Outside the QuinJet, Hulk, Spiderman and Ant-Man were still defending the aircraft, while HYDRA soldiers were once again coming from every corner. This time in larger groups.
"It's too much for us!" Ant-Man acknowledged, while he kept fighting.
Suddenly a large shockwave blew the soldiers away. Spiderman looked at the direction the shockwave came from and saw Daisy walking up. She let out a shockwave in every direction to clear out the area. After a while every soldier was defeated.
"Hey boys," she greeted them, as the area was clear.
Scott opened his helmet and looked amazed at her. He never saw such power coming from a woman. Spiderman just gave an awkward little wave. Hulk came up to her and let out some aggressive growling. Daisy became slightly intimidated by his size.
"Uhm…hey big guy."
Then she looked up at the sky as it turned into orange, meaning it was morning and a new day began.
"The sun is rising," she remarked.
Hulk stumbled away from the small group and transformed slowly back into Bruce Banner. Daisy was amazed by the transformation.
"Well, that was odd."
"Yeah, you'll get used to it," Scott reassured.
Bruce got wobbly on his feet as he rubbed the back of his head. Spiderman carefully walked up to him, to check if he's alright.
"Uhm…Mr. Dr. Banner Sir?"
Bruce let out a shriek when he got scared by the young boy's voice.
"Hey, it's okay! It's just me, Peter."
Bruce panted as he looked around. He saw defeated HYDRA soldiers lying unconscious on the ground.
"We won?" Bruce wondered as he can't remember what The Hulk did.
"Yeah, I guess so," Spiderman answered, but he was still unsure if more enemies would show up.
Suddenly they heard Bucky screaming. Quickly they ran into the QuinJet. What they saw was traumatic. Julia laid on the floor unconscious, with Sam laying his head on her chest and crying. Wanda was comforting him with Jemma, looking at the body in disbelief. Bucky was fighting out of Steve's hold towards Tony.
"Let me go, Steve!" Bucky yelled. "He needs to get his ass kicked for calling her HYDRA!"
"Bucky, stop! It has no use to fight," Steve tried to calm his friend. "Think about Julia!"
Bucky gave up his fight after he heard Julia's name while Steve kept on holding him firmly. His eyes went from fire to guilt as he gazed at her body from a distance. He just didn't want to believe she died again and Tony still thought she was a part of HYDRA.
Peter ripped off his mask and wanted to walk over to see his former classmate but Tony stopped him.
"It's better not to see this," Tony warned. "Too disturbing for youngsters."
"I want to see her," Peter said as tears welled up in his eyes.
"No, kid. Not going to happen," the billionaire shielded him. "Just for your protection."
Pepper felt sorry for the teenage boy and laid a hand on Tony's shoulder. Tony looked in the eyes of his beloved redhead.
"Let him say goodbye, Tony," Pepper gently pleaded.
With a disapproving sigh, Tony stepped aside. Pepper gently led Peter to Julia. Sam and Wanda moved aside to give them the space they needed. Peter was shocked to see her bloody and lifeless.
"Oh my…" he sobbed. "Julia?"
He knelt down and touched her cheek. He could feel her cold skin through the fabric of his suit. A tear went down his cheek as he felt his heart breaking. He couldn't believe his friend from Belgium was dead.
"Oh no," he started sobbing. "Please wake up."
Pepper gently embraced the saddened teen boy.
"She won't wake up, Peter. I'm sorry," Pepper whispered in his ear. "She was such a brave girl."
Sam walked over to Bucky who tried to stay calm in Steve's arms. Bucky's eyes were focused on the ground. Sam took Bucky's shoulders firmly in his hands.
"Listen to me," Sam said with a cracked voice. "I've been dumb, okay. I shouldn't have left her alone."
"Indeed. You shouldn't have," Bucky growled in answer, while he kept staring at the ground not wanting to look at Sam.
