➢𝗨𝗡𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗟➢

『 Nothing left to believe in
Nothing left to say
In a world without reason
I'll never find my way
Lost it all 』
―𝘑𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘐𝘵 𝘈𝘭𝘭

⟶𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 15: 𝑶𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝑾𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒔 (𝑬𝑵𝑫 𝑪𝑹𝑬𝑫𝑰𝑻𝑺)⟵

-𝙹𝚄𝙽𝙴 𝟸𝟷𝚂𝚃, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟾-

𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝙰𝚅𝙴𝙽𝙶𝙴𝚁𝚂 𝙵𝙰𝙲𝙸𝙻𝙸𝚃𝚈, 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺

Inside the Avengers Compound, a honey-blonde teenager diligently works to scrub the grime from her hair. The grime, the dust, and the blood...

A lot has been spared.

Spread evenly across all that remains, the remaining Avengers and Guardians―a different kind of loss hangs over the head of the only child. A Young Avenger.

Danielle Mairead Rockland stands across from a mirror that displays her young-looking reflection, seeing as she is still thirteen years old, still breathing, still intact.

Others are not.

She bites down on her lip hard when having to mentally relive the horrifying images of what she had seen. Evidently, it was inevitable.

 Grief in this instance, the current emotions at this point and time were so to say... weird. It felt weird for Dani to mourn something that she already had preconceptions about occurring, that they were going to lose, but still that didn't take away from how awful it was. 

Is.

Globally, trillions are dead. Now, not in the traditional way, but regardless they are no longer living on this planet. Bodies have turned to dust. The dusting... but not her.

Not Dani.

Instead, this child not only has to grapple with being one of the ones left behind but also a wound that far surpasses one of just being internal, no, Danielle throbs. Her heart which has taken too many hits prepares to take more as the urge to battle slightly increases. She's angry.

She's angry at the betrayal that never reconciled, a rupture that felt like so long ago but manifested the same every time thought about. Every time she sees him.

Merely staring back at herself through the mirror in the bathroom displeases Dani at how different she looks, well, besides all the 'rebellious teenage decisions' made. 

Despite her much skinnier figure that was due to growing, despite her artificially dyed hair and pierced ears, she realizes at this point that Ania and Tarik were right... she was different.

Not herself, as Caitlyn would remark, but none of them can anymore.

They're gone. Just like everyone else.

It's just Dani now.

 Distorted breaths escape out of her nostrils and into the open air somewhat forcefully, and the thirteen-year-old finishes scrubbing her wet hair when situating herself in a blue short-sleeved shirt and black shorts that reached just below her thighs.

Right above―

"Ow!" Dani grits sharply in pain, as a wave of agony as a result of putting too much pressure on the right side of her finally takes its toll.

When balancing on the leg of hers that is not brutally injured, actually produces even more exhaustion and strenuous ache, and soon enough, the girl loses balance while trying to find leverage.

Dani falls back against the edge of the tub, the shower that she had taken earlier still steaming up the air in heat, but another cry is released when finally moving her stiff, other leg, that feels like it's on fire. Oh, yeah... that.

They had carried her in desperately, frantically.

So much blood was lost, not to the point where Dani would exactly die but it needed to be sewn up. There were many stitches. It was a huge wound.

It's still a huge wound, as when having to pull her thigh up with both hands because those parts of her body are failing to listen, a line that tears open her skin runs from the tip of where her shorts start to just above the knee. 

And it isn't just a graze, it's deep. The deepest wound Agent Rockland has ever gotten while in battle. The worst.

The most painful.

Especially with it being almost a month, and the healing progress had almost been nonexistent. Dani was unable to heal.

Physically, though also emotionally already.

The girl bites back a fierce wince when lifting to peek under the stitches her Uncle Bruce had instilled whilst being held down by her former surrogate parents, carried in by her former adoptive father. Dani doesn't remember much.

She recalls the pain, though, so bad delirium set in after at least three stitches were put in, in total nineteen, but... the enhanced child was still bleeding. 

After twenty-one days, still bleeding intensely. Losing blood.

