After five months

There's a knock on the door.

"Hermione, are you in there?" asks someone on the other side of the door. His voice muffled behind the wooden door.

She's standing in front of her long mirror. While pulling the zip up to her chest, Hermione turns her head over her shoulder to where the door is located. Her eyebrow raised, wondering what Aaron wants. "Just a second!" she shouts.

While readying herself as fast as possible -- pushing her hair up and tie it into a ponytail -- she kicks her dirty clothes to the side, mumbling these and thats, complaining to herself about how messy her room is. All her books that she hasn't finished reading are all over the floor in various types of flips. Sometimes she stumbles with her laziness to put them back on the shelves. She doesn't know what's wrong with her that even after months passed since the event, she cannot concentrate her mind into her reading materials. Everytime she reads, it will remind her back to the Avengers. And him.

There's a knock again.

"Hermione?"

"Wait! Wait!" Hermione groans and jumps over the barriers -- the books. Since she has a big room like a chamber, it is quite a long way to get to her main bedroom door.

A knock again.

Irritated, she reaches the handle bar and opens the door in a swift movement. "What?!" Hermione hisses at Aaron Rooster.

The boss looks at her with a question look with a smirk at the corner of his lip. "You look... like you'd run a marathon." He laughs, eyeing Hermione up and down.

That girl heaves for breaths, her forehead forms a little sweat and it trickles down to her neck. Her nose flares, catching the air to maintain her breathings.

"Quite," Hermione admits. She leans her body in between the spaces of the door and the frame, so Aaron won't see what's in her bedroom.

"What's up? I am almost ready. Can't you just meet me downstairs?" she enquires.

Aaron sighs. "I can't that's why I am here," he tells Hermione. "I have training session with the new boys so I can't be there when you leave."

Hermione nods as she chews her lower lip. "So?"

"Oh, uh." Aaron rubs the back of his neck, looking nervous. "I just came to tell you to that... I- I want you to know that... I- um." Aaron stutters while avoiding Hermione's eyes.

The girl laughs. Looking at Aaron acting like that that's very unusual of him. "Come on, Aaron, what do you want to tell me?" she asks, tilting her head to the side in wonder. "Please be quick. I don't have much time."

Aaron didn't respond; instead, she looks at Hermione deep into her eyes.

Hermione frowns. "Aaron?" She waves her hand in front of his face. "Hey, Aaron. You better not acting this way because I have a lot to do before I am going away."

Aaron still didn't respond.

Hermione sighs. "Okay. I'll get back inside." She turns around and about to closes the door when Aaron quickly grabs her hand. Hermione looks down at it with confusion. "Er, Aaron?"

"I am sorry, Hermione," he appologises without reasons. But his hand is still grabbing Hermione's hand delicately. "I just want you to know that I am proud of you. And I didn't want to touch the sensitive part but my Dad is proud of you too," he tells the sweet girl deep from inside his heart.

Hermione stares at the handsome man with a frown. Her heart feels itchy, making her wants to laugh at Aaron's sudden sweet talk but her mind didn't let her. "Um, okay," she replies.

"And I want you to know that I love you. Ah, I- I mean we all love you, especially my Dad. He loves you so much. He once told me that he wished you were his real daughter. And the boys. They're jealous of you but they love you especially Lukas," Aaron quickly covers from his sudden confession, that even he himself was astounded with what he said.

Hermione cannot help but to laugh at Aaron. "Of course Arnold loves me, Aaron. And I love him too. He's my everything," Hermione replies what comes into her mind first. Keyword: Mind. Not from her heart.

Aaron nervously laughs, still handling Hermione's hand without his consciousness. "Okay. I am... I am glad you love him too because he would- he would be devastated if you're not."

The chocolate-eyed girl smiles sadly. "Of course," she says, bringing her gazes down to the ground, didn't dare to look at Aaron's beautiful eyes when she's not telling the full truth.

It is quiet in the Villa as usual. Most of the older boys who are home are still sleeping. Some are at the Camp meanwhile some have gone to missions assigned. The new boys Aaron mentioned are waiting for him at a gym somewhere in the Villa for some tests and training for their intelligencies. And then Lukas is at Aaron's room, Hermione believes. He's now Aaron's second in command, at times replacing Aaron to listen to and ordering the assassins-in-mission's report.

At the door, Hermione and Aaron are trying to find the next words to say to break the awkward silence. Hermione's arms are free by now, and she can't tell how relieved she feels when Aaron let her hand go. The warmth of his hand makes her going crazy but she didn't dare to say that she's enjoying it. She doesn't know why suddenly she didn't feel anything towards Aaron.

After a few minutes, Hermione finally speaks. "Uh, you know what, Aaron. I've got to go," she says as she steps back, pushing the door. "And you have kids to train so I'll see you later."

Aaron's face suddenly turns red without warning. Hermione doesn't know what he's thinking. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. I'll... see you at night."

Hermione nods as she presses her lips into a thin line. "Bye." She closes the door even before Aaron walks away.

~

Hermione is lying on her stomach. Her legs are spread into an angle to get a good and comfortable position. Her Barrett 50cal is set in front of her, pointing down at a room on the opposite building she's on, a floor below her. Shadows of a man and a woman are playing behind the thin curtains like a shadow theatre but Hermione's not enjoying watching it.

Hermione shuts her left eye and watches the shadows through the single-binocular on her Barrette. The same two shadows are still there walking back and forth. They look like they're having a heavy conversation. Whatever they're talking is not in Hermione's concern. She's there to kill the man, not spying or interpretting what they're talking about.

