"Peter, do you mind leaving the room please?" Tony asks as soon as he realises that I'm awake. I frown, why would Magneto want me to relive this moment? This is when I discovered the x-men's lies and discovered everything I'd done. I glance around the room, the walls are white with nothing on them, the bedsheets are white, too, with a navy blanket folded neatly on the edge of the bed, it's the exact same as the last time I was here.
Peter basically sprints out of the room without looking at me. At the current time I wanted to kill him for this, but now Peter is one of the most important people in my life and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him. Steve wordlessly reaches forward and undoes the restraints, letting me sit up. "Your powers won't work" he informs me.
"I'm not planning to fight you" I reply, I have absolutely no idea what the hell I'm supposed to do. Should I re-enact what originally happened because it ended relatively well? Steve still hates me, but Tony likes me, and Natasha likes me some of the time. I don't think Thor or Bruce really think about me at all.
"Do you only fight and kill people who aren't a threat to you?" Natasha asks, her voice dripping with distain. Distain that is all for me. She didn't make her dislike of me this obvious the last time, I guess things really don't ever happen the same way twice.
"I've only killed people in self-defence" I answer, because in the moment I did believe this. Natasha rolls her eyes, looking over at Steve who shares a similar expression, Thor is actively glaring at me, and Bruce and Tony look uncomfortable and are both refusing to make eye contact.
"You're a monster" Bruce says, still not making eye contact. "I thought I was a monster, but everything you and your fellow x-men have done made me realise the hulk isn't truly a monster. You kill and torture innocent people and don't care or feel remorse." Bruce fiddles with his watch, refusing to look at any of the other avengers.
I glance over at Tony, is anyone going to tell me that I'm Natasha and Tony's child? I fiddle with a loose white thread on the bedcovers. I get the feeling Magneto has planned for this memory to go differently this time, I think this is some twisted plan to make me feel like I have nowhere to go, so that I'll fight for the x-men again. Maybe Magneto is planning to use me to finish his mission of killing the avengers and then he'll kill me for killing Mystique.
"You bombed a building filled with civilians; you call that self-defence?" Steve asks after a few seconds of silence. I rub my eyes; I've never been this confused before. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do or say right now, I could easily just dig myself into a hole I can't get out of.
Natasha reaches over and grabs Steve's hand, I raise an eyebrow. The two have never been that open in real life, Steve entwines his fingers with Natasha's. This reminds me of the very depressing fact that one day Steve could basically be my stepdad. I think I'm going to choose to live with Tony after all of this is over.
"I've never bombed a building" I say, wishing that was true. If I could change anything I'd done, it would be that. But I can't, even in this twisted, fake memory I'm in I failed, I didn't stop my younger self. There's probably supposed to be something poetic about that, like some lesson that you can't change your past no matter how much you try.
"So not only are a monster and a cold-blooded killer, but you're also a liar too" Steve says scornfully, glancing over at Natasha. Natasha runs a soothing hand down his back, smoothing out his crinkled blue shirt.
Tony finally looks at me, he looks tired which is normal, but there's no traces of anything resembling concern. They haven't told Tony or Natasha the news yet, have they? I can't really blame Fury for that, he made it clear he didn't want the avengers to excuse my past actions.
"I'm not a liar, and like you can talk. Didn't you keep the fact Bucky killed Tony's parents from him for ages?" I snap, I glance over at Tony, realising I'm bringing up two painful memories for him – his parents' deaths and his friend's betrayal.
"Bringing up past incidents isn't going to remove what you did" Tony says, finally looking at me. "We're both over what happened." What does he mean they're both over it? Steve didn't have anything to get over, he was the one being an asshole.
"How do we get into the x-men building?" Natasha asks, turning the conversation away from Tony and Steve's history. It's a shame in a way, I would love to have words with Steve, but my focus should be on escaping whatever this mental prison is.
I can't answer Natasha's question, the building is hard to break into, I would have been captured or killed if it wasn't for Clover. Getting into the building is hard but getting back out is damn near impossible.
"You can't" I remember going through the tunnels, the avengers could easily make it through the tunnels but once you step into the control room it'd become chaotic. If anyone sounds the alarm, the whole building will go into lockdown, and it won't be lifted until the x-men have successfully captured or killed the avengers.
"There's always a way and we'll get it out of you" Thor says, I glance around, can Magneto see and hear all this? This is what he wants, if this day had gone down like this, I'd either be dead or would have escaped back to the x-men. Either way, I wouldn't be a threat and Mystique would still be alive. Scarlett probably would too.
I scream as Natasha's dagger pierces my leg. "Do you remember the way in now?" she asks, her eyes hard and cold.
"It's impossible, you'll go in and won't come out" I say, I need them to believe me because despite whatever fucked up mental simulation, I'm in, I care about these people, maybe not Steve but I care about the rest, and I don't want to see them dead or captured. Natasha yanks down her dagger and stabs it down again, further down my thigh.
The x-men have already taught us how to deal with torture, they tortured us all until we didn't give in to whatever they want, I can withstand this. If Magneto is watching, he knows that I won't tell them about the tunnels.
Apparently, Magneto has realised this because the world starts spinning again, I close my eyes and place my head in my hands. I don't want to do this anymore; I don't want to go into another fucked up memory that Magneto changes.
"Just kill me!" I scream, hoping he can hear me. "I don't want to play these games anymore, just kill me" I beg, tears threatening to fall from my eyes.
YOU ARE READING
Beautiful Ruins
Aksi"Maybe there was a fleeting moment where I wanted to be a hero and believed I could be one, but the truth is I'm not, I won't ever be. My past does define me, it made me a villain" - Storm. Fifteen-year-old Storm is the daughter of Black Widow and I...
