Capítulo 124: A Disagreement
A/N: Reminder that I've stopped writing new chapters, and will only upload the old ones. The story is officially dropped!!
Read on!
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Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, Tony Stark with his armour standing off to the side, and I. Mason Aves. An odd group, all things considered, but one common goal at this time. The destruction of HYDRA.
We all sat inside a large hall, with a bed holding the unconscious form of Bucky Barnes, not visibly bound by anything, but bound just the same.
Tony had just finished telling Steve about his discovery of HYDRA, and what I had revealed to him a couple days ago. That HYDRA killed his parents, which Natasha and Steve already seemed to know, that Bucky Barnes was the one who did it, which they did not know, much to Tony's relief. And that Peggy Carter was targeted by HYDRA, through Barnes. Again. Which they also didn't know.
"You knew about Hydra all this time?" Steve's hurt voice calls out, once Tony is finished. He had ignored that last bit about Peggy, either willfully, or because he was focused on this one thing. My apparent betrayal.
I nod, slowly, and say, "Yes. I learned about them soon after Howard's death."
Natasha, who was cradling her previously injured but now healed shoulder, frowns, and asks, "Any particular reason they aren't already 6 feet under then?"
I look at her, feeling just a tad bit upset about my previous self's decisions, and admit, "I didn't care about it. Not while my wife was missing anyway."
That seems to shock them all into silence, but alas, that was the truth. It is exactly what I was thinking of at that time. Hydra is not my problem, finding Selene is.
"Didn't care about it? You didn't care about HYDRA?! Mason, you're the fucking Captain Avalon! We're literally the poster boys for fighting Hydra!" Steve yells, standing up and taking a few aggressive steps towards me. Thankfully, Steve's new friend, Sam Wilson, gets in the way and stops him from attacking me.
I would have allowed him one hit, and no more. Just to allow him to let his pent up frustrations out. But I am glad that Wilson interfered.
I sigh, and ask, "If Bucky or Peggy had both gone missing for 6 years, without you knowing what had happened to them, while having confirmation that they were not dead, would you have been sane? While you wonder if there's something you had done to anger them, to make them stay away from you, would you have cared about anything else but finding them?"
"Yes." Steve answers, lying.
I smile, the smile telling him that he cannot hide the lie from me, but without calling him out on it, I say, "Then you're a far better man than I am, Steve."
Steve angrily opens his mouth to yell some more, but is interrupted when Natasha says, "Steve." Steve stops, and as he looks at her she says, "Let him explain first, please. This is not the time to fight amongst ourselves."
Glad to see Natasha at least is thinking.
Nodding in thanks to Natasha, I say, "Tony knows this, but my mental state wasn't good these last 27 years. It began a few months after Selene disappeared, and I only began thinking clearly when I met Steve in Stuttgart that day."
Hell, Candra, someone I've known for a thousand years, had been with me whenever I was on Earth, both of us looking for Selene. But I wasn't close to her. Not close enough for me to keep my sanity. Maybe Darla or Dorea would have knocked me back to my senses, but I didn't allow them to know just how bad my situation was.
I didn't allow them to see me for what I'd become. But as soon as Steve appeared.. my mind defaulted to my WW2 era state. Or well, it began defaulting to that state.
"Loki's capture." Steve mumbles.
I nod, and continue, "The face of an old friend, one of my closest friends even, I would say, made me interfere that day. Otherwise.. I would not have stepped in to help at all. And I am not being too hard on myself, neither am I being dismissive of the situation, it's just how my mind was back then. I was completely selfish, too focused on finding Selene."
"That didn't mean I was cruel, of course. When Peggy called me after Howard's death, her own suspicions in hand, I investigated the leaders of Shield, and gave Peggy and the MIS everything I found out. Including the names of multiple leaders, the Government officials under Hydra's payroll, and some of the victims that lost their life against Hydra. Like Howard and Maria, Dum Dum Dugan, and many more."
