You are the Marksman. A high level trained assassin and tech mastermind working for Hydra and before that? Lily Haywood, close friend and fellow army buddy of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. After escaping the clutches of Hydra, you've been working a...
The elevator doors opened into the main lounge where several of the avengers were sitting around either watching the smash bros tournament between Sam and Peter, reading quietly, or of you were Clint, that meant eating a bowl of cereal and watching the Nintendo tournament from the air vents.
Steve looked up from his book at the sound of the doors opening. He had been trying to get his mind off the fact that Lilly and Kita had moved out of the tower. It had already been a month, but he still couldn't get her words out of his head.
"I'm sorry Steve, I really am. It's just that Kita and I both have jobs we need to get back to, and I think it's best for everyone, especially you, if I left as quickly as I came."
Steve grabbed her arm to keep her from walking away, turning her face towards his with his free hand. "Why can't you stay here with me? With us? As dysfunctional as everyone is here, we could all be a family" he looked into her eyes hopefully, "you would finally be home."
Lily pulled away from him, trying to fight the urge to run into his arms and undo everything.
"We don't want the same things, Cap. I don't want to have a family, I... I can't afford to have a family"
Bucky had been pretty distant ever since she left. He didn't seem to take it quit as hard, but Steve knew he was hiding his feelings. His friend had fallen into the habit of taking walks in the park for hours at a time, and Steve could only attribute it to Lily and Kita leaving.
"Oh hey Buck, how was your day at the-" Steve's words trailed off as a dust covered Kita entered the room and collapsed on the nearest couch with a broken looking winter soldier close behind carrying a small girl in his arms.
Everyone immediately dropped what they were doing and came over to sit near the trio. Kita quietly explained what had happened with fresh tears tracing the dusty stains on her cheecks from earlier. Loki pulled her onto his lap as she shuttered, reliving the last haunting 4 hours of searching.
Bucky just sat there silently, his hair falling in his face and his eyes never leaving the ground as his fingers played absentmindedly with the hair tie Lily had let him borrow earlier that day.
"Hold on wait... so, you mean to tell me" Tony hopped up and paced around the room with agitation, "that g-man convinced you to move out with her, and manchurian candidate to sneak out of the house every day just so you three could frolic in the woods taking out this Hydra base all by yourselves?"
"Not just the one" Bucky smirked, all eyes landing on him.
Steve took a shaky breath to calm down before asking, "How many, Buck?"
"I don't know.. maybe like 4 or 5...?" Bucky still avoiding his friend's hurt gaze, "I lost count" he grumbled, swiping the tears that misted his eyes.
Steve's expression fell even more at his best friends words. Bucky had been lying to him this whole time, and the worst part was, Bucky was still getting to see Lily and not him.
Peter looked at everyone in confusion, "wait so... Lily might've just died, and you all are just sitting here talking about hurt feelings?" His voice cracked with emotion at the thought of losing his new friend. Kita looked at the poor boy sadly.
They had been searching the rubble and surrounding areas for hours and they couldnt even find a body. The two had finally decided it was time to get out of there and bring Luna home since by morning the place could be swarming with agents.
"Hey Jarv? Track Lily's comm for any signs of activity" Tony flicked his phone at the table and a bunch of screens appeared infront of everyone.
"I'm sorry sir, but I can't seem to find her signal"
"Well keep trying" Steve's voice had gone hard, his eyes sileny burning into Buckys head.
A small hand tugged on Loki's sleeve, "are you jesus?" the green god looking down at the little girl in surprise.
"More like the devil himself" Bruce muttered, getting a pillow thrown at him courtesy of Kita.
"Wow these adults are getting cranky" Kita jokes to the little girl, "okay sweetie, let's get some food in ya!" Kita nodded for Peter to follow her too as she took Luna's hand and left to go make a snack for the kids. Tony kept scanning the different screens for any sign of life while everyone else fell silent.
After a long pause, Tony's eyes lit up. "Hold on wait a second what's this" he kept muttering to himself, typing some more. Steve and Bucky both instinctively leaned forward at the man's words, still unable to bring themselves to speaking terms.
After some more filters and location tracking, Tony finaly pulled up what he was looking for.
"Looks like we have a delayed message coming from Lily's comm from around... 5:00pm? That's when you guys were still looking for her right?" Bucky nodded in response, his hollow eyes fixed on Ironman. Tony ran the audio which consisted mostly of static.
"Enhance that to 200% Jarv?"
The audio crackled to life again and they could only make out a few words, "....Lily!! Where are you Lily!!?....." it sounded like Kita's voice, more footsteps and crunching leaves, a moan from Lily was heard loud and clear and then, silence.
Bucky let out the breath he had been holding, "Oh God, we were so close she was right there...right there and we missed her." He buried his face in his hands.
Jarvis' voice broke the silence, "I'm sorry to interrupt sir, but Director Furry is currently waiting in the conference room for the mission briefing you have scheduled"
"Thanks Jarvis" Steve replied as he stood up to leave, his limbs going numb.
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AHHH yes *sips lemonade* nothing is more relaxing than the screams of my many victims who dared to read this book.
Oh dear, I do hope you're not surfingtoo much.
Kind of a sad chapter but then again, aren't we all here just for the pain? :3
