No one eats in a dining room" Clint said as they parked the car on the side of the road. Christine had pretended to listen to their conversation when she couldn't get her mind off Steve's lips on hers.
He rubbed small circles into her waist as his lips moved patiently against hers. She reached her hand up and played the hairs by the nape of his neck. When she rested her hand on his cheek, she could feel him lightly push them closer together. As if the space between them was still too far.
"Christine?" Natasha called, she had her brows raised and the two friends were in the front watching the young woman stare out the window. Her pointer finger was resting on her bottom lip and she had a small smile on her face.
"Hm?" she called. She finally turned her head to see them already staring at her. Natalie wiggled her eyebrows and she scoffed and looked at clint. When she saw the matching expression, she rolled her eyes and hopped out of the car.
They both laughed before following suit.
"Oh, we are so talking about this later" Natasha said. A distant roar called her attention shortly after and she stared in the direction that it came from. Clint looked at his best friend and recognized her admiration and something else on her face. He touched her shoulder.
"There isn't much time."
"So, get your asses to the boat." Nat said and didn't spare a glance before running in that direction.
They both arrived on one of the last boats to depart, many people were already occupying seats. She sat on the furthest chair when she heard a panicked voice.
"Costel? Costel?"
"We were in the market..." The woman next to us tried to explain to a medic. Clint heard the conversation too and proceeded to stand with Christine. Christine raked her eyes over the debris and abandoned buildings. She was looking with no luck, so Clint suggested that they both leave the boat and get a better look. They stepped out the way as more passengers arrived and landed back on the flying rock.
"There he is" Clint pointed out. A small blonde boy climbed from underneath a hole, the covering was camouflaged by a beam that has fallen. Christine stayed back and stayed watch as Clint approached the kid. She watched him grab the small boy and hold out his hand for him to hold as they walked back.
Christine glanced around the perimeter and noticed a jet flying towards them. She tilted her head at the jet before she saw both of its guns disarm and point at them. The breath left her body as she moved to Clint, she ran as fast as she could and pushed Clint behind a shadow shield. She could see how fast the jet was coming so she used the rest of her energy to throw up a shadow shield as large as a small building. Ultron halted the jet and shot at her shadow shield.
"Clint!" she yelled. She could feel herself growing weaker and she struggled to get the words out. "Take him to the boat!"
"What? I'm not leaving you!"
"He isn't going to make it himself! You have to go with him."
"Christine, we can run-"
Ultron continued his assault on Christine's shield and she knew that she didn't have much time before it would drop. Her exhaustion and previous injuries made holding the shield nearly impossible.
"Take him to his mother. Now!" Clint opened his mouth to protest, so she used his shadow to conjure a puppet to push him out of the way.
When she did that, her shield began to weaken and the sound of breaking glass was heard. Christine looked up at the sky and could see her vision begin to darken before she felt intense heat in her side. The impact from the weapon made her fly into the wooden beam behind her and she felt something crack. Her hand went to her stomach and she felt warmth cover her hand. Another source of warmth came from her top lip. When she also touched her lip she saw blood. This blood was coming from her nose.
Regardless of her condition, Christine moved from her position on the ground and crawled away from the beam. She could hear her blood rushing in her ears as she attempted to move to safety. She could feel her shadow shield shattering and the muffled sound of gunshots. She glanced over and saw her shadow puppet covering Clint and the child. The child was crying in Clint's arms and Clint was trying to comfort him.
Suddenly, a blue blur came by and grabbed both Clint and the child and raced them to safety. Once Christine saw their empty spaces, she stopped putting as much effort into holding the shield up. She dropped her shadow puppet and used that energy to try to hold it up longer, but the strength was decreasing Bullets rained down on her and she watched in slow motion how her death was going to go. She closed her eyes as the bullet got closer and waited for her death to come.
But it never came.
A loud scrape made her open her eyes and she looked at the car that was in front of her. It was flipped on it's side and absorbed the brunt of the bullets. She looked around, trying to find where it came from when she glanced at Pietro's swaying body.
"Pietro?" He smiled at her and gave her a wink before he collapsed to the ground. "Pietro?!" More bullets came and she saw that Ultron had not stopped his assault on them. He continuously aimed at the two heroes.
Christine dragged her body over to Pietro to see he was still breathing, when she grabbed his face, his eyes fluttered open. "We're gonna die"
"No we're not. No we're not." Christine's eyes blurred as she surveyed his injuries. She couldn't count how many times he had been shot. He had three fatal shots in his chest, two in his stomach, and multiple in his legs. Too many for her to put pressure on all of them, so she picked the most important. She unraveled the tourniquet on her arm and pressed it into his chest wounds. She used all her weight on the wound.
