Project Extremis was a long and slow process.
Aubrey hadn't truly understood how difficult it would be until she was counting down the sessions until they would be done. Before each injection, Killian would give them some sort of motivational speech, as if it would erase the pain they were about to endure. It never helped. It only made Aubrey grow to resent him... even though he had given her the gift of unimagineable power and the ability to walk again, he didn't truly understand the pain she was going through to achieve it.
They would spend the weeks in between each injection training their powers and learning how to regulate their destructive temperatures. They had lost someone early on in the trials from not being able to control the heat within... which only led to more strict training regimens. Aubrey realized quickly that she was receiving more sessions than the others. While most people in her cohort only needed to practice twice a week, she was being trained nearly every day. Not just to regulate her abilities, but to use them too. Use them to kill.
During the training sessions, Aubrey had never felt so alive. In a way, it was helpful in her healing process. During times when she would have been in her room, remembering Raza's face as she beat him to death, she was in the gym, slamming her fists into punching bags and using her hands to burn through metal. It made her feel strong... unstoppable.
With each passing week, Aubrey learned more and more of what she was capable of. The ability to heal was obviously the most jarring of her new gifts and she sometimes still stumbled over her new leg in the mornings, forgetting that it had grown back. Then, she learned more about her ability to control her body's internal temperature. At first, she only practiced increasing the heat coming from different parts of her body. Pressing her hand into a wooden table would cause it to catch fire, or focusing on her feet would burn scorch marks into the ground. But with practice and more injections, her powers grew. She could now evaporate a glass of water in seconds or cause the entire room to heat up to the point of needing to evacuate. Killian helped her hone this power, to control it... to use it to destroy rather than manage. Among these powers, Aubrey also found she was stronger, faster, as if the Extremis virus had healed any weakness in her.
When all phases of the project came to an end, it wasn't only that Aubrey felt strong, but she felt able to take on Tony Stark - even as Iron Man.
"Not yet."
Aubrey flinched as she stared at Killian. She had just told him her thoughts - that now that the serum had taken effect and she'd had months of training, she felt ready to attack. It had now been close to eight months since she left Afghanistan and she'd had a chance to heal both mentally and physically. She was no longer having panic attacks daily and most nights, she was able to sleep without any nightmares. But, the remnants of her trauma were still there; Aubrey still struggled in closed spaces, and found with most men, she was coming up with ways to kill them in her head before they could do the same to her. While the other people in her cohort had bonded and found comfort in their shared experience, Aubrey remained withdrawn. She was different from them - they had joined the project to heal, while she joined for revenge.
"Why not?" Aubrey asked, staring at Killian from her bed. He was standing on the opposite side of the room, leaving a large gap between her and the open door.
Killian's face softened. "I know how much Stark hurt you and how much this means to you, but we need to monitor you. To make sure the virus remains stable before we move forward with our plan."
Aubrey felt her heart rate spike. No... that wasn't the plan. "You said we were free to go after the final phase of Extremis finished. It's been two weeks, Killian. Why the hell am I still here?"
Killian held his hands up innocently. "Yes, yes, I did say that. But think about it, Aubrey. It's not going to be easy going up against Iron Man. I'm not monitoring you because I think Extremis could be dangerous in this state. But what about when you're in the heat of battle and your heart rate is up and Extremis is trying to both heal and fight at the same time? We have no idea what that would look like or how to control it. We need more training. We need to push you to your max, and only once we've learned what you can truly do, will we move in on Tony."
His words were logical. When Aubrey was an intern, she wouldn't merely sign off on a project once the missile was built. It took months of testing and tweaking before they would deem a project complete. But still, something about the situation frustrated Aubrey. "I've been watching the news, Killian. Tony's suit is becoming more advanced."
Aubrey had been glued to the screen when she saw the news coverage of Iron Man faced against a man with his own weapons - electric whips that nearly rivaled Tony's own suit. Of course, as the story progressed and she learned about Tony fighting an army of drones, she also saw the improvements he'd made since the last time she saw the suit. While Aubrey was growing stronger every day, so was Iron Man. She couldn't let him get too powerful or else he'd be able to defeat her, even with her new abilities.
Killian leveled his gaze with her. "Two months. That's all I'm asking here. We can test your abilities over the next two months and make sure you're ready. After that, it's up to you. I'm not going to keep you here against your will."
Aubrey stared at him, looking for the signs of a lie. She had to remind herself that her goals were aligned with Killian's... he wouldn't sabotage his own revenge if he felt she was ready. "Fine. Two months and I'm leaving."
