PURE AND TAINTED
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
( be safe? )
AFTER BEING TOLD TO MEET up at the church, Aline had let out several heavy pants as she reached it. It was in near ruins by the time she arrived, along with her fellow teammates. There was a slight headache forming, the kind that felt like something was pushing against one part of her brain, but she ignored it. She could handle a headache 一 honestly, she had no choice but to handle it.
"So," she huffed, rolling her shoulders, "anyone wanna tell me what the drill is?" She rubbed her hands together as she stepped further into the church.
Tony pointed at the silver cylinder emerging from the center; the machine looked like it had been shoved up through the ground. "This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."
She turned, hearing someone arriving and she spotted Ultron flying towards them. He hovered high in the air, the sunlight reflecting off his shiny body and nearly blinding her, so she raised her hand to shield her eyes. God, she wanted to knock the smug grin off his stupid face. Stupid Ultron and his stupid army...
"Is that the best you can do?" Thor roared, spinning his hammer in his hand.
Unfortunately, in response to this, Ultron raised his hand. Their eyes grew wide as they watched dozens, if not hundreds of robots appear. Some flew in, some ran in, and some had dug up from the ground to stand by their master. Aline wanted to rip them all apart with her bare hands.
She failed to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, Aline turned to Thor, glaring at him. "Really? Did you, did you really have to ask?" She placed a hand on her hip, shaking her head.
"This is the best I can do," Ultron replied. "This is exactly what I wanted: all of you against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?"
Tony was the one to speak. "Well, like the old man said: together." Hulk roared loudly after he said this, and the robots charged forward.
Robots came at them at all directions, charging as quickly and as harshly as they could, but none of the Avengers would allow it. Aline fought with all her might, ripping them apart with fangs and claws and enchantments. As strange as it sounded, she was getting an odd thrill from fighting. It was different compared to all the other fights, probably because she knew they weren't actually humans and she was dealing no real damage to them. Plus, it felt great to left off some steam from the complete and utter bullshit she had to experience these past few days.
At times, Wanda had watched Aline fight out of the corner of her eye. The tribrid had a certain gracefulness to the way she fought, almost like it was a dance. She swiftly attacked in a way that the others couldn't do 一 she tore them apart with a surprising elegance and poise that Wanda had never seen before. Compared to Captain American and Thor, she was different. Yet it felt like this wasn't the first time she'd done this before. Wanda had seen in her vision that Aline had killed before 一 she'd seen them all in bloody flashes of red 一 but seeing it in person was much different.
Aline growled as she flicked her wrist, a robot coming at her falling limp after seizing. Still facing that robot, she blindly reached behind her and grinned. Her hand had plunged into the oncoming robot from behind her, and she pulled out its mechanical heart. She ripped it out with a ferocity and tossed it at the head of another robot. It was startled and visibly froze, which gave Aline the opportunity to attack. She flit forward, slamming her forehead against its own, causing the thing to stutter backwards. Because of that, she then gripped its skull between her bare hands and crushed it. Instances like this continued again and again, her fighting violently and ending robot lives left and right.
It wasn't until too late did she realize that robots had stopped coming, instead now fleeing from the Avengers and fight as they realized just how horrifically they were losing. Her dark eyes were trained on a group of three and she barked out a spell, shoving her hands out towards them. Their bodies shook intensely before collapsing.
"They're trying to leave the city!" Thor shouted.
"We can't let 'em, not even one," Tony said. "Rhodey!"
"I'm on it," Rhodey answered back before moments later, the Vision shot towards the fleeing robots and quickly destroyed them.
Steve looked to the others. "We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the other boats, I'll sweep for stragglers."
"What about the core?" Clint asked.
Her eyes widened when she heard Wanda speak. "I'll protect it," the Sokovian girl said with a nod, and Aline turned to look at her. "It's my job."
While the others had nodded at her, already departing from the church ruins, Aline and Pietro had stayed behind. "Get the people on the boats," Wanda ordered.
"I'm not going to leave you," Pietro said and shook his head.
"I can handle this!" Almost like it was trying to prove her point, she whipped her body around, hands up. A burst of red shot from her hands and launched at a running robot. "Come back for me when everyone else is off, not before." Her brother hummed, a slight sound of annoyance, and started to walk off. "Do you understand?" Wanda asked.
The speedster turned, smirking. "You know, I'm twelve minutes older than you." Pietro's blue eyes shone mischievously.
Wanda chuckled. "Go." She watched her brother run off in a silver blue blur, before turning her attention to Aline. She couldn't help noticing the worrying look Aline was giving her. "You need to go too. I can handle this, don't worry about me."
Aline raised a brow. "Yeah, no. I'm not leaving and if I lose you like I did 一" She cut herself off, clenching a fist. Madelaine's face flashed in her mind, and she felt her throat tighten. Not again, she thought, never again. "I can't, I can't lose you. I won't lose you."
