Yo yo yo. I finished fully playing ac6 after getting the NG ending is time to write again in full. So I hope you guys like this, first interlude from the fic, giving a look into things from someone else's perspective. And showing the consequences of some of Ross's actions.

Anyways, here is chap.

/

It still feels so strange coming here. Even when she's been doing so for well over a year. Avengers Tower, to a team she only joined after returning to Earth.

She doesn't like coming here. Everyone looks at her with distrust save for Carol and Stark. Stark, she's pretty sure just wants to get into her pants. At least Ross is honest about wanting to fuck her.

Thoughts of the man come once again unbidden from her mind. He treated her like a person when they met. Went on the rare drinking trip with her, and was a friend to her when she only had Carol. Being replaced by the Skrull Queen was probably the worst thing to happen in her life, but even then, it was just the last thing in a series of horrible encounters.

She wanted something good. Something secure. After everything she's gone through, she needed something or someone all to herself. It's selfish, and she knows that. It doesn't change the fact it's what she wants. She had been willing to put it on the backburner after being offered a place on the Avengers, not as an imposter this time.

Until that asshole brought it up. Before he left around half a year back, Ross made what she thought was a callous joke. Or drunken rambling. They were drinking with Carol that night but she doesn't get as intoxicated as most people, so she remembers it all clearly.

"A kid eh? Guess I can see you as the mother type." Ross chuckled, following it with a sip of his drink as he relaxed in his seat—her and Carol's couch. A red leather one, it matches her costume's red. Carol got it when she wasn't home as a joke. Called it Spider-Couch. Carol hadn't expected her to sew spiderweb patterns on it to make it more official.

Getting lost in memories of her couch isn't the current issue here. No, the issue is the words that just came from Ross's mouth. "What did you just say?" She blinked away the drowsiness she had been feeling. While she indeed can drink a lot, she doesn't do so often. Ross, hearing her question, puts a hand to his bearded chin, and runs his eyes up and down her.

"Said you look like the mother type. You want a kid don't ya?" He shrugged after a moment, taking a sip of his drink only for it to be empty and for a frown to come to his face.

"How do you even know that? I didn't tell anyone. Even Carol." She had rested her face on her hands, and her elbows on her knees, leaning in to hear what Ross had to say.

"I know things, darling. Thought you knew that by now, eh?" He waved her question off. His motion was carefully tracked by her eyes. "Pass the mickey, Jess, I'm empty."

Thoroughly broken from her train of thought on how he had known that and questioning him further, she had instead once again blinked her eyes in confusion. "A mickey?"

Ross looks lost for a moment, seemingly unsure of why she's unsure about the word. "Americans, forgot, my bad." He shook his head after a moment. "Booze, pass it over." He points at the bottle of vodka they'd been sharing. Ross doesn't talk much about himself, but being Canadian is one thing she did actually know. She also knew it slipped out more the drunker he got.

"Why are you saying I'd make a good mother?" She asked, passing him the bottle. Ross snorted.

"Never said that. Said you seem the mother type. You'd probably be a good mother though. Hey, I can help with that." Midway through his expression changed to a playful one.

"Help how?"

"Sex?" At his blunt remark, she had reeled back into her seat.

"I thought… I thought you and Carol." Stammering over her words she couldn't stop herself from looking at him. Ross certainly fits the bill when it comes to men she'd be interested in, but knowing his relationship with her closest friend and roommate she wouldn't have dared to be more than friends with the man. What she hadn't expected was for him to laugh.

"That's a good one. We aren't like that, sweet cheeks." He shook his head. "Carol's a good fuck yeah, but that's all we do. Drink and fuck."

"And she knows that's what you think?" No, she refused to believe that. Her roommate wasn't the type. Sure she was an alcoholic but whatever was going on between her and Ross seemed like more than that. They got along shockingly well too.

