AT SOME POINT...
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.
SHIT! I JUST REALIZED THAT I HAD MISSED OUT THIS CHAPTER ENTIRELY AND THAT IT'S INSTRUMENTAL TO THE CONNECTION BETWEEN WANDA AND TESS AND HER BACKSTORY! SORRY BUT ENJOY!
The five-year-old Amalia did not utter a word, watching impassively as her father hovered over her. She had long since realized that there was no point in trying to fight her father –he only over-powered her in the end anyway and the punishment was all the more horrific.
The newly-created Red Skull stared at his daughter, "Amalia. You are my little angel; HYRDA's little angel."
"Don't fight. Don't fight. I thought you wanted our pain, Wanda? I thought you wanted to tear us apart…"
Without another word, the Nazi stabbed the glowing blue syringe into his child. She let out an ear-shattering scream. Her fragile body fell to the ground, convulsing and her fingers glowed and twitched sporadically. She had been warned of the pain but nothing like this—nothing that made her feel like her skin was burning and her bones were snapping and reshaping.
And her screams continued, until finally, her voice faltered as she welcomed the darkness with open arms.
"Is this what you want to see?" Tess' voice slithered out of the shadows to Wanda's ears. The Sokovian girl's eyes were wide with horror at the scene. "Our pain? Our terror? Our suffering?"
"Enough—!" Wanda spiraled into another memory belonging to Tess Rogers.
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Her face was impassive as the whip cracked down, again and again.
She refused to break; to bend to the will of a tyrant. Even if the tyrant was her own father. Amalia had not killed the man when her father had asked. Now, she was being taught that disobedience would be her end.
Amalia never faltered.
The whip slashed her back open but she remained silent, even as the blood dripped and pooled near her knees. She had always been smart—had always been strong enough to survive HYDRA—but with the power of the Tesseract flowing through her, Amalia had seen what it was like outside of the walls she was raised in. She had discovered that she could be more and that outside of the clawed grip of HYDRA, there was life and goodness that she could thrive in.
"You will obey me!" The whip cracked down again, leaving more long gashes and more blood.
The Red Skull tried to break his daughter before he experimented on her with the Tesseract, but Amalia didn't break – she didn't so much as crack. And the Red Skull knew he would just have to begin the procedures.
"Do you think I do not understand?" Tess' voice was cruel and cold, taking on the quality that it once was like when she was under HYDRA's thumb. "I see the world so much better than you do—I have had seventy years extra to do so. But your revenge mission…it blinds you from the real enemy."
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Amalia's body was that of a twenty-something-year-old. Her eyes were the same colour as the Tesseract. The tips of her hair were the same shade. Everything that she was; all that she had become…it was all because of HYDRA.
Except for her mind. She was too volatile to be controlled by the very organization that she had been raised in.
"I'm sorry, Bucky." Amalia murmured as she entered the torture chamber where James Buchanan Barnes was. "Doctor Zola is coming again today. It will be worse than yesterday."
"It'll be okay, Tess."
James had taken to calling Amalia 'Tess,' short for Tesseract, as he didn't know her real name after she had merely introduced herself by the codename HYDRA had given her. Amalia welcomed it. Over the time Bucky had been there, Amalia was the only one who cared for him – who showed any kind of compassion—and the two had formed an unlikely bond in the Nazi corporation's basement.
Armin Zola walked into the room, bowed stiffly to Amalia and gestured her out. As the daughter of the Red Skull, Zola couldn't very well order her out, but he could express his wonder at what the woman was and his distaste of her age and gender. "You are dismissed," Amalia told the two guards outside the door. She would guard the door herself today.
Bucky's first scream made Amalia's toes curl. The second made her sob. The third made her pray to every deity she knew, to spare Bucky pain and to just strike him down then.
Wanda stepped closer to the woman. The past Tess—Amalia, Wanda corrected herself—didn't keel over and sob; no, she stayed upright, spine locked and eyes dead-set ahead, and she even had it within herself to salute Zola as he walked into the room.
"Why didn't you leave?"
