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CHAPTER FIVE
a moment of peace
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THE STILLNESS OF the forest was a type of peace Diana had never known. Growing up in New York, she only knew the bustling of the city that never sleeps and the distant hum of car engines and the typical sound of people. There was none of that in the woods she sat in now. There was the faint chirp of birds speaking to each other and chittering of squirrels as they ran around, scrounging for food.

The quiet is what was able to get Diana to calm down so quickly, the peacefulness of wildlife around her gave her a simple thing to focus on until her breathing slowed to a normal pace. The cracking of the leaves behind her made her spin around, a raised fist with a glow of energy armed at the person. The pregnant woman that Diana disregarded on her way past had a wrapped sandwich and a glass of water stood with wide eyes.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry," Diana pleaded, lowering her fist and letting the energy fizz away, the woman waved her off, dismissing the transgression as a whole.

"Clint wasn't joking about how those glowing eyes look," the woman cracked a smile, making Diana tilt her head in confusion.

"Glowing eyes?" She asked, making the woman stop in her tracks, her eyebrows furrowing in the same manner as Dianas.

"You didn't know?" She asked as she held out the sandwich and drink, "Clint said he was starving after Loki's mind control and I don't think you had the chance to eat since they loaded you onto the jet."

Diana couldn't stomach the idea of food after the news she got after she woke up, but this woman went through the trouble of making her food and waddling out to the woods just to bring it to her and she didn't want to waste the woman's efforts.

"I never really used my powers in the mirror, it was a concrete cell, then that ship, and that brief moment in the shower but I wasn't even sober at that point," Diana rambled as she gently took the food, "thank you for this by the way."

"I'm Laura, Clint didn't get to introduce you since Thor had to carry you in," Laura smiled, Diana glanced down at her pregnant stomach and widened her eyes at the connection from the woman to the little girl that handed her the burner phone.

"He said he didn't have a girlfriend but that's because he has a wife," Diana gasped after swallowing her first bite, "god, I would be a terrible detective."

Laura laughed at Diana's reaction.

"Yeah, he wants to keep all this under the radar, to make it safer for the kids."

Diana leaned against the tree she stood next to and processed everything. She had learned so much information in the past 24 hours she was sure that a migraine would be headed her way soon.

"We should probably get back, I need to apologize to Tony," Diana spoke up, "and talk to Nat, I can tell Wanda affected her by the look on her face."

"Can I ask what she did to you guys?" Laura asked as the two began to head for the house, "Steve and Thor were affected as well and Thor flew away after dropping you off."

Diana glanced at the woman as they continued.

"Wanda has this ability to get into your head and play on your fears, show you things," Diana shuddered as she remembered her vision, her fears. The food in her stomach twisted and made her nauseous, she washed it down with the water in her glass that was surprisingly cool even though the glass showed no indication of it, "I don't know what she showed the others, but if it was anything like what I saw, I gotta make sure they're gonna be okay."

Laura nodded silently. Diana nudged Laura's arm lightly, getting the woman's attention, "Thank you."

"It's no problem, let me know if you need anything, dinner will be ready in a few hours," Laura smiled as made her way inside.

Tony and Steve were still conversing. Diana made her way over to the men and their piles of chopped wood. They stopped at the sight of her, she could tell they were analyzing her tear-streaked face.

"That explosion-"

Diana cut Steve off after looking at Tony, she could see the guilt on his face.

"Judith dying was not your fault, we all thought she had more time and you had no way of knowing Ultron would do all this, I'm sorry for blaming you," Diana spoke, her voice had some strain in it, speaking of her mother will do that.

"Your mom died, it's okay to be angry," Tony spoke, "I think all of us have an idea of what you're going through, no need to be angry."

Diana gave the man a brief hug. She looked over at Steve, "Laura told me Wanda got to your head, are you okay?"

"I'll be fine, Nat seemed to be shaken pretty badly though," Steve answered.

