When Steve next came across both Clint and Annie he wished he had never entered the room. The two were currently stood in the kitchen with Annie stood and Clint on his knees below her. The scene looked nothing like innocence and he wondered just what he had done in his life to mean that he was walking into situations like this. 

"I answer only to you ma'am." Clint's voice wavered over to him and Steve started to feel himself feel a little sick at what he was interrupting. 

"Is that so."

"Yes ma'am I swear."

"And do you swear you have been a good boy?"

"Yes ma'am just for you." With this set of words Steve could no longer stand there awkwardly observing something he was sure should not have been occurring in such an open space. Instead he let out a cough as to alert his presence. 

"Barton, Summers we think we have something." At Steve's words Clint shot up to his feet, and when he turned around he was expecting to be met with a face of embarassment or a look of someone who was a little sorry for what he had to witness. Rather Clint's face was very much so of someone who had no shame for his actions or what had just been seen to someone. Rather Clint was quick to come to Steve and pass him a small pat on the soldiers shoulder on his way past. 

"Oops sorry about that." Were Clint's passing words as he stopped slightly ahead to allow Annie to catch up with him. Steve took a moment to look at Annie the young woman who often seemed a little too starstruck to even speak to him at times. And therefore, he expected a look of embarrassment off the younger woman. Only to be met with the opposite once again. 

"Sorry about that Captain, you were all so busy downstairs." Annie sounded like a teenager who had just been caught by one of the teachers at school and held no remorse for her actions. Rather all Steve could do was follow the couple back down to the lab where most of the rest of the team had gathered trying to locate Ultron. When he entered the first person to look over was Tony who took one look at Steve's face before bursting out into laughter. 

"Oh that's hilarious. Tell us all what you just walked in on Rogers." Tony commented finally happy that someone else had a rather awkward moment with the couple other than himself. 

"I'd rather lock that away to only resurface in my nightmares." Steve responded to the man's words as the rest of the group turned to look at Annie and Clint, the pair still remaining with the same confidence they had sported from the second that Steve had made his presence known. However there was one person who looked on with something different to the others. Natasha had been with the couple for a long time, they had been a part of a polyamorous relationship for 5 years now but the pair had never done anything so publicly with her. Maybe it had been her own reservations which had given them the idea that she would never do any type of public display of affection. Or perhaps they were now both aware of her unfaithfulness and were trying to rub it into her face that she was leaving a very good relationship. Whatever it was she did not like it. Natasha could not deny her feelings for Bruce but she could also not deny the feeling that she should have been there with them. The three of them making Steve feel uncomfortable rather than just the two of them. 

"Right moving on to why we all need to be here." Steve moved the topic of conversation onwards placing a photo down on the table for the group to analyse. 

"What's this?" Tony questioned not exactly sure what he was looking at. 

"A message. Ultron killed Strucker." Steve explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world and when the pieces of information were given it was slightly more obvious. 

"And he did a banksy at the scene. Just for us?" Starks words were full of humour, the man using the humour to deal with the stress and the current situation. Annie only wished the rest of the team could see this as his coping mechanism and not just him being bigheaded and stand off ish.

"This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Natasha asked and the team turned to one another. 

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve added to the conversation.

"Yeah I bet he... Yep everything we had on Strucker has been erased." Natasha confirmed Steve's suspicions. 

"Not everything." And with those words the team began to look through the boxes of paper files that had only really recently been uploaded onto the digital database. 

The team decided that through looking through the files of Struckers known associates that the one person Ultron was most likely to go after was a man named Ulysses Klaue who was a known dealer of the metal Vibranium. The same metal that Annie knew very much about. If it was not for Steve's shield but from the knowledge of this metal being the one of which had been fused to Wolverines bones whilst he had been involved in Project X. Despite having been called Adamantium at the time it was soon discovered that it was actually just Vibranium the scientist had attempted to rename after himself after seeing the successful experiment. 

"I'll go fuel the jet up. Meet you in the costume room?" Annie announced to the group before leaving the room not allowing any room for argument. 

"It's not called the costume room." Tony's voice followed her down the room. 

The flight over was much more quiet than normal, Steve had done his usual preparation for what they were supposed to be coming up against, warning the group that the Maximoff twins were likely to be there. To keep extra vigilance as the twins were currently against the group and the full range of their mutations were not known. Not that Steve had used such nice words. But Annie was aware that these were two very damaged and very untrained teenagers who needed nothing more than a loving and open home where they could come to terms with what happened to them and learn how to accept their mutations and expand upon them. She just had to get to them and get them out before any harm came to them. She refused to allow any serious harm to come to the twins under her watch. 

"Remember guys, please, that they are just two teenagers who have had a horrible horrible last couple of years. They are mutants, they are people and not just experiments. Treat them as such, they are not the bad guys here." Annie spoke before the group exited the jet and headed inside the compound of which Ulysses Klaue was supposed to be hiding out. 

"Stark is, he's a sickness." Ultron's voice could be heard as the group approached. 

"Aww junior. You're gonna break your old man's heart." Tony responded as the group made their presence unknown. Steve and Thor were the ones at the front just behind Tony, the more threatening looking members and the most likely to hopefully play a decent diplomat. 