Bucky screamed – a long, suffering note – followed by sobs of terror. Another scream, another sob and then Zola was laughing like the mad scientist he was.
Wanda turned to look at Tess as she asked but she felt her presence beside her as she answered. "Because I owed him that. I owed him my own sanity as I so easily let his be taken away. I owed him because he saved my life, even though he didn't realise it."
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"No!" Tess screamed, "Bucky, hold on!"
Steve was desperately trying to reach for his friend, who hung off the side of the train with one arm. Tess was swirling her hands in complicated gestures, trying to conjure enough of her blue magic. She winced, the bloody wound in her side aching, but she continued to try to create a platform under Bucky.
Tess had replayed this moment multiply times in her nightmares. When Steve had rescued Bucky, he had taken the new 'sister' of his best friend with him, and the three had become incredibly close, like siblings. So when one was hurting, the other two were too. Steve's cry of 'Bucky!' as James Buchanan Barnes lost his hold on the train and fell the hundreds of meters to the icy ground below.
Wanda, despite herself, even lunged forward to reach for Bucky. She knew she couldn't reach him but the way Tess looked at him and at Steve was the same way that Wanda looked at Pietro—the loving look of a sibling who could not leave without the other.
That pained her, more than she wanted to admit.
Tess tutted, forcing the Maximoff girl to watch, "You brought me here. Watch our last moments together; we never saw Bucky again."
Steve collapsed back into the train and was immediately engulfed in a hug. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…" Tess cried as she and Steve sobbed for their friend.
"You don't deserve to target us. Because you are not the only ones who have been wronged in the world. We help, you destroy, and sometimes, we destroy too." Wanda winced at Tess' last sentence, "You're not that special, Wanda Maximoff."
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"I can make one last portal."
Steve and Tess were in the cockpit of the ship, ready to send the ship into the icy Arctic waters. The Red Skull had apparently disintegrated when he had grabbed the Tesseract but neither of the two heroes had it within in them to check. Both Tess and Steve were badly injured, Tess more so, and she only had enough strength to open a portal for one.
"I can send you back. To Peggy."
"And what about you?" Steve asked the younger girl.
"I'll survive."
Steve shook his head, "No. We'll go down together. Steve and Tess Rogers."
Tess smiled sadly, "I'm honored to be a Rogers."
With her last burst of energy, Tess extended her hands. Blue energy wrapped around the ship as it plummeted and Tess screamed. Her muscles and mind strained as she attempted to keep the shield around the ship. Her nose bled, the red liquid rolling down to her lip and her feet began to slide backwards. The energy pushed her back, out the open whole in the ship and she fell into the ocean.
"Tess!" Her name was the last thing Tess heard as her body fell through the air and hit the icy water…and it all went black.
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"This is where my real nightmares come into play," the Rogers woman admitted to Wanda. The younger brunette let out a scream at the scene playing out in front of her, seeing a bloody hand right in front of her, clutching a red muscle that was still pumping in Vision-Tess' grasp. Tess continued as if Wanda wasn't terrified, "My biggest nightmare is my past but my biggest fear is becoming my past."
Tess was shoving her hand through Thor's chest, cackling as her powers disintegrated his heart. The blonde god fell to his knees and then to the ground, eyes wide open and a gaping hole in his chest.
Natasha, Clint, a brunette woman, two children and an infant already lay behind Tess. She was focused entirely on her mission and stepped over Thor's body. Seconds later, Bruce Banner's fell down too and somehow, the Hulk's body collapsed beside his counterpart's.
Sam, Rhodey and Maria were strung up by the neck over the balcony of Avengers Tower, their eyes open and hands clawed as they tried to fight against the blue tethers around their necks.
"Please," a voice whimpered. "Please…" Wanda spun around. A little boy, innocent and dark-eyed, stared up at her. "Don't let her hurt me."
The chaos-magic manipulator crouched down beside the boy, "I won't. I'll protect you." Wanda reached out for him but he quickly stepped back, fearful of the red that had seeped from her hands without her permission.