"Wake her up and ask her yourself if you want." He nudged the drunken sleeping woman with his foot. She had honestly forgotten Carol had fallen asleep on their carpet. "I told her from the start. I don't do relationships. Sex? Sex is fine." He shrugged, then filled his glass almost entirely full of pure vodka. Evidently, he was unable to taste the booze with how drunk he was.

"Having a child with me implies a relationship." She had pointed out the flaw in his logic.

"Ha." Ross shook his head. Taking a large sip of his drink he rubbed his chest after putting the glass down. "Bit spicy, oh I forgot mix. Whatever. Where was I? Oh yeah." He snapped his fingers and she flinched when he had. Considering Ross makes things explode when he snaps, it was a reasonable reaction. "Nothing serious even then. I'm rich enough to pay child support and I wanna tap that Spider-Ass."

She had found herself a bit heated at that, in an angry fashion. Ross was a friend, now he's saying he wanted to get her pregnant, leave the kid with her, and throw money her way? She knew he was an asshole on occasion but this seemed like a bit much. "And what makes you think I can't find someone to have a child with? A father that would stay around?" She asked him with a growl.

Ross shook his head. "You won't. Never do. Temporary flings are all you've done, and all you ever will do. When you fail to find someone you'll do that artificial mumbo jumbo but even after that you won't find anyone for long." He stated in such a clinical manner she almost forgot he was drunk. It was enough to shock her sober, seemingly throwing an ice bucket over her as well as her anger. In her shock, Ross leaned over, putting a gentle, warm hand on her cheek. "Crass as it is. You deserve better. I can't give you that save for money. And the knowing who the kid's dad is." He let go of her face, the warmth leaving with him.

Backing away again, Ross then tripped over Carol's sleeping body and fell back onto the couch with a thud. She herself stayed silent. His words rang in her head over and over. Tormenting her with the ramblings of a drunk man. But this wasn't any drunk man. This was Ross Martin. The Info Broker, Roil. He's never been wrong as far as she's aware. But this is her future, how can he be so sure about her future?

"You have a thinky face aboot ya. I'll leave you be then, Jess." Ross shook his head and took out his phone in her silence. With a frown, he flipped it after a moment. "I'll get a ride home."

A part of her wanted to ask him to stay. To tell her more. Another part of her was scared, she didn't want to know how hopeless her life really was. In her conflicting thoughts, Ross's ride showed up and he had already left by the time she made up her mind.

She wanted him to stay. But he was already gone.

And that was the last time she saw him for the next five months.

"Jess?" She's startled out of her thoughts by a concerned voice. Carol's looking at her in worry, she hasn't seen that look from the women in a few months now.

"I'm fine. Thinking about things." She brushes off her friend's concern. Yes, friend. Carol is still her friend even if that friendship is a bit strained as of now. But apparently, Anya had asked Carol for help with something so that might not be the case for long. Presumably whatever she asked Carol for has to do with what Ross told her. She's met Gilbert many times, something happening to him would be extremely upsetting for everyone.

"Let's head up then." Carol nods to herself, striding towards the elevator. Jess shakes herself out of her head again and quickly follows after. Hitting the button for the top floor, the elevator closes and begins its ascent. A novel thing to both of them, elevators. Carol can fly, and Jess herself hasn't ever needed to use one save for when she lost her powers… "I have some ideas about what this meeting is for." Carol's words interrupt her thoughts. Goodness, she feels so scatterbrained right now. Ross's deal comes to her mind like a wrecking ball and refuses to leave.

"Do tell." She says with a sly grin slipping onto her face, not at all feeling the emotions themselves, but it's a comforting mask to wear.

"A news channel this morning. Tony took his armor out towards the financial district without informing anyone. But it's hard to miss the metallic suit of armor flying through the city. Even more so when he didn't bother hiding." Carol shrugs at the end of her explanation. One thing really stuck out to Jess, however.

"Since when do you watch the news?" She asks and Carol looks at her in surprise, caught flat-footed by a question she obviously hadn't expected. Still, it's a good one. They were roommates for years. Carol never watched the news the entire time they had been.

