Rogue (An Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 46: The Raft

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

I awoke in a small room. It took me a while to realise that this small room with bars on the windows wasn't a room at all, but a jail cell. I was dressed in blue and being restrained with handcuffs. As I sat up tentatively, Thaddeus Ross (aka the Secretary of State) stood in front of me.

"Where are they?" he asked through the glass.

"What?" I groaned, closing my eyes as an intense pain filled my head.

"Rogers and Barnes. Where are they?" he asked again, more tension in his voice this time.

"I don't know," I lied. "We never discussed it."

Suddenly, a sharp pain filled my body, taking me off guard. I screamed out in pain, sinking to then ground and internally begging it to stop.

"I'll ask again: where are they?" he repeated a third time.

"Oh, I get it," I said breathlessly, figuring out that the pain was coming from a wire attached to my arm. "You're torturing me?"

"You know... I can make it so easy for you. I can get you out of here."

"I don't know anything!" I said again. "Nobody tells me anything!"

"You're lying!" he shouted, banging a hand on the bars.

"I'll take it from here," a voice said. Replacing Ross at the front of my cell, was Stark. "You OK?"

"You're pretending to care?"

He rolled his eyes, leaning against the bars.

"What do you want, Stark?" I asked. His face was bruised and his left arm was in a cast, he looked like he'd been through hell and back.

"Rhodey got hurt. He's probably facing some form of paralysis."

"I'm sorry," I said honestly – I never wanted anyone to get hurt, none of us did. This was only ever supposed to be about stopping the other Winter Soldiers, not about hurting the team. "Y'know, Steve and Bucky won't stop. If you keep going, possible paralysis is going to be the best case scenario."

"I need to know where they are," he said, not meeting my eyes.

"I. Don't. Know," I said again. "And even if I did, I can't trust you. I'd never betray them."

"Look, I was wrong," he said, catching my attention. Tony Stark admitting that he was wrong about something? Really?

"About what?" I was curious.

He pressed a few buttons on his watch.

"I just knocked the A out of their AV."

Then he pulled an image out of his watch (Stark technology) and turned it to face me. It was a dead man who I didn't recognise.

"That was the man who was supposed to interrogate Barnes. I made a mistake. But Steve's about to need all the help he can get."

I looked at him, noting that this is the most genuine I'd ever seen him look in the entire time that I'd known him. Maybe he was an ass, and maybe he made the wrong decisions sometimes, but he was being genuine about this. I knew that he wanted to help.

"OK, I'll tell you, but on one condition," I began. "You have to take me with you."

"Not happening," he said automatically.

"Stark, I know where they're going, I know the full story, you need to take someone who knows what they're doing. Someone that they both trust – that's me."

"It's too dangerous," he said, causing me to roll my eyes.

"In case you haven't noticed, I can handle myself pretty well," I reminded him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"On one condition," he said. "If you come, we're on the same team. There's no abandoning me or hurting me, no fighting against each other. We forget everything that happened before and look out for each other. Not as heroes, as friends."

"OK. As friends," I promised. "Now, get me out of here."

***

"Mr Stark, did you get anything on Rogers?" Thaddeus Ross asked as we made our way to the helicopter. I had been disguised, wearing a blonde wig, a pencil skirt and white blouse – I was playing Stark's assistant. Dark glasses completed the look.

"No, they told me to go to hell, I'm going back to the compound instead." He gestured towards the helicopter and I climbed in ahead of him. "Assistant," he said to Ross, nodding towards me.

Ross peered at me, before winking at Stark and going back into the facility. As soon as we were in the air I took off my wig and started changing.

"Don't look at me," I warned him. He chuckled.

"I've seen it all before, you know," he reminded me.

"That was when we were dating," I said, mirroring his smile. "You can't look at me now, it's weird."

He sighed and made an effort to turn his head towards the window as I continued to change.

"Do you really like this guy?" he asked softly.

"I- what?" I asked, trying to concentrate on his words and the zip on the skirt at the same time.

"I talked to Romanoff. She said that you like him."

"Close your eyes," I warned him. He complied without question. I took his hand, guiding it towards the zip. "It's stuck. Pull it down please."

As he began fighting against the skirt, I addressed his question.

"Yes, I like Bucky. We're both trying to figure out who we are, we have a connection."

"But, do you... like him?"

"Are you asking as a friend or an ex-boyfriend?" I wondered as he finally got the zip down.

"Friend," he answered quickly.

"Then yeah, I like him. We like each other."

He was silent as I finished changing, when he could look at me again.

"If, if you want to date him," he started. "You have my blessing."

"Really?" Was he being serious?

"I'd rather be your friend than your enemy," he said. I smiled. As annoying as Stark could be, he was an amazing person to have in your life in any way.

"Friends?" I asked, holding a hand out. He shook it as we reached Siberia.

He pressed a button and within seconds, he was dressed in his Iron Man suit. He grabbed me and held me against him.

"Hold on!" he said as the bottom of the helicopter opened up. He leaned back and we were suddenly flying through the air, the snow of Siberia whipping at my face. As we fell, I could swear that I saw a Quinjet flying through the air. Bucky and Steve must have landed hours ago, so who could this be? Was there another Avenger in Siberia?

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Thank you for reading! I update every Saturday, so check back next week to see the next chapter!

Can Rogue and Stark stick to their deal? Or will they end up abandoning each other? Vote and leave a comment!