DIVIDED- MARVEL

• FOUR •

2016

"Now, I'd like Miss Cassandra Barnes to come up and say a few words."

All eyes looked to her as she exhaled and stood up. She walked to the podium in the front, the clicking of her heels being the only sound in the room apart from a few sniffles. Cassandra hadn't cried, she wanted to, but she got it together moments before the funeral started. And, she couldn't ruin her eyeliner anymore then she already had.

Taking the neatly folded slip of paper from her coat pocket, she laid it out on the wooden podium. Cassandra took a deep breath, and looked down at the words on the paper. Clearing her throat, she began to speak.

"Peggy Carter saved my life. Whether I knew it or not back then, she did. When I look back on my life, the parts that she was in, I realize that she did so much more for me than I ever could've done for her. In 1961, she found, and arrested me. If I look back on that moment now, I realize how grateful I am that by some miracle she found me. She understood how my mind worked, because she had dealt with another like me, she understood how I thought. When I had an idea, she could figure out where I was coming from." Cassandra breathed, and kept speaking.
"She was like the sister I never had, the family I never got. I loved her like family, and she loved me back. She didn't kill me, when so many others would have. She knew my worth, both strategic and personal. She loved me when I shouldn't have been loved, she trusted me when I shouldn't have been trusted. Peggy Carter helped me leave my old life behind and start a new one. And I wish I had been able to do the same for her."

Her speech ended, folded the paper and put it back into her pocket. She sat back down in her seat in between Steve and Sam. Heart pounding in her chest, she slowly inhaled and exhaled, calming herself down.

•••••••••••

Cassandra stood with Steve and Natasha, who'd recently joined them. The trio stood in silence, non of them really knowing what to say. Steve piped up after a few seconds.

"Who else signed?"
"Tony. Rhodey. Vision."
"Clint?"
"Says he's retired."
"Wanda?" Cassandra asked.
"TBD. I'm off to Vienna for the signing of the Accords. There's plenty of room on the jet."

Steve sighed, and bowed his head. Cassandra knew how he was, and how hard for him this was. Learning the love of your life is dead, and your only family is going to be spilt in half is a hard thing to comprehend.

"Just because it's the path of least resistance doesn't mean it's the wrong path. Staying together is more important than how we stay together." Natasha said, even if it sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Steve.

"What are we giving up to do it?"

Natasha sighed, and Cassandra looked down at her feet, agreeing with Steve. She'd done some horrible things over the time of her life, and she knew that Secretary Ross was going to make sure she was put in jail, and maybe even killed for it. And she didn't feel like being publicly executed.

"I'm sorry, Nat. I can't sign it."
"I can't either, I'm sorry." Cassandra said.
"I know."
"Then what are you doing here?" Steve asked.
"I didn't want you to be alone."

Natasha pulled the both of them into a hug.

••••••••••••

"Cassandra where are you going?" Steve asked as she zipped up her suitcase.
"I'm going with Nat to Vienna."
"I thought you didn't want to sign the accords."
"I don't. But I also don't want to see you sulk on the plane, and I don't want to see you flirt with Shannon. So I'm going to Vienna."
"I wasn't flirting with Shannon."
"Don't lie to me Lover Boy."
"Cass-"
"I don't need to know about your love life Captain."

She wheeled her suitcase to the door, and gave him a salute as she closed the door. Cassandra placed her room key on the front counter, and walked out the sliding glass doors.  Natasha stood up from the bench she was sitting on, and followed after Cassandra, quickly catching up with her.

"Where'd you park?"
"In the 7/11 parking lot across the street."

Cassandra looked at her, and gestured to the suitcase that weighed a few pounds. Natasha shrugged.

"They said it would cost twenty bucks to park!"
"Just use Tony's card. That's what I do."
"Well I'm not Tony's aunt! I can't just do that!"
"Everybody does that. Clint paid for Lila's school tuition with Tony's card! You are in no ways more virtuous than Clint."
"Duly noted. Come on then Cass, we have a flight waiting for us."

Natasha and Cassandra jogged across the street, and got into the car. Natasha drove them to the airport, and they found Tony's jet. she walked up the stairs, her shoulder sore from dragging the suitcase which was now on the plane.

Something felt wrong about going to Vienna, it felt like something bad was going to happen. If she learned anything at all from the countless years of torture and training, it was to trust your gut. And her gut, whilst also being hungry beyond understanding, said that something was up. She didn't know if Natasha felt it too, if she did, Natasha wasn't saying anything about it.

So as a precaution, she did what felt right. She put knives into her sleeves, and a gun in her coat.

finally!!
thank you to everybody reading, i appreciate you so much and never forget that i love you 3000!!-