"I know and I'm sorry. I do want to tell you this. Julia was very determined about her own plan," Sam started explaining with guilt in his eyes. "There was something inside of me that didn't want to listen to her and bring her to the QuinJet for treatment and safety. And then there is this other side of me that wanted to let her go so she could do her own plan."
Bucky looked from the ground to Sam's face with angry as he listened to him
"I wish I had joined her in her own mission but she told us it was her duty alone. Once again, she risked her life for us, Bucky."
Bucky got himself out of Steve's grip and embraced Sam. Together they were mourning Julia's bravery and how it tragically ended. Steve could only let out a breath and mourned her death and his friends' sadness. He gazed at Madame HYDRA's dead body. While looking at it he just felt anger towards the whole terrorist organization.
Daisy joined Jemma, who still gazed at Julia while Peter was grieving. Her heart dropped when she saw the lifeless teenager. She knelt next to her co-worker.
"She was such a fighter and so brave," Jemma blurted, numbly. "She said she killed Whitehall."
"Did she kill him?" Daisy remarked amazed as she glanced at Jemma with large eyes.
Jemma could only nod. Daisy was amazed Julia was the one who killed HYDRA's powerful leader. She went to Julia's body and held her hand, to give her goodbye. Pepper and Peter gave her the space to grieve and took their place elsewhere in the aircraft.
"When did she pass away?" Daisy enquired, carefully.
"About a minute ago," Jemma answered after releasing a trembling, saddened breath while she got closer to her friend. "Sam did his best with a heart massage. But there was no option to save her with mouth to mouth because the collar was too tight and blocked her trachea. She couldn't breathe."
"Let me try something."
Daisy hoovered her hand above Julia's heart area and was ready to release a bit of her powers to start up her heart beating. Suddenly Wanda grabbed Daisy's wrist.
"No. Wait!"
"Wait? Why?" Daisy wondered, frustrated and confused.
Wanda laid her glowing hand on Julia's forehead to read her mind with her telepathic powers.
"She is meeting somebody."
"Meeting somebody? Who?" Jemma asked, blinking her eyes confused.
"The first person she saw after she was born," Wanda answered mysteriously.
Wilma Elslander was watching TV in her apartment in Belgium. She saw the images playing on screen but her mind didn't absorb what the characters were saying. She just stared tiredly at the object until her cell phone went off. She picked up with a hello, while gazing at the television.
"Agent Elslander, Director Fury here. I understand you had contact with Agent Coulson?" she heard him growling in her ear.
Her heart started to beat in her throat, afraid for what Director Nick Fury had to say to her. Elslander took a deep breath to calm down.
"Yes Sir. We had contact."
"Agent, you have no right to have contact with agents on the other side of the globe!"
"Sir, I…" Wilma tried to explain but got cut off.
"Is that clear?" he snarled in interruption.
"Yes, Sir," Wilma answered in a submissive tone.
"Good."
Wilma doubted her question but took the courage to ask it anyways. She eagerly wanted to know.
"Sir, I have a question." A silence at the other side. "Do you have news about my daughter?"
"Agent Elslander, it's not my or your duty to care about people of HYDRA."
Wilma had enough about him mentioning Julia being HYDRA.
"Sir, with all due respect. I believed Agent Coulson when he said my daughter is a victim of HYDRA. They have brainwashed her!"
Suddenly the connection got disconnected. With an annoyed sigh, Wilma slammed her cellphone into the couch next to her. She stood up and rushed to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and took out a bottle of white wine. After she filled the glass, she drank it all at once and poured a new one. While drinking she turned around to walk out of the kitchen. She saw somebody in the doorway. She dropped her glass in shock and it shattered into pieces.
"Julia?" she whispered in a stutter.
"Hey mom."
With tears in her eyes she wanted to embrace her daughter. Julia held up a hand to stop her.
"Don't."
Wilma stopped immediately. She looked over her child from top to toe. Julia was dressed in a full white dress. She looked like she had a healthy weight and her blond hair was thick and shining, the total opposite of when she saw her at The Playground.
