#ALSO THE FACT THAT SHADOW KNOWS ARK DESTROYED ALL THE EVIDENCE RIGHT AFTER THE ARK RAID

[mira0000000-blog]

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

Sonic X Theory: the other Ultimate Lifeforms

In Sonic X’s adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2, they make an interesting claim about the Ultimate Lifeform prototypes on the ARK. When Rouge hacks into the base, she informs Shadow of one thing- he wasn’t the only prototype from Project Shadow that escaped the ARK massacre. 

[ID: screenshots from Sonic X: one of Rouge looking up Project Shadow, surprised and reading “Shadow? Secure and dispose?” Another shot of two escape pods falling towards a planet, with the caption from a GUN soldier: “Our mission ended when we sealed away the prototype of the ultimate lifeform.” End ID.] 

Rouge makes the claim that neither of these escape pods was Shadow... so in X Canon, is Shadow even who he thinks he is? And just as importantly... who are the other prototypes? 

Full theory under the cut. 

So first off. Let’s look at Rouge’s claim that Shadow isn’t who he thinks he is.

Part One: Is Shadow from the ARK?

[ID: screenshots from Sonic X of Rouge and Shadow talking, with the following dialogue:

Rouge: This is the progress report for Project Shadow, a plan to create the ultimate life form. The body they created is still held there.

Shadow: I know. That’s a prototype. I’m the Ultimate Lifeform they created afterwards- 

Rouge: Two capsules were ejected when the ARK was shut down. But neither was found. They couldn’t lock up in prison what they couldn’t find. Do you understand? I wonder who you really are.

Shadow looks troubled. End ID.] 

So two capsules were ejected and neither was found in the fifty years it’s been since the accident-- except I think Rouge is wrong about one thing. Shadow is who he thinks he is- because his capsule was sent out alone. It must have somehow not been logged. 

How do we know this? Shadow’s flashback of being sent away and the man who worked for GUN are completely different- first of all, the GUN soldier doesn’t remember her saying anything to Shadow, or Shadow even being there- it seems that she died to send away something or someone else. Second- Maria is in a different position around the lever in both flashbacks. See the GUN soldier’s first-- 

Though we don’t see the full room, we get the sense that it’s small from the other shots that I don’t have the time to screenshot. She’s around an elevated platform not attached to a wall, and either facing the pod she’s sending away or in a completely different room. 

But, both of Shadow’s alternate memories of Maria sending him away-- the first one more stylized, the second one we can assume more real-- neither looks like this. 

In both, she’s in a differing position. In the sepia flashback, she’s not facing him, and pulling a lever attached to a wall. In the second flashback, she’s already on the floor, and the lever pad we see would cause her to be facing away from Shadow. In neither of these do we see any evidence that anyone other than Shadow and Maria are in the room or even nearby. 

Shadow also has enough evidence he’s who he thinks he is- he has the right powerset, the GUN soldier says that they did, indeed, seal away an Ultimate Prototype, Gerald mentions Shadow enough in his monologues, and... honestly there’s really no evidence that he isn’t Shadow, other than the two pods. And two pods? Shadow was sent out alone, we saw no evidence of a second pod in either flashback. So he wasn’t with anyone else. 

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is that these are two different events- one where Maria releases Shadow, and one where she releases another- or, possibly, the others, the two pods that were logged as escaping. 

Maria either freed Shadow first and then the other two, or she freed the first two, got shot, and then managed to survive long enough to send Shadow away. Either way-- these events are separate.  

So what was in the other two pods? Two other prototypes of the Ultimate Lifeform, clearly, but nothing like the Biolizard, they’re too small. 

Now let me ask you something... wouldn’t it make sense for the Ultimate Prototypes to look similar, if they were similar lifeforms? 

And who do we know who looks similar to Shadow? 

Part Two: Sonic is an Ultimate Lifeform

[ID: Shadow looking down at Sonic, and saying, “I see. We actually do look alike. It’s like looking in a mirror.” End ID.] 

Okay so like. Unless you’re very colorblind I think you’ve noticed that Shadow and Sonic are completely different colors. But let’s ignore that for now-- they do have a very similar silhouette... in fact, Shadow’s silhouette is incredibly close to SuperSonic, which is Sonic at full power. And in-universe, they look similar enough that in low lighting pretty much nobody can tell them apart. 

