract. HYDRA's little angel, Amalia Schmidt, pretending that she's a hero when she's the worst of the worst..." Tess began to shake with anger, but she still lit her hand up with Chaos Magic. "I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..."
Tesseract's eyes were even brighter than usual, burning with an almost destructive light. Tess' reaction made the twins tilt their heads in confusion. "I suggest that you don't speak of things you don't know of. Amalia is dead."
Thor lifted his hammer slightly, and gently pushed the young girl behind him, despite her growl of annoyance, "If you believe in peace, then let us keep it."
"I think you're confusing peace with quiet," Ultron responded with a tilt of his head.
"Yuh-huh." Tony pressed, "What's the Vibranium for?"
"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan!" Without warning, Ultron fired a blast at Tony, launching the fight. The Iron Legions attacked, flying at Tony, Steve, Thor and Tess. Tony leapt forward, attacking Ultron.
Tess jumped through a portal, landing on a catwalk below and spun, sliding a glowing hand into a suit's chest. Klaue's men began firing at them, not caring who they shot. Tess fired blast after blast at Klaue's men. She jumped, wrapping her legs around a man's neck and snapped it. She gracefully tumbled off the man's body as it fell and she kicked out a leg, stabbing her heel through the chest of one of the Iron Legion. Punching a man in the face, and warping another's mind, Tess continued fighting. Teaming up with Natasha, Tess created a portal that sent the assassin to the other side of the room. Natasha immediately shot two of Klaue's men, shooting Tess a smile.
"Clint!" Tess called and the archer shot an arrow at the girl, which passed through one of her portals just in time, and buried itself in the eye of a robot flying at Steve.
Tess saw Pietro grab onto Thor's hammer as it sailed through the air. Pietro flew with it and landing in a pile of boxes.
"Stay down, kid!" Steve advised and Tess appeared through a portal in front of them, engulfing Pietro in magic ropes.
Wanda stood in the shadows, watching the fight. "It's time for some mind games," One of Ultron's copies muttered to Wanda and the brunette slunk into the shadows.
"Thor! Status?" Steve called to Thor and Tess lifted a hand, scanning for Wanda with her magic.
"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty."
Tess snarled, "Liar," as she felt Thor's mind change ever-so-slightly. "Oh no…" Tess groaned as Natasha and Steve also were sent into visions.
"Clint," Tess called through the comms., "Be careful."
Tess stalked over to Pietro and tightened her hold on him. The hero looked down at the silver-haired boy in front of her. "Why are you doing this?"
"Revenge," Pietro muttered, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you stand in the way of that."
Tess smiled sadly, "And I can't let you get away with it. Revenge…revenge doesn't make you feel better." The Tesseract tilted her head slightly and her eyes flashed, unbeknownst to the witch behind her. "And I can't let you force me to see it again. Not alone, anyway."
Wanda had already muddled the minds of the others when she moved towards Tesseract. The other Chaos Magic user was her main target, along with the Hulk. Wanda let her mind manipulation powers slide over Tess' mind, but not before Tess connected her own magic to the girl. Electric-blue eyes met red, and the two witches spiraled into visions of Tess' past.
The red witch heard the blue one whisper, "I'm so sorry, Wanda," before Wanda screamed in horror and pain, feeling what Tess had felt before and was now being forced to endure again.
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The nightmare made Tess' voice escape from her sleeping form in a scream. Sweat dripped down her forehead and her fingernails had clawed jagged holes into the fabric of her sheets. Tess desperately took in breaths, reminded herself that she could breathe and that frozen water no longer blocked her airways.
Adjusting to the twentieth century was going to take time, she had been warned. Tess knew that, she wasn't stupid. Nothing made sense in this time and the technology was far more developed than Tess had ever seen it.
But the countless medical professionals who openly gawked at her or scurried away in fear had not warned her of the nightmares that would haunt her dreams.
The small apartment SHIELD had arranged for her was empty—loneliness dragged at the entire dwelling and Tess hated coming home to the cold apartment, which only succeeded in reminding her of the ice. The ice was what tormented her and anything cold, like the snow that fell in the winter she was currently experiencing, sent her into dizzying panic attacks.
Loneliness had become a major theme in Tess Rogers' life. Majority of the people who had known her were dead or too old to help her search for Steve. But she never gave up hope, even when the terror seeped into ever sleeping thought.
She had feared her father, yes, but she had never known fear like when she had opened her eyes under the water. Tess would never forget the moment just after she hit the water and just before the blackness seeped into her vision in her half-conscious state, when the ice had clogged her throat and nose and burnt her eyes before it froze her solid.
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This chapter shows a softer-side to Tess, in terms of humanity and fear, and the next chapter includes Wanda-induced flashbacks. In that chapter, Tess will kind-of turn the tables on Wanda, so look out for that!
Please review!
~ Raven