4Prologue
Ok, so you've read the first part of my tale; where exactly did I end off? Oh yeah, Bucky and I had successfully melted Ultron down into a pool of metal, he [Bucky] had brought my family, the X-Men, from England over to America to help try and find me, and we were finally about to kiss when (uggggh) we got interrupted. Again. Totally not my fault. I blame Ultron.
Now, due to these unfortunate events, the world that I have come to know is a little...wonky, you could say.
Now, one of my favorite men growing up as a kid, Willy Wonka, used to say, "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest of men."
Hey Wonka, I betcha never seen a life with as much nonsense as mine. If his statement were true, I should have been as wise as Albert Einstein. But no, I'm still your average 18-year old mutant who never finished high school, was abused by their mother, has a God for a father who disappeared and then magically reappeared later, and has the most volatile powers on the planet!
But I'm getting sidetracked. Back to the main focus.
This next part of my story has a lot more nonsense then the first part of my story did. Don't believe me? Just keep reading. This is the story of how I met my future boyfriend's parents.
I can hear you all shouting, "But Emily Salgado! Those two are dead in the 21st century!"
Yeah, they are. But who said anything about me being in the 21st century?
Chapter 1
[Emily's POV]
The light was bright against my eyes. For some reason, that was the first thing I could notice; I noticed that before I even realized I was waking back up. The second thing that I noticed was everything in me hurt, and it hurt bad. I let out a whimper before I could help myself, and I was immediately rewarded with a cool towel pressed to my forehead.
A soft, warm voice that sounded like honey talked first, whispering softly, "Hush, honey. I know, it hurts. Just go back to sleep and I promise you'll feel better when you wake back up. Ok?" It reminded me of Laura, Clint's wife.
"I-I need to f-find him," I murmured, unable to help myself. I tossed and turned, crying out when the moves jostled my weakened body. Soft, but sturdy hands grabbed my shoulders, halting any further movement that I wanted to do. All I could think about was the chains that Ultron had kept me with. How they had held me back just like that.
W-Was I even f-free? Was that all a dream? Defeating Ultron, using the Titan, seeing Bucky again...was it all a dream?
"N-No!" I shouted, shoving harder despite the pain. I couldn't open my eyes. For one they were too heavy. For another thing, I didn't want all that I had just experienced to be a dream. It couldn't be a dream. I wouldn't let it be a dream. "I need to see him again! Please, let me see him."
"Let you see who, sweetheart?" the woman asked again softly. For some reason, that stilled my body and all I could do as I slipped back into the night was cry and sob out his name.
"Bucky."
:/:\:
[Bucky's POV]
I will never forget the look on everyone's faces when I got to the roof of the Tower. Each one looked relieved, happy, excited, and panicked all at the same time. But it didn't matter. Because we had finally gotten Emily back safely.
I hoped.
As soon as Emily was on board the QuinJet my group was responsible for and strapped onto a portable gurney, we strapped in and took off. We alerted the rest of the groups who had not been on the rooftop of our plans; they had more than enough room for the extra members who weren't in our jet. I was given the job of pilot, since no one else in my group knew how to work the QuinJet. Loki had taken an immediate residence next to Emily, sitting near her head and gazing longingly down at her. She still didn't know that he was her father. By now, the rest of the Avengers had been clued in. Loki didn't feel that the time was right to tell Emily just yet.
Wanda was passed out on the other side of the QuinJet on a gurney similar to Emily's. Her body was wrapped in a pinkish aura, much like her manipulation powers. Surprisingly, Logan was sitting at her feet, sharpening his claws on each other. He tried to be discreet about it, but every once and a while I caught him sneaking concerned glances at both Emily and Wanda. The big, bad, and scary Wolverine actually was a big softie. Who knew?
The flight back to the compound was a short one, only an hour, but nobody talked and nobody dared to move. We three who were still awake didn't say it out loud, but we were very scared at the recent event. For myself personally, I could feel my adrenaline crashing, and my stomach was clenching up from hunger. All of the calories I burned off during the fight against Ultron with Emily were definitely coming after me.
We made it back to the compound in record time, with no resistance thankfully. As soon as we landed and I had gotten the ramp to drop open, I contacted Steve through Logan's radio. "Steve, this is Bucky. We have successfully made it back to the compound. Logan, Loki, and I are bringing Wanda and Emily inside now."