When Miller heard back from Joel months later, he did a double-take at the name on his phone. He hadn't forgotten about his request to his old high school pal, but he had begun to lose hope.
He'd returned to his home in Dallas only last month, and his focus was on his family rather than finding the lost girl. He'd tried a few Google searches, but none of them were too handy when he only had the name 'Aubrey' to go off of. But if Joel was calling him, that meant he must have found something, right? When he asked Miller to meet up for coffee, he felt hope for the first time since he last saw the girl.
Miller waited at the coffee shop, impatiently tapping his foot and checking the time. Joel wasn't yet late, but he was still annoyed Joel wasn't early. This was important. Finding Aubrey was important.
When Miller spotted Joel walking into the door, he pushed himself to his feet, waving him down. When he saw the massive binder in his hand, Miller's smile dropped. It must have been the size of an encylopedia. "What the hell is that, man?"
Joel let out a bark of laughter. He tossed the binder onto the table. It landed with a loud thump. "This is what months of research looks like, Bobby."
Miller slowly sat down, still eyeing the binder. "There can't be that many missing girls named Aubrey."
Joel patted the binder affectionately, coming to sit down opposite of his old friends. "You'd be surprised, my friend. I had students and new recruits search the databases for all missing girls named Aubrey and Audrey in the past ten years. I also had a friend in the RCMP send me the same for Canada. We did some basic filtering - removing all girls who weren't Caucasian or who had obvious recognizable features that you would have noticed. Face tattoos, over six foot five, you get it. Of course, we filtered out all girls who were found to be dead, but I left in the ones presumed dead. The situation's just so damn bizarre I wouldn't be surprised if there was a conspiracy somewhere in there."
Miller looked down at the binder in shock. But, there was a seed of hope when he looked at the binder. Aubrey - his Aubrey - had to be in there. As Miller began to flip through the pages, Joel added, "It's organized in most to least probable of being the girl you saw."
Miller nodded, quickly scanning the pages. Each case consisted of about three to ten pages of information of the girls whereabouts, the description of their last sighting, and a digital rendering of what they'd look like now. Some of the girls looked similar, maybe having wide eyes or red hair, but so far, none of them were her. "Is that what you think or what your students think?"
"I mean, I taught them, so both, I suppose," Joel mused. "There were a few leads we followed after your call; girls who matched the description you gave. A fifteen year old who was last seen being followed by two men. A twenty year old engineering intern who was written off as running off to party in Miami."
"And what happened with those leads?" Miller asked, still scanning the photos of the missing girls.
"The teenager turned up a few months later. Apparently, one of those men was her boyfriend and she finally decided to return home after they broke up. Makes me sick to my stomach if you ask me. The other one's body was found in a river after heavy rainfall," Joel explained.
Miller looked up, frowning. Aubrey went off with the mad scientist - if anything he'd expect her body to wash up that way. If the body was found after she left the military camp, could that be his girl? He opened his mouth to ask, but Joel beat him to the punch.
"Her body had been decomposing in the river for nine months. It wasn't your Aubrey," he explained. "We took into account your timeline of events when we did our search. Any girl that could have died after you phoned me would be in that binder. Anyone who could be your missing girl is in that binder."
As Miller continued to flip through the binder, skipping past any of the girls who clearly weren't the one he met in Afghanistan, they remained in silence. Most of the girls didn't resemble his Aubrey, but it wasn't lost on him how horrific it was that all of these girls were missing, if not dead. There were a few who he paused on, dog-earing their pages for later. Most were children when they went missing, and looked like they could have aged into the girl he met in Afghanistan. By the time he flipped through the book, he had flagged just four girls. While some of the others resembled Aubrey, he knew in his gut they weren't her.
Joel then pulled out the pages of the girls he'd flagged and laid them out on the table. The first was a sixteen year old girl from New York who had gone missing on a trip to Mexico two years ago. The second was a ten year old girl who wandered off while hiking through Yosemite with her parents six years ago. The third, an eight year old girl who was seen being forced into a white van ten years ago. And finally, a twenty three year old who never made it home from work three years ago. None of them had any connection to Afghanistan, but it was a start.
"Our next step is to connect you with a sketch artist to give your best description of the girl you saw. We'll find more photos of the girls to send to you in the meantime and have you rule out any of them if you can. We'll match up timelines, look into the evidence, see what we can do with what we have on hand. Then, if you still think they could be a match, we'll talk with the lead detectives on those cases and potentially the family members," Joel explained. "It's a bit of a convoluted system, since we're trying to match a vague description to a missing girl."
