Rogue (An Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 4: Trust

I ran out, immediately bracing myself, causing the electricity within me to radiate all over my body at near 100% - it was enough to kill any human who touched me, but whether it would be a match for the Morte was another story. The first thing I noticed was Hawkeye on the floor. I rushed over to him and put a protective force field around us both, shielding him from any future attacks.

"What happened?" I asked him breathlessly.

"They knew we were coming, they cornered us. Loki must have tipped them off," he said, as if he was struggling to breathe.

"I knew he couldn't be trusted!" I said angrily, my lack of concentration causing the force field to come down.

As I looked up, I saw a man coming towards us, wearing a mask that covered his entire face. "I thought they were aliens?" I muttered.

"Remember what Thor said, they can pose as someone we know," Hawkeye reminded me, clutching his side. As I thought about this, the figure took off their mask, and revealed that they were Fury – or posing as Fury anyway. I lunged towards them, knowing that my electricity wouldn't work on an alien. I wasn't the best at hand-to-hand combat, but the element of surprise was always a good way to go. I punched and hit him, careful not to make skin contact as, according to Thor, this could kill me. Mind control was also out, as I could also only do this on humans. All of a sudden, I noticed Stark coming towards us, not wearing his 'Iron Man' suit.

"Rogue, what are you doing here?" he asked, looking from me to the Fury character.

"From the looks of things, I'm saving your sorry ass!" I said, hitting the alien again, trying my best to knock it out, or at least get it down for a second so that I could figure out what to do next.

"By killing Fury?" Stark asked, seeming in no rush to help me or put his suit on.

"Don't you remember what Thor said? The Morte pose as someone we know, someone we love. Who better than Fury?" I questioned.

Stark moved towards us. At first I thought he was coming to help me, but all he did was put an arm around my waist and pull me off of the alien.

"What are you doing? We need to kill them all!" I said, fighting against his grip as the alien stood up and looked me in the eye.

"Rogue, it's me, Fury," it said. I looked back and forth between Stark and the alien, completely confused. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hawkeye stand up from where he'd been lying, injured. He looked fine now.

"Wait, what's going on?" I asked, looking at all three of them.

"It was Fury's idea," he said, holding both hands up in the air in a mock-surrender. I looked then, just at Fury, determined for some answers.

"Rogue, you don't think we'd let just anyone into the Avengers did you?" he asked. I didn't answer, knowing that one answer would make me sound naive and stupid, and the other would mean that they were messing with me. Neither seemed like a good option. "We had to test you. To find out if you were good enough to be part of the team."

"So... there is no Morte?" I asked softly, starting to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

Fury chuckled. "No, there's no alien threat. I was watching you the whole time."

"And everyone was in on this... this practical joke that you played on me?" tears were beginning to form.

"It wasn't a joke, I just wanted to see if you could do it," he said.

"So, did I pass?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest defensively.

"Rogue, you followed your instinct when you knew that something wasn't right. You rushed in here to save members of a team that you weren't even on 24 hours ago. Your first thought was to save Hawkeye without even worrying about what the aliens could do to you. When you saw me, you didn't let feelings get in the way, all you knew was that you had to save people. And might I add that your combat skills are second to none. You were born for this," Fury said with a smile.

"Yeah Rogue, you are an Avenger," Hawkeye added, just as Nat and Steve came out to join us.

"I'm guessing she knows now?" Nat asked with a guilty look on her face.

"That's why you guys were acting weird and dismissing me when I said that something wasn't right!" I gasped. Nat pulled me into a hug.

"I didn't want to lie to you, but Fury wanted to make sure. And you were amazing. I tried so hard to stop you from coming out here."

"I should have known. There's no way you'd stay outside if your best friend needed you."

"Are you kidding? I would fight those aliens bare-handed if they touched Clint, you know that, he knows that," Nat said, looking over at Hawkeye with a smile. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that there was something between them, but I knew that Nat had her eye on a different Avenger.

"So what do you say Rogue, ready to join the team?" Stark asked me, a smirk on his face that wondered how my answer could be anything other than 'hell yes!'

"I... I don't know, I have to think about it."

"What is there to think about?" Thor asked from a corner that nobody knew he was standing in, Banner beside him.

"Look, my life is a blur. I don't know who I am or where I came from. Trust is a big thing for me, I need to be able to trust the people around me, especially the people I'm working with. And after a stunt like this, I don't know if I can trust you guys," I said honestly. I had trusted Agent Frollo, and then I found out what he'd done to me. And since then, I don't know if I've ever fully trusted anyone, except Nat. But even then, it still felt like she could turn on me in the blink of an eye. And the worst part would be that I'd never see it coming.

"Rogue, we would never have done this to you if we thought you'd be upset. We just wanted to know that you were ready. We wanted to see how good you were..." I cut Nat off.

"By lying to me?" I asked, my tone angrier than before.

"Look," Stark began. "We're not gonna say that we're sorry for testing you, because we're not. We needed to know that we could trust you too, and actions speak louder than words. However, I'm sure Fury and Romanoff are sorry for the way that they tested you, because this was all their idea," he finished, making me laugh.

"You never would have agreed to join the Avengers initiative if you thought that you couldn't trust these guys... even Stark," Fury said, which was true. I had seen the way these guys worked together, and in the back of my mind, I knew that it would be nice to be part of a team.

I thought for a minute, keeping them in suspense.

"OK, I'll join," I said, causing them to erupt in cheers. "But if you guys do one more thing to make me not trust you..."

"No secrets. Promise," Nat said, pulling me in for another hug.

"Welcome to the team!" Banner said, also pulling me in for a hug. And those 4 simple words, were where all the trouble began.

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Thanks so much for reading! Chapter 5 is coming next Saturday!

What's going to happen when Rogue officially joins the team?

I'd love it if you could vote and comment, it would mean the world xx