บท 68: Chapter 68
Maggie had never been to the Avengers operations room before. It was where the Avengers and their support staff prepared intel, planned missions, and where base staff communicated with the Avengers while they were being heroes out in the world.
Maggie eyed the door to the operations room, her hand still in Tony's. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yep," he replied, and then opened the door and led her inside.
The operations room reminded her a little of Tony's workshop because it was full of machines – computers, scanning devices, holographic screens. She'd sort of been expecting a dark room with nothing but glowing computer screens to cut through the gloom, but this room was just as light and space-age looking as the rest of the facility (though she had no doubt that the glass windows were missile-proof and impossible to see through from the outside). The setup kind of reminded her of pictures of NASA mission control rooms (she'd seen plenty of those, thanks to Bucky's obsession with space travel).
Unlike Tony's workshop, the operations room was packed. Avengers agents and analysts conversed over data-filled screens, slid through the press of people with their arms full of folders and tablets, and pored over files. Some of them were injured, but they all seemed 100% focused. A few looked up when Tony and Maggie walked in, then went back to work without a second glance.
But Maggie couldn't bring herself to focus for long on the busy people in the room. Her gaze instantly focused on two people in the center of the chaos.
Rhodey and Vision looked up as she entered, and for a few moments all any of them could do was just look at each other. Rhodey looked as if he'd just gotten out of the armor, still in the carefully-designed underarmor outfit and hastily strapped into his exosuit. Vision still wore his battle-gear, blue suit and gold cape and all. Their faces creased in near-identical expressions of concern when they saw her.
Tony extracted his hand from her sudden death-grip and gave her shoulder a shove. She stumbled, then found herself pushing through the harried agents and analysts, through to the center of the room where she threw herself into Vision and Rhodey's arms. They reeled her in and held her tight, and Maggie gripped them probably harder than was comfortable, but just enough to reassure herself that they were here, and safe.
"Are you okay?" she mumbled into Rhodey's shoulder as Vision patted her back awkwardly.
Rhodey huffed. "Please, you scratched the paintjob on my armor. I'm fine." He pulled back and scanned her face. "You doing alright?"
She took in a deep breath. "I'm scared. And angry. And really, really sorry."
"You have no reason to be sorry," Vision interjected, his hand warm as ever on her shoulder. "I am sorry I wasn't here to–"
"Agh," Tony interrupted, and they all glanced over at him. "Maggie's sorry, you're sorry, we're all sorry – but you put it best just now, Marinara, who should really be sorry?" He made an expansive gesture which brought up an enormous holographic screen, and then crossed his arms over his chest and gave them all a pointed look. "Let's give her the briefing."
Maggie cocked an eyebrow at Vision and Rhodey then extricated herself and went to stand by Tony's side. A few nearby analysts had stilled and were eyeing the Avengers and Maggie standing in the middle of the room.
Rhodey put his hands on his hips and nodded. "Alright. Vision you've been working the most on this, you wanna take it?"
"Certainly." Vision didn't need to make hand gestures to manipulate the holographic screen – in an instant the screensaver (the annoying one with the bouncing bubbles) cleared away to reveal a slowly-revolving logo in grey and yellow:
A. I. M.
Maggie's hands balled into fists. "A.I.M. did this?" she turned on Tony. "I thought they were gone?"
He clenched his jaw and gestured for Vision to continue.
"A.I.M. did fall apart after the Extremis terrorist plots and the death of CEO Aldrich Killian," Vision said, and the screen shifted to a picture of Killian's face; strong-jawed and blonde. Tony huffed. "But over recent months we became aware of a new scientific group growing in influence in the shadows." Killian's face was replaced by dozens of headlines including Cyber-Attack on Stark Industries Fails; Theft at medical technology company leaves authorities baffled; and Bodies of seven missing men and women found in trash compactor: M.E. finds signs of experimentation.
Maggie's gut churned. "And this is A.I.M.?"