"I get it," Miller said. "I'll call up a few of my military buddies who might be able to help out with the sketch artist. I also had a look through the camera footage of when we brought her in and I have this."
Miller handed Joel his phone, who was glaring at him with narrowed eyes. "You had body-cam footage and you didn't think to mention it before I spent nearly eight months looking through missing persons cases?"
"Look at the footage before you say anything," Miller snapped gruffly.
The footage wasn't from a body-cam, but rather taken from the Humvee they'd been driving in when they first saw her, and then some security footage from the base camp. The footage was almost useless, but Miller would give anything to Joel that he thought could help. From the first grainy clip, Joel watched a body drop from the front seat of a Humvee, landing roughly on the ground. He didn't see much from it, other than a flash of ginger hair and noted how malnourished the girl appeared. The second clip was taken later in the day, when the men carried her to the Medic. Once again, her face was mostly covered, but he saw gruesome wounds on her body. The sight of her leg made his stomach churn. The final clip, taken from the same angle as the second, was the girl using crutches to hobble off site. She was surrounded by men, not military, but security guards. Joel squinted at the footage. "What's in her hand?"
Miller shrugged slightly. "She had a helmet with her when we found her... looked almost like a welding mask. She took it with her when she left."
Joel paused the video. It was the closest he'd gotten to a clear image of her, but the quality didn't pick up her features, and she was only facing the camera for a brief second. But... there was something unsettling about her face. Her eyes were wide, like Miller described, but almost as if she were forcing them open to make sure she could see everything at all times. There were dark bags under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept in months. Her temples had wasted away and now caved in, and her cheeks, which should have been full and youthful, were sunken. She looked... harrowed.
Joel's eyes flitted to the helmet in her hand. While he didn't recognize the girl, the helmet sparked something in the back of his mind. "Send me this footage."
"You got it," Miller agreed as he took his phone back from his old friend. "Hey man, I really appreciate you doing this."
Joel shrugged, "It's good practice for the students." He paused. "I saw her face from that footage. I get why you feel like you need to help her."
Miller nodded once, looking at his hands. "The video doesn't do it justice. If you saw her, if you heard her speak... God, I can't even imagine what happened to her. Some of these terrorist organizations are pure fucking evil, man. They cut off her leg. She was so screwed up in the head by the time she got to us, she couldn't sort out reality from delusion. She'd wake up most days, screaming about whoever held her hostage. We pieced a few things together... this girl, whoever she is, was forced to do horrible things while held captive. We think she must have killed at least one person while escaping. She couldn't tell us where she came from or how she ended up there."
Joel nodded slowly. As a cop, he'd seen and heard some of the most horrific stories imagineable. But still, most paled in comparison to the war crimes committed overseas. He'd heard of people having limbs hacked off by the Taliban, but it always seemed so distant and disconnected to him. Now, helping Miller look for this girl made him realize just how fucked up it all was. "Is there anything she said that might help us out?"
Miller shrugged, letting out a breath. "Not much. She never spoke of her family or what happened to her at that camp. Her nightmares and delusions would mix with reality and the most we learned about her was during one of her nightmares." Joel continued to stare at the man, so he thought back, at the most meaningless details. He began to list off facts. "She mentioned the name Yinsen. She begged someone not to leave her. She hated when I called her 'kid' or 'girl.' But when we asked what we should call her, she'd say she was a ghost. She..." he broke off in a laugh, "She thought Tony Stark cut off her leg."
Joel's eyebrow shot up. "The Tony Stark?"
"Th' one and only," Miller confirmed. He waited for a moment, expecting Joel to say something or even laugh like Miller did.
Instead, Joel just cocked his head slightly and said, "Hm."
While Miller might not have seen the connection immediately, Joel did. But it was too early - far too early - to speak of the conspiracy forming in his head. Instead, he said his goodbyes to his old friend, promising to look into the handful of girls Miller had flagged for him. Which, he would... or at least, a student would. Joel would focus on the idea forming in his head, an idea so crazy he almost wouldn't believe it himself.
Aubrey expected the other people in her group - the others who received Extremis alongside her - would leave after receiving the serum. The phases were complete. Their injuries were healed. They were free.
