AN- Warning! Mentions of blood and a death and some new Chrysinthean terms that will be defined toward the end but is the entire finale of Civil War to make up for the long hiatus... again... ^^;

3rd Person POV

Time Skip to Morning

"How is he?" Xay asked Dr. Miller as she finished Vision's medical examination and he, Ash, and Zaruk were waiting outside the medbay room.

"For a synthezoid, he's recovering well and should be fully healed in less than an hour." Dr. Miller assured him before adding, "His synthetic organic tissue simulacrum allowed him to take the force of multiple concussive impacts and-" She stopped when she saw the confused look on Xay's face and added, "He's super strong and has hyper regeneration like you all."

"Oh Ok." Xay nodded in understanding before saying, "Have you figured out why and how he was shoved through the floor like some kind of living demolitions device," He caught was he said and quickly stuttered out, "Uh I d-didn't mean it like tha-"

"He knows you didn't mean it like that..." Ash spoke blankly interrupting him as she stared out the window with her arms crossed.

There was a moment of silence as the three of them looked at each other with raised eyebrows before Xay asked,

"How do you know?"

"You forget that he, Wanda, and I are all psychically connected because of our past encounter with the Mind Stone... I know she's the one who did this to him... and I know about Clint joining her, Steve, Sam, and Bucky..."

"Then it's a good thing we have you on our side to fight them." They heard Caleb from behind them and they turned to see he was standing there with Tony and Ross by his side.

"Suit up, you and the others are jetting out of here in five to intercept the targets at the Leipzig-Halle Airport in Schkeuditz, Saxony."

"You mean our friends?" Ash bluntly stated as she gave Ross an indignant look.

"The targets." Ross emphasized before he walked off leaving her with, "I hope you make the right choice..."

"Unfortunately he has a point, you did make a deal with him." Caleb pointed out.

"And it's up to me to honor and uphold it..." Ash added a bit dejectedly.

"Well as much as I'd like to join in this depression-fest I've got someone to pick up so we'll meet you in Berlin." Tony broke the solemn ambiance and was about to walk off with his hands in his pockets when he stopped and gave Ash a gentle hair ruffle like how Bruce used to and whispered to her,

"Hey, if it gets too intense for you, you can leave, I'll figure out what to tell Ross..."

Ash just gave a simple head nod with a tiny mouth corner smile as Tony left and she turned back to the group to say,

"I guess this means I'm heading off to Berlin..."

"This sucks!" Xay suddenly spoke up loudly, surprising everyone before complaining, "We should get to come with you, but according to that military-happy general, we have to stay here."

Wickity crawled up to his shoulder and gave a squawk of agreement.

"At least this way I know you'll be safe..." Ash tried to look on the bright side but failed as Xay argued his voice rising more heatedly with every word,

"I've been able to fight by your side before, why should this time be any different?"

"Because this time I'm not fighting enemies, I'm fighting against my friends!" Ash snapped back, her calm front shattering.

A short silence followed before it was broken by Caleb saying,

"Uh I really I mean really hate to interrupt this.. tense moment, but the jet's taking off in two minutes sooo... you might want to hurry."

"Please keep an eye on him, Shawna." Ash told her before she turned away and started walking toward the hangar already regretting leaving things on a bad note with Xay once again, since, for the battle ahead, she had to shut her personal feelings aside and many more things that made her head and core ache in sync only worsening the dread already within her very being...

Another Time Skip

After arriving at the airport where Steve and the others were said to be heading towards, Ash had suited up on the quick flight over and was about to open the case where the Crown was stored, lightly touching the braid that Xay had made for her, when she heard excited, high-pitched exclamations coming from nearby.

Walking towards the sounds, she saw a young man wearing a bright red and blue close-fitting suit with a spider symbol on the chest minus a mask taking selfies with Tony, Vision, Rhodey, and Nat in the background as their group stood a little distance from him and they were no doubt discussing battle strategies.

"Who are you?" Ash asked the boy who was startled at her sudden appearance and froze in a get-away-from-me position before his eyes widened and he pointed at her before he smiled and spoke excitedly,

"Ohmygosh y-y-you're the Ion Phoenix! This is so awesome!"

"And you are?" Ash merely raised an eyebrow at his over-the-top energetic attitude.

"O-oh r-right I'm uh I'm Spider Parker I-I mean P-Peter Man AGHH I mean Peter Parker AKA Spiderman!"

"Nice to meet you, Peter Parker AKA Spiderman." Ash gave a bit of a wry smile as she held out her hand for him to shake and he practically grabbed it with both hands and shook it eagerly as he told her,

"I-It's such an honor to meet you! I mean you were the one who saved my aunt and uncle from a falling piece of a building back in New York and I've wanted to say thank you in person for so long."

Ash was surprised at this piece of information before thinking back to the Battle of New York and recalled saving a couple from a piece of a building that had been broken off by a Chitauri.

"Well I... was just trying to do the right thing..." Ash faltered a bit as Peter kept shaking her hand vigorously before he noticed and stopped before saying,

"S-Sorry I've really wanted to meet you for so long and now that y-you're right in front of me it's just so.. Whaaaaaaat...? And now I just want a picture with you b-but I don't want to be weird or have it feel forced-"

As he continued his starstruck babbling, Ash smiled at Peter's fanboy attitude and went to stand next to him and held a thumbs up before he realized what she was doing and held up his phone to take a picture of the two of them in their poses; Ash with her thumbs up with a genuine, at ease smile on her face and Peter pointing at her with an excited look of disbelief on his face.

