Iron Heart's Love

How Are You Alive?

Ronnie's POV

The ground beneath her was hard as a rock, yet wet and warm. Ronnie sat up, despite her exhaustion, and found she was on the side of a road. When she looked down the road, she saw a car barreling towards her. She tilted her head staring at it as the car swerved to miss her and kept speeding. Ronnie stared as the driver flipped her off, then disappeared down the road out of sight. She gathered up all her strength and stood up, she had to start moving and find her way home.

She had to tell everyone what was going on, they didn't have coms, so they had no idea what was happening. They needed to know she was okay, they needed to know that Aria was kidnapped. Tony needed to know that they were set up, it had to be a set up. There was no way he just knew where they were.

Avengers HQ

It had been almost a whole day since the girls signal went off the grid. Tony and Steve were nonstop pacing back and forth as Banner and Jarvis were doing everything possible to try and find the girls. Jarvis was running facial recognition while Banner was looking through everything else in the book trying to pick them up anywhere.  

"Banner anything?" Steve asked.

Banner stayed silent and just shook his head. Nat and Wanda just looked down out of sadness for him. Steve let out a sigh, he was beating himself up. If only he had stood his ground and had not let her go. If only he would have gone with instead of Ronnie, he knew what he was doing, the girls didn't. 

"I knew I should have never let her go on that mission." he growled at Tony. 

"How was I supposed to know it was a trap?" Tony rolled his eyes. 

Steve didn't bother responding. He turned and walked out of the room and didn't look back. Nat was praying he wasn't going to do something stupid, but if he was there was nothing stopping him now. 

Ronnie's POV

Nine hours had passed since Ronnie woke up. She had walked back into the city, keeping away from main roads. She was so close to being home, to being safe. She turned a corner and saw a camera and instantly backed up into the alley way. She knew hydra, they would be watching her. She hid her face down and moved quickly back into the darkness. She sighed a breath of relief when she saw the gates of the compound. She slid her card opening the gates and quickly walked in.

When she opened the door, everyone looked up. Nat ran over to her, throwing her arms around her. Ronnie sank into her arms letting her body go limp, she was just glad to be safe. She was overly exhausted, she felt it all hit at once. She looked up at Steve who had rushed out the door. He looked at her, tears forming in his eyes.

"Where is she? Where is Aria?"

"I'm sorry, Steve," she whispered. "He drugged me. I woke up on the side of the road. I don't know where she is. It was a set up."

Steve turned to Tony. He rushed at him, shoving him against the wall. He was so filled with anger; he couldn't control it. It overwhelmed him and he let it flow out of him. There was no calming down this time. It didn't matter who was around who would try to stop him. 

"This is your fault! You're the one who wanted to send her on this damn mission!" he shouted.

Tony shoved back. He was beating himself up just as much as Steve was. He didn't need to be assaulted too. He knew that he had messed up, and he was trying to fix it. His informant had never betrayed him like this before. Someone had gotten to him and he wanted to know who. 

"Don't you go pinning this on me!" he growled. "They needed this chance to prove themselves. They're not babies, Steve. We can't keep treating them like they are. They aren't going to break in the wind, they are strong women."