The next morning, the entire team met up with each other once again, redressed and refocussed. Christie had turned up on time, true to her word, and silently leaned against the wall as the warm colours of sunlight streamed through the wide tower windows. She hadn't spoken to anyone since arriving - she didn't want to speak to anyone, in fact. She didn't even look at anyone and nobody dared speak to her either - especially not Tony. She was standing there by herself fiddling with her hands, counting to five over and over and over again in her head. She felt so incredibly uneasy - she hated it, she hated it so much. She hadn't felt peace in a while now.
She was exhausted.
Steve strode back into the room with a tablet and passed it over to Thor. "What's this?" Thor frowned as he took it from him.
"A message," Steve answered briskly as Thor slammed the tablet straight into Tony's chest instead, "Ultron killed Strucker." Ashley craned her neck to glance over Tony's shoulder and her eyebrows shot up at the violent image in front of them.
"As he said…how dramatic," she murmured. But she was still somewhat relieved. If Strucker was the one after all the mutants then…didn't that mean she was safe?
"Andddd he left some artwork at the crime scene, just for us. Sweet," Tony mused with his eyebrows furrowed.
"This must be a smokescreen - why bother going through all of that when you've just given an entire monologue?" Natasha pointed out from where she sat.
"He knew something about Strucker that he didn't want us to know," Steve concluded.
"Great. In that case, I bet any money he…" Natasha trailed off, hearing a sudden little beep from her computer. "Ah, yep! Everything we had on Strucker has been totally erased."
"Not everything," Christie suddenly spoke up, causing everyone to suddenly stare at her in surprise, some of them only just realising she was standing there in the first place. She glanced up at them with boredom lingering in her eyes. "I mean, there was a world before the digital age, guys."
"You're right. The physical paper files," Steve nodded in agreement. "Tony?"
"Downstairs," Tony sighed as he picked his tablet back up again.
"I'll go get 'em," Christie mumbled to the group as she heaved herself off the wall and began to leave. Everyone gave Tony a look as if to say 'GO!', so he quickly put down the tablet and scurried after her.
"Whitey, w-wait!" he called out as she speedily started making her way down the glass steps. She rolled her eyes at the sound of his voice but stopped walking and waited for him to catch up anyway. "Listen, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for letting you down like this, alright? I swear I didn't mean to-"
"Nobody ever means to let someone down, Stark," Christie spoke awkwardly with her eyes still focussed on her trembling hands. "I don't…I don't doubt that you had the best of intentions w—"
"I swear, I did. I was freaked out - I'm still freaked out from the whole…aliens in New York fiasco," Tony admitted in embarrassment. Christie decided to look up at him properly then. He sounded genuinely…vulnerable. As if this was a deep rooted fear and that he never wanted to share it. "I never ever wanna experience something like that again, so I thought that creating Ultron-"
"You'd think that after the countless iRobot-like films that this world continues to churn out, you'd understand that AI is just never a good idea," Christie frowned a little playfully with her eyebrows narrowed together. Tony's shoulders dropped in defeat and Christie felt a little guilty then. "But I have to say - that's…not what I was upset about. Your Ultron theory… okay, it's far fetched but it kinda makes sense. But the sceptre itself, Tony, you-"
"Shouldn't have tampered with it, I know. I'm sorry. You told me and I should've listened for once," Tony apologised honestly. Christie looked into his those deep mahogany eyes of his and took a few seconds to consider his apology, before nodding reluctantly.
"It's fine. I'm sorry for exploding like- actually no, I'm not. You deserved that," she hummed before spinning on her heel and continuing to make her way to where the files were held.
…
The team made it to the Salvage Yard shortly after figuring out where Ultron was via Tony's satellite brilliance. They were suited up and honestly, expecting the worst…and they were right to do so.
"Alright listen up - Christie, Barton, Nat, you can deal with the humans or anyone on ground," Steve ran through the plan as the Quinjet landed at a safe distance. "Myself, Tony and Thor can deal with Ultron, and Ash…?" He turned to his girlfriend who was busy tying back her wavy locks, running her tongue over her bottom lip in worry, her mind completely unfocussed. She glanced up at Steve after hearing her name, awaiting further instructions. "You can tackle the mutants…is that okay?"
"I'll try my very best," she answered him quietly, shooting him an uneasy smile. Steve clenched his jaw and nodded in confirmation.
"That's all we ask. Everybody stay alert and stay focussed - particularly with the fast guy, we need to be extra vigilant," Steve told them all with an encouraging nod, before they all left the jet together.