"Thank you sososososo much Ion Phoenix!"

"That's my callsign out in the field, off it, you can just call me Ash."

Smiling, Ash started to walk away and could hear the beginning of Peter's self narrating and he video-recorded himself before it faded into the background,

"The most awesomest thing just happened I-I still can't believe it-"

Still smiling, she made her way back toward the monitor where she could connect to the Compound's network.

Before she could start typing though, she saw the case where Crown was inside of and her smile fell as she opened it, revealing the piece of tech. However, but there was a symbol on the tip of it, one that she recognized as the Chrysinthean symbol of protection and alliance, one that either Xay or Zaruk's placed on it as she placed the Crown on her forehead and proceeded to log into the monitor to type in the address for the Compound when she heard a voice from behind her,

"I am not sure it is wise to allow children into the battle ahead."

Turning around she saw that T'Challa was talking with Tony and she didn't bother to listen to his no doubt smart-alec response and pulled up a video feed of the Compound Medbay,

"How is everything over there?"

"Oh you know... just feeling benched again after you said you weren't going to do it again! How many more times are you going to say we're in this together only to leave me behind just because you think it's going to be too tough for me to handle?!" Xay yelled through the monitor making Ash wince and lean back a bit before she shook her head and asked bluntly,

"Other than that?" Making Xay widen his eyes in disbelief and Zaruk narrow their eyes in suspicion as Caleb announced confidently,

"Shawna and I are going to be wirelessly monitoring your vitals and radiation levels via the neural link within the Crown that's transmitting to this biometric reader." Caleb held up a briefcase that had small monitor screens in it to display Ash's heart rate, internal radiation levels, and other biometrics as well as a small, glowing, round cavity in the center that looked to be its power source, "If anything starts to go sideways, we'll know."

"Alright showtime!" Tony's voice called out from behind Ash and she looked his way before telling them,

"I'll see you all when this is over." And was about to shut off the monitor when Shawna told her,

"Ash, never forget... trust in yourself and what you can do... it's what he always believed you would be able to do even if he wasn't around..."

Catching the mention of her adoptive father, Ash faltered a bit before she gently pressed the key to end the video feed and stood there with her arms hanging by her sides and tears starting to well in her eyes before she used her sleeve to wipe them away and steeled herself as she took to the skies behind Tony and Rhodey.

Down below, Steve was in his uniform running toward a helicopter before Tony shot an electro-disabler at it, rendering it useless.

"Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don't you think that's weird?" Tony quipped as he, Rhodey, and Ash landed in front of the downed helicopter.

"Definitely weird." Rhodey agreed and Ash simply nodded with a grim expression on her face.

"You brought her into this?" Steve looked at Tony in disbelief as he looked at Ash.

"It was her choice." Tony told him pointedly and Ash added,

"I have to do whatever it takes to keep my people safe..."

"Hear me out, Tony." Steve started to implore, "That doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this."

Before he could continue with his plea, T'Challa in his suit leaped over a truck to land slightly behind Steve as he greeted him,

"Captain."

"Your highness."

"Anyway, Ross gave me 36 hours to bring you in. That was 24 hours ago. Can you help a brother out?" Tony asked.

"You're after the wrong guy." Steve argued.

"Your judgment is askew. Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday."

"And there are five more super soldiers just like him. I can't let the doctor find them first, Tony. I can't."

"Steve..." Nat appeared from behind him to warn him, "You know what's about to happen. Do you really wanna punch your way out of this one?"

There was a moment of contemplative silence before Tony announced,

"All right, I've run out of patience." Cupping his hands around his mouth to shout, "Underoos!"

Suddenly, a blue and red blur vaulted over Steve before shooting a white substance at his hands to bind them while simultaneously stealing his shield from his grasp before landing on another automobile to reveal themself as Spider-Man.

"Nice job, kid." Tony told him and Peter began to nervous-excitedly babble again,

"Thanks. Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit... Well, it's nothing, Mr. Stark. It's-it's perfect. Thank you."

"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation." Tony told him to try and cut off his babbling as they had a back and forth conversation.

"Okay. Cap-Captain. Big fan, I'm Spider-Man."

"Yeah, we'll talk about it later. Just..."

"Hey, everyone."

"Good job."

"You've been busy." Steve noted cutting off their chatter.

"And you've been a complete idiot. Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place. I'm trying to keep-I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart." Tony retorted, his voice nearly cracking at the last part of his statement.

"You did that when you signed. And forcing this onto Ash, a kid Tony, she shouldn't have to fight to prove som-" Steve started to say before Tony sharply cut him off with,

"I'm sorry that isn't what you said back in New York, she was a kid then and you said-"

"I know what I said, it was wrong of me to have forced that on her then but now the choice should be hers and hers alone on how she should continue to help people... whether it's ours or hers..."

Back at the Compound, Xay, Zaruk, Shawna, and Caleb were listening and watching the whole encounter from airport security cameras.

"What he's proposing seems reasonable... but I highly doubt Ross would agree with that notion..." Zaruk spoke with a neutral expression.

"Well you have to see things from his perspective, you all being here puts all of us at risk with the possibility of a future attack from the Oajins who forced you to have to come here in the first place." Caleb noted nonchalantly.

Zaruk's head snapped to look at him and was about to question something when they heard a pained yelp coming from the monitor and they saw that another person had joined the fight,

"I believe this is yours, Captain America." The man told Steve as he handed him his shield after snatching it back from Peter.

