The Return (Amanda Rogers)

Chapter 15

After getting the scepter outside safely, Steve and Amanda stood with Bruce waiting for Tony and Scott.

"You get it?" Amanda asked Bruce.

"Of course I got it." Bruce said with a smile, "I'm the master at convincing."

Amanda smirked, patting the green giants back. However, her smile faded as Tony and Scott made their way over to the group.

"Cap-" Tony began, "sorry buddy, we have a problem.."

"Huh-" Scott awkwardly laughed, "yeah we do."

Steve sighed in frustration. "Well what are we going to do now?" He asked.

Amanda ran her hands through her hair, stressing out as the adults talked. She knew her hopes were too high when it came to actually doing this in one shot.

"You know what, give me a break Steve." Tony groaned, "I just got hit in the head with a hulk."

Amanda glanced at Bruce, watching him awkwardly rub the back of his neck.

Scott began to get stressed as well. "You said that we had one shot. This– this was our shot." He rambled on, "We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. Six stones or nothing–"

"Scott!" Amanda said, "shut up."

"Your repeating yourself." Tony pointed out to the man, "do you know that?"

"You're repeating yourself. You're repeating yourself. You know– No." Scott tried to relax, although he continued mocking Tony.

"Dude come on." Tony groaned, "I dropped the ball. I ruined the time heist."

Amanda sighed, patting Tony's back. "The first step is admitting your problems." She teased, acting like her therapist in wakanda used to.

Steve was becoming annoyed with everyone. "Are there any more options with the tesseract?" He asked.

"But dad.." Amanda began, "the particles, we don't have enough for us to get back with another trip."

"M, if we don't try, no one else is going home either." Steve said to his daughter. "We have to try."

Tony thought for a moment, staring blankly at the ground deep in thought. "I got it. There's another way. To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles." Tony began confidently. "We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State."

"My memory lane isn't as prehistoric as yours, but continue." Amanda joked.

Steve lightly hit his daughters arm, letting he know to stop joking. "When we're they both there?" He asked.

"They were there at a– I've a vaguely exact idea."

"How vague?" Steve asked.

Amanda listened to her father, Tony, and Scott rambling on about the location of the tesseract, waiting for the next se of coordinates.

"Trix, take this." Tony said, handing Amanda the scepter that was in the briefcase. "Give me your time travel thing so I can put the coordinates in."

"Don't you dare send me to the 1800's to rot and die." She threatened.

"Oh come on, I would never." Tony said, "the rest of you know the coordinates."

Amanda looked down at her wrist to see the coordinates that Tony put in, only to realize they were just to send her back home. "Tony!" She complained.

Tony didn't stay to listen, him and Steve traveling to wherever it was that they were going to find the tesseract and more particles.

Amanda, Scott, and Bruce had no choice but to go back to the compound anyways, activating their suits.

-

Returning home, Amanda looked around at everyone with a small smirk. "Did we actually pull that off?" She asked, genuinely surprised.

"did we get them all?"

The room went silent as mushy footsteps came from the platform, a drenched and crying clint looking at everyone.

"Clint, where's nat?" Bruce asked, knowing the two were supposed to be together.

Amanda felt her chest tighten and her body weaken as Clint glanced over to her with Sorry eyes. The girl took a few steps back as she felt all eyes turn to her, her back hitting against her fathers chest.

Steve turned his daughter around, grabbing her in a tight hug. Her tears immediately began to drench his green jacket while her hands held the back of his jacket tightly.

"It was supposed to be me." Clint said, "a soul for the soul."

Amanda looked up, letting go of her father. She wiped her eyes and scanned the room for Nebula, finding her off to the side.

"You!" Amanda said angrily, "you knew someone would die there and you said nothing!" She shouted at the robot girl, "my mom is dead because you didn't think it was important to let us know something like that!"

"Amanda-" her father said softly from behind her.

"Your-your a monster!" She shouted at Nebula, furious about the lack of communication Nebula had about vormir.

Steve dragged his daughter away from everyone else, bringing her to the hallway. There, the father and daughter stood in a tight hug. The two of the cried into each others shoulders, sad about Natasha's death.

"She can't be dead." Amanda cried, "she can't be- it's-"

"She's gone, kid." Steve said to Amanda, rubbing her back. "I'm really sorry."

Amanda shook her head. "It's not your fault dad." She said, wiping her tears, "it's not Clint's either. It's fucking nebulas fault."

Steve missed the top of Amanda's head, "language." He said softly, "but, now that you are old enough and she's not here to tell you, I guess I have to."

"Tell me what?" Amanda asked.

"Remember when you said that you didn't remember a lot of your childhood?" Steve asked, "when you were a little kid, the apartment that your mother and I had us living in was raided by the red room. We fought off who we could but they got a old of you."

Amanda frowned even more.

"They had you hidden for a little over a year, somewhere that no one would find you." Steve continued, "we were non stop searching for you, hacking into security footage everywhere and tracking down even the smallest hints as to where you were."

Amanda sighed. "How'd you get me back?" She asked, "and why don't I remember?"

"We got the team and we infiltrated the location where we found the most clues to be pointed towards." He said, "your mother wanted to erase any and all memory you had of that time, mostly because she wished she had that option when she was a kid. We wanted you to have as normal of a life as possible."

Amanda continued to cry, sliding against the wall and sitting on the ground. She felt emotionally drained wanting to do nothing more than cry.

Steve sat down as well, hugging his daughter from the side. "I'm sorry, M." He said softly, wiping his own tears. "I'm so, so, sorry."

The duo sat on the floor for a lot longer than they intended to. It was just too comfortable for them to get up.

"What now?" Amanda asked as she wiped her nose with the sleeve of her shirt. "What-what are we supposed to do now?!"

The girl started getting worked up, her breathing beginning to increase as she stood up and paced in circles.

"M, we will get through this." Steve said to his daughter. "I promise you, we will figure this out."