"The fragments of it," Vision explained and gestured to the screen which now showed hundreds of employee profiles: scientists mostly, their faces crowding the screen. "Everyone at A.I.M. who was involved with Extremis is dead or in prison, but these scientists worked in other areas of the company. When A.I.M. collapsed they were left without jobs and without prospects, and they banded together with remaining A.I.M. soldiers. This was 2013. It is unlikely that the remaining fragments of A.I.M. would have survived had it not been for…" Vision hesitated, then at a nod from Tony changed the screen once more. Maggie flinched back as a black tentacled skull filled her vision.
She swallowed. "HYDRA funded them."
"Funded them, gave them resources and arms and soldiers," Rhodey added, his hands on his hips and his face grim. "A.I.M. provided them weapons in return. When HYDRA fell they hid in the shadows, and now they're some kind of A.I.M./HYDRA mix. We didn't even know they were back until this year, when they started turning their focus on Stark Industries."
"Turns out they're… not super happy with me," Tony continued. "Apparently they're mad at me for shutting down their company and their jobs, and for murdering their boss – which totally isn't fair because that was Pepper–"
"Tony," Maggie breathed. "They're the ones who tried to have you killed, aren't they? They hired that guy?"
He grimaced. "Uh, yeah. We knew there was a hit out on me, so it wasn't really a big surprise–"
She bristled. "You knew–"
"Let's not get off track," Vision interrupted smoothly. "Yes, we have been aware of A.I.M.'s activities lately, including their desire for revenge against Mr Stark. What we were not aware of was just how insidious their reach was. They managed to lure me to South America to get me out of the way, then executed months worth of planning to disable F.R.I.D.A.Y. and attack the compound. The staff member who colluded with them has already been arrested and charged, and today we struck a blow in retaliation – we captured a great portion of A.I.M.'s leadership and scientific staff."
"But they're still out there," Maggie inferred. Something was twisting, flickering in her chest – but it wasn't the cold calculation of the Wyvern. It was rage.
"Yeah," Rhodey sighed. "We finally worked out where their main base was, but some of them still managed to escape. Including their leader, Alan Crowe. We think they've got a secondary base somewhere." He ran a hand over his buzz cut. "I'm sorry, Maggie."
She shook her head once. "You heard Tony, don't be sorry." Her gaze was fixed on the screen, which now showed the Avengers files on the current A.I.M. members. Many of the images were crossed off, with captured or killed written beside them, but she could see that at least a fifth of them remained. The one at the top was a man called Alan Crowe. The image beside his name was an A.I.M. personnel ID picture of a dark-haired man in his mid-thirties with pale blue eyes, almost white.
Maggie's fingernails bit into her palm and she tore her gaze away from the A.I.M. members to look at the Avengers. Tony was grim-faced, his arms crossed over his chest as he glowered at the hologram. Vision looked calmer but he kept shooting glances at her. Rhodey looked exhausted.
She took a long breath through her nose. "And… they have my words?" the words were soft, but they may as well have been shouted with how they made the Avengers' faces darken.
Tony answered her. "Yes," he said. "You said you didn't know if there was anyone left alive who knew your words, but… do you recognize this guy?" he flicked a finger, and the photos of the A.I.M. leaders were replaced by a still from an interrogation room security camera. Maggie recognized Rhodey's profile, standing over the sleek metal table, but her eyes caught on the man handcuffed to the table: he was a rough-looking man, probably in his mid-sixties, with a close-shaven head and a bulk to his limbs and torso that suggested he had been muscular when he was younger but had let himself go. Maggie reached up to the hologram and zoomed in on his face.
She cocked her head. "Why, should I recognize hi–" she cut herself off as something in the man's dark eyes called to a memory somewhere deep inside her. She didn't know this man, but she knew that face, those eyes – where had he…
"Gagnon," she murmured, and by the way the Avengers shifted and glanced at each other she knew she'd gotten his name right. "He… he was a part of the Wyvern Project." She swallowed and looked up. "But he wasn't important – he was just a tech, there to carry things around and answer to the Chief Scientist." Her brow furrowed as she followed her memories. Gagnon, Morin, commencez l'installation. "He put my wings on me for the first time." Her skin prickled.
