Aim: Hydra | Y/N Story | Sequel to "Aim: Avenger"

33. Finale - Part 3

I was wringing my hands, listening to Tony out in the hall. I could just barely make out him saying Peter could go in. The two men had decided to give Peter and I some privacy, and I felt we were going to need it. Peter was probably going to be very cross with me for leaving him and breaking my promise. My head snapped up at the sound of the door handle twisting, and the door swung open to reveal the same chocolate eyes and matching curls that made my heart flutter in my chest. Whether it was from my feelings for him, or just the sheer amount of anxiety in me, I don't know. Most likely both.

"It's you again." He spoke, obviously feeling the awkwardness of the situation. I noticed he stayed standing by the door, even after he closed it. "You're the girl from the roof. The one that shot me with my webs."

I giggled a little bit at his blunt statement. He didn't sound angry, just stating what happened. How was I going to explain this? "Yep, that's me. Um, you can a seat if you want." I motioned towards the chair next to me.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks," he said, crossing the floor an sitting down, tucking his folded hands in between his knees. We sat in a very uncomfortable silence, neither one knowing what to say to the other. "So-" we both started, immediately erupting into awkward laughter. "Sorry, you go first," he nodded towards me.

"No, you can go first." I tried, but he shook his head.

"I don't even know what to ask. Mr. Stark said that I should come because we knew each other, and I'm sorry, but I don't remember you."

I laughed a little bit. "No, you wouldn't. Um, let me introduce myself, I guess. My name is Y/n. We met a little bit over a year ago, at Avengers Tower." I held out my hand, and he shook it.

His face light up a little bit at my mention of the Tower. "Oh, so you're an Avenger? Do you have powers?"

"Uh, yeah, I do. Have powers, I mean. I wouldn't call myself an Avenger."

"That's cool! I have powers, too."

"I know. You're Spider-Man." I giggled at his excitement. It was nice, not only seeing him again, but seeing him happy.

"Yeah, I am. I guess you would've known that from the roof." He shrugged, but I shook my head.

"I actually met Spider-Man before I met Peter Parker. Peter's my favorite, though." I joked, and we laughed again.

"Thanks, I guess. Well, you know my powers, so what are yours?"

"Well, that's a little bit harder to explain. Oh, god, this isn't going to be fun, um." I started to wring my hands again; I was really not looking forward to this.

"Hey, it's okay if you don't want to tell me. I don't want to make you uncomfortable." He reassured me. 

"No, it's not that, it's just that you already know my powers, you just don't remember because I took them away."

He looked confused. "You got rid of . . . your powers?"

"No, I got rid of your memories." Before he could speak I continued, "well, I didn't take them away, I just kind of hid them."

"Oh, that's um . . . oh." He stuttered. "Why did you do that?"

"Because if I stayed, I would have killed you." His eyes shot up, and I quickly clarified, "I would have been forced to kill you. As in, against my will. I don't want to kill you." I sighed. "Okay, this is not going great. I'm going to do my best to explain this. So, from the time I was an infant to about ten months ago, I was a part of Hydra. I had a team of four people: Me, or as I was called there, 'Erinnerung,' meaning 'memory, recollection, reminder, memento, remembrance, or keepsake.' With me was 'Gestorben,' or 'death,' Verdienen, or 'earn,' and another girl named Amber. Her alias was 'Distortos,' or distorted. The three of them are all dead. I was sent by Hydra to be a spy on the Avengers, to bring them down from the inside. But then I discovered I actually liked it at the Tower, and the Avengers were my family. Then, Bucky got hurt and it was my fault, so I left.

"Then, I moved in next to you. I didn't know it was you until you introduced yourself to me and I recognised your voice. You recognised me from the Tower, and we, um, became friends." I laughed quietly as I recounted all of our adventures. "You taught me about all of the things I'd missed. I didn't have much of a childhood, so you showed me all the movies, shows, all of that kind of stuff. You showed me gummy worms. And Vines! Oh, I loved those." His face was relaxed and happy the whole time I was speaking, laughing along with me; it was as if nothing changed. "And we helped each other. We both had our moments of, well, I guess you could call it moments of darkness. You were one of the very few people I trusted, and the only one I could talk to. But, then, I messed up. I broke a promise I made with you. No, sorry, I broke two. And because of that, I had to leave you, and someone else, behind. And, now we're here."

He sat, trying to absorb all of the information I'd just given him. "So," he started, but stopped again. I stayed silent and let him think. "Can you give them back? My memories, I mean."

"I will, but I just need you to understand that I am so, so sorry. For everything. And I understand completely if, as soon as you remember everything, you walk out the door and never want to see me again."

"Oh, I doubt it was that bad. You seem okay to me." He said.

"You say that now." I took a deep breath. "Okay, this is probably going to be painful, but I'll be as gentle as I can." My hands and eyes began to glow, the magic swirling delicately around my fingertips. "Can I?" I asked, holding out my hand for him to take. He did, and I closed my eyes, advising him to do the same. "I'm sorry, Bugsy." As soon as I said the trigger words, I could feel the memories rushing back to him. I slowed it as much as I could, letting the timeline all play out in his head like a slideshow and giving him time to process each memory before moving on the the next one. It took a few minutes, but as the last memory of us together played, when I kissed him, I felt my breath hitch in my throat. It ended sooner than I wanted, and I drew my hand back into my lap and opened my eyes as i waited for his response. 

His eyes were still closed, and his head was tilted down. He moved his arms until his elbows sat on the edge of my bed, and put his head in my hands. When he finally looked back up at me, I couldn't read his face. It was completely neutral, until it suddenly switched to concern. "Y/n, you're bleeding."

"What?" I raised my hand to my face, and felt blood dripping from my nose. "Oh," I muttered, grabbing a napkin.

"That took some effort, didn't it?" He asked gently. I nodded. 

"Why are you still here?" I asked. "Nothing's keeping you here."

"You are." He replied, tilting his head slightly as he continued to hold me in his gaze. "Okay, so, that, uh, happened."

I chuckled humorlessly. "Yep." The bleeding had finally stopped, and I threw away the tissue.

Silence again.

I cleared my throat. "So, I don't doubt that was probably a lot to unpack, and you're most likely going to have a few questions."

"No, only one." He said, shaking his head as puzzlement filled mine. When I waved my hand for him to continue, he asked, "did you mean it?"

My confusion only further at his inquiry. "Mean what?"

"When you kissed me. Did you mean it?"

My face grew red at the moment he decided to focus on. "Um, Peter, I think there are more pressing things than-"

He shook his head. "No, there isn't. You were trying to keep me safe, I understand that. That's what we do, right? Is protect each other. But when you kissed me, you knew you were going to say goodbye. You knew you were going to erase me, and instead of using the contact from my hand, you kissed me. There had to have been a reason."

Despite my best efforts, a tear slipped down my face. "I told you the reason. You made me happy, in a way that no one had before. I never told you how much that meant to me. You stayed by my side, even when I tried to push you away. You were there for me when I was trying to figure out who I was without Hydra. You were there for me when V and Ben left. You trusted me to leave me alone with someone armed with a gun. You trusted me and invited me into your home to have dinner with your Aunt. All morning classes, all the afternoon snacks, all the evening patrols, all the midnight nightmares, you were right there. You made me feel human. You made me feel happy. You made me feel loved. I just . . . I fell overly cliché, head-over-heels in love with the boy next door. With you."

☢️💮☢️