Rising from the Ashes

Friends; New and Old

3rd Person POV

After Ash broke Xavion's collar in her grip, Ultron unlocked her cuffs before he started to show the base and the robots that had been created to the twins, who had been standing off to the side the entire time Ash had her revelation about her best friend being attacked by the ones she called family.

"We'll move out right away. This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work."

"All of these are..." Wanda started to say but Ultron was quick to answer,

"Me. I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant. Disconnected. Stark's already got them turning on each other. And when you get inside the rest of their heads..."

As Ultron spoke of the Avengers, Ash could feel a small part of her brain telling her that what he was going to do was wrong, but the doubt was quickly overrun with the anger that was coursing through her veins like a deadly poison, clouding her judgment and making it that much harder to be reasonable as she continued to listen in on Ultron and the twins while she stayed by Xavion's side, hoping for him to awaken and wondering when her next "rage seizure" would happen.

"Everyone's plan is not to kill them." Pietro cuts with an almost bored tone.

"And make them martyrs? You need patience. Need to see the big picture." Ultron advised Pietro before he replied,

"I don't see the big picture. I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it... every day."

"You lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records." At this new piece of information, Ash turned her attention away from her friend to listen to the twins' story.

"The records are not the picture."

"Pietro..." Wanda whispered unsure only to have Ultron insist,

"No, please."

'We were 10 years old. Having dinner, the four of us. When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. It's big. Our parents go in... and the whole building starts coming apart. I grab her, roll under the bed, and the second shell hits. But it doesn't go off. It just... sits there in the rubble. Three feet from our faces. And on the side of the shell is painted one word."

"'Stark.'" Wanda input.

"We were trapped for two days."

"Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, 'This will set it off.' We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us."

"I know what they are."

"I wondered why only you two survived Strucker's experiments. Now I don't. We will make it right. You and I can hurt them. But you will tear them apart... from the inside."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ash spoke up with a hint of malice in her voice. She felt another rage seizure coming, but she focused every bit of energy and concentration she could muster to keep it from happening, succeeding in keeping her rage in check, but not the glowing substance that came up when she convulsed and quickly wiped her mouth before anyone could notice as Ultron answered her question with,

"As much as I appreciate your newfound loyalty to our cause, in order for me to emerge from my chrysalis, I first need the supplies to break free."

"Who would have these 'supplies'?"

Short Time Skip

After loading Xavion onto the jet they were taking to get to South Africa, the three of them were sitting in the cabin, Ash only a seat apart from twins with her suit fully on and her hair back to its normal untamed look as she fingered away some more of the glowing stuff that was trickling out from her nose, catching the twins' attention as Wanda asked with genuine concern,