"And you won't," Wanda said reassuringly, giving her a gentle smile. Some of her dark hair whipped in front of her face. "Go. I'll meet you on the helicarrier later, I promise."
"And if you die?" Aline said. "I won't ever forg一"
The tribrid was immediately cut off when a pair of lips pressed against her own, silencing her voice. It only took Aline three seconds to pass before she realized what exactly was happening. Wanda was kissing her.
Wanda was kissing her so gently, tenderly cupping both of Aline's cheeks as she held her close. While their kiss was short and soft, it held a lovely passion that she wanted to feel again. When Wanda pulled away, a devious smirk formed on her face when she saw Aline blushing. Her cheeks were burning bright red, and so were the tips of her ears. Despite them being in the middle of a battlefield, she couldn't help but think Aline to look very cute.
"Okay..." Aline said slowly, biting her lip and taking a slow step back. Clearing her throat, she rubbed the back of her neck. Her eyes were still wide and she pointed to the right. "So... I'm... going to go that way now... and I will see you later. Be safe?" Aline then awkwardly turned, starting her slow walk, and not noticing the big grin on Wanda's face.
___
The mini-helicarriers were filled with people, the last Sokovians of Novi Grad that had managed to make it to the edge. Aline had made it there after walking from the church a few minutes later. A blush was still on her cheeks when she jogged over to stand next to Clint.
Even though he was still looking over at the city, scanning for any survivors, he had noticed the way Aline was walking. "So how'd it go?"
Aline raised a brow. "Huh?"
"Don't tell me that you just left her there without doing something romantic," Clint said and elbowed her. "So tell me... did you kiss her?"
"Oh, my God, Clint!" Aline pressed her hands over her ears.
"Nat owes me money," he sang and Aline jabbed her in the ribs. "I thought it was gonna happen within the next few days. Nat thought it would be much later."
"You two are the worst."
"But you know who isn't?" Clint asked and Aline slowly eased her hands away from ears, afraid to hear the answer. "Wanda."
She took this as the opportunity to shove her fingers in her ears. "La la la la! I'm not listening, la la la!" God, this was so embarrassing. Her friends had bet on when her first kiss would be. Why?
Just as their little moment was dying down, with Aline placing her hands back at her sides, they could hear a woman calling out from the mini-helicarrier. "Costel? We were in the market." The two Avengers looked over to see a woman curled up securely in a blanket. "Costel?!"
Clint looked around, spotting a small boy trying to pull himself up. He gave a small sigh before jogging towards him.
At the sound of an incoming aircraft, Aline whipped her head around, brown locks flying. She spotted Ultron in the pilot's seat, and then bullets were sprayed from the mounted guns. Her eyes went wide as she spotted Thor and Steve jump out of the way, but the bullets continued to rain down towards Clint and the boy.
Clint heard the bullets and felt the wind rush past his face, but he didn't feel the pain. He didn't feel the bullets pierce his torso and end his life. What happened? Why wasn't he dead? There was no chance he had survived so why was he still alive? The archer slowly lifted his head. In front of him was a car sitting on its side, bullet holes in the metal, but still no wounds on his body. He turned his head and his eyes widened.
Forty-seven.
All together, Clint had counted forty-seven bullet wounds across Pietro and Aline's bodies, seeing how each wound made scarlet patches across their clothing. Pietro looked up and made eye contact with the man, staring at Clint holding the child with a look of disbelief. It almost looked like he was thinking, I got hit?
"You didn't see that coming," Pietro said, his voice a weak murmur, before he fell to the ground. Clint lowered the boy to the ground, before rushing over to Pietro.
Strong arms grabbed at her body, and she was thankful for them as she collapsed. A shuddering pant fell past her lips and she coughed, blood spitting out and coating her lips. She pressed a weak hand against one of the wounds, a bullet hole in her thigh, and she instantly regretted it. Pain flared from that spot and she whimpered, tilting her head to dig her face into Steve's chest. She'd "died" plenty of times, but each time still hurt like she was human. Wheezes escaped from Aline.
"Damn, this hurts," she panted, gulping loudly.
"Hey, Ali," Steve said in a gentle tone, holding her closer to his body, "you'll be okay." He held one of her hands.
"Duh," she muttered, her eyelids feeling heavy. She grit her teeth as one of her legs moved, pain flaring up again. "Oh, Stevie... do I... do I not recommend this, like, like at all." She took heavier breaths. "Tell Wanda I'll be okay, will you? Don't let her lose hope..." Her voice faded and her breathing became even more labored than before.
This wasn't the first time he'd seen Aline die 一 easily the ninth or tenth (because, of course, Aline was a reckless girl) 一 but that didn't mean it didn't hurt each time. He watched with a heavy heart as her eyes fluttered shut, her chest stopped moving, her head lolled to the side, and her heart stopping beating.
A/N: had 10 minutes until
my next class, so why not
update?? :)