"Well," Tony said heavily, "he knows you, too." His fingers fluttered and the picture of Gagnon suddenly started moving, the video surveillance playing out before her eyes.
"We know you were a part of the Wyvern Project, Gagnon," came Rhodey's voice, outwardly calm despite the tension in his shoulders. "Your friends at A.I.M. gave you up, so we also know that you're the one who provided the Wyvern trigger words." On screen, Rhodey placed his hands on the table. "You were free and clear after HYDRA dissolved, you didn't get caught up in the cleanup afterwards. So why would you get right back in bed with another group like them?"
Gagnon sneered. "You're a sanctimonious fool."
"Oh?"
"Why would I be glad that HYDRA fell?" Gagnon hissed. "They had a vision, a beautiful one – peace in our world. You and people like you destroyed that vision. And now I see that Wyvern, that putain, mouthing off about 'HYDRA's crimes'". His face twisted as he spoke about her, and Maggie thought she was used to people hating her but something about the look in his eyes made her skin crawl. "She does not appreciate what HYDRA did for her – they gave her everything: strength, skills, wings" – something dark shone in his eyes – "and yet she spits in the face of her gifts."
Maggie watched screen-Rhodey's fists clench behind his back. Real-life Rhodey didn't seem to be doing much better, and she didn't look at Tony but she could feel the force of his rage even though he was standing behind her.
"So that is why I joined A.I.M., War Machine," Gagnon spat the name like a curse. "For revenge. And to remind that ungrateful chienne who she really belongs to."
"That's enough," Tony snapped, and the screen cut out. He stepped up beside Maggie and his arm brushed against hers, warm and supporting.
Maggie took a long breath in through her nose, and out her mouth. The Avengers watched her warily. She could feel their anger and grief echoing in the silent air around them.
She cleared her throat. "It seems to me," she said carefully, "that Mr Gagnon is a little bitch."
Tony and Rhodey choked on air and Vision's brows shot up. Maggie laughed breathlessly at them. "I mean it," she said. "I've been done with HYDRA and their bullshit for so long now, I don't give a flying fuck what he thinks about me." She shrugged, and met Tony and Rhodey's wide eyes. "He's been thinking about me and been angry at me for years and I haven't given him a second thought. Now he's going to go the rest of his life in prison knowing that my family beat him, and I'm going to go on continuing not to think about him." She took another breath, and marveled at the fact that she felt physically lighter. "So. A.I.M. is still out there. They have my words, and so do a significant number of people at this facility, and in prison. That's a problem."
Tony, Rhodey and Vision still seemed taken aback at her profanity-laden dismissal of Gagnon, but Vision recovered first. "Indeed. On the way back from A.I.M.'s base Mr Stark and I discussed improving our security – F.R.I.D.A.Y. will learn from this attack, and now will continuously change her base composition to ensure that even with months of study and inside help an attacker will not be able to isolate her and disable her for any amount of time."
"I won't let you down again," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said out of nowhere.
Maggie shook her head. "You didn't let anyone down, F.R.I.D.A.Y."
Tony, who had been staring at her like she'd grown a second head, suddenly blinked and clapped his hands. "Right. And on the way back from the base I also designed a new version of the Manacle that is F.R.I.D.A.Y. equipped, but also has offline ways to zap you if you get triggered. We can go fabricate it right now. It'll never go down, Maggie, I promise."
"Also," Rhodey chimed in, "Ross and the Accords Committee know what went down, but they're more focused on the Avengers public image and making sure we stick to the rules and regulations in our hunt for A.I.M." He crossed his arms. "We don't think they're going to try to make a move against you, Maggie. Not a lot they can do anyway, you're still on trial and we're already working on upping security."
Rhodey and Vision started bouncing ideas about how to re-up facility security and hunt down A.I.M.'s remnants, and Maggie leaned back against a nearby desk and let the words wash over her.
She felt tired in her very bones, and her eyes ached from tears and exhaustion, but something had changed as she spoke to her brother and his teammates. She wasn't sure how, but the numbing hopelessness that had been draped over her like layers of snow had melted away. She felt strong again, like she had in those rare moments when she had taken her destiny into her own hands – escaping HYDRA, kissing Bucky on the dance floor, stepping into a room full of people to say My name is Margaret Stark, and I'm here to put an end to twenty five years of silence.
