OUR LIFETIME « Pietro Maximoff

13 /| family fued

[chapter thirteen]

SAVANNAH HATED BEING FORCED INTO THINGS, and that was the most she could say on that subject at the moment. She leaned her head on the back of the sofa unable to even pretend like she was listening to Sam and Rhodes's argument. One against the accords the other all for it, respectively.

Her eyes were closed behind her glasses. They were in this living room to discuss the Accords, but Savannah would not be signing. Maybe if they'd done it in a better way, or a more realistic way she would. There were too many people she didn't know and couldn't see herself trusting. People who could use her.

Vision's words caught her attention, but she didn't look up. "I have an equation," he began, interrupting Sam and Rhodes.

Sam's voice dropped sarcasm. "Oh, this will clear it up."

Vision continued nonetheless. "In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."

"Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve asked, looking up from the Accords that sat in his lap. Savannah wouldn't go near it.

"I'm saying there may be a causality," Vision corrected. "Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict breeds catastrophe. Oversight... oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

Rhodes looked at Sam. "Boom."

"Please," Savannah drawled, looking up. "That's probably the most hilarious thing I've heard all week, and there's people who've threatened me on live television."

"I do not see how either of those things are humorous," Vision said confusedly.

"No, of course you don't." She glanced at her nails. "I think what you said was quite ridiculous because what do those things have to do with each other? Really? You think Loki came here with a whole alien army because he saw Tony on CNN? You think Hydra, which has been established for longer than any of us has been alive, is purely motivated by the desire to fight us? Because we're the good guys? Not because they are actual bad people with bad agendas?" She didn't wait for an answer. "I didn't think so. Oh, and Rumlow was a vindictive son of a bitch who needed revenge on Steve Rogers before he could truly bite the dust. There's nothing like a Hydra Agent scorned."

Pietro frowned. "Savannah—"

"No, I'm not finished," she snarled, looking at Tony. "Ultron was your fault, sure, but that problem stemmed from an internal place. I think some of these people would love it if we weren't in the way though, don't you? Then it'd all be just a little easier for them." She pushed her glasses up her nose, her eyes and hands burning. "You let that man come in here and tell us we haven't suffered for our actions. That's not true and every single one of you knows that. He really meant that we haven't paid our dues publicly, so we must not have paid them at all.

"And his compromise and reassurance? Who's gonna reassure me? This isn't compromise, not when there won't be any in the long run. And retirement? Ha. I'd like to see them try and retire me themselves." With those words she got up from the couch and left the compound. She didn't look back out of both embarrassment and anger.

She was still probably going to apologize later though.

*•.*

"What is it Natasha?" She asked into her phone. She was seated in the corner of some random café. The place was practically empty. She sipped on her tea for a moment, waiting for a reply.