oo. ONE — what if... pietro died in age of ultron?

FIVE KNEW WHAT WAS HAPPENING. She knew what was happening as Clint Barton turned, child clutched to his chest, awaiting the bullets that were surely coming his way. She knew what was happening when Pietro turned, a familiar stance taking over.

Her chest tightened as she watched, knowing there was nothing she could do to stop him. Every breath felt like tar, sticking against her lungs and trapping the oxygen.

Still, how could she not try?

"Pietro, don't!" Five screamed, her throat burning from both the way the air was running thin, and the grief that was already building. In the blink of an eye, Pietro had disappeared from her sight, but she was moving before she could even register it.

The world around her seemed to lengthen into a dark tunnel, as if there was no end to it. She felt sick.

When the gunshots faded, Clint Barton stood unharmed, as did the child in his arms. A fragile car was placed in front of them, gaping bullet holes marring the metal, letting in slices of light. But Five wasn't all too concerned about that.

As the dust settled back to the floating ground, Clint looked up, his heart dropping to his stomach.

There stood Pietro Maximoff, the real hero of this battle, his skin mottled with a mosaic of blood and bullet holes. His blue shirt that matched Five's was slowly turning as red as Wanda's jacket.

"You didn't see that coming." said Pietro, before he was falling, falling, falling. With a thump, his body hit the dirt.

And they screamed, they screamed so loudly that the onlookers were sure it could burst their eardrums, and they continued to scream as somebody they loved fell to the ground, with death coming to collect them.

They sobbed and cried as blue eyes stared out into the world, and saw nothing, heard nothing. They screamed as their bodies were set alight with the pain of grief, and they screamed more as it made them numb to the world that surrounded them.

It was almost as if they were connected, the way they fell to their knees and let power surge through them, releasing it in a wave that shuddered the ground beneath them.

Their screaming turned to sobbing, turned to thick tears burning paths down their dirtied faces, and as their minds seemed to disconnect, they both felt the way their souls rippled and tore with loss.

Five crawled her way over to Pietro, his body still and unmoving even as she gripped his destroyed shirt in her pale fingers.

And as their screams flooded the city, a ghost of a whisper followed, remaining unheard by the world, "Please don't leave me."

Steve ran up to Five, and pulled her away before she could collapse under the weight of her grief. Her fingers were tingling but also felt numb, and her chest was throbbing with unreleased pain.

Her eyes fluttered, glowing white for a moment before dulling back into the blue that once matched Pietro. Her head dropped against her chest, and Steve dragged her on to the aircraft as Thor and Clint took the kid and Pietro, following behind.

oo

THE AVENGERS COMPOUND WAS QUIET AFTER THE BATTLE. There was a tension in the air, a static feeling that made everyone nervous, as if everyone was waiting for something to explode. It was too hard to speak, and nobody could bring themselves to try with Five still being laid in the medical wing in a hospital bed, seeming as if she'd never wake up from a grief-induced sleep.

There was going to be a funeral for Pietro Maximoff, only put on hold in hopes that Five would wake, and they wouldn't have to have a second one.

It was Thor who had been sat beside Experiment Five when she finally woke up, blue eyes fluttering open and flickering around the room, trying to take everything in whilst also jogging her memory back to everything that had happened.

She retched when she remembered, gags forcing only
bile up her throat, with her not having any proper food in the six days she had been unconscious.

"No, no," she cried out, her throat so scratchy and sore that the words barely even escaped. She vaguely felt Thor holding ginger hair away from her shoulders, and Five didn't even want to face him.

"I'm sorry, Lady Five." said Thor, his voice grave and Five could only imagine the expression on his face.

Her shoulders were trembling, and she felt so much more fragile than she ever had before. HYDRA might have been bad, but nothing was worse than this. Finally, she had felt love, family, only to have it snatched from her shaking hands before she could properly grasp it.

Five's body burned, eyes shaking and vision blurring, unable to focus on anything. She knew her heart was beating in her chest, even though it felt like it'd been ripped out and stomped on. She could feel it thumping against her ribs every time it beat.