As the Avengers hypothesised about where A.I.M.'s remaining forces could have fled to, Tony looked over at Maggie. She smiled at him, and he came to lean against the desk beside her.
"You seem to be doing alright after being turned into a murder-bot," he murmured, elbow nudging hers.
Her face twisted, but she couldn't help the flicker of a smile at the corner of her mouth. If Tony was joking about it, that meant he felt like he could handle it.
She leaned into him. "I'm inclined to believe you all when you say it wasn't my fault. Maybe that makes me selfish–"
"– it really doesn't–"
"– but I don't have the energy to be angry at the people who did this and myself."
"No good at multi-tasking?"
"Oh I'm plenty good at multi-tasking," she replied, and her eyes flicked up to the revolving images of the A.I.M. leaders who had escaped. "But I know what to focus on."
Tony slung an arm around her shoulders with a grin. "Good to have you back, Maggot."
The Avengers spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday boosting security after the attack. Maggie ended up with a brand-new Manacle – or rather, four brand new Manacles: a standard bracelet, two anklets and a sub-dermal chip in the base of her neck, each running on completely different systems so that if one got taken out, there would be three other fail safes. Each would safely knock her out the instant anyone said verre in her presence. She made a mental note to avoid French people.
Tony had also designed an Iron Man suit to encase Maggie in a crisis if those failed, which would be finished fabricating on Monday.
He also somehow found time to triple facility security (he was almost as protective of the Avengers and their home as he was of Maggie, and Maggie could feel his anger every time he saw an injured staff member).
On Sunday morning, Maggie listened once again as Tony reassured her non-stop that something like the attack would never happen again, and realized that this was unusual. He was going beyond protectiveness and into… oh.
Maggie leaned across the workshop table and rested her hand on his. He fell dead silent in the middle of a sentence and looked up at her with wide eyes.
"Tony," she said. "I'm not going to leave." He didn't move, but warm relief flooded his eyes. She cocked her head. "Not unless you want me to."
"I don't want you to," he said immediately. "I know you hero-types, the second you think you're a danger to other people you run away to protect the people around you."
Maggie eyed Tony's pinched face. Oh. This is about Bruce. She let go of his hand, then leaned against the workbench and met his eyes. "Good thing I'm not a hero then," she said matter-of-factly. "I am dangerous. But… I don't think leaving is the answer. You're right, the odds of this happening again are… well, they're low. Touch wood." She knocked her knuckles gently against his skull and smiled at his disgruntled huff. She'd learned that superstitious tradition from Bucky. "I'm terrified because now I know that there are people who know my words, people I walk past every day. But I know you and the Avengers are going to track those A.I.M. assholes to the ends of the earth, and I know these new security measures will work, and I know that I am going to do everything within my power to get rid of these trigger words." She thought of a strange metal bead dissolving into thin air, and allowed herself to hope. She smiled at Tony. "The odds are in my favor."
He sighed and relaxed a little. "I'm glad. I had a whole speech planned for trying to convince you to stay, but what with everything that happened yesterday and y'know, the murder trial I was resorting to some pretty weird arguments."
"Such as?"
"Well let's see, the worst one was probably 'Ben and Jerry's is about to release that Stark-themed ice cream, and if you run away you might have to go to a country that doesn't have Ben and Jerry's'."
Maggie snorted. "I don't know, I do like ice cream." He rolled his eyes. "But speaking of the trial, Andrea and Diego are probably here by now. Wanna come and talk me down when I have my inevitable freak out?"
"Sure, sounds fun."
Maggie had gotten close with Andrea and Diego over the past months, but she wasn't prepared for the way they shot to their feet as soon as she entered the room and ran to her with hundreds of questions on their lips. Diego pulled her in for a hug and Andrea laid one hand on her shoulder (that was about as touchy-feely as Andrea ever got, which said a lot).
