𝗀 𝗁 𝗈 𝗌 𝗍 | | 𝗌 𝗍 𝖾 𝗏 𝖾 𝗋 𝗈 𝗀 𝖾 𝗋 𝗌

𝖿 𝗈 𝗋 𝗍 𝗒 － 𝗌 𝖾 𝗏 𝖾 𝗇

꧁ 𝟤𝟢𝟣𝟨, 𝗎𝗉𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗍𝖾 𝗇𝖾𝗐 𝗒𝗈𝗋𝗄 ꧂

WHEN MARTA WOKE UP, SHE could tell by the look on her husband's face that something had gone horribly wrong. Her head ached terribly, an indication of being controlled by Hydra. As she held her palm to her forehead, eyes closed, Marta dared to speak. "How many people?" Marta asked, her voice hoarse from screaming.

        Steve sat quietly at her bedside, compound doctors having attached the updated version of her dampener on the side of her skull. "Eleven." there was no hiding the numbers from Marta, she needed to know.

        Marta's breath hitched. "Tell me what happened." she requested, refusing to look at Steve.

        "Rumlow activated you, and I thought I knocked you out, but you woke up just as he was detonating a bomb. Wanda used her powers to try to take away the explosion, but you shot at her, and she lost control, sending the Rumlow and the bomb into a building." Steve explained slowly. He hated having to tell her this again.

        "It's all over the news, I'm sure." Marta said. The Avengers were in hot water recently, and she didn't want anything to happen to them all because she was being controlled by Hydra.

        Steve nodded. "The King of Wakanda quoted you. He thinks you're innocent." the man said as Marta sat up, forcing herself to stand.

        She scoffed. "That's something. Too bad he's wrong." Marta went for a run around the compound. She never understood why Steve ran so much until now. He could forget everything. So she ran for hours, every day, ignoring everyone, barely sleeping. It helped, a little.

        Marta didn't watch the news, didn't need to hear the things they were saying about herself and Wanda. Hydra had finally been destroyed, that was the one positive thing that came from the mission in Nigeria. Maybe, she could be free.

        Marta drank a lot. When she wasn't lying wide awake beside Steve or running the grounds of the compound and beyond, she was drinking. She knew it wasn't going to help, at all, but in the moment, it numbed everything. Wanda was even more distraught than Marta, if that was possible. Steve took to comforting her as best as he could.

        As she brushed her hair out one morning, a few weeks after the incident, Vision came to alert Marta that the Secretary of State was arriving at the compound. Marta hated Ross. "What does he want?" Marta asked, putting her brush down.

        "I am not aware." Vision answered, walking with Marta to the conference room. The team was filing in, and Marta found her place beside Steve, Natasha on her other side, Ross standing at the head of the table.

        Ross pasted on a sarcastic smile when he saw Marta sitting down. "Mrs. Rogers. Nice to see you again." Ross said knowingly. Ross hated the airforce, so he distrusted Marta because she had practically founded it. Marta hated him because he was an asshole.

        Marta bit her tongue as best as she could. "Lieutenant Barnes-Rogers." Marta corrected, Steve smiling to himself.

        Ross rolled his eyes, and when the rest of the team was settled, he started talking. "Five years ago, I had a heart attack. I dropped right in the middle of my back-swing. Turned out it was the best round of my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass... I found something 40 years in the Army had never taught me. Perspective. The world owes the Avengers an un-payable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives... but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some... who would prefer the word 'vigilantes'." Ross ranted, Marta dozing off as she listened to him.

        "And what word would you use, Mr. Secretary?" Natasha posed delicately.

        "How about 'dangerous'? What would you call a group of US-based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?" Ross remarked, and Marta rolled her eyes. She wasn't enhanced by choice. Footage from the Battle of New York flashed on a screen behind Ross. "New York," regretful glances were exchanged. The footage changed, and Steve and Sam's fight with The Winter Soldier showed up next. "Washington D.C.," Sam looked ashamed. Then, the events less than a year prior. "Sokovia," finally, as if to hurt the team anymore, Ross showed them footage from a month ago. "Lagos."

        Marta didn't want to watch anymore. "Mr. Secretary, I think we understand what we've caused." she spoke up, Tony sighing from where he sat behind Steve.

        Ross turned to her. "Do you?" He clicked a button, and now on the screen was footage from the Avengers Tower the day Marta woke up from the ice and attacked Steve. Then again, a different day. And again, and again, and again. Marta watched as she killed those innocent agents and hijacked a quinjet. She watched as Strucker set her on Steve at the Hydra base. Marta saw herself come seconds from murdering Steve during the four times she had been activated in the last year. She watched her almost kill Wanda, causing the deaths of over ten people. That was her.

         "Okay. That's enough." Steve said when he could tell his wife couldn't take it anymore. He reached for her hand and she let him hold it beneath the table.

        The footage disappeared. "For the past four years, you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution," Ross placed a thick book onto the conference table, sliding it towards Wanda. "The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries. It states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they'll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary." Wanda gave the book to Rhodey as Ross circled the table, landing near Marta and Steve.

        "The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place. I feel we've done that." Steve said, eyes downcast towards the table.

        "Tell me, Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?" Ross countered, and Steve looked up, meeting the man's eyes. "Can you tell me with absolute certainty you're sure your wife won't kill again?"

        Steve didn't like Ross' words. "Don't talk about my wife." Steve said sharply, Marta running her thumb along the back of his hand, silently telling him to relax.

        Ross moved on after a tense moment. "If I misplaced a couple of 30 megaton nukes, you can bet there'd be consequences. Compromise. Reassurance. That's how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground." Ross moved back to the head of the table.

        "So, there are contingencies." Rhodey said, his hand on the Accords.

        "Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords," Ross said. Talk it over." Ross began to leave the compound.

        "And if we come to a decision you don't like?" Natasha asked as Ross reached the door.

        "Then you retire." he threatened. Marta looked at her husband. What would they do?

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