And not just that- Sonic has a lot of power for a seemingly “normal” mobian. [Yes, I know they don’t use the term “Mobius” in Sonic X but let me simplify this somehow.] His superspeed, ability to survive so much shit... he’s powerful enough that he presents a rival for Shadow without chaos emeralds (though Shadow is nerfed a little by the Inhibitor Rings- more on that later). 

[ID: Sonic and Shadow racing; they are keeping up with each other. Shadow says, “It seems your appearance isn’t the only thing that’s similar to me. Who are you?” Sonic responds, “I’m me.” End ID.] 

Shadow’s right- their appearance isn’t where the resemblance stops. And of course there’s probably the most damning similarity-- they are the only two characters we see go Super and have the ability to control the Chaos Emeralds.

[ID: First image is SuperSonic and SuperShadow, having absorbed the power of the chaos emeralds. Second image is from the Third Season, where a MetaRex shouts, “There are two individuals [referring to Sonic and Shadow] who can draw out the power of the Chaos Emeralds?” End ID.] 

Oh and SPEAKING OF Sonic/Shadow similarities-- there’s a scene in Season Three where Sonic is being lectured by the villain about how all life ends eventually so why bother etc. and Sonic says that life is worth the good bits, all that jazz. Here’s the scene:

And exactly 1:25 in.... guess what starts playing

This song is scarily similar to “Recollection of the Ark���... Shadow’s sad song about his memories of the ARK... while Sonic is being lectured about still having faith in humanity. You know. Like MARIA WANTED.

Interesting how we know absolutely nothing about Sonic’s past, huh-- pretty much all we have before he meets Tails is that he says he’s fifteen years old, but honestly... are we even sure about that? First of all, if Sonic was revived alone, there wouldn’t be a way to tell his age, he’d probably just accept the first age someone assigned him. 

Alternatively, we know from the end of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three that time works in a very wonky way from Earth to Mobius- in the ~2-3 days Sonic’s alone with Chris, a week passes on Mobius, despite the fact we know he can chaos control at any time. In the third season? Six years pass on Earth while six months pass on Mobius. So time doesn’t really work in a reasonable way, meaning it’s possible that Sonic is fifteen... and he lived fifteen years on Mobius after awakening, while fifty years passed on Earth. 

And we know for a fact that travel between Mobius and Earth was possible even before the events of Season One... because Eggman was born on Earth.

[ID: Eggman looking shocked and turning around in a chair, announcing, “I was born in this world!” End ID.]

Eggman was born on Earth and somehow ended up on Mobius-- but he was young enough he didn’t realize until he saw that Gerald lived on Earth. So was he in the second escape pod? It’s possible, but I don’t think so-- he’d have to have information on Gerald, and it seems he had a picture of Gerald and Maria, so it’s likely he traveled with a parent or guardian, or at least some kind of family history, which I doubt Maria would think to store in an escape pod while everyone was running for their lives. This plot element was probably just to set up that travel between the dimensions happens more than we think. 

Neither escape pod from the ARK was recovered, probably because they ended up on Mobius. 

It’s most likely that they Chaos Controlled into the other dimension-- I know I said Maria probably wouldn’t think to store anything other than the lifeform themselves in the pod, but if the lifeform needed Chaos Emeralds to practice/control their powers, or the Chaos Emeralds were already stored in an escape pod for safekeeping-- or if, possibly, GUN was attempting to capture the Chaos Emeralds as well, and the Robotniks knew that they would use them in a destructive way-- all that combined could mean that the emeralds would also be important enough to send away in a pod. 

If even one of the pods had Chaos Emeralds, it’s possible that the lifeform inside could have sensed danger and unconsciously teleported them to the most safe place from GUN-- another world where GUN didn’t exist and couldn’t reach them. And even better-- a world where mobians like them lived. 

From Sonic X lore that I don’t have the time to find and screencap, we know that the two worlds used to be the same but split at some point in history. If this was after, say, the events of Chaos destroying the Echidnas-- which, sidenote, interesting how they disappear and nobody knows where they went, so it’s possible that Chaos straight-up split the dimensions just to get rid of the Echidnas-- then enough of their lore could remain. Old cave paintings, wall carvings, etc., could show enough mobians that scientists could probably think “oh, wow, that looks like a god figure. might as well design our ultimate lifeform after that, esp since they had this god that could control chaos and the chaos emeralds came from here.” 

Wanna know what’s interesting about those ancient echidna temples? Guess who’s there-- if we go by Sonic 3 & Knuckles, a game that ofc had been released by the time X was being written...