After that everyone split up, Peter and T'Challa went to take on Bucky and Sam, Rhodey went after Steve, and Tony went after Wanda and Clint, and Ash and Nat took on the new guy,

"Hey I'm Scott Lang, Ant-Man." He introduced himself before saying, "Look, I really don't want to hurt you."

"I wouldn't stress about it." Nat makes a grab for him before he seemingly disappeared only to reveal he had shrunk and was attempting to neutralize Nat by flipping her to the ground before Ash lit a fire in her right hand before using her left hand to "pull" at the flame like a slingshot and fired a small fireball at the space where Ant-Man was running on Nat's arm, sending him slamming into a nearby truck to leave a tiny dent in it, but also slightly scorching part of Nat's suit, less damage than if she hadn't dodged out of the way.

"Another new trick? Maybe you could use a little more practice." Nat questioned as she pushed herself up and brushed off the smoldering suit material before the fire could spread while Ash stood still looking at Nat with an empty gaze that made it seem like she wasn't really looking at her,

Their attention was turned when they heard multiple crashes coming from the car parking lot and Ash sensed a familiar energy signature coming from the source,

"Go help Tony, he's gonna need your help more than me." Nat grinned wryly and Ash simply nodded and flew toward where Clint and Wanda were standing looking at a pile of crashed cars.

As Ash landed silently behind them, they both reacted defensively; Clint raised his bow in her direction and Wanda lifted her energy-circled hands until they saw it was Ash standing there.

"Ash..." Wanda lowered her hands just a bit and the energy around them started to fade as Clint lowered his bow to tell her,

"You don't have to do this..."

"I have to protect my people..." Ash practically growled as she lifted her arms with her palms facing the ground to create a ring of fireballs around her, but Wanda noticed something off about the energy they were giving off, it seemed to have a deep undertone of hostility that didn't seem to belong to Ash and the flames themselves were a violent shade of intense red instead of their regular bright, fiery reddish-orange.

As Ash launched them toward them, Wanda threw her hands up to create an energy barrier in front of her and Clint and the fighting continued.

Back at the Compound, Zaruk, Xay, and Shawna noticed Ash's abnormal show of aggressive power and behavior.

"Something's not right... even being pressured she wouldn't resort to this much hostility." Xay stated with determined concern.

"You're right, I've known her for a few years now and this isn't like her at all." Shawna put a hand to her chin in thought before she theorized, "Maybe there's an issue with the hypothalamic integral network. Can I see Dylan's plans for the Crown again? Maybe there's a malfunction somewhere we're missing?"

Shawna went to pick up the folder where the Crown blueprints were held before Caleb slammed a hand over it and told her with a daunting tone of voice,

"Its design is perfect. The Crown will serve its true purpose."

"And what would that be?" Zaruk questioned as they reached for their branches holstered underneath their cloak while Caleb silently reached for an open case behind him with his free hand as he answered,

"The beginning of the Reaping..."

Right before he back-handed Shawna away from the files, he grabbed an alien-looking blaster from the case and began firing at Zaruk and Xay as they took cover behind some desks they overturned to use as protection from the blasts.

Meanwhile, on the monitor in the background, the two rivaling sides, Captain America and Iron Man, charged at each other and began to fight, Ash still fighting uncharacteristically viciously as if possessed by someone else. Zaruk managed to grab Shawna and pull her to safety with them and saw that she had managed to snag one of the papers within the folder before she had gotten hit away and asked her as they deflected a beam with one of their branches,

"What is that?"

"It's the blueprints for the Crown." She told them as she read them over even with all the chaos around and widened her eyes when she read out loud, "It's not really a technological buffer, it's actually some kind of neurotransmitter that establishes some kind of mental control over the person wearing it."

"How is that possible?" Xay questioned as he tried to calm Wickity down after his wing and side had gotten grazed by one of the energy beams.

"The original plans were for a neurotransmitter created as a form of mind control developed by Arnim Zola when he was still working for HYDRA within SHIELD, but the plans were altered to tap into 'special alien energy signatures'." She explained while reading the notes on the back of the blueprints.

"So Ash is being mind-controlled right now?!" Xay exclaimed as he peered over the toppled desk to see the footage on the monitor of Ash firing away at Wanda and her trying to block the rapid-fire with her energy shield, her lips moving as she tried to talk to Ash but it fell on deaf ears.

"Not only that, the transmitter is acting as some kind of emitter meant to pinpoint some other form of energy, but it doesn't say what..."

"How about I just show you!" Caleb called out as he stopped firing long enough to hold up the "opal" from before and slam it down into the empty space in the biometric reader, making sparks fly from the machine and sending out transparent waves that hit Zaruk, Xay, and Wickity dead-on as they were about to rush at Caleb, but as soon as they were struck with the waves, their cores, in Witicky's case the jewel on his forehead, lit up glowing a haunting gray and Zaruk and Xay clutched at their chests and before they staggered to their knees and fell to their sides with winces of pain on their faces while Wickity clawed at his head.

On the monitor showing the airport battle, Ash was seen falling to the ground from a few feet off the ground, but instead of falling to the ground right away, it seemed like she was trying to fight back against the influence as she haphazardly flew away from the fight as her powers went out of control, but everyone else was too preoccupied fighting to notice.

"No! What are you doing to them?!" Shawna cried out as she ran out from the shelter of the overturned desks to kneel between Xay and Zaruk as they continued writhing in pain from whatever the biometric reader was actually doing to them and Ash.

"You've read the blueprints, it's as you said, pinpoints energy signatures and exposes their location through signaling."

"Why are you doing this?!" Shawna stood up in front of the two with her hands balled into fists glaring at Caleb fiercely.