"Got it, Buck. Thanks. We're mostly on cleanup patrol right now. Tony is a bit...upset you found out about the airport underneath the Tower. He said something about a surprise?" Steve mumbled back. I chuckled and hoisted myself out of the chair, jogging my way down the ramp and towards the place I was beginning to call home. We slipped inside and was immediately met by Doctor Cho and Clara, the nurse who had helped Emily during the paintball fiasco way back when. Clara took hold of Wanda's gurney while Doctor Cho, despite greatly not enjoying Emily's company, took hold of Emily's gurney.
Cho held up a hand as all three of us men moved to follow. "No. I need you all to stay here."
As soon as those words left her mouth, we all protested, trying to argue our way in. "But I'm her father", "But I'm her mentor", "But I'm her best friend"...none of them worked on Cho. She just shook her head and responded, "I need to make sure all of her vitals are secure, and I can't do that with you three staring at the back of my head, constantly worrying about whether or not she's ok. Clara will help me with her."
"And what about Wanda?" I asked, glancing over at the girl who was still fast asleep with the aura glowing softly. "What about her?" I had grown close to Wanda through our shared connection of Emily. She reminded me a lot of Rebecca, my sister, back when she had been a younger woman. While I was majorly concerned about Emily and why she had passed out, seeing Wanda in that state made me scared. And I didn't like to be scared.
"Again, I will need to make sure all of her vitals are secure," Cho repeated, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see Loki clenching his fists and Logan gritting his teeth. "But if I need assistance, I will be sure to come ask one of you three."
With that, she and Clara pushed the gurneys away from the three of us as we watched helplessly. There was a loud crash beside me and I instinctively jumped away, whipping myself around to face the noise. Apparently, Loki had had the same reaction, because he had jumped away from his spot too. Meanwhile, where the noise had originated from, Logan was standing next to a destroyed vase; it had been one of Tony's favorites if I remembered correctly.
I held my hands up warily, glancing worriedly at Loki before turning my attention back to Logan. "You ok there, Buddy?"
"Don't call me Buddy," rumbled Logan, his eyes flashing angrily towards me. I tensed my muscles and slid my feet into a fighting position. I really didn't want to have to duke it out with Emily's mentor from the X-Men, but if that was needed, I would do it. He gestured angrily down where Emily and Wanda had gone. "They are injured and hurt and there is absolutely nothing that we can do about it and…" He trailed off with a loud, upset growl, slamming his fist into the floor. Which of course shattered. I winced as I thought of how I was supposed to explain that to Steve and Tony. "I hate feeling useless."
"You aren't useless," Loki began in a quiet voice, and Logan leapt to his feet, swinging his gaze around to stare at him. His claws slowly slid out of his knuckles and I gestured towards them, trying to warn Loki. He refused to look at me and instead met Logan's gaze head on.
"Wanna repeat that, Bub?" Logan snapped. Without looking away from Loki, he pointed back towards the hallway. "Emily and that Maximoff girl…"
"Are alive thanks to you," finished Loki, making his voice louder. "You know about her relation to me, right?" Logan nodded and his nostrils flared. I narrowed my eyes. That was not the right thing for Loki to say. If he wanted to keep his face, Loki needed to find a way out of his situation, and soon. "You substituted for me when I couldn't father her. You and Clint have acted like fathers to her while I was paying for my actions. You have helped to raise my daughter when I was gone and my wife didn't even care about the poor child. For that, no matter what the circumstances may be, you will never be useless. Not to her and definitely not to me."
I suddenly felt like I was interrupting an important 'father-to-father' bonding moment, so I coughed awkwardly and gestured that I would be waiting up in my room. As I walked away, I shook my head, laughing under my breath. Emily now had three fathers, all of which hated each other but tolerated each other for her sake. Get better soon, Em. We're gonna need you to sort out this mess.
:/:\:
[Emily's POV]
I don't know how many times I flickered between the realms of the awake and the sleeping. What I did know was that every time I came to the land of the awake, the woman with the voice of honey that reminded me of Laura was waiting there. She took care of me all the time, and would comfort me if I was racked with doubts and worries.
Finally, there was a time when I woke up and I knew that I could stay awake this time. I needed to stay awake and get some answers; like where I was, because no one I knew had the voice of that woman. So, when I could feel all of my limbs and I was conscious of my being awake, I forced myself to open my eyes. Again, I was immediately blinded by the bright and terrible light that was shining right in my eyes.