That's when Experiment #124 of the FORCE Headquarters first learned how to dress her own wounds. To dress things that would later scar.

Dani had never been susceptible to that before. To open wounds.

Now she had.

For the same reason that millions are dead, because of that Mad Titan who cut her up with the power from the same stone that runs inside her. Her biggest strength, but also weakness.

Sweat drips into her shirt from down her forehead and there's a knock at the door.

Dani blinks irritatedly as she calls out with harsh defense, "I'm fine!"

The person on the other end doesn't listen, and the electronic lock on the door clicks open.

In steps, a tall muscular man with a white shirt and hair that is still long from being on the run, eyes a paler blue now due to the life sucked out of them, and face smeared with a thick beard.

Even after everything, the damage, Dani Rockland refuses to look at Steve Rogers.

Refuses to even entertain the idea of speaking to him since he and Natasha Romanoff have returned, returned to help save Earth. To be with Danielle.

Nope, she still doesn't trust them, won't even be helped by them, or comforted.

She is in a dark place, many are, but the suffering Dani currently faces has been internalized and swirled inside her for much longer than everyone else's. Her... resentment, from a civil war. 

What she is dealing with, is more pain and trauma inflicted on her as a child―childhood trauma―but it was with the family that she thought she deserved. That she thought was going to be 'it'.

It wasn't. They are liars.

They are.

The lines on Steve's face scrunch together when stepping into the bathroom where he heard a commotion from earlier. From Dani falling, whimpering... and he couldn't stand to listen to it. Not without checking on her.

For it breaks his heart. That she's injured and he was only able to get there after the fact and do what? Get knocked out about two seconds later by the large fist belonging to Thanos. 

They really did lose it all. 

His footsteps are weighted as slowly, Steve approaches her, and with an expression unwavering in not looking up to meet his gaze, Dani's lack of actions does the talking for her.

The pleading.

"I can't get up."

She is too weak, she is in too much pain.

She can't get up by herself.

Two strong muscular arms go underneath the girl's pale ones, and many more uncontrolled groans are let out of the child as the SuperSoldier from behind her, lifts her effortlessly until she is back on her feet. He supports her weight as his own. That she cannot carry on her own.

He grunts a bit himself as some sort of a, "There," escapes his lips, and the thirteen-year-old leans into him. 

Without choice. She is not in control of her body right now.

And it's for that reason that these two share some sort of back-handed type of close contact for the first time in two whole years, and Dani almost cries.

She almost breaks down in sobs because she can feel the warmth radiating off his chest, like always, from the serum. That she would cling to whenever waking from a nightmare, or when she was cold, never missing an opportunity to revel in the comfort that the figure of her adoptive father would provide whenever she needed it. Willingly. Responsibly.

Reality flushes back in and Dani remembers everything that Steve had put her through during the Sokovia Accords.

She remembers their big argument, then when he dropped his shield, and when that damn letter showed up expecting to be read right away. Like nothing that he did was wrong, like... like he was still her father!

No.

NO.

Not anymore.

Time has passed, and Dani has changed. 

Is done... with people leaving her.

With breaking promises.

So she decides to do the same.

Goosebumps run cold up her neck when she rigidly pulls away from the warm hold Steve supplies, and his facial-haired face contorts once more at her actions when involuntarily she struggles with moving again―her leg keeping her, and he silently helps her as much as she will let him as she finishes gathering her things and heads out. 

Limping, and Steve takes a look at his own reflection before leaving and shutting the door.

Some wounds of the internal are still left open, rather than just the external, and Steve is visibly upset.

❀❀❀

Natasha feels the exact same way. The former surrogate mother takes her time in gently wrapping a fresh pair of white gauze around the extended leg that Dani has out while sitting on the couch. 

Her smile, despite being mostly false in its level of content, tries to remain supportive as she cannot imagine the weakness the enhanced child feels right now, in having to do something like this. Dress her wounds that just won't heal.

Something... human-like.

Dani is not supposed to be normal, though for years she thought she could be. They did.

