Ashlyn's pov:
Ash frowned.
She had spent the last week trying to come up with a plan and distractions. She was sitting in the vents of the orphanage above the room where the younger kids slept. She had made herself slightly smaller so that she could crawl through the tunnels but it was still rather uncomfortable. She had created a number of fake missions for them which was proven to be very difficult considering the safety measures Oliver had installed. As Ash waited for the supervisors to leave the room, she thought back to her time here.
Flashback:
Eight-year-old Ashlyn was sitting on her bed with her head in her hands. She had failed a mission today. She had been told not to fail and yet she still did. Ashlyn was very angry at herself. It had just been a simple assassination and yet she could not complete it.
Her mission had been to get rid of a certain family that was trying to flee Hydra with information that was very valuable. Ash had been specifically requested by Hydra to perform this mission and she had failed. The door to the bedroom opened and ten-year-old Maya walked in. When Maya noticed the young girl sitting on the bed she quickly walked over to her and embraced her in a hug.
"You tried your best Ash"
Ash shook her head but remained silent. If she had tried her best then she wouldn't have failed. Ash was mostly scared of what the supervisors were going to do to her. She had seen what they do to the others who failed their missions and she was not looking forward to finding out what they would do to her.
The door opened again and this time one of the supervisors walked in.
"The Mistress would like to speak to you 47."
47 was Ash's name at the orphanage. Each child was given a name based on their assigned group and their age. Ash stood quickly and Maya gave her a reassuring nod. Ash followed the supervisor down the hallways of the orphanage until she was outside the Mistress's office. The Mistress was the current leader of the orphanage, nobody knew her real name but everyone was scared of her, including eight-year-old Ash. Ash showed none of her fear, however, as she pushed the door open and took a step inside. The Mistress was an old woman however she didn't look as old as she was. She looked no older than forty but Ash knew she had been alive more than a hundred years.
"Ah, my dear Ashlyn"
The Mistress had always been fond of Ash. Helping her with training, pushing her to be the absolute best of her age group, and Ash was. That was another reason why Ash was so scared to be talking to her. She didn't want to see the Mistress's disappointed face.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you child." Ash lifted her gaze from her feet to meet the eyes of the Mistress. "I've heard some disappointing things about your recent mission, Ashlyn. Your supervisor is most disappointed with you."
Ash nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment.
"Do you understand your mistake, Ashlyn?" Ash nodded again and the Mistress seemed satisfied with her answer. "I am afraid I'm going to have to suspend you from any further on-field missions until I am sure it won't happen again. Do you understand?" Ash frowned but remained silent. This punishment was better than most punishments would be but no on-field missions meant more training. And training was very very painful.
"Don't give me that face, child, this will be good for you."
Ash nodded again and exited the room. She walked back down the hallways to the room where the younger kids slept. She was planning on checking on Liam before it was time for bed. As she stepped into the room she heard laughing and singing, It made her smile. The younger kids had not yet lost their memories from their normal life. Ash had been here since she was born so of course, she had no memories from anything outside the orphanage. Four-year-old Liam was sitting on his bed with another boy about his age. Ash approached him and when he saw her he smiled.
"Ash!" he shouted gleefully. He ran up to her and hugged her tightly "How'd your mission go?"
Ash frowned as he asked her this. "Not so good," She said plainly. Liam nodded his head and pulled her back to where he had been sitting previously.
"I have a mission tomorrow too!" he told her excitedly. Ash frowned, she never liked the idea of the younger kids performing missions, even though she was young herself. Ash picked Liam up and set him in a lying position under his blanket.
"Then you need to have your full strength," she told him in a mock pointed voice that made Liam giggle.
"Tell me a story?" Liam asked her. Ash hesitated, she wasn't very good with making up stories. Sure, she had imagination but she mostly used it for strategies and fighting methods not... storytelling.
"Once upon a time, there were three friends. Two of them were siblings by blood while the other was a sister by heart. The three were stuck in an underground prison. One day, they managed to escape the prison they had been stuck in all these years. They went out into the real world and lived their lives as normal people"
End of flashback
Ash smiled as she remembered the story she told Liam that one time. Her wish had come true partly since they had escaped the orphanage, but they were far from normal. Ash heard the door close, meaning that the supervisors had completed their check-up of the younger kids. She slowly opened the hatch of the vent and climbed down. The lights in the room were off and none of the children had noticed her arrival. Ash cleared her throat and all heads turned to her.
"I need you all to follow me, we're getting out of here," She said, however, she received blank looks in return.
"Mr. Oliver says we aren't allowed to leave," Said one of the boys and Ash rolled her eyes.
"Well Mr. Oliver can go burn in hel-" Ash stopped herself, realizing she was standing in front of a group of children. "Mr. Oliver actually sent me here," She told them and their eyes widened.
"We have a mission we need all of you to complete," She said and they all stood up from their beds. It was second nature to anyone in the orphanage that when a supervisor said you were needed, you needed to be ready. Ash motioned for them to follow her and they did. She led them down one of the empty hallways toward where the newborns were. One of the supervisors spotted her and she quickly knocked him out. She then had to explain to the group of children that the supervisor had been an imposter. When Ash pushed the door open the baby room she was met with about ten cribs. Ash sighed, she didn't have enough hands to fight through the agents at the orphanage and carry ten babies... she would have to improvise.
Ash turned to the group of about twenty kids behind her and she smiled at them.
"I need the ten strongest people here to help me with an important part of the mission," She said and they all raised their hands excitedly. She picked ten of them at random and had them each carefully carry one of the babies.
Ash led them through the hallways, throwing smoke bombs every once in a while into different rooms to stop the older assassins from coming after them. Ash knew that she could possibly beat each of the assassins here, however, she knew that most of them were very good fighters, and if they all came at her at once, she didn't want to think about what would happen then.
When they reached the outside gates they were met with a group of guards that didn't seem to like the fact that Ash was stealing children. Ash turned quickly to face the kids behind her.
"I need you guys to close your eyes and sing your favorite song" They immediately followed her request and Ash turned back to face the guards that were all pointing their guns at her. Ash rolled her eyes again and took out her own gun. The guards immediately began to shoot. Ash saw the bullets coming in slow motion toward two small girls who looked no older than three with two braids going down their backs, they had their eyes closed and they were singing their own melodies.
Ash jumped forward and caught the three bullets in her lower stomach. She somersaulted out of her jump and shot each guard right between the eyes. Ash stood up and examined her stomach. The bullets were still inside meaning that her enhanced healing couldn't work. Ash winced and she tried to remove one of the bullets herself. She stopped when she realized she was only making it worse. She would just have to push through until Maya could stitch her up. Ash got the children's attention and they all seemed surprised to find the group of dead bodies in front of them and Ash's lower abdomen covered in blood.
"They're just sleeping, don't worry" Ash assured the kids.
"Sleeping?" Asked one of the boys
"They are old, old people get tired," She explained.
Ash led them down the streets of New York, wincing with every step she took. People were giving her weird looks, she wasn't sure whether it was from the group of children following her or from the fact that her entire lower body was now stained in her blood. Her wounds had stopped bleeding but they couldn't heal until she got the bullets out.