Ash's POV

As soon as Ultron made the first blow, everyone was everywhere fighting and I stood in the middle of the fray before setting my sights on Nat and, feeling my rage start to set in, I went after her.

I didn't get within 5 feet of her before she sensed me coming and she grabbed me and kept me locked against a wall with my arms twisted behind my back.

"What are you doing?!"

"Fighting for my own..." I growled before igniting my hands to burn her into letting me go so I could retaliate with a swift kick to her side to throw her off balance.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Nat questioned as she got back up and we engaged in one on one.

"None of you told me that you had to fight Xavion when you stormed that base!" I snapped angrily as I threw a punch and she caught it before pushing me back.

"Because we didn't want to have to tell you that we lost him after saving him."

"What are you talking about?!" I lunged at Nat and grabbed her forehead with one hand, about to throw her to the side like she taught me before my mind's eye started seeing different hazy scenes; Nat's memories.

"He's here!" Nat's voice sounded while looking out at the battlefield in front of "me" in Nat's perspective. Looking up I could see a fiery streak flying above before realizing it was my mind-controlled friend when he started to rain down fireballs onto the team.

"Get the EMP cannon ready!" Tony's voice came through Nat's earpiece.

I saw "myself" lifting a high tech weapon and aimed it at the approaching red blur before firing a shimmery blast of energy that hit Xavion dead on, but it didn't seem to hurt him until the collar around his neck started to spark up before the red light on it went out and he was left hovering right above me.

"Kid, you need to get back to our ship now if you want to see your friend again." Nat's voice called out to him while he was clutching his head in pain.

"Lumna...." Xavion groaned with pain before he managed to straighten up again.

"Go! Now!" Nat yelled at him and he took off in the direction of the Quinjet.

Just when it seemed like he was going to make it, something shot him out of the sky and he plummeted toward the ground as his fire died out and left him as a falling smoking streak.

"No!"

I was starting to get pulled out of the memories as Wanda came over and had used her powers on Nat putting her in her worst nightmare and the few glimpses I got before I fully came out were enough to fill me with a chilling horrific sensation.

"Are you alright?" Wanda questioned worriedly and I just breathed deeply with the sense of clarity I had received from the experience of living in someone else's memories and worst fear. Pure anger and hatred turned to fear as I wordlessly shook my head at Wanda's question.

"Pietro!"

Before I knew what had happened, I was standing back outside near the giant shipping containers and Pietro was there telling me,

"Stay here..."

Before disappearing again in a blue and silver blur, leaving me to take in all that I learned in the last few minutes; Ultron had lied to me about the Avengers deliberately attacking my friend and now, most likely, he was still lying, but what I couldn't figure out was what he was really trying to accomplish. The Vibranium, recruiting the twins, turning me to his side; they all played a part in his ultimate plan for ending the Avengers.

For a few minutes, I stood there at a loss at what I had done; I had let my anger control me, violating everything I had been taught ever since landing on this planet and shame now filled my very core.

A quick breeze and a whooshing sound alerted me to Pietro and Wanda's return, only Wanda wasn't looking too good from the way she was trying to catch her breath while wincing.

"What happened!" I rushed over and kneeled down next to her as Pietro asked,

"What can I do?"

"It hurts..." Wanda gasped out as she continued to wince and put a hand to her forehead.

"I'm going to kill him. I'll be right back."

"No. I'm alright. I want... I want to finish the plan. I want the big one." I looked in the direction of Wanda's glare and my eyes widened when I saw Bruce outside the Quinjet looking in our direction.

"No you can't." I protested blocking their view as I stood in front of them with my arms stretched out.

"What are you doing?" Wanda questioned with angry confusion.

"Seems like everyone's asking me that today..." I smiled ruefully before making a serious face again to say, "Ultron lied to me and there's a good chance he's lying to you two as well. My friend-"

"You were never on our side were you?"

"You just wanted to infiltrate us and uncover our secrets..." Pietro spoke with betrayal in his voice.

"No I-"

"Out of my way..." Wanda threatened standing back up with her hands starting to glow red.

"Please don't do this..." I pleaded with my hands still raised in a surrendering motion.

Abruptly, Wanda lunged forward and I threw myself out of the way and was about to take off flying to the Quinjet when Pietro grabbed my leg and threw me back down to the ground where I saw a swirl of red and then everything turned to warm colors and my mind blanked out in a surge of heat and anger.

