I see another blast of orange light as one of the men goes flying and lands in a heap behind me. I peek above the table to see some of the action but Steve pushes my head down again.
"You're going to get your face blown off." He scolds taking the gun I stole and firing a couple of times before ducking down next to me.
"But it so cool…" I stare at Bucky's arm through the cracks in between tables watching as he lifts someone over his head and throws them up at the ceiling, knocking down one of the lights.
"Is that what you meant when you said he needed to heal? Was it his arm?" Steve gives me an apologetic look.
"Echo it's hard to explain-" I grab his shoulder and pull him down just before a blast hits his head.
"You're going to get your face blown off." I say in a deep voice, trying to mock him. He rolls his eyes but smiles, rapidly firing above the table and yelling helpful tactics to Bucky. I look to the back door where the gang came in and see a large black bulldozer parked outside. My heart skips a beat when I also see the large Momentum Labs symbol on the side. Abbott could be here and could be looking for me. My stone buzzes and even I can't deny my curiosity. Something in that van could give me a piece to the puzzle I've been needing. With Steve distracted I sneak away from the tables unnoticed and get to the edge of the back door. I pause looking back at him and Bucky fighting the men off I have to find out what Abbott knows about me even if it means leaving behind Steve and Bucky. Looking out into the alley I see the truck is left unattended so, against my better judgement, I run around to the passenger door and find it unlocked. I jump in and begin digging through the glove box finding nothing but old napkins and Sonic gift cards. I glance back up to the door and see orange light filling the library; I'm running out of time. I give up on the front seats and push every button on the console until one of them opens the back hatch. Running around to the back I see the truck is filled with weapons hanging on the sides of the walls and one man sitting in the middle.
"You!" I growl as I step into the truck, seeing that Abbott is alone I relax a little happy I don't have to deal with huge gang members trying to kill me.
"I was hoping you would drop by soon. Our conversion was… well it ended short last time."
"Damn right it did, start talking." I grab one of the guns off the wall and point it at him. He jumps, a little surprised I would threaten him but I'm not taking any chances.
"Well, as I was telling you last time, you were born to be a chaostasis and when you were younger, I trained you so that one day you would know what to do when the time came and-"
"What training? What did you do to me?"
He stands up and I hold the gun tighter my hands, shaking a little bit as I do.
"I cared for you Echo. You were my greatest accomplishment."
"Accomplishment? I'm an expreminet, aren't I?"
"No, no you were nothing like that. You were just… born extraordinary, which was good and bad. You had trouble controlling your powers, so I helped you. Ever think where you learned how to pick a lock or fire a gun straight? That was me."
"So you trained me to be… a weapon, a monster?" My voice cracks and his eyes grow soft. I silently hate myself for showing him any weakness.
"No, Echo we trained you so that when you were older you could protect yourself and everyone on earth. We trained you to be a hero."
My mind is a jumbled mess and my stone is buzzing like crazy telling me it's time to go. I realize why when the truck rumbles and I hear gunshots from the library as police sirens wail out front. He steps closer to me and I flinch in response but don't move away. He grabs my shoulders and I look up to him trying to figure out if he really cares about me or is he using me to get to the stone.
"Give me the scroll, Echo. I can translate it and help you. Please, it's the only way you can save everyone." I reach in my hoodie pocket and feel the scroll, rubbing the old paper through my fingers. Looking back to him, I step out of the truck and Abbott tries to follow me but I point the gun at his chest.
"I should kill you just like you killed all those men at the temple." I say as tears begin forming in my eyes as I think back to the memory.
"I did it to get to you, Echo. I-"
"Don't...don't tell me any more lies."
"I promised your parents I would never lie to you Echo. You must remember that." I lower the gun giving him an odd look.
"My parents? What, did you murder them too?" I can see his heart breaking the more I speak and I can't say it doesn't hurt me too. He reaches forward and I jump back causing the scroll to slip out of my hand. Just like at the temple we both reach to grab it, pulling on it in opposite directions. I make a last second decision and let go causing him to fall back onto the dirty ground. I go to grab it from him but I feel a rough hand on the back of my neck. I shift into Bucky this time but the leader was ready, grabbing the metal arm and blasting with his canon. I stumble back clenching my fist and Abbott gives me a proud look at my unharmed arm which makes me even more disgusted with him. I go to slam my fist into his face but he catches it and I instead knee him in the stomach a few times until he is bending over, facing the ground. Then I hit him in the back of the neck and he falls onto the ground. I can only hope he's out for good this time. I turn to Abbott who is clutching the scroll to his chest.
