Rogue (An Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 42: Suit Up

*WARNING: Contains 'Captain America: Civil War' Spoilers!

"Find her!" he said. Joseph Jackson. I couldn't see who he was talking to, but he sounded menacing – even scarier than he did in the stories.

"Yes sir," the person said. Even in dreamland I knew that voice – Bucky. "How?"

"You're a spy, this is your job."

"It's pretty hard to find someone that I know nothing about with no information," he responded. Jackson sighed and pulled out a picture. The girl in the picture looked familiar, but distant. She looked like me, but she didn't. She had my features, my eye colour, my skin tone. She didn't have my personality or my attitude or my powers. She was smiling in the photo, teeth showing, not a care in the world. I couldn't remember the last time I smiled like that, or the last time I took a picture of myself.

"She has... abilities."

The picture was folded up and put in Bucky's back pocket. "What kind of abilities? Can she hurt me?"

"She's a 12-year-old girl!" Jackson replied with a gruff laugh. "Just bring her back here and we won't have a problem."

"Why? What do you want with her?"

Jackson slapped Bucky, the noise making me flinch. It was ridiculous to feel so protective over him. This guy was a master assassin and spy, there was no way I could protect him from anything.

"Find her," he repeated again. As he left the room, Bucky came into view. He took the picture out and looked at it, as if he was trying to ingrain her face in his memory.

Then the dream changed, and suddenly, I could see myself in S.H.I.E.L.D HQ, I can't have been older than 18 or 19. I was watching TV after a day of training with Hawkeye when Nat came in. She was clutching her stomach. I ran to her immediately.

"I'm OK," she said over and over again. She had just got back from a mission in Iran. She'd asked me to go with her, as she always did, and I declined. I didn't want to be a superhero. We were just hearing about an ex-arms dealer who's used his genius mind to build himself a suit that he could fly around in – I hated that, I would not become that. So instead, I turned my back on the missions, on everything that would expose me to the outside world. But this mission was the one that killed me, because Nat had been hurt.

"Who did it?" I asked, furious.

"I don't know," she said. "If it's who I think it was, most people don't believe he exists." Of course, at the time I had no idea who she meant, but now, my mind filled in the words that she couldn't say. The Winter Soldier.

I awoke with a start, the dream making me feel on edge. If what Bucky had said was true, we had known of each other for years. We'd both believed that the other didn't exist – I thought he was the imaginary assassin who'd hurt my big sister, he thought I was a made-up ideal, the only person to survive the experiments. But here we are, both existing, both fighting.

"You OK?" Bucky asked with a small smile. My head had found its way onto his chest again, it felt comfortable there.

"Fine, just... dreaming," I answered, looking at him. How could I really like the guy who had shot Nat? Who had killed hundreds of innocent people? Then he looked at me and smiled, and I knew exactly how I fell for him. How could anyone not fall for Bucky Barnes?

***

We pulled up in the airport car park, beside a white van. As we parked, Hawkeye and Wanda got out.

"You know I wouldn't have called if I had any other choice," Steve said, getting out and shaking Hawkeye's hand. I did another awkward scramble out of the car and ran towards Wanda, who hugged me back just as tightly as I was hugging her.

"Thanks for trusting me," I whispered to her.

"Always," she whispered back, pulling away from me and catching eyes with Bucky. "I'll kill you if you ever hurt her," she warned. Bucky nodded sincerely and I wrapped an arm around my protector, my partner in crime. What would I do without Wanda?

"How about our other recruit?" Steve asked, exciting me. This was what I'd been waiting for. Hawkeye opened the van and Scott Lang jumped out.

"What time zone is this?" he asked, his voice sluggish from sleep. Steve discreetly raised an eyebrow at me and I nodded, maintaining that Scott Lang would be what we needed, our secret weapon. He walked up to Steve and began shaking his hand. After a few seconds of him not letting go, I cleared my throat and he stopped.

"It's an honor," he said. "Wow, this is awesome!" He looked around, catching my eye.

"Hank says that I should thank you for this," he gestured to Steve, and then at the other heroes around him.

"Yeah, you should," I said with a grin. "I like flowers and candy." We both laughed. Then he turned back to Steve.

"I know you know a lot of super people so... thinks for thanking of me."

Wanda and I looked at each other, each trying not to laugh. I'd never seen anyone so excited and enthusiastic to possibly fight a bunch of really powerful people.

"Do you know what we're up against?" I asked him sceptically, wondering how he could be so happy about this.

"A bunch of superheroes and some psycho assassins?"

"We're outside the law on this one," Steve said, not only talking to Scott, but looking and speaking to all of us, telling us that we still had time to back out. This mission required Bucky, Bucky required Steve, that was it. The rest of us were just accessories, we didn't need to be here. But, as we all looked at each other, we knew that we did. This wasn't just about stopping the other Winter Soldiers, or about proving Stark and his side wrong. This was about justice, about being able to make our own decisions. Ultimately, this was about our futures. And if we weren't going to fight for them, who would?

"Suit up."

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Thank you for reading! Come back next Saturday to see what happens next!

Do you think the team is right to fight? Or should they back out before they tear the Avengers apart? Vote and let me know in the comments!