Only, it turned out differently than she had expected. In the weeks following the end of the Extremis Project, when Killian and Maya were busy recruiting new people for the next cohort, only four of the original nine surviving subjects left the base. In the weeks that followed, Aubrey heard that one returned back to the camp, unable to fit in with the world with their new gifts.
Like her, the others were focused on honing their abilities, claiming they didn't want to leave too early. Most of them were already military, and with the serum, were more similar to super soldiers like Captain America than regular people. Whether it was their intention or not, Maya and Killian were building an army of soldier's with incredible powers, who felt they fit in nowhere except with them. Aubrey told herself she was different, special, because of her connection with Killian, but she wondered how many of the others felt that way.
Every day, Aubrey woke up, counting down the days until she planned on leaving. She kept her head to the ground, training harder than she ever had before, pushing her body to the limits as she trained. Even with their military background, Aubrey was beginning to surpass the others in her abilities. She wasn't skilled in her fighting style - hell, she was still learning how to throw a punch - but her use of her Extremis powers were unmatched. She was better at controlling the heat, turning it up at the right times and knowing how to keep hot without burning out.
During the days, she trained, but at night, she planned. Killian had provided Aubrey with blueprints of Tony's Malibu home... or at least what they had gathered from videos of one of Tony's infamous parties. She knew he had a workshop and an underground garage that weren't included on the blueprints. Still, she was able to use the blueprints as a guide to plan her attack. She knew two things: first, that she had to attack while he was at home - in the place he felt safest. It would be harder to bypass J.A.R.V.I.S and it would leave her with less room for error. But if she wasn't able to kill him, she'd still succeed in making him feel unsafe in his own home. The second thing she knew was that she had to attack before he could get into his Iron Man suit. The last Aubrey had seen, Tony carried it in a portable briefcase that he was able to step into within seconds. She just had to make sure he never got close enough.
It was the final week before Killian had agreed to let her go and Aubrey was antsy to leave. Killian had been helping her plan the attack, but his attention was often diverted back to the next trials of Extremis. With only a few more days ago, Aubrey was walking down the hall to Killian's room to discuss her plans when she felt the ground shake.
BOOM!
Aubrey flew forward, scraping her hands and knees on the ground as she landed. Dust shook from the ceiling and a ringing filled her ears. Wherever the blast had come from, it had originated from inside the compound. The entire building was built to withstand a bomb; there was no way a single blast could shake the entire building unless it happened from within.
The ringing faded away almost instantly as her body quickly healed itself from the explosion, but something else was shaken free from her. No longer was she in A.I.M's compound, but rather Raza's cave. She was back in that place, with a piece of shrapnel in her leg, begging Tony not to cut off her leg. Despite having her leg back for weeks now, fully healed, she could still feel that sharp pain tearing through her flesh and piercing her bones.
"Snap out of it," a voice hissed at her. Only a second later, she realized it was hers.
Her heart was pounding in her chest and she felt like she could hardly breathe, but Aubrey was able to look around the room. Red flashing lights filled the hallway as the dust remained suspended in the air. She could hear people screaming and crying from somewhere in the building, but she couldn't place where it was coming from. In her daze, she was able to pull herself to her feet and begin hobbling down the hall. A second later, Aubrey remembered that she was able to use her left leg and tentatively placed weight on it. When her leg held, she picked up her pace.
As Aubrey ran down the hall, with each flashing light, she was momentarily brought back to that place. One second she was in the hallway, and the next she she was running through Raza's cave with a gun in her hand and Tony's thundering footsteps ahead of her. Still, she pressed on. The months of peace had done her well, eased the terror felt on a daily basis and kept her strong in the moment.
Aubrey passed by some of the other subjects as she ran down the halls. As it turned out, she wasn't the only one with PTSD. Aubrey didn't stop to console them; she was too focused on making her escape. The more distance Aubrey put between herself and the lower levels of the compound, the more the air seemed to clear. Whatever had happened had occurred in the deepest parts of base.
When Aubrey finally exited the building, she saw a group already forming. Maya, Killian, and two of the other subjects were all safe and surrounded by a handful of scientists and security guards. Aubrey noted that no firetrucks or police had shown up yet - shouldn't they have arrived by now?
"What's going on?" Aubrey asked as she ran up to the group. Maya was pale, shaking badly while Killian looked stressed as he rubbed his temples.
"There's been an explosion," one of the subjects said blandly.
"Yeah, no shit," Aubrey snapped. "What caused the explosion?"
"We think it was-" Maya's voice was harshly interrupted by Killian whirling on her.
