June 2016

Wanda was not in a good mood. She was absolutely fuming after a pitiful attempt at having sex last night with her girlfriend.

Those who were already up and scattered throughout the kitchen and living room could feel the intensity in the air when Wanda came storming out from one corridor into the kitchen and straight to the cupboard to acquire a bowl, then the drawer for a spoon, followed by the other cupboard for a box of cereal, and finally, the fridge for milk. Wanda sat herself at the kitchen island and fixed herself a bowl of cereal in a manner that seemed awfully impatient and rough.

Natasha joined her in the kitchen and stood directly opposite her with her hands planted firmly on the bench and with one foot crossed behind the other. Her long, orange locks cascaded down past her shoulders over her chest and breasts as she offered a gentle smile to the brunette deeply focused on eating her cereal.

"Cast a bad spell, there, Hocus Pocus? What's got you so hot under the collar? Did Samantha scream the wrong name in bed or something?" Natasha chuckled in an attempt to alleviate the tension.

"It's none of your business, Nat. I'm fine." Wanda groused crossly.

Steve decided to join them as a result of his concern for Wanda and her current state.

"Everything okay, Wanda? Did you and Samantha have a fight?" Steve asked caringly.

Natasha looked over her shoulder at the fossil and sighed. "You really don't know the difference between sex-screaming and fight-screaming, do you?"

Steve shot her a look and denied her the satisfaction of a response. Instead, he brought his attention back to Wanda and sat down adjacent to the brunette.

"Whatever happened between you guys, it's not healthy to leave it like this for too long. It's only fair that you need some space, but not enough that it reaches the point where you both become delirious and do something you'll regret. You're both each other's air, and we can see how much you love each other, and how this is affecting you a lot – even for your first fight. Look, my point is, don't wait too long to apologise for losing your cool. She'll understand if you show her you're willing to talk sensibly, like adults." Steve advised reasonably.

Wanda crunched her cereal as she listened to his rambling, even though she knew he had a very good point. She let the metal spoon slip out of her fingers and she briefly dropped her head before swallowing her food to speak.

"Not that it's any of your business... but yes. Samantha did scream out a name that wasn't mine, and naturally so, I got upset. I didn't get a wink of sleep because she screamed her ex's name instead of mine." Wanda frowned.

Natasha visibly winced in reaction to the news. If there was one thing she'd learnt in her previous relationships, that was never, ever good for any relationship.

Steve was equally speechless as the Black Widow, for he never got to experience any erotic romance with another woman under covers, so he could not provide any justifiable feedback to sedate Wanda's vexation with her girlfriend.

Natasha looked at Steve, to which he simply replied, "I got nothin'."

"Wanda, Samantha has been acting strangely ever since Tony came back from Abstergo. He hasn't let us in on what went down and he downright refuses to elaborate or even let the conversation exist the moment we try and ask what happened." Natasha explained, hoping that Wanda would offer remorse for being cold with them.

"You think Tony's hiding something? Something dangerous – even from us?" Steve questioned sceptically.

Natasha shrugged her shoulders. "It's a possibility. Chances are, it has something to do with the Assassin/Templar war; and Samantha happens to be directly involved because of what Baldur said to her. She was pretty phased when she had her one-on-one time with him while his nephews were busy kicking our asses. By the way, are they really Thor's kids, or is there some sort of twist building up here?"

"When Thor gets back, let's ask him. In the meantime, I say we should see what Tony's got in the lab that's got him so worked up. He's been skipping out on breakfast and dinner, and he seems to leave only when we're all in the gym. Wanda. You talk things out with Samantha, and we'll see what Tony's hiding from us."

"Okay..." Wanda whispered dryly.

Leaving Wanda alone in the kitchen, Steve and Natasha formulated a plan to get into the lab with the reassurance that Tony was reasonably distracted enough for him to be withdrawn from his work so they could take a gander inside. Meanwhile, Wanda remained at the kitchen island, eating her cereal at a much calmer pace.

The facility's A.I. was contacted and commanded to summon Samantha into the kitchen to meet Wanda. Shortly thereafter, the blonde woman appeared, quiet yet stoic as she wandered around the kitchen island to the fridge to retrieve a blended smoothie made just yesterday.

"We need to talk," Wanda announced nonchalantly, filling Samantha with a dreadful chill up her spine.

Samantha sighed and dropped her head so her chin was touching her chest. Truth be told, she was experiencing immense regret for speaking the name of her late lover, which in turn caused a whole flood of emotions to overwhelm her in fear of losing the only good thing going on in her life.

