xxxxxP E T R A x M A X I M O F F x • x h e x x // x b22222 x •"Ya think I don' know that ya could've helped? Yeh could kill me with a bat of those gorgeous eyes of yers. 'Em not a hero. 'Em not gonna save da world some day. People like meh er insignificant compared ta gods like ya."
She had prepared herself for insults and anger. She had not prepared herself for this. Taken aback, all she could do was stare dumbly at him as he talked, waving his other hand around. She listened as he talked about the agenda he'd overheard, about how Wren had been taken. "I - I had no idea," she tried to say, but her throat had gone dry at knowing how close she had been to being a prisoner were it not for Ross's quick thinking, and she couldn't form the words.
He'd let go of her, but she remained frozen where she stood, letting him talk. Somewhere, through the haze of shock blurring her thoughts, an irrepressibly sensible part of her spoke up: Stay. You must not waver. Even like this, she couldn't break free of the automatic defense mechanisms she'd built around herself since forever.
"'N fuck Tobias, I couldn't let ya be taken!" His eyes were almost painful to look into, burning into her, but she stood steady, her face carefully schooled blank. "I wouldn't! 'Em not important, but you are. I'm sorry, Petra... But, I won't apologise for what I did. 'N I'd do it again without a moment's hesitation, even if it meant me life for yers."
He looked away, and the spell broke. Her feet suddenly unglued from the floor, she shuffled a little, one heel clicking impossibly loud in the ensuing silence. She couldn't respond in defense, only watch as Ross left her, heading back for the infirmary. "But you are important," she murmured to the now-empty hall.
Unwilling to go in, where Ross might be waiting, Petra lingered in the hall, pacing a few steps up and down to help clear her head. Eventually the mentors arrived, and she slipped in after them to stand in a corner, mostly unnoticed. A nurse hurried over, clearly alarmed, but Petra reassured her she was fine, asking instead for a glass of water. Tutting about stubborn students, the nurse left, presumably to find her new charge water.
"It's nice to see you all are well," Mycroft began. Petra respected him, but that had to be a joke, surely. Hardly any of the students looked well by any standards, lying bruised and bandaged and in a state of panic following the Hydra attack.
"Wren Wilson, Alec Constantine, Petra Max--" Mycroft's eyes widened slightly as he met her gaze, and she raised a hand and wiggled her fingers in his direction, coupled with an ironic smile. Far friendlier than she'd ever been with any of the mentors, but then again this was an unusual situation. As he continued reciting the list of those taken hostage, a few heads swivelled in her direction, attention drawn by Mycroft's words, and she was suddenly acutely aware of how awful she must look, still in her dress and heels, her hair coming loose, blood and dust staining her skin and dress. Not to mention that she had gone missing shortly after the attack began, and presumed taken hostage. How could she face her fellow students? She had little right to stand there while the others were experiencing god-knows-what at Hydra's hands.
"...Even Tobias singlehandedly saved Thaddeus Ross's life." Hearing Tobias's name snapped Petra out of her inner turmoil. Gratitude towards Coulson for taking notice of and mentioning Tobias's actions filled her. He probably wouldn't agree with her view, but it showed everyone what she had always believed of him - that he wasn't a villain. Mycroft could go fuck himself.
She wove past students and nurses, squeezing through the chaos that was a roomful of agitated mutants to get to Tobias. One of the mentors passed her - Coulson. In an uncharacteristic show of affection, she reached out to clasp one of his hands between her own, looking up at the older man earnestly. "Sir - if there's anything I can do to aid in the search for the others..." She trailed off, unsure how to finish the offer. Powerful though she was, at the end of the day she was really just a frightened child, unable to step up to fulfill the role of adversary or friend where she was needed. And the mentors likely had a wider range of resources at their disposal, but she wanted to make sure they knew they had her, if they felt she was worth anything.
"And thank you, for, for Tobias. He's not a bad person. Thank you for seeing that." Having said what she had to say, she let go of him, moving towards where Tobias sat on his bed, accompanied by the Worthington girl.
Stealing a chair from beside the next bed, Petra dropped down beside Tobias's bed, kicking her heels off and crossing her legs at the knee, heedless of her decorum. "Hey. How are you feeling? I'm sorry I disappeared. I was - preoccupied elsewhere."
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xxxxxR I L E Y x B A R T O N x • x h e x x // x 7a378b x •"Whoa, dude. It's okay. Just breathe, yeah?" He leaned forward to place a hand on Andrew's shoulder, trying to calm him down.
"What the hell happened?"
Riley let his hand drop back into his lap, sighing. "After you helped me with Sol, I passed out... I'm assuming you did too, after. Hydra kidnapped some of our number while we were trying to fight them off. " He shrugged. "I doubt any of us could have stopped Hydra, they knew what they wanted and they caught us unprepared. But, oh god, Andrew, Frankie... they took Frankie."
There it was, the emotion that he'd been unable to feel earlier. Maybe telling Andrew what happened, it was as if he'd finally passed all opportunities for denial, as if he'd just opened the door and stared the truth in the eye, with nowhere to hide from it. Frankie was gone, and he hadn't been able to do anything.
The buzzing began in his chest, his heart jackrabbiting with a ceaseless anxiety. Coming to the Academy and accepting his destiny as a Barton, he'd always known he might get hurt, maybe face mortal danger. What he'd never considered was that any friends he made there would be equally susceptible to the same time risk. And of all of them, it had to be Frankie...