"You seem to be the one closest to these invaders, I would think you of all people would have seen it up close."

"Seen what?"

"How wherever they go, destruction and tragedy follow them. They took my niece, Dana, from me after we had already lost the rest of our family back in New York."

"Ash tried to save her!"

"And yet she was somehow able to save her own kind!" Caleb shouted back before he looked down and more broken than anything until he started monologuing with scorn clear in his voice, "I thought we were all doomed to the same fate as long as boundaryless so-called heroes like the Avengers allowed her and her people to roam the planet freely. Until Hallaway found me and gave me a way to help his benefactors track down all other Chrysintheans on this planet so they could take them all away from here and make his planet safe for humans again... all I needed to do was find someone close enough to one of them to activate their device and put their plan into motion..."

"You used me and Dylan to get to Ash to do this to them?!" Shawna shouted angrily at him before he darkly chuckled and held up a remote to turn on the tv screens behind her before saying darkly,

"To all of them..."

On the screens, she could see multiple news stations covering worldwide how previously-disguised-as-human beings were "rampaging" and destroying everything in their wake with their elemental abilities, but Shawna could see the pain in their movements and on their faces as they struggled the fight the suffering being inflicted on them from so far away. Shawna's hands flew to her mouth in shock as she watched local authorities arrive on the scenes to apprehend them and either shoot them down or get injured from getting too close to their blasts.

"Now what's left of them will be taken far away from this planet and we'll finally be safe from what would have come if they had stayed." Caleb tapped the "opal" in the device being used to impair Ash, Xay, Wickity, Zaruk, and all other Chrysintheans, making Shawna realize what the "special alien energy signatures" were; their cores and that was what was being used to connect to all the others all around the planet as a way of tracking their positions.

"Not everyone fears them, those who don't will fight back against what you're doing!" Shawna turned her back on him and started furiously tapping away at the computer.

"Then I guess we'll have to send a message to them on what will happen if they try to help the enemies."

"Sh..aw...na..." Zaruk reached up to her as he saw Caleb start to approach her with the blaster in his hand but she was too focused on her mission to notice or react.

A metallic firing up sound finally snapped her attention away from the screen but she managed to type a few more things before a sharp pain shot through her stomach and she froze in place before looking down to see a growing red stain through her lab coat.

"Hrr..." Just before Shawna could collapse to the floor as well, she pressed a button on the keyboard and whispered, "Message sent..."

"N-nooo...." Zaruk murmured right before they dropped back down to the floor, completely exhausted just as Xay came to enough to witness Shawna's elimination and growl,

"We'll tell them what really happened here..."

"Oh child..." Caleb strode over to Shawna's fallen body and kneeled down, "That's not what they'll see..."

He stepped back to reveal that he had placed metallic cuffs on Shawna's wrists despite her ineffective attempt to fight back, ones with Chrysinthean symbols on them that were similar to the ones on Zaruk's cloak and Xay's satchel and Xay fought to get up but ended up wearing himself out and fell back to the ground fully unconscious.

"Now I think it's time for me to take my leave..."

"You won't get away with this..." Shawna weakly seethed as she tried to rise from the ground, but slumped back down using her cuffed hands to clutch her wound.

"We already have..." Caleb smirked as he turned the dial up on the emitter increasing the intensity of the pain as well as the location parameters of the planet before striding out of the room, leaving a small disk on the computer that overloaded it and anything connected to it making a few devices self-destruct and leaving craters around the room that looked similar to blast impacts.

There was a moment of silence before Zaruk unsteadily inched toward Shawna, still fighting the pain left from the emitter, even after it got overloaded with the rest of the equipment, and weakly got to their knees to turn her onto her back to assess her injury.

"We have to heal this befo-huh...?" Zaruk was attempting to place their hands on her wound to staunch to bleeding when they noticed how her crimson blood was slightly shimmering silver and they could see a faint glow coming from her sternum area.

"Y-you're one of us..."

"Partially..." Shawna smiled faintly as she explained, "My great-grandmother, Zaynia Mizavi, was a Chrysinthean, one of the first to arrive on Earth as a *Chryionan nearly an Earth century ago."

"Why did you never tell Ash or me?"

"To protect the identities of those of us who lived and worked right under the radar for the protection of our people, why do you think we've been able to hide for so long?"

"How long have you known?"

"I knew Ash was a Chrysinthean from the moment I met her on the Helicarrier back then and I've been doing my best to help and protect her along with the Avengers this whole time... but I guess things didn't really work out how we wanted them to huh...?"

Shawna chuckled ruefully before roughly coughing and wincing at the pain before Zaruk protested,

"If you are one of us, then I should be able to heal you." Zaruk held their hands up in a cupping motion around their core, but Shawna put a cuffed hand to theirs while slowly shaking her head to tell them,

"I'm only an eighth fraction Chrysinthean, it wouldn't do much good for me and would only weaken you even further... Besides, I'm not important to what's about to happen..."

"Do not say that...!" Zaruk tried to object but Shawna just shook her head slowly before telling them,

"As hard as it is to admit... Hallaway and Caleb are right when they say something is coming... something that will be more difficult to defeat than you can possibly imagine and *cough* Ash is going to need all the help she can get both from our people and from the people of this planet... to save everyone..."

"How do you know this?"

