Black Star: HYDRA War

εเ︎︎ģ𝔥𝐓︎𝓔︎𝓔︎𝓷

YOUR knees refuse to support you. Peter catches you and guides you down to the floor. You yank your helmet off and bury your head in his shoulder. He wraps his arms around you.

    "It's going to be okay, Lexi," he says softly.

    "How?" you choke out between tears. "I didn't just lose Captain America, Peter. I lost a part of my family."

    You hear voices talking, but you don't care what they're saying. You just want to crawl up into a ball and let the world vanish. But that plan is ruined when Peter pulls you to your feet.

    "Mr. Fury, Miss Romanoff, and Mr. Wilson are in the chopper. We gotta go."

    You don't have the energy to resist, so you let Peter guide you to the chopper. When you climb inside, nobody says anything to you. Maybe the look on your face says it all. Fury flies you back to the makeshift S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Peter helps you inside. You want to find a quiet, empty room to curl up in, but before you can go anywhere, a familiar voice calls out, "Lexi!"

    You turn around. "Dad?"

    Tony runs over to you, pulling you into a super tight hug. "Hey, kid." He pulls back slightly so he can look at you. "What's wrong?"

    "Steve..." tears rolling down your face complete the sentence instead of words.

    He looks at Fury. You can tell from his expression he already suspects what happened, but won't believe it until somebody actually says it.

    Fury bows his head. "He sacrificed himself to finish the mission."

    Tony breathes in sharply.

    "I tried to help him, but he said not to, and I was stupid enough to listen to him, and now–" you burst into tears again.

    Tony looks you in the eyes. "Hey, this is not your fault. Don't think it is for a second. You did all you could."

    He leads you into a nearby room, where the rest of the Avengers have gathered. You collapse on the (slightly dusty) couch, not meeting anybody's eyes as Tony delivers the news to the team. Wanda comes to sit next to you, grabbing your hand and squeezing it gently.

    "I'm not going to ask if you're okay, because I know you're not. But you will be, even if it doesn't feel that way right now."

    Nobody talks, yet the room is still full of noise as the cruel universe delivers shouted reminders of Steve's absence over and over. You don't know how long you sit there enduring its taunts, but at some point Hill enters the room, breaking the spell. She's smiling.

    "Some of our agents were scouting the areas of helicarrier wreckage, making sure there were no functioning pieces left, and one of them found Rogers by the Potomac shore. He's alive."

★★★★★★

"I never even asked — how'd you know where the new S.H.I.E.L.D. base was? Hill told me she couldn't share its location with you."

    "She knew once you took down the helicarriers, it would be safe to," Tony explains. "So, when you were running around the Triskelion, she called me and told us everything — including where to find you. Guess I should've known you can't kill Nick Fury. But anyway, as soon as she gave us the okay, we all rushed to the base."

    "I thought you were being tracked."

    He stares at you. "Have some faith in your old man, huh? Do you really think I'd let myself get outwitted by HYDRA technology? We went underground right after I called you, but I still wanted to let Hill know about the targets on our backs so she could make the call about what would be best for us to do. It hurt to vanish like that without telling you, but I knew I had to do it to protect you."