The jet was full of a deafening silence. Bruce was on the floor wrapped in a blanket, looking totally broken from his own experience of Wanda, Steve was leaning against the wall with his eyes shut, trying to catch his breath and still confused over the night's events; Thor was pacing up and down, also struggling to comprehend; Natasha was completely broken and staring into space and Ashley was sitting well away from everyone with her knees pulled to her chest whilst hot, regretful tears streamed down her face.

When she came round again after Wanda's vision, the first thing she laid eyes on was Steve's injury. She knew she did it because she distantly remembered doing it and, even though she was aware that it was down to mind manipulation, she was still absolutely disgusted in herself for hurting the man that she loved. It was almost like everyone else had left their demons in the scrapyard, but hers had followed her out as a reminder on her boyfriend's leg.

"The news is loving you guys," Maria spoke to them over the comms. "Shame nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest but…as you can imagine, it's in the air." Christie glanced over at Stark and the both of them exchanged similar looks of mild concern. "How's the team?"

"We uh…we certainly took a hit," Tony muttered out awkwardly . "We'll…we'll shake it off." Christie shook her head and bit the insides of her cheeks uncomfortably. She wasn't so sure about this one. It felt different.

It felt final.

Before long the jet landed amidst a field, so everyone got up and got out. Clint was helping a limping Natasha, and Christie was doing the same to a weak Ashley. Steve still hadn't even spoken to her yet, but that didn't matter because she couldn't even look at him.

The house they were entering was huge, comfy and beautiful. "Honey? I'm home!" Clint called out, as he led the entire team into the living room area.

"Honey?" both Steve and Tony repeated simultaneously. A pretty friendly faced brunette woman emerged from somewhere - and she was heavily pregnant. "This is an agent of some kind," Tony murmured to Christie who rolled her eyes, sharply elbowed his side and said nothing back.

"Guys? This is Laura," Clint told them all with a smile. "Laura…"

"I know all your names," Laura beamed back. Suddenly, the pattering sound of running feet came storming through the house and two kids popped out of nowhere, crashing directly into Clint whilst saying,

"Daddyy!"

"Daddy?" Bruce and Thor repeated this time, equally as bemused as Steve and Tony.

"These are just…smaller agents…" Tony mused.

"Did you bring Aunty Nat with you?" the youngest girl Olivia lisped excitedly. Natasha's face lit up at the mention of her name and she side stepped over to her.

"When doesn't he?!" she giggled, swinging the young girl up and pressing a kiss to her soft cheeks. Olivia giggled in her arms and squeezed her tightly, before noticing Christie behind her too.

"Aunty C!" she grinned once she was put back down again, rushing over to her too. Christie fell to her knees and opened her arms with a gasp, enveloping Olivia in a hug and pressing a quick kiss to the top of her head.

"Hi Agent O! You look so grown, what has your mother been feeding you?" Christie giggled, tickling her lightly in her armpit as her sweet giggles filled the room. Ashley looked down at her sister with this kid, both still in shock over the child existing in the first place and, on top of that, shocked that Christie could be so motherly.

It's like her infamously hard exterior just melted away.

"You and Aunty Nat have to see my room, we just painted it," Olivia lisped sweetly, taking Christie's hand and pulling her away without hesitation.

"Oooh! Sounds dun," Christie hummed excitedly, allowing herself to be dragged out of the living room by her pair of tiny hands. She glanced behind her, and noticed that Natasha hadn't yet budged. "Ummm Aunty Nat, Agent O has requested our presence?"

"Yeah…I'll be there shortly," Natasha promised her them both with a small smile. She was clearly still trying to compose herself from the shock of everything that had just happened - as was everyone.

An hour or so later, Olivia and Christie were painting together in her bedroom using Olivia's brand new paints. "Aunty C, Daddy told me you went to a magical land called Asgard. Is that true?" Olivia hummed, wetting another thin paintbrush in her little pot. Christie's breath hitched in her throat for a split second at the mention of her old temporary home - but she covered it swiftly.

This certainly wasn't the time to freak out.

"I did, for once your daddy isn't lying," she confirmed with risen brows. Olivia's little mouth formed into an 'o' shape and her doe eyes went wide in wonder.

"Woah. What kind of animals did you see in Asgard? I wanna be a vet when I grow up - I'd be a good vet," Olivia hummed as she reached across for the sky blue paint.

"You'd be a great vet. Hmm, what kinds of animals you say…" Christie repeated with a thoughtful frown. Then she remembered - how could she forget her own pets? "Oh! There were these HUGE black cats, and when I say huge I mean they really huge, like-"

"Like…like a panther?" Olivia crinkled her little freckled nose.

"Yes! Just like a panther but they're called storkatts. They're beautiful and they have lovely shiny fur, but they prefer to be indoors instead of outdoors and they're super friendly to humans. They don't like to eat meat and they sleep alllll day!" Christie explained, running the black paint across the paper as she lovingly thought of them both. "I have two of them at home. Thor…the big guy with the red cape…? Yeah, he's from Asgard and he brought them back for me when they were smaller."