I look at Steve's grim face, ignore the anger flowing off of Tony, and say, "I've said it before, Steve, but I am not a Hero. You may have thought my tears were a sign of me agreeing with you, but no. These last 27 years the world could have ended and I wouldn't have cared, because as far as I cared, my only priority was finding Selene."
"You can't mean that." Steve whispers, staring at me as if I've betrayed him, which.. I kinda did.
I look away, at Bucky, and answer, "Yes. Yes I do."
For a few seconds they stay silent, no one saying anything. And I leave them to their thoughts. I knew exactly what was going through Steve's mind. According to him, I betrayed everything I stood for, by not taking care of Hydra or not even fighting against them these last 27 years.
Again, though. I. Didn't. Care. I do now, not as much as Steve probably does, but I do. With Selene back in my life, I've been thinking clearly once again.
Tony's still angry, at Bucky mostly, but me too. For preventing me from killing him and not satisfying his vengeance. Sam is just upset that one of the heroes he had looked up to was not the man he thought I was. As for Natasha, she's the only one not really upset with me. She is upset, but not as much as the others.
Natasha's a spy, an Assassin. More than that, however, she has a sister out there somewhere, missing, presumed dead, and she knows that she will do anything to look for her, to save her. So in a way, Natasha understands.
"What will happen to him?" Sam asks, tilting his head to point at Bucky.
I sigh, and say, "I'll heal him, of course. I'll help him get his identity back. And while I cannot bring his entire arm back-" his body will not be able to regrow the arm no matter how much Healing Magic I provide, or how much Org-grow he drinks, "-I will definitely provide an alternative prosthetic."
As Sam nods, Tony leans forward and asks, "Can't you just Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo his ass and heal him back up? Xavier said something about you snapping Wolverine's mind back together with some green light."
I frown, and as I notice the others paying attention, I explain, "It's not that simple, Tony. Wolverine is like me, a mutant with a very fast healing factor. The only thing wrong with his mind was an overwrite of his memories thanks to an injury. I just helped realign those memories correctly, thereby giving him access to them again. And it still hurt him like hell. It was only his Healing mutation that allowed him to recover within minutes."
"Bucky not only has been traumatically forced to suppress all of his memories, repeatedly, he's also been conditioned to revert back to the Persona of the Winter Soldier whenever some trigger words are uttered. And I have no idea what most of them are, his memories go blank whenever the first three are said."
My words seem to make Steve even more upset, and he stands up. This time, he gently pushes Sam away when he tries to stop Steve, and grits out, "It's all your fault. You hear me?"
"How?" The voice comes from behind Steve, surprising all of them into pulling their weapons out. I don't, since I'd seen her walk in, and I recognised her voice. Selene raises an unimpressed eyebrow when she sees the guns pointed at her, and asks, "Tell me, Mr Rogers. How is your friend's condition his fault?"
"Who are you?" Natasha asks, keeping the gun pointed at her.
Selene barely glances at her, starts walking towards me, and says, "Drop the guns, children, it won't be of any use in harming me. As for who I am.."
Standing up, I kiss Selene in greeting, and with a soft smile despite the situation, I say, "Everyone, this is my wife, Selene Aetos. Selene, you already know who all of them are."
Slowly, beginning with Sam, they all drop their guns. Well, except for Tony, he had already done it after the first shock, having seen her before.
"So?" Selene asks, staring at Steve.
Steve looks uncomfortable, although his anger at me hasn't abated yet, and says, "He knew about Hydra. And he did nothing. How is this not his fault?"
Selene still looks unimpressed, and asks, "And why is combating Hydra his responsibility? Hydra is a problem of the mortal muggles, not of us Mages or even the mutants. Even still, my Husband went out of his way to fight in YOUR war."
Tony raises an eyebrow, and asks, "You two don't consider yourselves mortals?"
Selene scoffs, and answers, "Unlike your Asgardian friend we don't claim to be Gods either. And why would I consider myself mortal? I've been alive for more than 17,000 years."