"Liar!" The boy suddenly yelled and the scene changed. Tess was standing in front of the boy, hands raised in surrender. "You said you would protect me! That you would save my parents! That you wouldn't let me die!"
"I will," Tess repeated, "I will. Anthony…"
Wanda's mouth dropped open. Anthony—Tony. Tony Stark as a child was begging for Tess to protect him. He was so innocent, so gentle.
"You promised!"
"You're right…" Tony looked smug but only for a second because Tess' face became a cold mask, "I lied."
His heart was torn from his chest and he became the older, billionaire Tony Stark that Wanda recognised. The man fell to the ground and then Steven Rogers was next—his heart literally being burnt from his chest as Tess laughed and taunted him, an image of Bucky Barnes cheering her on from behind her.
"See my fear?" Tess asked, rather unnecessarily. "I can see it now. Just look over there and you'll see it too."
Wanda walked to where Tess was pointing and she realized what the Rogers woman meant. The Maximoff girl had stopped in front of a mirror and her own wild-haired, red-eyed reflection stared back at her. Flashes of happier moments with Pietro and her parents spun in her vision.
It changed; Wanda saw herself killing her parents, unfazed by the way they screamed for mercy, for help and clutched a dead Pietro to their chests. Wanda was the monster; she was cold and heartless and—
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—Wanda fell out of the visions, her mind already strained by the hold on the other minds of the Avengers but now her heart strained even more. Pietro had been holding his twin tightly, rocking her as she screamed along with Tess.
Now, as Wanda was awake, Pietro moved to lower Tess' arms, to make sure she didn't hurt herself as she thrashed around.
Raising a hand streaming with red energy, Wanda let the hold on Tess' mind loosen. She was shaking, desperately trying to get rid of the visions. "How could someone endure so much…? She…she's right about me!" Wanda cried out lowly, moving to touch Tess' hand, before she was cut off.
Clint had pushed an electric dart to Wanda's forehead. "Tried the whole 'mind-control' thing. Wasn't a fan. I'm sure Tess is even less of one."
The female Enhanced convulsed and Pietro, with a final look at Tess' prone form, ran out of the warehouse, cradling his sister to him.
"What can I do?" Pietro asked worried as they stopped, and Wanda pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Ah, it hurts." Wanda still felt the sting from the electrified arrow, but the dull pain in her mind and chest was still from Tess' past that she had experienced. Her bitterness and bloodlust was returning full-strength now due to her distance from the emotional control Tess had temporarily placed on her. Young Tony danced in her vision for a moment before she saw the Tony Stark that they had been acquainted with.
Confusion and hesitation swirled within her chest but something pushed her to complete the plan—fear of Ultron.
Pietro stood, about to run off, "I'm gonna kill him. I'll be right back."
"No. I'm over it." Wanda stated, using a hand to stop her brother, "I want...I want to finish the plan." The witch looked over to the Quinjet, seeing where Bruce Banner was waiting and despite everything she had seen in Tess' mind, she wasn't backing down. "I want the big one."
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With a scream, Tess shot up. Her eyes met Clint's, who was trying to get everyone to the Quinjet. They were still in Klaue's warehouse and it had only been moments since she had been mentally manipulated. Raising a hand and shaking her head to clear the fog over her mind, a portal swallowed Thor and Steve.
Her memories – the horrors in her head – made her feel a tidal wave of emotions that she hadn't felt in a long time. Bitterness, hatred, rage.
Tess had waited for twenty years for her brother back after they crashed. Too long in Steve's opinion, as he constantly reminded the young woman.
She had been found twenty years before her brother had been – fifty years after she had been frozen in the Arctic. She helped raise Anthony Stark after she had found out that Howard had made good on his promise (really, it was a drunken bet) and had named her godmother to his first born.
Peggy grew old and started to forget. Howard became world-renowned but was murdered alongside his wife. Bucky was dead. The Red Skull was dead, something they couldn't prove. SHEILD was created, meant to protect the world.
And Tess was alone. Never aging or able to forget; Tess waited and waited for Steve to be found. And to wake up.
