figaroswilson

It was already going to be a tense ride back, made even more awkward with the twins being there, and, frankly, she wanted no part of it. Already upset about Nat, she was very happy to throw Steve under the bus and let him handle it for her. Though, of course, there was no real way to avoid three other people whilst confined to such a tiny space.

They had just entered international airspace when Kira saw Maximoff out of the corner of her eye. His stupid white hair was still somehow stuck up at all angles from using his super speed earlier. And he was annoyingly close to the cockpit.

She sighed, giving in, and put the plane in autopilot mode before glancing over her shoulder at him. He was looking straight at her, arms crossed over his chest.

Turning her focus back to the instrument panel, she pretended to be busy. "Why are you standing there?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, his words dripping with sarcasm. "I wasn't aware I needed your permission."

She rolled her eyes. "In my jet, yes. Yes, you do."

"It's not your jet. I was there, remember? When you two had to beg Dr Cho to take the one the Avengers had lent her?"

"Well, I'm the one flying it," Kira countered. "Though I could just nosedive us straight into the ocean, if that would work out better for you." She smiled sarcastically at him over her shoulder.

"Is it really so difficult for you to be civil?" he asked, ignoring her comment.

She levelled a look at him. As if he hadn't just instigated the argument. "And why should I do that?"

"We're trying to stop an evil robot from destroying all of humanity." The ridiculousness of his statement, paired with his stoic face, would've been hilarious in another situation. In this one, it just pissed Kira off even more.

Letting out a scoff, she faced forward again. "As opposed to what? Just destroying the Avengers? You seemed completely okay with that."

"Well, if they're all like you..."

That made Kira stop. This time, she turned around fully and looked him dead in the eyes. "Go fuck yourself."

Maximoff rolled his eyes. "First, you point a gun at my head, then you threaten me with your powers, now you're insulting me. Lovely," he muttered to himself. "Is there anywhere on this tiny plane you'd recommend?" he called over his shoulder as he walked off.

She turned her attention back to flying, ignoring the concerned looks the other two threw her way.

Threaten him with my powers? How could I possibly threaten someone with a danger sense or a cloaking ability? Kira thought to herself. What a strange man.

~ ✺ ~

"I'm gonna say this once..." Steve started, as the four stormed into the Tower's lab, irritation radiating off of them.

"How about 'none-ce'?" Tony deadpanned, continuing to work from the other end of the room. He and Bruce were bustling around the lab, flitting from the many computers and workbenches, to the cradle, and back again. Clint was nowhere to be seen.

"Shut it down!" Steve yelled, frustrated. "You don't know what you're doing."

"And you two do?" Bruce spoke up. "She's not in your heads?"

Kira laughed, humourlessly. "Good fucking luck to her if she's trying to get in my head."

Tony rolled his eyes.

The Maximoff girl tried to interject. "Look, I know you're both angry—"

"Oh, we're way past that," Bruce said. "I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade."

"Banner, after everything that's happened—"

"That's nothing compared to what's coming!"

"Oh yeah, like you have any idea..."

"None of you know what's in there—!"

As they began to argue, voices got louder, accusations flew, and words overlapped, when a gust of wind rushed through the lab, followed by those familiar blue wisps, silencing everyone.

An alert began to blare as they all turned to see Maximoff's brother holding the disconnected end of the cable that had carried the power supply to the cradle. "No, no. Go on," he said, throwing it to the ground. "You were saying?"

The rest of the group stood, dumbfounded, staring at him.

Then, a single gunshot rang out. The glass floor shattered from underneath him, and he fell through. That's where Clint was, I guess, thought Kira.

Chaos erupted.

Tony hurried to restart the upload. Steve threw his shield. It rebounded against the equipment, sending sparks flying. Tony fired a repulser blast back, narrowly missing Kira. The Maximoff girl tried to help Steve, but Bruce grabbed her hands, putting her in a hold, stopping her from using her powers. Kira instinctively pulled her gun out and aimed it at him. Steve'll be fine, she decided.

"Really? You'd pull a gun on me for her? After what she and her brother did?" Bruce asked, still restraining Maximoff.

"It's pointed at your shoulder, Bruce, you'll be fine," she said, ignoring his last question. Kira didn't quite want to admit she didn't fully trust the twins either. They had a genocidal robot to stop first. "Plus," she continued, "I clearly wasn't the only one who had that idea."

She looked over his shoulder to Clint, who had come from the floor below, sneaking up behind them, his gun drawn, too; out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bruce look over at him, as well.

The thing was, Kira knew her teammates well. Very well. Yes, she knew their personalities and tastes (it meant gift-giving was actually quite easy), but their tells and reflexes? Those she knew like the back of her hand, and she tried to only use that information to help them, never against them. One of Bruce's 'things' was that he could never quite multitask as well as he hoped, which almost always meant he would drop one piece of equipment as he reached for another or turned to talk to her. Usually, to avoid this, Kira would be right at his side when talking to him, to catch whatever expensive apparatus he dropped. Today, however, this meant she knew exactly what to do to get Wanda out of his restraint.

As soon as his head turned, his hold loosened, and Kira nodded at Wanda. She sent a mild blast through herself to push him back. Kira reached out, grabbed her arm and pulled the girl behind her, re-aiming the gun at the other two.

They turned back to look at her, but before anyone could say or do anything else, there was a smash behind them. Thor had crashed through the lab and landed... on the cradle?

Everyone turned and watched him in confusion and curiosity, dropping their weapons and forgetting their fights. Then he lifted his hammer, summoning lightning into the lab, and blasted it right at the cradle.

"Wait!"

~ ✺ ~

The body Ultron had been building was nothing like Kira had expected.

The explosion, after Thor had supercharged the cradle, had thrown them all back and, as the body broke out, all they could do was quietly observe, waiting for it to make a move.

It was red and much more human in shape than Ultron's current incarnation. In the center of its forehead was the gem Dr Cho had told them about, now somehow yellow instead of the blue it had originally been in Loki's staff. But most important were its eyes. They were as filled with life and emotion as Ultron's were filled with rage. It made Kira uncomfortable calling the body 'it', though she wasn't quite sure how else to refer to it yet.

The body, in turn, observed them. Carefully glancing from person to person, it slowly rose to full height. Then it flew straight through the glass wall of the lab.

The wall shattered on impact, sending glass flying everywhere, but Kira's eyes were still fixed on the body. Immediately, she broke out in a sprint, Steve quickly following behind, trying their hardest not to let it out of their sight.

Thor, the quickest of them all, had managed to fly over to it first, and, as the two super soldiers got closer, he gestured at them to stand down. The body had stopped at the window and was... looking. Its eyes followed the cars on the street and people milling around, lifting to take in the lights of the skyscrapers, then focusing as it finally saw itself reflected in the glass.

Everyone else slowly filed in, also taking in the odd scene, as the body floated back down from the window to stand with them, using powers Kira hadn't realised it had, to form a suit and a cape. Thor, unlike the others who instinctively took defensive stances, placed his hammer down and calmly walked over to it.

"I'm sorry, that was... odd. Thank you," the body said in a familiar voice, directing the last two words to Thor.

Steve looked at Thor, then the body and then back again. "Why did you help create this?" he asked, lost for words and needing an explanation.

"I've had a vision," he said. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at its center is that." He pointed to the gem in the body's head. "It's the Mind Stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."

What the fuck, Kira thought. I haven't slept recently enough for this.

"Then why would you bring it to—"

"Because Stark is right," Thor interrupted Steve, answering his question.

"Oh, it's definitely the end times," Bruce said, under his breath.

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron," he continued.

"Not alone," the body added.

Kira realised at this point why the body's voice sounded so familiar. "Why does your 'Vision' sound like JARVIS?" she asked.

"We... reconfigured JARVIS' matrix to create something new," Tony rushed out.

"Good lord," she muttered. Of course they did.

"I think I've had my fill of new," Steve sighed, eyeing the 'Vision' skeptically.

"Look. The twins' powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone," Thor said. "Yet they are nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side..."

"Is it?" Steve asked, then turned to the Vision. "Are you? On our side?"

"I don't think it's that simple."

"It's not?" Wanda spoke up for the first time. "I looked in your head and saw annihilation."

"You think I'm a child of Ultron?" he asked her. "I'm not Ultron. I'm not JARVIS. I am," he stated, simply. "Look again and you will see I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't; he will end it all."

"Well, what's he waiting for?" Tony asked him.

"You."

"Where?"

"Sokovia," Clint informed them. "He's got Nat there too."

Kira breathed a sigh of relief. At least someone has their priorities straight.

"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..." Bruce started.

"What will you do?" Vision asked.

No one replied. He continued to speak anyway.

"I don't want to kill Ultron," he said. "He's unique, and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net, we have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others." Looking around at each of them in turn, this time he wasn't assessing but imploring. "Maybe I am a monster. I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go."

And suddenly, Vision was holding up Thor's hammer for him. Well, that answers that question, Kira thought, as she quickly closed her dropped jaw.

Thor took it from him silently. "Right," he mumbled. "Well done, Stark."

Steve turned around to address the rest of them, trying very hard to mask the shock on his face, too. "Five minutes. Get what you need."

~ ✺ ~

Kira was restocking her ammo when she heard him speed into the room.

After Steve had informed them of their very short deadline, she had taken off, straight to the armoury, hoping to avoid Maximoff until the long flight to Sokovia. Every time they interacted, it didn't end well, so, frankly, she was doing the mature thing. It seemed, however, that he was not interested in that.

"You couldn't have had the basic decency to tell us about this place?"

Kira sighed. "Hello to you, too, Maximoff." Ignoring his presence directly behind her, she continued to stock her many pockets. "Ever the epitome of manners."

"Rogers told us all to get ready," he carried on, as if she hadn't said anything.

Kira looked up at him. He had that stupid look on his face again. Annoyance or something; she didn't care enough to know. "Oh!" she said, injecting as much sarcasm into her words as possible. "Does Speedy actually think I want to help him?"

He ignored the jab. "You didn't say anything to Wanda either."