3rd Person POV

"Of course not I'm already there." Ultron told Tony as he was being held in place on the threat of Tony's blaster, "You'll catch on, but first you might need to catch Dr. Banner and Ash."

Just before Tony could shoot Ultron, another fire blast came from behind him to completely destroy Ultron's metallic body. Turning around in shock, Tony saw a kid with bushy red hair, ashy gray skin minus a bright orange tattoo-like swirled marking running along his upper left arm, and piercing yellow eyes wearing a torn-up HYDRA uniform with the logo having been ripped off breathing heavily as if he had been running before turning his attention to Tony and asking in a completely casual way,

"Oh I'm sorry did you have that?"

"Uhhhhh I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Xavion. I'm a friend of Ash's."

"Uh huh..." Tony answered back skeptically before he got an alert from JARVIS about incoming emergency calls about the Hulk running loose in the city along with a fiery being, both of whom were under Wanda's mental magic and were raging out of control.

"Natasha I could really use a lullaby." Tony notified said person only to get a response back from Clint.

"Yeah that's not gonna happen, not for a while. The whole team's down you got no back up here."

"I'm calling in Veronica." Tony turned to Xavion to tell him, "Hey Hothead, if you want to help out, start by helping me get my teammates under control."

"That I can do." Xavion spoke confidently before his hands lit up and he took off flying toward the city in front of Tony, who was getting some minor suit upgrades from Veronica while they flew along.

Below them, they could see the Hulk starting to tear apart a police vehicle while Ash was snarling at the already terrified and retreating citizens as they ran away and she started melting anything metal she could get her burning hands on.

As soon as Tony and Xavion got within eyeshot, Ash seemed to sense them and she gave a pained howl and started to take off in the opposite direction the Hulk was heading in.

"Crap they're splitting up. Kid you got Coppertop?"

"On it." Xavion steered himself to fly after Ash as she crash-landed on top of a building with a large wiry tower on it. Xavion landed more gently on top of the building as he carefully approached Ash, who looked like she was having a fight with herself and was losing badly.

"Ash?" Xavion carefully asked and she sharply turned to face him with a twisted rabid look on her face with her eyes glowing a sickly red color, glowing liquid dripping from her nose and mouth, and her general movements seemed broken and uncoordinated.

"It's me... you tried to help me before when I was like this..." Xavion took slow, careful steps toward her as he continued to talk, "only I had no choice but you have a choice, just come with me and I can help you..."

Ash seemed to calm down just a tiny bit as Xavion got close enough to put his hand on her shoulder before the red in her eyes darkened and she gave another pained scream before punching Xavion back with enough fired up force to where he crashed into a leg of the tower hard enough to fully dislodge it and the tower started to lean dangerously to one side.

"OK, plan B..." Xavion tackled Ash off the building and while they were plummeting to the ground below he unleashed a powerful stream of flames on an empty truck, sending it up in flames and he kicked Ash in the direction of the flaming vehicle and she crashed into it making the explosion magnify tenfold as he hovered in the air far above it.

Right as the fire died back down, Xavion heard metallic creaking behind him and saw that the tower was starting to bend on its last two attached legs and was about to snap in half until he flew to the tip of the tower and grabbed onto it with his hands and intensified his flames to where he propelled through the air with the tower in his grasp and he straightened it back upright before sending two coordinated spheres of flames to the broken legs to weld the broken pieces back together to stabilize the base of the tower.

"OK, that was my cardio for the day..." Xavion lightheartedly grumbled to himself as he flew back down to the bonfire where he launched Ash.

He waited to see if she had been snapped out of the trance, both of mental manipulation and of Tayen and it wasn't long before a hand fought its way to the surface followed by the rest of Ash.

Xavion quickly pulled her out of the fire and brought her out to the street where she crumpled to the ground as the large shadow of a jet came over the two of them.

Right before the jet landed close to the pair, Ash started to pass out again with her head leaning against Xavion's shoulder and the rest of her on the street as her new marks glowed radiantly before dimming back down.

1897 Words

AN- I'm really sorry for not updating recently but I've got a lot going on in my life right now with school and family issues that need sorting out. I will still be trying to update as soon as I can, especially with my new laptop working better than my mom's laptop, but I probably won't be able to update every Friday like I used to with all the stuff I got going on right now. Thank you to those of you who still read my stories and I hope to not disappoint you with how my stories are going.