The Dark Witch: Rising (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 38

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Next soundtrack:

Natasha

Put on repeat until the end of chapter 38 and the beginning of chapter 39. 

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The silence was palpable.

Or maybe it's just me--but I can barely concentrate with the ringing that kept on appearing every five minutes.

It distracted me and made me feel like my brain was running through a grinder.

Something tells me it's about to get a whole lot worse. As if this wasn't bad already.

Our new and improved stolen vehicle got us back to DC faster than our other car.

I'm pretty sure it was because of my driving but who knows.

Natasha was still unconscious in the back seat but every now and then I would check up on her energy and breathe out a sigh of relief when I felt she was still alive.

Steve remains seated at the front next to me, lost in his thoughts.

He was weak and covered in soot. All of us were.

A building got dropped on us, of course, everything hurts.

"Do you know where to go?" Steve asked, after several long hours.

I shrugged, my grip on the steering wheel tightened. "I hope so."

We turned in a neighbourhood and I used Natasha's monitor to guide me to the house I was looking for.

Considering the circumstances, since my powers were now healing me, I was in much better shape than Steve and Natasha which was the reason why I was driving.

Not only that, it gave me a much-needed distraction from the obvious one.

HYDRA.

They were back.

Rather, they've always been there.

"Riley?" Steve asked softly, his tone quiet.

My fingers grappled at the wheel but I remain calm. He wants to ask me about what happened earlier when I told him I wasn't her.

The woman he loves.

Steve's emotions are clear for me to feel. After everything that's happened, he is aware that this is the least of our problems.

But we can't keep ignoring it.

It'll only get worse.

I don't know if I want to hear this, so I choose not to respond.

"Is that what you think you are?"

Those blue eyes narrowed apologetically from where he sits, watching me, waiting for any indication on my expression that might give way to the fact that I'm so lost and unhinged to this world--that I don't know what else to expect.

"That I'm using you?" He added.

I turned away, feeling my heart crumble.

Our earlier conversation makes my breath uneven so I calmly pushed it aside, not wanting to dwell on it.

"I don't know Rogers, you want what you want." I was cold as I said this, needing him to drop it.

Now was not the time to be thinking of whatever it is we are.