"What happened?" Wilma asked. Millions of questions went through her mind.
"Things got out of control," Julia stammered. She fiddled nervously with her fingers, since she didn't know where to start. Wilma waited patiently till she began.
"I guess I screwed up. I brought people into danger," Julia started with a trembled voice. "The Sir. He changed. A lot."
Wilma sighed with mixed feelings. Sadness, relief, anger. Julia avoided Wilma's gaze by looking away.
"He tried to brainwash a woman. He's the man who…"
Julia stopped midsentence because she couldn't pronounce the word "dad" or even the name of the man who raised and abused her.
"…you know who," Julia continued as she couldn't finish her previous sentence.
She was even scared to finish what she wanted to share.
"I understand you, sweetheart," Wilma reassured her.
Julia closed her eyes as she remembered Pepper and Whitehall.
"I saw him doing things to that lady which were awful. He said he didn't do those actions to me because we were already family. He touched me as gently as he could when he was explaining to me why he did those thing to her."
Wilma sighed when Julia said Whitehall was her family. The mother couldn't believe he had manipulated her daughter so much.
Julia paused again. After a moment she huffed out a smile.
"You know what's funny?" she asked her mother as she looked at her.
"No," Wilma answered, before taking a deep breath. "Please. Tell me."
"You know that kind of collar that can prevent powers?"
Wilma nodded.
"Sometimes Madame HYDRA made me wear that thing so I couldn't use my powers during fights. But somehow it didn't work on me at that moment."
Wilma's forehead wrinkled as she stared at her daughter. She knew only the most powerful mutants and Inhumans could manipulate those collars.
"It was like a huge bubble of energy grew inside of me while The Sir was holding my face. I was scared because he held me with his bare hands," Julia continued sharing. "And then my powers exploded out of my body. It was terrifying. But then I saw memories between him and me."
Another small pause.
"I remembered. He tortured me as well, and threw me into that awful Memory Suppressing Machine so I would forget. He even watched me when…"
"Julia, that's enough," Wilma interrupted her.
The teen immediately stopped talking and shut her mouth tight. She even wondered if she shared too much information.
"Can you see now what kind of person Whitehall was?"
In silence Julia nodded. Her face turned red in embarrassment.
"So?"
"So he killed himself with my powers," Julia added. "And you know what? I almost killed Madame HYDRA while wearing that thing around my neck when she threatened Jemma and Tony Stark's girlfriend. What I didn't know was that she was very strong. She didn't even wince when the outburst happened."
"Oh my God, Julia," Wilma whispered with a trembling voice.
"But a bullet from Bucky's gun killed The Madame. Hell, even Jemma shot her."
Wilma was in severe disbelief about what she heard.
"That collar could kill you when you manipulate it."
"It did," Julia remarked with a smile. "It did kill me and you know what? I feel so much freedom right now."
Wilma shook her head as she couldn't believe what she said. She took a few steps backwards and turned around. She had to restrain herself by holding the kitchen counter to prevent herself from falling. She didn't want to understand that her daughter was happy that she died.
"Mom, think about it," Julia said. She walked closer to her mother when she noticed how upset she was. "This world would be so much better without me. For you, for SHIELD, for the Avengers. Even for HYDRA."
"How could you?" Wilma started crying.
"How could I? Mom, please! I bring everybody in danger when they're near me."
Suddenly Wilma grabbed a knife out of a knife block and stabbed Julia in her throat, all with closed eyes. After a moment Wilma opened her eyes and noticed the knife in her hand was her glass of wine. She even saw Julia was gone and there was no blood in sight. Wilma looked around, trying to realize what she just witnessed.
"What in the world…?"
A deadly silence in the QuinJet. Steve just lifted the aircraft into the sky, to fly back to the compound. Everybody sat in silence during the flight, all of them tired, and sad at how everything ended. The body of Madame HYDRA had been removed from the aircraft and left behind at HYDRA's facility. Daisy called another team of SHIELD to take out all the Terrigen Crystals out of the building.