Within minutes, Tony, Thor and Steve were standing in a trio on the floor whilst the others had taken positions around the large rust covered space. Ashley swiftly laid eyes on the two that she knew must've been the mutant twins and felt her mouth run dry. How she was going to deal with the mind manipulator without getting herself or anyone else hurt, she had no idea - particularly as she knew that her powers might well be needed elsewhere if an influx of robots were to pop up out of nowhere.
Christie and Natasha took the hallways, Clint took the level above and Ashley took the one below as Tony confronted Ultron - until Ultron struck him out of nowhere and sparked everyone into action. Tony and Ultron were wizzing through the air going head to head when suddenly, just as Ashley expected, an influx of other robots came to his assistance. Pietro zoomed straight into Thor which sent him flying, so Steve decided to make his way over to Wanda - but she used her powers to keep him away.
Ashley took a shaky breath out, nervously waiting for the right moment to strike. And that was when the soldiers popped up with their machine guns and Christie, Natasha and Clint got to work. Three soldiers approached Christie with their guns raised. "Oh come on," she muttered to herself, slide tackling one so that he fell, quickly using his body as a bowling pin to knock the rest down. She swiftly whipped out her gun and took them all out - but left one alive for a small interrogation, which she knew she shouldn't technically be doing.
But who was going to check her at this point?
She knelt on his chest to pin him down and grabbed his collar with one hand, whilst dropping the pistol and replacing it with her rugged dagger instead. "Where's the sceptre?" she hissed in his face, tugging his collar closer towards her.
"T-the what?" the guy spluttered out in fear. He had an extremely thick accent. "I don't know what you're talking about?! We're not even working f-f-or the robot, there was NO deal!"
"Brilliant. Then you're useless to me," Christie breathed, before swiftly running her dagger along his neck and killing him with ease before chucking his body back down violently, letting him bleed out. Steve's voice suddenly cracked through the earpiece.
"Thor, status?" he was asking in a rush.
"The girl tried to warp my mind," Thor responded with a frown. Ashley's head snapped up from where she was still taking down a handful of soldiers singlehandedly, having almost forgotten about the dangerous twin. "Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay-"
"Ash?" Steve called out, flinging his shield so that it scattered a number of oncoming enemies. "Your time!"
"Ya, just gimme one second baby!" Ashley shouted back, blasting fire straight out of her palms straight into the face of another soldier. She pelted wind jets straight from her feet which sent her directly into the air, but the bullets were still relentlessly whizzing through the air in her direction, and from the blue wispy flashes that she saw dashing around the corridors, she knew the mutants were getting down to work too. "Ohhh screw this," she hissed, clapping her hands together and creating an explosion which scattered the soldiers closest to her everywhere, an instant kill. "I do love that one," she hummed to herself proudly. She briefly glanced behind her to see Christie standing on another level with her pistols raised, and knew exactly what she had to do. She quickly made her way over to her in a panic, landing right in front of her and facing her direction. But she suddenly noticed Wanda begin to creep up on her from behind her back. "NO!" Ashley shouted, using her fire blasts to propel her forwards and shoving Christie out the way, almost instantaneously taking her spot instead.
Christie dropped onto the floor in a heap as a result. She gingerly lifted her head, wincing at the sudden ache taking over her body, but gasped once she saw Wanda manipulate Ashley's mind instead of hers.
"Oh you absolute b*tch," she hissed, reaching to her hip for her pistol - but Clint got there before she could. He slammed one of his live electrocution arrows into Wanda's forehead, stinging her and causing her to drop straight onto the floor in a fit.
"Mind controllers - gotta hate them," Clint muttered as they watched her fall. Christie leapt up after a few pending seconds of shock and rushed over to Ashley who was standing there with wide eyes in a daze. Her bottle green eyes were glossing over and she was gently swaying from side to side - something was clearly happening to her and it didn't look good.
"Oh god oh god oh god," Christie groaned, rapidly tapping Ashley's cheek with her index finger, the hits getting harder and harder the less response she had back. "Ash, come on, please snap out of it."
But Ashley wasn't budging, neither was she responding.
Ashley enters the supermarket, the atmosphere around her is deadly silent. Her footsteps click across the floor. Rubble is coating the polished tiles, pools of blood in each aisle like a spilled jar of pasta sauce, the light fixtures are hanging off the ceiling. There are people at the checkouts, people in each aisle - but they aren't alive. They are standing corpses. Hollowed out eyes and bleeding mouths, limbs twisted and tattered clothes. The stench is unbearable. Every step that Ashley takes - they are watching her intently.
Nobody is speaking, and if they are, not a single sound is coming out.
"F*ck. She's not with us at all," Christie murmured to Clint, still slapping her sister's reddened cheek a little harder this time. "Ashley come ON! Snap out of it! Plea-"
"Ashley Darmer," comes the sudden crackling noise through the supermarket tannoy system. "Ashley Darmer, we want you to hand yourself in."