"Lorinia... she has an ^Ehraia on her pendant... one that I've been able to see for a while... Ash and her sister are crucial for the restoration of our homeworld in a way even she didn't fully understand before she-"

Shawna broke out into another coughing fit with some of her silvery blood staining her sleeve before she took another heaving breath and clasped Zaruk's hands with her cuffed ones to plead with them as tears started to well in their eyes,

"This may not be how I wanted things to turn out for us, but for whatever the future holds for our people, please make sure Ash doesn't take the full force of the guilt and responsibility with her... she doesn't deserve that kind of burden..."

Her breathing started to become more shallow and ragged as she uttered her final words,

"Help her to not just survive... but to continue to live..."

Her hands fell from Zaruk's, her breathing ceased, and even her blood started to lose its silvery glow as Zaruk could feel her spirit leaving her body and they gritted their teeth and squeezed their eyes shut in a futile attempt to stop the tears from falling before they hugged Shawna's body closer as they sobbed out,

"I swear upon the Orinix that I will..."

Right before the doors to the lab were broken down and armed soldiers came in being led by a "panicking and attacked" Caleb as he pointed to Zaruk, claiming they and Xay went crazy and tried to leave the Compound after seeing Ash fighting, violating the agreement with Ross and killing Dr. Miller in the process after she tried to stop them.

The soldiers picked Xay off the ground and put him and Wickity in restraints and Zaruk was wrenched away from Shawna's body but they were too broken to fight back or resist in any way as they too were restrained and led out of the lab with the commander telling them,

"Take them to the Raft with the rest of the captured criminals!"

Meanwhile at the site of the fight, before Rhodey had been diverted from his mission that ultimately led to his crash landing, he had managed to subdue Ash using his Sonic Cannon after the emitter had been overloaded and she had landed near Wanda where she and Vision had apologized to each other before he had to depart.

All of a sudden, Wanda felt a painful pang where her heart was and she looked over to Ash and saw that her face was pinched up in sadness and when she lifted a hand up to read Ash's emotions, she felt an indescribable bout of pained sadness and frustration that overwhelmed her to the point where tears started streaming out of her eyes even as she and Ash were apprehended by airport officials and forced onto a jet with the others.

Time Skip

After arriving at the Raft in the middle of the ocean, everyone had been processed and changed into prison jumpsuits and were being led to the cells area in a line until one of the head guards told the soldiers leading them,

"Uh uh those four go in the special Cooler cells." Pointing to Ash, Xay, Zaruk, and Wickity as they were separated from the group and led down a different hallway, still silent and shellshocked from everything that's happened to them in the past 2 days.

"Aagh!" Ash yelped as she was shoved into a cell.

"Hey!" Xay protested as he was pushed into another.

Zaruk didn't say anything after they were forced into another cell even when they weren't resisting.

Finally, Wickity was placed inside a clear box on a pedestal outside of Xay's cell and was complete with air holes and a lid that was locked with a high-tech lock that he started to furiously scratch at while hissing at the guard with their fangs bared.

Everyone else's cells had been "secured" as well and a large monitor that displayed the four Cooler cells was situated near the door to the area.

"Aren't they just copying Avatar?" Scott asked as he looked at the monitor and heard what their cells were called.

"The murderers have been successfully detained in the Coolers along with the traitor." One of the guards reported to the head guard.

"Good. Activate the security systems." They ordered and they nodded before going over to a switch on the wall under the monitor and flipping it up. At once, a smoky fog began to flow into the cells making Ash, Xay, and Zaruk start to wave at it and cough and shiver from the coldness it was bringing.

Everyone in the main cells area starting protesting against that action by shouting,

"You can't do this to them!"

"They held their end of Ross's deal!"

"I have no idea what's going on but I know you can't lock up kids! They have to go to juvie or.. something.."

"Of all the times to be right..."

Up until it was announced that a chopper was landing up top with a "special" guest.

Time Skip to after Tony leaves and just before the Jailbreak

"Think he'll make the right choice?" Sam asked Clint quietly from across the way.

"My first instinct is to say 'kinda doubt it', but who knows...?" He responded with a nonchalant shrug.

"Uhhh guys?" Scott's voice broke them away from their conversation to point at the monitor, "Are they supposed to do that?"

Looking at the screen, they could see that the cells were reaching frigid temperatures to where small icicles were growing on the walls of the cells and frost was dusting the inmates and they could see Ash, Xay, and Zaruk, all curled up in their cells hopelessly attempting to stay warm, letting out heavy breaths from the way small plumes of their breath could be seen even through the footage and, slowly, their bright colors started to fade monochrome colors and their breaths started to get smaller.

"H-Hey!" Sam stood up and started banging on the walls of his cell and the others followed suit seeing Ash's bright hair fade to dark gray and her skin lightened to a colorless tone with her marks turning pitch black before she collapsed to her side still hugging her knees, "You have to let them out!"

"They're dying!"

"This is so wrong on so many levels!"

But the guards did nothing except increase the amount of cryogenic liquid gas being pumped into their cells. Just when it seemed like the three of them were about to bite the dust, all the lights went out just before all the guards raced out to see what the intrusion was, only to wind up knocked down and unconscious on the ground to let a figure walk into the main cell room.

"Glad you're here," Sam started to say before he pointed to the downed monitor, "But she needs more help right now."

"Don't worry, I ran into someone who can help them." Steve assured him as he began getting everyone else out of their cells.

At the same time, Ash, Xay, and Zaruk noticed that the cold gas had stopped pouring into their cells, but they were too preoccupied trying to warm themselves back up.

"D-d-do you th-think we-'re-'re s-s-s-av-v-v-ed?" Xay managed to whisper through his chattering teeth as he started to hurriedly rub his hands against his arms.