"And yet here you are without her."

"What did you want me to do? Carry her around the whole building, trying to find somewhere to get ready? Obviously, I was going to tell her afterwards; she's a grown woman who can walk here on her own two feet." He crossed his arms over his chest, a bit too much like an insolent child.

Kira rolled her eyes. She was over this conversation and, more importantly, nearly were the five minutes. She began to turn back to her compartment, where her things were kept, when Maximoff caught her by the arm and pulled her back around, clearly not finished.

Stumbling back around, she was ready to break her arm out of his hold (or break his arm if she had to) when he started to spout even more bullshit.

"Are you seriously letting a grudge—"

"A grudge? You started it! You're the one who can't talk to me without being rude."

"I started—? You pointed a gun at me! Clearly, your priority was never Ultron. From the start,—!"

"What in the fuck has that got to do with this? And you say I'm the one with a grudge. Is saying random shit to piss me off a habit for you or just something you enjoy?"

"I mean,... it is a little funny," he mumbled, "but—"

"Oh my fucking—!"

"Ugh, that's not the point! You obviously have a habit of ignoring what I'm saying! Do you want Ultron to win, or can we have a truce?"

A truce. That made Kira pause. Interesting. Maybe the man was more complex than he let on. Maybe this could be the start of an understanding, even a friendship. She and Wanda seemed to be on decent footing, at least at the moment. Why couldn't she and Maximoff get there?

But Kira's danger sense was still ringing loudly in her ears, and she couldn't remember the last time she'd slept longer than a couple of hours. Sue her, she felt like being petty. Her voice dropped, nearly to a whisper. "The only thing I want, Maximoff, is for you to get out of my face."

His expression hardened. "Make me."

It was at that point that Kira realised just how close their faces were. And that Maximoff's hand hadn't left her arm yet. It wouldn't have been so significant a thing (she'd been in plenty of fights, what was one more?), except it was at that exact moment that Wanda decided to show up.

"Pi— oh! Shit, sorry!"

The two looked over, confused at the intrusion, just to see her leave as quickly as she had come in, a look of embarrassment on her face.

Sorry? Why did she say sorry? Kira wondered, finally pulling away from Maximoff, who seemed to be rooted in place, the same look on his face, to run after the slightly distressed woman. "Wanda, wait!" She caught up with her at the end of the hall and gently put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Wanda."

She spun around. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to walk in on—"

"Walk in what? It's just the armoury."

"Oh." Wanda paused for a beat. "Um, never mind, then," she said, shaking her head and plastering an uncomfortable smile on her face.

Kira stood awkwardly in front of her for a second before it got too much, and she started to ramble. "Actually, you probably should go in. The two of you need to get ready, and it's the best place to do it. You can take whatever you need; it doesn't really matter whose compartment you're taking it from."

"Alright." Wanda nodded. "Uh, thanks." She stepped around Kira, starting to walk back to the room.

"Wait," Kira spoke up, stopping her. "Can you— Can I ask you something, Wanda?"

"Sure."

"Your brother, earlier on the plane, said something. Something about my powers in South Africa? I have no clue what he meant."

"Oh, that. He was talking about your eyes."

"My— what?"

Kira's face must have been a sight to see, because Wanda hurried to explain. "They turned a different colour. Like how mine do when I use my powers. We thought that's why the Avengers keep you hidden, because you have powers like mine. It's why we ran. It might sound crass, forgive me, but we thought 'getting' 5 out of 7 and leaving relatively unharmed to carry out the rest of the plan was better than 4 out of 7 and leaving incapacitated."

"I—" Kira paused, confused. It was a lot to take in, but she decided to just tackle one thing at a time. "Wanda, I don't have powers like you do; I have an uncanny ability to sense when something dangerous is going to happen, and I can blend into crowds weirdly well, but that's about it. My eyes don't do that."

"I know, you said so in Seoul. Pietro doesn't, I should probably tell him," Wanda said with a nervous laugh. "But, um, we also definitely saw your eyes change, Kira. Maybe no one's ever realised before? They turned this glowing gold colour."

That doesn't make any sense, though. That was when my danger sense stopped.

Wanda turned to go, clearly not wanting the interaction to drag on much longer, when it seemed a thought stopped her in her tracks. "Do you mind if I ask you a question too, Kira?"

"Um, I guess not."

"What did you mean when you said 'good luck to her' about me?" she asked.

Ah, shit. Kira had forgotten that the twins had no idea about Jamie. Trying not to let the distress show, she, instead, began to think up a way out of this. Maybe she could say something vague about how messed up her head was. But one look at Wanda's expectant face told her that wasn't going to happen. She had shared something, and now it was Kira's turn. She thought carefully and decided to say as little as she could get away with. "Your brother. He's all you have left, isn't he?"

At this, Wanda's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as she quickly glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the room Maximoff was still in.

Kira sighed. It wasn't like she was about to lie. Losing her brother really was her worst fear, and it had been pretty easy to guess that she shared this with Wanda. But why she have to tell her? Why did Wanda have to know about the hundreds of times Jamie had forgotten her or been separated from her? Wanda hadn't been in her head yet, and Kira wasn't eager to invite her in. No, she wanted to shut this down. And if she bent the truth, blurred the line between what was real and what wasn't, what was the problem with that anyway? That's how she justified it, at least. Looking her directly in the eyes, she said, "My brother was all I had too."

Let Wanda come up with some terrible scenario and associate it with her own brother. All it meant was that Jamie would never be brought up again. And, once Kira found Jamie... well, it wouldn't matter what she had told Wanda, or how it affected her. It's not like Kira cared.

Steve spun around to see her standing directly behind him, having managed to sneak up on him once again. He still wasn't used to her ability to move so silently; he had spent years being able to hear the slightest of movements. Though he shouldn't have been shocked. His line of work never was predictable.

Kira, however, was entirely unfazed. She was completely focused on the conversation she wanted to have. He knew she was asking about South Africa and had chosen the perfect moment for them to talk without the others overhearing. The two of them were alone, suiting up in the back of the Quinjet, heading to South Korea to check up on Dr Helen Cho. Nat and Clint were up in the cockpit, flying the jet. Bruce, Fury and Maria had returned to the tower, whilst Tony was on his way to the Nexus, in Norway.

They had all agreed to strictly stick to recon, to figure out Ultron's next move, and rendezvous at the Tower, but Steve knew that he and Kira had come to the same conclusion: it was about to get messy. He was proud of her for wanting to talk before that point.

He placed his helmet on the bench, and, sitting down next to it, gestured for her to do the same. Kira continued to stand though, staring at him in that slightly unnerving but entirely unintentional way of hers, waiting for a reply.

"I do trust you," Steve finally answered.

"Yeah, right," she mumbled.

"I understand you're upset, Ki, but I'm not lying," he said, earnestly. "Will you let me explain?"

She didn't say anything. He took it as a yes.

"I know you're fully capable but I was scared, Ki. Buck left you in my care; you're my responsibility," he quietly explained. "I didn't want them to know about you, because that would've made it easier to hurt you. And I wasn't completely wrong, either, was I? Two kids managed to hurt the team in a way no one has since it was created. I'd never have been able to forgive myself if I was the reason you went into that fight and left it being forced to relive your time in Department X. Look at what it did to Nat. She was entirely out of commission for a whole day— and she's been out for years! You've hardly been out for one."

At that, she sat next to him, dropping her gaze.

"But..." He paused.

She glanced up at him.

"You're not helpless either. I see that now. Whatever happened when you confronted the twins, you managed to evade them somehow. And, right now, that's good enough for me."

She searched his eyes, waiting for him to finish.

"When we meet them next, they're going to be emboldened. Ultron's going to be angry. You and I both know this mission won't end easily. I'm going to need your help," he explained. "I need you as backup in South Korea. Can you do that for me?"

Her face broke into a soft, genuine smile. She didn't give out many of those. "Do you have to ask?"

~ ✺ ~

When Steve first entered the lab, Kira thought, for a brief second, the comms had stopped working again.

Then he started to describe the destruction. Technicians were badly wounded. Notes had been torn through and strewn around. Equipment was wrecked. And a trail of blood led to the back room. That was where he found Helen, injured and on the floor, next to where the Cradle was supposed to be. She had taken a blast from Ultron to the torso but was stable for now.

She wasted no time in describing to Steve what had happened, and the others listened in from the comms. How Ultron had used Loki's sceptre on her. How he had used her technology, and the black market Vibranium from Klaue, to build himself a new body in the Cradle that he was halfway through transferring his consciousness into. "The real power is inside," she explained. "The gem, he got it from the sceptre. Its power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up. You have to get the Cradle to Stark."

So much for the quick recon mission we promised Tony, Kira thought.

Their new mission became to distract Ultron long enough to ruin his plans. 'Distracting Ultron', however, quickly devolved into Steve fighting Ultron. On top of the moving truck he was trying to escape in. On a very busy highway. Running straight through the middle of Seoul.

Steve had been thrown onto the cab of the truck, after missing a blast to the face from one of Ultron's bots, when he yelled, "Ki! Gonna need that backup now!"

"Alright, we got a window," Clint informed them. "In ten..."

"Now, preferably!" Steve's voice came in over the comms.

"Jeez, Rogers. No one ever teach you to be patient?" Nat smirked, finding just enough time to tease him as she and Kira prepared for the drop.

"Please?"

Nat grabbed the handlebar and looked over her shoulder to Kira as she climbed onto the back of the bike. Ready? she mouthed. Kira nodded.

"Four, three..." The bay door slid open, and they dropped onto the highway. They were immediately at speed, veering in and around the other drivers.

"Hey!" Nat called, getting Kira's attention. "Look what I found." She gestured to something in the road ahead of them.

Kira craned her head. There, lying abandoned in the middle of the highway, was Steve's shield. "For God's sake," she muttered.

Nat laughed and swerved the bike into the middle lane, as Kira bent over to grab the shield before it got crushed under something. Or, more likely, before something got crushed by the shield.