I hissed and covered my eyes with my hand, glad that my limbs didn't feel like limb. I heard a startled, "Oh", and then there was a rustling of curtains. I hesitantly peeked open my eyes again. The curtains had been closed, so I could see around the room without worrying about burning my eyeballs. I huffed and glanced around. I was on a rather comfortable bed with only a few springs bent out of shape. It was a small, box-shaped room and besides the bed, the little desk beside me and the little lamp, it was barren.
My eyes were finally drawn to the door, where a tall, lithe girl was standing in the doorway. She had an adorable spotted dress on, one that was tucked in at the waist to accent all her curves. She had a beautiful smile, and the prettiest brown eyes I had seen (and I had seen Bucky's).
"You're awake," she said cheerily, and I was hit by the Brooklyn accent. It reminded me so much of when I first met Bucky. "Ma was worried that you weren't ever going to break the fever."
"To be honest, I didn't know if I was going to get better," I responded, nodding. I pushed the covers off my legs and was suddenly aware that I was dressed in a thin cotton nightdress. It reminded me of something I had seen my mom wear once. "Oh, there was no need to change me. I would have been fine in my other clothes."
"Are you kidding?" the girl asked, her eyes wide in disbelief. "You're lucky that my brother and mother found you first. I don't think I've ever seen a woman dress as scandalously as you were dressed."
I raised my eyebrow incredulously, opening my mouth to rebuke her comment when I heard the honey voice call from downstairs, "Rebecca Barnes, I sure hope you aren't bothering our guest like I specifically told you and your siblings to do."
I stiffened slightly. Rebecca Barnes. What would have been the odds that I got rescued by a family who had the same last name as Bucky and his sister? The girl, Rebecca, blushed an adorable crimson as she stuttered back, "B-But Ma...I was just trying to help…!"
"No shouting in the house, Becca," another voice mused, one that was higher and younger. I peered around Rebecca's legs and saw another girl who looked similar to Rebecca. She had a calf-length dark blue skirt with a white blouse that was tucked in. Her dark brown was curled and pinned away from her face. All-in-all, it looked like a school uniform from the fifties. She can really pull it off though, I thought quietly to myself. "Don't let Big Brother catch you, or else."
Rebecca rolled her eyes. "He can try all he likes, Barbara; he knows I'm getting faster than him now." She flinched, as if she suddenly remembered that I was sitting there the whole time. "Sorry about that, Miss…"
"Emily Salgado," I supplied kindly.
"Sorry about that, Miss Salgado," Rebecca said, nodding her head in apology. "I forgot that you were here. Would you like to come downstairs?"
"Do I need to get dressed or am I dressed to scandalously?" I teased kindly, smiling to show Rebecca I was just teasing her. Rebecca smirked and rolled her eyes at me and I giggled under my breath as she walked over to the closet.
"You look to be around Ma's size, so you can borrow one of her dresses for now," Rebecca informed me, swiping through a couple of hangers before choosing one. "You look like a girl who looks good in red."
I smirked as I remembered the date with Bucky that Wanda and Steve had set us up on. "I've been told that same thing." I got up, proud that my shaky limbs could still hold my weight. Rebecca left the room to give me some privacy and I quickly changed. It was a red v-neck dress that ended just below my knees. It was tapered, much like Rebecca's dress, and it fit me pretty well. I zipped up the dress and, since I was alone in the room, allowed my wings to come out. Except...they never appeared.
I glanced frantically behind my back, patting my shoulder blades. I could still feel the lumps that connected my wing shoulder bones to my normal shoulder bones, but no wings. I glanced around, and was pleased to see a floor-length mirror in the corner of the room that I had missed in my initial check. I rushed over there and looked into it.
I still couldn't see my wings. I tried to calm my breathing, because I could already tell that I was panicking. The Titan had never taken my wings before; it was impossible. Wasn't it?
Titan, what the heck? Where are my wings? I demanded, sending the message straight to where I knew he would be residing. But for some reason, he didn't respond. In fact, I couldn't even sense his presence within. I hadn't felt that bland and empty since before I had seen Warren and his Archangel.
I backed up and landed heavily on the bed. My hands came up to my chest and I could feel the hammering of my heart through the many layers of clothes. It's ok...it's ok...you just need to find Steve and Bucky and Tony and Logan and Loki and everyone else and they can help you. Everything will be fine.
