∆ {4⁵} {PERSPECTIVE} ∆ 

IT DIDN'T TAKE them too much longer to arrive back at the compound, where Roxi set down the Quinjet with a little more difficulty than she'd like to admit, the trails and wisps of gold and pink long since gone from the horizon. Most of the team left in silence, though Sam and Steve were discussing something as they walked a few paces in front of Wanda, who Roxi had decided to keep a close eye on to make sure that she was doing okay after the incident. She was walking with Natasha quietly, their interlinked hands swinging between them while the cool air  blanketed any memory of the fire that Roxi had left, extinguishing the heat, and the storm of memories that it brought with it. Everyone had parted ways upon entering the main building so that they could take off their gear and try as shed the images of what had happened with them.

Roxi had immediately headed back to her room, parting with Natasha just outside of it with a whispered word or two exchanged between them. She still found herself in the habit of taking a scalding shower after missions, so that was what she was doing, the water flowing over her with the force of a waterfall, the dirt and blood churning by her feet as she watched her skin redden. She'd started to become accustom to the level of the heat, and the way the water pummelled her skin in such a harsh way that she could barely hear her own thoughts over it. She didn't want to hear her thoughts, however; they were all of politics as she wondered if this would blow over easily, or if the world would hang on to it to use against them. Yet, she could still just hear them, as if they were whispering from a few meters away and she could slightly catch the words that had been carried on the wind.

They weren't so much as a warning like the sunset had seemed, but a voice advising her to take cautionary measures. Just a hint, some advice that everything was going to wrong now, and that she needed to be on the best side of that, that she could find.

She stepped out of the shower with a mind flooded with wonders about what exactly was going to happen the next day. It was far too late for much to happen that night, but in the morning, then the repercussions would come. In fact, Roxi was quite glad that they'd got back so late. She wasn't sure if she would've been able to deal with the government if they'd approached them about the incident only hours after it happened, and Wanda certainly wouldn't be able to handle it.

Roxi was planning to visit the Maximoff again in the morning, because although she had seemed okay in the Quinjet, she knew that the girl was putting up a wall so that she would appear okay. She recognised it far too easily, because it was exactly what she did, what Wanda had been helping her stop doing. She didn't want Wanda to feel alone, or as if it had been her fault. Roxi firmly believed that it wasn't, and was set on getting the girl around to thinking the same thing.

Somehow, she hadn't anticipated that Natasha would be sitting on her bed, waiting patiently as she did so often after missions, and jumped slightly when she saw the redheaded woman, waiting quietly with a bathrobe wrapped around her.

"You know if you keep doing this, people are gonna think that we're together," Roxi teased lightly. Technically, they didn't have an actual relationship, or a label for what they were, and they tended to bring it up just to annoy the other.

"What if I said we were?" Natasha shot back immediately, turning her gaze to Roxi, who stood in the doorway to her bathroom with a towel draped around her body. The redhead shamelessly adopted a smirk and trailed her eyes down Roxi's body, producing shivers that ran up her spine so fast that she managed to seem unbothered.

"Then, I'd say 'Take me on a date first, Romanoff'," Roxi replied in a suggestive tone, and she smiled slightly when she noticed Natasha straighten ever so slightly. She made her way over to her bed, sitting beside the redhead, ignoring the way that she couldn't see especially well due to the time.

"That's your job," Natasha pouted slightly, shifting her body closer to Roxi and placing a gentle hand on the woman's thigh. This time, Roxi didn't try to supress her shiver, and turned to face Natasha with a raised eyebrow, accompanied by a smirk that would never be quite as good as one of Natasha's.

"Is it?" She asked innocently, before she found Natasha rolling her eyes and pulling her closer more roughly than usual, but she melted into the kiss nonetheless. Natasha pushed her back after a few moments, her eyes shining down at Roxi brightly as she pulled away from the kiss, her face hovering only inches above Roxi's. The redhead's pupils were dilated, and Roxi was certain that her were too, because all she could focus on was the feeling of Natasha. She had become entranced by the woman, and she wouldn't give this up for anything.

{~}

THE MORNING FELT euphoric as it stretched through Roxi's room, the sun lighting it up in a beautiful golden tint, the blinds that had been cracked open to let the moonlight in the previous night, now allowed slats of the sun to shine on the floor. The open windows provided the smell of freshly-cut grass and carried the smell of roses and vanilla that she knew so well, and it was easily the best scent that she would ever wake up to. She let herself whisper a soft

"Good morning," as Natasha's eyes fluttered open, smiling softly as she met the woman's beautiful, forest green eyes. The redhead let out a small, pleased sound, and shifted slightly so that she could brush a stand of Roxi's hair out of her face, matching the woman's smile.

