STRUGGLING SEOULS
.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

Sadie's heart dropped. This explained why Ultron spared Helen at the party- he was going to use her to make a body. The thought of her colleague being used that way made Sadie's stomach churn. She could feel the eyes of everyone in the room on her. For the entire conversation, she had been mostly quiet, unsure where she stood in all this. The Avengers and an extra. And now, they were all looking at her and she had nothing useful to say.

"Last I heard she's back in Seoul," Sadie explained from where she stood, leaning against the kitchen counter. "She flies back and forth between New York and there every other week."

"I thought she was an environmentalist," Tony spoke from across the room and Sadie rolled her eyes.

"None of us are environmentalists, we fly around like no tomorrow," Clint added and Tony nodded like it was a decent point.

"Struggling to find the relevance of this conversation, fellas," Natasha spoke, rolling her eyes not dissimilarly to Sadie. "If Ultron wanted a body- could Cho even do that?"

"The Regeneration Cradle is just that," Sadie continued. "It regenerates tissue. It can't make it from scratch. We just don't have the technology to make biomass like that."

"But Ultron has the sceptre," Steve countered, his voice in that low tone it had when he was figuring something out. "Dr Selvig was able to create technology he never dreamed of when he was under its influence."

"That was what helped create the wormhole in New York," Natasha added, and Sadie was grateful for the clarification. "So if it could enlighten him..."

"Then, it'll be happening again?" Sadie asked, and was rewarded with several nodding heads. She turned her back to the group, opting to stare out of the window than let them see the anxiety she knew was in her face. Helen Cho, who had always been so kind to her, was under Ultron's control?

"Dr Moore," Fury's voice was steady behind her, yet strangely like a warning as she took a deep breath. "Could you undo it? Could you free her, if we're right?"

Sadie thought for a moment. Thought about the rawness of her power, like a stem cell, able to adapt and change. But even stem cells needed coding to do so.

"I couldn't mimic the power of the sceptre," Sadie said. "I've never even seen it in action. But, maybe I could try and undo any damage in her mind. I'd have to get close enough."

"Catch a ride with us," Nat said, simply, and she was incredibly grateful. If Sadie was made to sit idly by while her colleague was in danger, she was sure she would lose her mind.

"I think that's the best route," Sadie nodded.

"Well, it's not like you can walk there, Intern," Tony spoke, and Sadie shot him a playful warning look. The truth was, she really didn't mind the nickname, rather she found it quite endearing that Stark had boiled down her extensive career in such a way. Most other people she met thought she was the smartest person on Earth.

"Natasha, Clint and I will tackle the Cradle while Isadora works on Cho," Steve said. "Whoever needs to go to NEXUS can finish the job over there and we'll reconvene at Avengers Tower after its all done."

"Who said you ever needed me?" Fury said, and yet there was a hint of pride in his voice.

The Avengers' turnaround was a sight to see. Within five minutes, everybody was suited up and ready to go- there was no hesitation, nobody taking up time in the mirror or any weakest link. It was all so quick that Sadie somehow managed to be the last one ready, even though she only had to pack away her things.

In the Quinjet, a thorough plan was formulated by Natasha and Steve as Clint piloted- Sadie listened only for the parts that concerned her and how she could help Helen.

"You'll be partnered with Cap while I go solo," Natasha said, clipping a small device into Sadie's ear. The static sent shivers down her spine before the audio cleared out, and Natasha's voice was amplified. "This is your communicator, if you hear your name, sharpen up. As long as you follow where Steve goes and keep your feet as light as possible, this should all go to plan."

"And if it doesn't?" Sadie asked. She didn't realise she was looking over at Steve, stood pensively a few metres away until Natasha turned her cheek.

"It will," Nat said, in the closest tone to reassuring she got.

"I just hope these are enough to help," Sadie said, nodding down at her hands.

Natasha simply nodded, with a casual shrug. "They will be. Hey, for all we know we could get there and be completely wrong."

"Not helping," Sadie said, only for Nat to give her an amused smirk before swaggering off to sit besides Clint at the front of the jet.

Steve was still stood statue still, and as Sadie walked closer, she noticed that in his hand was a dark green rosary which he held to his forehead.

"What are you praying for? Maybe I can send up an amen," Sadie tried, and he looked at her for the first time since they'd left the safehouse. There was a certain something in his eyes, like there were things he wanted to say, but wouldn't.

"My mother used to keep these on her day and night," Steve said eventually, turning the beads over in his hands. Sadie pretended not to notice how he switched the topic. "I never understood it until she died."

Sadie knew, she'd seen his medical history. And it seemed horrific. "You had them with you? When you went in the ice?" A swift nod. Sadie took a breath. "Steve, how are we going to get into that building? Do we need a disguise?"