"I d-d-d-on't kn-know..." Ash answered back while still trembling like a leaf in a windstorm.

Their question was soon answered once the doors to their cells slid open and in front of them was a man with blue eyes and hair styled in a cowlick wearing an electrical worker's uniform standing with his hands holding a large tablet.

"Oh thank goodness that worked, I was worried that the loophole security patch override wouldn't be able to fool the firewalls." The man wiped his forehead from the bit of sweat that was on there making the three of them look to each other with their eyes narrowed before Ash stuttered out,

"W-who are y-y-you?"

"I'm Dylan Marsden. I got Shawna's message and was on my way for a routine 'security system maintenance check' but ran into Captain America on the way so I figured 'I'll just follow his lead then.'"

"H-how do we know you are not j-just another deceiver?" Zaruk questioned with their eyes narrowed and Dylan reached for his neck and pulled a stone pendant out that had a symbol carved into it, one of Chrysinthean origin.

"Y-you're a-a Jaodev?" Xay questioned as he started weakly trying to open Wickity's cage and Dylan nodded before typing something on his tablet and the cage popped out to let a light blue and gray Wickity out to curl around Xay's neck like a scarf in an attempt to warm them both.

"Now come on. Cap said we need to get a move on if we're all going to get out of here in one piece. Not in those exact words but y'know..."

"C-can't m-m-move..." Ash was still in her cell on her knee with her arms hugging her body as she still remained colorless from the cold.

"M-me ei-either..." Xay remained standing but he was shaking just as much.

"Unfortunately not surprising, you two are fire wielders so it would make sense that they chose to concentrate all the freezing into your cells." Dylan frowned before he went to Zaruk and put their arm around his neck to help them stand before looking over to Ash and Xay still shaking in their places, Wickity having fallen off of Xay from how weak they all were from the cold against their wielding elements.

"We're gonna need some help."

"Allow us." They turned to see Steve with Sam and Wanda standing behind him.

"Up we go kid." Sam went to help Xay.

"There there..." Wanda gently picked up Wickity and began using her powers to heal the small wounds in his wing and side.

"We heard what really happened in Berlin, are you OK?" Steve asked as he helped Ash up.

"N-not r-really."

"We have to get to the Jet before the security system comes back online." Dylan reminded them.

"W-where's Clint and S-Scott?"

"They're not coming with, they've got other families to get back to." He responded as they began to hurry down the hallways to the hangar where the Quinjet awaited with Nat and Bucky already inside.

"N-Nat?"

"You're looking a little.. pale...?" Nat was about to make a snarky quip before she noted how the three of them were still incredibly weak and her smirk faded to a worried look.

"Well then let's get going so we can get these four warmed back up." Sam stated.

"Lifting off." Nat piloted the Quinjet out of the Raft just as the alarms started to sound and red strobe lights flashed as they left it behind.

They flew through the air for a while before they leveled out over the clouds enough to put the Quinjet on autopilot.

"How're they doing?" Nat asked as she came from the driver's seat.

"A little better than before..." Wanda answered hopefully.

"Those two are still thawing though." Sam added as he nodded toward Ash and Xay who were huddled together under some blankets with the heaters of the Quinjet on full blast facing them with Wickity perched on Wanda's shoulder showing his thanks to her for healing him by rubbing his head against her hand and Zaruk having been fully thawed already and standing to the side with their own clothes again that Dylan had managed to grab from the Raft's confiscated contraband room along with the rest of their belongings.

"Either that or they just really want to be together again." Nat snarked with a faux suspicion expression on her face.

"*cough* overprotective *cough*" Sam "coughed" dramatically and Nat responded by harshly jabbing him in his side with her elbow while Caleb kneeled down and gave Ash her mother's pendant back,

"Here, I managed to get this back."

"Thank you..." She took it, nodding gratefully, and opened it to look at the pictures inside.

"May I see it for a moment?" Zaruk kneeled down in front of them with their hand out and Ash nodded before handing it to them. They took out one of their branches and thumped it to the ground as they closed their eyes to concentrate on reading the Ehraia that Shawna mentioned was attached to it.

In their mind's eye, they saw the lights from Ash's visions that she'd spoken of before but then they saw Earth and Chrysinthea side by side and their home planet's colors faded as Earth started to dim as well, but then they saw two streams of energy, one reddish-orange and the other a yellow with a tinge of light purple colliding with each other to give their planet life again.

Just as it seemed to be the end of the vision, a pain shot through their mind and body as they heard faint screams and saw lights falling into a pit of darkness.

"Ugh!" Zaruk stumbled backward, dropping their branch and the pendant while clutching their core with an iron grip as it and their marks glowing eerily.

"What's wrong?!"

"We need to get to the Haven now!" The urgency in their voice left no room for argument so Nat announced,

"Setting the course for Oregon." Heading back to the driver's seat to input the coordinates.

Almost half an hour of speedy flight later they landed in the woods outside of Oregon where the Haven was located. As soon as the ramp lowered to the ground, the Zaruk ran out, their branches wielded, with Ash and Xay, now fully thawed and in their regular clothes, right behind them and the rest of the group following close behind.

When they got to the cave, they saw Zaruk on their knees at the mouth of the cave, which was uncloaked, with their branches on the ground and their arms at their sides.

"We're too late..."

Walking up to the entrance alongside them, they looked inside and everyone gasped or went silent at what was before them; blast marks spotted the walls, all the glowing plant vines were ripped from the walls and left on the ground in charred ruins, handmade baskets and tools were scattered across the floor in pieces, and, worst of all, bodies of the residents were left on the ground and if they weren't already dead from the blasts to their cores, they were barely breathing with their colors faded and, instead of a glow, a shadow where their cores used to be.