"Hi," she replied, admiring the way that the one of the bars of lights shone over Roxi's face, and lit up her eyes so that they seemed far deeper, yet at the same time shone like the thin ice that glimmered on the surface of water after a cold night. They lay in a simple silence for a good while, feeling the heat of the sun rise over them, simply relaxing in the bliss that they found in each other.

In fact, it was only when someone knocked on Roxi's door that they bothered to stir, Steve's voice carrying through the calm air.

"Ryder, and uh, Natasha, if you're in there," there was a slightly uncomfortable moment where Steve cleared his throat awkwardly, "Tony's back. He's brought a guest." Both women listened to him leave, before Natasha let out a light sigh and pushed herself up into a sitting position, ignoring Roxi's quiet protests.

"We better go clean up whatever mess Tony's made," she commented quietly, and Roxi let out a long breath before she also sat up, ignoring the way the sheets had left marks on her unclothed body as Natasha began to hum quietly behind her. It was a tune that she didn't recognise whatsoever, but Roxi found herself relaxing at the sound of it. Natasha seemed to have that effect on her. She could do almost anything, and it would make Roxi feel more comfortable, more at home, like she did at the moment, like she did whenever she and Natasha were alone.

She felt as if she could close her eyes in the middle of a battlefield and trust Natasha to guide her through it with no fear of failing. She'd never been as close to anyone as she was to Natasha. They held something unique in the most delicate way, and once again, the thought of roses drifted through Roxi's mind.

Natasha was everything that a rose was; beautiful, fragile, and she could hurt you if she wanted to - badly, and Roxi would look after her as carefully as she would a flower, because the woman deserved it, especially after what he'd been through. 

{~}

THEY EMERGED FROM Roxi's room only minutes later, Natasha in front of Roxi, slipping on one of the ice-eyed woman's leather jackets as had become a custom for the pair, and they headed towards the meeting room so that they could greet the guest. The room was silent as they walked in and took their places at the smart, rectangular table, and Roxi only spared the white-haired man who stood at the head of the table a glance that was fast enough to allow her to recognise him. It was the Secretary of State.

Roxi sighed inwardly as they waited in silence for Steve and Wanda to arrive. She had been right. The government weren't happy with them, with the way they'd been handling things. Lagos had been the tipping point, and they had clearly exploited it as much as they could. It had been a very public incident, and without  the excuse that they were literally saving the world, they would be blamed for something, though she wasn't entirely sure what it would be yet.

It was as the last two Avengers (minus Clint, he wasn't here because he was spending some time with his family) entered the room that Roxi realised that she hadn't checked up on the young Maximoff. It had been completely driven from her mind as she'd languished in the alluring hours of the morning, and she instantly felt a form of guilt creep up on her as she followed the girl wit her eyes. Wanda sat down on the seat in front of her, and Roxi took her hand and gave it a squeeze for reassurance, sending a small smile her way, before she leaned back in her seat, letting her eyes drift back to Natasha.

It probably wasn't the best time to be focusing on the woman she loved, but as Secretary Ross began his talk, she couldn't help herself from admiring the side profile of the redhead. It was nothing that she hadn't seen before, and yet, she still felt that same sense of almost-awe that she'd felt that day on the Helicarrier back in 2012. Roxi's eyes flitted to Secretary Ross when he made a large, sudden movement out of the corner of her eye, and she began to pay attention, realising that what he was saying now was important.

"Five years ago, I had a heart attack. Dropped right in the middle of my back-swing. Turned it to be the best round in my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass, I found something that 40 years in the army had never taught me. Perspective." Roxi watched him carefully, caution flashing briefly in her eyes as she wondered what he was preparing to say. In her experience, if it started with an anecdote, then it was likely to be something bad.

"The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt; you have fought for us, you have protected us, risked your lives for us. But while a great many people see you as heroes, but there are some would prefer the term 'Vigilantes'." He finished coolly, and Roxi found herself tensing as if she were about to join a fight. 

"And what word would you use, Mr. Secretary," Natasha asked in an innocent voice, but very clearly seeing through the thin disguise that Ross had put up in hopes of softening whatever blow he was about to deliver.

"How about 'dangerous'?" he replied instantly, his head snapping to Natasha as he watched her carefully. Roxi kept her eyes firmly fixed on him, though making sure not to meet his gaze whenever he looked over them and it halted on her for a few seconds.

"What would you call a group of US-based enhanced individuals that routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?" Roxi felt her eyes narrow. Many of them, specifically Tony, Steve and Natasha, had deliberately avoided going to the two monuments that had been set up, because it triggered a darker part of their minds that they found incredibly hard to deal with. It wasn't that any of them had no regard for what they left behind, in fact it was the opposite. They simply had to suppress it, because otherwise, it would weigh to heavy on them, and they would be able to crack at a moment's notice. Then where would they be? Fighting one of their own teammates?