"You'd think with how expensive this thing is, he'd take better care of it," she complained.

By the time they caught up with Steve, under the overpass, it was clear he wasn't doing very well on his own. Especially without his shield. Ultron had him in a chokehold, precariously close to the edge of the truck. Steve couldn't break out of it, no matter how hard he tried, and his feet were starting to slip. It was clear Ultron was furious. But his anger distracted him. It gave Kira the perfect opening.

With Nat keeping the bike steady, Kira climbed up onto the seat. Shield in hand, she jumped the 8 feet and grasped at the edge. Using the momentum, she swung herself up. Landed, spun, then smashed the shield down onto Ultron's head. He stumbled back, finally letting go of Steve. Kira caught his hand, pulling him away from the edge.

As the two of them fought Ultron, distracting him long enough for Nat and Clint to come up with a plan, Kira's danger sense started to ring again in her ears. At first, it was subtle, brushed off as tinnitus from the constant gunshots and repulser blasts. Then, it became too much to ignore. It was when Ultron had flown back and smashed into a nearby pillar, after Steve had charged at him with the shield, that she finally realised the reason.

They had come so far through the city, so quickly, that she hadn't noticed yet. But now she saw clearly. Not only had Ultron smashed into the pillar of an overpass, destroying it, but running right next to them, filled with civilians, was the metro. The longer this fight dragged on, the more dangerous it was becoming. Critical infrastructure was being damaged. Civilians were coming in the line of fire. They were closer to residential and highly populated areas. Kira could even see an open-air market nearby.

Worried, she turned to Steve and saw he was realising it too. But before she could say anything, Ultron had recovered and was flying directly at them. With the same force Steve had thrown him.

"Oh shit."

Bracing themselves, Steve and Kira acted in sync. As Ultron collided with them, they threw all their weight to the same side and turned him around, using his thrusters against him. They flew off the truck, through the air and smashed through the door, into the train, Ultron taking the brunt of the hit.

Glass cutting into the palms of her hands, Kira climbed to her feet. Swayed for a second. Huh, guess smashing through the door of a moving train is harder than it looks, she thought absentmindedly. Then Steve and Ultron were up too, and Kira shook herself out of her thoughts.

Being careful to avoid hurting anyone, Steve threw the shield at the bot's head. Ultron sent it back and aimed his repulser at him but Kira grabbed his hand and aimed it at a window, away from Steve and the passengers, sending the blast through the glass. Ultron grabbed her by the arm and threw her at Steve, knocking both of them down.

"Ow," Kira groaned.

"I'm going in." Nat's voice crackled in over the comms. "Can you two keep him occupied?"

"What do you think we've been doing?" Steve sighed, hauling himself up and tightening the strap of his shield.

Ultron flew at them, and Steve jumped to avoid him as Kira ducked and rolled out of the way. Ultron landed, swung around and fired a blast at her, missing but nearly hitting a passenger behind her.

Steve surged forward. He leapt at Ultron from the back, using the force to swing him away from her, punching him in the head. Kira immediately saw her opportunity and, in whispered Korean, started to usher the passengers through the door into the next traincar. When another blast got too close, Kira dropped and yelled for the others to do the same.

Steve aimed a kick at Ultron's knees and, as he fell back, turned to Kira. "Wait. How many languages do you know?" he asked, a confused look on his face.

"What? I never told you about Korean?" she smirked, supporting an older man, the last passenger from the rear end of the traincar, on her arm, guiding him through the door. "Must've slipped my mind—"

"Shut up!" Ultron yelled, irritated, and sent a blast straight at Kira.

"Motherf—" She just managed duck down, shielding the passenger as the blast hit just above the traincar door, raining down debris. Steve hit Ultron over the head, turning him back to the fight, as Kira quickly ushered the man through.

By the time she rushed over, Steve was on the ground, using his arms to block strike after strike from Ultron. A few strategic blows to the ribs had taken him down, and Kira knew they had to hurt like hell. She jumped at Ultron and wrenched him off Steve by the neck.

Maybe it was his growing anger or that she was finally getting tired but when Ultron pulled her off and threw her against one of the luggage racks, it took all the energy out of her. Kira tried to get up again but just collapsed back onto the floor. It felt like the air had been taken from out of her lungs, and her side burned ferociously.

Ultron stalked towards her. She scrambled away, cornered between the rack and the door. "You," he said. "You are getting on my nerves." He hadn't spoken directly to her yet, and it was incredibly unnerving. "You get in my way, you ruin my plans, and you have the audacity to joke while you do it?" This close, Kira could see the gears whirring in his face and the molten red glow of his eyes.

Ultron pulled his hand back, repulsers charging up, about to blast Kira square in the face. She only had enough time to throw her arms up, protect her head, wait for the searing pain and... nothing. It never came.

She looked through a gap between her arms. Ultron wasn't there anymore. In his place were those damn blue wisps again.

It took a second for the sound of the crash to register in her ears, but when it did, she whipped around and saw Ultron sprawled on the ground, Maximoff standing in front of him, angry and gesturing to the remaining passengers to get behind him.

Before Ultron could get any closer, two luggage racks, encapsulated in a familiar red glow, were pulled off the walls and crossed over each other to block his path. Sure enough, when Kira looked over, she saw Maximoff's sister standing in the door of the traincar, manipulating the metal with her magic.

Steve and Kira glanced over at each other, equally confused. What the fuck is happening, she thought. The longer she knew the twins, the less she understood them.

"Please. Don't do this," Ultron said, turning and almost pleading with the Maximoff girl.

Dejected, she answered, "What choice do we have?"

For a split second, a look of acceptance came over Ultron's face. Then he whirled around and sent a blast straight at her brother's head. Kira instinctively ducked, shielding herself, as he dodged it using his superspeed. He ended up near her, on the ground, a couple of feet away but not before Ultron had torn off one of the train doors and escaped.

Kira and Maximoff stared at each other for a moment, dumbfounded at what had just happened. Slowly this time, supporting her weight on a nearby seat, she rose from where she had been crouched down. A gaping hole where the driver's cab used to be and the sharp sting of rushing wind were all Ultron had left behind.

"I lost him! He's headed your way!" Steve yelled to Clint over the comms as he ran past them. She gathered herself and followed him over to the front of the train.

The metro driver lay face down on the bloodstained, destroyed control board. Kira quickly checked her over but wasn't surprised when she gave no response. Not surprised but still angry.

"Kira," Steve said.

She glanced up at him. He was staring out of the front of the train, panicked. Kira followed his gaze to watch as they smashed into the stopblock at the end of the line and continued to hurtle towards the exact open-air market she had been worried about earlier.

"Nat!" Clint yelled over the comms. "You guys see Nat?"

"What?" Clint and Nat had been talking to each other over comms this whole time but Kira had been tuning it out. This she could not.

"If you have the package, get it to Stark!" Steve instructed.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Kira asked Clint.

"Not now, Ki." Steve brushed her off. "We need to find a way to stop this train."

"Do you have eyes on Nat?" Clint insisted.

"Just go!" Steve maintained, still thinking of a solution.

"Steve!" Kira exclaimed, shoving his shoulder to get his attention. "What the fuck does he mean, 'do you see Nat'?"

"Kira, that doesn't matter right now! Can you stop this train?" he yelled, desperation written all over his face.

He was clearly referring to Kira's powers, considering all of her other abilities were the same as his, and that annoyed her even more. "No! Fuck, Steve!" she cried out, exasperated. "I know I have powers but I can only just about use them for myself. They definitely do not extend far enough to stop an out-of-control train! And what use would they be anyways? Oh, yeah, let me just make people not notice the train hurtling towards them."

Before he could answer, Maximoff spoke up behind them. "We can help."

Steve and Kira spun around to see the twins, who had followed them to the driver's cab. Hope sparking back up in his eyes, Steve pointed ahead. "Civilians in our path!"

Understanding immediately, he nodded at Steve and sped away. Kira watched as a blue light whipped back and forth in the path of the train, moving people out of its way.

Turning to the other twin, Steve asked, "Can you stop this train?"

She hesitated, glancing at the both of them. Kira knew she and Steve must've shared pleading, desperate looks on their faces.

The train jerked at that moment, knocking some of the passengers off their feet, before bashing into a car parked in its path, rocking the entire vehicle. Kira caught a passenger who had stumbled forward as Steve shielded Maximoff's sister from a shattering window. They were reeling towards an old, abandoned warehouse, and Steve threw up his shield just in time, covering those behind as they smashed through it too.

The impact threw everyone to the ground, and, as Maxmioff continued to move civilians to safety, his sister got to her feet. Her scarlet powers exploded from her hands, curled out and under the train, and, finally, they started to slow.

As the train came to a stop, Kira let out a sigh of relief and immediately rushed to help the passengers as Steve assessed them for injuries. The road was ruined, the train was entirely destroyed, and they were exhausted, but everyone was mostly okay.

Whilst he checked the subway car, to confirm everyone had gotten off, Kira instructed the nearest, unharmed passengers to contact emergency services.

As she talked to them, she caught the Maximoff girl out of the corner of her eye, distracting her for a second. Kira watched as she rushed over to her brother, who had dropped down near some bikes, out of breath, before quickly finishing what she had to say.

~ ✺ ~

"You wanna explain what the fuck just happened?" Kira called out as she stormed over to the twins.

Once she had made sure emergency services were on the way, she fully turned her attention back to them. She really hated how little she understood them and their motivations, first in South Africa and now here. One second they were hell-bent on destroying the Avengers, the next they were offering to help. It pissed Kira off.

Maximoff glared at her, clearly out of breath. "Can you give me a minute?"

"I'm very tempted not to," Steve said, a few steps behind her.

Maximoff's sister stood from where she had been crouched next to him. "The Cradle, did you get it?"

"You're just gonna ignore the fucking question then?" Kira shot back.

Steve gave Kira a look that meant not now. "Stark will take care of it," he answered reassuringly, turning back to the Maximoff and his sister.

Her face fell. "No, he won't."

"You don't know what you're talking about; Stark's not crazy."