"I'm not in the mood, Wanda." Samantha grumbled coherently.

Samantha clenched her jaw and planted her hands on the kitchen counter beside the fridge so that her back was still to Wanda. It frustrated her immensely that she fucked up so badly by saying Anne's name instead of hers the night before. It was as if she was punishing herself and by doing so, she was inadvertently hurting Wanda as well.

"Forget it..."

"No. We need to talk. Look, I'm sorry for ignoring you and refusing to hear your side of things. You were having an episode and I, I overreacted, and for that, I'm deeply sorry."

There was no satisfactory response except an audible grunt from the assassin. Wanda got up out of her seat and wandered around, pressing herself up against Samantha from behind with her arms wrapped around her waist. Wanda nuzzled her face in her neck, instantly making herself comfortable being in reach of her girlfriend.

"It comes back..." Samantha whispered.

Wanda lifted her head and moved her girlfriend's hair away to expose her neck. She then planted little kisses on her neck before resting her chin on her shoulder.

"All the memories, all the war, all the death..." Samantha wept, her voice becoming hoarse. "It doesn't prepare you for the psychological torture. Some friends died too soon... and some, not soon enough. It drains your sanity and makes you question your entire existence. I've wondered if I deserve to even be alive right now, but then I realise that I wouldn't have found you."

"I'm not going to leave you, and that's a promise."

Samantha rotated her body so that her front was now pressed fully up against Wanda's.

"I'll hold you to it."

The two shared a few kisses before Wanda pulled away and announced her decision to prepare for a workout in the facility's gym.

In the absence of her lover, Samantha began the process of making herself a cup of coffee to start her day. A voice sang out, capturing the blonde's attention, her eyes setting on the muscular dark-skinned soldier wandering into the room.

"Well, good morning! I didn't expect to see you up so early." Sam greeted her enthusiastically.

Samantha smiled awkwardly. "Kinda didn't get enough sleep last night, but I can assure you, the matter has already been resolved moments before you appeared. Now... how do you like your coffee?"

"Ah, I'm good, thanks. I'll stick with orange juice."

"Very well. Suit yourself."

Silence filled the room. With nothing to contribute to the conversation, it went dead, allowing a new one to spring to life, only after the awkward moment subsided.

"Is it true what they say?" Sam spoke up. "I didn't really believe it at first, but I heard you were a freedom fighter and a... a pirate?"

Samantha managed to form half a smile as the topic choice of the conversation was something she didn't intend on delving into straight after being hit with shellshock.

Sam noticed a few of the symptoms but remained silent and waited a bit longer before he acted and concerned himself with Samantha's mentality, rather a fable of her past life.

"Touchy subject, huh?"

"Aye. I had been robbed of my life of piracy and my chance for normalcy, to which I now fight for the greater good of humanity. I'd spent many a years out on the sea, plundering, pilfering, pillaging... everything I'd done couldn't prepare me for the mutilation of the friends I held dear to me heart."

"I can relate to some of that. War is hell!"

"Amen to that. For so long, I'd wished I had died in the countless scenarios in which I risked my life for my cause. But now I realise I have someone worth fighting for." As she said this, Samantha poured herself a glass of milk.

"Let me guess. You and Wanda. I didn't take you for playing on both teams, considering you're a pirate and all."

"You'd be surprised at what sort of heresy occurred back then."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Sam asked intriguingly as he bent forward and leaned against the counter while he conversed so easily and naturally with Samantha.

"Did you know men believed it to be a curse if women were on board a ship? Did you know that pirates wore eye patches because it helped them adjust to the light and darkness above and below deck? Did you know no pirate alive ever committed to the famous 'walk the plank' sketch? Instead, we'd keelhaul them from one side of the ship, along the keel and out from the other side. And we didn't always initiate naval combat outright. Most of the time, we negotiated with merchant and military vessels to gain valuables that benefitted both parties amicably."

"How you got through as a pirate without anyone knowing, I'll never know. Don't get me wrong, you're beautiful and all, but... I just can't see you dressing up as a man. Either they were thick as fuck, or you actually managed to pull it off."

"My second love succeeded. And she had wonderful breasts, a wonderful complexion, the softest hands... but," Samantha's voice trailed off when the thought of Anne Bonny's betrayal crossed her mind. "No pirate that ever existed had faith in anything but grog, sex, and money. And that's my fault for bedding a fucking whore."

"But you gave love another chance. The trauma you've experienced shouldn't depress your spark of hope. The horrors of what you went through sticks with you, but it's a valuable lesson: to triumph over the chaos and rebuild the foundations of who you were before; stronger, better, more powerful than ever. You still got your whole life ahead of you."

