Chapter 10

Steve watched Tony walk off, and I jumped when the ax suddenly slammed down onto another piece of wood. He continued on for several more, and I listened in silence as he slammed the ax down so hard it broke the log he was using to chop wood. Steve paused for a moment, and left the ax on the broken log. Putting his hands on his hips, he took a huge breath. I quietly cleared by throat, bringing his attention toward me. I had never truly seen him upset, but the glare he gave was pretty impressive. Any human would have backed down from him. Thankfully, the glare he gave only had me arching my brow.

"Easy, Cap," I sighed. "Listen, Tony is going to do what he's going to do. That never, ever is going to change. He's a big pain, and he can be extremely hard to deal with but that's something we're going to have to just accept that."

"I had to change," he growled, walking over as I hopped down from the fence. "It's time that he does too, frankly."

I gave him a slight smile, and patted his arm gently. "Don't let it get to your head."

He sighed again, and let out a large breath after several minutes. When I knew he was all right, I took my hand from his arm. Steve looked down for a few moments, before turning back toward me. I gave him a gentle look and went and leaned against the fence, looking over the rolling hills and woods that surrounded this place. He joined me, resting his elbows on the top of the fence.

"It's beautiful out here," I sighed.

"You didn't have to come when I called you," he rumbled, getting right to the point.

I looked at him sharply. "If I had called to you for help, you would not have hesitated. You are important to me. I will not hesitate to help you should you need it, not after all you did for me. All you continue doing for me."

"Nah, it's not like I did that much," he hummed.

"Oh shut it," I grumbled. "Yes you did. You took me in, and that speaks enough."

He looked at me, his eyebrow arching slightly. I sighed dramatically and wrapped my arms around one of his. Pressing my forehead against his bicep, I gave his arm a brief squeeze before I had to retreat. Going into the trees, I pushed a transformation, keeping it about twenty feet and folded my wings tightly. I laid down just inside the treeline and heard the kids squeal with excitement when my red eyes glowed. I grumbled to myself. They had spotted me.

"Can we?!" Clint's daughter cried.

"I'll go with and we can ask," Clint sighed.

I tensed, and noticed when Steve walked over to join them, abandoning his wood pile. He gave me a gentle look and stood by my shoulder when Clint approached with his kids. The fact that the man trusted me, warmed my heart and eased my mind. I found myself relaxing a little, just knowing Clint trusted me. I wouldn't harm his kids, we all knew that. Children always had fascinated me.

"Sorry."

"Kids," I chuckled, as they gasped.

I let them come forward to touch my scales, and decided to play along with all their demands. Steve stood with Clint once I relaxed, and I gave the children my full attention. I opened my wing so they could see it and touch the leathery skin, and even opened my jaws so they could see my teeth. His son touched a sharp tooth, and the noise that came from him almost had me laughing.

"Can you breathe fire!?" his son grinned.

In answer, I shot smoke from my nostrils and he gaped in amazement. I chuckled, and let them hug my muzzle before their father finally ushered them off. I watched them go, and my expression warmed. They were so innocent, stuck in their own world. They had no idea what was really out there, what kind of terrible place the world could actually be.

"Thanks, Kayden."

"Of course," I smiled gently.

Steve arched his brow in amusement when I rumbled, and he reached out to pat my nose. "Why this?" he asked.

I gave him a narrowed glance, "Sometimes, you humans make me feel things I really don't want to feel," I murmured. "Plus, I gave all the advice I could."

He chuckled at that, and crossed his arms as he watched Tony and Fury walk out of the barn about twenty minutes later. I also lifted my head, aware of the man, and I tilted my head. If he was here, that wasn't a good thing. Blowing smoke out my nostrils, I slowly got to my feet and pushed my transformation into human. From the little while that I had been in dragon form, I was feeling a little better.

"Well, I'm hungry and I'm sure he's going to call a meeting..." I sighed, and Steve smiled.

"Most likely."

"Are you sure you are okay?" I asked, turning to him.