"What the hell happened here?"

"Caleb and Hallaway happened..." Zaruk growled as they held up a small piece of paper that read,

The Reaping is underway...

"Maybe there're survivors?" Sam questioned with slight hope in his voice.

"Who could survive this?" Bucky asked as he looked at the destruction in such a small space.

"I feel presences coming from down there." Wanda pointed to a hallway toward the back of the cave that interconnected to the other underground caverns.

Walking down the dirt tunnel, everyone stayed away from the walls where they could see thorny vines and glowing barbed cactus-like plants that had most likely been grown during the attempted defense of the Haven before they arrived at a section of hardened dirt-almost-stone wall that had a woven tapestry on it, albeit a bit shredded, but more or less untouched.

"Behind there." Wanda pointed to the wall and Zaruk pulled the tapestry off before placing their hand against the wall and pulling away to leave a glowing green handprint that soon dissolved the wall to reveal,

"Dad!"

"Waio!"

Xay rushed to hug his dad who pulled him in close despite all the scratches and burns scattered across their arms and the rest of the group could see that behind him, all the children were huddling together on the ground with fearful looks on their faces at the sight of humans.

"Hey, we're not here to hurt you..." Steve kneeled down to make himself less imposing while speaking softly and holding a hand out to them.

Surprisingly, it was Reaia who stood up from where she had been crouching over a few woven baskets that contained the infant corelings and walked over to place her, slightly burned, hand on top of his with a minuscule smile. Then, she looked back to the others and nodded to them, making a gesture with her free hand that must have signified 'safe' or 'good' because the rest of the corelings came out to greet the other humans.

"What has happened?" Zaruk questioned Waio as he continued to hug his son.

"We came under attack by a man wielding Alculan blades and a weapon that extracted our cores and generated solidified forms of them and with you away, we concluded the main priority would be to use the secret room for protecting the corelings and I would serve as their last line of defense should the others have fallen. Fortunately, he did not find us in here." Waio answered before looking mournfully at the bodies outside in the hall, "Unfortunately, he got everyone else in this clan refuge."

"How did they find us?" One of the corelings with moss-green hair and light blue skin asked as they stood by Sam who was letting another one gently touch the large bruise on his face while another playfully stroked his goatee.

"They-"

"It doesn't matter now." Steve interrupted Ash's start to a guilty confession before bringing focus to a more important matter, "What does matter is getting you all somewhere safe. And I think I know a place... Let's move."

"Come little ones." Wanda picked up two of the corelings, one in each arm before she walked out.

"Uuuup we go." Sam hoisted one on his back with a light-hearted tone that made the little girl giggle as she continued to stroke his face playfully but gently.

"Come on..." Bucky held out his right arm to a little boy who was missing most of his left arm and they walked out, side by side.

"Alright get on." Nat blankly told another as she kneeled down to let them climb onto her back but let a smile crack through her expression as they positioned themselves koala-style like Ash had done so long ago while said being and Xay and Waio helped with carrying the baskets with the baby corelings out.

"All these kids... what'll happen to them with their parents gone?" Steve questioned as he picked up a little boy whose leg had scratches on his knees and was so small he used only one arm to carry him.

"I fear I do not know..." Zaruk answered truthfully as they carried an infant coreling in a woven sling wrap, lightly brushing the dirt from their face before remembering, "On our planet, corelings were held to the highest regard in terms of their safety and upbringing. It was considered a heinous crime to bring any sort of harm to them for they are gifts that represent hope for a better future... but now I am unsure what our future will bring..."

"Whatever it is, one thing I can promise you is that we will do what we can to help you and your people..." Steve put a hand to Zaruk's shoulder as they were the last ones to walk out of the Haven, Zaruk stopping to grab a small basket of items from one of the natural stone shelves before heading back to the Quinjet.

"Where is this 'safe place'?" Ash asked as she was rocking a baby in their basket to stop their crying.

Steve just lightly smiled as he input the coordinates for their destination.

Another Short Time Skip

Once they arrived at the nation of Wakanda, Steve had informed T'Challa of their predicament and how the survivors of the Haven would need another refuge. He welcomed them with open arms and had everyone who needed medical attention taken to the medical center, where Bucky made a serious decision,

"You sure about this?" Steve asked his friend as he was being readied into a cryostasis tube,

"I can't trust my own mind... So, until they figure out how to get this stuff out of my head I think going back under is the best thing... for everybody..." He told him before the tube was closed and was flooded with the cryogenic liquid gas to put him back into stasis.

A little while later, Steve is staring out of one of the floor-to-ceiling windows that the medical center had when T'Challa walked up to him.

"Thank you for this." Steve thanked him and there was a moment of silence before T'Challa spoke,

"Your friend and my father... they were both victims... if I can help one of them find peace..."

"You know, If they find out he's here... they'll come for him."

"Let them try... the same goes for the girl and her people as well... we might even be able to help her with her 'affliction'..."

Said person was watching over everyone who was receiving medical attention and she had watched Bucky being refrozen but, for some strange reason, she felt a sense of contempt toward the cryostasis tube, like it was associated with some kind of bad memory that wasn't hers.

She was thinking about her strange feeling when she noticed that Nat, Sam, Steve, Wanda, and Dylan were leaving.

"Where are you all going?" She asked as she ran up to them.

"First, we're going back to the Haven, those people deserve proper burials..." Steve answered.

"Then I should come with you all." Ash tried to reason.

