Artemis : The Seventh Avenger ➳ Steve Rogers [1]

03 [ 03 ]

☆ ☆ ☆

"So, we got to assume they're coming back, right?" Rhodey asks, after Steve's brief run through of their encounter with the 'children of Thanos'.

"And they can clearly find us." Wanda adds.

"We need all hands on deck." Says Bruce, "Where is Clint?"

"After the whole Accords situation, Cam helped him and Scott strike a deal with the Secretary." Nat explained, "It was too tough on their families. They're under house arrest."

"Who's Scott?" Bruce asks, clearly he has missed out on a lot while he was gone.

"Ant-Man." Steve answers.

He raises his brows at the answer, "There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man?"

Bruce physically shakes the thought out of his head, getting himself back on track.

"Okay, look." He paces around the room, "Thanos has the biggest army in the universe, and he's not going to stop until he gets..."

Bruce stops pacing, turning to look at Vision, "Until he gets Vision's stone." He says, pointing at the Mind stone.

"Well, then we have to protect it." Nat says.

"No, we have to destroy it." Vision joins in the conversation, "I've been giving a lot of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also its composition."

The room falls silent, each of us trying to process the information that has just been told to us.

Vision turns to address Wanda, who was standing close behind him.

"I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something very similar to its own signature. Perhaps, it's molecular integrity could fail." Vision suggests, making my heart drop immediately.

Wanda's face falls at what Vision has just said, "And you with it. We're not having this conversation."

"Eliminating the stone is the one way to be certain that Thanos can't get it." Vision reasons.

"That's too high a price." Wanda choked.

Vision moves towards her, taking her face gently in his hands. "Only you have the power to pay it."

Wanda looks away in distress and walks away, biting nervously at their nails.

"Thanos threatens half the universe," Vision continues, "One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."

"But it should." Steve tears his gaze from his feet and looks up at Vision, "We don't trade lives, Vision."

"Captain, seventy years ago, you laid your life down to save how many millions of people. Tell me, why is this any different?" Vision questions.

Steve takes a deep breath ready to answer but doesn't get the chance to when Bruce starts to speak.

"Because you might have a choice." He says, "Your mind is a complex of overlays; JARVIS, Ultron, Tony, Me, the Stone. All of them mixed together. All learning from one another."

"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" Wanda asks, a flicker of hope flashing across her eyes.

"No, the Stone's just a small part of him. We could separate the neurons from the stone, remove it entirely." I finally speak, whatever Bruce had just said finally clicking into place.

"Exactly." Bruce says, "And even if we remove the Stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left. Maybe even the best parts."

"Can we do that?" Nat asks, looking to Bruce and I.

"Not me. Not here." Bruce shakes his head, "Cam?"

"I'm afraid I'm a little under qualified for a task this important." I sigh, "Even if I could, we don't have the tech to do it."

"You better find someone and somewhere fast." Rhodey says, "Ross isn't exactly going to let you guys have your old rooms back."

I look to Steve, he meets my eyes, before something seems to click.

"I know somewhere." He says, "It's a little far out, but if we leave now we can get there before it gets late."

He steps forward to address the rest of the team, "We should expect a fight, so gear up. Five minutes, get everything you need and report on the jet."

The team nods in reply before scattering off. I pull Steve aside before he gets to leave.

"I might have a location on Tony." I say.

"You do?" He asks, growing restless as he shifts from feet to feet. "Where?"

"That's the thing." I say, "We know for sure that he was in New York in a couple of hours ago from his GPS and I got a ping somewhere over Montreal."

"Over?" Steve raises his brows at me in confusion.

"Yeah." I sigh, "I believe he's not on Earth. I would assume he's somewhere in space. I could try to gain communications with him, but it'll be hard considering the whole space thing."

Steve's mouth falls slightly ajar, "Space?"

"Is that really the most ridiculous thing you've heard today?" I point out.

He interlaces my fingers with his as he pulls me closer to him, letting out a heavy sigh.

"It should be." He says, a deep crease forming between his brows, "I really wish we could go back to this morning."

"I was right to let you sleep in and quit frowning." I tease, smoothing out the creases, "You're going to get wrinkles."

He lets out a laugh, but his frown is back as soon as he does.

"Everything's a mess." He mutters, resting his forehead against mine.

"Everything?" I tease again, standing on the tips of my toes to plant a peck on his lips as I combed my fingers through his hair.

His lips tug into a wide smile, "Okay, maybe not everything."

He pulls me into a tight embrace and I allow myself to sink into him, enjoying the comfort it brought.

"I love you." Steve mumbles, kissing the crown of my head.

"Of course you do." I joke, "Who else would you love?"

He smiles at that, the tension in his shoulders finally disappearing as he gazed at me with eyes filled with love. He then leans forward and kisses me again, gently at first, then firmer. I close my eyes, losing myself in the moment.

I shiver as his warm hands trailed down my spine to rest on the small of my back, pulling me even closer to him.

His lips quirk up into a smile once again as our lips part. He stays close to me, so close that I could still feel his eyelashes flutter against my cheeks and his lips brushing against mine as he spoke.

"No one could ever come close to you, Camille Romanoff."