SuperSonic. 

Both the ultimate form of Sonic, and the silhouette of Shadow. 

So let’s say they find this on the ARK studies, and they’re like “okay so our ultimate lifeform goal is a hedgehog. Got it.” There’s two options after this:

They make Sonic, but deem him a failure for reasons and cryo-freeze him until they need him or can release him. They then proceed to make Shadow, who they believe actually is their ultimate lifeform. 

They made Shadow first, but after a while kept experimenting and making more prototypes, just in case, or possibly because they decided Shadow wasn’t powerful enough. However, the prototypes weren’t ready to awaken before the ARK massacre, Shadow never met them. 

So as I’ve made clear, I’m pretty sure that one of those prototypes was Sonic-- who, of course, has no idea. Either he only entered consciousness after arriving in Mobius, or his memories of the ARK were so vague, traumatic, early, or a combo, that his mind blocked them out. Either way, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that he and Shadow are both prototypes, which is what gives Sonic his power. 

And Sonic’s power, btw, isn’t limited like Shadow’s. Because he doesn’t have inhibitor rings. 

If prototype!Sonic was sent away with inhibitor rings, he ditched them. Which would make sense, especially if he woke up with no memory of the ARK and didn’t know why these weird bracelets were on his arm. He would notice that the rings slowed him down and ditch them fast. And that’s assuming they even stuck rings on the prototype. 

But if we do assume they stuck rings on the prototypes... maybe we can find the other lifeform that was sent away along with Sonic. 

Part Three: Who is the Third Ultimate Lifeform?

Okay. Let’s do a headcount. 

Who, in Sonic X, 

Existed on Mobius at the same time as Sonic, 

Doesn’t appear to have a lot of power but has a lot of incredible strength if you pay attention, 

Sometimes shows strange abilities, such as far leaps into the air, a speed great enough that they can sometimes catch up to Sonic (though not as great, possibly because of the inhibition), even potentially the ability to summon weapons out of thin air, 

Looks similar to the Mobian Hedgehog-- or, perhaps, with influences from a Mobian Echidna, who were the ones who had the SuperSonic glyphs in the first place, and thus could potentially serve as a design point, 

Wears rings around their wrists at all times?

[ID: Amy Rose being absurdly powerful in several screencaps, often glowing; though this is normal anime expressionwork, it is something that exclusively happens to Amy in Sonic X. End iD.]

And, of course, this beauteous moment: 

[ID: A scene from the season two finale of Sonic X. Eggman’s ship, on which Amy’s hammer is stuck, is high above her, and Eggman taunts “It doesn’t matter if you’re angry because your hammer is stuck up here!” In the following image, a moving gif, Amy summons a hammer out of thin air, a puff of smoke coming from it, as she is still glowing with a fire-like energy. Eggman’s robots shout “She has another one! How many does she have?” End ID.]

That’s right! This was all an excuse to spout out my “Amy Rose could kill God” propaganda! But it’s not propaganda if I’m right!

Part Four: The Lifeforms

So. It’s been a couple months since I made this post, but I was rewatching Sonic X with my sister, and we did notice that you do see prototype lifeforms for a flash in the GUN soldier’s story.

[ID: Screenshots from Sonic X; The GUN soldier narrates his story, as we see GUN soldiers arresting scientists, while standing in front of empty tubes of bubbling green liquid. The caption reads, “There were many rumors about ARK. Such as doing research for eternal life or creating the Ultimate Life Form.” The GUN soldier steps to a tube that has something in it. End ID.]

We see a brief flash of an experimental lifeform in this memory, as seen above; we also see two more, the ones that were explicitly stated to be the ones Maria was freeing.

[ID: Screenshots from later in the same episode of Sonic X, the first showing two tubes with dark figures inside, surrounded by dark blue bubbling water. The next screenshot shows Maria preparing to free them, with the captions reading “An experimental life form? She’s planning to free it!” End ID.]

So, these silhouettes. Let’s uh. Let’s take a look at those huh

Now, the bodies are too thick to be standard mobian bodies- but we can also see wires attached to the prototypes, as well as, you know, whatever that liquid is. It’s entirely possible there’s something wrapped around their bodies, to keep them safe/asleep/etc.

But..... ok so I might be reaching here but analyzing the face silhouettes, using red lines to mark quills and green to mark potential laid-back ears, it really could be long-quilled sonic and short-quilled Amy.