Once Maggie reassured them that she was relatively uninjured (the bruise on her forehead was still remarkably colorful, but her serum was working on healing it) and not seconds away from psychological breakdown, they had a strategy meeting.
"The world knows the Avengers Facility got attacked," Andrea said, one hand resting just a few inches away from Maggie's. "They also know that there were no fatalities and that you're still here. The court would understand if we asked for an adjournment" – Andrea watched Maggie's face, and when the familiar look of stubborn determination crossed it she sighed – "but I assume that, as ever, you're determined to overlook your personal health and safety to continue."
"Aw, Mags, she knows you so well," Tony said from where he was leaning back in his chair. His joking tone was slightly undermined by the tension in his face.
Maggie rolled her eyes. "Every moment we delay is another moment that A.I.M. – or whoever else – has to recover, and make a new plan to use my words against me. I'd rather we got this whole trial over with, no matter the outcome, and focus on the threat they present."
Tony's eyes darkened. "Maggie, if you go to jail–"
"Then I go to jail," she interrupted. "It… it'll suck, don't get me wrong, but what happened this weekend doesn't change anything about the trial. It's still up to twelve men and women to decide what happens to me. I'm going to let them do their jobs."
Tony fell silent. To her left, Diego let out a long sigh. "¿Cómo te sientes, Maggie?" ["How do you feel, Maggie?"]
Maggie swallowed. She'd been so busy helping the Avengers triple down on security and track the remnants of A.I.M. that she hadn't stopped to think about it, apart from a quick meeting with Mai. She touched the split in her eyebrow and looked at Tony out of the corner of her eye. She recalled how exposed she'd felt sitting on the witness stand, baring her soul. What if it hadn't been enough?
She sighed. "Aterrorizado," ["Terrified,"] she replied. "But that's never stopped me before."
16th January 2017
Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, New York City
Maggie showed up to court on Monday morning as she had done for the past few weeks, climbing out of the car in neat, professional clothes with Tony, Rhodey, Pepper, and her lawyers by her side. But everything felt different. Three days ago this courthouse had been her entire world, bound up with grief and fear and hope. But today her thoughts were cast outwards, to the dozens of people who knew how to turn her into the Wyvern, and inwards, where her soul felt shaky and torn apart. As she pushed through the shouting crowd into the courthouse, purple bruise and split eyebrow plain for all to see, she had an awful thought: Tony had been afraid that she'd run away to keep the people around her safe. But she didn't have to run – if she was sent to prison then she wouldn't be a threat any more.
As if sensing her thoughts, Tony crowded into her side and steered her past a persistent reporter with a charming smile and a quip.
"Chin up, Maggot," he murmured.
She followed his lead.
There was only one more witness left in the whole trial. He was last partly because of travel requirements, and partly because he had a different kind of testimony to give. His name was Miguel Alvarez.
When the courtroom doors opened to admit Miguel, Maggie turned in her seat to look at him and her heart swelled. She saw echoes of the scared little boy she'd met in the snowstorm as he glanced around nervously at the full courtroom, but he was different. He was twelve years old now, lankier and darker, and she saw hints of the man he would become in his face and bearing. He wore a suit, though he was obviously uncomfortable in it, and Maggie saw him glance at his mother in the gallery. His mother nodded, smiling encouragingly, and he followed the bailiff to the witness box.
Once he sat down he looked over at Maggie for the first time. She wasn't quite sure what to do, but he gave her an awkward wave before he swore to tell the truth (in stilted English) and took his seat.
Maggie smiled at him. She'd had reservations about asking someone so young to testify in a high profile trial, but Andrea and Diego had assured her that when they asked Miguel and his mother, they had been enthusiastic to help.
The courtroom, prickling with gossip about what had happened at the Avengers facility over the weekend, fell silent.
Diego got to his feet. "Your honor, my current witness speaks some English, but for his benefit I have asked for a prosecution-approved translator to be provided." He nodded to a tall, slim woman who assumed her position by the witness box with a smile at Miguel.
"You may begin your questions, Mr Martinez," Moore said.
Diego nodded to Miguel. "Mr Alvarez, thank you for coming today. Can you please describe what happened to you on the 14th of August, 2014?" He repeated his question in Spanish.