There were too many wires on her, the blanket was too heavy, and through her hiccuping sobs, she tried to express it. She ripped the IV from her arm, blood bursting out and splashing across the white bedsheets.

The other hospital beds around her lay empty, and her chest felt hollow as she realised it was real. Pietro was dead, and she had done nothing.

Wanda would surely hate her, as the rest of the Avengers would. Five had lost Pietro, and she was the only one to blame. Had she only done something, created a barrier for Clint, or even Pietro, maybe everything would have been okay. But she'd done nothing, and now he was dead.

His promise had died along with him.

Maybe if Five had been braver, or stronger, then they all would have made it back. But she wasn't, and she hadn't even finished her training in HYDRA. She was a failure.

Her throat ached with the strain of sobs that refused to leave her vocals, and she couldn't stop the way her face crumpled with pain, face wet and sticky with tears. What could she do? How could she handle this?

She wasn't like Cooper or Lila, the only love she had ever known was Pietro, and the only other option she had was HYDRA. They'd be angry at her for leaving, of course, but not as angry as the Avengers would be after she let one of the newest members die before their, and the world's, eyes.

Thor may defend her, likely out of duty alone, but he would be no match against his friends' anguish. He'd fold and topple like a house of cards. Besides, Five couldn't do that to him. She couldn't make him fight his best friends, his family, for her. She was basically a murderer, after all.

Five noticed every look she received, each time the Avengers watched the way she moved, all but waiting for her to betray them, just as she had done to HYDRA before.

For superheroes, they weren't nearly as subtle as they believed they were.

"Five?" asked Thor, his hand still resting gently against her back, like he was expecting her to fall apart if he put any pressure against her. He seemed slightly uncomfortable, like he was unprepared for a situation like this one.

Steve Rogers and Clint Barton burst through the doors next, apparently news travelled fast in the new Avengers Compound.

Five shied away, shrinking herself as much as she physically could. If the Avengers noticed, they didn't say anything.

"Well, vitals were stable before the wires were removed." said Clint, having tapped against a screen that apparently told him such information. Five was never allowed to handle such technology, and she didn't expect that to change, especially now.

"Five," Steve began, though Five refused to meet his eyes, knowing that the Captain had never wanted her here, and now she'd killed a new recruit. "How are you doing?"

She said nothing in response, keeping her face set as best she could. Five could do nothing to stop the tears that stung her eyes and flowed shamelessly down her face.

The Avengers present frowned to each other, eyebrows creased in concern, but all Five could see was hatred. She hated this feeling.

oo

THERE WAS A FUNERAL, AFTER ALL.

It was a private ceremony with the Avengers and Clint Barton's family, a newborn Nathaniel-Pietro being huddled close to Laura's chest.

Five — or Ava, they had told her, — stayed away from everyone as best she could, she didn't make eye contact with anyone, and didn't dare to look in Wanda's direction. How could she? She didn't even think she deserved to be there, and there was Pietro's true family, in more pain than ever, all because of Five — or Ava.

Thor had broken the news to her, had informed her of the past she should've lived, but somehow Five already felt numb to it. She didn't deserve the childhood they said she did, she felt uncomfortable with the new name they insisted was her's. Five was sure there was nothing that belonged to her, it had been that way from everything she could remember, and why should that change?

She was still death to everything she touched, just as her Superiors had always insisted upon. They told her that she could bend the life forces of the people surrounding her, that she held death in her heart, and spread it to everything she let her heart touch.

Now, that felt more true than ever.

There was a dark wooden casket being lowered into the ground, just a five minute walk from the main Compound. It wasn't ideal, Wanda was sure Pietro would've preferred being buried with their parents, but that wasn't an option. So, a graveyard was created at the Avengers Compound, one that Five was sure would grow.

At least, with her plans, she wouldn't be around to have the blame.

Five felt naive. She felt silly to think that she could've had this, could've had a family without poisoning it. Now, because of her stupidity, there was a funeral.

HYDRA were right all along. She needed them.

HEYY!
it's been a long while since
i've written for my beloved
five/ava, so i decided to give
some bonus chapters!

i think i'll probably do a few
more what if? chapters!
let me know if that's something
you guys would want :D

have a great day <3