Steve walked into the plain, dark room and sat down in the chair opposite of our hostage. I followed and closed the door behind us. One light lit the room, which hung over the metal table. The atmosphere was cold, but things were only going to heat up.

Dahlia rolled her eyes as she sat tied to her chair. Agent Delores, age twenty eight, worked for Hydra most of her life. High school drop out and the agency's worst technician, Dahlia joined the field work early on. She killed her own family and didn't shed a tear, so add cold hearted to the list of her traits. She got paired up with me, and together, we did what our boss told us to. She was very bright, but not the best under pressure. I had admired her work once, but that was a long time ago.

I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms over my chest. "Dahlia, what a nice surprise. We really need to catch up."

"Catch up? There's nothing to catch up on with a traitor like you," she hissed back. Her chocolate eyes glared at me as she barred her teeth.

Steve set his hands on the table and clasped them together. He raised an eyebrow, but kept a straight face. "You need to tell us what Loki and Red Skull has planned."

"Why in hell would I tell you?" Dahlia snapped. She tried to get out of the handcuffs, but ended up hurting herself instead. She blew the blonde hair out of her face and groaned.

I slowly stepped towards her. "Because I have the opportunity to force it out of you," I sneered back.

"Are you really going to beat me up, Lilly Parker? I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't into beating their hostages senseless," Dahlia questioned with a twisted smile.

She thought she had won. Oh, how wrong she was. I cracked my neck and chuckled to myself. My hazel eyes flickered back to her and held a glint of mischief. I leaned over the table to get closer to her and waited for a second. Dahlia straightened up and glanced away. She was never the type to look her opponent in the eye. "I don't work for them. I work alongside them. There's a difference."

Dahlia's eyes twitched for a second. She looked straight ahead at Cap, hoping he would hold me back. That was the great part. He wasn't going to.

Steve leaned back in his chair comfortably and watched her with his blue eyes. "Where's Loki?" A few moments of silence kicked in. Steve didn't move an inch. "What is he planning?"

Rogers nodded his head. I took that as a sign and punched her directly in the eye. Dahlia cringed and closed her eyes tightly. Silence followed, allowing me to pop her in the jaw. She moved her tongue around and spit some blood out on the floor. Her brown eyes glared at me, but still, she said nothing. I hit her a few more times and tightened the cuffs on her wrist before she finally gave up.

Dahlia cried out, "Stop! Fine! I'll tell you."

I backed away and shook my hand out. My knuckles were on fire and bruised, but it would go away soon enough. "Give us everything you have." Steve got up and held his chair out for me. I gladly sat down and set my hand against the cold metal table.

"Loki has a plan, and the Avengers will never win." She stopped there and waited for a reaction.

Steve got annoyed and replied, "You're wrong. What he's doing is being a dictator. This country is based on freedom, not on the rule of some trickster god. The world doesn't need a ruler. It needs unity. Equality. Something one ruler can't grant to the world."

Dahlia scoffed and spit out some blood at me. "He's gathered the Asgardian army, along with Hydra's soldiers. Putting them together makes it an army that's nearly unstoppable. The serum to make them invincible didn't quite work. He's thrown that idea away and focused on training them better." She twitched her nose and blinked a few times to clear her eyesight. Her bruised eye started to close from the swelling. "He's going to start the war in Chicago on April 20th. That's all I know."

"Thank you for your cooperation, Dahlia." Steve motioned for me to get up and follow him. Steve reached for the door until she began to talk again.

"Oh, and Lilly? I'll be sure to inform Loki that the mutants are involved now. They'll be on his hit list before he takes full rule of the world."

I clenched hands into fists, but didn't turn around. Steve tensed up and stopped short of his hand landing on the door handle.

Dahlia laughed maniacally. She flipped her blonde hair back over her shoulder in an attempt to remain cool. "I've read your file. Your love for your cousin...Peter? Is it? Is stronger than your love for Hydra. That sickens me."

"What would you know about family? You killed your family in cold blood," I shot back as I turned around. My blood started to boil inside of my veins.

"Killing my family set them at peace. I'm making way for the future, don't you get it?" Her brown eyes emitted off waves of crazy. "We'll set your family at peace too. I'll kill Peter first. Then, I'll find out where your mutant family lives. You can help me set them at peace. Loki will be more tha-"

I cut her off by taking out my adamantium claws and sliced her throat.

The hostage choked on her own blood. The red plasma dripped from her mouth and fell onto the floor around her. "Hail Hydra." Dahlia's head crashed against the table top, splattering blood all over the metal. Her blonde hair covered her face and her brown eyes closed.

