Chapter 8: How to survive being stuck in a stimulation with a jerk

As the sun rose the next day, I yawned and looked back at Bucky and Skye. They were curled up against each other; Skye snuggled under Bucky's arms. I smiled and looked back out the window. The wind blew my hair slightly and my bow rested across my lap. I had an arrow notched just in case anything happened but I didn't think anything would on the first day. I surveyed the area, and started learning the layout of the city, and anything that would be important. I could see a large lake, but it seemed to be full of rubble which had come off what looked to be the remains of a monument; I wasn't entirely sure. It definitely wasn't something we'd looked at in Geography.

Once Skye and Bucky woke up, we decided to go look for food. I'd spotted a small supermarket around 2 blocks away; the only problem was it was quite near Luke's camp. For that reason I suggested we went round past Gambit's camp.

"What the hell Alexis? They're our enemies; they'll blow us sky high as soon as we get near them." Bucky argued. I sighed.

"They won't. Trust me on this one." I was trying to avoid explaining the deal me and Gambit had made.

"Alexis, he's got a point." Skye sided with Bucky from the corner of the room, where she was leaning against the wall, gun holstered on her leg. She'd chosen that as her weapon and Bucky had chosen a sniper rifle. I was the only one who'd chosen another weapon as their extra.

"Before we left, I made a deal with Gambit; if he leaves us alone, we'll leave them alone. That means we can safely go through their camp, alright?" I slung my bow onto my back, and walked out. Just as I got to the stairs I heard footsteps behind me.

"You did what? Why did you do that? You didn't even ask us!" Skye sounded furious as she grabbed onto my sleeve and pulled me round. Bucky stood behind her, arms folded, looking as if he was her bodyguard.

"I was thinking for the team. Its three less people to worry about and it means there are more areas that we can go through."

"You still should have asked us. We're a team, not Alexis and her band of merry men." Bucky said, frowning.

I glared at them. "I was trying to help the team. If you have a problem, feel free to go off on your own. I can look after myself." I yanked my arm out of her grasp and ran down the flight of stairs. Once I was about 3 floors off the ground, I just jumped out one of the windows which had its glass blown out. I was furious. I landed in a crouch and looked up. Skye was leaning out one of the windows, looking at me but when she saw me looking she pulled back quickly. I got up and began to jog lightly. I looked around quickly and got my bearings; I took a right then ran along until I reached the street where Gambit's team had set up camp; as I passed a street sign I looked up and saw it said "W86th Street". I was obviously in an American city, from before the Fall, as we'd looked at 'Time before The Fall' in History. My teacher better be proud that I'd remembered something. I reached an intersection with what a sign told me was "Amsterdam Ave" so I took a quick right then went into a café called 'Barney Greengrass' which I'd seen Gambit go into. As I walked in, a bell jingled and I quickly pulled my knife out. I dropped down behind a table, and shuffled along until I reached the counter. I slowly rose but as soon as my head got slightly above the counter, I heard a click and felt cold steel against my forehead.

"Drop the knife." A low male voice commanded and I slowly put the knife on the floor. As I did, I reached back with my other hand towards my bow. As soon as the knife touched the floor, I swung the bow round, notching an arrow in the process and stood up, arrow aimed at the gunman. It was Jonathan. As soon as he saw the bow, he dropped the gun and it clattered on the floor. A quick glance showed it wasn't even loaded.

"I, I, I'm sorry. Gambit said if anyone ca-"

"Anyone but her you idiot." A voice rang out from the kitchen and Gambit walked in, drying his hands on a towel. The towel was stained red. My eyes opened wide, and he looked down at his hands.

"Don't worry, I didn't kill anyone. Can you lower your bow please princess? I'm not going to hurt you."

I continued to glare at him, but slowly lowered my bow. Jonathan breathed a sigh of what seemed to be relief so I quirked an eyebrow at him. He mumbled something and went scuttling into the kitchen. I snorted and shook my head slightly. I sheathed my bow and picked up my knife. I also picked up the gun and threw it to Gambit, who caught it perfectly.

"So what brings you here princess? Where are your little friends?" He leaned casually against the counter, placing the gun on top of it. I sat down at one of the tables, throwing my knife up and catching it while managing not to hurt myself.

"I wanted to go get food from a supermarket up that way" I nodded my head in the direction of the supermarket, "and I suggested we go through this way because Luke's claimed that bit of area. Bucky and Skye weren't happy about it and when they found out that we had a truce they had a go at me. I told them I didn't need them and then came here."

"Don't you care about what could happen to them? They're your team; you have to look after each other."

"Look, I came here for help getting food, but if I'm not going to get any, I'm going to go in by myself, Luke or no Luke." I shoved the chair back, it squealed against the floor, and I stood up, heading for the door.