It only took one look from him for her to understand. The Avengers don't use disguises.

"How good are you at climbing?"

"Well, I only climbed part of the Grand Canyon at twenty-one," Sadie grinned, still proud of herself for the accomplishment. "So I don't think I'm too bad. It'll be like muscle memory, right?"

If Steve was impressed by that, he didn't let her know. Instead, he gave her another nod and said: "Then we go in through the roof."

~

"What are you praying for?"

Steve had wanted to say it then- I'm praying for you! because he was. He was praying that Sadie didn't get hurt, that she wouldn't get sucked deeper and deeper into all of this.

He should've asked her to go home when they'd talked at Clint's house, told her he wanted her safe more than anything else. Or he should have protested this plan, told them all they'd bring Cho back with the Cradle, instead. He should've sent her off with Tony to NEXUS, or back to Avengers Tower with Banner. He should've brought Cho to Sadie. Instead of risking bringing Sadie to Ultron.

Instead, Steve had froze up and went along with it all like a schoolboy, his usually quick mind failing to come up with any of these alternatives when it mattered most. He thought bitterly of the tag line they'd placed on his image. The man with a plan. Apart from, it seemed, when it came to Sadie Moore.

With the rosary in hand, Steve was reminded of his late mother, and her frequent reminders to 'do your best and get on with it' that instantly grounded his busy brain. He'd get on with it, and he'd do his best.

~

It was not like muscle memory.

Sadie could feel her core shaking as she climbed the emergency ladder of the U-Gin Research Lab, with Steve close behind her. They'd argued at the bottom about who was to go first- Steve had wanted to lead the way, reasoning that there could be Legionnaires waiting at the top of the ten storeys and so he needed to 'deal with those'.

Sadie acted more concerned about who would catch her if she slipped, and stood firm in her argument that she would go first. The truth was, she'd predicted there may be Legionnaires as well. But Sadie decided very quickly that she would prefer to have time cover Steve with her forcefield in that event, as opposed to letting him pop over the side of the roof like a meerkat, completely vulnerable. Yes, he had a helmet, but she wasn't going to take any chances.

Essentially, neither person wanted the other to get hurt before they could help them. So they were in a catch twenty two until Sadie prevailed.

As she climbed closer to the roof, Sadie envisioned the familiar blue forcefield extending from her hands around herself and Steve. The entire building was glass, it was broad daylight, and yet they hadn't been seen? Sadie could only assume that meant one of two things: there was nobody watching the building, or there was an ambush waiting.

It turned out that this case was scenario number two.

As Sadie hauled herself over the side of the roof, she was greeting with a loud buzzing sound- she was being shot at. She held her forcefield firm as she stood, glancing up to see six Legionnaires, all heavily armed. Within moments, Steve was beside her, but the firing had stopped. It took a moment for Sadie to realise it had stopped because of her.

It was like instinct- Sadie flung her arms forward, throwing the power of the forcefield straight towards the Legionnaires, and sparks flew as the blue light sliced through their weapon clad metal arms. Then Steve threw his shield, and it ricocheted through each of the metal suits, breaking them down completely.

Sadie looked down at her hands with a surprised laugh before glancing back at Steve as she caught her breath. "Not bad, huh?"

There was something like relief in his eyes as he nodded, adding: "It's not over yet."

The inside of the research lab was completely trashed. Sadie had visited once before, briefly and only for a day, yet the place was barely recognisable. The lights flickered on and off, many windows were smashed, leaving broken glass on all floors and as they neared the lab where the Cradle was kept, sparks flew from broken cables.

Worse than all of it though, was the trail of injured people- eight of them in that lab, all of whom were dead. Sadie felt more and more hopeless as she checked each of their pulses, and closed each of their scared eyes, Steve still scouting ahead for any more Legionnaires.

When they reached the Cradle room though, there was no Cradle to be found, only Helen Cho, clammy, sweaty and bleeding from her chest. Sadie scanned the room for hazards, but it was all more of the same, so she and Steve rushed over to the bleeding woman on the ground.

"Helen," Sadie said, calmly checking for a response as she pulled out packing from a nearby drawer and pressed it against the area which oozed blood. "Helen, can your hear us?"

Helen only glanced between the two of them, desperation in her eyes. "He's uploading himself into the body."

"Where?" Steve asked, making to move further down the corridor, but Helen pulled him back.

"The real power is inside the Cradle. The gem, its power is uncontainable," Helen's voice was breathy and weak, and it pained Sadie to have to hear it. But still, the geneticist spoke her words with conviction. "You can't just blow it up. You have to get the Cradle to Stark."

"First I have to find it," Steve said, and already he was on his way, taking off at a jog. Sadie could still hear his voice via her communicator as she held pressure on Cho's wound. "Did you guys copy that?"