As well as this, in the shot of the GUN soldier looking at a prototype, I swear I can see a mobian ear.

tl;dr this is all fascinating me and I think we should let the Sonic X crew return to making this show as if they never left so that we can get answers to this

[thefifthclown]

Part 2, Chapter 3-Gods and Demons, and Her Last Moments; Scene 4

Fifth, Pierrot, pages 260-271

Levia pulled away from Gumillia, and approached the enormous fountain pen in the center of the square.

“How nostalgic—the ark, ‘Sin’. …But this isn’t the real thing, is it?”

Irina answered that question.

“You’re correct. This place is your mental world. This is a place made real by the memories and feelings that have slept deep within your mind. It is for that reason that everyone here can be as their real self.”

Gumillia walked up to the ark as well. Its surface was as glassy as a mirror, and her face was faintly reflected back to her.

--Standing there was a woman she didn’t recognize.

Did that mean that this was Gumillia’s true face? As a spirit…or rather, from before that.

Levia rapped on the surface of the ark several times with her fist.

“A mental world with actual substance--Seth’s quite ingenious, to be able to create such a structure inside of a person. If he hadn’t been an ‘HER’ it wouldn’t have been out of line for him to become a fifth god.” She then turned to Irina. “Irina…You figured it out. That I wasn’t ‘Elluka’.”

“…I obtained proof only recently. Thinking on it now there were a lot of things that didn’t add up. After the ‘Leviantan Catastrophe’, you went to your friend, the ‘Great Land God Held’, and received from him a request to gather the ‘Vessels of Deadly Sin’—isn’t that right?”

“Yeah.”

“But I never heard anything about that from Elluka when she was alive. There were rumors that Elluka was in league with Held, but I knew that they weren’t true. …She had never once left the Magic Kingdom since birth.”

“A Lighwatch priestess must spend her whole life in the Magic Kingdom—So there’s no way she could have met Held in Elphegort.”

“Even supposing they had met, it was hard to imagine that Held would warm to friendship with a human. They wouldn’t even be able to talk. A friend of a god—that would have had to be either another god himself, or one of his kin.”

Gumillia and the other two people present simply listened to Levia and Irina’s conversation in silence.

Levia continued on, pulling away from the ark a little. “I had some faint scraps of memory left from Levia. That is what told me I was friends with Held. –That in itself was the truth. And so Held evidently decided to play along with this peculiar sorceress who insisted that she was his friend.”

“He realized it right away, that it was you inside Elluka’s body. …If I were Held, I would have misgivings about you regaining your memories. He saw you as a hostile figure, so much so that he’d conspired with the sun god to change you and your brother into a dragon, and sealed you inside the ‘Sin’.”

“Yes. That’s why he put me under his observation, under the pretext of this ‘search for the deadly sins’. And for a time that worked. But five hundred years later his life in this world began to run out…And there he assigned a new watchdog to me.” Levia once more approached Gumillia, and put a hand on her shoulder. “That was—you, Gumillia.”

“…Yeah, it was.” Gumillia nodded. “Lord Held decided to use, the fact that the ‘Eternal Sorceress’ wanted an apprentice. He ordered me to keep an eye on Levia, under the guise of an apprentice. To make sure that she never, suspected anything. And…if Levia ever seemed like she would get her memories, back—”

“—With Michaela’s help, you were to seal me once more?”

“Yes…But…But, I--!” Gumillia cried out, her eyes welling with tears.

Seeing that, Levia kindly patted her head.

“I know…I know, Gumillia. You—were such a superb apprentice.”

“…Sob”

Gumillia couldn’t stop the tears flowing down her face.

Still, she tightly threw her arms around Levia.

--I am not Levia’s watchdog.

--I am Elluka Clockworker’s apprentice, Gumillia.

“—Gumillia. There’s one thing that I don’t get. People who have been ‘reincarnated’ lose their memories. Just like me, and you when you were reincarnated into a chipmunk. But when I had you and Michaela reincarnate from being animals, you still had your old memories. …Why was that?”

“…We had lost our memories. But, Lord Held had a copy of our old memories, made in advance. He overwrote us with them right after, we were reborn. So that you wouldn’t find out.”

“That’s quite a lot of work there. Who’d have thought…that old goat was such a hypocrite.”

“There were side effects. Shortly after Michaela reincarnated, she told me she collapsed from fever. That was probably, a side effect. I was fine, though.”

Levia gradually released Gumillia, and then moved back towards Irina.

“Was that the only reason you started having doubts about me, Irina?”