"I… I have a lot of time to myself and I get bored easily." Carol says after a moment of hesitation. There's more to it than that. Has to be. But before she can ask, the elevator dings and Carol quickly hurries out. "Come on Jess, everyone else is probably already here."

Stuffing her follow-up questions into a hole for later, she follows after the fleeing blonde woman. It's a quick trip to the meeting room from the elevator.

"Good, you're here. Take a seat girls." Tony Stark says as soon as the door opens. He's agitated, obviously, he had been pacing in front of his giant monitor before they arrived. Jess gives a nod to the others in the room before taking a seat. Only Natasha and Steve nod back. But that much was expected. The former is a fellow teacher to Anya, and the latter just likes being polite. Taking her seat, Stark wastes no time in starting to talk. "Now then. Before we get to the main part of this. If you have something to report, do so now."

"Thought this was urgent, Stark." Steve Rogers asks with a raised brow. He's not in costume right now. None of them are.

"There's levels of urgency, Cap. If this were the other kind of urgent there wouldn't be a meeting at all." Tony waves his question off with his left arm. His right hanging loosely at his side. When was he injured? Looking around the table she sees a few people noticed it as well. "It doesn't matter. We'll get to the urgent part at the end of the meeting. Carol, what do you have for me?" The blonde woman beside her sits up straighter in her chair.

"I've been overseeing a few operations of SHIELD at your request. One of which started from a personal inquiry from my former student Anya Corazón. You should have the files of that investigation, I sent you an email this morning." She states and Stark nods. So it's as she expected. Carol helped Anya with her problem. But it sounds like it was more serious than she thought.

"I got the email. Carol, with the assistance of Spider-Girl, dealt with a branch of an organization we hadn't heard of before, Raven. Raven is talented enough to escape SHIELD's notice. But I suspect they have inside help of some kind. Widow, I'd like you and Cap to look into that more." Natasha just nods at his words, but Steve looks surprised.

"You sure about that, Tony?" He asks the man.

"You wanted a chance to do something important, here's your chance, Rogers." Tony looks at him with cold eyes. They look like they enter a staring contest for a moment, seemingly having a conversation with their eyes. Then Steve closes his and sighs, giving Stark a nod.

"I'll get it done."

"Thank you, Steve." Jessica felt something rather significant just happened, but she couldn't be sure how much that changed things. "Next up. Janet, how's Hank's team coming?"

"Jocasta is helping him make sure everyone stays in line. But the Young Avengers obviously are chafing with being split up." Janet states with a hand to her chin.

"Poor Hank." Greer adds in.

"It was necessary. Hulkling was essential in making sure the remaining Skrulls accepted their removal from the earth." Tony states grimly. Steve has a rather haunted look in his eyes. An understandable expression, she heard he was forced to use his connection with the boy to convince him to take the throne. "And Wiccan tutoring under Strange isn't the end of the world. The kids will be fine."

"I'm more worried for Cassandra than anything." Greer states after a moment, she and the girl had gone through a rather traumatic experience together. Along with Anya.

"I'm sure Hank will help her through anything she needs help with." Janet puts a hand on the orange-furred woman's shoulder.

"So, what do we have for the giant floating city above Oklahoma?" Simon asks.

"Thor, the city is Asgard. I'm dealing with it but I need a few things done. Janet, I need you to find the hospital where Jane Foster works. Then find a patient named Mrs Chambers, who should be in the terminal cancer ward." Tony explains. Normally this would seem completely random. But here it screams of Ross's influence.

"Can do. Why am I doing this?"

"Sif, Thor's lover. Is trapped in her body. We're using her as a peace offering."

"Then you should have me deliver her." Steve points out.

"It has to be me." Stark refuses.

"Tony, Thor's kind of pissed off at you. He's not mad at me so let me jus-"

"It has to be me, Cap! Just do what I asked of you!" Stark snaps at the man. Steve and him share another look, Stark looking away first this time. "Just leave it to me, please." It's silent for a moment. Then Steve responds.

