𝗀 𝗁 𝗈 𝗌 𝗍 | | 𝗌 𝗍 𝖾 𝗏 𝖾 𝗋 𝗈 𝗀 𝖾 𝗋 𝗌

𝗍 𝗁 𝗂 𝗋 𝗍 𝗒 － 𝗌 𝖾 𝗏 𝖾 𝗇

ఌ 𝟤𝟢𝟣𝟧, 𝗇𝖾𝗐 𝗒𝗈𝗋𝗄 𝖼𝗂𝗍𝗒 ఌ

MARTA STAYED WITH EMILY UNTIL her family members arrived, and she knew she couldn't stay any longer. Andy was gone, and she had to go home. As her quinjet landed softly at the Tower, Marta braced herself for the conversations she would have to endure. She didn't want to talk, but she had to. Andy meant everything to her, and Marta didn't know if she could just bottle it up and move on. She pushed her hair over her shoulders and fixed her makeup, walking into the Tower.

        Marta didn't know what to make of the pieces of robotic technology lying around the area where the party was hosted. She recognized the Avengers symbol on one of the parts, and assumed they were Tony's Legionares. Why they and the room were destroyed, Marta wasn't sure. She moved through the Tower in search for the Avengers, worried that something had happened to them. When she found them in Bruce and Tony's lab, the air was tense, and she didn't know why. "What the hell happened out there?" Marta asked, announcing her presence.

        Rhodey shrugged. "Tony and Bruce created artifical intelligence and it took over, killed Jarvis and tried to kill us. He's on the loose." he explained far too casually for Marta's liking.

        "What?" Marta said, confused beyond belief.

        "Everyone's okay. We just have to find him, Ultron, now." Natasha said, pulling a sweatshirt tighter around her body.

        "Where were you?" Clint asked accusingly, leaning on a railing near Maria and Rhodey.

        Steve looked over at Marta, able to tell that she had been crying. "Andy?" he asked quietly.

        Marta shook her head, and her movement indicated to everyone in the room that she wasn't sharing good news. "It was quick. Painless." was all Marta said, shrugging gently. She didn't know how else to describe watching Andy breathe one last time, hear his heart slow. Because of Marta's super-soldier hearing, she heard Andy's heartbeat dim, and eventually stop altogether. It was a grim sound that she would never forget.

        It was late, so the Avengers all decided to peel off, mutually agreeing to start searching for Ultron. Marta needed to change, to wash away the emotions that were consuming her. She braided her damp hair down her back and pulled on more comfortable clothing, collapsing in her bed with a bottle of vodka in her arms. Marta cried. She cried as hard as she did when Thomas and Bucky died. Marta had a hand on Bucky's dog tags, her arms practically cradling her alcohol.

        Steve knocked on her door not long later, and when he didn't receive an answer, he pushed the door open. Steve's face fell when he saw the tears on Marta's cheeks. "Want some company?" Steve settled on saying. He knew how much Andy's death affected Marta, and he was afraid that she would fall into a hole too deep to come back out of.

        Marta nodded, and Steve sat on her bed, pulling Marta close to him. Her head ended up on his chest, and Steve took the bottle of vodka away, tucking some of Marta's stray hairs behind her ears. "Peggy's all that we have left from the past. We can't let her go." Marta said clearly, Steve's hand running up and down her back.

        "We won't." Steve promised. If Andy hadn't just died, Steve would've considered telling Marta about Bucky. He knew she needed to know, but Steve felt like it was too late to tell her. He just hoped that Bucky wouldn't reappear before he had the chance  to tell Marta.

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A FEW HOURS LATER, STEVE walked into Tony and Bruce's lab where the Avengers were trying to find Ultron. He handed a tablet to Thor. "What's this?" Tony asked, walking around Natasha and Marta to get to Thor.

        "A message. Ultron killed Strucker." Steve spoke as Thor pushed the tablet agressively into Tony's grip.

        Marta looked over Tony's shoulder, grimacing at Strucker's body. "And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." Tony said, Bruce observing the scene.

        "This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Natasha wondered aloud, seated beside a standing Marta.

        "Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve said, his arms crossed over his chest.

        Marta looked down at Natasha. "Check the files." she nodded towards the computer monitor Natasha was sitting in front of.

        Natasha nodded, clicking buttons. "Yeah, I bet he..." she trailed off. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

         "Not everything." Tony said.

        Marta skimmed through a box of the physical files the team had kept on Ultron. "Known associates. Baron Strucker had a lot of friends." Steve said, placing a box down on a table.

        "Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce commented, holding a series of papers.

        "Wait. I know that guy," Tony said, Bruce handing him the photo he had been holding. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms." Tony said casually.

        Marta frowned. "Black market arms?" she repeated, Steve looking at Tony accusingly. Sometimes the Avengers forgot how old Steve and Marta really were.

        Tony rolled his eyes. "There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very 'Ahab.'" the man described the interactions he had had with the man in question.

        Thor held up the picture, pointing to a mark on Klaue's neck. "This?" he questioned.

        "Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it..." Tony theorized.

        "No, those are tattoos, this is a brand." Thor corrected.

        Bruce ran the brand through a compiter system, coming up with a match. "Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way." he explained.

        "What dialect?" Marta asked, submersing herself in the work at hand so she didn't have to think about Andy.

        Bruce turned back to the computer, squinting. "Wakanada...? Wa...Wa...Wakanda." he stammered. Marta sighed, exchanging looks with Tony and Steve.

        "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony trailed off, the super-soldiers knowing what could happen.

        "I thought your father said he got the last of it?" Steve asked, remembering what Howard said when he first lifted his shield all those years ago.

        Bruce stood up from the computer holding Klaue's photo. "I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?"

        Marta looked at Steve's shield. "The strongest metal on earth." Marta recalled how she was the first one to ever shoot at Steve's shield, her bullets crumpling to the ground.

        "Where is this guy now?" Steve turned back to Tony. They had their next mission.

ఌ