The Other Symbiote

Struggle

The next morning, the Avengers and Raiva trundled onto the jet at first light. All of them were yawning at some point, all except for Steve - he was used to waking up at dawn.

"Alright. We have a plan." "We do?" Raiva piped up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Yes, Tiny, we do. Albeit not a solid one, but it's a plan." Steve and Raiva jumped down onto the roof of U-Gin Genetics, with the teen rampaging as Nemesis.

*So... you wanna kill some bots?* *You said we could eat that guy's arm and we didn't. I'm mad.* *Good. Take it out on the robots.*

Nemesis huffed but Steve sprinted away from her, her eyes falling on the injured Cho. "Helen!" She raced over and saw the deep wound.

"Don't worry about me. He's uploading himself into the body." She turned to Steve.

"Where?"

"The real power is inside the gem. It's power... it's uncontainable. You can't just blow it up."

Raiva scoffed with a playful smile, trying to cheer up the doctor. "I'm pretty sure we can."

"Get the Cradle to Stark." "Well, first we have to find it." "Go. And Rai," the teen turned back at her name.

"You're not a monster."

Raiva nodded but brushed off the compliment and followed quickly behind Steve.

"We need to draw him out." He turned and smiled at the symbiote-encased teen. "You ready?" "Hell yeah."

"Steve, she said a bad word." "Oh, shut it." The duo smiled at their jinx before leaping off the overpass and onto the U-Gin truck. Raiva smiled as she heard Ultron raging inside from their footsteps on top.

"No, no, no, no, no. Leave me alone!" Raiva heard Steve yell as the doors slammed open from a blast inside, causing him to swing out on the door and hit the side of truck.

Raiva tried to catch him as he shot into the air again, but she felt something off inside of her.

Nemesis was trying to gain control.

*Hey Nemmy, can we not do this right now?* She heard no response but an even bigger tug came from inside her, almost like she was pulling on her intestines.

"Nemesis, stop it right now!" Raiva slowly pulled back more control and concentrated on the battle in front of her. She leapt onto Ultron's back and pulled out a few wires before he threw her into a train.

She pulled Nemesis in just too early and slammed into the wall of the transport, groaning from the pain.

*Nem, now is not the time to be fighting for control.*

She looked at the others and ushered them onto the carriage behind, just in time for Ultron to come in with Steve through the same hole.

Ultron smiled before throwing Steve's heavy body into Raiva, sending both of them into the back door of the carriage.

"Why are you not suited up? Where's Nemesis?" Raiva sat on one of the chairs and gripped her head, trying to keep herself as calm as possible.

"Nemesis... wants to kill... Ultron." She managed to huff out before Steve blocked a blast at her with his shield. "Keep calm. Put your headphones in." "I don't have them here."

"Clint, make Raiva's comms play her music. Nemesis wants control." "Copy that." The soldier watched as Raiva loosened her grip on her head ever so slightly, which was all he needed.

"Please, don't do this." For the first time, Raiva heard fear in his mechanical speaker.

"What choice do we have?" Raiva's head popped up at the slick Sokovian accent, still battling for control.

Raiva watched as Ultron quickly soared out of the hole he had made earlier, only for her to realise that the train was not slowing down.

"Civilians in our path." He nodded to Pietro and the blonde sped off before he spoke to Wanda. "Can you stop this?" Her response was simply turning and doing her job.

Steve rushed over to Raiva's side and saw she was crying. "St-Steve, I don't know how long I can stay in control." Her bottom lip trembled.

She was terrified.

"It's okay, kiddo. If you need to go away and lose control, do that. But right now, I need you to keep a lid on it. We can't endanger the lives of the people on the back of this train." Raiva nodded, pushing down her feelings and wiping away her tears.

Steve admired his niece - she had so much strength, but she was the most gentle out of all of them. She breathed out slowly before releasing slow webs onto the brakes below the carriage, helping Wanda slow the train down.

She grunted and solidified the webs, the brakes squealing to a grinding halt. She soon clutched her head again, this time hearing Nemesis try to coax her into letting go.

*Raiva, let me have control. You've suffered too much since we met Eddie. If you let me have control, I can take away your pain.*

*No. If I lose control, then everyone I love could die.*

Wanda's small boots clacked on the train floor, her footsteps getting louder as she walked towards the damaged teen.

"Are you okay?"

Raiva immediately shook her head before crying out in pain.

"Steve, i-it hurts. It hurts s-so much. Make it stop, please." Steve sat on his knees, his hands hovering over Raiva in uncertainty.

He wanted so badly to take away her pain, but it wasn't one of his abilities. But, an idea popped into the female Sokovian's mind.

"Raiva, I'm going to take away your pain." Her hand began to turn red and Raiva immediately flinched away.

"You hurt Nat with that red stuff. How do I know you won't hurt me?"

"I will make sure she doesn't." Whilst Raiva didn't trust Wanda (yet), she trusted her captain with her life.

She nodded and Wanda hovered her mystical hand over Raiva's head, a small red wisp connecting between the two. The heavy breathing began to slow in the stressed teen, her eyes slowly fluttering open.

"It-It's gone. What did you do?"

Wanda hesitated to tell her, to which Raiva softened her eyes.

"I silenced the part of you that was causing you pain."