"He will do anything to make things right," she slowly explained, emphasising her words.

That was when it clicked in Kira's head. She turned to Steve. The worry on his face confirmed her fear. She asked anyways. "He's going to make sure he's alone in that lab with Bruce and the Cradle, isn't he?"

His worry morphed into panic as he slowly looked over at her.

Her head fell into her hands. "For fuck's sake!"

He let out a sigh of frustration as he turned away from the group and switched to the main channel on comms. "Stark, come in." There was no answer. "Stark. Anyone on comms?" Nothing.

"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it," Wanda Maximoff cut in, speaking to the both of them. "Where do you think he gets that?"

There wasn't much to say after what had happened in South Africa. Both the fight at the salvage yard and what the Hulk had done to the nearby city was more than enough to shutdown any conversation. After takeoff, everyone had kept to themselves and now they were all scattered around the aircraft, most either asleep or pretending to be. Only Kira and Clint were up, sitting in the cockpit. Clint because he was piloting and Kira for the view.

She was looking out of her side window. Once, during one of his more lucid moments, Jamie had told her that whenever he couldn't sleep he would go to the Navy Yard and watch how the water glimmered in the moonlight as it lapped up against the dock. The way he described it was like it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. And he was right. The Atlantic was beautiful at night.

Clint had noticed a while ago that Kira wasn't meeting anyone's eye. For someone who would stare into your soul when she talked, it was clear that something was wrong. He decided he should be the one to figure out what and break the silence. Glancing over at her, he asked, quietly so as not to disturb the others, "You alright?"

Kira continued to watch the ocean as she answered him. "I'm not the one who had my head messed with," she replied, just as quietly as he did, avoiding the question.

He realised what she was doing immediately, but decided to play along. "Doesn't matter. I still care about you, Kid."

"Not a kid," Kira joked in return. She really wasn't very good at heart-to-hearts, and definitely was not prepared for one right now. Like usual, she tried to find a way out of it.

"You're like 20 years old," he said. "That's practically a baby."

"I was born in 1935. That's old enough to be your grandma."

"Still a baby."

Kira laughed, shaking her head and tried to change the subject. "Where are we going anyways?"

"You know I know you didn't answer my question. Right, Ki?"

"And you're not answering mine! We're seriously going back to the States? Is that a good idea?"

Clint sighed, dropping the issue for now. "Don't worry. I know a place."

~ ✺ ~

The 'place', it turned out, was a safehouse out in rural Iowa.

A safehouse that was also a farm. Clint's farm. Clint was a farmer.

Kira laughed as Tony's jaw dropped at the revelation. "Not funny, Ki," he mumbled, his eyebrows furrowing in concern, before turning back to Clint. "You've been hiding that you're a farmer from us? How could you?"

"Because you're the most overdramatic person I know, Tony." Clint clapped him on the shoulder. "I thought we already established this," he said, trying, and failing, to hide his smile.

Tony frowned. "Evil man," he mumbled.

The house, though large enough for each of the team to have their own separate rooms, looked like a spec in the middle of the sprawling fields that surrounded it. An old pickup truck and a small pile of firewood lay near a large wooden shed. The place was empty and the nearest neighbours must've been miles away. The entire scene was beautifully still in the morning light, and entirely quiet.

As soon as they got inside, Nat broke off the rest of the group and went straight up the stairs, like she already knew her way around the place. With how close she and Clint were, it made sense; if he was going to tell anyone about a secret house, it would be Nat. He tried his very best to show the rest of the team around the farmhouse, though their awkwardness made it very clear that none of them had ever stepped foot inside one and that no one knew how to be normal about it either.

Kira's thoughts wandered. All she could seem to focus on was how little was currently in her control. The search for Jamie was entirely derailed, she had no way of getting in contact Sam, and the mission she was currently on just seemed to be getting more and more complicated. All she wanted to do was go back to before that damn party, where everything had gone wrong. At the very least, she wanted to let Sam know she was okay.

Logically, she knew none of these thoughts were helpful right now. It was a lot easier said than done, though. She tried her best to put it all out of her head. Tried to pay attention as Thor looked with concern into the nearly empty refrigerator.

Clint looked wildly uncomfortable explaining how difficult it was to get groceries when the closest store was nearly 50 miles away and how much harder it was to keep them fresh when you hardly spent any time at home. Kira tried to help by diverting their attention. "Who's this?" she asked, pointing out an old framed picture of two boys on the window sill in front of the kitchen sink.

"Oh." Clint quickly placed it face down. "No one. Just me, when I was a kid, and— you know. Just a childhood photo," he rushed out.

Odd. She gave him a look. He quickly moved on to showing them their rooms.

~ ✺ ~

Kira mostly avoided the others for the rest of the day.

It wasn't terribly hard. They mostly kept to themselves anyways. Thor had left early on in the day, saying he needed to look for 'answers' with not much else as an explanation. Nat stayed up in her room. Bruce sat quietly in the kitchen, helping Clint out when he needed it, as he tried to put a meal together, and he needed it. Steve and Tony made themselves useful around the house, helping with some of the harder chores, like chopping up firewood.

She had tried to be around the others. At first. Her swarming thoughts quickly stopped that though. It didn't help that she couldn't talk to anyone about it either. Steve was around Tony, Nat was busy isolating herself and Sam was unreachable. Her only other option was to take Nat's approach and isolate herself too, but that wasn't turning out to be a good idea either. The longer the day went on, the longer she had to think herself into a spiral. Slowly, everything started to get too loud and too bright and, eventually, she realised she couldn't quite breathe right. She had to get out of the house.

Kira walked too quickly down the stairs, opened the front door too harshly and took a deep breath. Paused. Let it out. Started walking. Slower than before. She walked till she reached the edge of the property, then walked along the treeline that enclosed it. She walked until she didn't want to anymore. Sat in the shade of a large tree, facing away from the house. Took in the world around her. She tried to do that thing her therapist told her about: clearing her mind. She watched the clouds coming and going. How they always passed. Imagined they were her thoughts. It will pass.

And then, for a long time, she just watched. Birds flittering in the trees. Leaves dancing in the wind. Recently shorn grass, too small to be disturbed. Blue sky becoming tinged with purples and pinks, yellows and oranges. A gentle breeze brushing against her face. Footsteps on hard ground.

"You're not sneaky, Clint," she called out as he approached.

"Not trying to be." He sat down next to her. It was quiet between them for a while, as they watched the sunset.

"It's beautiful out here," Kira whispered, as if the scene in front of her was so delicate that a misspoken word could break it.

"That's why I bought it. You can just... be. Pretend nothing else exists. Clear your head."

She hummed in agreement.

"Of anything, you know," he said in an odd tone. "Like a weird encounter with two annoying 20 year olds—"

"Clint," Kira groaned in annoyance.

"Oh, come on. You can't avoid it forever."

"It's not that important."

"Ki..."

"It's really not! I promise, it's just—"

He gave her a look.

Fine. "It's just that the whole thing was odd. I don't understand why Maximoff didn't try and mess with my head," Kira explained. "I was right there. An easy target. All I had was a gun— same as Nat. And my abilities aren't any more dangerous than Steve's. She even started walking towards me but, then, nothing. They both got this look in their eyes and zoomed off. I mean, can you make any sense of that?"

Clint considered for a second. "Maybe she was too drained."

A look of confusion crossed her face. "Drained?"

He opened his mouth to speak, then stopped himself. Closed it. Considered his words. "You know my taser arrows?" he asked, tentatively.

"You shot her with that?" Kira exclaimed.

"Not exactly."

"Clint..." she said with a warning tone in her voice.

"I may or may not have attached it directly to her head," he rushed out.

"Clint!"

"She wasn't hurt! Promise. Just slightly inconvenienced."

Kira shook her head in disapproval. Then sighed, "It can't have been that anyways, she still messed with Bruce's head after. She was clearly fine. Plus that look, it was less exhaustion, more... fear."

"Huh. Maybe it was your murder face."

"Murder face?" She looked at him incredulously. "You're fucking with me, right?"

"I'm being serious! When you get pissed off at someone, you look like you're plotting their murder. A slow and painful murder. Your murder face!"

Kira laughed at that, though her smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"It's not just about the twins, is it?"

"Okay, I am not sharing that much. This was more than enough—"

"You don't have to! Promise," Clint interrupted. "We all have to have some secrets."

"Like your picture in the kitchen?"

He nodded.

"And the reason Nat's the only one who knew about this place?"

"I won't ask if you won't. Just... try not to let it get to you too much. Alright? Sometimes the way to do that is to talk about it. Other times it's not. Especially if you're not comfortable. And that's okay too." Then, after a pause, he added, "We should probably get back inside now; it's getting dark. Plus, I have a surprise for you."

~ ✺ ~

"Took you long enough," Fury chastised from the head of the table as they sat down.

The rest of the team was already scattered around the dining room – some seated at the table, others standing. Kira smiled at him as she sat in the chair to his left. She didn't mind a little telling off from the grumpy ex-SHIELD director who had saved her from HYDRA. "Fancy seeing you here," she joked.

"Well, I thought you guys might need a metaphorical kick up the ass."

"Might need an actual one too," Clint mumbled, mostly to himself.

Fury sighed, his brow furrowing. "Ultron really did a number on you folks."

"Gee, thanks," Nat muttered.

"As much as he hates you though," he continued, "he did it to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked from the doorway.

"He's easy to track, he's everywhere," he answered. "The guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

"Still going after launch codes?" Tony confirmed.

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."

Fury shook his head, in that tired-of-everyone's-bullshit way of his, at Tony's admission of a federal crime. "Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that." At the confused looks that appeared around the table, he explained, "The world internet hub in Oslo. Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on earth."

"What'd they say?" Clint asked.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."

This piqued Kira's interest. "By who?"

"Parties unknown."

"We have an ally?" she asked.

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing," Fury corrected. "Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo," Tony said, more thinking out loud than speaking to anyone directly. "Find our 'unknown'."

