Ride or Die Part: Two

Chapter Three

You found yourself standing outside your old home in Chicago a few days later, ignoring the request from Mrs. Barton.

It wasn't abandoned with blood smearing the walls like you left it, but it was turned into a foster home, so there were kids running around outside and in, their toys littering the yard. The fall leaves crunched under their fast shoes and there was a breeze in the air that had you concerned whether they'd have appropriate gear for the coming winter, so you walked up to the front door and knocked.

"Hi," You greeted the frazzled looking woman who held a toddler on her hip with a smile and she gave you a once over with tired eyes before scrunching her eyebrows, "You don't know me," And I don't know what the fuck I'm even doing here, "But um," You hesitated before holding out the box that was in your hands only a bit, "Can I come in to set this down?"

"What is it?" She asked cautiously and for a moment, you forgot that humans had developed a reasonable mistrust of strangers for their survival thousands of years ago.

"Uh, well," Your voice was higher when you tipped the closed box slightly from side to side as you kind of examined it nervously, meeting her eyes again with a grimace, "It's money."

"What?" She was startled and you instantly regretted this, setting it down on the porch instead, "What the hell are you talkin' about?"

"I just wanted to um," You gestured behind you at the two kids fighting over the seesaw, "Wanted to help?"

"Thomas! Sabrina!" She shouted when she followed your eyeline, making you jump, "Share or I'll come over there and dismantle the thing myself!"

You froze as you stared at her with wide eyes.

"This whole corrupt organization was built to take down the very thing you feared I'd become!" You shouted, storming down the halls as agents buzzed around, and if they even glanced your way, their bodies would be splattered across the walls a second later, "Where the fuck is Rogers?? I'm going to dismantle this entire place – take it down to the bones before I pick apart their captain with my fucking teeth!"

"Miss? What the – are you alright?"

You snapped back to reality, shaking your head, and then stumbling back a little until you almost tripped on the top step, catching yourself just in time.

"Sorry, um," You looked between her and the box without any focus before turning to rush down the stoop, calling back with a wave, "Hope it helps!"

You drove back to Ohio where you've been staying with Yelena for the past six months or so after Melina and Alexei permanently moved to Russia and even though Natasha has no idea, the whole place reminds you of her in the most comforting and painful way.

For the first few months after that day in England and at the tower, you went on a blood rampage. You woke up rabid demons, vengeful spirits, rogue angels, and even considered giving god his essence back because you were so out of your mind. You murdered half of SHIELD, probably more, and then you went looking for more blood until your entire body, including your wings, were drenched in it.

God – or Jack, as he likes to go by now, is living in southern Lebanon, by the way.

He's found a place on the border near Israel, and he's been enjoying his simple life on a small farm where he grows his own food and has a donkey named Shrek. Yes, named after that Shrek. It's one of the few movies he watches repeatedly and because he's human, you were able to visit him without alerting anyone because you could project yourself out of your own vessel.

Something that came with the perks of being the world's new god.

What wasn't a perk, was constantly trying to find a balance between good and evil within yourself when in all your billions of years, you've only been told you were the bad.

Adam and Eve were only the beginning and if you're being honest in the spirit of the holidays, you weren't tempting Eve with some dumb apple, but Eve was gay as hell, and you were down for some naked hippie good times.

But you digress.

"Hey, buddy," You cooed when the Fanny greeted you at the door and you leaned down to rub her belly when she rolled onto her back, "How's my favorite girl?"

"Thought that was my sister." Yelena smirked from where she was attempting not to burn something on the stove – she won't admit it, even if the pan's black, but it's not going so well right now.

"Ah," You raised your eyebrows, the last time you spoke to Yelena was almost a week ago now when you told her you were going to try to help Strange to hopefully get back in Natasha's good graces, "Still is," You assured before the blonde hummed, going back to the now boiling over pot as she frantically shut the heat off and put it on another burned, so you mumbled to yourself, "Always will be, no matter how pathetic that sounds."

"Something came for you." She pointed over to the table where a few letters were spread, one with your name on it and this address – already a bad sign, and you snapped out of your haze before going over to it, giving Fanny a few pats of dismissal.

You curiously tore it open like a kid who couldn't wait to do it calm enough on Christmas morning, unfolding the piece of paper inside.

"Oh, great," You droned sarcastically, dropping the letter on top of the bin, "Another spooky, blank letter. How fun."

You wandered over to the couch, plopping back on it with your feet up and Fanny hopped on top to snuggle between your legs and the cushions. You threw an arm over your eyes and groaned, trying to let the last week go, but knowing you'd never be able to forget what Natasha said until she spoke to you again.

'I hate what you did, but I guess I'm still too fucked up to hate you.'

Sure, you hate what you felt like you had to do too, but she wasn't there in London with Kris, Sam, Clint, Wanda, and Tony. She didn't see how the buildings were being crumbled to the ground, leaving bodies in their wake as that transparent being drifted through them like a ghost, trying to destroy everything in its path.

You could sense the ancient aura of the being and when you desperately sent that information back to Steve, he told Barton to load his arrows with angel bladed tips that you helped them create. But you knew it was a bad idea and you begged Clint to stand down, it wasn't worth angering it over nothing or exposing your sister's angelic essence in the process, you just needed a moment to summon the thing closer so you could rip out its source of power. You only needed a few more minutes to be able to track it properly before you could send it to hell, but they saw that as too long and he sent his arrows flying through the air towards the source as the next building started to break.

And she wasn't there when Kris became a casualty of that decision, making Clint the one after.

But she was there when you disappeared from the scene moments after the mysterious being did, only for you to show up back at the tower, hunting those involved.