"They're on the jet," Tess said, with a shaky breath, begging herself to focus on anything else than what she and Wanda had seen.
Clint shot her a thankful look. "She got you too, didn't she?"
Tess nodded but didn't elaborate, "Everyone else?"
"Yeah," Clint muttered, lifting Natasha up carefully. "Everyone but me and Tony."
"Bruce?" Tess' eyes were wide in horror. Just as she asked, Tony's voice came over the comms, "Natasha, I could really use a lullaby."
"Well, that's not gonna happen. Not for a while. The whole team is down, you got no back-up here," Clint replied and Tess stood up.
"Tony," Tess spoke up into the comms, opening a portal, "I'm okay. I'm coming to you now."
Clint shook his head, "No, Tess. Your past…you need to rest."
"Don't worry. I'm always okay." Tess smiled and stepped through the portal into the middle of the city the Hulk was destroying. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened, "Tony, I think you should call in VERONICA."
The Hulk roared at them as Tony flew overhead, flying as fast as he could to get to Tess and Bruce. "Good idea."
"Ya think!?"
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"The news is loving you guys. Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air," Maria informed the team and Tess scowled.
"Not helping, Maria. Unless you've got something helpful to say, don't say anything at all."
Tess was extremely agitated after being repeated pummeled by her friend. Her mind was frazzled by what Wanda had done to her and her eyes stung, due to the unshed tears caused by the visions.
It wasn't her visions that were the problem but more so the self-hatred and other melancholic emotions that radiated from her friends.
The younger Rogers sat in a seat in the Quinjet, her head placed in her hands and her lips pressed into a thin line. Her electric-blue hair was pulled into a messy bun on the top of her head and her brow was set into a deep frown on her ageless face.
She couldn't even comfort the gentle Doctor Banner, as every time she tried, Bruce got scared that he would hurt her (again) and shied away from her hands. Eventually, Tess had given up and sat a distance away after summoning a blanket for Bruce to wrap around himself.
"Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony asked and Maria tapped on her tablet.
"Already on the scene. How's the team?"
"Everyone's…" Tony trailed off and stared at the team, all of which were in vary stages of shock and heartbreak. "We took a hit. We'll shake it off."
Tess desperately wanted to say 'no, we won't' but didn't.
"Well for now I'd stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here," Maria recommended and Tess frowned, as Tony asked, "So, run and hide?"
Maria nodded, "Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer."
"Neither do we." Tony switched off the monitor, ending the call with Maria.
Tony turned around and met Tess' annoyed gaze. "We didn't take a hit, Anthony, we got broken. It's going to take a hell of a lot of time to pick up the pieces; time that we, as Avengers, don't have." Getting up, Tess moved to the cockpit. "Hey, you wanna switch out?"
Clint shook his head, focusing on flying the Quinjet. "No, I'm good. If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time, cause we're still a few hours out."
"A few hours from where?" Tony asked as he walked over.
Clint smiled, "A safe-house." Tony walked away again, thinking it best to leave the currently-erratic woman and pilot alone, and Clint turned to the woman next to him. "Are you okay?"
"I had to face my past at some point." Tess dragged a hand over her face, before twining her fingers together. "Why not when we're trying to stop a crazy, homicidal robot man and his speedster and witch? Besides, I gave Little Miss Witch a little taste of her own goddamn medicine."
Clint smiled wryly and turned back to fly the jet as Tess materialized a seat next to him. Tony made a joke about every situation, and so could his godmother. Tess attempted to lighten the mood of the situation, and it was appreciated. Tony just didn't do it the same way because arrogance colored every word that flew out of his mouth.
"I can't wait to see them," Tess mused quietly, "but I don't think I'm the best person to be around right now."
The Barton man simply stayed quiet, letting Tess confide her worries in him and fall into a light, and somewhat fretful, slumber.
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I JUST FOUND OUT I MISSED THIS CHAPTER SO I WILL DELETE THE ONES I UPDATED AFTER IT AND THEN CONTINUE ON FROM THERE. SORRY!
~ Raven