Miguel cleared his throat, then began. His translator followed soon after. "I was at the ski resort with my family – the Los Penitentes ski resort in Argentina. There was a bad storm that day, and we all had to get off the mountain. I was meant to go down the chairlift with my sister, but…" he swallowed and ducked his head. "I got angry at her and made her go on the chairlift before me. I went down by myself. But then the storm got worse, and I don't know what happened but the chairlift stopped moving."
Diego brought up a map of the resort and got Miguel to point to where the chair had been found the next day. Diego made it clear that the chair was miles away from the lodge at the bottom of the valley, and showed some footage of the storm that day. The courtroom echoed with the crackly recording of howling winds.
"So you were trapped on a chair in the middle of a snowstorm with fatal temperatures. How did you feel?"
Miguel rubbed his arm. "I was really scared. I remember thinking that I was going to blow away in the wind, or get too cold and just go to sleep like I read about in a book once." He looked up. "But then she came."
"Who came, Miguel?"
He swallowed. "The woman with the wings." Maggie felt the people in the gallery lean forward, almost as one. She knew this story, but it felt so odd to hear it after all the testimony of her time as the Wyvern – in each of those stories the arrival of the winged woman had meant death and violence. But Miguel's voice echoed with relief. Hope.
"Please tell us what happened."
"I didn't really see her at first. All of a sudden there was someone on the chairlift with me. She said… she said she was going to take me back to my mother. I was too scared to let go of the handlebar, but she made me let go and picked me up. I was so cold, I thought maybe I was dying. But then she said to me: 'Estarás bien, pequeño. Estás a salvo ahora.'" The translator said it first in Spanish, then translated: "You're going to be alright, little one. You're safe now."
"You remember exactly what she said?" asked Diego.
"Yeah," Miguel nodded. "I remember because she called me pequeño – little one. My grandmother calls me that, so I felt safer with her."
Maggie swallowed hard. Miguel still looked nervous, but everyone in the courtroom hung on to his every word.
"And then what happened?"
"She jumped off the chair. I screamed, but then we were flying." Miguel's eyes shone. "It was like the storm didn't matter. We flew right down to the bottom of the mountain and to the main building of the lodge. She carried me inside and put me down. She took off her goggles – they were red – and then took off mine and stared at me." He paused, eyes distant. "She looked like an angel. The snow was stuck on her wings and made them glow. My grandmother told me about angels – she said they came to very special people. The woman put her fingers here" – Miguel tapped two fingers against the pulse point on his neck – "And I remember thinking that she was very warm. I asked her if she was an angel."
"What did the woman say?" asked Diego.
"She said no," Miguel said with a slight frown. A few people in the gallery chuckled. "She asked me my name, then said I had been brave and told me where to go to find my family."
"So you returned safely to your family?"
"Yes, they were in the big room with all the people and cameras."
"I believe we have footage of that reunion, Miguel, if you wouldn't mind seeing it?"
Miguel shrugged, and a video came up on the courtroom screen. Maggie had seen this video before. It showed a TV reporter talking animatedly in Spanish from inside the main lobby of the ski resort's main building. The cameraman spun just in time to capture a younger, wide-eyed and shivering Miguel with snow still dusting his blue jacket, as he stumbled into the room. Miguel stared at the busy room, then jumped as a high scream pierced the air, followed by a wail as his mother darted across the space towards him and pulled her into his arms. The screen suddenly flooded with people, and the video cut out.
Diego turned back to Miguel. "Miguel, do you see the person who saved you in this courtroom today?"
As if he'd been waiting the whole time for that question, Miguel's hand shot up to point straight at Maggie. She tried to conceal her smile, but she couldn't quite help it with the wide-eyed, adoring way he looked at her.
"Are you sure?" Diego asked, a small smile on his face as well.
Miguel nodded vigorously. "I'm sure. She took off her goggles to check on me, I remember what she looks like."