"Alright."

Tony sighs, then immediately moves on. "Okay, I think that's everything then." He claps his hands. Only to immediately wince. Definitely injured. "Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room."

"Roil." Natasha states. Jess feels conflicted about the seriousness put in his name.

"I thought he left?" Robert asks curiously. The Sentry isn't a man she knows well, he's rather soft-spoken during meetings, mostly choosing to stay quiet.

"Well, he's back. I've even heard that much. Care to add anything to that, Carol?" Simon asks her, knowing she's the one who is closest to Ross. A bitter feeling rises up in her chest at that thought. Only to realize it's jealousy after a moment. Oh, that's not good at all.

"Ross contacted Tony and me the day he arrived. But as we had more pressing matters to attend to I wasn't able to talk to him until around a week after." Carol starts, standing up, she gives Tony a look and he nods to her. She then walks over to the monitor. "The reason I initiated contact is twofold. One, someone has been using mental tampering on civilians, and one SHIELD Agent, trying to gather information on him."

"How is this not urgent, Tony? SHIELD being compromised seems pretty urgent." Steve asks with a frown. Tony snorts.

"Please Cap, you expect me to believe SHIELD doesn't leak like a sieve?"

"That isn't relevant to the conversation, both of you." Carol interrupts before the argument can fully start. "The second point. Is that Fury is also looking in on Ross." That announcement has the whole group clamoring in surprise, raising voices. It's hurting her head. What the hell did Ross do this time? A loud buzzing sound comes from the front, and they turn to see Tony is the one that did it.

"Let's continue before turning the room into a mosh pit." He states with an aggrieved look.

"Well, as I was saying. I informed Ross of this when I went to meet him. Then the following night he was attacked in his yacht. As of now, we don't have a confirmed ID of the assailants. I have a feeling Ross is aware of who they are but he seemed reluctant to say." That, Jess wasn't aware of. He told her about meeting with Carol when she had dinner with him and his bodyguard. But being attacked would have happened that same night. "We managed to piece the corpses together but still don't have anything on them. They don't legally exist."

"And why isn't Ross in a cell?" Steve asks.

"Drop it, Cap." Tony snaps. Now this, she's aware, is an old argument.

"What do you mean by piecing the corpses together? That doesn't fit Ross's MO." Natasha asks to stop their argument from happening. Carol takes a deep breath at the question.

"My original thoughts on this were that Ross brought Wolverine with him when he returned. But the coroners reported the one to do it only had two claws on their hands." Could it be? Ross did say she was his bodyguard.

"The bodyguard. Ross had a girl with him when we had dinner that night." Jess finds herself speaking before she can think of what she's saying.

"You had dinner with him?"

"Roil? Bodyguard? He's never had one before."

"What did she look like?" Steve asks, his question being the one she focuses on as he leans towards her slightly. She finds herself squirming a bit at all the looks she's getting. She's used to being looked at, but not like this. Everyone looks at her with distrust even if they know she wasn't the leader of the Skrulls. Now, she is the center of attention in a completely different way.

"Short. Black hair. Green eyes I think? She would look down whenever I met her eyes. Didn't catch her name" Similar in looks to herself now that she thinks about it, just much shorter. But she doubts the girl dyed her hair black like Jess does. At her description of the girl, Steve sighs.

"It's Laura. And I should add all that was pointless. I already knew it was her." Stark's words startle the room and they all turn the attention back to him. Contrary to her feeling like she was drowning, Stark revels in attention.

"What do you mean, Tony?" Carol asks him.

"Short and stabby, met her last night. She actually got the drop on me, a lot of talent. Would not recommend having her claws to your throat. Very much not an enjoyable experience." Tony shrugs. So that's where he went last night. She was sure he and Ross had a falling out, so it's a surprise he went to see him.