They moved Julia back on the stretcher and Jemma cleaned her face of the blood. Bruce took care of Bucky's cut face, after looking after Sam's eyebrow. After the treatment, the former Winter Soldier joined Sam and sat by Julia's side, mourning her death. In silence they just stare at Julia.
"Sam?" Bucky mumbled, breaking the silence.
"Yes?"
A few seconds of another silence. Bucky tried to find his words while he gazed at Julia's calm face.
"How come you couldn't defeat that guy," he finally asked.
Sam bowed his head. He took a deep breath as he remembered the battle.
"We almost had him. Wanda had him pinned despite his powers until he had an opportunity to break free by exploding a wall. Just don't ask how it happened, we don't know. Everything went so fast."
Sam took a small pause before he continued. They kept on glaring at Julia.
"Then he zapped us with a stun-burst before we could attack him again. After that he blasted us out of the building. We got back within seconds, but he was gone."
Bucky could only mumble a curse after Sam finished explaining. Sam glanced at Bucky with guilt in his eyes.
"I'm sorry," Sam apologized.
Jemma investigated the collar, which was still around the teen's neck and activated.
"It's so weird it has no button to switch it off," she stated. She glanced on a small device in her hand from Madame HYDRA. "And it doesn't respond to this remote control."
"Because it's the remote of a control device in her back that would paralyze her in a spasm," Sam explained as he gave Jemma a little sack with the wire in it. "This was stuck in her spine. Wanda was able toremove it from her back with her powers."
Jemma investigated it while Daisy glanced over the doctor's shoulder. They had never seen this before.
"If you push the button of that remote, this wire takes over Julia's body completely. Causing her to have a severe, painful spasm, unable to move or even to breath," Sam continued his explanation.
"Oh my goodness," Jemma whispered as she was still examining the wire.
"Maybe I can find something inside the collar to turn it off," Scott suggested, out of the blue.
Jemma and Daisy shot him a quizzical look.
"What did you say again?" Jemma asked.
"With the help of my suit, I can shrink to ant-size," he explained. "So I can go into the collar and maybe turn it off, in some way."
Still confused, the two ladies glanced at each other and back at Scott.
"Well, you could try," Daisy said, suspicious about his ability.
Within seconds, Scott shrank to the size of an ant. He jumped onto Julia's shoulder and was able to crawl into the collar. Daisy and Jemma blinked their eyes in amazement.
"Scott, what do you see in there?" Sam asked over the comms.
Inside the collar Scott gazed at the many wires and scratched his helmet instead of his head, thinking where to start.
"It's like a jungle of wires in here. ! Just don't know where to start," hereplied.
"Just be careful in there," Steve added from behind the wheel.
"I do my best, Cap. I'll do everything for your friend."
Tony rolled his eyes in annoyance while shaking his head. Not wanting to believe they still wanted to save her life when she's HYDRA. Daisy noticed it.
"You are so disrespectful. You know that?" she remarked with an angry tone in her voice.
"Yes, I am disrespectful to HYDRA," he snapped back at her as he faced Daisy.
Bucky's patience ran out as he overheard their conversation.
"She's not HYDRA!" Bucky snapped and jumped at Tony to start a fight.
Tony quickly stood up from his seat and blasted him off with his hand laser.
"Bucky!" Sam called out, worried as he saw his friend being blasted away.
Bucky smacked against the wall of the aircraft, and collapsed on the floor with a grunt. The blast caused damage to his suit but didn't hurt him badly.
"Tony!" Pepper screamed out.
Steve quickly switched on the automatic pilot and stood up from his seat.
"Enough!" he exclaimed. "Bucky, control your anger. What would Julia think if she saw this?"
With angry eyes, Bucky looked at the Captain. Deep inside of him, he knew he was wrong for attacking Tony. He even thought that Julia would disapprove of it. With a deep breath he stood up and walked back to the stretcher, where he sat down next to Sam. He took Julia's hand in his and prayed for a miracle. Sam laid an arm around Bucky's shoulder as a comfort.