"You can still walk away from this." Steve had turned his attention to the twins, Annie's words ringing clear in his head.

"Oh we will." Wanda replied and Annie turned her attention to the younger woman trying hard to get a message across telepathically. And Annie watched as Wanda's eyes suddenly turned to her obviously aware of the message that was being sent over. 

'I know you can hear me Wanda. Let me help you and your brother. Let me bring you both to people like us, people who can help.' Annie's words however were ignored as the group broke out in full brawl, and she slipped down and away from the battle choosing instead to pull a Professor X move and try to reason with the other telepathic in the building. 

'Please Wanda come to me, we can have a civilised chat let me tell you what could be on the other side for you. There is no need to fight.'  And with her words Annie waited, she continued to wait until there was any sign of either of the twins. 

Soon enough Wanda did join Annie in the small little alcove the mutant had found for their meeting. The younger woman came in with a rather threatening aura and it was clear she did not have good intentions for Annie. But Annie, was a little stupid she was aware of that, chose to ignore these very obvious red flags desperate to reach out and get ground with the young woman now stood opposite her. 

"I do not want to hear what amazing offer you have come up with to lure us into a feeling of safety. Your little party trick earlier was funny, what technology did Stark have to create for you to do that?" Wanda's voice was condescending and Annie realised just how little the younger woman knew about who she truly was. 

"You and your brother are not alone out there with your powers. We're called homomutants if you want to be technical born with the mutant-X gene which causes us to develop mutations. It's usually passed from the father to the child. And we develop our mutations at different points in our lives some like yourselves in their later years some of us much earlier." Annie could tell her words were having no effect. 

"Cute but unconvincing." Wanda was now incredibly close to Annie who knew what was likely to happen to her next. Her telepathy was no where as advanced as Wanda's and she could not fight off such a strong attack as it came. Rather she submitted and allowed the enslaught of the power to take over, wonder as to what she was going to see. Not knowing it would leave her wishing she had put up just a bit more of a fight. 

The scenery changed around Annie almost instantly her eyes recognising the fact that she was on the X-jet and surrounded by people who looked incredibly panicked. Her eyes glanced over to Kitty who was just in front of her and it came slamming back to her where Annie was at this moment in time. Scrambling from her seat Annie ran to the back of the X-Jet the tears gathering in her eyes. 

"Mom, Mommy no. Please don't leave me. Don't do this." The 19 year old Annie cried out feeling the motion of her feet that wanted her to run to her mother. Perhaps this time if there was two of them they would both make it out. Though strong arms wrapped their way around them, and Annie knew just from there presence that it was her father.

"Annie baby no, you need to stay on. I will not lose you to this horrible man." Jean Grey's voice came through and it felt as though it was all happening again. 

"No Mommy, I need you here with me. Together or not at all."

"You're going to find your own Together or not at all Annie. I'll always be proud of you. I love you." And with those parting words Annie watched as her mother the great Jean Grey started to close the back door of the X-Jet. 

"I love you Scott Summers."

"I love you more Jean Grey." And with that Annie took one last look at her mother. She turned around in her fathers arms and into an embrace. One the future her knew would be their second to last. And for what felt like the first time, as the plan lifted off Annie felt the mind link to her mother snap the pain bouncing through her head, as she collapsed to the ground in a flood of tears. The plane lifting off as her mother stood below being covered by the water which would create Alkali Lake. 

Annie was then transported to herself being back at the academy sat in the room with her godfather and teacher Professor Charles Xavier. Her father having gone out for a walk just an hour earlier, his destination unknown back then. The pair were talking between themselves as the Professor attempted to raise her spirits and to help her see a brighter future some time in the distance where she could look back on the happier times with her mother. 

Only for the same familiar snap to occur, Annie reached to grab her head once again as the tears formed. She knew instantly that her other parent had been taken from her. And as she cried she realised that she was now alone in the world the people she cared about more than life no longer with her. 

Annie came to when a frantic shake of her shoulders persisted. Her eyes snapping away from the red haze they had been under and the green taking back over. And as she stared at Clint she let the tears fall. 

"Oh Darling I'm so sorry. I should have got here sooner." Clint's voice was soothing as he reached to wipe away some of the tears which fell down her face. 

"I did this to myself Clint. I let her close to show her I could be trusted." Annie cried as she spoke her hands reflectively going back to her head as the pain from her memories felt real, as if she just had another mind link snap. 

"You did what you always do to struggling mutants, she'll come around soon sweetheart. But what we need to do now, is we need to get you home. And this time I mean home home, I think we all need some time recuperating. And the farmhouse has enough space. Let's go home darling." Clint went to lean forwards to scoop Annie up, he knew she could walk in this moment in time just chose to do the opposite.

"How's Nat?" Annie asked.

"Shook and not speaking. But I don't think she wants to speak to either of us anyways. Things will work out for us both soon Annie I know it."

"You won't leave me?"

"I'm here as long as you'll have me Annie. Together or not at all." Clint hadn't said those words to her for a long time, probably since they had last worked together whilst they had been at SHIELD. And a teary smile could be brought to Annie's face. She had found her together or not at all. And he was everything her mother could have dreamed for her. 

"Together or not at all." Annie mumbled back before leaning into Clint's chest and allowing herself to rest.