He paused at the question, and he looked down and sighed. "I will be okay," he said quietly. "Thank you."

I nodded, and walked with him to the house. Once inside, I walked into the kitchen where Laura was starting to prepare dinner. Deciding to make myself useful, I joined her with a polite smile. This would help calm my nerves. I did enjoy cooking from time to time. Helping her meant I could keep my hands busy and my mind focused on what needed to be done.

"What can I do?" I asked, and she smiled.

"Can you make the salad?" she answered, while she peeled potatoes.

"Of course," I nodded.

"Any chance we can get some coffee?" Steve asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Help yourself," Laura smiled.

I set myself to work on cutting up everything needed for the salad. It was easy to get familiar with the kitchen, and I finished what she wanted done. I moved it off to the side, and then set to work on cleaning up any mess I had made. She gave me a few other things to do, and lastly, I was setting the large dining table for dinner. She had made a turkey, with potatoes, corn, salad and rolls for dinner. I had to hand it to her, she knew how to prepare for an army.

Letting out a soft sigh, I made some tea and set it on the table along with a pitcher of water. Laura moved aside when Clint came in to lift the turkey out of the oven after hours of cooking, and he set it on a platter and cut it. Once dinner was ready, we all sat down and ate. For once, it was nice to have a home cooked meal. It was an easy silence that fell upon the table and we spoke every now and again. I knew everyone was tired.

After dinner, I set to work on helping load the dishwasher, and clean the dishes that wouldn't fit. Laura sighed gratefully when I told her to go sit down. She happily took the advice, and went to relax.

"Ultron took you guys out of play to buy himself time," Fury finally said. "My contacts say he's building something. The amount of vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.

"Oh he's easy to track," Fury replied. "He's everywhere. The guy is multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. It still doesn't help us get an angle at any of his plans though."

I snorted in soft laughter, and Fury gave me a slight smile for it. Tony was shooting darts, obviously thinking about something. I wasn't sure I wanted to know what was going through that head of his. The reason why we were here was because of that stupid brain. Leaning back in my chair, I sighed.

"Is he still going after the launch codes?" Tony finally asked.

"Yes he is," Fury nodded. "But he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony snorted, turning back to us.

"Well I asked our friends at the Nexus about that," Fury hummed.

"Nexus?" Steve asked, turning his head.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there," Bruce said, looking up. "Fastest access on earth."

"So what'd they say?" Clint asked, looking at a dart.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed," Fury answered, filling his glass with tea.

"By whom?" Tony asked, looking at him, and jumped when a dart hit the bullseye.

"Parties unknown," Fury sighed, while I chuckled at Barton.

"Do we have an ally?" I asked, looking back at Fury.

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is," Fury sighed.

Tony walked forward and leaned against the counter. "I might need to visit Oslo, find our "unknown"."

I put the pans away quietly as Natasha sighed in defeat. I glanced at her and saw her looking helplessly at the table, before smiling and tilting her head up to Fury.

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that," she said, obviously irritated.

"I do," Fury replied, giving her a smile. "I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. Whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All of this...laid in the grave."

Everyone fell silent at his words, and I folded the towel and put it down on the counter quietly. He did have a very good point on that. I wasn't there for the start of the team, but I was there after it was formed. Over the last three years they had become close to one another.

"So stand," Fury rumbled. "Outwit the platinum bastard."

Natasha arched her brow as she glanced across the table. "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."

"You know what, Romanoff," Steve replied, crossing his arms with a light smile.

She smiled at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes. I grabbed a cup of coffee, and leaned against the counter by Clint as he sat down on a stool. He glanced at me as he twirled another dart in his hand, and I gave him a slight glare.

"So, what does he want?" Fury asked.

"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies," Steve answered.

"Person bodies. The human form is ineffcient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back," Tony added, moving forward.

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," Natasha said flatly.

Bruce quietly walked forward, looking at a drawing that was on the table. He touched the piece of paper, and when I leaned forward a bit, and saw it was a picture of a butterfly. I tilted my head in surprise, catching what he was suddenly thinking.