“Let me pose a question to you. Prim Marlon was one of your friends during your time as one of the Three Heroes in Lucifenia. –Did you never realize that she was an ‘HER’?”

“…No.”

“That would be impossible, if you were a Lighwatch priestess. Elluka Chirclatia was able to cure ‘HER’. –If you had used that power, you might have been able to avert the kingdom of Lucifenia’s destruction. Elluka Clockworker had lost the ability to use a technique that she should have been able to, and had conversely also become able to use one that she couldn’t have.”

“…The Swap Technique.”

“It was simple enough to think that it was just the influence of having been revived through the ark. But a much simpler explanation would be that there was someone else entirely inside of Elluka Clockworker—”

“—Your powers of deduction are a bit too strong, Irina. Long-lived though you may be, I doubt that you could have arrived at such an answer that easily.”

Irina’s face twisted slightly, and then shifted to a light smile.

“…It was Seth. Surprisingly enough he had become the ‘Demon of Wrath’. He must have skillfully slipped in with the others when the Twins of God created the ‘Vessels of Deadly Sin’, after he had died as a human—Or maybe the other demons were made at his suggestion… After I got my hands on the golden key and met with him again, I pressed him with my many years of suspicions. Seth readily told me everything. About gods, and the existence of their kin…that the true nature of the ‘Demons of Sin’ was that they were mere shadows of those kin… I came to know the workings of the world. And it was because of that that I was able to arrive at your true nature—And so here we are.”

Irina, and Levia. The two of them had arrived at various truths.

Gumillia wiped her tears, and gazed at the two of them as they faced each other.

The Elluka that had been the target of Irina’s hatred wasn’t the real one. What sort of feelings did she have towards her now?

--She didn’t need to think about it. Irina had sent them a duel invitation.

Despite knowing the truth.

Irina, who had been standing before the ark this whole time, began to walk.

She was headed for the “Sleep Princess”, Eve.

Irina circled behind Eve, and gripped her shoulders with both hands.

“The ‘Clockworker’s Doll’. She and I have a long partnership. I tried to grant her a certain power as an experiment. The end of the world will come someday—and when that comes, it must become a utopia for me. Hers is a power I need for that purpose. And through my experimentation I finally succeeded, fifty years ago. …Though I hadn’t thought that I would end up using it here.”

Eve hadn’t said a word since arriving at the square. Even as everyone else had talked, she had just stood there in place, expressionless.

Just like a doll.

And Irina whispered into Eve’s ear:

.

“Awaken—Master of the Court.”

.

In that moment, the scenery around them completely changed.

The temple that Gumillia and the others were standing in crumbled away, except for the base. The pillars, the sculptures, everything fell down into eternity. What was left then was a pitch-black space. There were white gridlines running over it.

There were platforms floating in the dark space. The temple vanished, save only for the circular platform that the five of them stood on, and the ark in the center.

“Welcome to the ‘Court’, everyone,” Irina boldly sneered. “The Master of the Court is impartial. All shall be reset equally, and then judged. Levia, your regaining your memories was because you took her into yourself. In this world that Eve has created…this world where all are equal—death can befall even a god.”

So saying, Irina spread her arms wide.

Blue flame appeared in her hands. She had regained the magical power that she should have expended already.

“Come, let’s renew the duel! Levia, and—” Irina looked…not at Gumillia, but at the woman in the maid uniform. “—I’ll destroy you as well, Behemo!”

Upon hearing those words, Gumillia was taken by some shock.

“That’s Behemo? But I thought, Behemo was a man—”

Levia replied with an uncomfortable expression, scratching her head, “There’s no mistake, that’s my younger twin brother. We’re fraternal twins. …He’s a real pervert, Behemo.”

“’Pervert’ is so harsh, sister. What’s so bad about a man dressing up like a woman?”

Gumillia didn’t have time to waste. Irina was trying to kill her teacher and the pervert. She needed to ask her why.

“Irina, why are you after Levia? It’s true she killed you, and ruined your country. But that was, long ago now. Nothing will come back, by exacting revenge on her.”

“…You don’t understand, Gumillia. These two—and you too, I suppose. The world that the gods once lived in was destroyed by the existence of ‘HER’. They abandoned the world polluted by HER and built this world anew. …But they made a grave mistake. They failed to account for Seth—that ‘HER’ had slipped in with their comrades.”

Irina seemed to be amassing magical power. The flames in her hands increased in energy, and began to change to large pillar of fire.

