Relapse ★ Bucky Barnes

Torturous and Scattered Memories

Marlena watched with slight horror and surprise in her eyes as the swarm of sentries clambered up streets and walls in order to reach the team surrounding the core inside the church. She had fought off plenty of sentries beforehand, but she never would have imagined needing to fight off so many at one time. The sentries outnumbered her and her team quite possibly by the hundreds, but Marlena knew enough to know that the team would do whatever it took to defeat them—they would do whatever it took to end the fight and go back home as they had been wanting to do since the battle began.

"This is the best I can do," the voice Marlena had grown to despise uttered. "This is exactly what I wanted—all of you against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Like the old man said," Tony replied, glancing over at Steve. "Together."

Ultron's sentries wasted no time at all in bursting into the church, advancing on whatever team member stood in their path. Several sentries came barreling toward Marlena in an attempt to reach the core, but she refused to allow them access.

The enticingly prominent sapphire color of Marlena's psionics lit up the small area as she unleashed every ounce of her power onto the advancing sentries, obliterating their metallic forms in an instant. Not a single one of them managed to get passed her, and if for some reason they did, Thor or Bruce were quick to take care of them for her. Even those who believed they could retrieve the core by flying over top of Marlena had to deal with not only her, but also Vision and Tony. Though she was not officially an Avenger, she and the team were definitely a force to be reckoned with, and Ultron had finally realized that after about ninety-seven percent of his sentry army was gone.

Marlena was working diligently on eliminating the remaining sentries when she caught Ultron's attention. He narrowed his glowing, red eyes at her, and with a grunt of frustration he flew into the church. He grabbed the petite girl by the base of the throat and slammed her into the crumbling wall of the structure, his glowing fist raised.

"Bucky, is it?" Ultron baited as Marlena struggled in his grasp. "It would be a shame if he were to lose you, but I guess that's the price he would have to pay for leaving you to fend for yourself at the party, huh?"

Marlena's lip twitched in anger at Ultron's threat toward Bucky. She raised her glowing hands and shoved them towards the large robot, releasing a wave of energy powerful enough to send him flying into the opposite wall where Vision was waiting to take care of him.

Marlena landed in a duck and roll on the ground, narrowly avoiding the silver blur that was Pietro, as well as stray bullets from Natasha's handguns. The sentries were slowly disappearing, and Marlena jumped into action to further quicken the process. She fought alongside Wanda, Pietro, Natasha, Clint, and Steve inside the church, while Thor, Tony, Bruce and Vision took care of Ultron just outside the church.

In moments, the sentries were making an attempt to escape the city, much to Thor's despair. "They're trying to leave the city," he exclaimed as he headed back into the church.

"We can't let 'em, not even one," Tony followed.

Marlena took a deep breath and steadied herself beside Steve. The air was getting thinner as the city continued its ascent, and with the amount of physical exertion Marlena had just endured, it was becoming harder and harder to breathe properly. Not to mention, she was still recovering from the death grip Ultron previously had on her throat.

"We've gotta move out," Steve said, placing a hand on the small of Marlena's back to help steady her. "Even I can tell the air's gettin' thin. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers and be right behind ya."