"You're right, Sam. I'm glad you're able to put your services to good use, with the support group and all. It wouldn't seem right for me to join, for I've no right being amongst veterans who were cursed with living with the trauma that has broken them internally. They fought and served for their country."

"We all have our own demons, Samantha."

"Aye. But mine deprived me of normalcy and forced me into piracy. Now I kill madmen and madwomen who intend to dominate the globe with power and order. Those within what remains of our brotherhood are in tatters as our greatest enemy rises to power, using technology of the modern world to benefit their gains through murdering descendants of the Assassins of our time; men, women... children too. So few of us left and yet here I stand, revelling in the security and comfort of those whom I call friends while others are left to suffer or perish."

Sam was speechless, clearly taken away at how depressed and remorseful Samantha felt with her position and how things stood currently in the Assassin/Templar war.

Rapid footsteps grew louder and louder, to the point where there was loud clapping against the tile floor, where Natasha appeared, barely out of breath and her hair was messy from all the running from the lab to the kitchen.

"Samantha, you got to take a look at this," Natasha requested.

Eagerly, Samantha followed the orange-haired woman down to the corresponding room.

Suddenly, Samantha felt slight uneasiness as they approached the lab. A strange feeling meddled with her as she grew closer to something powerful than she could comprehend.

The level clearance issued to Steve and Natasha permitted them a vast majority of the compound, but not everywhere. Those with high-level clearance included executive S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel or government officials. Fortunately, the lab was one of those places they could access.

Steve Rogers waited patiently for Natasha to return with Samantha in hopes that she could provide insight on the mysterious object in Tony's lab.

"Samantha. Thank God you're here." Steve exhaled in relief when he spotted her and Natasha jog towards him before coming to a full halt.

"Capt'n." Samantha nodded respectfully. "What be the problem?"

"Follow me and I'll show ya," he ushered the blonde into the lab.

On one of the desks, a pale gold orb rested on a stand accenting its height but not the intricacies of its engravings. The orb had a line going around the centre like an equator, with vertical lines breaching the centre horizontal but nothing that could be differentiated.

Tony was unsuccessful in operating the orb, let alone triggering anything at all. So it was left in the confine of the lab where he entrusted his teammates to not go snooping through his work. However, his presence was called elsewhere on false pretences in order to grant the three some time to investigate the source behind Tony's dubious behaviour as of late.

As soon as Samantha set her eyes on the orb, she audibly gasped out of shock when her eyes fell on the Apple.

"What the devil?! How did Tony get his hands on one of these?" Samantha cried, alarmed by the Piece of Eden being such a rare find – despite the modern world having the technology to locate more and more Pieces.

"We should go ask him." Natasha suggested.

As if on cue, Tony walked in on his allies occupying the lab. A mixture of emotions conflicted with his train of thought as he let out a grumpy outburst.

"Do you guys see me digging around your rooms while you're away?!" Tony raised his voice from across the room, startling the others. "I have one rule: trust. Does it mean nothing to you? Well, clearly not to Steve. We know you don't follow orders well, according to Colonel Phillips, at least."

Casually, Tony dawdled across the room towards the three gathered by the Apple.

"How have you come about a Piece of Eden, Tony?" Samantha confronted him tensely.

"Before you decide to stick a pencil in my throat, hear me out... I went to Abstergo to see what I could find out. I met with Sofia Rikkin and she attempted to persuade me."

"Hope Pepper doesn't hear about this. You didn't try and hit on her, did you?" Natasha joked, easing the tension between them.

Tony smirked at her comment. "Not this time. Wasn't my type. Anyway... she wanted me to unlock the key to Treasure Planet because she admits that I'm the smartest guy on the planet. If I manage to unlock it – since the stupid gold orb won't respond to me – Director Rikkin says that we could combine both our company's shares, which would give me faster access to their servers and see what kind of secrets I can dig up."

The others could read into the potential in Tony gathering information from Abstergo, however there was vague suspicion to how Sofia Rikkin was willing to open wide her doors and allow Tony to hack them, knowing well that that would compromise its power.

There was no meaning behind the scent of doubt in Tony's words. Samantha narrowed her eyes at the genius billionaire and pondered on whether or not his words were true, for she still had reason to doubt him, just as he'd done to her. However, Samantha was unable to act on her gut feeling alone, for she had no choice but to allow the scheme to unfold before she could judge fairly.

Steve and Natasha were both somewhat gullible yet sceptical of Tony, but given their history, there was adequate trust put in Tony, even if his methods were questionable.