“’HER’ is a pathogen. And that pathogen is ‘programmed’ to destroy everything related to the gods. They themselves, and—the world that they made. …Though it seems Seth has forgotten that, now that he’s a demon. But I haven’t. I must pass down ‘punishment’. For that…is the mission given to an HER.”

“That’s nonsense. Programming, missions…Do you have your own will in there?”

“Shut up! Once I’ve destroyed Levia and Behemo, next will be your turn. Then the remaining spirits living carefree in the forest, and the ‘Demons of Deadly Sin’—I’ll destroy them all!” Irina cried.

As she did, she lifted her arms higher.

The flames were coming—

.

“—What an interesting thing you’re doing, ‘Red Cat Mage’.”

.

Gumillia couldn’t immediately discern whose voice that was.

It wasn’t Irina, Levia, Behemo, or Eve. Naturally it wasn’t Gumillia herself.

The sixth entity descended from above them.

The woman looked like Julia—like Germaine.

Irina cried up at her, “It’s you!—‘Demon of Gluttony’! What are you doing here…What in the world did you come here for!?”

“I want to destroy the gods too. That’s why I planned to watch this most entertaining scene. But if you’ve gone and taken possession of the ‘Master of the Court’...that’s a different story. There’s a chance you’ll become a threat to me. So—I’m going to play you all against each other. Right here, alongside the gods and their kin…I will erase you too, Irina Clockworker!”

The demon lifted her right hand.

With that as the cue, something appeared from further up.

A skeleton monster much, much larger than the floating platforms was heading toward them, enormous mouth open.

“My ultimate dead soldier, the ‘Worldeater’--Come, eat them all up!”

Irina harshly clicked her tongue as she watched.

“Don’t get in my way!”

The blue flames shot towards the “Worldeater”.

Not just them. The flames were joined by a bolt of lightning. Levia had fired it.

“I’m not going to just stand by and let you kill me,” Levia muttered, holding out her right hand.

.

A sorceress, a god, and a demon.

The powerful energies being fired off from each of them all collided in one place.

And then—

In the court, destruction and fusion both occurred in succession.

<<prev------directory------next>>

[fanficwriter013]

The Tower - Chapter 27

The Tower: An Avengers Fanfic

Chapter 27

Chapters: one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve / thirteen / fourteen / fifteen / sixteen / seventeen / eighteen / nineteen / twenty / twenty-one / twenty-two / twenty-three / twenty-four / twenty-five / twenty-six / twenty-seven / twenty-eight

Word Count: 2179

Warnings:   Drama, mentions of human experimentation, and child abuse, mentions of injuries, emotional conversations (sappy y’all)

Synopsis:   Elly starts her work for HYDRA, until things get a little out of hand.

Author’s Note: Written with @emilyevanston because I’m with you till the end of the line.

Chapter 27 - The Rescue Mission

The others didn’t come at all that night.  I started to panic and I noticed that Clint started pacing in the middle of the night.  The cells were too dark to see each other to be able to sign to each other.  Thankfully, at some point, Scott showed up and whispered to me that it had taken longer than he’d expected to backup their data.   It had meant by the time it was done most of the people in the building had gone home for the night.  So they were waiting until morning to raid the building with other federal backup.

After that, I slept.  Not well, I woke up panicked a few times but I did sleep.  I was woken early by a male guard.  He was polite but made it clear I had no choice about going with him.  I looked back at Clint who signed to me that I’d be okay.  

The guard took me to some showers and gave me toiletries and a change of clothes.  Thankfully he left me alone to shower, choosing to stand guard on the door outside.  While I was in the bathroom I drank as much water as I could.  I had not touched any food or drink since I got there and I was very, very dehydrated.  After I washed I was taken to a cafeteria to eat.  I was really hungry so I watched what the handful of other people that were there were getting and copied them.  I went extra safe, opting for prepackaged yogurt, a banana, a sealed bottle of orange juice and a bottle of water in case I needed it later.

I was then taken up to the lab where Alexa was waiting for me.  “Elise,”  She said greeting me with a kiss on the cheek.  Like we were friends despite the fact she’d locked me in a prison cell overnight.  “You look terrible.  Didn’t you sleep?”

“You locked me in a cell opposite Clint,”  I said, my voice monotone.