"Thank you," Diego said. "We've also got a few seconds of CCTV footage from a town fifty five miles away from Los Penitentes, recorded forty minutes before you were rescued. Would you mind taking a look at this footage and identifying the person it depicts?" A new video popped up on the screen. Maggie hadn't seen this one, and her eyebrow rose.
The footage was black and white, but it clearly showed a woman in a jacket and a scarf, carrying a backpack, running down a street in strong weather. Maggie inwardly tutted. Careless. But she supposed it was a good thing she'd gotten caught in this instance.
Diego zoomed in on the footage and the woman's face came into view: it was clearly Maggie, her face fixed in a determined expression. Maggie cocked her head and felt something like sadness stir in her chest – in that footage she'd just parted ways with Bucky, only to see him again a few hours later. He'd handed her the backpack with the wings in it. Be careful.
"Mr Alvarez," Diego said. "Is this the woman you saw?"
"Yes," Miguel replied, and turned to smile at Maggie.
"This footage was captured seven months after the fall of HYDRA," Diego continued. "Are you saying that this woman saved your life?"
Miguel's grin didn't drop. "Yes."
Diego nodded. "Thank you very much, Mr Alvarez. No further questions."
Mallory cross-examined Miguel, going for the angle of 'you're just a kid you don't know what you saw', but with the CCTV footage and the evidence of just how far Miguel had journeyed from the chairlift to the lodge, Maggie could see that the court – and more importantly, the jury – weren't buying it.
Maybe it's enough, she wondered, even though she hated herself a little bit for the hope. Maybe.
(attached video: Maggie Stark crouches in a courthouse corridor in front of Miguel Alvarez, while the boy's mother stands over his shoulder. Maggie speaks spoftly to Miguel, and suddenly he darts forward to plant a kiss on her cheek. Miguel's mother laughs, and the video shakes and then cuts out.)
Maggie and her team ate deli sandwiches in a courthouse meeting room.
"Okay," Diego said, "We're certain we've done everything we can, so we're ready to rest our case. There's just closing arguments left after that. How are we looking on press? It won't influence the jury –ideally– but that could be an indicator of how they might be leaning."
Everyone turned to Pepper. The Kemp & Martinez law firm had press experts of their own, but Pepper was doing the work anyway and had connections they didn't, so they'd started relying on her.
Pepper put down her tuna salad sandwich and cleared her throat. "To be honest, it's very polarized. Public opinion ranges from 'Maggie Stark is a sweet, innocent child who must be protected at all costs'–"
Tony choked. "Is that an actual quote–"
"– to 'she must be executed'," Pepper finished, with a grimace. "Half the time it seems like perception relies on how people perceive superheroes in general."
Maggie frowned. "But I'm not a superhero."
Pepper gave her a look.
Andrea cleared her throat. "Anything else? Diego and I need to go over our closing statement."
Pepper blinked. "Oh right, uh… yes, this came out this morning while we were in court." She slid a Stark tablet out of her bag and set it up on the table where they could all see.
She had brought up a YouTube video of a TV interview. The program's opening titles cleared away to show the interviewer, an older woman in a grey pantsuit, sitting across from–
"Hey, I know her," Maggie dropped her sandwich and leaned closer.
It was the woman from the bathroom, Hayley Mitchell. After they'd spoken alone together and Maggie had explained everything she knew about Ms Mitchell's brother's death, they'd seen each other around the courthouse. Ms Mitchell was there most days for the testimony, usually with bags under her eyes – Maggie suspected she had a night job or class, and yet she still kept coming. At the start of the trial the other woman had watched Maggie with angry, hateful eyes, but that look had since changed into something a little more considering. Now, on Pepper's tablet, Ms Mitchell's face was filled with a determination that Maggie recognized.
"Thank you for joining me today Hayley," the interviewer said. "You're here today for your brother Ben, right?"
"That's right," Ms Mitchell said. "My brother was my best friend growing up. He was a lot smarter than me though, and he ended up in S.H.I.E.L.D. I never really knew what he did because he had to keep secrets from everyone in his life, but he was still my best friend. I was devastated when he died." Ms Mitchell's grief flickered in her eyes, but she didn't cry.
"How did he die?" asked the interviewer.