"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve," he said quietly. "Ultron is going to evolve."

"How?" I asked, looking over.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

That was quite the surprise. All of us glanced at one another, and I knew they had not spoken to her. After that, everyone slowly faded into rooms to go to sleep for the night. There was nothing they could do just yet. They needed to sleep first. Natasha took the couch, and Banner got comfortable in a large recliner. I didn't stay in the house long, and instead I made my way outside.

The stars were out in all their glory tonight. It was nice to see them without all the light pollution from the city. It made me miss places like this, where nature was so visible. In the distance I could hear the coyotes howling, and animals began to move around. Leaning on the railing, I sighed quietly to myself. This war with Ultron was going to get someone killed. There was no way all of us were going to get out of it.

I felt my teeth grind together as I found myself making a choice. I wasn't going to let them go into battle without my help. Not that I could provide much help, but I could give them something. Looking back up at the sky, I listened as the door opened and shut quietly. I didn't bother turning around, I knew it was Steve. I had heard him shifting in the bed he had been offered. He leaned on the railing next to me, and bumped his shoulder lightly against mine.

"Everything okay?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," I nodded. "Everything is fine. I'm not tired."

"You and me both..."

"I think you are a little scared to go to bed," I hummed, and watched him tense. "She really screwed with your head didn't she? This...mind girl?"

"She hit us all pretty bad," he admitted quietly.

"I wish I had been there to stop it," I murmured. "I'm sorry..."

"No, you were right, this wasn't something you had signed up for," Steve sighed. "You never wanted this...the fighting and all that. You had been trying to get away from it all."

"The difference is who I'm fighting for," I answered. "Fighting for you is much easier than just fighting to fight. You give me a purpose, while before I just did it for blood."

Steve looked at me quietly when he heard what I had said, and I sighed. Reaching out, I wrapped my arms around one of his and leaned against him in silence. I had no words to give him that was going to help, I only had my company. Mind games were no laughing matter. They brought up dreams, or terrors and it would haunt the person for a short time. I could imagine all of them had things they didn't want to remember, or many things they had feared or still do. Steve looked down for a moment, and then reached up with his other hand and laid it over mine.

"Thanks, D," he rumbled. "For coming to help, and for just...knowing when to not say anything."

"You're welcome," I replied softly.

We stood there for a while longer, before I finally extracted myself from him. I ignored how nice it had been, to have that kind of contact. He stood up fully when I moved away. Turning my head, I smiled at him.

"I'm going to head home," I murmured. "From the sounds of it, you are all going on another mission, and I'd like to get the tower cleaned up. No one has touched it. So, let me know what's going to happen?"

"Of course," he nodded. "Be careful...please."

"Anyone who'd try to catch me would be foolish," I grinned, my eyes glowing.

Walking forward, I laid a hand on his chest gently and patted it. He lowered his head quietly, and then reached out and drew me into a tight hug. I chuckled softly, and let him have the contact. When he stepped back, I hopped off the porch and transformed.

"Please be careful," I rumbled, and he nodded. "And do not fear sleep. Nothing will haunt you if you don't give it the power. Remember that."

I flew home once I got my sense of direction and made it a quick flight. Barton's house had truly been in the middle of no where. Fury had done a good job at keeping them off the grid. It had really been nice to see. Through all the crazy and all the battles, someone was attempting to live a normal life. I wasn't sure what time it was when I got to the avengers tower, but when I did I decided on forcing myself into a deep sleep. A dragon could sleep for ages if they wanted to. I loved to sleep, but I tried to keep it normal, human like. If I slept regularly, I noticed I had an easier time shifting more. Being in dragon form was natural. The human form was a skin, a cover. I enjoyed it at least. It also kept my strong in a way. The more rest, the stronger my magic. Basic as it was, it was still helpful. I could control my size in dragon form, if my true size was too large to help. Sleep came easily that night.

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