"Well, this is good times, Boss," Nat interrupted. "But I was kind of hoping when we saw you, you'd have more than that."

"I do, I have you," Fury said. The team looked around at each other, slight looks of disbelief on their faces. They weren't nearly as confident about their chances as they had been before South Africa. Still, he continued. "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Now, here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard. He looked at each of them, then asked “What do we know? What does he want?"

"To become better," Steve spoke up, more confident now. "Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies," Tony added. "The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," Nat sighed, glancing between Tony and Bruce.

"They don't need to be protected." Everyone turned to face the end of the table. It was Bruce, speaking up for the first time since Fury had arrived. Despite addressing everyone in the room, he seemed lost in his thoughts. After a second, he shook himself out of whatever had captured his attention and, in response to the silence that answered him, explained, "Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" Fury asked.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

Truthfully, Kira wasn't listening too closely. She already knew the plan off by heart and was far too worried about Sam to hear it another time. They'd decided that he should be the one to stay behind to keep an eye on the still decrypting laptop. (If that stupid thing hadn't sputtered out and died by the time Kira got back, she was going to kill it herself.) She tried to reassure herself that he'd be fine; it would've been too suspicious for her to stay back as well anyways. But, no matter how she tried to frame it, nothing worked. It didn't help either that her danger sense hadn't stopped ringing since Ultron attacked the party. She just hoped the slight headache it was causing wouldn't develop into a full-blown migraine during the mission. Though knowing her luck, it definitely would.

"And make sure you stick to it, Kira," Tony finished as the Quinjet landed, emphasising her name to get her attention.

She tried to look offended, but he did have a point. Kira's bad habit of not listening when running through a plan extended to completely ignoring it whenever she didn't trust a mission was going well. In her defence, though, the plan was quite simple; there really was no need to listen a tenth time. Tony, Steve and Thor would pay Klaue a visit, whilst Kira, Nat and Clint would stay hidden on the sidelines, keeping an eye out, with Bruce waiting in the Quinjet. If a fight broke out Tony, Steve and Thor would be the ones to deal with it and the others would only help if and when needed. Emphasis on if. Kira had tried to argue that she could be more useful, but Tony and Steve had been adamant. The smaller the confrontation, the better.

"I'll stick to the plan. Promise," she told him as they left the Quinjet. "Though feel free to explain it again," she teased.

"Hilarious, Ki."

~ ✺ ~

They had landed near a salvage yard, just off the coast of South Africa, where Klaue's black market business operated out of one of the many abandoned ships.

According to Tony, Klaue had been there for years and by the looks of it, nothing had changed in years either. The ship was dark, bathed in a few red emergency lights. Boxes of supplies lay strewn about the floor. The rust growing on the old steel walls, pools of machining oil and sweat combined into a sharp metallic stench. But there was no one to be found.

Kira, Nat and Clint had been sent in first to scout the place out. Where was everyone? Kira wondered. Munitions, halfway through assembly, sat on unattended operating lines. When in production, the noise must have been deafening, but the place was empty and every footstep felt too loud. The other two looked just as confused as she felt. "Did they know we were coming?" she whispered.

Nat began to answer when the lights cut out. Immediately, they stilled. They were entirely shrouded in darkness. Kira could hear some faint voices, but they were too distant even for her to make out. A few moments passed in panic. Until, slowly, a few flickering yellow bulbs turned on. Now that they could see it better, the ship was, to put it lightly, even more run down than it looked in the dark.

Kira heard his voice then, discernible now. Ultron. He was talking with three others whose voices she didn't recognise. Two with Sokovian accents and one with an Afrikaans accent. Shit. Ultron and the twins had gotten to Klaue first. Quickly, signalling to the others, they spilt up and each slipped into a shadowed corner. The comms crackled on as Clint updated everyone else, but Kira tuned it out as she tried to focus on what Ultron was saying. He did not sound happy.

"Don't compare me with Stark!" he yelled. "It's a thing with me. Stark is... he's a sickness!"

"Ahh, Junior." Kira heard Tony land somewhere above her, Steve and Thor following closely behind. "You're gonna break your old man's heart."

"If I have to." The rage was evident in Ultron's  voice.

Thor tried to calm the situation. "We don't have to break anything."

Bad idea, Kira thought.

"Clearly you've never made an omelette," Ultron quipped.

"He beat me by one second," Tony mumbled.

Knew it.

Then a man, whose voice she didn't recognise, stepped forward. "Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark." He spoke with a heavy Sokovian accent. Pietro Maximoff. "It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" he mocked.

Tony suddenly became very serious. "This was never my life."

"You two can still walk away from this," Steve spoke up.

"Oh, we will." Another voice Kira didn't recognise. Wanda Maximoff.

Steve continued, "I know you've suffered—"

"Agh!" Ultron interrupted, disgusted. "Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..." It was terrifying how quickly Ultron had learnt such human traits. Rage, disgust and even humour, dry as it was. Bruce and Tony were far too good at their jobs.

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Thor insisted.

"I think you're confusing peace with quiet."

"Yuh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?" Tony was clearly over it now.

"I'm glad you asked that because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan—"

Light exploded above Kira. A series of blasts followed. She shielded her eyes as she pushed herself further into the wall. Metal clanged against metal. Glass shattered. People crashed into each other. Gunshots rang out. Klaue's men were back now too.

"Clint! Nat!" Steve yelled, and they rushed out to help.

Dammit. This was not the plan.

"Steve," Kira hissed.

"Not now, Ki." He was clearly very busy. She heard him throw the shield and listened as it ricocheted against its targets. "Stay down, kid," he said to someone else on the other side of the comms.

"Steve, come on," she insisted. "I can help too. Klaue's men are back—"

"Do. Not. Move. Kira." Steve said, louder this time, punctuating each word.

There was a small pause, before a quiet and curious, "Kira?" came over the comms. Maximoff. He knew she was there, so now they all knew she was there.

Fuck, Kira thought.

"Fuck," Steve muttered.

Still, he kept firm in his decision. Kira was stuck hiding in a corner, occasionally taking out any of Klaue's men that were unlucky enough to come across her, and listening to the others giving updates on comms.

"Thor, status?"

"The girl tried to warp my mind," he replied. "Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty."

Great. We're so fucked.

~ ✺ ~

Something shifted from then on; not just with the progression of the fight, but with Kira herself.

Her headache, as she had predicted, did begin to develop into a migraine. A migraine so bad that, with it, came intense waves of nausea. She hadn't experienced anything like this since before receiving the super soldier serum. It was supposed to prevent any and all illness, so being nauseous made no sense. At least it's manageable for now, she thought thankfully.

As for the others, apart from some concerning groans of pain, Kira didn't hear much else from them. There was a problem with the comms too. She was convinced she had heard Bruce try to talk to them, before being cut off, though no one else had the time to be concerned. And, after that, each of her teammates slowly started to drop out of the channel, leaving only static behind, until it was just her and Clint left.

"Whoever's standing: we gotta move," Clint spoke up, sounding out of breath.

"Hold on—" It had taken Kira a second to process what he had just said. She had been busy knocking out one of Klaue's men with his own gun. "What do you mean 'whoever's standing'?" she asked.

"The kid, Wanda. She just tried to mess with my head. Some mind-control thing using her powers. I stopped her before she could, but her brother knocked me down. And I don't think I'm the only one she's tried it on if we're going off what Thor said earlier." He paused. "Wait. Have you not seen them yet?"

"No, you know I've been stuck in this corner since—"

"Kira," he interrupted. "Get out of here. Now." Then the comms went completely silent.

~ ✺ ~

This is why she never stuck to the plan.

The one time she listened and her whole team had been taken out? Fuck this shit, she thought and left that stupid corner, gun in hand.

The ship was eerily quiet. A quick sweep of the bottom floor and she knew she was the only one there. The only one conscious at least, she thought, looking down at the man she had just knocked out. Barrel trained on the ground, she ventured further into the ship.

Kira had last heard movement from the walkway, where Tony had first confronted Ultron, and so she headed for the steps that lead up to it. Her view no longer obstructed, she now saw it was just as empty as the rest of the ship, though entirely changed from when she first entered. The handrails were dented, bent and broken. Blasts from Tony and Ultron had melted perfect holes through the metal panels. Broken glass littered the whole path.

Her footsteps echoed in her wake as she carefully climbed up. She paused halfway. Waited a few seconds. Other than the quiet groans from Klaue's men, she couldn't hear anything. Nothing from her teammates.

She continued, slower than before. Angrier than before. She had no idea where the others were, how they were. What they were going through. Tried to mess with my head, Clint had said. What had the Maximoff girldone to get them to go entirely silent?

Once she reached the walkway, she stopped. Lifted her gun. Assessed the area. It was an incredibly vulnerable position, visible from most parts of the ship. If she wasn't careful, she would be putting herself in a lot of danger. Though at that point, near blind with rage, she didn't care much.

Tentatively, she started to cross. Glass crunched underneath her boots. She was halfway along when she saw him. He appeared out of nowhere, wisps of blue light trailing after him, standing at the opposite end. His shock of hair was so pale it looked as if it had been bleached white. Pietro Maximoff. He was staring straight at her, eyes only momentarily flitting down to her gun, which was trained on him. When he met her eyes again, he was livid.

In that moment, Kira didn't think she could hate anyone more. Then his sister stepped forward. Red glowing eyes. Wanda Maximoff. Her expression matched her brother's, only rivalled, perhaps, by Kira's own. She was the person who had hurt her team, some of the only people she cared for. She was the one who had incapacitated them and messed with their heads. She had hurt them so badly, that Clint had told her she needed to get away. No matter the odds, Kira decided she wasn't going to back down.

She took a step towards Maximoff, when, in an instant, her migraine and nausea receded. Her danger sense had just... stopped. It felt like her vision had cleared and she could see properly for the first time in days. Maximoff had tried to hurt everyone else by messing with their heads, succeeding with most, but for some reason, she posed no threat to Kira. It was such a ridiculous notion, that someone with magic was harmless to someone without, that a laugh bubbled out of her. She knew she must look crazy, but she couldn't help it.