Her statement seems to have shocked all of them, as Tony turns towards me and shakily asks, "She.. she's joking.. right?"
Sighing, mentally cursing Selene for dropping this particular bomb, I say, "No. She's being completely honest here."
Before the topic can divert to her age and lack of mortality, Selene takes over again, and says, "But back to my husband. He may not have lived as long as I, but it still wasn't his war. Mages had no reason to interfere in your war, and yet, my husband still did. In fact, he was the only Mage to participate in that war directly from your side. Did he not help defeat Hydra during your War? Did he not fight for you, take injuries for you, bleed for you? Did he not give his all for Hydra's defeat?"
'Granted, if it wasn't for this war, I wouldn't have met you at all.' Selene says in my mind, sounding grateful.
If I hadn't gone to war with Hydra I wouldn't have been captured by Hydra, or met James and Victor, meaning I wouldn't have gotten my Healing mutation. So, even if I somehow still found a way to fight Grindelwald, I would have been far weaker, and maybe Grindelwald would have wiped the floor with me.
Or maybe Grindelwald only gathered that much personal power because he had foreseen me becoming that strong. Who knows what he Saw and what inspired his decisions.
I smile softly, thanking Selene telepathically for her words, as Steve and Tony start feeling bad. But a single deeper look is enough for both Selene and I to see that he still doesn't completely believe her. That I am not to blame here. That HYDRA still came back.
Snorting, at catching that particular thought, Selene says, "Their revival is not his fault, Rogers, but the fault of your own government. Not even his old government, just yours. America is what allowed the pests called Hydra to grow to what they are. And you know it.
"As for 'doing nothing', he did do something. He took a break from looking for me, spent a few weeks investigating, and submitted his reports to your friend Peggy Stevens, and his subordinates at the MIS. Peggy's inaction can be excused by the fact that she was already retired at that point, and the MIS's inaction can be excused by their unwillingness to do anything that might be interpreted as aggression by the Americans."
Steve steps back as Selene takes a step forward, and she asks, "So I ask again. How is this his fault?"
Steve opens and closes his mouth a few times, trying to find an answer. When it looks like he's about to say something, he's once again interrupted by Natasha, who calls out to him and says, "Steve, don't. Just.. don't."
When Steve looks at her, Natasha continues, "I have a lot of red in my ledger. It was practically dripping at the point that Clint brought me to SHIELD. And even for SHIELD I've carried out multiple Assassination missions, successful ones, many of which had somewhat innocent targets."
"But you've changed. You haven't gone on those kinds of missions since New York!" Steve argues.
Natasha raises an eyebrow, and asks, "And you think he can't change?" Shaking her head, she says, "Look, if our past actions mattered as much as you seem to believe then you'll be the only good person in this room. I've killed actual innocent children for my employers, even for SHIELD. Tony's deeds we all already know. Wilson worked for the US Air Force, and we all know just how clean our Air Force is. I don't know anything about Mrs Aves over there, and Barnes is an actual HYDRA assassin responsible for hundreds of deaths. And you're still advocating for Barnes but you condemn Aves?"
Sam looks uncomfortable, confirming her words about the Air Force, and Tony just grumbles at being brought into the topic again. His past is, as we all know, a sore subject for him.
"What matters is that we're all willing to fight HYDRA now. We're all on the same side, and you're just trying to look for reasons to hate him right now. Don't forget, we have the Government after us. So tell me, can't you look beyond your perceived offense for now at least?" Natasha finishes, and Steve just frowns.
Not willing to accept it just like that however, I sigh when he says, "But he hid it from us, Natasha. When Pierce met us in New York, he knew right then and there that Pierce was Hydra, and he did nothing. He said nothing!"
Steve turns to look at me, and asks, "First it was your Survival, then your Magic, then your Mutation. And now this, HYDRA. What else are you hiding, Mason? What else have you lied about that can bite us in the ass in the future?"