I realized I was breathing heavily and calmed down. I retracted the claws and wiped the blood on my knuckles onto her shirt. Having her blood on my skin made me cringe out of my sheer hatred for everything she believed in. She looked at Hydra and thought it was the future. Future? Red Skull wanted to kill everyone who didn't believe in his cause. What a future that would be. I exhaled loudly and turned to Steve, who was glaring at me. I moved my mouth to speak, but I couldn't find the right words fast enough.

Steve swung the door open and stormed out of the room. He didn't take a second to look back at me or even give me enough time to explain myself. He tried to get the elevator to close once he was inside, but I was too fast. "I can't believe you just did that."

"She gave us enough evidence. She stalled up until the very last minute to buy herself time. Time for what? I don't know," I quickly answered. No. What I did was right. What was he thinking? The elevator stopped after making a small bell sound, making the doors open. I followed him through to the empty living room and almost crashed into him when he stopped.

He knit his eyebrows together in frustration and looked at me with cold eyes. Steve's mouth twitched at the next few words he was going to say, but he managed to push them out of his throat. "That was sloppy work. You were reckless and didn't think before you acted."

My chest ached and the word ran through my mind repeatedly. Reckless. Reckless. Reckless. That word was a slap in the face. It punched me in the chest and made me want to heave out what I had for lunch. Maybe I did let my anger get the best of me... "Excuse me for getting upset. She just threatened my whole family right there and then. Tell me you wouldn't do the same if this was reversed." Steve remained quiet and crossed his arms over his chest, so I continued, "She's a bully's henchman. Dahlia was going to blab to Loki, and someone I love was going to get beat up or killed. How can I stand by with full knowledge of it and not do anything?"

Steve turned his back to me and set his arms to his sides. "I don't know what to tell you, Ms. Parker," his cold tone cut through my skin and sliced my heart.

I put my hands up in the air in defeat. There was nothing I could say or do that could change this. "I'm sorry. What's done is done. We can't change it."

"You're damn right we can't." Rogers walked off to the elevator and got inside.

I watched him until he left. He purposely avoided eye contact with me, his face a blank slate. I couldn't tell what he was thinking or feeling. He's upset with me...Great. I fell onto the couch and put my head in my hands.

"Take cover!" Rogers called out. A loud boom followed and blew shrapnel in the surrounding area. Rubble covered the ground and a strong smell of gunpowder hung in the heavy air. Buildings fell apart in the background. People screamed at the top of their lungs. Blood had been splattered everywhere and some bodies were scattered about.

I glanced around in panic. Clint laid on the ground with a few bullet wounds to the chest. His arrows were broken around him and his bow was lodged into his stomach. I covered my mouth before I could gasp. Tony hung from one of the metal rods sticking out of a building. The rod protruded through his stomach and blood dripped from his wound. The light in his armor flickered on and off until it completely died out.

"We're going to need more reinforcements, Rogers!" Natasha yelled. She ran across the battlefield and shot some enemies in the chest. She hopped on one guy's shoulders and snapped his neck with her thighs. Nat shocked one guy before using him as a shield for oncoming bullets.

"Tell me something I don't know!" Steve screamed out, "Nat, watch out!"

One of the Asgardian swords went through her chest. Nat arched her back and tried to get free, but another guy came out in front of her and shot her in the head. Her body slunk backwards and fell farther down on the sword as her emerald eyes stared at the sky.

I went to punch a guy coming up behind Peter, but my hand ghosted right through him. "No..." I thrust my hand out and attempted to freeze the enemy, but nothing happened. "I'm...not here..."

"Hulk, do you have eyes on Lil-" Steve stopped and punched a guy in the nose, sending him backwards. He threw his shield at some men surrounding him and knocked them out.

"No. She's still dead," Hulk replied in a grave tone. He ran and smashed up a few more buildings with enemies in them.

Dead? I died that fast on an important mission like this? I looked at my hands. They were transparent. "No...No, no, no, no!"

Peter hit the ground with a thud. I glanced up and screamed at the sight before me. A Hydra agent had chopped his head clean off with a serrated blade. Blood started to pool around his body and his web shooters started to spark. Smoke erupted from the technology, and died out.

I died, but I'm watching my friends die too? This isn't real. It can't be. I shut my eyes tightly for a few seconds. It's not real...

My eyes snapped open back in reality and saw the Avengers' tower living room. Stop! Stop...I...I have to let go of my fears. I can't win this war with them. I shook my head and cried out in pain. I never thought I would feel this pain, the fear of losing everything in my life. It huddled up in the pit of my stomach and weighed me down. My body felt like it doubled in weight. It was almost like the feeling of despair, but only amplified ten times in order to screw me over. I had to let go. Sometimes, you just got to learn how to let go. This was one thing I couldn't mess up. The whole world was depending on us.