I took a shaky breath and moved to my feet. My legs shook violently and I moved to the wall, using it as a support as I moved to the door. I turned the knob and slid it open, revealing Rebecca and the girl from before. The smaller girl, Barbara, gaped at my appearance and smiled widely. "Wow! You look so pretty!"
I smiled weakly and tried to put on an air of calm. "I did tell Rebecca that I looked good in red."
Rebecca laughed and offered me her arm to use as support. So she could tell that I was trying to hide my shaky legs. I took it and gave her a grateful smile. We moved through the narrow hallway and I half-listened to Rebecca as she prattled on about this and that. The stairs were steep and narrow, and Rebecca took it slow so that I wouldn't collapse down the stairs. We made it down to the bottom when I was greeted by the warm smell of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies.
I moaned with delight before I could help myself and moved away from Rebecca, ignoring the living room to move to the small kitchen off to the side. A short, brunette woman was humming to herself under her breath as she pulled out a large batch of cookies. She glanced behind her and I was caught by the golden-brown eyes again. Geez, all of these people have eyes like Bucky. He won't believe me when I tell him later. She smiled widely.
"Oh good, you're awake," she cheered, and I knew then that she was the owner of the honey voice. She grinned and nodded her head. "I'm glad that dress at least looks good on one of us."
I heard a scoff come from the other room and I looked over. There was a small dining room table that was meant to fit six. A man was sitting at one of the chairs, but he was hidden from view by a large newspaper. "Ma, you look good in everything you wear."
I had an overwhelming sense of deja vu again, and I shook my head. The honey-voiced woman looked back to me and moved away from the counter. She wore a dark green skirt and matching blouse with a flour-stained white apron around her waist. "Dearie, are you alright?"
"Emily Salgado," I supplied, nodding my head to her. "And you're Mrs. Barnes, I presume?" The woman smiled and nodded. "I'm fine. Just had some deja vu. He," I gestured to the man behind the paper, "reminded me of someone. Well, his voice did."
"He gets that a lot," huffed Rebecca from beside me. She gave a pointed look towards the newspaper. "You can at least greet a guest like a normal older brother would."
"I want to finish this paragraph about the new shoe-rationing rules," the man snarked back, and I scrunched my face in confusion. Shoe-rationing? Why on Earth would New York start a shoe-rationing rule? We weren't at war. That sounded like something from the forties…
Wait...forties outfits, my 'scandalous' dressing, shoe-rationing…
I looked at Mrs. Barnes, turning sharply and violently as I rushed out, "What day is it?"
Mrs. Barnes looked baffled at my request, but she answered slowly, "February 7th, 1943."
I felt the wind rush out of my lungs and I stumbled backwards, reaching out for Rebecca. She grabbed my arm and seemed to be the only thing keeping me up. My other hand flashed to my stomach as I tried to quench down the large amounts of nausea I was feeling.
The man at the table heard the tumble and stood up, folding the paper neatly and resting it down. He looked up at me and I felt any remaining air leave my lungs. He...it was him. He was here. He was wearing dark khakis and a buttoned down shirt with the top button undone. His hair was the same, the scruff was gone, but it was his eyes.
The warm, deep brown eyes that a girl could lose themselves in.
"B-Bucky…?" I asked weakly, and he seemed startled at the recognition. That was enough for me. My legs collapsed underneath me. As I slipped back into unconsciousness, I could see Bucky rushing towards me.
A/N: Hey y'all! I'm BAAAAAACK! Here is the first chapter of Solace's Fury! I busted it out this afternoon and last night. Now, again, no promises for when I can update again. I'm gonna be starting back up in my school year and I get really, really busy. But, I just thought y'all should get a Saturday surprise (or whatever day surprise depending on where y'all live).
If you've read Solace's Wings, then this should make sense. If you haven't read Solace's Wings, I suggest reading it if you want to understand anything that's happening. Now, even if you read Solace's Wings, you might not understand anything, but that's ok, neither do I XD.
Oh yeah! I think someone on Solace's Wings asked how I plan this all out. Here's the answer: I don't. I honestly don't. I tried once, and it all went a completely different direction. I have an end goal, I just don't know what the path there will look like. So yeah, we'll all be surprised.
Remember to read, favorite, follow, and review! I love hearing back from you all on your opinions of these stories. They are really helpful. Have a great Saturday (or whatever day depending on where y'all live XD).
BecomingFearless1F
