Intertwine

89 - Never By Her

ADITI

"What's going on?" I whispered to Clint as he took my weight from Peter for a second. "Why's it gone silent?"

I couldn't see, that was the thing. Or at least, I could see, but I couldn't see what everyone else was seeing. I could only see blurs of colour, colour that I knew wasn't actually there - it wasn't that my vision was blurry it's that my vision was not working. I was seeing swirls of purples and blues and yellows and reds. All different shades of practically every colour, just like the painting I'd done for Peter.

"The hooded figure we told you about?" Clint whispered back. "It's Roara. She's joined the Ascendency."

"What?" I asked, my head turning feverishly as though by trying to look around I'd get my sight back. 

"Alina's about 15 feet away from her. Roara's drawn a sword. It's too far away for me to tell if they're talking or not." He replied, his voice coarse with anxiety.

"I can hear them." Peter said in a small voice. "My hearing got really good after that spider bite. Alina's asking how this happened, how she was able to trick everyone into thinking she had no memories, why she decided to betray us."

"What's Roara saying?" I asked.

Peter took a sharp intake of breath. "She's just laughing."

A cold breeze swept over us, but it felt unnatural in the heat of the day. English summer was mild compared to America, and way way less hot than any of the summers I'd spent in India, but it was warm enough to feel it and there had been only a light breeze before. I sense something on it, a danger, as though we were flies caught in a web.

"It's a trap." I said quietly.

"I know." Clint muttered. "But I can't tell whether she's the bait or the thing we should be running from."

"Why?" I asked.

"She looks kind of..." Peter cleared his throat and I could feel his uneasiness, "she looks kind of terrifying. I think she's the thing we should be running from."

"Are you sure?" I asked, now trying to squint to see if it would help. My vision had changed as soon as I had let my power rip through me and take over my body. I was glad that Clint was okay, it seemed to be whatever Cog had used on him stopped working as soon as she was down. But whatever had happened to me seemed to have much longer lasting effects. It had been animalistic, unlike anything I'd ever experienced. I'd felt the tears running down my face as soon as it had started, because I could feel the woman's pain, her fear, her anguish. Yet I didn't want to stop. That had scared me the most, the fact that I hadn't wanted her to stop feeling afraid. I wanted her to hurt. I hadn't meant to kill her. I didn't even know that was possible with my power.

It was nothing like the way Alina could kill someone. I didn't affect her body, although I could have if I had really tried, like when I had constricted her breathing before. I didn't even know what I had done. I think, if anything, I had torn apart her soul. I shuddered just thinking about it. I'd never killed anyone before. When I'd shot people with arrows I'd made sure that the injuries would be non-fatal, if people got medical attention at least. I had felt everything in a way I'd never done before. It was as though I had gone into a primal state that I'd had no control over. 

"Yeah." Peter sighed. "I'm like 98% sure. No, make it 87. 65?"

Clint groaned and then said, "If it's over 50%, I'm taking aim, Peter take Aditi."

I felt Peter's arm go under my shoulders as I was passed from one to the other. I heard the twang of Clint's bow unfurling and the string of the bow being drawn back.

"Please don't hurt her." Peter said quietly.

"If she's an enemy I'm going to have to take her out kid, no two ways about it."

"But she's our friend." Peter said softly.

I have to admit I felt the same way, and I thought I knew why Peter was so against causing any harm to Roara. While the others wouldn't want to do it because she was their friend, Peter and I had been given a closer look at her life and who she was. Me even more than Peter. I'd watched her grow up in a sense, even if it was just bits and pieces. I'd been witness to her trauma, to her heartbreaks, to her crushes, to her falling in love. She was witty and sarcastic and hot tempered and pessimistic, and in that sense she was the complete opposite of me. And even though I hadn't spent much time physically with her I felt like I knew her better than anyone else, and I liked all that about her, it made her who she was. 

Apparently none of us had really known who she was. Not even me.

"She was never our friend." Thor said quietly from beside us. "If this is what friendship from her means."

"You've been her companion on and off for four centuries," I replied quietly, "and yet you give up on her so easily?"

"I've been betrayed many times-"

"But not by her." Bucky interrupted gruffly. "Never by her."

"Thor how many times has your brother betrayed you?" Natasha asked. It was an effort not to turn my head to try to see who was speaking. It was an instinct I had to fight.

"Loki has been playing tricks since we were children." Thor admitted. "So he has betrayed me a great many times."

"I'm with Thor." I heard Wanda's voice say. "If she's with the Ascendency I don't care anymore. She's crossed over. Let her go. She knew what it would bring for her."

"And what does it bring for her?" I whispered.

Wanda's voice was clearer now, closer, more confident. "War."