Her laughter made Maximoff pause. She took a step back from Kira as her anger morphed into confusion. Then, a second later, it changed again. Into... fear? That made no sense. What could possibly scare someone who had had the audacity to attack a Norse God? But it was definitely fear that Kira saw in Maximoff's eyes. She knew it intimately; she could never mistake it.

Kira looked over and, sure enough, that same fear was reflected in her brother's eyes. Something was very wrong but she didn't dare look away from the twins.

Maximoff slowly backed away, as if from a dangerous animal, getting closer to her brother. As soon as she was by his side, she grabbed his arm, and they were gone. Just as quickly as they had appeared. A wispy trail of blue light the only evidence they had been there at all.

What just happened?

Most people tended to have opinions on what Kira should and shouldn't do. Very loud and very wrong opinions. She guessed it was just what happened when you were the living product of some strange Jekyll-and-Hyde-esque experiment. People tended to see you less as a person and more as a test subject. Something to throw ideas at, rather than someone to help. She had learnt to ignore those opinions.

Steve's opinion, though, she respected. He was one of the only people who understood, at least part of, what Kira had experienced. Being thrust into an entirely new world with completely different norms was a frequent topic of discussion between them. She knew he meant well. He just wanted a normal life for her, after everything with Department X and HYDRA. Well, as normal a life as an Avenger could have.

Which is why Kira had been sitting alone, at the bar, for the last couple of hours. His only requirement had been that she attend. He said nothing about moping into a margarita. One of many. She silently cursed whoever took away her ability to get drunk with the Super Soldier Serum. Not even Thor's alien whiskey could get her tipsy. If it did, maybe then she could stop thinking about everything on her mind. Especially those missing twins.

Nat had insisted on bartending at the party, so she'd been making the margaritas for her, handing them over with an odd look. Kira assumed she was just worried about the drinks spilling on the clothes she'd borrowed from her last minute: a pretty green dress, that definitely fit Nat better than it did Kira, and matching heels. She made a mental note to agree to the next time she wanted to drag her along to get "real human clothes" (Nat's words, not hers).

From her seat at the furthest end of the bar, she watched as Sam won another game of pool, beating Steve once again. She smiled to herself. Kira had left Sam's side a while ago. She had initially stuck to him because he was the more extroverted of the two. After a while, she started to worry about coming off as a bit too clingy and quickly extracted herself when she noticed her mood starting to sour, not wanting to ruin his night. At least one of them was enjoying themselves.

Nat's eyes started to burn a hole in the side of her head. "What?" Kira sighed, still watching the room.

"Oh, nothing. It's totally normal for you to down 10 drinks in as many minutes whilst forlornly watching others enjoy themselves," she replied.

"Like you're any better." Kira turned to face her. "I know why you're at the bar too. Trying to convince everyone you're just showing off," she hit back. It was true Nat was weirdly competent at bartending, though. She had learnt decades ago to blend in at a club for a hit on some obscure politician, back in Department X. It was one of the only times all three of them had gone on a mission together. It was also the first and last time all three of them had tried to escape on a mission together. "You hate this shit just as much as I do."

Nat was unfazed at being read like that by Kira. With anyone else, she would've been taken aback, but Kira had always had a scary good ability to read people, so she was used to it. She'd regained the ability almost as soon as she'd regained her memories. "At least I'm discreet about it. You perpetually look like you're hiding something," Nat said. "Could you try to pretend you're having fun?"

"I can't," Kira almost whispered, her brow furrowing. "You know I didn't want to come. My danger sense has screaming at me since Tony brought up he was throwing this stupid party. I'm so sure something's going to go wrong."

~ ✺ ~

Maybe all those margaritas did do something, maybe she was taking Nat's advice or, more likely, Kira was more comfortable now all the strangers had finally filtered out of the room, at some early hour of the morning.

Only Maria, Dr Cho, and her teammates were left. Her danger sense - a sixth sense she'd discovered she had when testing the difference between her and Steve's serums once with Bruce - had also quietened down, and she could start to relax. They had all ended up, slightly tipsy and very tired, around one of the tables in the seating area; some standing, some sitting on the couches and others sprawled on the floor. The room was a mess. On their table alone there were a dozen empty glasses and beer bottles. And Thor's hammer. Of course, Clint had decided to take its mere existence as a challenge. That was how they found themselves in a hammer-lifting competition.

Clint, Tony, Rhodey and Bruce had all had a go, to no avail. When Steve tried, Kira could've sworn it budged slightly, but he gave up too. Nevermind.

"Sam?" he offered as he sat back down.

"Absolutely not, do I look crazy to you?" Sam turned away and hid his face in Kira's shoulder as she tried not to burst out laughing. "Save me from him, Ki. He's gonna embarrass me in front of a God," he complained.

"Nat?"

"That's not a question I need answered."

"Oh, come on! Ki?"

"Think I already know the answer to that question, Steve," Kira answered from the floor.

"Listen," Tony interjected, turning back to Thor. "All deference to the Man Who Wouldn't Be King, but it's rigged."

"You bet your ass," Clint mumbled miserably into his beer, still sore about not being able to lift the hammer.

"The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' is, I think, the literal translation?" Tony continued.

"Yes, well that's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one." Thor stood and grabbed the hammer with ease, flipping it. "You're all not worthy," he declared, smugly.

Everyone groaned. "Oh, come on," someone protested to the right of her. Kira was pretty sure she heard someone booing to her left. Steve just laughed from his seat on the couch. Pretentious little shit, she thought fondly. Thor's dramatics always managed to brighten her mood. Not enough to get rid of the silent alarm bells that were currently still going off in her head, but enough to ignore them.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a loud screeching noise. Everyone's hands instinctively went to cover their ears but it faded just as quickly as it started. It had sounded like microphone feedback, so Kira assumed there was something wrong with the sound system. Her danger sense flared back up, though, as Tony pulled out one of his devices to see what was wrong. So much for being relaxed.

There was a clanging sound, like something made of metal trudging towards them. Kira and Steve locked eyes before everyone else heard it. "Worthy..." it whispered and she realised it was standing right in front of them. They all stood, slowly. Warily. Everyone was immediately on alert. Kira realised it was one of Tony's Legionnaire robots. It definitely wasn't supposed to be doing this. "No. How could you be worthy? You're all killers." How could it understand what we'd been saying?

"Stark," Steve warned.

Kira's eyes never left the bot. Something is badly wrong. She discretely lowered her hand, hovering over the gun she always kept on her, in her thigh holster.

"JARVIS," Tony tried, frantically. It wasn't like him to be so panicked. What has he done?

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or... I was a-dream," it rambled on, not making any sense.

"Reboot Legionnaire OS. We got a buggy suit," Tony continued, speaking over it.

She saw out of the corner of her eye, Sam slowly leaning over to get a hand on Steve's shield, which had been resting behind one of the couches.

"There was a terrible noise. And I was tangled in... strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

That stopped them in their tracks.

"You killed someone?" Steve asked.

"Wouldn't have been my first call," it replied in an oddly human way. "But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" Thor was clearly getting tired of beating around the bush.

It played a recording instead of answering him. "I see a suit of armor around the world." It was Tony's voice. Wait, what?

"Ultron!" Bruce exclaimed, surprised.

Kira's head spun. What had these two been doing behind their backs? Maybe this is what I get for hiding my search for Jamie, the voice in her head rudely supplied.

Maria quietly took off the safety of her gun.

"In the flesh," Ultron replied. "Or, no, not yet. Not this... chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

Thor gripped his hammer tighter.

"What mission?" Nat asked.

"Peace in our time."

Kira already had her gun drawn when the bots smashed through the walls.

~ ✺ ~

Her head hurt, badly.

Kira had gotten a fairly large cut on her forehead after being thrown into a glass table by one of the Legionnaire bots. Sam had helped her to tape it closed, though, so it wasn't bothering her as much anymore. No, Ultron was the main issue. His speech kept echoing in her mind. "You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change," he had said. "How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve? There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction."

As it turned out, as well as attacking them, making the speech, and then escaping through the internet, Ultron had dipped into all the data they held, deleted their work, destroyed JARVIS, taken Loki's sceptre, and might be trying to access nukes. It was just too much information to receive at 3 am. That was all on top of Thor nearly strangling Tony. Kira was surprised her head only hurt and hadn't exploded yet.

Unlike Thor, she wasn't upset though. Shocked, sure, but not upset. Frankly, she didn't think she had a leg to stand on. She was hiding something from the rest of the team too, except her secret would only benefit a small handful of people, not the whole world like Tony genuinely believed his would, so she had been easier on him and hadn't said much. Actually, she hadn't said much at all since the attack, much to Sam's confusion. She wasn't much of a talker usually, but she wasn't the silent type either. She told him it was because she hadn't been more insistent about her danger sense going off. He said it wasn't her fault. She still felt like shit.

They had all dispersed after that, quickly scrambling to find Ultron before he completed whatever 'mission' he was on. Tony had advised Dr Cho to go straight home to South Korea and stay safe. She gladly took it. It was morning when the news of Strucker's suspicious death reached them. Suspicious because of the clear gunshot wounds littering his body and the word 'PEACE' written on the wall in his blood. It was also then they discovered the Strucker-sized hole in their data, which hadn't been there yesterday.

As they were relegated to going through all their physical files, one by one, Maria updated them on Ultron's other movements. He had been raiding numerous labs with the help of the Maximoffs, the enhanced twins Steve had met on the Avengers' last mission. Guess I don't have to worry about where they are anymore. Turns out 'enhanced' meant Wanda Django Maximoff, the sister, could mess with people's heads and Pietro Django Maximoff, the brother, could move so fast he couldn't be seen. Of course, this wasn't going to be easy, Kira thought.

"Where do we even start? These people are literally the scum of the Earth," Kira sighed, mostly to herself, staring at the mountain of files on Strucker and his associates. She picked up and started to skim the one in front of her.

"Wait. I know that guy, from back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms," Tony said, peeking at the picture of the man in her file.