"Echo, come with me so I can help you."
"I don't need your help." As I walk closer to him, I shift into my old form.
"Yes you do. Those nightmares you have they mean something and the stone's buzzing and stinging... it's trying to speak to you. Let me help you understand it."
I shake my head no, not wanting to believe anything he's saying but believing it anyway. He knows things and as badly as I want to know them too, it's not worth it. I run forward trying to grab the scroll from him but he side steps and I miss him by a few inches. I turn around and reach for it again but my backpack zipper gets caught on the truck. I rip it off letting my stuff fall onto the alley ground and looking down I get a crazy, probably stupid, idea. Just as I think that, Steve and Bucky run out the back door and see Abbott with the scroll. With him distracted, I wrench the scroll out of his hands. Steve and Bucky run around the truck putting themselves in between Abbott and I. Turning around I start digging through my stuff putting my plan into action.
"Move criminals, this is none of your business." Abbott spits, his eyes squinting in fury.
"You made it our business by murdering those people." Steve says, trying to stand taller despite his injuries.
"You still think you're a hero? You can't change anything, Captain. All you can do is watch your home burn."
Steve lunges at him and Bucky tries to do the same but the gang leader blocks him from Abbott by shoving him to the side with his shoulder. Seriously why can this guy just stay down? I look at him and see his eyes are glowing orange and the veins on his neck are outlined with the same glow. My stone is the same orange and I really hope he isn't some super soldier experiment. Bucky reaches up and punches at his jaw but the man just smiles grabbing Bucky's arm and swinging him into a trash can. Nope, definitely a super soldier. He whips his head around and his terrifying eyes fall onto me. I scramble backwards until I'm up against the truck. He grabs my good arm and sees the bundle I'm holding onto tightly.
"You think by disguising it we would be fooled? It's you who's the fool, girl." He rips the wrapping of bandages out of my hand as I plead him to reconsider.
"No, stop, you're making a mistake, please."
He ignores me as he follows Abbott into the truck. I look to Steve surprised that a little man like Abbott defeated him but he's still standing, staring at ground. Police cars come around the front of the bulldozer and policemen begin to run along the sides of the truck headed towards me. We don't stay around to try and stop Abbott now; we run the opposite direction hoping they stick to the building and don't follow us. We only stop when we're a couple of blocks away and can't hear the sirens of the police cars. I lean against the alley wall and slide onto the ground holding my head in my hands.
"I should've killed him when I had the chance. I was right there and I had the gun but… but I couldn't do it." I whisper afraid if I speak too loudly I'll start yelling at myself.
"He knew we were going to be there and his weapons, they were… unlike anything I've ever seen." Bucky mumbles taking my hand and helping me up.
"And now he has the scroll."
I pull off my backpack remembering my plan and dig through my bag pulling out the shiny silver paper.
"But he got-" Bucky starts looking at the scroll in amazement like he didn't just see guns powered by an ancient stone from space.
"No he got a butterfinger wrapped in bandages."
Steve can't help but laugh and even Bucky smiles as I put away the scroll.
"Not bad, brat." Bucky says, nudging my shoulder as we walk down the sidewalks back to the sanctum. As we stroll, I can't help but notice the glances Steve sneaks at me and the way he moves away every time I talk. I can't help but wonder what Abbott told him to make him so afraid of me.
"Of course you did." Strange says, rolling his eyes and handing Steve some bandages.
"Ok, technically it wasn't us who blew up the library." I argue, pressing gauze to my neck where the gang members nails left cuts. He just sighs pouring us more tea, which we had been drinking almost non stop. They talked for awhile about Abbott and came up with some interesting theories about him being an alien. Soon it grows quiet as we all get patched up and settle into the nice couches along the wall. Ever since my last meeting with Abbott so many questions about my past have been running through my head. My parents, my powers, my purpose, all of it's a mystery, but not to him. He claims he raised me and knew my parents but what if he's lying? Then how would he have known what a chaostasis was when we met in the temple? I grumble in frustration. All of this boils down to the stone and why it chose me.
"Do think I'm an experiment ?" I ask Stange, making him choke on his tea.
"I- I um, can't say."
"But you deal with weird stuff all the time and I just thought… do you think I'm Inhuman?"
He shakes his head no and I fall back into the couch hugging one of the pillows.
"You don't know?" He asks breaking my sad silence.
"It's never really come up until now."
He nods understanding and we dive back into our silence listening to the bustling street outside. I take off the gauze and see a sticky line of blood. I fold it over itself and put it back on, pressing harder, which makes it sting. Wong comes up to me holding a weird stick.
