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Chapter 28 – Damned If You Do
Let it be said that Ophelia Delacour never allowed her teammates to see the ugly side of her. To them, she was the fun-loving, flirty and excitable kid that made the team feel like a family.
Perhaps it was a leftover fear that her team would still think she was a ticking time bomb. Whatever the reason, she unconsciously kept the worst part of herself hidden from them.
Ophelia never thought she'd ever have a reason to show that side.
But here they were.
"All our work is gone," Bruce announced as everyone convened to the labs, a skittish look on his face as he refused to look in the direction of Ophelia's narrowed eyes. "Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."
"Ultron," Steve repeated quietly, leaning against a table in contemplation.
"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha relayed, pushing away from the computer to settle behind a stoic Ophelia as she sat on a computer chair. Her forearms leaning on the brawler's shoulders.
"Well, there are no files on me. Unless you two went behind our backs a second time." Ophelia frostily bit out to Bruce and Tony as they avoided her harsh gaze.
A small part of her was winced at how cruel she was being, but the louder part was screaming betrayal of the highest level. Natasha firmly squeezed her shoulders, silently telling her to calm down and stay rational.
"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey pointed out as he walked across the labs, his face pitched in concern but masked with professional calmness.
"Nuclear codes," Maria spoke up in realisation, her foot resting on her lap as she attempted to take out any glass shards from the earlier fight.
"Nuclear codes." Rhodey weakly threw his arm up in affirmation. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."
"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead." Natasha pointed out; her brows furrowed in consideration.
"He didn't say dead. He said extinct." Steve replied, partly still lost in thought of what happened.
"He also said he killed somebody," Clint added, leaning on the railing with a faint frown on his lips.
"But there wasn't anyone else in the building," Maria said, her neck craning to look up at Clint on the second floor.
"Yes, there was." Tony finally spoke, his voice solemn as he took out a handheld control pad. Tapping it to the centre of the room to reveal a holographic rendering of JARVIS. The broken remnants of his consciousness hanging suspended in the air, flickering ominously. Ophelia felt almost disrespectful looking at the AI like this. If anyone had saved their asses and kept them alive all this time, it was JARVIS. And this was all that was left of him.