Sadie zoned out of the conversation as the heroes worked on locating the Cradle. Instead, Sadie placed Helen's hand on the packing whilst she rooted around for scissors- it wasn't long before she found some.

"Helen, I'm going to cut through your uniform, take a proper look at the wound," she warned, and her colleague nodded weakly before Sadie proceeded.

The shot was horrific, the entry wound was as big as your average exit wound, and the said exit wound was enormous. The flesh around it was charred like it'd been burned, making Sadie wonder how Helen hadn't passed out already.

"It's mostly numb," Helen said, as if reading her mind. "I think the shock is what's protecting me."

"Helen, it's going to be okay," Sadie said, readying her hands in a glow. She then spoke into her communicator. "Hi- Clint? If the jet has emergency services on speed dial that'd be great- Helen's gonna need an ambulance."

"Copy that," Clint's voice was loud and clear in Sadie's ear as she began her work, but she only got part way into her healing when Helen grabbed her arm.

"No," she rasped. "Use the skills I've taught you."

"All due respect, Dr Cho," Sadie said. "But none of this equipment is safe to use. You gotta trust me on this."

Sadie held her friend and colleague's gaze with surety, until eventually, Helen nodded, and allowed her to work. Sadie focused on knitting the wounds closed, despite the noise through the communicators and the worry she felt hearing her friends under gunfire, even as she knew Steve was taking on Ultron himself.

It was only when Sadie heard her name that she clocked in.

"Cap, Moore, do either of you see Nat?" Clint's voice was linked with a panic, and Sadie did her best to keep herself calm as she continued to treat Helen. It was probably nothing anyway, and Nat would probably respond herself.

Steve's voice was the next to sound in Sadie's ears. "If you have the package, get it to Stark! Go!"

"Do you have eyes on Nat?" Clint asked again, and when there was no response from their friend, that was when Sadie realised this was much more serious than she'd thought.

Steve answered again, insisting that Clint leave, and Sadie had to try hard to keep her glowing hands steady. But before she could protest the decision to leave her friend behind, a group of paramedics rushed into the room, and Sadie was reminded harshly of what her priority was in that moment.

She was a doctor first. So, Sadie reported back to the paramedics as they lifted Helen onto the stretcher, but the geneticist still seemed panicked, pointing frantically at a stack of files but unable to talk through her oxygen mask. Sadie decided it was best to bring the files with them.

"Steve," Sadie spoke into her communicator as she boarded the ambulance with Helen. "Update me."

"We stopped the train," Steve's voice was winded, and tired. But he was alive. Sadie couldn't describe her relief. "Ultron's gone." And Natasha with him. It was horrific. "What's the status on Cho?"

"The mind control hasn't made a reappearance," Sadie said. "I managed to heal her exit wound, now we're headed to Seoul University Hospital. She'll probably undergo surgery."

"We'll meet you there," Steve answered before the empty sound of static returned, and Sadie tuned out.

Throughout the journey to the hospital, Isadora continued to monitor Helen Cho, who only stared determinedly at the stack of files resting on the seat. Seoul University Hospital was a large place, but their trauma bay was one of the most efficient she'd ever seen. Within minutes, Helen had gone from the ambulance, to a trauma examination room, to surgery preparation. Sadie thought their efficiency rivalled Adrianne's trauma department back in New York, which was no easy feat.

"I'll be here when you get out," Sadie reassured the woman, squeezing her hand as the nurses readied the bed for moving. "Do you have anyone you want me to call?"

"They'll call who I need," Helen said, weakly. "You go. Take those files back to the Tower, and make them into something we can use."

"What are they?"

"Ideas," she answered. "Ideas I was shown by the sceptre- amazing things-"

"Helen, I don't know how much we can trust that," Sadie explained, following as the nurses wheeled the bed out into the corridor. "The sceptre seems to have its own ulterior motives."

"Which is why you have to be the only person to see those," Helen said. "I want you to filter them for me. Take out anything that could be weaponised. Leave only what's good."

Sadie could tell there would be no arguments, and they were running out of time regardless, so she nodded, told her colleague "Okay," and watched her go.

She took the moment to send up prayers not only for Helen, but for Natasha Romanoff, too. And she swore that once she saw Steve, she'd slaughter him for leaving their friend behind.

...
..
.

another shorter chapter for you all- I usually try to get it to 20 pages at least but from this point on the rest of the movie's events happen extremely quickly so it made sense to stop here.

so Sadie's beginning to get a little more involved in the team but she's not quite Avenger status- although I think her and Steve work pretty well as a team, even when they're not quite getting along as normal

please let me know your thoughts, reading your comments is my favourite thing ever!!!

-Amber.