The Scarlet Apprentice

One on one

The room stayed in silence after y/n closed the door. Hayward sat at his desk, flipping through pages of files without saying anything to her. She cleared her throat as quietly as she could while placing her bag on the floor beside the chair.

While Hayward's eyes remained scanning over the files, she comfortably sat down in the chair opposite him, waiting for him to start the conversation. A few moments passed and he still hadn't said anything, which started to make y/n confused.

Just before she could ask for some kind of explanation, he looked up from the files and leant his arms on the desk, intertwining his fingers.

"i've gone over your file a dozen times since the day you were transferred to this unit." He told her, supplying no further input.

All she did was look at him. She didn't try and get a word in because it was clear that he was not done talking. So, instead, she waited.

"you're impressive, i'll give you that." He nodded, waiting to see any kind of reaction from her, but her face remained expressionless, "I mean, I got references from your old bosses that told me how good you were, but I guess I just needed to see it for myself."

She laughed slightly to herself before sitting up straight and looking him in the eyes with an intense stare, "I know you didn't bring me in here to compliment me, hayward, so what do you want?"

"No, no, no." He shook his head, "It's what do you want?"

That shifted her cockiness out of place, but she managed to hide it well.

He leant back in his chair, "What're you hoping to get out of sword?"

She took a breath in relief when she predicted how the conversation would go, and shrugged as she began to answer, "Helping the world has always been in my family. Almost everyone in my family has worked for Shield, Pegasus, or some other form of agency."

"But why do you want from sword?" He clarified, emphasising his point.

Then she broke her stare and looked around the room casually while thinking, "I just want to stop as many deaths as I can. So many threats can be neutralised if we remove sentient or alien weapons from our enemies hands before they can use it, and that's what's important."

"Is there any specific reasoning to that?" He asked.

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, "You said you read my file, right? So I'm guessing you know what happened to my brother."

"Killed by thanos' children in New York." He nodded as he recited what he had previously read from the file, "5 years ago."

"To me it was 2 months ago." She harshened her stare as if it would stop any tears from potentially falling, "When I can back from the snap and realised that he wasn't just dusted- that he was actually gone... I made a promise to myself to dedicate every bit of energy I have left into preventing anything like that from happening again."

He squinted, "Isn't that what the avengers are for?"

"The avengers are still recovering from their loses. iron man, captain america, black widow, all dead. thor, off world. Those who survived the snap are getting back to their loved ones, and those who were blipped are trying to figure out what the fuck happened over the five years." She rambled, "Who else do we have?"

"Technically, captain america isn't dead. steve rogers, yes, but the title of captain america was passed down." He corrected her with a slight smugness on his face.

"To sam wilson, I know. but he and James Barnes are off fighting their own enemy." She added, "They're good soldiers but they can't save the world on their own."

"and you think you can?" His eyebrow raised slightly as he asked.

She paused for a moment without weakening her harsh stare, "I'll give it my everything... and right now that's the best you're gonna get."

"You underestimate me." Hayward shook his head.

A faint laugh overcame her, "No, I don't. I see you. The real you. You really think you can just come back without any of us finding out what happened in New Jersey? Sure, not all of us were there, but some of us were. The only reason you're still the face of sword is because you had friends backing you up. But what would've happened if you didn't have those friends? You'd be rotting away in a prison cell."

"i didn't just get lucky, they saw the maximoff anomaly from my perspective and understood my methods." He tried his best to explain himself, but even he knew that what he did was wrong. Despite that, he defended his actions with everything he had.

"You call 'storming in there and killing whoever you can' a method?" Y/n asked sarcastically.

He shook his head, slightly offended, "i didn't kill anyone."

"But you decided to empty your mag into monica and wandas children without a thought." Without realising, she was leaning forward with every word she said as the frustration intensified.

"THEY WEREN'T REAL." Their voices grew louder as their argument continued.

"THEY WERE TO HER." Her fist slammed against the table as she argued.

"ENOUGH." he snapped, his voice shouting louder than the both of them which silenced y/n.

With the quiet and small sound of her catching her breath, she leaned back in her chair and waited for him to calm down so he could finish what he wanted to say.

"Whether you like it or not, i am your director, and i won't have you sympathising with the enemy. Not after what she's done." He explained. Her eyes darted away while she listened, "The only way you are going to stay working with sword is if you follow your orders. and right now, your orders are to go after that weapon. i don't care if it turns out to not be there, i want you on it. you got that?"

She bit back her growing urge to let out all her frustrations on him, "yes, sir."

"good." he stared at her, "now get out of my office."