The Rise of the Blue Phoenix

Chapter 2: Chaos

Somewhere far far away, in a lab, a vase stood proudly, This was a Hydra Lab, which the Avengers had not destroyed. All machines seemed to point at the vase which stood in the center of the room, all except one.
The vase had a decoration of a woman, a tall phoenix behind her. She seemed to be surrounded by black mist, evil, and beside her, flames were drawn around the vase.
A pigeon then landed on the crooked machine, but due to the sudden weight, the machine moved, causing all of them to blast open the vase, ashes scattering all over the place. But from those ashes, a woman rose. She had fiery red hair and hazel eyes. She had almost no memory of who she was, until a single name ran through her mind.
Dark Phoenix.
That's who she is.

Ashley looked around her. After all her crying, she had walked towards the park. Pepper later came over and asked her if she could watch Morgan, to which Ashley agreed. Now, Morgan was on the slide, smiling as Ashley played with her. Bucky later came to see them, smiling at Ashley. "Uncle Bucky!" Morgan called out as she ran towards the former super-soldier. Bucky smiled and lifted her up in the air, letting her pretend she's an airplane.
Morgan was squealing in delight, laughing whole-heartedly, which made both Avengers laugh. Ashley looked around to see a kid with a scrape on his hand, crying, and then felt as if there was a sudden jolt on the back of her hand, something hurting, as if it was also scraped, so subconsciously, she began rubbing her wrist, trying to massage it. Bucky looked at her and noticed her distraught face. He slowly brought Morgan to the ground and told her to go play before facing Ashley. "Ashley," he held her hand, "phantom pain?"
Ashley frowned when she remembered what he meant. Apparently phantom pain is quite common for amputees, but Ashley often forgot that. She sighed and looked at him sadly. "It's not like that, I just..."
"It's alright, Ashley. There's no way you can truly heal from that, knowing that it's been only a year, don't worry. You'll get better," Bucky said, smiling at her. Ashley smiled at him before looking back at Morgan.
Suddenly, screams were heard in the park. The ground shook beneath them. Ashley and Bucky looked around to see a group of people backing away and screaming from a woman with fiery red hair and scarlet clothes. Ashley didn't take her eyes away from the woman when she spoke, "Bucky, get Morgan to safety, now."
"Ash-"
"As leader of the current Avengers, I command you."
Bucky's nose flared as he glared at the young woman, holding onto Morgan and keeping her close. Ashley made her way to the woman, looking worriedly at her. "Hello there, may I ask you to please calm yourself down?"
The woman looked at her confused. She then heard the whispers of the crowd. "It's the blue phoenix."
The woman looked at Ashley with nothing but dark eyes, black and full of hatred. Ashley tried to walk forward, "Look, if you're here with the intention of harming others, then there's the sky. You can go ahead and destroy what's left of Thanos's world."
The woman didn't say anything, causing the Avenger to shrug. "Okay, let's-" Ashley never got to finish her sentence as she was blasted back, falling into the sand pit. Ashley let out a strangled cough, hitting her chest. A small flash of a memory went across her mind, one where Thanos basically threw her in a large rock and about to crush her, had it not been for Doctor Stephen Strange. She sighed through her nose, looking up to see the red-head. "Okay, we can play it that way." She summoned her powers and looked at the woman, who had summoned various things, throwing them at Ashley. Ashley used her blue flames to stop them. She then saw the woman controlling more things with her mind. Ashley took a deep breath. No, she wouldn't dare let her emotions get the better of her. She saw a lamppost getting hurled at her, causing her to let out a squeak as she rolled out of the way. No, she's going to protect them.
When she turned around, she saw an empty bus being lifted into the air, by just the tiny woman who seemed old enough to be Ashley's mother. Or maybe it's the dark veins that made her look that old. But nonetheless, Ashley gulped. "You've got to be kidding me."
"ASHLEY!" She turned to her left to see Bucky and Morgan surrounded by more kids and flames, mothers crying out, fathers trying to go save them, but Ashley looked around only to be almost hit by the bus. She screamed, but she caught it, barely, which was odd, because it was always easy. She had to roll out of the way but also see the kids screaming. With one hand trying to hold up the bus (which made her almost lose control) she used her right hand to open the fire extinguisher and aim it at Bucky and the kids, the flames slowly dispersing. Ashley screamed as she rolled out of the way, falling onto the ground, breathing heavily. She slowly got up on her knees, watching Jean gather up her strength. She then sent a large blast at Ashley, who, in a desperate time of need, just thought about her promise to Bucky.

It had been dark, Ashley had just tried to jump off the Avengers' Facility's roof, but Bucky caught her before she did. She fought through his grasp, screaming, kicking, but he didn't let her go. "Ashley," he looked into her eyes which only held numbness, cupping her cheeks, "trust me, if you end your life now, you're gonna miss the best parts of what's in the future, I know you're at your lowest point, but let me try and help you live your best life. It's what your mother would want. We all need time to heal, you need your time to become better, you have your sad, breaking moments, but you will be fixed, or, nearly fixed,"
Ashley stared at him with hollow eyes.
"Promise me, promise me you'll live."

Ashley looked at Jean Grey as she thought about her memory, "Alright, Bucky, I promise," she got up on her feet, passerbys cheering for her. Ashley then realized she saw her veins were purple, and blue, which then met and created a darker shade of blue. Alas, subconsciously, she felt her phoenix rise. This had happened once before, when she snapped her fingers with the Infinity Gauntlet.
Ashley felt her energy escape as something inside her snapped, letting go of all her power go haywire. Last thing she knew was collapsing, but someone caught her weak body, gently holding her head, and two people called out for her.
Her vision turned dark, but she didn't fight it, she let unconsciousness take over her entire body, the only thing she could hear was a long, piercing sound, before finally losing every sense.