Titanium | Barnes (1)

18. Creating a Vision

 Malka's hands shake as she sits by the computers. Her hands haven't stopped shaking since she ran from Berlin. Tony noticed it the instant he picked her up, saw the wet footprint on her back and the bruises around her throat. Saw how terrified she was when she stumbled into his arms barefoot and told him to go.

Now, her mind is split. Ultron has Natasha. That makes him a dead man—dead robot?—in Malka's eyes. There is a very short list of people Malka would betray her friends for, Natasha Romanoff being at the top of that list. Therefore, if Ultron is not a pile of bolts by the time she finds Natasha, she will rain hell on the world.

Bucky had let her go. Not the Winter Soldier, but Bucky. She saw it in his eyes when he dropped the gun. Recognition, like a lighthouse igniting. He couldn't kill her. He should have killed her, yet she sits here waiting for a code of some kind.

Barton marches into the room and takes a seat beside her. She barely looks at him but can feel his eyes on her. "We'll find her, kid."

"I'm older than you," Malka replies.

"Born earlier but still lived less."

Malka takes a steadying breath and chances a look at him. "I'm sorry. For trying to kill you."

"It's ok. The girl got in your head."

"Wanda did what she thought she needed to do." Malka crosses her arms and leans back. "I don't think she wanted to see what was in my head any more than I do. I saw...She showed me..."

"You don't have to tell me."

Shutting her eyes tightly, she forces herself to tap his shoulder and spin him to face her. "I can't say it so..." She holds her hands up and begins to sign. "I had a sister. They made me kill her first. I saw myself kill her. Again."

His gaze softens. "I know. I read your file. The real one."

She knows he did, but she needed to say it. She signs, "I won't lose Nat."

"We won't." The radio by their side begins to make static. They each jerk forward to grab a headset, listening to the code. Barton smiles as he translates the code to the computer, a location popping up. "Got her."

Malka springs to her feet, a victorious laugh echoing from her throat as she races up to the lab where she knows Banner and Tony are dismantling Ultron's body. "Guys! Guys, we—" She skids to a stop, all humor gone. "What's going on?"

Steve stands in the doorway along with the Maximoff twins while Banner and Tony huddle over the cradle containing the android. Malka slips into the room as she glances between them.

Only the twins really seem to notice her.

Wanda smacks Pietro's chest and whispers something Malka cannot hear. His eyes go wide when he looks back at her, the shouting match between the Avengers mounting. He takes one last look at her before he turns into a blur around the room, disconnecting the cables from the cradle. "No, no. Go on. You were saying?"