Rapid Love | P. MAXIMOFF

[23] angry too

It took Pietro a relatively long time to get Beatrix to calm down. She ended up falling asleep in his arms, clearly exhausted from whatever she had been through when she was with HYDRA.

He brought her to his room from when he was staying at the compound before their assignment in Belgium and he placed her carefully on the bed. He moved to back up but she reached out quickly and latched onto his arm.

She didn't seem to be awake but he wasn't going to pry her off of him. He carefully got in the bed next to her, remaining above the covers as he stared at the ceiling.

The guilt had been eating him alive since the moment he realized she had been taken but seeing her like that...Seeing her being used as a weapon again - something he knew that she feared greatly - made it so much worse.

If he had just stayed with her and not left because she wouldn't stop pestering him. He was stupid. So incredibly stupid. She was his partner and he was supposed to stay with her. She was important to him and he never should have left her. She was...well, she was Beatrix and he would be damned if he let anything else happen to her. If anyone tried to get to her, they would have to go through him.

He looked over at her and he scanned her features. Physically she appeared fine which he was grateful for at first, until it made him think about what they had done to torture her. What they had done to make her so afraid.

He wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do, either. He had gotten her back, yes, but people knew she had been temporarily working for the otherside. She was still an enemy of the state even if her actions were involuntary. The new King of Wakanda had informed the Secretary of State of her arrival before anyone could stop him.

Steve had gotten Bucky out before anyone got their hands on them though the Black Panther came close. From his understanding, the entire team had split in half because of the Accords.

Natasha, Rhodey, Vision and Tony had all agreed that signing the accords was the best course of action while Wanda, Clint, Steve and Sam had all believed it to be a violation of their rights and counterproductive to the Avengers whole objective.

Pietro and Beatrix had discussed their viewpoints briefly but with recent events held into account, Pietro had no idea how he felt about the whole thing. What he did know, however, was that if signing the Accords meant leaving the people he cared about out on their own when they needed help the most, he didn't care for them.

Beatrix muttered something and he turned to look at her immediately. She appeared to still be asleep but her eyebrows were pinched together and she seemed to be in pain. "No," he managed to make out. "Not again."

"Beatrix," he tried as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Bea, wake up. It's just a dream."

He wasn't fast enough to act - which said a lot given his fast reflexes - as she moved quickly, her cyborg hand wrapping around his throat. His eyes widened as he grabbed at her arm. He looked up at her to see that she seemed to not be fully there. She was still asleep. "Princessa," he croaked out, "Wake up."

He could feel himself going lightheaded as the edges of his vision began to grow black. His eyes began to close when the pressure on his neck suddenly disappeared. He let out a gasp as his hand moved to his neck. He sat up quickly to see that Beatrix had flung herself to the other end of the room.

Pietro got up quickly and made his way over to her. She tried to move away from him but ended up pressed against the wall. She shook her head, "Stay away from me. I don't want to hurt you."

"Hey, hey," he spoke calmly, kneeling down in front of her. His voice was slightly strained but he was healing quickly. The perks of being fast, he supposed. "You won't hurt me." She gestured to his neck at a loss for words. "You were asleep," he reminded her, his voice now normal, "And I'm fine."

She reached her hand up and he didn't flinch as she traced the faint bruise on his neck. He was grateful that it had no doubt already started to fade because otherwise she wouldn't have believed him at all.

Her jaw clenched and he reached down to grab her hands, helping her to her feet. "Let's go see if the others have returned."

She nodded in agreement before Pietro took her hand and led her from the room and navigated his way through the compound. It had been awhile since he had been here but he still remembered the basics.

"Mr. Stark," Pietro said as soon as he saw the man. Beatrix watched with furrowed eyebrows as she limped toward a room. He turned to look at the pair but grimaced at the action. "What happened?"

"You look like you got hit by a bus and then dragged for blocks," Beatrix observed.

Tony sent her a half smile, "It's what it feels like too."

"Where is everyone?"

"Incarcerated," he answered simply. "They broke the law so the Secretary had a special place set up just for them."

"They're in jail?" Pietro demanded. "All of them."

"Yes," he replied simply as he collapsed on the couch.

"How could you let this happen?"

"I didn't let it happen, they did it to themselves," he pointed out. "Besides, I didn't know they would end up in the middle of the ocean."

"You knew they would be arrested," he countered. "You knew they would be locked up somewhere."

"I don't have the energy to deal with you right now," he waved off, "Try again tomorrow."

Pietro opened his mouth to reply but Beatrix placed her hand on his shoulder. He looked back at her and she shook his head. She could see that Tony would be no help.

She turned around and left the room, Pietro following behind. "What are we going to do?"

"I'm not sure there's anything we can do," she replied with a sigh. "We don't know where they are so unless the plan is for us to get arrested and hope that we end up in the same place, we're stuck."

"Then we'll find them."

"How?"

"I - I don't know," he answered, "But we have to try."

She nodded in agreement, "I know. But we can try tomorrow. At the moment, between the two of us we're maybe a sixth of the brain power we're going to need to track down a government protected jail that could be anywhere."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair quickly, "Yeah, yeah, you're right. Tomorrow."