"Is that your magic wand?" I ask snarkily and he glares at me moving my hand away from my neck. I wince in pain and I send him back an equally rude glare. He places the tip of the wand directly on the cut and it begins to glow, spreading soft, warm light over my injuries. After he finishes, I look at my reflection in the window and see the blood has stopped and the cuts are slowly closing.
"Definitely a magic wand." I breathe, looking back to Wong.
"More or less, it heals most battle injuries; bruises, cuts, broken ribs." He says, gesturing to me.
I look at the ground and peek up to see a smirking Wong. He offers his hand and I pull up my sleeve revealing the burns and cuts. Placing the wand over them I feel the light spread again but stop making my wrist feel cold. Opening my eyes, I see the cuts have busted open again and are bleeding badly. I grab the gauze I was using for my neck and press it onto the old injuries.
"Run out of magic?" I ask a little annoyed at the cuts stinging again. Wong looks strangely down at his wand, shaking his head.
"No, the wand can only heal injuries in a fight… not those that are self inflicted." He says, fading off as he gives me a sorry look.
"Thanks anyway." He nods watching me carefully as he cleans up the supplies. Trying to look anywhere but at him, I scan the room hoping to find something to do. Steve opted not to sit on the couch or really anywhere near me. He and Bucky are in the other room undoubtedly talking about me, but thankfully, Sam stayed. Of course he wasn't much comfort either because he had been asleep since we got back. I hear Wong climbing up the steps from the circle room. I finally found out all those doors lead to other sanctums, some of which are across the world. This definitely didn't help my "getting lost" problem. I haven't been back in that room since I saw the time stone and something tells me if I go in there again I won't be able to stay away from it. Pulling the gauze away, I watch the blood rolling off my wrists and feel my stone getting warm.
"Those are pretty bad." I jump and turn to see Sam sitting up next to me, rubbing his eyes. I nod my head running my finger over the burns before stopping and touching the center of the stone.
"You really don't want it, do you?" I turn to him giving him an odd expression.
"Of course I don't."
"But it's so… powerful. I mean no one would ever mess with you again because you could just, you know, punch 'em."
I think about it for a moment but shake my head.
"My life was finally falling into a beautiful routine until that Agent… stirred it up again."
He gives me an empathic nod before shifting in the blankets. I fiddle with my thumbs and steal glances at him before finally getting enough courage to speak again.
"You mentioned my past to Strange." I squeak, and he freezes slowly turning towards me.
"Uh… just to... um help with the stone I guess. I don't know."
"Where did you hear that stuff? Just curious…"
"Oh yeah, right," He scoots a little closer making me weary. "I got some info from Romanoff and-"
"The temple." I finish, feeling his eyes staring into me.
"Echo, I had no idea your foster parents..."
I bolt up, stepping away from the couch and a very worried Sam. He stands up as well but doesn't come any closer. The word triggers memories in my mind I've tried so hard to forget and instincts take over. I do what I know, I run... out of the room and down the steps of the sanctum. I get ugly looks from people on the street as I push past them as I run along the sidewalk. I pass familiar stores and streets until I finally see my factory come into view. I rush through the door, which has now been open for awhile, and I climb the familiar beam up to my bedroom. All that's left is my cold sleeping bag and a few old food wrappers. I sit on the bag and lay down, pulling the cover over me. I sit awhile and just listen to what it used to be like here; alone and content. I roll over onto my stomach as I feel the stone tingle and lift my sleeve to see it flickering.
"I really hate you, you know?" The gem, of course, decides not to comment and stops shining, reverting to its regular orange. I lay my head down on my arms and stare at the sleeping bag. It's seems like forever ago that I ran into Barnes at the coffee shop and saw Agent Blackburn get sucked into the stone. Thinking back, I jump up, hitting my head on one of the low hanging bars, but I don't care. I sit criss-cross, holding my stone in front of my face and take a wild guess.
"Uh... Agent Blackburn… are you in there?" I wait for a response but it didn't come and I look up the ceiling not believing I really just tried to talk to a stone.
"Ok stone, start talking..." nothing again. I'm really starting to think I'm going crazy. I let my hands fall in my lap.
"Super powerful soul stone can't even carry on a conversation." I mumble, giving up on communicating with the stone.
"You have a powerful soul." Startled, I jump up again, missing the bar this time, but hitting my shin on a beam. I sit back down and shift on the sleeping bag.
"Ok, good, good. See, this is progress." I say, gripping my wrist like my life depends on it. There are so many questions racing through my mind. But, ultimately, I settle on one.
"What am I?"