"She's my next stop, along with Bruce," Diana replied, she looked over at the piles of chopped wood and nodded her head, she could hide the impressed look on her face.

She waved to the two and walked off to the house, giving Clint a nod from where he stood with his son. They were working on something for the porch railing together. Clint, with kids, Diana never thought she would see it but she would table that conversation to a later time.

Diana made her way into the house where she caught a glimpse of Natasha walking by the top of the stairs. The blonde quickly made her way up, finishing her sandwich before her stomach changed its mind. She continued to sip on the water, savoring that as much as she could. Diana turned a corner to see Nat walk into a bedroom. She followed suit.

The bedroom was small with a full-sized bed centered against the wall, children's toys scattered with a dollhouse in the corner. Natasha stood by the bed, her arms crossed over her chest. Two piles of clothes sat on the bed, Diana recognized her shirt on one of the two piles.

The two women stared at each other for a while, neither knowing how to start the much-needed conversation.

"Do you just wanna change and lay down for a bit?" Diana asked. Natasha gave a twitch of a smile.

The redhead nodded and got to work on changing. Diana closed the door behind her and chugged the remainder of her water, setting the glass on the dresser, and walked over next to Nat. The two changed in silence, a mutual agreement. Diana had one of her favorite t-shirts and a pair of leggings stored in the quinjet, Natasha had something similar in mind as well.

After their suits were discarded, the two women crawled onto the bed, lying side by side, their shoulders and hips pressed against each other. They stayed like that for god knows how long, both pushing away haunted memories that are forever seared in their brains. Diana could still see them in the corners of her eyes, always giving their sickening smile with their hands painted red with blood.

"Where are you right now?" Natasha asked. Diana looked over at her friend to see she was observing Diana, analyzing her.

"I could ask you the same," Diana responded, nudging her arm. Natasha had another twitch of a smile as she looked back at the roof, it was speckled with plastic stars and moons, Diana was sure they glowed in the dark.

"I asked first," Natasha said. Diana could see the pain she was trying to hide, so she pulled Natasha's hand into her grip, squeezing.

"Growing up, you know how my parents put me in the darkroom until I was compliant," Diana spoke through a shaky voice, she was going to have to tell someone, Natasha would probably be the most understanding, "Wanda put me there again, only this time I was strapped to a table and my DNA donators, Tom and Celeste were in there with me and they uh," -she didn't know how to articulate the rest of it, but she sighed and pushed on- "they cut me open and pulled my guts out, and Baron Strucker in all his bloody glory stood by and watched."

Natasha's face contorted in one of sympathetic disgust. Diana felt like a weight lifted off her chest, a sigh of relief from finally unloading that onto someone felt great. She knew a hundred questions would come from it, she looked over at Natasha who was watching her once again.

"Why would she show you something like that?" Natasha asked, her furrowed eyebrows framing her confusion perfectly.

"I think," Diana shrugged, "it's because for years it felt like even if I turned myself inside out, it wouldn't satisfy my parents even then, they would set me on fire to keep themselves warm if they had to."

Natasha squeezed Diana's hand, the two began to have clouded visions from tears.

"Don't avoid the question, I spilled my guts, literally, your turn," Diana nudged, a humorless chuckle left her body as she looked to the plastic stars, "what's gonna keep you up at night for a couple of weeks, Miss Romanoff?"

"I was uh, brought back to the Red Room where I was raised and trained, forced to live some of my first worst memories," Natasha choked out, "when I would dance for them until all my toes broke because the formation wasn't good enough when I first killed a man for target practice-" she choked out a half sob- "the graduation ceremony, where they sterilize you, pull out all your reproductive organs, just to make sure that the one thing that might matter more than a mission is never possible."

Diana turned onto her side, pulling Natasha against her, squeezing tight.

"You shouldn't have had to go through that, and I'm sorry that you did," Diana mumbled into her friend's hair.

