||41||

3.5K 125 14
                                    



The journey back from Lagos had been anything but talkative among the team, particularly Isabelle who sat in her own thoughts and tried to focus on anything but the throbbing pain circulating in her body from the intense beatings she had endured whilst out in the field. Wanda had also been quieter than usual, but that was only the guilt eating at her that made her bite her tongue.

Upon arriving at the facility, tired, exhausted and ready to sleep for an extended period of time, all team members disbanded from the quinjet and were greeted by Tony, Vision, and Rhodey. Natasha and Steve lingered behind to talk to Tony about the mission they had successfully pulled off, which was a victory on its own but the people who died made it seem a lot more like a loss.

"You all pulled it off - but at what cost?" Tony began with a rise in his eyebrows. Steve and Natasha folded their arms. "Wanda tried her best, she did what she could, Tony and that's all we could ever ask of her." Steve defended, he knew better than anyone the guilt of killing innocent lives. "It's not good enough, Steve. People are dead now because of her, she needs to try harder otherwise the Avengers aren't doing their part to protect the innocent lives on this rock. Do you know how bad this looks on us, right now? I have to leave in the morning for press conferences to address the mistake that Wanda made."

Steve dryly chuckled and shook his head, "I know for a fact you wouldn't be so pissed off by this if Issie was the one who screwed up, right? Wanda's human, she makes mistakes." Tony clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes, "Yes, Steve. Small Mistakes - people are dead now because of her mistakes. And now I'm the one stuck doing damage control. I don't want her leaving this building - Vision, keep an eye on her. I think it's better off that you all stay put until I've fixed this mess."

"And what about Issie?" Natasha retorted in reference to the clear bias Tony had toward everyone and Isabelle. Tony shook his head as if to express how stupid the question asked was, "The world doesn't know that Issie is Scavenger and I intend to keep it that way." Steve rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air, "unbelievable. God..." Both Natasha and Steve walked away, the super soldier far more annoyed than Natasha had been.

Isabelle sat on the bed in silence, her helmet seated beside her as she still wore her suit, not bothered taking it off. Her thoughts wandered to her family, as her thoughts so often did on the journey back to New York. She never missed them as much as she did right in this moment and she never felt so guilty about their death as much as she did now.

A light knocking on the door caught her attention, her reaction was slow to greet the person standing at her doorway. It was Steve with a sympathetic smile and sad eyes, he knew how she felt, just like he knew how Wanda was feeling. "What's on your mind, Iz?" Steve let himself in, he too was still dressed in his suit as he sat down beside her. She shrugged half heartedly and swallowed back the lump in her throat, "I thought... saving the world would be more..."

"Fulfilling? Exciting? Satisfying? I hate to break it to you, but it's not as rewarding as it's made out to be. But what you did today, was save a lot of people from dying. You saved all those people in that building who were alive during the blast. And we stopped Rumlow... If we didn't stop Rumlow a lot more people would've died, and that's on us. But for now, we're stuck with the burden of the lives of those who died, but that doesn't mean they died for nothing." He wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side as she stared out at nothing in particular.

Isabelle played with her fingers in thought, not feeling any better about those who died today. She felt a sense of failure like she could've done more to help those who strayed too close to a fight they didn't deserve to be a part in. Tony stood at the doorway, similarly to how Steve was just moments ago, clearing his throat to get both their attention. "I'd like a word... with Issie." His words had come out unintentionally cold toward Steve, he hadn't meant it to come out with such sting in his tone but he also didn't attempt to apologize for the tone of voice either.

Idiosyncratic || Peter Parker ||Where stories live. Discover now