Before I even know it's happening, Selene's hand is raised and Steve finds himself flying back into the air, slamming into the stone walls with a large force. I grab Selene's hand, stopping her from attacking him once more, but stop when she glares at me.
Turning back towards Steve, Selene starts stomping towards him, and snarls, "You.. ungrateful.. child! Have you any idea who you're speaking to? Who you're doubting?!"
Natasha and Sam had their guns back out, and Tony was approaching the Suit, slowly, to not attract attention.
"Selene." I say, in a warning tone. I don't want her to say what I might regret later, nor do I want her to harm Steve.
Selene glares at me, stopping me from saying anything, again, and turning to Steve, who's standing in a fighting pose, she says, "Stop allowing him to walk all over you, Athreos. He's your friend, not some Moral compass you need to measure yourself against. And right now, he's not even behaving like your friend. He has no right to judge you after all you've sacrificed for their survival."
"Athreos?" I hear Tony mumble, as I approach Selene.
While Natasha asks, "What sacrifices?"
Thankfully, Steve doesn't attack her in revenge for being thrown back.
Selene's hand twitches, which I know is itching to curse Steve, and she asks, "You want the truth, mortal?"
"I want to know why he didn't feel it necessary to fight HYDRA when they killed his friends!" Steve yells.
"Because, as he literally just said, HYDRA wasn't his priority. His priority was finding me, his wife." Selene calmly says, glaring at him still. "I am proud of him, proud of his love for me. And even if he might feel as if he was wrong in not doing anything, which you're conveniently ignoring in favour of having a target to blame for everything, I don't think him guilty at all." Narrowing her eyes, she says, "In fact, if I was in his place, I would have personally burned the whole world down to find him. And trust me, I am not at all exaggerating."
Sighing, I pull Selene away from Steve's face, and say, "That's enough Selene. That's enough."
Selene keeps staring at Steve, and says, "You have a common enemy right now, HYDRA. Concentrate on fighting them, and once you've managed to see beyond your anger, then come and talk to my husband again. Until then, leave my sight and do not antagonize my husband again. Or else.."
I pull her again, a bit more forcefully, making her face me. Selene looks at me, a frown on her face, and says, "He doubts your intentions and you still save him. Are you sure he's your friend?"
I smile, feeling Steve's guilt and anger at that sentence, and say, "Yes. Yes he is."
"You don't mind his doubts?" Selene asks, raising an eyebrow.
Shaking my head, I glance at Steve, who's limping towards Natasha and Sam, and say, "I guess I'm just glad he's thinking for himself for once." For so long Steve had been following my lead during the war, I guess I'm glad he's growing out of the shadow he had kept himself in. Even if it is through a rage filled haze. "How's Peggy?" I ask then.
That captures Steve's attention once again, and as he looks at us, Selene answers, "Calmer now. Feeling safe now that her family's with her."
Peggy's family, meaning her husband, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I'd brought them here as soon as Peggy had asked for them, which was literally 10 minutes after she'd been brought here, to Sanctuary.
"Peggy's here?" Steve asks, guiltily approaching us.
Selene scowls at him, and answers, "I don't find myself surprised that you've already forgotten what your friends told you. Or maybe it just slipped your mind while you were busy stabbing him in the back." Boy she hates him, doesn't she? "There was an assassination attempt on her, by your friend Barnes himself, and Peggy was brought here by myself. Her family is with her currently, so if you want to meet them, you'll have to wait and ask for their permission."
"Ah.. speaking of here.. Where exactly are we? It's just that my GPS has been wonky ever since your husband broke the laws of Physics and teleported us here." Tony interjects, breaking the tension with a grin.
Smiling, I answer, "Sanctuary is.. well, a Sanctuary, for Magical creatures. It is on Earth, in the Arabian Sea, but you wouldn't be able to pinpoint it using any tracking apparatus, at all. It is absolutely unplottable."