"Princess, I didn't mean it like that. I'll help, just wait for a night." He called out just as I was going through the door. I stopped, half in, half out. I stared across the street at the derelict pharmacy which didn't seem to hold any actual drugs.

"Why do you call me princess?" I said, still looking out the door.

"You're like the princess of all the people in this stupid program. You're just so regal I-" As soon as he says it I walk out.

I walk up the middle of the abandoned street, cars turned upside down and smashed. The whole city looked as if it has been attacked by a race of space creatures. I thought about a tale from before the Fall which my father used to read me about this team of superheroes who saved the world from the evil Loki and his race of Chitauri. I used to get him to read it to me every night, so I knew it off by heart. I used to wish I'd been one of those superheroes. My favourites were Black Widow and Hawkeye, and it was because of them I learned archery and how to fight.

"Alexis wait!" Gambit called out but I kept walking. Then something hit me in the back of the leg and it went from under me, causing me to fall. I landed on my knees and cursed under my breath; I didn't need any injuries already. I slowly got up and brushed my knees off; I'd grazed them at the most. I looked and saw it was a playing card that had hit me and I picked it up to examine; it seemed to be made of some form of flexible but strong metal. I spun round to throw at Gambit but he was standing right behind me; he plucked the card out of my hand and added it back to the pack he was holding in his hands.

"Thank you. Now, do you want my help or not? We had a deal." I looked him in the eyes and found, to my surprise, that his eyes were red, not a hazel as I'd first thought.

"Fine, but stop calling me princess. I'm not one, I never wanted to be here and I want to get this over with as soon as I can." I stepped round him and headed back to the café. He had a large stick he'd obviously picked up somewhere strapped to his back and had a knife tucked into his combat boots. When we got back, he headed straight to the kitchen and I followed him. Jonathan was in there, rummaging in the cupboards. I silently came back behind him and shouted "boo!" causing him to hit his head on the cupboard. I laughed, as did Gambit, and then pushed myself up onto the counter. Jonathan pulled his head out of the cupboard and glared at me, I just smirked at him. I looked around the kitchen and noticed someone was missing.

"Where's Lee?" I asked. Gambit and Jonathan looked at each other, as if debating on telling me. Jonathan gave a nod.

"Luke killed him last night. We were ambushed by his team and Thor's last night. We got out but Lee didn't". Gambit looked down at his hands, as if looking for blood on his hands.

"I'm so sorry. How about I team up with you guys for a bit? It won't do you any harm to have the highest rated fighter with you will it?"

"I suppose it won't, will it Gambit?" Jonathan said.

"Nah. So what's the plan for tonight princess?" He drawled and I threw my knife at him, which he only just managed to avoid again.

"What did I tell you about calling me that?" I growled poisonously.

"Well get used to, it's starting to become a habit." Jonathan laughed at him, so I picked up the knife on the bench next to me and threw at him as well. He didn't manage to dodge it nearly as well as Gambit and it pinned him to the wall by his top. He stopped laughing. I grinned.

"Now where were we? Ah yes, tonight. How about one of goes and scouts out the others camp and distracts them while the other two go and get as much as we can from the supermarket?"

"That sounds good except for the splitting up part. I'm not okay with that." Gambit said, slipping out from under the knife and pulling it out from the wall. He flicked the blade back into the handle then came over and gave it to me, so I put it in my boot, in a similar fashion to him. He pulled out his pack of cards and began shuffling them.

"Well what do you suggest then?"

"There's a line of speakers on the wall outside, if we managed to program a recording to play along them, we can distract them and sneak round the other side."

"One problem Gambit, we don't have a computer tech." Jonathan spoke up from where he was still pinned to the wall, although he was valiantly trying to pull it out. I snorted and they both looked at me.

"Wiring up the speakers is the easiest thing ever to do. You should know that Jonathan considering how many times I did it at school."

Gambit threw a slight smile at me before going over to Jonathan and pulling the knife out. "Sounds good to me princess, how long will it take?"

"About 10 minutes, but I still want to scout out their camp. If we want to take them, we need to have an idea what we're up against."

"You're not going on your own." Gambit said forcefully, moving towards me so he was right in front of me.

"Why not?" I challenged him. "If I wanted a handler I would have stayed with Bucky and Skye."

"They're dangerous. Luke wants your blood. I can't let that happen." He said the last bit so softly that even I struggled to hear him. He reached up and wrapped his finger round a piece of my hair, and I froze. I didn't know what to do. As suddenly as he got in my face, he let go of my hair, stepped back and walked to the other side of the room. He let his long hair flop in front of his face so all I could see was his mouth.

"Jonathan, you stay here. Alexis and I will go scout. If anyone comes, shoot the hell out of them. Got it?"