Wanda stood up from her place and went to the mourning men. She laid a glowing hand on Julia's forehead and started to read her mind.
"Tony, I understand you dislike her connection with HYDRA. May we remind you that she saved Pepper's life?" Sam tried to convince Tony.
"No she didn't," Tony snapped back.
"Tony, how many times do I have to tell you? She did save my life!" Pepper begged for Tony's belief. "And she saved me twice today!"
Tony went to his lover and cupped her face.
"Pep, once again. You are brainwashed. I'll get you the best counselor in the world to make you better."
"She is right," they heard Wanda. "Julia did save Pepper's life. I just saw it in her mind."
Jemma and Daisy again looked puzzled at each other.
"She has telepathic powers," Scott explained in the comms, as he could follow the conversation.
Then the two understood Wanda's previous actions, but they still were a bit suspicious.
Wanda stood up and went to Tony and Pepper.
"Be careful, Pep. She can haunt your mind."
"It's okay," Pepper reassured. "Please show me what you saw."
"Pep…" Tony started, but Pepper cut him off by holding her hand up, so he could stop talking.
Wanda hovered a glowing hand in front of Pepper's forehead. With closed eyes Pepper nodded, while a tear went down her cheek as she saw her vision. After a moment, Wanda removed her hand.
"All true," Pepper confirmed, as she wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye.
"What did you see?" Tony asked Pepper.
Pepper looked at him. Another tear went down her cheek.
"It's better to see it yourself."
Tony gazed at Wanda and allowed her to do her magic. In his mind he could see Pepper being captured, with Whitehall in front of her. He saw Julia shooting at HYDRA's security guards, Whitehall placing Julia on a chair and restraining her with leather belts. He saw Julia's powers taking over Whitehall and how Julia began releasing Pepper. Then he saw how Julia protected Pepper and Jemma from Madame HYDRA.
Tony blinked his eyes a few times when the vision was over. He glanced at Pepper.
"I'm sorry," he whispered to her.
They embraced each other.
"Do you want to believe us now, Tony?" Steve wondered.
"Just give me time," Tony mumbled. "I need to process it all."
"Understood," Steve accepted. "Scott, any news in there?"
A sigh in the comms.
"Not really something positive to say here," Scott admitted. "I've been eeny, meeny, miny, moeing a lot here because there are so many wires in here. I'm going to pull at wire number four now."
"Be careful there," Steve said in concern.
"Is this eeny, meeny, miny, moe a typical Avengers thing?" Daisy wondered aloud.
Then a buzzing sound appeared in the comms followed by a scream of Scott. The collar started beeping rapidly and gave out a shock that shook Julia's body. A tiny body got shot out of the necklace and hit the wall, leaving a miniscule dent. Scott enlarged himself into human-size and opened his helmet, as he laid on the floor.
"Okay, that hurts."
"What happened?" Bruce asked worriedly, as he went over to him for medical attention.
"Got shocked," Scott replied with a grunt as he sat up and removed his helmet to rub the back of his head.
Sam, Bucky, Jemma and Wanda gazed at Julia when the collar suddenly stopped beeping and the lights switched off. It opened itself and released her neck.
"You did it!" Jemma exclaimed happily.
Carefully she took the thing away. What they saw next was horrifying. Julia's neck was covered in severe bruises with every color you can imagine combined with a few fresh blisters from the electric shocks.
"Holy cow," Bucky whispered as he witnessed the injuries.
"It looks like her neck is broken," Sam noted as he looked at her neck.
"I believe so, when I look at those bruises and the shape of her neck. I need to make a scan just to be sure," Jemma acknowledged.
Wanda laid a glowing hand on Julia's forehead again. A smile appeared on her face as she looked at Bucky. He frowned his eyebrows.
"What?" he wondered.
"Sir, I detected a weak heartbeat on Miss Berger," FRIDAY suddenly informed the whole QuinJet.