"Wowwww…what're they called? Oh! Can I have one please? Can ya buy me one from Asgard?!" Olivia grinned excitedly, showing off her little teeth.

"They're called Inky and Smudge," Christie answered, returning her smile. "And I don't know about you owning one sweetheart, we'll have check with your mum." Suddenly, interrupting their conversation, came a quiet knock at the door - so Christie reached her slender arm up to pull it open. Standing there true to her word was Natasha, now looking completely refreshed. "Oh look Agent O - Aunty Nat has finally joined us," Christie raised both eyebrows, shuffling aside so that she could come in.

"Sorry sweetie, your Aunty Nat had to go shower," Natasha beamed down at Olivia as she settled herself down on the comfortable cushioned floor. "What are we doing here - pictures?"

"Yeah! Aunty C already did this one, it's a butterfly - so now I'm doing the caterpillar and we'll stick them on my wall," Olivia announced proudly as she held up her half finished picture.

"Yup! Now, I'm gonna give you some alone time with Aunty Nat, so I'll see you later angel," Christie kissed the top of Olivia's head again and hopped to her feet. But Natasha mirrored her movements so that she and Christie were facing each other, well out of earshot. "Have you spoken to Steve or Ash?" she mumbled to her. Natasha shook her head.

"Last time I checked Steve was out back chopping some wood with Stark - but I haven't seen Ash since we arrived," she answered lowly. Christie sucked in her cheeks and nodded, leaving Natasha to sit back down with Olivia as she rushed out to the field surrounding the house. True to her word, Steve was out there still chopping away, his biceps bulging with each and every swing.

"Rogers?" Christie called out as she made her way through the thick blades of grass over to him. Steve glanced up. "Have you spoken to Ashley?"

"No. Not since the scrapyard incident - in fact she's barely looked my way," he answered shortly, resting on the axe handle.

"I mean it's understandable, she's probably embarrassed. You know she didn't mean to hurt you, right?" Christie clarified, getting a little closer to him. "That Maximoff girl got into her head as well as yours."

"I know, I know," Steve nodded with a short sigh, "I never had any doubt about her intentions, you could tell she wasn't with it. None of us were." Christie breathed out in relief, glad that Steve still had some sense left in him. Now all she had to do was convey that to Ashley before she assumed things too quickly, something she tended to do often.

"So…w-what did you see when she got into your head?" Christie asked him quietly, cocking her head to one side. Steve put down the axe and sat himself down on the tree stump, burying his face in his hands.

"I saw…someone from my past. Peggy, her name was," he answered quietly. Christie said nothing - she knew who that was all too well. "She…was telling me that I could…'come home'."

"What?" Christie let out a short laugh of disbelief. "What the hell does that mean?"

"I don't know, Christie," Steve sighed heavily, taking his hands away from his face to look up at her. "But there was something about her that was drawing me to do as she said. It was…weird."

"Sounds bizarre," came a cold voice from behind them, causing them both to spin round immediately. There stood Ashley, with a face like death and a long cardigan draped over her body. Her eyes were hollow. Steve hopped to his feet and opened his mouth to say something, but Ashley got there first. "I…I am so, sorry for burning you, Steve."

"Ash, don't apologise - it's not like you did it on purpose," Steve frowned as if it were obvious, taking a step closer to her.

But, to both his and Christie's surprise - she just took a step back.

"Yeah well I'm sorry regardless. I promised myself that I'd never hurt you but I did. I did hurt you in the worst possible way," Ashley mumbled, her voice trembling. Christie squinted over at Ashley's face, noticing something odd about her eyes. They hadn't returned back to their normal colour yet - and that was never a good sign. "I'm…I'm gonna go now."

"Go where?" both Christie and Steve demanded simultaneously. "Inside?" Christie blinked.

"No. Anywhere but here," Ashley answered thickly, as a thin layer blood steadily began to pool in her left eye. Christie's breath hitched in her throat and Steve's fists clenched. "Steve, you deserve someone like Peggy. Pepper told me about Peggy ages ago. You were besotted - and you deserve someone that won't hurt you-"

"Ashley, Peggy literally tried to shoot me…twice," Steve pointed out in confusion, taking yet another step towards her.

But Ashley still wasn't listening and simply took yet another step back.

"I'm going," she decided as she dropped her gaze. It was like she was ashamed of something, as if she was getting told off. But ironically, she was the one telling herself off. "I love you, I love you both. But I can't deal with this right now. I'm still on the edge, I'm still dangerous, my hands feel hot. So I'll go and cool off somewhere and then when I'm better, I'll come back. I promise. I will. I'll go back to the tower." Before either one of them could try and change her mind, Ashley had already whirled the tornado around her, lifted herself into the sky and carried herself away, leaving Christie and Steve to stare at each other in the deafening silence she left behind, completely bewildered.

"Great," Steve eventually muttered out, shaking his head as he stared into the sky. "Where did that come from? She's never…mentioned Peggy before."

"Yeah, she's definitely still under, or at least still recovering" Christie groaned as she stressfully ran her fingers through her hair. "I could see it in her eyes, she hasn't snapped out of this thing yet. Whatever she saw, it set her back a good few paces because that's not the same Ashley we know."