"And make sure it's loaded this time." I piped up as I jumped off the counter. At least someone had my back if Gambit came, although I wasn't entirely used to someone having my back.

We went out through the back door in the kitchen and ran across the street. I went through a door next to the pharmacy labelled "Roof stairwell." I raced Gambit up the stairs, laughing and joking and pushing each other out the way. By the time we got to the top we were exhausted. We burst through the door to the roof and fell to the floor panting.

"I think I won that." I said, grinning at Gambit. He shook his head.

"No it was a draw." He heaved. Suddenly we heard the thud of boots on the roof, and we scrambled to our feet and hid behind a vent. It was Adrienne and Peter marching around the roof.

"I think they're patrolling." Gambit whispered to me. I nodded. As they marched past us, we held our breath and listened in.

"Luke did well catching those suck ups. I don't see how they got a 2nd and 4th without their precious Alexis." Adrienne gloated. I looked at Gambit, shocked and concerned. They had Bucky and Skye. Peter looked uncomfortable.

"She's really not that bad." He said. Adrienne glared at him.

"Do you want to end up with the rest of the prisoners tassel?"

"N. I don't!" Peter stuttered and Adrienne gave him a shark-like smile, baring all her teeth.

"Well shut up then and get moving."

They started marching towards 87th, so Gambit and I ran, keeping our bodies low, towards the intersection between 86th and Broadway where we would get the best view over where Luke was camped out, in another café called "café 86". We had a good view inside and in some ways I wish I couldn't.

Skye and Bucky were tied to two café chairs, back to back and were soaked in blood. Luke asked Skye something, leaning towards her face, and she jerked out at him, nearly head butting him. He obviously didn't like what she said, and he slapped her across the face. As he pulled his hand away, I realized he hadn't slapped her; he'd slashed her face with a knife. I could hear her scream from the rooftop. I pulled my bow off my back, got into a crouch and prepared to shoot him, but Gambit stopped me.

"Don't do it. Not yet. There's a layer of glass and he might move at any second. Don't risk it. Make it up close and personal; make it so he begs for death. Make him pay." I slowly put my bow down and rested my head on my knee. I felt Gambit's hand on my back.

"Let's go. We need to change our plan." I got up and walked straight into Adrienne. She had her gun pointing straight at me.

"Well look who turned up. Won't Luke be pleased with you?" She took one step towards me before something flashed across my sight and she stopped suddenly. She put her hands to her throat and it came away covered in blood. She coughed then fell to her knees, gurgling and choking. I looked at Gambit and saw he had his playing cards in his hands. He shrugged at me. I looked back down at her and saw she was dead, her blue eyes wide open, gazing murderously at me. What Gambit didn't realize is that outside the stimulation she was also dead. My gut turned over and I felt sick. I looked over and saw Peter hiding behind another vent. I walked over to him and he shuffled back, scared for his life.

"We won't kill you Peter, as long as you don't tell Luke you've seen us alright." He nodded nervously, still shuffling. "Go then." He scrambled quickly to his feet and began to run across the roof, occasionally looking back at me and Gambit. I walked back to Adrienne's body, where Gambit was pulling the card out of her throat. He whipped it on the floor then shuffled it back into the pack. It splattered blood onto every card it touched. I looked back down at her body. She seemed a lot younger when she was dead, only around 14. I knelt down and pulled her eyelids down, crossed her arms across her chest and whispered, "Réquiem ætérnam dona ei Dómine; et lux perpétua lúceat ei . Requiéscat in pace." It was the prayer that the vicar had said at my mother's supposed funeral. I picked up her gun and tucked it into my belt then walked back towards 'Barney's', Gambit silently walking next to me. We walked slowly down the stairs, the world in a morbid still. As we exited, I stopped at the door, causing Gambit to walk into me.

"Princess, why did you stop?" He asked.

"Look at the floor." I whispered and he looked down over my head. Scrawled on the floor was a message in blood.

You take one of my men, I take one of yours. Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth

"Jonathan." We both said at the same time and ran into the café kitchen. Jonathan was hanging from the ceiling by a noose and his eyes had been gouged out. His throat had also been slit. The knife used to cut his throat was in his hands. There was a pool of blood underneath.

Drip, drip, drip.

Gambit gagged and ran out into the street retching. I took a deep breath to calm myself, pulled out my knife and began to cut Jonathan down. When I got down the last few fibres, his weight broke them and he fell to the floor with a thud. I untied the rope from around his neck, getting blood all over my hands, then grabbed a towel and tied it over his eyes.

"Gambit, you can come back in. He's down now." After a moment, the light into the room was cut off by his long, lanky body casting a shadow. He stayed in the doorway as I went to the sink and washed of my hands.