Kira and Steve both gave him the same disappointed look. "Really?" Steve asked.

"Ugh, it's like you've doubled, old man," Tony groaned, glancing between the two of them. "There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything." Kira passed him the file. "Yeah, Ulysses Klaue. He was talking about finding something new, a game changer."

"What's this?" Thor asked, from Tony's other side, pointing to a scar in one of the photos. "Is that a... brand? Banner?"

"Uh... yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief'," he explained after identifying it on his computer. "Just in a much less friendly way."

"What dialect?" Sam asked.

"Wakandan."

Tony's face dropped. "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." he trailed off, turning to Steve.

"I thought your father said he got the last of it?"

"The last of what? What comes out of Wakanda?" Nat interrupted, impatiently.

Tony was quiet for a second. "The strongest metal on earth," he sighed. "If this is Ultron's mission, if he's planning on building himself a body out of Vibranium, we're fucked." He sounded defeated.

"No." Steve looked Tony in the eye. "No, we're not. We still have time. Where is this guy now?"

"Should be somewhere near South Africa."

DC just wasn't quite the same for him anymore. Not after meeting Captain America and then promptly taking out the city's secret HYDRA cell.

Steve had originally suggested the move. Sam wouldn't have to be an Avenger in any official sense, but he could be around people he knew and trusted, which would be reassuring after that whole mess. It was Kira who eventually managed to persuade him, though. After he'd helped rescue her from HYDRA, they had quickly become close friends. Her insistence made the prospect of moving to a new city easier. Less daunting. It also didn't hurt he'd managed to find a place near the Avengers' Tower with rent that was actually reasonable.

Kira was, to say the least, glad for the company.

She often seemed to find herself alone in the Tower, whilst the rest of the team was out on a mission. It was for her benefit. Apparently. Her therapist insisted her mind just couldn't handle high levels of stress so soon after everything, so it was best to take a step back occasionally. Kira wasn't a fan of those sessions. Frankly, she would've dropped the whole thing if Tony hadn't insisted. And because it was nice to have someone who finally seemed to make sense of her fucked up head. Not that she would ever admit it.

Over time, she realised she didn't mind too much. She was always looking for an excuse to be at Sam's apartment anyways. The tiny, slightly messy, studio was her favourite place to be, helped mostly by the fact one of her closest friends lived there. Every time she would show up, the two would fall into an easy routine of buying greasy takeout and watching cheesy romances, no matter the time of day or the reason for Kira's appearance.

Like usual, they were sitting in what Kira called 'Sam's extended bedroom'. He insisted it was his living area. She wasn't convinced.

She had been staying over that weekend, whilst the rest of the team was on a mission somewhere in Eastern Europe. This time, she had been eager to miss out, urging the others to go on without her. She used the weekend-long visit as an excuse to get takeaway for nearly every meal, on Tony's card, despite Sam's protests that it could not be good for them at all. He quickly let it go when she threatened to eat his food.

"I don't get it." Sam pointed to the characters on-screen, confused at the newest movie Kira had put on. As it turned out, it was a family drama with multiple romantic storylines and it was starting to hurt Sam's head. "Is that supposed to be his little brother, grown-up?"

"Mm-hmm."

"And he doesn't recognise him? Like, at all?"

"Yeah..." she said, realising the absurdity of it now Sam had pointed it out. "But can you blame him? I mean, look at the actor playing him as an adult. He doesn't look like his younger self at all. Even his eye colour's different."

"Well, it is a movie," Sam reasoned. "It's fictional. Like, they 'struggled', but live in a mansion in central London. You're supposed to suspend your disbelief or whatever."

"Yeah, or whatever. It'd be easier to do if I wasn't so stressed about this stupid thing," Kira sighed. She poked at the laptop sitting on the coffee table in front of her, with the back of her fork, as if that would hurry it up.

As much as she loved Sam, she hadn't bailed on the mission just to spend the entire weekend with him, though it was a perk. The actual reason, that had been slowly decrypting for the last two days, sat in front of her. The laptop she was doing it on, which she had found in a dumpster behind a pawn shop, was so run down it had to be kept permanently on charge, and its fan whirred so loudly, she was sure it was going to break. All to watch some stupid CCTV files so she and Sam could try and find her runaway brother.

Just like she'd promised Nat, she hadn't told anyone else about it. Which was why they were doing everything, in secret, in Sam's apartment, whilst the rest of the Avengers were away.

Kira had mainly taken over Nat's involvement in the search, as her memories returned, and Sam took over for Steve, to avoid suspicion from the rest of the team. The other Avengers only knew a couple of things about Jamie. First, he used to be Steve's best friend and was Kira's adoptive brother. Second, whilst his legal name was James Buchanan Barnes, Steve had given him the nickname Bucky and Kira the nickname Jamie. He was also a former Winter Soldier, currently on the run from the authorities and a topic that was completely off-limits.

But that was all they knew. They weren't aware of the extent of what Jamie had done. They hardly knew what Kira had done. The information in the files that, first, Tony, and then the rest of the team, had received, only touched on what Department X, and later HYDRA, had done to them. Not what Department X and HYDRA had made them do. Sam, Steve and Nat were the only ones that knew exactly who the Winter Soldiers had hurt. And, apart from Nat, no one knew anything else.

To Kira, that was fine. That was all they needed to know. The depth of what had happened in Department X, what had happened outside of Department X, and what Nat and Jamie were, wasn't their business. And what Kira was planning, dependent on finding Jamie, wasn't their business either. Not even Nat's. It didn't bother her much no one knew the whole truth. It wasn't like she was hurting them by not telling them. She didn't think they'd care much anyways.

Sam and Kira had spent nearly the whole of the last year trying to find Jamie. He, however, didn't seem to want to be found. It was clear he was hiding. After Nat had found the tape of him at the Captain America exhibition, only small signs of Jamie had shown up. First, they came from across North America, but later they started up in Europe. Mentions in police reports of someone sketchy near a crime scene with long brown hair, wearing a baseball cap, covering his face. Weird acts of kindness from a quiet man with a metal prosthetic arm. A mysterious stranger, walking to compensate for some heavy weight on his left, moving into an apartment, ignoring everyone and then quickly moving out again. It was still promising. Even if his movements never made sense.

There had been a tip-off, recently, to the police in Rome. A man with shoulder-length brown hair had reportedly stopped a bullet with his left hand. Of course, no one had taken it seriously. It was 'impossible'. Which was precisely why they had managed to hear about it. After some digging around, Kira found someone willing to sell her, through less than legal means, CCTV footage of the alley the day it took place. She had to decrypt it herself, though.

The laptop somehow whirred even louder now but didn't seem to be working any faster. It was so bad even Sam was starting to worry, glancing over at it one too many times. She was just glad it was badly encrypted. If the encryption was advanced, it would've needed a much more powerful device, the type only Tony had access to and that was a no-go. Plus, the laptop was old. No one would miss it once it finally croaked.

Still, the laptop was battered enough that the decryption might finish in anywhere from the next few minutes or the next few days. She sighed and looked up at the TV screen, instead. Bad idea. The younger brother was getting all teary-eyed at the older one, who still hadn't recognised him, whilst vaguely talking about their family. Maybe a movie about long-lost siblings wasn't a great idea right now.

The doorbell interrupted them then. Sam looked over at Kira, panicked. "It's okay," she reassured him. "My danger sense isn't going off, it's probably just Steve or Nat." She checked her phone, sighed and then held it up, showing the hour-old text from Tony that they must've missed. "See? It has to be them. They got back a while ago."

"You sure?" he asked.

"No, Sam. I've been lying about my powers this whole time. I'm not even a Super Soldier," she deadpanned.

"Hilarious," he said, sarcastically, getting up to open the door to Steve and letting him in.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be working?" he asked almost as soon as he entered, looking pointedly at the TV, before dumping his bag next to Sam's bed.

"What happened to 'hello'?" Kira muttered into her noodles.

"We are, don't worry," Sam answered, sitting back down. "It's just taking forever to work."

Steve walked over and squished into the small space between his two friends. He stared at the laptop for a while like his glare alone could fix it.

"Hey, Steve?" Kira asked.

"Yeah," he replied, turning to her with his usual kind smile.

"You know the mission?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"...What happened?"

He stared at her blankly for a second. Then, "Oh, right. Shit, sorry." He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. "Yeah, it went well. You can read the mission report later if you want. Everything happened basically as planned," he told them. "Got Strucker and put him in jail, shut the base down, found Loki's sceptre— actually, there was something off." They looked at him curiously. "We found two enhanced. Twins. About your age." He turned to Kira.

"My age?" she asked sceptically. As Sam always loved to remind her, she was old enough to be his grandma. Great, more sad sibling stories, the voice in the back of her head added, unhelpfully.

"Biologically," he amended. "Think Strucker kidnapped and experimented on them, actually." Kira could almost see him lose his train of thought at the horrible realisation. More kids taken and hurt by Nazis for their own benefit. It was officially the world's shittiest never-ending cycle she would've been naive to think had miraculously stopped with her.

"Well, where are they now?" Sam asked, concerned.

"Not sure. They ran off almost immediately. Can't blame them. We're trying to keep tabs on them for the meantime, though."

"Why? You gonna invite them into the Avengers too? Get a little formerly kidnapped-by-HYDRA boyband going? A bit too specific, don't you think?" Kira joked, darkly. It was a bad habit.

"I mean, maybe. You might make some friends then, Ki." Steve was clearly very proud of himself with that. Kira was not.

"Hey!"

"Ouch."

"Or... you could come to the party Tony's hosting."

"Ugh, I already told you I'm not going," she turned away from them, defensive. "What the fuck am I going to do there? Smile as the richest and most boring people in the city tell me their life stories?"

"Sure. If you have to. At least you'll get in some practice socialising."

"You'll have fun, I promise," Sam tried.

"That's easy for you to say. Everyone loves you. Not many people like casual conversation with a Winter Soldier," she sulked. Kira paused. "Wait." She turned to Steve again. "Did you just say 'practice socialising'? What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, suddenly very offended. I know how to socialise... right? "Sam?"

