Chapter 11: Lady Viper

            I’ve been in this stupid room for 4 frickin’ hours. They didn’t hesitate at leaving a holographic, digital clock above the door, so I could count the seconds of my capture. After about an hour of pacing, I then gave up and sat down. Now I’m lying on my stomach and looking through the floor at the clouds. At least when I was a child, there were other kids in the cell with me. And they would feed me. Seriously, I haven’t had food since that stupid diner with that stupid kid in the horrid Iron Man t-shirt. Sorry, I get pretty pissed when I’m hungry.

            Rolling over onto my back, I let out the 37th sigh since I’ve been in here. And yes, I have been counting. I hear the door open, but don’t bother looking. It’s probably a SHIELD agent, come to tease and torment me. That’s already happened twice.

            “Alright Handsy, get up.” I hear, I think Stark, say. I see him, and Spidey standing by the control panel. Well Stark and Peter. Peter changed into jeans, grey t-shirt, a blue hoodie and black converse. He also looked like he got some sleep, good. Turning my head away, I ask,

            “Why?” My voice slightly ragged from not talking or drinking in a while.

            “Because, we need to have a little chat.” Stark says. I hear beeping and typing begin as, I’m guessing, Stark opens the room.

            “We?” I ask looking back to them. Starks at the control panel and Peter stays where he was.

            “Yes, we. The rest of the Avengers, me, and the kid over there.” Metal Head says tipping his head back to Peter. I stand up and almost fall because I haven’t been on my legs in about 3 hours. Stark runs in and catches me. “Look at her. Already swooning over me.”

            I push myself off of him and say, “Not even in your dreams Iron Buns.” He smirks and says,

            “Alright, wrists sweetheart.” I hold my wrists to him and he pulls handcuffs out of his back pocket.

            “Always keep a pair of handcuffs on you Stark?” I ask while we turn and exit the glass room.

            “Only for when things get raunchy.” He whispers in my ear. If he had just said it, I might have smiled, but since I felt his hot breathe on my neck, I shiver and groan in disgust. Peter smiles at my reaction and Metal Head laughs as he guides me out of the room. We walk down the hallways in silence and I still don’t know where we’re going.

            “How are you not cold?” Stark asks, referring to my thin suit.

            “Who said I wasn’t? I just learned a long time ago not to complain about it. Or show it.”

            “What the hell even happened to you? You keep saying things that happened in the past, but never elaborate on it.”

            “Tony.” Peter says, warily.

            “What?” I stay silent. I don’t like bringing up the past, but I will if I need to. Right now, Stark doesn’t need to know anything.

            “It’s just… a bad topic.” Peter says, trying to divert Stark from his question.

            “Alright, alright. I won’t bring it up again sweetheart.” He says to me, almost sincere. I remain silent, but relax at his words. Finally stopping at a door, Peter holds it open for me and Stark. I give him a nod before examining the room. There’s a long table in the middle and the entire right wall is glass window. Well this rooms boring. You’d think it’d be a bit more extravagant.

            “Oh really?” Iron Buns says, letting me go sit down. I should go see a shrink or someone about this whole thinking out loud thing. It’s been happening more often. Stark walks up to the table while Peter stands back, smirking. Stark places his hand on the corner of the table, and then it lights up, like my closet. The back wall turns into a giant screen while each seat looks like it has its own screen and keyboard, implanted in the table. I look around the room and notice Stark standing at the head of the table smirking.

            “Alright, alright, I’ll give you this one Metal Head.” He presses a button which causes the screens on the table to go down. I bring my hands up to the table and begin tapping my fingers. Peter takes a seat next to me and Stark continues pacing by the windows.

            “Soooo… Why am I here? If it’s just to sit here with you two, I think I’d prefer to go back to my cell.” I say, standing.

            “Good thing that’s not why you’re here then.” Spangles says walking through the door with the rest of the Avengers. I sit back down and watch as they all pool in. Iron Buns finally sits down, on the other side of the table, Banner sits next to him, Big Bird joins Peter’s other side, Widow sits across from him, while Thor and Rogers stay standing.

            “Okay, why am I here then?” I ask once everyone’s settled.

            “You, missy, are here because Pete here won’t tell us anything. So, you are going to talk.” Stark says.

            “Oh am I now?” I ask sarcastically.

            “Jade, they just want to know about us. You don’t have to tell them everything, just how you know me.” Peter clarifies for me. “I didn’t want to tell them anything without you knowing.”

            “Thanks Peter.” I reply quietly. I sit there, not saying anything, because… for the first time, I don’t know what to say or where to begin. After a few minutes of me staring at my hands on the table, Thor speaks up,

            “Has your silver tongue melted, Lady Viper?” I smile,

            “Lady Viper, I like that Blondie.” He cracks a smile as well and sits next to Stark. That leaves one seat left, next to me, and I doubt Spangles is keen on taking it. Looking up I quickly say, “Okay, okay, okay… I’ll talk.” I take a deep breathe. I will not make my past my weakness.

            “I moved to New York when I was 19, or more so ended up here. Seeing as I had no education above the fifth grade, I couldn’t get a job so I ended up on the streets. A year passed and I was fed up with being the dirt people stepped on, so I robbed my first store. The petty theft expanded and I soon had enough money to get an apartment. A crappy one at that, but it was still better than being a street urchin. Over the next year, I gained money through various ways. Some was honest, through trade and work, but I still stole. By the time I was 21, I had a decent apartment, with enough money to last years, but it still didn’t feel good enough. I still felt like dirt, so I used the skills I acquired when I was a teenager and became Viper.” I look around the room at everyone’s expression.