Secretary Ross stepped aside from where he had been facing, his hands neatly held behind his back to reveal a screen that begun on a grey version of a world map, and Roxi drew in a long, deep breath, knowing that she would need it for what they were about to see.

"New York." Footage from someone's phone popped up on the screen, and the shaky screams that filtered in from the background were enough to make Roxi's grip on the table tighten so harshly that her whole hand blanched white. A leviathan slid through the air, taking chunks out of one of the buildings, before the camera spun wildly to reveal a fully armed soldier standing next to the soldier, gun up and aimed at the huge Chitauri monster. The view didn't last for long, because soon the camera view crashed back to the sky where the leviathan had been seconds ago, only to reveal the Hulk jumping from one building to another. He landed over the crowds head, breaking off huge boulders of rubble that were sent cascading into the gathered people, the camera cutting off within moments. Roxi refused to lower her head in shame like Rhodey did, forcing herself to keep watching as a tribute to those who they had not been able to save.

"Washington D.C." Once again, a phone carrier shakily filmed the Potomac as the burning Helicarrier that Steve had only just managed to get out of fell so tauntingly slowly into the water that it felt as if the clip must have been edited for effect. But it hadn't been. Roxi had been there. She's watched the Insight carriers fall, and she remembered the flaming, sparking metal slamming against the water with such force that a massive, hungry surge of water had spread outwards like some kind of deadly ripple. She hadn't seen it crash over a group of civilians however, which turned out to be the dreadful reality, and Roxi watched with well-concealed horror as the wave slammed down on the people, and the feed once again cut.

"Sokovia." The city rose into the air with the same speed that the Insight carrier had fallen, and Roxi watched the image with guilt-ridden, forlorn eyes as it continued to rise, the massive engines that Ultron had put in place glaring with a blue-white light that was far too similar to Tony's thrusters for her liking. Then it was a tall building, bricks dirtied and structure damaged, that folded a story up, the massive tower of walls and floors falling to the ground with a crash that sent memories of pain racing through Roxi's body. She remembered how it felt when she'd dropped twenty feet onto the metal container in Rio so many years ago, and she couldn't imagine how much worse an entire building would be.

"Lagos." Roxi felt her mood darken at the mention of the previous day's incident. It was still so fresh in every single one of their minds, even the ones who hadn't been there. They didn't need to be reminded of it. And yet, they were. First it was the building, smoking and flaming several stories up, and Roxi found herself watching the smoke as it was carried away into the blue sky before the image changed suddenly once again. Now it was a scene by the steps of the building, which were dark with ash and soot, though it was disturbed in separate, small flurries as two medics, wheeling a body covered in a yellow sheet descended through them, sirens cutting through the awful silence that the room had fallen into. An image of a dark-skinned girl, dead on the floor, with blood still wet on her face and white ash covering the side of her furthest from the floor. It was then that Wanda finally looked away, her eyes immediately focusing on the table as her hand found its way into Roxi's again, seeking reassurance once more. Roxi squeezed her hand softly, trying to convey through the action what she would not let herself show in front of this man.

"Okay, that's enough," Steve reported as he watched Wanda worriedly, and Secretary Ross nodded sincerely, though he didn't turn the screen off.

"There's just one more issue that I'd like to address, and that," he paused his eyes falling on Roxi, who was still determined not to meet them, "Is you, Miss Ryder." Roxi drew in a quietly shaking breath that only Natasha heard, still refusing to tear her eyes from the side of Wanda's face.

"What about me?" She asked the question as calmly as she could, feeling every single person resting their eyes on her, mostly nervous and some worried. Natasha quickly took her other hand under the table, drawing soft shapes into the flesh of Roxi's palm to calm down the woman. It worked. It always did.

"You are considered by some in my place of work to be a liability" he reported carefully. Roxi just managed to keep her nostrils from flaring as she took in a particularly deep breath, the feeling of Natasha and the reassurance that Wanda was now providing her with helping greatly. She had no reason to be afraid, to be nervous about what this man was going to say. She was surrounded by her family, hand-in-hand with the love of her life and the only person that she would likely ever consider a sister.

"And why is that?" She still didn't move her eyes, yet spoke directly to the Secretary of State, determined entirely not to give him what he wanted by conceding to look at him while he spoke. That would make them equals, and he and Roxi were nothing like each other. 

"Well, let's take a look at the facts, shall we? You are an enhanced individual who we know virtually nothing about, save that you were a SHIELD agent for 13 years, that you are now an Avenger, that you have some sort of enhancement, and that your last name is Ryder. And then we find out that you can do this." He stepped back from the screen again, and Roxi found her attention snapping to it with an unusual urgency.

