Rogue (An Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 57: 1,000 Cuts

"Come," Kilgrave ushered me into the living room. I followed his lead, sitting on the sofa in front of him. "You asked about my parents... I want to show you something."

He put a laptop down in front of me and pressed play. The screen blew up with the image of a child, maybe 10 years old. He had wires attached to his head and looked scared.

"Is this... you?" I asked in disbelief. I couldn't picture Kilgrave as anything other than what he was right now.

'Put the pieces of the puzzle back together' a man's voice said from the screen. The boy stared at the puzzle pieces before shaking his head.

"That was my loving mum and dad," he said, animosity in his voice.

A man in the video came up behind Kilgrave with a long needle, pushing him over to get better access to his spine.

'No, mummy please!' Child Kilgrave screamed as the needle pierced his skin. He screamed again and I closed my eyes. 'Stop! Get away,' he shouted. Everyone in the room with him stopped what they were doing and backed away from him, until they were no longer on the screen. Then it went black.

"I'm sorry that they did that to you," I said, genuinely meaning it.

"I have to go and take care of a few things. Don't leave," he commanded. I nodded, knowing that I never had that option in the first place.

As the front door shut, I opened the laptop and watched the video again, drinking in the image of a boy whose parents experimented on him. This video was the closest I'd felt to anyone since Bucky – someone who knew what it was like to be experimented on.

The door knocked, catching me off guard. I went to it instinctively, expecting Kilgrave to be on the other side.

"Bucky?" I gasped, hugging him tightly in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"Wanda," he said. "She said I need to bring you home."

"You need to leave," I said urgently. He couldn't be here when Kilgrave got back. "How did you know where to find me?" I asked

"Wanda and Natasha found you, then they sent me here. They're worried about you," he said. "There was a lot that they couldn't tell me, but I had to see you."

"You have to leave. If Kilgrave comes back and sees you..." I trailed off, not knowing what he'd do. The little scared kid on that video was not the same guy that Kilgrave was now. He was dangerous, and as much as I didn't want to leave, I wanted to protect Bucky.

"Who's Kilgrave?" he asked.

"A bad guy," I said shortly.

"If he's that bad, then I'm not leaving you here with him."

"You don't understand," I said with a sigh. He couldn't remember Jessica's face when she spoke about him. He couldn't remember how scared I was when I told him that Kilgrave used Steve. He couldn't remember why I was helping Jessica in the first place. Maybe if he remembered, he'd understand why I couldn't leave.

I looked him in the eyes. "Remember what I told you to forget." I said. "Remember Kilgrave and Jessica, know that Kilgrave can never know that you know."

Immediately, recognition flashed in his eyes. 

"You made me forget," he accused.

"Yeah, we can talk about it later, right now you have to go."

"I'm not leaving without you," he said.

"I can't leave. Kilgrave wants me to stay, I want to stay," I said honestly.