"They said it was an allergic reaction and I… I believed them." Her face twisted. "But after HYDRA fell, we found out it wasn't an allergic reaction at all. He'd been poisoned."
"I'm very sorry," murmured the interviewer. "And you know who poisoned him, don't you?"
"I do." Ms Mitchell's chin lifted. "It was the Wyvern. I found out a few months after the HYDRA information leak. No details, just that a hit was put out on him."
"You've been attending the trial here in New York, yes?"
"Nearly every day," Ms Mitchell confirmed. She took a breath. "I've been so angry ever since I found out the truth about Ben's death. Angry since he died, probably. And all this time I've been looking for… justice, I think. Maybe revenge. I've been in a lot of pain." Tears glittered in her eyes and she reached up to swipe them away. "I don't wish the pain I felt on anyone, though I know there are plenty of people out there like me."
The interviewer didn't speak – it was clear that there were words waiting on Ms Mitchell's tongue, making her eyes flicker with turmoil. After a long, silent moment, she let out a breath. "I lost my brother," she murmured, and nodded to herself. "He was murdered. But even with that pain, I'm… I'm glad I had someone to tell me why he died."
"Someone?"
Ms Mitchell looked up. "Margaret Stark. I first came to her in anger, to confront the person who I blamed for my brother's death, and I… didn't really know what to expect. But I looked into her eyes and I saw that she was grieving as well – not for herself, but for Ben. When I next came to speak to her, I asked her why my brother died. And she told me everything she knew, everything that the HYDRA files hadn't said. Turns out Ben had discovered signs of HYDRA in S.H.I.E.L.D. two years before anyone else did, and he was trying to expose them." Ms Mitchell's voice trembled and she paused to wipe away more tears. "Ben died defending what he believed in."
There was another long silence. "How do you feel about Margaret Stark now?"
Ms Mitchell bit her lip. "Margaret Stark is… I'll never be able to forget that her hands are the ones that ended Ben's life, but I know it wasn't her mind. HYDRA could have made me kill him."
"You're referring to the HYDRA trigger words," the interviewer interjected.
"That, and everything… everything else. The programming, the brainwashing, that awful chair. Even when I got my answers about Ben I kept going back to court, because we… we need to acknowledge what was done." She cleared her throat. "I've been in the courtroom, and I've gone through the HERACLES website nearly every day. I'm glad that Margaret Stark is giving us all the information about her time with HYDRA, and I don't think that should stop. But we shouldn't be trying to punish her." Ms Mitchell met the interviewer's eyes with something like ferocity in her gaze. "She's gone through lifetimes of punishment already."
"You're remarkably empathetic, Hayley," said the interviewer, her voice soft. "You said you came here for your brother, but is there anything else you'd like to say?"
Ms Mitchell clasped her hands together in her lap. "Yes. I don't have the luxury of holding on to resentment any longer – particularly when I don't think the person I've been angry at for so long is even deserving of my anger. I need to forgive, for my own soul, but I also need to apologize to – to Ms Stark." She took a deep breath, then looked up at the camera. "Ms Stark. I've been hating you for two years now, but… I know now that you didn't want that violence. So I forgive you. And I'll grieve for you." She swallowed, her voice thick. "I'll grieve for you and your lost years, like I grieve for my brother."
The interviewer said something poetic to finish off the interview and the TV program went back to discussing the upcoming closing arguments in the trial, but Maggie didn't notice any of it. All she could see was the afterimage of Ms Mitchell's eyes, filled with grief and determination that echoed somewhere deep within Maggie.
So I forgive you.
Tony's arm settled around Maggie's shoulders and she took in a shuddering breath.
And I'll grieve for you.
"She's not alone," came Pepper's soft voice. "The interview's going viral. With that and your testimony from last week, other family members of victims have come out and said similar things. See?"
Maggie looked through blurry vision at the tablet, where Pepper had brought up an article published only an hour ago. The headline read: #IForgiveYou: How the Wyvern Trial Changed Minds and Turned Hearts.
Maggie hid her face in her hands and cried, her shoulders heaving. She wasn't sure what she was hiding from.
(images)
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