            Widow’s face was blank, Banner looked sad, Stark wouldn’t meet my gaze, Thor looked intrigued, Rogers practically death glared me, Peter looked supportive, and I couldn’t see Barton. I continued,

            “I also met Peter that year. It was before I had really done anything as Viper; I was still training, creating my tools, and working on my strategies and tactics. I had just moved into my new building and down the street was a coffee house. One day I went in to read and get a drink. I had been reading for about 10 minutes and a kid next to me was typing, quite vigorously.” I glance to Peter who shy’s away from my eyes. “Irritated by the typing, I went to get a drink, still reading. Apparently the kid did too and I accidentally bumped into him. I mumbled an apology not really wanting to talk to him.” I hear a scoff from Rogers and shoot him a glare.

             “When he asked if I was enjoying my book, I was intrigued and asked if he read it. He said no and told me it must be good enough for me to walk into people. Considering I hate false judgment,” I say shooting the Captain a glance, “I told him I could have just been so mortified that I couldn’t look away. He said I wasn’t that type of girl, I knew to look away. Still slightly upset, I continued with saying he knew me so well and he looked at me and said I had an old book, was clumsy and had thick glasses. I-”

            “Wait, you wear glasses?” Big Bird asks, finally looking at me.

            “Mainly for reading, but I usually wear contacts that last 60 days.” I answered him. “Anyway, I told him he was nerdy, had an old bag and also wore glasses. After that I was going to walk away, but the kid stopped me and asked to start over. He said his name was Peter and I told him mine was Jade.” The memory made me smile. Peter was really the only friend I ever had, but when he left I wasn’t too torn up about it… I looked up and everyone, even Cap, looked sympathetic, but not towards me, but Peter. I let my head fall in between my arms.

            “I said that out loud, didn’t I?” I mumble against the table.

            “Yep.” I hear Stark say. I looked to Peter and saw his expression was hurt and sad. “Oh who am I kidding? Peter when you wouldn’t talk or see me, I was devastated. I thought I did something wrong, again. I never had a friend like you and when I lost you I didn’t know what to do. That’s why I didn’t do anything for a few months last year.”

            “Then what happened?” I hear Banner ask.

            “Well we became friends. I ended up seeing him more, after school and his aunt and uncle actually grew to like me.”

            “Did the Man of Spiders guardians not approve of you?” Thor asks. I smile at his words and see out of the corner of my eye Peter does too.

            “They were skeptical of me being friends with a 21 year-old.” He answers for me. I remember over hearing their conversation. May thinking I’d give him alcohol and drugs, but eventually Ben convinced her.

            “I guess Peter became Spider Man later that year as well.” I say looking at him.

            “I thought you didn’t know who Spider Man was?” Romanoff asks from across the table.

            “I didn’t, I knew the vigilantly in a red and blue unitard running around New York. Or swinging rather.” I say and see Peter blushing slightly. “I actually like him. Captain Stacey was wrong about you Peter.”

“Were you there when Peter’s uncle died?” Barton asks.

            “She was the one who called the ambulance.” Peter answers.

            “Yeah, May asked me to go looking for Peter because he ran off and Ben did too.” I knew this was still a tough subject for Peter by the look on his face, so I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. We might be enemies, but I will always be here for him.

            “Is that good?” I ask the room.

            “You said you thought you did something wrong, again. What did you mean by again?” Rogers asks.

            “Well I usually do. I got myself and parents captured when I was only 10, ended up being to cause for several children’s deaths, and I got myself captured here, again.” I say emotionlessly. They all just look at me. Disbelief and sympathy in their eyes.

            “Look I’m not asking you to believe me, or sympathize with me. If you don’t believe me, then that’s your issue and I don’t need your sympathy. I haven’t had it my whole life and as you can see, I’m perfectly fine without it.” I say wanting to stand, but Peter still clutches my hand. No one says anything and I look to Peter who looks back. “Are we done here?”

A/N: Well, we got some insight to Jade's past. Not as much as I'm sure most of you were hoping but hey, it's something. I promise, soon there will be a chapter dedicated to that sole topic.

So, what do you think? Cap still hates her, but has more knowledge on her, her and Peter's relationship is restoring, and the Avengers are starting to see Jade's side. I know it's not much, but it's something. Hopefully I can update again sometime this week...

By the way, camp was awesome!! It was Huger Games Survival camp and I was in charge of archery, sorta, kinda. But I still had an amazing time!! Oh, and during my troops archery time, we brought out styrofoam heads and named them. I shot Cato, better watch out Hawkeye, am I right? No, okay... Also, the archery instructer gave me a Mark Ruffalo vibe. Seriously. Okay, stop talking Maddie, they don't care about your little life. They care about Jade's.

Which is kinda weird if you think about it. Us fangirls, and maybe fanboys, care more about characters lives than sometimes people we know... Like I said, weird. 

And yes, her glasses are indeed Felicity Smoak's. That's also the picture attached if you didn't already know. 

Anywhoo, hope you all liked it, and keep those comments and votes rolling in!!  

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