| past fears |

❝ e n e r g y ❞

The rusted boat sits on the edge of Africa's coast, inconspicuous and the perfect place to hide hundreds of dangerous black market weapons. With the exterior appearing as though it'll disintegrate at any second, it's no wonder it hasn't been discovered yet.

Accomplices run for cover while Ultron - who is now in an updated, stainless steel robotic body, no longer the broken wires they had last seen him as - berates Ulysses Klaue, oblivious to the Avengers moving through the shadows provided by the dim lighting. Celeste carefully unsheathes her fascine knife from the belt of her suit as Clint knocks an arrow, the two almost directly under the archway Ultron is on.

"Don't compare me with Stark!" He snarls, kicking the con man down a staircase. "It's a thing with me. Stark is a sickness!"

Tony, decked in the newest IronMan suit, flies into view and lands in front of Ultron, with Steve and Thor following behind him aa they confront the robot.

"Awe junior, you're gonna break your old man's heart."

"If I have to." Ultron shrugs indifferently.

"We don't have to break anything," Thor argues.

"Clearly you've never made an omelet," Ultron retorts.

"He beat me by one second," Tony huffs.

Ultron and the Maximoffs come into Celeste's line of vision as they walk towards the trio of superheroes, nearly meeting halfway along the archway.

"Those are the little shits I was telling you about," Clint murmurs.

"They're kids, practically babies," Celeste scoffs, shocked by the teenagers only a few feet above her. "How bad can they really be?"

"This is funny, Mr. Stark," Pietro chuckles dryly, his Sokovian accent thick. "It's what, comfortable? Like old times?"

"This was never my life," Tony says, a hint of sadness lacing his tone.

"You can still walk away from this," Steve tells the twins.

"Oh, we will," Wanda agrees.

"I know you've suffered-"

"Captain America," Ultron gags, cutting him off. "God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but it's there."

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it," Thor demands.

"I think you're confusing peace with quiet."

"Uh-huh," Tony scoffs. "What's the vibranium for?"

"I'm glad you asked that," Ultron says, his demeanor changing into a more hostile one. "Because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan."

He clenches his fist and a blue light emanates from it, causing the IronMan suit to involuntarily rise. He shoots a ray of orange light, knocking Tony into the wall. The movement sends everyone into a flurry of movement.

Countless guards come out of nowhere, greatly outnumbering them. Celeste snaps into action, not straying from the plan they agreed on; Steve, Thor, and Tony focus on robots while Celeste, Clint, and Natasha keep anything else at bay. All the while, both groups are supposed to keep an eye out for the unpredictable enhanced twins.

"Don't get shot," Celeste jokes, closing her eyes and preparing to teleport.

"Don't get stabbed," Clint replies, firing another arrow.

Reopening her eyes, Celeste appears in front of two guards on the second floor. Before they can react, she places both gloved hands on the barrels of their guns, successfully damaging them. Her knife easily pierces one's chest as he throws a punch, sending him to the ground. The other guard lunges forward and she ducks, causing him to trip and flip over the railing to the floor below.

"I'll take that."

A gust of wind and flash of silver brushes past Celeste as she glances around for the source of the voice, and her weapon is no longer in her hands. Pietro comes to a halt at the end of the ramp, her knife in one hand and a smirk on his face.

"What the fuck, Roadrunner?" She growls, her concerns about their young age going out the window. "And to think I was going to play nice!"

She teleports, landing behind Pietro and reaching out to grab him. Before she can even touch him, he's gone and she nearly topples forward from the backlash of his momentum. Her hands latch onto the rail, which is gone just as quickly as her gloves easily melt through the corroded metal.

Wanda steps out of the shadows as Celeste attempts to recover from her near fall, a red light emanating from her hands. She pushes the energy towards Celeste, her hands brushing her hair as she does so, and disappearing as suddenly as she had come into view.

Celeste braces herself for another moment, waiting for whatever Wanda did to happen. When nothing does, she shrugs it off and teleports again, searching for Pietro.

Reopening her eyes, the air is knocked out of her lungs as she takes in the new scene, no longer on a broken-down boat. Four white walls surround her, no exit visible.

The woman she grew up calling her mother stands in front of her, a sickly sweet smile plastered across her face. A younger version of Celeste, only eleven years old, sits curled up in the corner. Her eyes are sunken, hair is falling out in patches, and every bone in her body juts out at harsh angles, making it clear it's been too long since her last decent meal.

"P-please," she croaks out, throat raw from both, a lack of water and use.

"Are you ready to cooperate with your training?" Her mother questions, her tone far from the pleasant look she portrays.

"It hurts me," she protests weakly. "W-why do I-"

A sharp slap resonates through the small room as her mother's hand makes contact with her face.

"Do you not appreciate what your father and I have done for you? We took you in when your own parents didn't want you, gave you abilities many only dream of, and you still only care about yourself!" She yells. "We will not put up with this sort of behavior, and you will not rejoin us until you are ready to appreciate these gifts."

Her mother spins on her heel and the present Celeste expects her to walk straight through her. Instead, her hand pushes firmly on her chest, sending her stumbling backward onto a metal gurney.

Celeste cries out as shackles clamp onto her arms and legs, and the scene changes to that of an operating room in the blink of an eye. Both of her parents stand over her, examining various pieces of medical equipment.

"HELP!" She screams, struggling against the restraints. "SOMEONE HELP ME! CLI-"

A scalpel pierces her upper arm and another slides down her thigh, changing her pleas into an ear-splitting scream. She attempts to kick, which only sends the scalpel further as her eyesight blurs.

"This is for your own good," her father explains, speaking calmly over her screams. "We have to stimulate all limbs to activate your abilities."

A fiery hot sensation starts to bubble at the base of her wrist and ankle, slowly climbing up her leg and arm as though it's being burned off.

"It's working," her mother notes. "Body temperatures in the stimulated limbs are rising."

Celeste is unable to hold in her screams at the unbelievable pain, tears streaming down her face as something she can't see is stabbed into her other leg, causing the fire to erupt in it too.

A syringe slams into her gut and whatever toxins are inside cause her body to jerk forward. The force of her convulsion creates a loud snapping noise and a new sharp pain as one of her ribs crack.

A third figure comes into view, making Celeste collapse in relief.

"Clint," she chokes out through her whimpers, jerking against the shackles once more. "Help me."

"Why would I?" He asks, stepping closer. The warmth and compassion behind his eyes is gone, replaced with disgust as he yanks the scalpel out of her leg, sending flares of pain and a scream coursing through her. "The Avengers don't need you on the team. It was a mistake for Fury to ever have recruited you."

"I thought-"

"What? You didn't actually think I cared for some HYDRA experiment, did you?"

He stabs the scalpel into her forearm, but the pain suddenly is nothing compared to that of her heart shattering inside her chest.