When Riley finally raised his head to look at Andrew again, he realised that his eyes had filled with tears, and he was shaking, gripped by a chill that he couldn't get rid of. He ran both hands over his face, drawing in a deep, rasping breath. "Sorry. It's probably, ah, shock." In an attempt to turn the focus away from him, he struggled to find a new conversation topic. "How are you feeling?"
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xW Y N N E x W O R T H I N G T O N x • x h e x x // x 6e6e6e x •Wynne almost laughed out loud. It seemed absurd that, in all the carnage and chaos, he'd remembered that one tiny act of heroism. "You did, but there was a lot flying around." She was cut off by a loud sound - Santos. Still she lingered there, standing by his bed as she watched Tobias speak to him, ruffling her wings a little to try to find a position that would alleviate the pain. It didn't quite work, more pinpricks of pain jabbing into them as the feathers shifted.
Tobias staggered backward towards her. Instinctively she reached out, intending to catch him if the need arose, but he sat down on his bed instead. She withdrew her hands, clenching and unclenching them awkwardly, hoping he hadn't seen the aborted attempt at help. Here, among people like her who'd had the chance to train and improve themselves, she felt out of place, weaker and less useful. He motioned at the chair, and Wynne sat down gratefully. At least she knew he didn't want her gone, which she had been anticipating.
The mentors filed in just then. If any of them had noticed Wynne among their number, they didn't seem surprised, nor did they comment on it. Hopefully they realised her commitment to her duty... or they just didn't care, which was fine by her either way.
"...taken hostage last night like it was nothing." That seemed rather an unfair statement, knowing the fight that had been put up, however stacked the odds against them were. Still, she made note of those who had been taken, should it come in handy later. The mentors' quibbling before their students seemed hardly professional, but then again it was a stressful situation for everyone.
"Even Tobias singlehandedly saved Thaddeus Ross's life. This all won't go unnoticed by the U.N., the academy, or anyone else." No, it wouldn't. That was news to her - she hadn't seen it take place - but it certainly put Tobias in a much better light. All the more reason to stand up for his trustworthiness to the U.N., should the need arise.
"Don't placate me." The words came low, but Wynne heard them all the same. That was surprising. Did he not want to be recognised for his deeds? Surely the acknowledgement would help his standing among his peers, or did he not care?
After Mycroft Xavier left, Wynne turned to Tobias. It would mean putting aside her pride, but in this case she didn't mind, not at all. "I just wanted to..."
She never got to finish her sentence. Petra Maximoff sat down on the opposite side of the bed, and Wynne shut her mouth with a snap. It could wait. She didn't want to reveal herself in front of anyone else.
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xxxxxxxxxJ E N S E N x J O N E S x • x h e x x // x 2b4f81 x •The voice was accompanied by pressure on the bed, just by her right leg. Jensen looked up, too numb to even be surprised. She let Ross lie down beside her, shifting to her left a little so that they could both fit side by side, not uncomfortably.
Turning her face away, she stared unblinking at the ceiling, listening to the nurse enquire after Ross's IV. Considering the state of his face - worse than hers, somehow - she wondered how an IV could seem like the most important thing right now. "Fer the love of God, woman. It's on wheels int it?" Jensen exhaled shakily, making a noise that could almost be a chuckle. Good old Ross.
She drifted off for a little after that, only coming back when Ross sat up and reached a hand towards her. "Lemme see it."
"See what," she mumbled, before realising that he meant her injured left hand. She stretched it across her body to him, noticing as it passed her line of vision that blood was still leaking from the cuts, and that the side, which she'd hit the stand with, was beginning to swell and bruise.
Ross was efficient, plucking the remaining shards out of her flesh quickly. For a moment, all she heard was his breathing and the tapping of shoes around the infirmary. Then he wrapped her hand in bandages, and gentle though he was, it still stung, and she sucked in a breath, hissing.
Ross let go and lay down again. She let her bandaged hand drop, resting it on her stomach. "Thanks."
"Don' worry, Jones. Wren is tough. She'll take care 'o Alec." Jensen turned her head to the side to face him, meeting his earnest gaze. "Aye give it a day before Wilson struts back in 'ere with one of their heads on a spike."
Jensen made that weird shaky chuckling sound again. "Better be at least three heads. That girl's got more fight in her big toe than any of you in this room combined." She paused to think. Her usual brand of snarky wouldn't work right now. "I know she's probably fine. I'm just terrified for her right now," she admitted, her voice soft in her exceptional moment of weakness.
Luckily, the mentors' arrival saved her from having to say more. "Are ya fuckin' mad?! We're half dead 'n half of us are gone!" Jensen jumped, startled by Ross's loud voice in her ear. She placed her uninjured hand on his arm, trying to calm him. "That's not going to bring them back, as admirable as your fire is."
It wouldn't, but she bet it felt good. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to throw what was remaining of the bedside stand at Mycroft's stupid bald head for putting the blame on them. She wanted to scream and cry and wreck things. But what good would that do? She barely had the energy to think, much less feel.
It was easier to think about inane things. Something to take their mind off the people they couldn't help lying cold and hungry and in pain somewhere.
Jensen turned towards Ross again. "So... how's your girlfriend?" She nodded towards Petra on the other side of the room, as though he needed any clarification. There weren't that many girls his eyeballs were popping out of his skull for.