"Ooh, I'm sure that's going to be okay," Ultron says as the now armless man stumbles away from him, blood spurting from the injury, "I'm sorry. It's just I don't understand. Don't compare me with Stark!" You watch impassively as he kicks the man down the steps, "It's a thing with me. Stark is, he's a sickness!" You step up with Steve and Thor as Tony lands in his Iron Man suit.
"Ahh, Junior," He says, "You're gonna break your old man's heart."
"If I have to," Ultron responds simply.
"We don't have to break anything!" Thor exclaims.
"Clearly you've never made an omelet."
"He beat me by one second!" Stark exclaims, and you roll your eyes.
"Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark. It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" A young platinum blonde man asks, a short red haired woman by his side.
"This was never my life," Stark responds, and you can hear a touch of defensiveness in his voice.
"You two can still walk away from this," Steve says gently to the newcomers, and the red haired woman smiles.
"Oh, we will."
"I know you've suffered…" Steve tries again, but Ultron cuts him off.
"Ugh! Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but…"
"Then shut it," You snap. Ultron turns his head in your direction.
"And you, you're the worst of all of them. You play nice with the heroes but deep down you know you're a monster. And you willingly became a monster just because it was easier than fighting," Ice floods your veins at his words, each one stabbing at you, "You have no concept of what peace entails; you are chaos, pure and simple." Your lips curl into a politely disinterested smile while a bead of cold sweat cuts down your spine.
"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Thor cuts in, crossing his massive arms against his chest.
"I think you're confusing peace with quiet." Ulton counters.
"Yeah, uh-huh, what's the Vibranium for?" Stark demands.
"I'm glad that you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan!"
At his words the Iron Legion appear, opening fire on you. You jump into action on instinct, throwing yourself onto the back of the one firing at Steve. You wrap your legs around it to hang on; it attempts to reach around and grab you off as it flies into the air. You grab it's head between your hands and twist as hard as you can, snapping the metal head from it's shoulders. You kick away from the robot as it plummets, managing to catch the edge of the metal walkway and lob yourself back into the action.
While your body goes to work, your mind is spiraling. While Ultron was obviously a psychopath that needed to be taken out, he wasn't wrong about you. What were you playing at by hanging out with the Avengers? Pretending you were one of them. Pretending you could be one of them.
As you grab a metal leg and pull one of the Legion out of the air Steve's words echo in your mind. Maybe you could stay for awhile. Be a part of the team. You feel embarrassed to have even briefly considered the idea, but most of all you felt guilty. He was wrong to have let you into his life.
You feel a gust of wind and then something hits you in the mouth, splitting your lip. A microsecond later there's an unseen kick to the gut. You stagger backwards and catch a brief glimpse of the blonde man from earlier before he's gone. "Steve," You gasp into the comm, "Someone needs to take out the Tasmanian Devil."
"On it!" He responds, leaping up to your level. All you can hear is gunfire from down below, Klaue's men must have joined the fray.
"Steve, there!" A flash of white movies past you, and Steve knocks him down.
"Stay down kid!" He commands, and the two of you hop down into the action down below.
"Guys, is this a Code Green?" Bruce's voice crackles over the comm, but before you can respond one of the Iron Legion fires and hits a wall, sending rubble cascading down upon you.
A few feet away from you you see the red haired woman come up behind Thor, pressing her fingertips to his head before flitting away.
"Thor! Status?" Steve demands, coming to the two of you.
"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care. I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately I am mighty." Suddenly Thor's eyes go out of focus, and you feel a gentle caress against your temple.
The room around you dissolves and your eyes widen as you take in your new surroundings. There was no doubt in your mind as to where you were as you sagged against the unadorned white wall, the concrete cold against your back even through the layer of kevlar you wore. Your head was swimming and you fought against the confused fog. Images of a party flit through your mind, a woman mouths the word 'men' to you with a shake of her head, arm wrestling a muscled man and savoring the feeling of slamming his hand against the tabletop, laughing with a handsome blonde man-Steve-your head snaps back with the force of the thought. This wasn't real. You were free-fighting with the Avengers-you blink, that can't be right, can it?
Your fingers trail against the cold wall behind you. It feels solid. Real. You try to conjure up more memories of the party but nothing surfaces. The door across from you, almost invisible to the naked eye opens and he strides in, face blank as he shuts the door behind him.
"Soldier," Your chest tightens, "I don't-" A tall man, hammer clenched in his fist, "I don't understand what's going on," An older man with a goatee sits on a sofa across from you while cartoons drift across the screen of a television. Your head pounds harder with each memory.
"What's going on?" The Soldier asks blankly, taking another step towards you. You want to reach out and touch him, see if he feels as real as he looks but you can't tear your fingers from the wall.
"I-" You cut yourself off as you notice what you should have noticed immediately. The coldness in the eyes that are now fixed on yours. The stiffness of the posture. This was not your Soldier. Not right now.
"What's going on," He repeats, as a flash of a handsome dark haired man shoots through your mind with another wave of pain. Your hand finally leaves the wall, and it's halfway up to grab your head when your vision blurs and you stagger forward. You don't have time to react when the Soldier crosses the room in two large strides, but instead of catching you he grabs you by your throat, lifting you and crushing you against the wall.
"What's going on is you left me here," His fingers tighten, "Left me here to get wiped again-left me here to rot," The Soldier barks in your face, jaw clenched, you pry at the solid unrelenting metal of his fingers, trying to draw a breath as spots dance in front of your eyes. "You had a choice! Everything you did was of your own free will and yet you're the one who got their freedom? And they call me a monster. You don't deserve freedom. You don't deserve to live." He drops you and you hit the floor, your knees crying out in protest. You drag a handful of rapid breaths down your burning throat before he speaks again, "But you're back now, and you won't get away again." He opens the door and you see the armed guard just outside, "Prep her for the machine," He says without turning around, "We want her wiped and on ice within the hour."
"No," The cry rips itself from your throat but all that comes out is a pathetic rasp as the guard approaches you, "Please. I'll do whatever you want," You tell him in a desperate whisper, "You don't need to wipe me. I'll do whatever you want. I'll kill whoever you want."
"You will," The guard responds, his german accent thick in your ears, "After you're wiped and reprogrammed you will do exactly what we want."