The car began to give way to the bullets and Christine shut her eyes and willed for someone to help them.
"Help!" She called out over the gunshots. She called out louder several more times, but she knew they couldn't hear her.
"Christine?" A bloody hand covered hers and she made eye contact with those icy blue eyes. "You need to get out of here"
A sob ran through her as she comprehended what he was saying. "No" she shook her head, vigorously. "I'm not leaving you, Pietro. I'm going to get you back to your sister"
"Christine, we can't go anywhere under heavy fire like that." He gestured to Ultron. "You can make it to the boat, I can't. You can survive."
"No. I'm getting you back to your sister, Pietro. I promise. Do you hear me?" Pietro frowned before drawing in a tight breath.
"At least I died a hero"
"You're not dying. No one is dying here. Even if I have to drag you there myself, you're going to make it to that boat alive!"
Christine glared at the jet above them before attempting to stand, the wound in her stomach made her wail in pain. "Keep pressure on your wound."
Christine stood up from behind the car with one hand placed on her stomach, she walked around to the front. She summoned a spear and hurled it towards the jet. She watched her normally opaque shadow, fly and hit against the window, but the grey spear didn't even make a scratch. Ultron turned the jet enough to point the guns at her. He seized fire. "Oh, look at you. You're almost an avenger. Sacrificing yourself for other people." He mocked.
She ignored him.
"Let's not forget what you really are, though."
Christine held onto her stomach, but she could feel her blood pool in her palm before slipping through her fingers. The bullet wound was fatal and she knew it. It was only a moment of time before she lost more than enough blood to kill her. Her injured arm hung by her side. The tourniquet allowed her blood to circulate, but she felt it run down onto her fingers. Blood dripped from her other hand too. She wondered what she looked like, standing in front of this jet, blood stained.Her curly hair had fallen out of it's tight ponytail and hung down her shoulders. She blew up to move the strands that were plastered to her sweaty forehead.
"A murderer who killed their sister. For justice." He scoffed. A tear fell down Christine's cheek and she wiped it away, angrily. Unintentionally smearing her own blood onto her face, the metallic scent made her nose crinkle. "There is no justice in murder. Only excuses."
Her knees began to waiver and Christine could feel the toll of the blood loss. In an attempt to shift her feet, her legs gave out and she ended up crashing to the ground.
She heard the landing on the jet open and metal clanging on the ground. In front of her, she could see the droid's feet. She willed herself o get up, but she felt too weak to move. She hose to look away from the droid in an effort to hide her tears. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction."And here you are again, about to kill another person that you call family. All because you were too weak to save him."
"Did you even want to save him?" More tears fell down Christine's face and she still refused to look up at the droid. He ended up not giving her a choice by grabbing her by the throat. Christine could feel her airway being restricted and she kicked her feet at the droid to no avail. He ended up squeezing harder and lifting her in the air.
Once again, Christine's vision began to blur. She gasped for air, trying to replenish her air supply.
"It's pathetic how much you want to redeem yourself. Show these people that you are more than what you are."
Christine spotted his shadow behind him, if she could muster up enough strength, she could use it to her advantage. She focused the rest of her energy into conjuring his shadow. She intently stared behind the droid, willing it to do her bidding. She saw the shadow begin to rise, but it was slow and mechanical. Not nearly as smooth as her other transitions.
"what am I?" she strained.
"A jealous brat who couldn't share the limelight with her sister, so she killed her instead."
That was all the time that she needed before she summoned his shadow. One of his arms morphed into a sword and it stabbed Ultron through the heart. The android's eyes widened when he realized what happened. He dropped Christine to the ground and placed his hand on his chest. Christine gasped for air, finally able to expand her lungs fully. When she inhaled, she began to choke. She held her hand to her throat and trie to rub the pain of his grip away.
The Shadow Puppet shoved the sword in further and he groaned. Christine didn't even turn around to know he fell to the ground, dead within a couple of minutes. She crawled over to Pietro. Primarily using her uninjured arm, she dragged her body behind her. Each movement was more draining than the last and she could feel her warm blood trickle onto the pavement. Attempting to keep her stomach from touching the ground, she also used her legs to inch closer.
When she got to the car, she could feel the blood loss. she peeked behind her and saw a trail of blood follow behind her. Her adrenaline wore off and she was in a lot of pain. She knew that she had to make it to him. "Pietro?"
Christine collapsed when she got close to him. She saw his eyes closed and she shook his arm."Pietro?" She called out. "Pietro?!"
"I'm okay" he said in a weak voice.
"Someone's coming to help. Promise." She said. "I promise" Not able to keep her eyes open any longer, Christine's eyes fluttered shut.