"I lost my sister," Natasha spoke, "she wasn't related by blood, but we were put on a mission together, to make a fake family, infiltration under the disguise of a white picket fence American family, when the mission was over, we got separated, but she was on the mission for so long, it- it felt real."

If Diana could squeeze any tighter, then she would.

"What was her name?" Diana asked.

"Yelena," Natasha answered, "her name was Yelena."

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BRUCE DIDN'T WANT to talk about what he saw, and Diana understood. Whatever would cause a man who has more control over his emotions than Diana, to completely lose it as he did would be something truly haunting, and Diana didn't want him to relive it by talking about it, for his safety and the safety of the house they were in.

Laura made a fantastic dinner, Diana was still sitting at the table as the rest of the Avengers conversed about Ultron and the twins with the help of Nick Fury who was called in by Laura and found by Tony in the shed.

Now, with some of the greatest minds in the room, Diana digested her food while the rest of the team tried to figure out what their next move was.

"I think we need to analyze the materials he's gotten and what he has, what in god's name is he doing with all that vibranium?" Diana asked, Steve nodded at her question, looking over at the others as they also pondered the question.

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked, Diana could only shrug, it felt like a useless answer but she had no idea what his next move would be.

"Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere." Nick replied, as usual, she tried to conceal himself in the darkest part of the room, he did that in Diana's apartment when he recruited her, and he did it when he broke into her and Steve's apartment in DC, "Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked.

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway." That was all Nick told them in response.

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony said, making Dina widen her eyes and stare at him in disbelief, he only nonchalantly shrugged at her response.

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that-" Nick was soon interrupted by a confused Steve.

"NEXUS?" He asked

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth," Bruce responded instantly. It had gotten o a point where Steve's confusion was expected for a lot of things, and everyone had gotten used to explaining the little things that he might have missed in Natasha and Diana's 21rst Century catch-up class.

"So what'd they say?" Clint asked, redirecting the conversation back to the problem at hand.

"He's fixated on the missiles," Nick answered bluntly to the question, "but the codes are constantly being changed."

A sense of relief washed over Diana as her muscles realized just a bit more, the idea of Ultron blowing up the whole planet haunted her thoughts, but the impending sense of doom lessened with the news she received.

"By whom?" Tony asked, his arms were crossed over his chest with a furrowed look of genuine curiosity on his face.

"Parties unknown," Nick replied, he looked over at Diana who shrugged.

"Whoever can hack the nexus like that is beyond my skill set, that's gonna have to be a job for Mr. Billionaire," Diana shoved a thumb at Tony who nodded at the name.

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked.

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing." Nick shook his head with his reply, he was right, whoever is changing those codes could easily turn on the Avengers as well, "Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo," Tony spoke, "find our unknown."

"Well, this is good times, boss," Natasha addressed Fury again, "but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that."

"I do, I have you." Fury gestured his hands out to the group, some of them tilted their heads at his words, "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Natasha smirked, making Diana snort.

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve had a smile of his own, a silent chuckle shaking his chest as his crossed arms bulged over it.

"So what does he want?" Nick asked. It was the bottom line, finding out Ultron's plan would have to start with finding out his end goal.

"To become better." Steve answered rapidly, "Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies." Tony's gears began to turn as he started thinking even more about it, "The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha joked, leaning back in her seat. Diana nodded in agreement to that, taking her friend's hand and squeezing it as she shook it.

"They don't need to be protected," Bruce appeared behind them, taking Lila's drawing of a butterfly and studying it, "they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?"

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

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2.6k words

AHHHHHHH
okay, I KNOW that 2.6 is shorter than normal but I didn't want to throw too much into one chapter and I think the pacing for this book is going great compared to the first one (y'all are gonna lose your shit over the third)

thank you ALL for reading this it's means a lot to me. Diana holds a special place in my heart as one of my OG o/cs and I'm so happy to continue her story.

let me know if there's any more dynamics y'all wanna see and I'll keep note (aka write it down for future chapter plot points)

hope to see y'all at the next update!!

- greta!