"NO!" Ashley screams, beginning to take uncertain steps back again. "NO, PLEASE! I'm sorry, I didn't know! I didn't mean to-"
"Whitey, she's startin' to shake," Clint frowned, forcing Ashley down by her shoulders. She was trembling and her eyes were beginning to flicker and roll to the back of her head…this really wasn't good.
"Sh*t," Christie hissed, placing a knee into her chest instead to try and keep her still. She turned to Barton with wide eyes as it suddenly dawned on her what could possibly happen within the next minute. "Clint, you have to find the rest of the team and clear out, there's a good chance that this isn't going to end well-"
"ASHLEY! This is HYDRA! We told you we'd get you," comes the taunting voice that Ashley recognises from behind her. Ashley turns her head worriedly, anxious about who she'll see…and the figure becomes clear. It's the doctor, with the bullet holes that Rogue inflicted still freshly in his chest, and he's limping towards her with a sloppy grin. "Weee toldddd youuu," he sings hauntingly.
"Please! Please don't make me do this," Ashley begs, feeling her heart begin to race and her palms begin to sweat. "Please, please-"
Christie watched in horror as Ashley's suddenly eyes flew open again, but her pupils weren't the same glinting bottle green that she knew them to be. They were swirling with an awful deep red, and they still weren't quite focussed. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" she suddenly barked, using powerful air blasts to send Christie flying onto the floor again. She landed across the floor with another grunt.
"F*ck. Don't do this Ashley," she panted across to her sister firmly, "you're not in trouble! It's all in your head. You're safe!"
"I didn't mean to do it," Ashley told her with a heart wrenching sob, the blood beginning to pool in her eyes, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do it!" Christie stared at her in a mixture of confusion and worry.
"Come on Ashley, come back to us," the doctor continues to lure her closer. Deep clotted blood is dripping out of his mouth.
"Please, Ash, oh god please snap out of it," Christie begged, watching a small tornado begin to swirl at Ashley's feet.
Here she goes.
"It's me, it's Christie! I'm your sister!"
Ashley stares frozen in horror at the doctor holding a 5 year old Christie by her neck with one hand, and pressing a scalpel against her pale skin with the other. "Come with us, or your sister gets it in the neck."
"NO! Please let her go!" Ashley shouts, her salty tears running into her mouth. "Please!"
"Let who go, Ash? Nobody has me! Ashley this is just a bad dream, c'mon! WAKE THE F*CK UP!" Christie continued to plead loudly, still not backing down despite the fact that she couldn't physically reach her anymore and her voice was croaking. But it was as if Ashley couldn't even hear her - she wasn't even looking her way. She had turned her head and was manoeuvring her way to someone else that she had spotted on another level, and Christie had no idea who it was - until she had a disturbing revelation. "Barton," she panted speedily into the earpiece. "Please tell me you've taken all of the team out of the premises?"
"I've got Tasha, you might have to get Thor out - but I haven't got…"
"Steve!" Ashley hollered, hovering directly above him with sparking hot flames engulfing her hands. Steve was still on the floor, only just coming back around from his own mental manipulation spell. "Steve, I'm not gonna let them hurt you!"
"Ash?" Steve panted weakly, trying to look at her properly even though he still couldn't see in general. "Ashley? Wha-"
"Steve, it's okay," Ashley hyperventilates, watching the doctor pin him down in front of her. "He's not gonna touch you!"
She flicks the fire into her palm and blasts it directly at the doctor, completely-
"ASHLEY! STEVE'S HURT, WATER JETS, NOW!" Christie screeched as loudly as she could muster from somewhere around behind her. The desperate tone and high pitch of her voice immediately brought Ashley back to earth, and without knowing what she was meant to be aiming at, she blindly blasted water jets straight out of her hands in front of her before clanging straight onto the metal floor in an unconscious heap. This gave the perfect opportunity for Christie and Clint to skid across the floor to Steve, who now had a raw burn mark on his leg. Ashley had diffused the flame with her water jets before fainting, so it wasn't that bad - but it easily could've been. "Oh god, Steve," Christie sniffed sadly as Clint skidded over to prop him up against the wall. Christie yanked out her dagger and sliced open the leg of his suit from the ankle upwards to see what effect the burn had left on his skin.
"How does it look?" Clint winced quickly, not bearing to look himself. "Is it bad?"
"No ya big baby, she just got the skin but it's not that deep….I guess she put it out just in time. We need to get him to the jet as soon as possible, though - we can recuperate properly there," Christie replied shakily, slipping the dagger back into her belt with trembling hands. "Steve, we're gonna get you back to the jet, alright? When I say 'we', I mean Clint. I'll…go and get Ashley. This is gonna break her when she realises what she's done."