Evolution // An MCU Story (Book Two)

xxxiv

There were still shards of glass and splintered wood embedded in my hands and arms, and I was sure I'd find more when I went to change. But I was far too lost inside my own head to care.

I didn't bother digging any out when I silently washed the blood away, not having said a word since that awful singing had faded entirely. I'd been on autopilot ever since Tony had broken eye contact with me.

I only snapped out of it when I found myself standing in the lab with everyone else in front of Doctor Cho, realizing I hadn't been returning her grateful smile as I passed her a cup of tea I barely remembered making.

I don't know if the smile I tried to give her was even visible, but I doubt that was very high on her list of concerns.

I numbly made my way over to Tony, my thoughts blurring everything else out while I tried to make sense of what had gone wrong. He didn't look up at me, staring down darkly at the lifeless suit laid out on a table in front of him.

I crossed my arms tightly against my chest, leaning against the table next to him to give him space.

"All our work is gone." Bruce suddenly spoke, bringing me into reality. "Ultron cleared out. He used the Internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron." Steve repeated under his breath, glaring up at Tony disapprovingly.

I felt the need to get defensive over his tone but was well aware I was in absolutely no position to do so. We had seriously screwed up, and I had helped.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance." Nat spoke up, turning to face us with her arms crossed and her eyebrows furrowed with concern. 

It wasn't until then I realized she'd slipped out at some point to change into more practical and comfortable clothes. I itched at the chance to do the same, feeling bulky and vulnerable in my partially shredded dress.

"Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." She continued, and the statement hit me way harder than I expected it to.

My eyes instinctively flicked over to my father, my heart racing although he was still turned away from me. After everything that I'd been digging into about my own past, I was sure he would be furious at how much I'd been hiding from him.

I realized rather quickly that I had let my mask slip, immediately looking away and covering up my panic with a frown half of concern and half annoyance at myself for giving myself away so easy.

I glanced up to check if anyone was looking at me, seeing Nat staring straight into my eyes with a questioning stare. The absolute last person I would want to find out about this.

I froze entirely, suddenly becoming hyper aware of myself as I focused all of my energy into appearing as natural as possible. I kept a focused expression, not letting any panic into my eyes as I stared back at her.

I raised an eyebrow in fake concern, trying to gaslight her into thinking it was nothing. But this was Nat we were talking about. I had a better chance of convincing a walnut.

I broke eye contact as nonchalantly as I could manage, and I hoped she couldn't tell my heart was racing.

"He's in your files, he's in the Internet." Rhodey added, walking over to stand by Maria Hill, who sat at a desk with tweezers removing glass from the bottoms of her feet. "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

"Nuclear codes." She realized, looking up in alarm.

"Nuclear codes." Rhodey confirmed. "Look, we need to start making some calls, assuming we still can."