"Let me try," Samantha volunteered.

The blonde approached the Apple and descended her open palm onto it. The moment her hand touched the artefact, bright flashing lights shot out while a great piercing sound rang out, affecting them all but at different scales; Natasha was most influenced by the ringing and the strobing lights, just as Samantha. Steve and Tony, however, were less influenced by the Apple's protocol.

Amidst the calamity, Steve shielded his eyes with his hands as he attempted to put the alarm to rest. Meanwhile, Tony analysed the imagery projected from the device, many of which were blueprints and drawings and scriptures of old, all stored in the Apple. Samantha slapped her hand on the Apple, disabling the chaos that ensued the second she touched it.

Once it was over, the others composed themselves as best they could, despite there being prolonged effects of the ringing in their ears.

"What the hell was all that?!"

"Shit! My ears!"

As the others complained about their insecurities, Samantha firmly stated the disastrous effects of the Apple, should it fall into the wrong hands.

"Now you understand the gravity of this ancient war: if the Templars get their hands on the Apple, they will use it to control the people, enslave their minds and rob them of their free will. You must promise me you won't hand the Apple to them, all of you." Samantha implored from them calmly.

After they gave her their word, they amicably left the lab to their own assigned tasks. While the others went to relax or train, Samantha decided to pay her girlfriend a visit.

On her way to the gym, Samantha decided to wear appropriate gym clothing instead of her robes, which was almost always her choice of clothing – and under no circumstances did she feel insecure about wearing anything else, she just wore her robes so much she'd got used to wearing it all day, every day with intervals for washing said clothes. Samantha made a quick stop in her room to change before she resumed making her way to the gym.

Private personal trainers and staff were the main occupants of the gym, with Wanda harassing a punching bag as a result of insults and slurs being hurled towards her from other staff members.

Others quickly noticed Samantha appear in the room, even Wanda, who was unexpectedly surprised to see her lover present. Her gaze lingered all over Samantha's body: the scars and muscular build was jaw-anchoring and mouth-watering. Samantha gleamed with happiness and love for the brunette across the room for her.

She proceeded to close the distance between them, when one of the staff members from before had spotted her and instantly became hostile. Wanda, being the mind-reader that she was, unintentionally heard the intrusive thoughts of those nearby but was unable to pick up on the voices belonging to the faces until Samantha found herself bumping shoulders with one staff member and then being thrown to the ground by another.

Outnumbered three to one, Samantha picked herself up and hunched forward with one stretched forward and another closer to her body but parallel with her non-dominant arm. The three men circled Samantha before one on her left made a move.

He reared his left arm back and threw his fist around in a haymaker before his blow was blocked by Samantha's right forearm. She used that same arm to strike his cheek with her opened palm, then driving her left hand in an uppercut to the gut, followed by a fast hook with her right, a second uppercut with her left, and then a fierce hook with her right.

"One down. Two to go."

The one behind her grabbed her from behind and tightened his grip, preventing her from escaping. Due to her experience as a fighter, Samantha was able to escape by throwing her head back, hitting the second with the back of her head, thus effectively breaking his nose. The one on her right lashed out by striking her in the face.

"Ompf!"

Her third opponent punched her in her side and attempted to apply a haymaker, but his opportunity was stolen when another intervened by using magic to separate each other. The brawl was now over.

Everyone who was watching the fight was equally satisfied as the rest, for they got to watch Samantha in combat; many with mixed emotions on the Assassin, part of the Avengers. Nonetheless, they were all more cautious now that they'd witnessed Samantha handle herself well against multiple opponents.

Wanda approached Samantha and touched her reddened cheeks with both hands. "Are you alright, milovaný (beloved)?" The brunette cooed.

"Agh..." Samantha winced as she opened her mouth to speak. "I handled them just fine until you intervened-"

Wanda scoffed at her arrogance.

"However, I am grateful that you are standing up for yourself, even if it means worsening your reputation amongst the personnel assigned to the compound. Thank you."

Samantha gracefully landed a quick peck on Wanda's nose, instantly receiving a vivid reaction from the brunette, whose face had turned bright pink as a result of one of many personal displays of affection in public. Truthfully, Wanda was still sensitive about exposing themselves romantically in front of others, but with Samantha to sedate her anxiety, the brunette was content with her lover's actions.

"Now, shall we?" Samantha stood to one side, offering Wanda to return to her original spot within the gym.

The couple then applied themselves into a physical routine while the disruptors removed themselves from the room with the intention to conspire against Samantha and Wanda; malicious intent whether physical or scandalous.