"But it took her so long to get out of that self destructive stage in the first damn place," Steve remembered in utter annoyance. He really didn't like that familiar feeling of dread that was building up inside of him. "Chris…"

"Steve, she'll be fine," Christie assured him quietly as she looked up into the sky. "She promised she'll come back, and she always keeps her promises."

…

That evening, Christie burst her way back into the Avengers Tower, panting as she skidded over the polished floor tiles. It was somewhat empty, the lights were all off and she could hear the echoing of her own footsteps. There was a commotion coming from somewhere above her in the building, but she didn't care - the group could sort that out without her since they'd all arrived together.

She just desperately needed to get to Ashley and Steve's level, just to make sure that she was safe at least, because now she was feeling uncertain.

The elevator was still down and the staircase felt endless. It honestly felt as if it was leading her nowhere. But she got to the right floor eventually, and burst open the apartment door without so much as considering the level of damage she was making. "Ash?" she called out in a panic, slamming the lights on so that she could see. The apartment lit up and Lady Bucky came to the door, meowing her little heart out. "Heyyy there Lady Buck," Christie murmured with a frown as she bent down to pet her. "Where's your mama?"

That's when Christie saw it - something that she wasn't expecting whatsoever.

Lady Bucky's paw prints were a disturbingly bloody red, and they practically lit up on the white carpet beneath her feet. "Oh god, no," Christie breathed shakily, standing up straight and following the paw prints. She ended up staggering into the bedroom, which was freezing cold. She slammed on the light again and froze, almost heaving at the sight that she was met with in front of her. The glass door from the bedroom to the balcony had been completely smashed in and there was a fresh pool of blood slowly staining the floor. The room was an absolute mess - the light fixture was swinging from the ceiling, the walls had signs of distress and struggle on them, the bedsheets had been blown all over the place - it all looked like a complete disaster had broken out. Ashley's belongings were still in the room and her clothes were untouched; even her phone was on the bedside table - so she had actually come back.

But somebody had clearly met her on arrival.

Christie tried to bite back her tears as she ran back out of the apartment floor and dashed back up the glass staircase to where the rest of the team were now standing, with, to her surprise, the Maximoff twins beside them.

"3 minutes - get what you need," Steve was telling them all.

"Steve!" Christie blurted out, feeling the hot tears run down her cheeks but not caring enough to wipe them away. Steve frowned and immediately made his way over to her, dreading whatever was going to come out of her mouth. "S-someone's t-t-t-taken Ashley," she sobbed.

Now she had gained the attention from everyone else in the room as well.

"What?" Steve whispered hollowly, his face going pale.

"Someone broke into your floor, there's b-blood everywhere your windows are smashed in. She clearly put up a fight but she's gone," Christie rambled out, her hands shaking uncontrollably as she lifted them to the back of her head.

"Well we gotta find her," Tony was the first one to mutter, clearly more panic stricken than anyone else, "someone's gotta find her!"

"But this current mission is huge, who's gonna go looking NOW?" Bruce pointed out fairly. They had literally just established that Ultron was going to destroy the world - it would be extremely risky for anyone to tap out.

"I-I'll have to do it," Christie spoke up numbly. "You guys go and get this done, I'm gonna…at least start the search. You're fighting robots, so there's not much I can do anyway - it's not like you'll be missing me much." Steve still found himself unable to talk, but just gave her one solid nod.

"Alright, good luck, Whitey. Take one of the Quinjets if it gets you around better. Keep us updated and please…stay alive," Tony told her with a comforting nod before rushing to get ready with Bruce and Thor behind him. Christie ran her tongue over her lips for a few quiet seconds before casually glancing around the room, still attempting to compose herself before having to fly an entire plane. Her eyes swiftly landed on both Wanda and Pietro - and she immediately saw this as the perfect opportunity. She began to storm towards them but Steve quickly got in the way.

"Steve," Christie muttered, quickly pushing him out of the way. "It's fine. I just have to ask the girl a question." Wanda stepped forwards in slight uncertainty, correctly assuming the question was for her. Christie took a few calming breaths in through her nose. "What…did you see in my sister's head?" she asked her coldly.

"Blood," Wanda spoke shakily, remembering it all too well. "So much blood. Everywhere, it was in a…supermarket. It was only a flash, so that's all I saw. I couldn't bear to look at the rest." Christie bit down on both her lips and nodded, turning away from her and beginning to walk off again as her hands continued to tremble.

That was the exact confirmation that she was afraid of.

"If I had known she was a mutant - I wouldn't have done it. I swear!" Wanda suddenly called after her. Christie stopped walking and turned her head to glance at her over her shoulder.

"I believe you," she told her quietly, before continuing her walk on out to the Quinjets pads.

But Steve raced after her before she could fully disappear out of the building.

"Wait, Chris?" he panted. Christie stopped walking yet again and turned around completely. "Please…you gotta find her. And when you do, tell her I…tell her I love her and that I'm sorry." Christie bit back her tears and nodded again, unable to say anything else to him.

Honestly, she had no idea if she would be able to tell her that, because she had no idea if she would actually find her in the first place.

Where could she even begin?