"Maya, enough!" he snarled. Aubrey flinched back, eyes wide. She had never heard Killian like that; there was something he was hiding. Aubrey wasn't about to allow herself to be lied to. She sidestepped in front of Maya, her eyes burning and an orange glow pulsating under her skin. Aubrey grabbed Killian by the shoulders, pushing him away from the woman.
She had barely touched him before the others were on her, dragging her away. "Let go of me!" Aubrey snapped, ripping her arms away. She whirled on the others - two men named McKinnon and Tyler - and shoved them back. They let her step back, but formed a protective barrier in front of Killian.
At once, Aubrey understood. While Killian had been training Aubrey to hone her powers and become powerful enough to kill Tony, he had slowly been manipulating the other subjects into being his loyal soldiers. To them, Killian was the god that granted them their gifts. But, he had also isolated them enough from the outside world that there was no one who would understand them. Even though they had been given the power to go back to a normal life, Killian had taken away the chance to do so. Aubrey was just like them - she had fallen right into his trap.
"Hey, calm down everyone," Maya said in a soothing voice. She placed a gentle hand on Aubrey, but she flinched away from the touch. "We're all experiencing heightened emotions right now. All that matters is there's still people in that building that we need to get out. Security is already doing a sweep to make sure it's safe before we can enter again."
Killian seemed to have regained his composure, nodding along with the woman. "Maya's right. Now, I won't force anyone to go back in, but you're the only ones who can do so without as high a risk. We're still missing the rest of the participants and at least three on our development team."
"We'll handle it," McKinnon said confidently. He shared a knowing look with Tyler, before turning back to the building and making their way inside. Aubrey just stared at them - why were they so willing to go back in just because Killian gently suggested it?
"Aubrey?" Maya urged. She lightly touched Aubrey's hand, but she once again ripped it away. A second later, Aubrey realized it wasn't another comforting touch, but Maya had slipped a piece of paper in her hand.
"Fine," Aubrey finally said. Whatever was on that paper, she couldn't read it in front of Killian. She'd have to go back in, whether she wanted to or not. Under Killian's watchful gaze, Aubrey turned and followed the others into the crumbling building. However, once she was out of Killian's sight, she stopped to look at whatever Maya had slipped to her.
At first, Aubrey didn't realize what it was. It looked like a research paper discussing the use of Extremis for regeneration, though it was only a single page of what was likely a thesis. She quickly scanned the page before her eyes landed on what Maya had meant for her to see.
While Extremis holds the key to unlocking regeneration and advanced healing in individuals, there are multiple limitations to the treatment. Of note, the Extremis serum appears to be highly addictive in those with a past or family history of substance use disorders. Use of Extremis outside of its recommended dosage results in increased risk of severe hyperthermia and combustion. Furthermore, while the risk of self-combustion can be managed through a strict selective process when choosing participants, it can never be entirely eliminated. Of the 23 participants, there have been a total of 7 deaths secondary to Extremis initiation, and 4 cases of participants developing addictions to Extremis injections. Unfortunately, all participants who developed addictive behaviours died from self-combustion within six months of the trial conclusion. These combustion events are fatal to those within a 100m radius of the blast site.
Aubrey read the paragraph once more to make sure she was seeing it right. She had known about the risks of Extremis when she first received the serum; she had been told from the start that Extremis was volatile and potentially dangerous. But Killian had told her of only two deaths. He had lied to convince her to take the serum. He had lied to force Aubrey to become one of his soldiers - because he wanted her to do his dirty work. Everyone here was simply a pawn in Killian's game until he got what he wanted. Even if Aubrey killed Tony, Killian would never let her go free.
Finally, the realization of what it meant to hold that paper settled on Aubrey. Maya had given it to her, knowing it was too dangerous to say the truth out loud. But Maya hadn't had a chance to rifle through her thesis before giving it to Aubrey. She must have grabbed it from her room after she felt the blast, knowing she needed it to warn someone about what happened. Maya had risked staying in the building longer than necessary, knowing it was the only way to get the truth out.
Aubrey let out a breath and shoved the paper in her back pocket and continued walking down the hall. She passed Tyler helping a small group of scientists out of the building, but didn't slow to assist. She kept walking until she reached her own room. Thankfully, it remained relatively untouched from the blast, save for some dust and debris scattered over her bed. What mattered to Aubrey was tucked in the far corner of the room.
Aubrey pulled the badly scorched helmet out from under the bed, holding it in her hand as resolve settled over her body. Her time at A.I.M was done; it was time to find Tony.