They were wrong.

As she finally finishes, Natasha is slightly stunned to already find blood leaking through, Danielle has a lot to spare, and the woman reaches out to tend to it.

Dani flinches away.

Sea-foam green eyes are brimmed with tears that will never be allowed to fall. Are angry tears, incomprehensible whether angry with herself or Natasha. Probably both. Easily... both.

Definitely, both.

The Black Widow decides to leave the fragile state of Agent Rockland right now and instead focuses on the one of their world's. The world is in complete shambles. 

It is disheveled as the increase in missing person cases skyrockets at every passing moment.

Thanos' snap affected everywhere and everyone, leaving for the last Avengers to try and pick up the pieces of this global catastrophe. If there were any...

An old-fashioned red-blue-starred communication device seemingly signaled for help sits inside a contraption within the Avengers Facility, and a previously fugitive Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers watch as the projected view of their planet constantly lights up in global disaster.

Steve puts it best, "This is a nightmare."

Nat from next to him whispers as her voice trembles, "I've had better nightmares."

"Hey." A paralyzed, but walking War Machine alerts the two from the other room, and he relays, "So, that thing just stopped doing whatever the hell it was doing..."

Nat and Steve lock eyes. 

Then, their gazes turn over to where wet-haired thirteen-year-old struggles to sleep, shifting uncomfortably on one of the couches inside the Facility. The 'Co Parents' decide to leave her side temporarily to attend to this matter, even if she still will not speak to them.

Meeting up with Bruce Banner in the other room they notice that the communication device has stopped sending its signal to the receiver.

"What do we got?" Natasha asks.

"Whatever signal it was sending finally crapped out..."

"I thought we bypassed the battery?" Steve questions in reference to the device being inside the container.

Rhodey crosses his arms, "Well, we did. It's still plugged in it just... just stopped."

The bearded Captain America emits, "Reboot it. Send the signal again."

"We don't even know what this is," non-hulked-out Bruce chimes in. 

And Black Widow says right back, "Fury did."

The mention of the former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director silences the room for a bit. He and Agent Hill were also gone.

"Just do it, please," a blonde-headed Natasha begs, voice still quivering as this reality is a horrible one, and with so many members down or lost in space she swallows thickly, "You tell me the second you get a signal."

She vocalizes everyone's opinion, "I wanna know who's on the other end of that thing."

They don't have to guess.

Dani Rockland picks her head up from an often interrupted nap, and when something uncertain stirs inside her again she initially fears for the impending arrival but is shocked to find the strong presence of an intergalactic warrior.

Of a strong force in possession of unspeakable powers.

A woman... like her.

Carol Danvers demands in a low, threatening voice to the Avengers, "Where's Fury?" 

Dani gapes her mouth open.

Her. This individual... just who is she?

...Captain Marvel in her red, blue, and gold-designed spacesuit stands her ground.

❀❀❀

━━━✰━━━

Uhhhh new bropt alert..... Dani and Carol!?!? Ha ha you will have to wait and see (SO excited to write ab them!!) 

Hmm what a nice little Chappy here am I right... just one right before all s*** hits the fan am I right because we've got some big things coming up, and I mean BIG, so my advice would just be to make sure you've read everything up until now and I mean everything ab Dani that is.. bc it's about to get intense 🤭

After all have you ever heard of the meaning of a tragedy??? Yeah next chapter is where the infamous "I HATE you Steve" I teased in the saga one chapter comes into play... so.... that's all I'll say on that.

Your heart is about to be broken, badly, and I do not know if there is a way for you to prepare but I'm giving y'all the warning now Dani, Nat and Steve Stans. Jeez it's gonna be rough.

Also got some exciting things in the works including a chapter of Everett coming soon.. possibly.. idk I gotta time things right but any who hope you enjoyed this one and know there is more to come in that 'endgame Tony & Steve argument on the horizon' so... yeah 😫

Vote, comment, predictions would be a treat plus if you have any general thoughts and ya see you in the next one.

Kisses, xxooo, Alessandra (dreamkept)