Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver Imagines

That Moment (Part Three)

Despite all your best wishes, the road doesn't stop there. Not for you, not for Pietro, and certainly not for the mission ahead. You still have battles to win, the Flag Smashers to take down, and above all, John Walker to tolerate. Man, you cannot stand the guy. You may lecture Pietro all you want about keeping cool around the Captain America pretender, but you're fairly certain that you're no better.

The main thing that bothers you about him, you realize as you walk further into the Latvian streets, is his sheer hypocrisy. Walker won't stop spouting off about how he wants nothing more than to make Steve Rogers proud, how he's doing his best to perform before an audience that is begging to see him fail. He sets himself up to be a tortured saint, a martyr before the masses. It's a shame that this isn't actually the case, and you've now had firsthand experience to prove this.

The little things make themselves even more obvious the longer you stay by Walker's side. He's arrogant, as brash and loud as a frat boy with double the pride. The worst part is that Walker is certain that he's right. He can't see a world in which he isn't doing the right thing. That scares you a little, to be honest. No one should be that sure of themselves, especially when they've got all the power in the world now that they're holding the most famous vibranium shield known to man.

Perhaps it's just a little too much experience under your belt, making you doubt the guy before you've really gotten a chance to get to know him. You've been imprisoned in the Raft, after all, you've fought other Avengers as a part of that superhero civil war and you've watched half your friends disintegrate to ash after you failed to take down Thanos.

All of that history has essentially taught you that nobody, no matter how good or how powerful, is infallible. Even you, Flare, an inhuman with the ability to control energy, can falter in the face of danger. Even your husband, Pietro Maximoff, the fastest man on Earth with enough sarcasm to weather the strongest stone, can find himself lost for words after the greatest defeat the Avengers have ever known.

Walker doesn't know any of that. Every loss you've ever experienced, John Walker saw through a television screen. He's used to the glory, this hometown hero, he sees a shield and a uniform without knowing how much blood has been cleaned from it. Sure, Pietro and Bucky are going a little hard on him. To be honest, you think they should.

After all, if the guy can't take some mostly good natured ribbing from his coworkers, then how is he supposed to live with himself after he fails? He will fail, you're certain of that. Maybe it won't be here, maybe it'll be in a month, ten years or twenty, but it will happen. You don't become an Avenger by winning all the time, you become an Avenger by being able to come back twice as hard after you lose. That's the part that John Walker doesn't get. You can only hope that he'll learn it before it's too late.

You certainly have enough time to contemplate the matter now; your small entourage has finally located Donya Madani's funeral, and Sam Wilson has slipped inside long enough to have a conversation with Karli Morgenthau. Hopefully, it will go well. If not, you've just sent one of your most trusted teammates to die in drastically outnumbered odds.

This very predicament must be weighing heavily on Walker's mind, because he won't stop pacing back and forth, occasionally asking Bucky to move aside so everyone can go in. At last, Walker gives up on his attempted chivalry and tries to just open the door himself.

Bucky straightens up, but as per usual, Pietro's beaten him to it. Walker scarcely takes a step forward before Pietro speeds in front of him, casually leaning against the closed door as if he'd been there all along.

Walker scowls. "Move aside, Maximoff. Sam could be fighting for his life right now and we wouldn't even know it."

Pietro folds his arms across his chest, as obstinate as always. You love him for it, you always have. "Or, he could be having a most productive conversation, one that would end if we came in guns blazing. Listen, I get you're not used to all of this, but you can't just go off whenever you want."