Dreams Best Left Alone - Book 4 (Age of Ultron)

Chapter 7 - Moving Forwards

"Hey, Nick's here," Steve said, poking his head into Lila's room where Annabelle was reading.

"Fury?"

"Yeah."

"I thought he got out of this stuff."

"Apparently not. He wants to talk to all of us." She nodded and he went to go downstairs.

"Steve, can I talk to you?" Annabelle tried.

He was about to object before he turned and saw her face. "Yeah. Of course." He walked over and sat next to her on the bed as she took a breath. "Is everything okay?"

"Um, not really. I mean, I am but..." She closed her eyes and focused on what she wanted to say. "I haven't been using my powers lately." He looked at her as he waited for more. "On missions, I could've used it to help, but I've been scared. I've been scared about losing control and getting stuck in my head and..." She took in a deep breath as she stared at her hands. "My brain is working nonstop to feed me information that I don't want," she admitted, looking up at him. "I don't want to remember every smell or sentence fragment because of something happening right now. I don't want my life to be my past. And it's getting harder and harder to be present." The room was quiet and she looked back down as Steve didn't respond.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, but it wasn't out of anger and she could sense the hurt in his voice.

"We've been so busy and-"

"I always have time for you," Steve said earnestly, putting a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. "Never doubt that."

"I'm sorry."

"Hey, you have absolutely nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one who's sorry for not noticing how much you were struggling. I love you so much and I promise to be there for you whenever and whatever you need." She nodded, unable to speak as she threw her arms around her brother's shoulders and he held her tightly.

"I love you too." He only hugged her tighter, content to sit with each other for just a moment longer.

***

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time," Fury said as they all gathered in the living room. "My contacts all say he's building something." Annabelle gave a small smile as Lila ran into the room with a picture she had drawn and handed it to Natasha. "The amount of vibranium he made off with, I don't think is just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.

"Oh, he's easy to track. He's everywhere."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit," he told Annabelle. "It still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked as he threw darts at the dartboard hanging on the wall.

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school as a dare."

"Well, I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that."

"Nexus?"

"It's the world Internet hub in Oslo," Bruce told Steve. "Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on Earth."

"So what did they say?" Clint asked.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" Tony asked before flinching away as a dart flew past his face and made a bullseye on the target. He looked back and Clint smirked as he shrugged.

"Parties unknown," Fury continued.

"Do we have an ally?"

"Ultron's got an enemy," he corrected Natasha. "That's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo," Tony said. "Find our unknown."

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kinda hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that."

"I do. I have you," he said, looking at them. "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere. Ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up. Here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this," he motioned the house around them, "laid in a grave." Clint clenched his jaw. "So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."

"You know what, Romanoff?" Annabelle tried to hide a chuckle, but Steve noticed and gave a small smile.

"So what does he want?" Fury continued, taking a seat at the table.

"To become better," Steve thought. "Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies," Tony added. "The human form isn't efficient. Biologically speaking, we're outmoded, but he keeps coming back to it."

"When you two programed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," Natasha told them.

"They don't need to be protected," Bruce spoke up. "They need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?"

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

***

"You ready?" Steve asked as Annabelle laced up her boots.

"Yeah."

"Are you really?"

She forced a smile. "This is why I didn't tell you."

He sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to-"

"I know. But you have to trust me on this. I'm ready. Okay?"

He looked at her before nodding. "Okay."

I love the sibling moments between Steve and Annabelle. It's something I've been missing this book. I hope you liked it too!