Better not tell them about the intricacies about the Island being a nexus point between two planets. That would go over.. well.
"Huh." Tony eloquently says.
Suddenly, his phone rings, making me glad that my spells didn't destroy his tech. He goes away for a minute, to talk on the phone, and when he returns, he is.. uncharacteristically grim faced.
"What is it?" Steve asks, and everyone else stays silent.
Tony looks at me, and says, "That was Rhodey. SHIELD came to Stark Tower to arrest me for suspicion of treason. Guess they saw me back in DC. And since I wasn't there, they tried to arrest Pepper for her association with me. Thankfully, Rhodey was there, and managed to scare them off, and made a complaint to the President about it, so they're in the clear for now. But.."
"But they can act again. And this time, Rhodey might not be able to stop them without a fight." Steve says, none of us having any doubts that HYDRA will follow actual protocol. They might even do it just to have leverage on Tony.
Tony nods, and says, "Also, one of the SHIELD agents gave him a letter, for you and I. A set of coordinates given by Maria Hill, apparently, along with a simple message. 'Bet you 10 bucks you'll be surprised if you come here.'"
Steve and Natasha share a glance, and Natasha says, "It could be a trap."
"It could also be Maria asking for help, or offering help." Steve counters.
Sighing, I offer, "Give me the location, I'll go and check it out."
Tony nods, and on his phone, he opens up the GPS to show the location provided by Hill, apparently.
Natasha steps forward, and says, "I'll go with him."
While not needed, I don't argue with her. She doesn't trust me yet, not completely, but this was her way of showing she's willing to.
Kissing Selene once more, I say, "Don't harm them while I'm gone."
Selene grins, and says, "I won't cause them any more injury."
Eh, good enough.
Holding Natasha by her shoulder, I apparate us to the location given to us by Rhodey, already making us invisible, silent, and all around undetectable. Let's see if that's actually Hill that sent the message.
–
Appearing with a soft pop, Natasha drops down low and brings her guns out. She looks around, trying to see if we'd invited ourselves to an ambush, and then immediately moves towards the nearest tree to hide behind it.
We'd found ourselves in a small corpse of woods, with a clearing in front of us leading to a river dam. The air was humid, and there was a little bit of stench from the blocked water flow. W
"What are you doing?" I ask, staring at her as if she's crazy.
Natasha looks at me, standing in plain view of the clearing in front of us without a care in the world, and asks, "Hiding from a prospective ambush?"
Snorting, I start walking towards the dam and say, "Come on, you're making me look bad. My spells are keeping us completely undetectable right now. You can be as loud as you want. Of course, it isn't an invitation to be careless, so please don't step on that trip wire."
Natasha looks down, as she starts walking, and sure enough, she's about to step on a wire that's barely a centimeter above ground, hidden in the grass. It's probably just an alarm system, but no need to be careless.
As I stop in front of the side of the dam, staring at the simple metal gate with a chain lock, Natasha joins me in staring through the bars, and says, "That's.. not ominous at all."
Chuckling, I say, "On first glance, it does look a bit.. horrific, doesn't it. But I guess they didn't spend much time preparing it to avoid detection."
"Who's they?" Natasha asks, sounding curious.
Closing my eyes, I take in the thoughts coming from inside, and answer, "Just three people. Maria Hill, a Doctor Russo, and.. well I'll be damned. Nicholas Joseph Fury, unconscious, but alive."
Natasha's heart skips a bit, and surprisingly, she looks visibly shocked. You know it's serious when a spy like her is visibly shocked.
"You're lying." Natasha says, not willing to accept it.
Snorting, I drop my spells hiding me, and say, "You hide one truth and people repeatedly call you a liar." Turning towards her, I not-so-gently push the metal gate away. As the chains drop down with a loud clunk, I ask, "Why not join me in meeting him and then decide for yourself, Ms Widow?"
As Natasha argues with herself over walking into the dark tunnel, the lights hanging above the tunnel start lighting up the way, as we hear a pair of shoes rushing towards us from the inside.
