~BARNES~

My eyes stare at the footage before me, taken from a security camera in New York. Mel walks through the busy streets all the way to Trafalgar Square, looking at her surroundings. Her eyes widen as she collapses to the ground. She then clutched her hands to her temples in agony, the sight making a rock form in my stomach. A small crowd forms around her, lead by another red-haired woman. She speaks to Mel for a few seconds before wrapping her arm around her shoulder and taking her away from the dispersing crowd.

The footage ends, reverting back to a clear image of the woman's face, along with Mel's. I blink, processing the information. "How old is this footage?" I ask Tony, who sits down on a chair beside me. "Two hours. Maybe less." I nod, licking my lips. "Are you ready to leave?" I ask. "I need to get my suit, but other than that Spangles and I are ready to go. I have a plane we can take to New York." I nod once more.

"Let's go."

~ANIMALIA~

My head lolls to the side, feeling slowly returning to my body. Dry blood sits in my eardrums and a sharp pain comes from one of my ribs, sending dull pains across my abdomen. I open my tired eyes, revealing a very blurry Lee sitting on a couch. A clear bag of chopped stone fruit sits in her hand with 'DO NOT TOUCH' scrawled across it. Lee pops a yellow piece into her mouth, smiling in content.

She notices my stirring, quickly swallowing the food and putting the bag on a coffee table next to her. I shift positions, noticing that I too am sitting on the couch. Lee puts her hands in the air as if in surrender. "I don't wanna do that again, 'kay? That wasn't fun for me either." My grip tightens around the arm of the couch, my body ready to launch me over the side and toward the front door a few metres away.

"Please relax. Clearly you don't intend to kill me, so I'm guessing you aren't working for HYDRA, right? If you did, you would've just killed me to get me out of the way and you wouldn't have been out in the open." She nods, quite certain of her statement. "I don't wanna hurt you. I just don't want HYDRA getting their hands on you again." I continue to sit, my body rigid and eyes unblinking. She nods again. "Okay, well, trying to help you is going to be pretty hard if you don't speak. So can you just... say... something?"

I avert my gaze, swallowing. My eyes scan the room around me, seemingly just a living room. The shuffling of plastic snaps my head back to Lee, who now offers me a bag of fruit. "You must be hungry." When I don't respond, she shakes her head. "Take this as a compliment. I don't share my food very much. I mostly steal from my friend's fridge."

Glancing down at the bag of fruit, I notice how hungry I actually am. I mustn't have eaten for days. Tentatively taking the bag and eating a piece of red fruit, I feel a little better. My fruit tastes sweet on my lips, the flavour exploding across my tongue. It's far better than the food I remember at HYDRA. I eat in silence, with Lee watching me. After a few moments, I mumble a small "Thank you."

"No problem."

When I finish the bag, Lee takes it and walks away, underneath an archway. She returns shortly after, with a water bottle and a biscuit. I take the bottle first, unscrewing the blue lid and gulping down the liquid. I down it in one breath. I make a start on the cookie, the brown chocolate chips tasting heavenly. After more silence, Lee speaks once more.

"Mind telling me how you escaped?"

Swallowing some of my cookie, I don't speak nor take another bite. "I, uh... I was on a mission. Director Van- I mean, Melony Vandenberg, she... Left her comm on and said some things that made me realise that something was wrong. I couldn't go to HYDRA in case they wiped me, and SHIELD won't take me because... Because I..."

Lee raises an eyebrow, her kind eyes searching mine for an answer.

"I killed Nick Fury."

Lee nods, as if this is all common knowledge. "I'm not surprised he turned up dead. That man was a dick. He was just smart enough to seem like a friend and not a foe. Enemies with HYDRA, countless civilians and I know a few people who aren't his biggest fans, myself included." It's my turn to be puzzled. "You're glad he's dead?" I ask. Lee laughs.

"No, I don't think many people in this world deserve to die, but once you've lost my respect, you can go to hell."

"But he was the leader of SHIELD?"

"He is, but good people can do bad things and vice versa. You'll understand eventually. Hopefully you'll regain your memories soon."

"And why do you have such a strong hatred towards Nick Fury?"

"That's a long story."

"I've got time."

~NIXON~

I run through the halls in the helicarrier, eventually arriving at a flight of stairs. Climbing them, I make my way to the flight deck, ready to fight the robotic monsters waiting to attack. "Crescendo, Ember and Mirror, get to the flight deck now." I burst through the stairwell doors, revealing the endless sky. "Already there Director." I report. "Copy that." Both of my friends reply.

Ultron's robots fly a few metres above the helicarrier, growing in numbers. They swoop and rip at the ships above them, the unfortunate crew lasting no longer than a few minutes against the army. Pointing my palms toward the ground, I blast at the tarmac below me, sending me soaring into the sky. Sharpening my hearing and dulling the loud booms around me, I attack the robots.

I blast one of their heads off with the sound waves, sending as much sound as I can in every direction. The sound of splitting metal fills the air, hurting my ears. My body starts to descend from the sky, toward the ground. "Mirror!" I exclaim into my comm, just as a silvery square reveals itself. I fall through the mirror, revealing the blue sky. My body passes through the layer of concrete, sitting on top of it. I jump up, backflipping through the mirror once more, revealing the real world.

Ember torches anything and everything in front of her, screaming profanities, while Mirror tricks the robots when they pass through the silvery portal, shutting it off and leaving half of their body behind. I close my eyes, opening my ears to the world. All the agents abandon us to defend the deck.

I hear Mirror's deep breaths, the minute crackling of every comm on this ship, the mechanical whir that the robots give off, along with every sound wave bouncing through the air. Without opening my eyes, I can see -hear- the world in an echoing, noisy reality. A robot comes up behind me, so I focus on its noise, my eyes remaining closed. I swing around and knock its head clean off of its body with my fist, surrounded by the sounds I'm hearing.

It is then I notice the quiet.

No profanities come from behind or around me, nor the steady breathing from Mirror.

Whipping around, the world seems to slow. Ember lies on the ground, her blonde hair spread in every direction around her. A splatter of blood runs up her cheek, her beautiful eyes permanently fixed toward the sky. My throat starts to close, a horrible choking sound coming from it. "Jess!" I scream, running toward her. I grab her jacket, shaking her a little. "No! Please! You can't leave us!" She doesn't move and I know I'm too late.

I lift my head, trying to find Laura. "Laura!" I holler, noticing her small, broken, form lying against a plane wheel. A swarm of robots close in on her while she sits there, helpless. "No!" I scream, sending an enormous blast toward the monsters, shattering them in every direction. Running toward my dying friend, my heartbeat races. They can't both die. They can't.

Blood pours from several stab wounds in her abdomen, her lips drained of colour. "Laura. Laura don't you dare die on me. Stay with me." I say, putting pressure on the wound near her heart. Laura smiles a weak smile. "It's okay." She says, her voice barely a whisper. "You're going to be okay without us." Tears pour down my cheeks, sobs coming from my throat.

"Don't say that. You're going to be fine." I say, even though it's an obvious lie. Laura coughs, the violent movement bringing blood to her lips. She sighs, closing her eyes. "Laura?" I ask. She doesn't respond, her chest unmoving. "Laura?!" I ask, hysterical. Anger flows through my veins, anger at the agents for abandoning us, at Ultron for using his robots to kill my friends and finally Nick Fury, for ordering us to fight alone.

I grit my teeth, sending a lethal sound wave across the entire flight deck, shifting planes and killing all the robots.

"I hate that man. I feel hollow and alone because of him."