“Mmm…”  She hummed looking quite pleased with herself.  “I heard you two were fighting.  I’m sorry, sweetie.  It’s best to have a clean break.”  She took me into a lab that had a biometric scanner on the door.  “This is where you’ll be working.  Your data is uploaded onto the system.  Right now your project is fixing my genome but whatever other side projects you want to run is up to you.”

There were three people in the room, two women, and one man.  “This is Claire, Rachel, and Ben.  They will be working directly for you.  Whatever you want them to do they will do it.”

The three scientists nodded to me.  “The door will be locked to you.  There’s a bathroom over there and lunch will be brought in.”

I nodded to her without making eye contact.  She put her hand on my shoulder.  “Just show us we can trust you and you can have your life back.  That’s all.”

I nodded again and she left.  The other three looked at me awaiting instruction.  I looked around not really sure what to do.  I didn’t actually want to do any work.  “I’ll uhh… need blood samples from… from the… the assets put through the centrifuge.”  I stuttered.  “I’m going to need a full DNA analysis.”

They nodded and turned to start work.  I went and sat at a bench and just started opening up files on what Alexa had done to herself.  It was quite horrific really.  Justin had gotten it into his head that along with the manned flight suits he wanted to try getting into the Super Soldier arena too.  He’d started experimenting on Alexa.  I’d thought my dad was bad.  He was a positive saint compared to Justin Hammer.  Alexa had basically joined HYDRA bringing all the money from Hammer Industries just to fix her father's mistakes because all he’d left her with was terminal cancer.

I’d be sympathetic if she wasn’t torturing my family.

I was starting to get an idea of what she’d done to herself.  She’d created a serum, made from her own genetically modified cells and then used Bruce’s gamma radiation technique hoping they’d take over from her cells.  It had worked except her modifications weren’t enough.  I was just wondering if I could modify her technique to actually create these mutations in people when an alarm went off and the three other scientists all stood suddenly.

“What’s going on?”  I asked, jumping to my feet.

“It’s a code zero.  There’s going to be a raid.”  Ben said as the three started moving to different stations.  “We have to start destroying everything.”

I grabbed a heavy piece of equipment and just slammed it down on the door lock.  It fizzed and went out.  The other three turned and looked at me shocked.  “I’m going to need you to move to the wall and not move,”  I said, cracking my knuckles and hoping they didn’t call my bluff.

The women moved to the wall while Ben stood and looked me up and down.  “Knew it was a mistake trusting you.”  He hissed.

“That was smart, now go stand by the wall or I’ll show you how the Avengers train their scientists,”  I said taking a step toward him.

He backed off quickly going to stand with the two women.

“Sit down, push your phones to me and then hands where I can see them.”  I barked at them.

The women complied quickly but once again Ben seemed to think twice about it.  He stared at me for a few beats trying to work out if he could take me or not.  His shoulders sagged and he slumped to the ground tossing the phones over to me.

“Thank you for your co-operation,”  I said looking down at them.

“You might still have the specimens but the data is getting destroyed as we speak.  You’ve got nothing.”  Ben snarled at me.

“Shut up,”  Claire whispered.

I laughed.  “Thank you for worrying about me.  Don’t worry.  I’ve been here a full day now.  It’s already been backed up.”

“Alexa is not going to be happy about this,”  Ben said, scowling.

I shrugged.  “I’d say you’re right about that.  Now, keep your fingers crossed it’s not the Hulk that finds us.  I can convince the others to go easy on you.  He might be harder.”

We waited for a while.  Someone tried the door before moving on.  It sounded like chaos outside.  Gunfire and people running around.  My head was suddenly filled with Wanda.  ‘Elly, where are you?’  Even in my head, she sounded sick.  I was relieved to feel her though.

‘Floor 45.  There’s a lab.  I broke the door so they couldn’t get in.’ I sent back.  I guess I was a little emotional too because it was also sent with a random mixture of relief and love.  ‘Oh god, are you okay?’ ‘Wanda, I was so scared.’ ‘I love you.’  Among a lot of other things.

‘Calm down, El.  I can’t keep up.’  She sent me.  I think it must have made her laugh or something though because I felt happier too.  ‘45?’

I sent back ‘Yes.’

There was a brief wait where there was nothing and then Wanda sent me, ‘Take cover.’

“Take cover,”  I yelled and dropped to the ground covering my head with my hands.

There was an almighty crash and Hulk burst through the door, sending it flying along with part of the wall.  He stepped into the room with a roar.  Ben started crying.  I jumped to my feet and ran to the Hulk.  His face softened when he saw me and when I slammed into his leg and started hugging him one giant hand gently stroked my back.  “Elly okay.  Hulk here.”  He said in a gentle rumble.