"What are we going to do?" Gambit asked, pointedly not looking at the body.

"We're going to avenge him." I said coldly. The sink was stained red.

I said the same prayer over Jonathan's body as I did over Adrienne's, then took his gun then gave it to Gambit. I also took the knife and cleaned it off. If I got the chance, I would kill Luke with it. I attached it to my belt then looked at Gambit. He was kneeling over Jonathan, and kissed his index and middle finger of his right hand to his lips, then pressed them to the centre of Jonathan's forehead. It was a Society death custom. I waited patiently until he stood up, tears dripping round his face. His face was full of grief, and a thirst for vengeance.

"Let's go kill the irrumator. I will make him regret he was ever born." Gambit looked like a dark avenging angel, his dark hair framing his pale face, and red eyes standing out.

"Let's go then. Shall we just storm the place?" I asked, tying my hair up as we walked out the door. I didn't want it loose while I was fighting.

"No. I'll take the front and you take the back. Try and get to Skye and Bucky, and I'll deal with Luke and his lackey's."

"You sure? I thought you didn't want to split up."

"We don't have a choice now. Ready?" He glanced at me briefly and I nodded. We split up and I snuck round the back. There were two guards, but I took them out easily by going behind them and slitting their throats as they weren't paying attention. I opened the door, biting my lip to stop myself cursing when it squealed slightly. I went into the storeroom, which was only lit by the light from the door. I got to the door which led into the main café, and opened it slightly. I could see Luke and someone from Thor's team, Flash I think his name was, standing in front of Skye and Bucky, while everyone else seemed to be out the front fighting Gambit. I rolled forward so I was behind the counter and notched an arrow. I shuffled to the edge of the counter, and lent my head round slightly. Both of them were looking the other way. Skye looked barely conscious whereas Bucky was fully out. I stood up quickly and fired an arrow; it struck Flash dead centre through his heart before he realized what happened. Before he had struck the floor, dead, I'd already notched another arrow and aimed it at Luke, who had pulled a gun.

"So you didn't learn from the little message I left you then?" Luke asked cockily, although it seemed to be a rhetorical question.

"Put the gun down Luke. I'm not afraid to shoot you." I said calmly, although I was shaking inside. I would do what I had to do, even if it meant killing him.

"Put the gun down? Well I will then." As he lowered the gun, he pulled the trigger but nothing hit me. I was confused, until I heard a small yelp. Blood was spilling out from Skye's chest.

"No!" I cried out while letting the arrow go. It hit Luke right between the eyes. I didn't even look to see if I'd hit him. I ran over to Skye, who was sobbing quietly. Her head was beginning to droop.

"Skye, Skye look at me. Skye!" I screamed, as her head hit her chest. I slapped her lightly but got no response. I pulled her head to my chest, sobbing as I rocked her as if I was lulling her to sleep.

I let go of her head and pull out my knife. I stood up and stalked over to Luke's body and began to violently stab him. I didn't care that he was dead; he was going to pay for what he did. By the time Gambit came in around 10 minutes later, I'd finished mauling Luke's body and was kneeling there, sobbing while holding the knife to my chest.

"Alexis what happened?" Gambit said, concerned as he came over to me, putting his arm around my back.

"He..He..He killed her!" I sobbed quietly. He pulled me into him, and I lent my head against his chest. We both let our grief go for those who had died. Then Bucky began to wake up.

"Skye" he mumbled, groggily. He looked at me. "Alexis, what happened?" I look at him and begin crying again. He turns his head and looks at Skye.

"Skye, wake up." He nudges her with his hands. "Skye come on, wake up."

I stand up and go to cut him free. As soon as he can, he stands up and goes round to Skye and shakes her by the shoulders.

"Bucky, I'm sorry but she's dead." I tell him as I cut her hands free. He stares at me.

"No she can't be." He shakes her some more."

"I'm sorry but she is." Gambit says, coming over. I lift her shirt and show him the bullet hole.

"Wait, no, what?" Bucky looks from me, to Skye. It finally sinks in. He tries to choke down a sob but fails. I go to comfort him but he won't let me.

"This is all your fault! If you hadn't left us she would still be alive!" He shouts at me, and goes to fight me. I turn and run, out the door, along the streets as far as I can go.

Everyone died because of me.

A/N warned you it was gruesome. I'm sorry I killed her off, but I need something to happen. This is the longest chapter I've written, like ever.

The death prayer in English is: Eternal rest grant unto him/her, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon him/her .May he/she rest in peace.

To be helpful, I'll give you a list of the dead (God that's morbid). It includes all those who died fighting Gambit out front:

Lee

Adrienne

Jonathan

Skye

Flash

Daniel (both of them)