"Laura Kinney. More accurately, X-23." Steve suddenly states, getting everyone's attention. "An assassin. Created by Weapon X. I had been tracking her for a while before catching her around seven months ago."

"Why wasn't I informed of this?" Tony asks sharply.

"It was a personal project." Steve shoots back. "Regardless. She had been used as a tool, and she wasn't a mindless one. The kid was dealt a bad hand so after talking with Murdock we told her to go back home."

"Which she didn't." Carol states and Steve nods.

"Indeed. No, somehow Ross got his grubby hands on her. If he's forcing her to kill again, I won't hesitate to put him in a cell." Steve eyes the room coldly.

"I wouldn't worry about that then." Stark chuckles.

"Tony?" Simon questions him.

"Ross, he's different. For lack of a better word I'd say nicer." Stark starts. Jessica didn't notice such a difference herself, but Ross had always treated her rather well. Maybe his helping Anya for free was a bit out of character actually. "Don't get me wrong, he's still an asshole. Just… he was worse before he left."

"Forgive me for having no confidence in that." Steve shakes his head.

"No, Tony's got a point here. I noticed it too." Carol chimes in, now this time Jess is extremely surprised. Is she the only one who's close to him and hasn't realized he is different? Had Ross just always treated her differently than the others?

"I think this warrants a big reveal." Tony says after a moment. "I'm gonna have to ask everyone without the highest ranking clearance to leave the room. Natasha, you can get started on your assignment. Simon, Greer, Robert, Jess, you guys go relax." Jess nods to Stark, standing to leave with the others. Then Carol stops her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Let Jess stay for this. She should know." What? Carol knows what Stark's going to say? Had she been briefed beforehand?

"You know?" Stark asks just as surprised as Jess herself. So obviously being briefed beforehand isn't the case here.

"Yeah, he got really really drunk once. That's all I'll say on that." Carol says, gently pushing Jess back into the seat and she lets her.

"Alright, I believe that." Stark nods. Then when everyone else has left save for Steve, Janet, Carol, Stark, and her, he locks the room with a wave of his hands. A moment after an electric humm sounds out that makes her skin crawl. "Noise-canceling at the highest level. And anti-telepathy. After this I expect everyone here to wear bracelets that also prevent thought reading."

"That serious, Tony?" Janet asks, leaning back in her seat. Stark nods. Janet lets out a low whistle at his reply.

"Now then. Let's get to the main point. Ross Martin being here poses the question of what threat is coming next." Stark says after a moment of waiting.

"I get he's called Roil, but you sound like he's an actual bearer of bad omens here." Steve points out and Stark nods.

"Because he is." Carol sighs, leaning back into her seat with a hand on the bridge of her nose.

"Ross can see the future. And he's already helped avert a few disasters." What? What did Stark just say?

"You won't. Never do. Temporary flings are all you've done, and all you ever will do. When you fail to find someone you'll do that artificial mumbo jumbo but even after that you won't find anyone for long."

His words, the ones that haunted her for months. He had said them like they were a fact. His tone brokered no argument. But she had hoped, prayed even, that he was wrong.

"You used someone who could see the future against me!?" Stev- no. Captain America shouts, abruptly standing and slamming the table. "What moral high ground do you think you're standing on here, Stark?! You knew I wouldn't have a chance!"

"That's not what happened, Rogers! And you left me no choice in this!" Stark gets equally as loud as the irate super soldier.

"There's always a choice Tony, and you chose the easy way out!" Captain America bellowed.

"I chose to keep you alive, Steve! You fucking died! I don't care how much you hate me for it, I'm glad I did what I did!"

"The future isn't yours to control, Tony!"

From there, they started arguing in full. But Jessica's mind is in a far-off place. Ross knew her future, he told her it. She wouldn't get what she wanted by just hoping for the best. It's all but confirmed now. But one thought keeps invading her mind more than anything else.

She should just take the deal.

/

I probably fucked up somewhere on the perspective stuff so lemme know if you notice something off. Anyways, the next thing will be an actual chapter.