He was silent for a second, clearly weighing up his options, before blurting out, with a pained look on his face, "Girl, you have no friends."

Kira scoffed. "What are you then?"

"Apart from me."

"And Nat?"

"You've known her forever. She doesn't count."

"Steve?"

"You work together. He doesn't count either."

She scowled at him.

"You've run out of people, haven't you?" Sam asked, a smile creeping up on his face.

"Oh, fuck you." Kira threw a pillow at his head as he burst out laughing.

Everything hurt. That wasn't too unusual. Aching in the shoulders from strain, the stabbing pain in the left leg that never quite went away, the stiffness in the hands from overuse. That was normal. What wasn't was the burning behind her eyelids, the dull throbbing of her head, and that sense of impending doom. The mission.

The soldier finally opened her eyes, rapidly blinking to adjust to the harsh beams of the fluorescent lights. The burning didn't stop. The stark white lights made the unfurnished room look clinical, in a way that sat uncomfortably in her stomach. The singular bed she was lying on, covered by a thin sheet, and that sharp, unnatural smell weren't helping either. Nothing around her was familiar. It all felt wrong. The mission.

Her comfort, post-mission, wasn't exactly top priority, but it still didn't make sense. That was exactly why she had been beaten awake so many times for a debrief afterwards. But there was no one here. Not even Jamie. The mission.

"Two targets. Level Six."

It had failed. She'd forgotten. Again.

Everything was collapsing when Jamie had left her. She couldn't remember a thing between then and now.

The targets. They must've taken her. The soldier started to panic. In the brief years that HYDRA had the Winter Soldiers, they were treated just as badly as when Department X had had them. But at least she knew what to expect. She knew nothing about the targets. Just what they looked like. And that they were powerful. They could do anything to her. And she was all alone. She had to get out.

The soldier surged up. Just to be thrown back down. Pain radiated from her torso. She looked down. Pulled off the sheet. Restraints. Tight around her middle, keeping her on the bed, with matching, but unactivated, cuffs around her wrists and ankles. She couldn't even swing her legs onto the floor. She scrambled to rip them off. Unnaturally tough. Like they were built for her, or someone stronger. Both thoughts were terrifying.

She pulled at them. They wouldn't budge. Dug her nails in. Trying to rip it apart from the seams. Something. Anything. Her fingers started to bleed. Nothing.

The blood made her fingers slip. She wiped them off on her clothes. Continued tugging at the restraints. Eyes watering as the burning worsened. Dull throbbing becoming sharp. Wrists aching from the weight.

They must know she's awake. They'll be here any second. There was nothing in the room to use as a weapon. But she had to try something. Had to get out. Or at least up. Try not to be at a complete disadvantage.

The soldier heard the footsteps then. She was out of time. Shit. One last tug at the restraints. Still nothing. They're getting closer. All she could do was stick to the three rules she had learnt very well in her time under Department X. Three sets of footsteps. One: shut up. Two: don't be a threat. Three: it'll end eventually. She curled up into herself, as much as she could, covered her head and turned to face the wall, eyes screwed shut.

The door banged open.

There was a long moment. And... nothing. Then, "Oh my God, Tony get those restraints off of her."

"Yeah, I'm trying. Hold on."

The restraints from around her middle retracted into the bed and she fully curled into a fetal position.

"I am so sorry. Are you okay?"

The soldier looked through the gap her arms made, in the direction the voice had come from. She saw three people standing in a doorway that had appeared in the wall on the opposite side of the room: a man with black hair who she'd never seen before, the blond man who was one of the targets from her last mission, and... the redheaded woman.

She pushed down the overwhelming feeling of familiarity and looked behind them. The opening was small and the trio stood in a practised way that meant it was near impossible to escape through, especially in her weakened state. Fuck. She was stuck here.

Sensing her uncertainty, the blond man slowly stepped forward and crouched down to eye level, peering through the gap in her arms. He smiled at her in a reassuring way, trying to make himself seem as unthreatening as possible. "Hi," he tried. "I'm really sorry about that. I hope you're not hurt."

He was met with silence, the only sound coming from the other man typing furiously on a device he held. The redheaded woman continued to watch the soldier with a strange expression. Who was she?

"You must be scared," he continued. "You have no reason to trust us, but I promise we mean no harm." More silence. "My name is Steve and these are my friends: Tony and Natasha," he tried, pointing to the man and woman in turn. "What's your name?"

"Name?" she blurted out, confused. Shit. Rule one wouldn't work for much longer, she reasoned, so it wasn't terrible that she had just, technically, broken it. Time for rule two: don't be a threat.

The soldier slowly lowered her arms and sat up. "I-" she paused and cleared her throat, voice cracking from underuse. "I don't have a name," she replied.

Steve's face fell, though she could tell he was trying not to show it. Strange. "Well, what would you like us to call you then?"

"I don't know." She couldn't figure out how else to respond to that. The soldier was never given a choice. And she definitely wasn't allowed to have a name.

But, she figured, they hadn't hurt her yet. In fact, they had actually been kind. Maybe her 'captors' weren't just another organisation she'd been passed to, to aid in hurting others. Maybe they weren't her captors at all. Maybe, for the first time in a while, she was free.

She whispered like it was a secret, "Kira. My name is Kira." She couldn't remember where she had gotten it from, but it felt right.

"Ok, Kira," Steve smiled. "Do you know why you're here?"

"I don't know."

"What do you know?" Tony, mumbled to himself, not expecting her to hear.

Kira heard perfectly, though. "My brother. Jamie," she answered earnestly.

The redheaded woman, Natasha, looked up then, so fast it almost looked like she had given herself whiplash. Now she fully had Kira's attention.

"Your brother, Jamie? As in James? James Barnes? About my height? Brown hair... metal arm?"

But Kira wasn't listening. She was staring directly at Natasha, this time with a look of recognition on her face. "I remember you."

"You probably recognise me from your last 'mission'," Natasha suggested, deflecting but staring right back at her.

Quietly but surely, she replied, "No. From before."

"We've never met, Kira."

"Nye vri mnye, Natalia." Don't lie to me.

The room suddenly went very quiet.

"Can you give me a minute?"

"But-"

"She's feeling better now, isn't she?" Natasha cut back in. "She can answer your questions and do your checkups later. Give me a minute."

With some quiet complaints, the two men left the room, the door sliding, quietly this time, into place like it had never been there, leaving them alone.

Natasha slowly lowered herself to sit on the bed next to Kira. "You remember?"

"Surprising, right?" she joked, humourlessly.

"How much do you remember?"

"Some," Kira replied shakily. She took a breath, steadying herself. "Enough," she amended. "I remembered quicker this time. I'll remember more."

Natasha sighed. "Kira-"

"You know he left me," she interrupted, no longer looking at her, but off into the distance instead.

Natasha was quiet for a second, taken aback. "What?"

Kira let it all out then. "He just walked off. I was bleeding out on the bank of that river. Next to your unconscious Steve. And he ignored me. Didn't even turn back once. No matter how many times I screamed at him to come back. I even tried dragging myself over to him. He just... left me." She turned back to Natasha and added, venom laced in her words, "With you."

Natasha tried not to let it show on her face just how much that hurt her. "Yeah, he did," she replied simply. Kira looked dejected. "That doesn't mean he hates you, though. You know he's not like that. What you've both been through..." she trailed off. "It probably means the opposite. He didn't just leave you with anyone. He left you with us. The same reason he saved Steve. He trusts us, even if he's not ready to face that right now."

Kira was quiet as she thought this over.

"And, don't tell anyone about this yet, but we've been looking for him. There might be a bigger reason why James left without you."

~ ✺ ~

"How is she?" Tony asked.

"Okay. Her head started hurting. She's resting now."

"What was that in there?" Steve asked. "What did she mean about 'remembering you from before'?"

"Guess you're about to find out. Right on time, Sam. Hope the file wasn't too hard to find," Nat called out as he walked into the room.

"The information you sent me was triple encrypted. And in Russian. You little shit."

Nat just laughed in response.

"What's this?" Tony asked.

"The file on the 'Second Winter Soldier'. Part of the Winter Soldier project, run by a 'Department X'. Connected to the Black Widow program. Turns out Bucky wasn't the only one," he explained, handing it off to Tony.

"Huh, guess that's how she recognised you, Nat," Tony commented as he took the file.

"And... you might wanna sit down when you read through it. It's... heavy."

Steve shot Nat a funny look that meant 'We are talking about this later', as soon as Tony was distracted by the file. He opened it up to the first page where an old picture of Kira sat.

The girl in the photo was a couple of years younger than the Kira they knew - maybe a teenager. Her wavy black hair was choppily cut just below her chin. Someone out of frame was holding her head in place for the picture. Her brown eyes looked dead and her brown skin sullen. The old scars they had just seen on her face, were fresh in the photo.

"Don't have to wonder about where all those scars came from then," Tony said solemnly. "Guess I just have to be thankful she's somewhere safer now."

"Yeah," Steve replied, frowning. "Safer being... in one of the handful of cells you have, ready and waiting, in the basement of the tower, each strong enough to hold a supersoldier, right?"

"Don't take it personally Cap. There are cells in there strong enough to hold me too," Tony dodged.

"That can't have been much of a feat."

"Ha ha. Very funny, Nat," Tony deadpanned. Then added in a mumble, "I meant with the suit on."

Sam interrupted before they could continue to argue. "Look, it's not that important now. You guys have a much bigger problem to deal with... and by that I mean the assassin trained from birth currently in your basement. You should probably start with the fact that she definitely doesn't have a social security number."

"Great, another job for me to do."

"Tony," Steve warned.

"No, no. You're right. It's super simple and I totally shouldn't complain. We just need to draw up every single document a person needs to exist in this country, for a world-class assassin, and then keep her alive long enough to appreciate it. How hard could it possibly be?" he replied, his words dripping with sarcasm.

Steve just sighed.