“Thank you, big guy,”  I said.  A bunch of police in SWAT gear came through the door arking wide around Hulk and giving me a strange look. I looked up to see Steve standing behind them.  I wanted to run to him too but given I’d just hugged the Hulk I was worried about the whole public image thing.

Steve smiled and made a ‘come here’ gesture with his hand.  I rushed over and crashed into him.  He closed his arms around me.  “You did great, El.”  He whispered in my ear.

“Bucky and Wanda…  She was… they were…”  I felt myself close to tears and he rubbed his hands in soothing circles on my back.

“I know.  Do you know where they’re keeping him?  We still haven’t found him.”  Steve said.

“He was down in the basement with Wanda and Clint,”  I said, my stomach sinking.  Steve let me go and stepped into the Lab.

“We still need to find Searant Barnes.  Three of you go with the Hulk.  Two of you get these three out of here.  The rest start bagging up this stuff as evidence.”   He said.  Everyone took action.  Hulk and three of the braver officers took off towards the stairs.

“I’ll take you to the Jet.  Wanda and Clint are there with Hill and Coulson.”  Steve said.  I followed him to the stairwell.  We started walking down, but I had trouble keeping up with him.

He turned to me.  “Come on, El.  Get on.”  He said.  I jumped on his back and he started carrying me down much, much faster.  On floor thirteen he stopped dead, his head tilted to the side.  He lifted his hand to his ear.  “Is anyone on 13?”  He said into comms.

I don’t know what the reply was but he patted my legs and I climbed off.  “Stay here.  There’s someone in there and there shouldn’t be.”

He went through the door silently and I waited in the stairs.  It was still noisy but mostly much higher up as the police and the Avengers cleared the building.   Police kept running up and down the stairs and I moved up a little to get out of the way more.

The door opened again and I turned expecting to see Steve coming through the door.  It was not Steve.  Bucky moved silently, seeming to almost be made of the shadows himself.  He turned to look at me and for one brief second my heart stopped.  I was sure they had gotten through to him.

“El?”  He said, and his face broke out into a huge smile.

I rushed to him wrapping my arms around his waist and that was when I started crying.  “Oh god.  What they did to you.”

He pressed his lips to the top of my head.  “It’s over.  It’s… it’s gonna take some therapy, not gonna lie.  But it’s over.”  He whispered.  “I love you, Elly.  I’m so sorry I never said it before.  I do though.  I love you.  I was scared because I thought I’d just end up losing you.”

“It’s okay, Buck.  I knew.  I love you too.”  I said, my tears flowing.

He tilted my chin up to face him and kissed me.  It wasn’t long, but I needed it so badly.  “Why are you standing out in the stairwell by yourself?”  He asked when he pulled apart.

“Steve was…”  I didn’t get to say what Steve was doing because he stepped through the door, said my name and then just slammed into my back wrapping his arms around Bucky and burying his face into his neck.

“Oh god, Buck, I thought they’d triggered you.”  He murmured.

“They tried,”  Bucky replied.

I wriggled in between them.  “You’re crushing me.”

Steve laughed and stepped back.  “Sorry, El.”  He said, ruffling my hair.  “Come on you two, we’re getting you to the jet.”

Steve carried me the rest of the way downstairs with Bucky next to him.  In the lobby, he let me to my feet again and we followed him to the Quinjet.  When I saw Wanda in the stretcher I started crying again.  Wanda held her hands out to me and I crouched on the floor beside her and rested my head on her chest as she ran her hands along my hair.

“You shouldn’t be comforting me, I should be comforting you.”  I sobbed, as I held onto her.

“You are El.  Don’t worry.”  Wanda said, resting her cheek on the top of my head.

Slowly the rest of the group returned.  Scott was first, followed by Tony and Rhodey.  Sam came next with Bruce.  Bruce was back to himself, small, pale and wrapped in a blanket as he often was after the Hulk had taken over for a while.  Coulson left to join the rest of the SHIELD members in their jet.  Finally, Natasha and Steve climbed in.  “Shall we go back to the tower then?”  Natasha asked surveying the group.

“Please, can we?”  Clint said.  I think he was trying to make it sound like a joke but he mostly just sounded relieved.

Natasha smiled and got into the cockpit.  “Buckle in, moya semya.”  She said. “I’m taking us home.”