"No, it's safer for you here... afterward we're all fugitives so we'll need to split up and keep moving to remain undetected while we wander the globe..."

"N-no I've already lost two family members I don't want to lose anyone else!" Ash cried out as her eyes started to well with tears.

"Who said you're losing us?" Sam asked.

"We'll be back." Wanda tried to assure her but Ash sniffled a bit, still trying to stay composed, before saying,

"You can't guarantee that..."

"No we can't..." Nat admitted before walking up to her to place a hand on her cheek and thumb away a tear before assuring her, "but we can promise you that, no matter where we go or what happens, you will never be alone or helpless again, our family's expanding and, with it, all the support and strength you will ever need so you won't have to be so strong all on your own."

At her words, Ash's collected demeanor completely crumbled and she fell to her knees with Nat hugging her and comforting her as she sobbed her core out, acting as the child she truly was underneath all the self-control and grown mannerisms. Sensing the amount of sadness radiating off of her, Wanda joined in the hug and soon, everyone else joined in as well until Ash's sobs lessened to tiny hiccups.

Sniffing a few more times to regain her breath, Ash managed to stand back up before wiping the last of her tears away to tell everyone,

"Take care of yourselves..."

Before they all smiled and nodded and headed out after giving her one last group farewell hug. As she watched the Quinjet take off from the window, she heard a voice call out from behind her,

"Ash?"

Turning around she saw a young woman wearing a white top and matching skirt with tribal patterns on the edges, a beaded bracelet, and had her braided hair in two pigtail buns standing behind her with a bracelet similar to hers in her hand.

"My brother, T'Challa, told me about your condition and I have a temporary fix before we can get started on a more permanent solution."

"Thank you Princess."

"You can just call me Shuri."

"You can call me Ash or Lumna, I seem to get a new name every time I enter a new place."

"In that case, I think your nickname here should be Lathitha, in our language, it can mean either 'The rise of the sun' or 'New Beginning, New Journey' both of which I think could fit you." Shuri told her with a smile.

"'Lathitha...' I like that..." Ash smiled before she looked at her radiation tags and then at the bracelet in Shuri's hands and asked, "Is that Vibranium?"

"Obviously." Shuri grinned proudly.

"Is there a tech lab I could use to determine the thermal expansion strength ratio and test its durability against my abilities?"

"We can use my lab. I think we're going to be great friends." She told her as she slid the bracelet on Ash's wrist before leading her to her lab where they started to talk for hours as Xay and Zaruk watched with smiles on their faces at the lack of worry on Ash's face for whatever the uncertain future held for them all...

With Hallaway and Caleb

Both men were aboard a spaceship kneeled in front of Kryjer who sat in his throne-like seat as he questioned,

"Did you retrieve them?"

Caleb wordlessly handed Hallaway a high-tech briefcase that he set before them before opening it to reveal dozens of extracted Chrysinthean cores, all in various hues from the different wielders they had been stolen from but Kryjer noticed something,

"Where is Lumna's core? I explicitly ordered you to extract her core as well once the locating signal had been sent out."

"I had been planning to do so once she had been contained within the Raft, but she seems to have disappeared along with the other prisoners who were broken out from the Raft by Captain Rogers off the very face of the plane-" Caleb tried to explain but was cut off when Kryjer asserted,

"Astra may be the perception but Lumna is the power. One is useless without the other... even once they enhance their abilities with the rare terrestrial ore, we still require their abilities together for the plan to succeed."

"We understand and it will only be a matter of time before we discover their location as well; we simply require another emitter and more time." Hallaway tried to reason before Kryjer shouted,

"You were given the only emitter we were in possession of!"

"Can't he just make anoth-"

"If it were that effortless I would not have required either of your services!" Kryjer banged his fist against the arm of his seat, making cracks appear under his fist before he reminded them, "The Alignment is nearly upon us and if we do not succeed in our mission before the Titan arrives to complete his mission, we will be unable to fulfill ours."

"Yes Kryjer."

"Once you locate Lumna, do whatever you must to retrieve her core. Once we have hers, her sister will have no choice but to aid us in the final phase of the Reaping."

They both nodded and bowed before departing the room, leaving Kryjer to himself as he looked out the window at the blue and green planet below to mutter,

"All your efforts couldn't stop this from happening, Lorinia... just you wait..."

...

...

9215 Words

*Chryionan- The title used for the Chrysintheans who would leave the planet to explore and live on other planets to learn about their cultures.

^Ehraia- The ability to tie memories to objects for other high-skilled Chrysintheans to read.

AN- Whoo! So that is officially the end of the Civil War segment, only took six months to finish... wow... I'm kinda disappointed in myself

So, next up on the movie list would be Thor Ragnarok, but there will be a crucial in-between story that shows how Ash winds up in the position Thor finds her in for that movie so that is a Must-Show for this story, but, as I announced back at the end of the Age of Ultron segment, I also had two more filler in-between stories that would take place in Black Panther and Venom, since it's technically a Marvel movie just under different copyrights, but they aren't completely necessary for the main storyline so I'll probably just post them to my Short Stories book when I finish them.

I'm still rough drafting the Post-Civil War, Pre-Ragnarok story but I should have it up within the next couple of weeks since I have my last week of work this week before I move back up to campus for the new school year next week and, truthfully, I have no idea what my schedule will look like once I'm back up there since I don't know if I'll be accepted for a part-time job or what my free time between classes and homework will be like so fingers crossed.

Sorry again for the long hiatus again and I'll see you all in the next chapter, Bye!