It took her a few moments to recognise the scene, but when she did, her breath caught in her throat, and she completely forgot that Wanda and Natasha were still sitting next to her, helping her. This was New York. No-one had seen this, and Roxi had only had her own perspective of the damage that she had caused. She'd never seen any news of her powers circulating the internet until after Sokovia, so how did they get this clip? It was CCTV footage, evident by the grey and white colouring and the way it stayed stationed throughout the clip. She found herself almost immediately, surrounded by the ring of Chitauri that had to be at least two layers thick. At first, she'd simply been finishing off one of the other groups, before she'd realised her situation. And then as if they had known she was in danger, her powers had exploded it of her. It was odd to see it from another angle except that which she remembered so carefully in her nightmares - which she'd had to make up because she'd had her eyes closed -, but it made it far, far worse. It was almost instantaneous. The first layer of Chitauri crumpled, their screams driving through the air. Roxi watched in a state that would be considered astonishment on somebody else, but simply appeared as her being a little unnerved. The second layer went then, and it was easier to see what was happening. 

Roxi watched as their golden armour warped and crushed, exerting too much force that the Chitauri fell to the ground, dead from being squeezed to death in their own armour. Then the camera cut out. Roxi's power must have reached it. She was glad it had; she didn't want the people she was sitting with to see the state she'd been in immediately afterwards, when she opened her eyes to see the carnage she'd wreaked. She could feel her team's stares on her, whether impressed, wary, shocked or horrified, but she didn't dare rip her eyes from the screen the second clip began to play. This one was of Sokovia, outside the old church. Ultron's forces had begun rushing towards them where they'd been defending the core, and Roxi's figure stepped forwards, slightly past the rest of the Avengers as she'd held her hands up, and let everything explode out of her. This looked as violent as Roxi remembered, each and every robot that came in touch with her power immediately being ripped to shreds, falling to the ground in more pieces than anyone would ever be able to count.

"And that," Secretary Ross brought the focus back to him as the screen shut off, his eyes still firmly set on Roxi, "Is why we consider you to be so dangerous." this time, Roxi finally met his eyes, a challenge brewing in her eyes as she kept her voice so deadly calm that it sent shivers of fear or nerves up everyone in the room's spine.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Ross seemed to nod at her slightly, smiling as he began speaking again, drawing back to his original statement.

"For the past four years you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution," he added as he was handed a thick book of cream-coloured paper, bound together officially, that he set down carefully on the table, sliding it towards Wanda and Roxi specifically.

"The Sokovia Accords. It's approved by 117 countries, and it states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organisation. Instead,  you'll operate under the supervision of the United Nations Panel; only when and if that Panel deems it necessary." Roxi listened to the explanation with her eyes fixed on the book that Wanda had passed to Rhodey in favour of continuing her support to Roxi. 

"The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place," Steve stated, clearly trying to find a safe platform to voice his views on, "I feel we've done that."

"Tell me Captain, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now? If I misplaced a couple of 30 megaton nukes, you can bet there'd be consequences. Compromise, reassurance. This is the way the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground," Ross explained as Roxi finally managed to tear her gaze from the book of Accords to scan Natasha's face. It was almost impossible to see what she was thinking, but Roxi had gotten good at it. The redhead was torn, not sure of what to do or the way it might affect them in the future.

"So, there are contingencies?" Rhodey asked, clearing up some questions that had probably been floating around a few people's minds. Roxi wasn't on of them. Politics weren't her thing, and they never would be. She would let people with more clue about what they were doing handle this for the time being.

"Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords. Talk it over." And with that, Secretary Ross began to leave the room. Natasha had been watching Roxi carefully throughout the whole meeting, and knew that the woman was more conflicted than even she was. Just one last look at the ice-eyes woman's face, that showed signs of exhaustion that didn't relate to her, was enough to encourage her to ask another question.

"And if we come to a decision you don't like?"

"Then, you retire."

{A/N:} Ngl, this took me a whole day to write lmao. I actually love Civil War as a film, despite all the bad stuff that goes on team-wise but now that I'm writing it I feel horrible for them. Also that Roxi thing I came up with fairly recently and I figured why not make it harder for her, because as you guys know, I'm very cruel to my characters. Also I've got a blister on my finger and I keep hitting it and it hurts. But yeah, I'm on a bit of a roll with my chapters at the moment, three written (including the published one) in two days.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed.

Pls vote, comment, let me know what you think, etc.,

4235 Words

Written: 18 / 04 / 2021

Published: 01 / 05 / 2021