Elemental {Avengers}

50. Salvation

The bright day reflected light off of the distant building, the green grass glowing in the heat of the Spring afternoon. Trees dotted the area surrounding the lake, a distant cry from the new compound that Tony had established. It allowed for peace of mind after the New York debacle, and a far better outlook, rather than bustling streets and stressed out SHIELD employees.

Tony even said so himself; he preferred the countryside, as much as he made out to be the technology obsessed playboy. Pepper had been happy as well, I realised. She would have much rathered Tony to have some fresh air, rather than the polluted city. And she enjoyed having a break as well, even if it was just a few weeks while we all tried to get back to normal.

The crutch was already dirty and covered in mud from the side of the lake, and I suddenly had a realisation that I shouldn't have done this; I should have listened to Clint and Steve, who had told me to stay indoors. But I had had enough of being coddled and looked after. I was ready to go out by myself, and someone else.

The path around the lake was only dirt, so I sat down on a wooden bench, propping my leg up on a fallen log, careful of getting all the bandages dirty. A sparrow chirped next to my ear, and a squirrel climbed the nearby branch of a fir tree, nibbling on a walnut.

Tony had handed me a pile of documents, raided from the Red Room by SHIELD, that had been chosen specifically to be given to me. I don't know why they hadn't done it sooner, especially since the girls that were saved from the Red Room's clutches, didn't have any documentation. It still plagued me, a flashback of a few weeks ago invaded my mind. We had almost lost so much-

The sound of light feet against gravel made me look towards the path, where something was sniffing amongst the underbrush. Her tail wagged from out of the bush, flicking against leaves and bracken.

I smiled.

Nothing in the world could have prepared me for going to the Red Room for the second time. Nothing could have prepared me for almost losing her. But, it was only Tony's quick thinking and speed that got her to a veterinary clinic fast enough to be helped. Well, helped as much as she could be.

She became visible, running towards me-

And then tripped.

And then tripped again.

And again.

It was as almost as if she had forgotten that a part of her was missing, that almost half of her front side had been shaved off, to reveal a big, ugly scar, stretching from her chest, to her stomach, crossing where her leg should have been. Where it was, only a few weeks ago.

An amputation was the only thing they could do, as the bullet had gone in her shoulder, completely destroying muscle, blood vessels and nerve endings. She didn't have regenerative healing or partial invulnerability like me, but she was still strong, prancing around the bushes, chasing bees and birds.

I opened up the Red Room documents on my lap, prepared to be either disappointed with lack of information, or stunned and surprised with the excess of it. But I had gone past the point of caring. It was all over, that's what mattered, whether Madam B or Andrei or Dimochka were alive or not.

Whatever was said about me in those documents, they didn't matter either, just something that could be transferred to legal documents, passports, bank accounts etc.

It was true, Dimochka had broken out of prison just a week later, as he had promised. Clint and Nat were out looking for him, currently.

Madam B was dead. Burnt to a crisp by me, no trace of her left. She deserved it, but some part of me wished that I could have had the time to talk to her like an actual person, question her on why she did those things, even if I killed her at a later point.