"Any time, Hermione," Lukas announces through the wireless earphone. His voice sounds very tired after being awake for 20 hours.

Slowly, Hermione's finger wraps around the trigger, as her other hand supports the Barrette. The butt of her rifle is pressed just under her collarbone. She watches the shadows playing again, taking a deep breath and holding it, didn't want to shake when it's the time to presses the trigger.

She's ready.

"Tar-"

"Shit!" Lukas's curse breaking Hermione's concentration.

"Lukas?" she calls. "What's wrong?" she asks worriedly. Her attention is now not on the shadows but Lukas on the other side of the phone, in the Villa.

"I don't know. I hear noises downstairs," Lukas replies. He sounds panic. "I've got to check them up. You-"

"I'm coming," Hermione cuts him before quickly packing back her Barrette into its bag.

Lukas didn't reply. She doesn't know either Lukas agreed with her or not, but she knows that Lukas knows she won't listen him if he makes her do something she's not willing to do. So Lukas ignores her and continues his task.

Noises begins louder on the other side of the line. Stomping of footsteps, distant groans of boys and people closing doors harshly ring through the earphone. Hermione winces when she hears unexpected gun shots and people screaming. It makes her heart pounds fast. Even faster when she thinks about Aaron and Lukas. After some time, she couldn't bare with the noises that is playing through her ear so she takes the earphone off and throws it away  and it crashes somewhere in the alley.

Hermione runs fast like a Flash to her black van and climbs in. Without being ordered, as soon as she closes the door, tyres begin screeching as the driver quickly changes the gear and drifts towards the Villa. Neither Hermione nor the driver says anything on their way towards their sanctuary.

The 30 minutes ride, Hermione feels like 30 hours ride. By the time they reach the Villa, Hermione gasps as she takes in the scene of the mansion. There are a few black Jeeps parked outside the mansion but the vehicles are all empty. Some of the ground-level windows are broken, the curtains are shreded into pieces like cats clawing them. The front big door is cracked and there are screams of boys in every part of the house and loud gun shots is still not disappearing. Hermione's heart breaks witnessing them.

Both the driver and Hermione quickly hop out of the van, sprinting towards the front door. However, before Hermione could even step on the front steps, she hears windows crashing upstairs and a loud man's scream. The scream at first was distant but becomes louder and louder and abruptly stops when she hears a body falls on the groud with a loud thud and she thought she heard bones cracking. Hermione freezes. Her eyes water thinking about the tragedy.

She quickly rounds the house, looking for the person that was screaming to make sure who that was. At the side of the house -- the side that is nearing the woods -- on the ground there lies a man in burnt training suits, exposing his reddish flesh. From a few feet, Hermione can see crimson liquid sliding down his ears and nose apart from his legs and hands and body.

"Aaron!" Hermione gasps. Without taking another second, she sprints towards Aaron's body and slides on her knees towards him. "Aaron!" she calls the man. Her hands are shaking as they find a way to touch the beautiful man. When she looks down, his legs are positioned in awkward angle. "Aaron, please wake up!" She runs her hands on his face.

Aaron didn't respond, didn't open his eyes, didn't even move even an inch.

Hermione sobs while looking at Aaron's lifeless body. She notices his lips are pale; his hands are cold. There's no blood on his face. He doesn't look like Aaron anymore. He doesn't look like anyone. He doesn't look like a human.

Her emotion suddenly turns angry. Her heart is flaring with fierce flames for a revenge. Her lionheart is floating on the surface of her face. With fearless eyes, she looks up at Aaron's room, only becomes angrier when she sees Tony standing at the cliff of the room, staring down at them.

She knew it. She knew it!

In a blink of an eye, Hermione gets up bravely even though her knees are shaking. She then sprints towards the van. Ignoring the screams from inside of the house and the fearless gunshot, while sobbing, Hermione unzips her Barrett's bag. She lifts up her rifle, making sure that it's fully loaded. She then wraps the strap across her torso before turning around and stomps towards the big front door. The rifle is ready in her hands.

She bursts inside the Villa, running through the house, heading towards the flight of high stairs. Hermione's fast movements outsmarting the agents from S.H.I.E.L.D, who didn't manage to stop her from getting upstairs where Tony is standing -- or waiting. Without warning, Hermione points her Barrett straight on Tony's chest and presses the tigger non-stop as she enters Aaron's room.

"You fucking murderer!" Hermione curses furiously. "I thought it was enough! I thought you've stopped killing people after I told everything!" Hermione yells as she continues pulling the trigger.

"Helen!" Tony tries to stop her, pointing his palms but didn't fire up its beam. He didn't want to back away but had to when Hermione keeps pushing the trigger. The bullet clings against Tony's steel bulletproof armour. "Helen! Stop it!"

"I am not a Stark for a reason! I won't stop!" Hermione screams. "I am not going to stop until you die!"

"Helen, please, listen to me first!" Tony's voice sounded robotic.

"I don't want to hear anything from you, you murderer! I don't deserve to listen to you and you don't deserve to talk to me!"

"Helen-"

"STOP!"

"Helen-"

"Oh." The repeated gun shot from Hermione stops in a blink of an eye. The flame in her eyes slowly turns soft with no emotion as she looks at Tony. They're like ghosts. The frown on her forehead slowly loose as her hands slowly fall to her sides. Her knees become weaker and weaker, and slowly she falls to the ground.

"I hate you, Dad! I've always hated you!" Although she's weak but she forced herself to speak. Although it's low loke a whisper but Tony heard it.

And then she welcomes the darkness.