Natasha brings her gun out again, and points it inside, only for us to come face to face with another gun wielding woman walking towards us. She stops around a dozen meters away from us, and asks, "Where are Rogers and Stark?"
"Away. Just in case this was a trap." I answer calmly, putting my hands in my pockets.
The woman, Maria Hill, drops the gun, and says, "Figures. Can you call them here? He's waiting for them and you, Romanoff."
Natasha looks at me, and once I nod, she slowly drops her own gun. As Hill starts leading us inside, she says, "We just weren't expecting you Aves."
I humm, and say, "To be fair I have not been out of my house since a few days after New York."
Hill nods stiffly, and asks, "You're caught up on the issue then? You know about Hydra."
Natasha snorts, and says, "He's known about Hydra since 1992."
Maria looks at me, scowling, but before she can start giving me a headache with the same arguments I'd listened to barely two minutes ago, Natasha says, "Don't. Just don't. He has his reasons, and I'm not in the mood of beginning a yelling match again."
Maria raises an eyebrow, and asks, "Story?"
"Too long to tell." Natasha answers, basically saying she won't be telling it right now.
Soon, we're standing in front of the barely alive Nick Fury, eye-patch and all, as he stares at us through half-lidded eyes. He is also a bit uncomfortable with my presence here, just like Hill, but he ignores it for now, and turning towards Natasha he says, "I was told you were shot."
Natasha uses her head to point at me, and says, "He used his Magic to heal me."
Waving my hand in a hello, I ask, "Want me to heal you too?"
Fury takes a moment to think, which means at least he's conscious enough to suspect me of betraying him. Funnily enough, that tells me that he's still sane. Slowly, he nods, and says, "If you don't mind. Where have you been, by the way?"
I place my hand on his body and slowly start sending the green tendrils of Healing Realm's magic into his body. I smile at the question and say, "Home. I found my wife and we've been busy reuniting."
Fury snorts, as his wounds visibly start healing in front of everyone's eyes, not one of the people here doubting exactly what we'd been doing during our reunion.
To be fair we did do a lot of that. Most of the time we were just cuddling, needing physical contact with one another constantly.
Flexing his shoulder, once the collarbone is fixed, Fury interrupts me and says, "Enough for now. I'd like it if the others gather here before I am completely healed and forced to sleep."
Considering that he hasn't slept in the last 13 hours at all, despite the many injuries he's suffered, I have no doubts that he'll have to sleep soon.
Shrugging, I wave my hand, conjuring a portal to the side.
"You can teleport AND create portals?" Fury asks from the back, as the portal starts forming.
I don't even look at him, and say, "Magic."
"..just saying, you know. Captain Avalon is clearly stronger, smarter and has better senses. There's no way Captain America wins in a straight fight to the death." We all hear Tony argue as the portal forms completely.
Sam Wilson, the man who he was arguing with, stands up with a start once he sees the portal, but relaxes when he sees Natasha and I on the other side.
"Where's Steve?" Natasha asks, looking around the portal.
Sam sighs, and pointing at the door, he says, "Off to meet with his old flame."
I frown, knowing that her husband would definitely not appreciate it if he hears this. Shaking my head, I say, "Call him. We have a Purge to plan."
Sam nods, and leaves out the door as Tony walks in through the portal, the armour now once again around him.
He looks around, his eyes stopping at Fury, and with a grin, he says, "Heh, knew it."
Natasha snorts, and asks, "Is this it then? Tony, Steve, Sam, Mason and I? To fight Hydra?"
Fury smirks, and says, "Oh you'll have help. You'll have all the help you'll need. At the end of this mission HYDRA won't have a leg to stand on."
—
A/N: This.. is the last proper chapter. There are two Summary chapters, which I'll have to first go through and fix before I post them, and then one One-Shot about the Multiverse of Madness.
And that's it.
Thank you for your support! Tata!
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