Assemble | Avengers | Second Part

Chapter (24) Twenty-Four ~ ...the girl who got her nephew back

~Olivia~

23 days.

It's been 23 days since my nephew went missing, and about 12 days since I was able to convince the Space Captain to go out and find him. I had told Avery about Marvel going off to help find Tony, though she didn't sound too convinced in the woman's abilities.

Right now I was working with Rocket in my lab, the two of us just bouncing ideas off of each other while he complained that I didn't have any good tech and I complained about his complaining.

"I mean, just look at some of this crap! What does this thing even do?" The rodent laughed, motioning toward a thick box towards the center of the wall.

"That's a microwave!" I laughed, rolling my eyes. "It warms up people's food and stuff."

"Yeah, well that's just... that's kinda smart, actually..." He mumbled, moving towards the machine and lifting it. "Have you already taken this thing apart? Why's it so dinged up? I thought you were rich."

"Don't mess with that." I quickly glared, making the raccoon set the microwave back in its spot. "My niece and I deconstructed and then reconstructed that. It's one of the first things we ever did together."

"That's really weird," Rocket mumbled, making me roll my eyes again.

"Yeah, well, there's not much else I could do with her, considering I had just woken up in a new century."

The two of us stayed quiet for a moment, the only sound being tools clinking against each other as I continued to mindlessly work.

"What was it like for you? Waking up in a place you didn't know, surrounded by people you didn't know." Rocket quietly asked, walking back over to me.

I let out a long sigh, setting the items in my hands back down. "Honestly? It was terrifying. I had taken two guards of my guards down by the time someone had come in to explain things. Told me everyone I loved was dead. Except for Steve, of course. Though he might as well have been seeing as he was still unconscious. The man told me that everything I knew was different in one way or another. That everything was... different. I don't think he realized how right he was." I looked down at my hands, feeling my blood pulsing threw my veins.

"Who was the asshole that had to tell you all that?"

"Nick Fury."

"Oh..." The raccoon quickly mumbled, sitting on the chair beside my own. "The guy Marvel was talking about right?" He asked, and I nodded my head in confirmation.

"What about... what about when you got your... powers? What was that like?"

"What was it like for you? You obviously didn't become the way you are just by good genetics." I shot back, raising a brow.

"Oof. That's... that's a tough one." He mumbled. "I uh, there was a whole litter of us. We would all get tested on; whether with injections or some metal getting attached to our bodies, or... or useless extremities getting cut off and replaced with something better."

I put my hand on Rocket's back as he took a moment, trying to compose himself as much as he could while telling this obviously very traumatizing story.

"Our uh... our master." He spat out. "He pulled me away from my... family, a lot. Wanted to see how my brain worked. He wanted to know how I became smarted than even him, so he could make more like me. Wanted to make everything... perfect. But he didn't want things to be perfect. He just wanted things to be different than they already were."

"What happened to your family?" I hesitantly asked.

"They all died. Because of me. I was trying to get us all out, but failed." The raccoon's little head lowered, his hands picking up the wrench in front of him and fiddling with it.

"My brother was killed by my boyfriend," I mumbled, and I saw his ears twitch at my words. "Bucky fell off a train during a mission with Steve back in the '40s. We all thought he was dead, but it turns out that a lesser version of the serum the two of us have was injected into him, as well. He survived but ended up being tortured by this group called Hydra, brainwashed into becoming their own personal killing machine."

"Well, he definitely was one when we briefly met in Wakanda," Rocket mumbled, making me snort a laugh.

"Well, we got the Winter Soldier out of his brain. He's still a soldier, though. Or, he was..."

The two of us sat in silence for a moment longer, Rocket even moving to put his paw on my arm when his ears twitched again.

"Did you hear that?" He asked, moving to stand on his seat.

"Hear what?"

"Just..." The raccoon trailed off, right as all the tools on the table started to rattle, the force becoming stronger with each passing second and making the tools fall to the floor.

"She's back!" Rocket shouted, jumping off the seat and running out of the room.

It took me a moment to process what was happening, and once I did I quickly pulled my phone out, calling Avery.

"Olivia? What's up?"

"He's back! I mean, he might be! Space Captains back with what I can only guess is a ship!"

"I'm on my way." The woman quickly said, hanging up the phone as I started to sprint through the compound.

I was quick to catch up with Rocket, watching as Marvel slowly flew the large ship down to the ground in front of us. Steve, Natasha, Rhodey, and Bruce were quick to follow, moving to stand behind us.

By the time Carol got the landing gear on the ground, a car's tires screeching sounded behind us. All of us looked back, seeing Avery's car quickly get turned off before the woman sprinted from the car, making her way over to us.

"For a woman with one leg, she can really book it," Rocket mumbled, making me flick the back of his ear.

"Olivia..." The woman panted, glancing between me and the ship in front of us.

"You're lucky, you got here just in time," I mumbled, watching as the ship opened up.

"I'm more lucky I wasn't just in an accident. Ran through a few stoplights to get here so quick." She mumbled back, the two of us clutching our hands together.

"Oh, my god." Avery cried as two figures slowly made their way out of the ship, and I had to hold her up as her good leg gave out from under her.

"It's okay! He's here. That's our Tony." I lifted her back up as Steve sprinted past us, getting Tony from the blue woman with him. "Come on. Come on, let's go."

Avery and I continued to hold one another's hands as we jogged toward Tony, who was quietly speaking with Steve.

"Are um..." My nephew asked before looking toward us, his face dropping in relief. "Oh, good."

"Oh, my god!" Avery sobbed as the two of us pulled him into a hug, clutching the man tightly. "Oh, my god."

"You two know I love you, right? I mean, in different ways, obviously, but still. You know what I mean." Tony rambled, making me let out a broken laugh.

He was really here. He was back. He was alive. And he's okay.

A/n ~ So, I'm going to disappear for about a week for vacation and I am NOT bringing my laptop with me, so I won't be able to post. Next post will probably be around the 3rd <3