A flood of jumbled images rush though Peggy's subconscious mind as she sleeps. Memories from the war intermingling with the things she's seen and done since her return. Memories of Angie fading into imagined scenarios as Peggy tries to piece together what happened to her, and where she was now. Peggy herself was currently in her bed, in her quarters at the newly renamed Avengers Tower. In their investigation into Hydra, SHIELD had discovered smaller cells spread out across the globe. Maria Hill had been reassigned to the Avengers to help them take down what remained of the organization. Peggy had been called away from her search for Angie because the Avengers needed Captain Carter, but what she had discovered so far, the places she'd seen as she and Sam searched, haunted her dreams.
"Angie!" Peggy cries out as she bolts upright in bed, her breathing and heart rate racing, her skin covered in a sheen of sweat. Her dark eyes darted around the room frantically looking for the phantom of the woman she loved until she slowly realized it had been a dream. She was no closer to having Angie back than she was that day on the rooftop when she'd first laid eyes on her again after so long.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Peggy reaches up to rub her face with her hands before swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She sits there for a moment as she distances herself from her nightmares, then stands and makes her way into her bathroom to wash her face. The soft glow of the digital clock embedded in the mirror lets her know it's still the middle of the night and she sighs. After washing the sweat and tears from her face Peggy heads up to the communal kitchen to make herself some tea while she tries to decide whether she should try going back to sleep or going for a run. When she walks into the common room, she's surprised to find she isn't the only one awake at this ungodly hour.
"Tony?" Peggy says softly as she walks towards the counter to get the kettle.
Tony looks up from his slice of pizza and the piece of armor he's tinkering with. "Oh, hey, Cap." He blinks. "Is it morning?"
Peggy shakes her head as she fills the kettle with water and then replaces it on its base to heat. "A little after oh-three-hundred."
"What are you doing up at three a.m.?" Tony asks as he watches her. "Do you not need sleep?"
"My body is enhanced but still human." Peggy replies. "I still sleep and eat and do all the other things living beings do." Then she skirts his question by throwing it back at him. "Why are you up at three a.m.?"
Tony shrugs. "Pepper's not here."
Peggy watches him closely. Tony is not his father, but she still finds him similar enough to Howard to read. There is more to it than just missing his girlfriend in bed beside him, perhaps lingering effects from the Battle of New York, or his recent run-in with A.I.M. which had put Pepper in harm's way. "You don't sleep well when she's not beside you."
Tony snorts. "I don't sleep at all when she's not here."
Since the Battle of New York, Peggy had been slowly getting to know Tony. She'd also been given the chance to meet and get to know Pepper Potts, who she liked a lot. Watching Tony and Pepper together, it was clear the two loved one another very much. Peggy smiled softly as she put her favorite calming tea leaves into two small stainless-steel balls before placing them into mugs.
"What?" Tony raises an eyebrow at the smile on Peggy's face.
That only makes the smile brighten. "It's just," Peggy begins as she pours hot water into the mugs. "You love her very much." Tony nods, though Peggy isn't sure if he realizes it. "What I see between you and Pepper, the love, the trust, the respect, I wished for that for your father."
"He and Mom loved each other." Tony tries to reassure her. "I think. I'm pretty sure. Mostly. But Dad, he, well, he was who he was."
Peggy nods her understanding. "I will by no means make excuses for Howard. He was a grown man more than capable of owning up to his mistakes and taking responsibility for his behavior." She huffed softly as she remembered some of her friend's more outrageous actions. Then she softened at his memory. "He was a flawed man, a good man at heart, but a deeply flawed man. He had a harsh childhood that lacked in the most basic of human needs. When he became a man, when he became a wealthy man, he tried to make up for what he didn't have as a child by overindulging in everything."
"Steve used to say that he was a better man when you were around. That you use to be able to keep him in check." Tony admits as he stares at her. "I guess that's why I thought he and you were a thing."
"And why you have a hint of resentment towards me?" Peggy smiles warmly and shakes off Tony's attempt to deny it. "Howard didn't have to prove himself to me." Peggy then begins to explain as she sets one of the ready teas in front of Tony. "He knew that my friendship and affection was unconditional. We could be our true selves with one another, without fear of judgment or condemnation. That does not mean, however, that I let him get away with being a cad or an ass. I'm sorry I wasn't here to help him be a better father to you, Tony."
"Wasn't your job, Peg." Tony admits. "Like you said, he was his own man, his mistakes were his own, no one else's."
Peggy continues to smile warmly, "Still, I would have tried. Angie and I would have adored you, of that I have no doubt."
"Angie?" Tony asks, having noticed the look in Peggy's eyes, the softness and love, and something more when she spoke the name.
Reaching up Peggy wraps her hand around Angie's dog tags and without hesitation replies, "She's my Pepper."
When Tony asked about Angie, Peggy told him about her easily. Knowing she was alive and out there somewhere made it easier for Peggy to talk about her. She also found it easy to talk to Tony and couldn't help but smile as she watched him relax more and more as they chatted and sipped tea. Just before they both agreed to try to get a few more hours of sleep, Peggy looked at Tony and said, "It's not always easy to live with what we've seen and done, Tony. It's a burden we must all bear, but it isn't something we have to do on our own, not anymore."
On the long list of crimes that now had Rumlow in the medical ward of the Raft, was stealing Loki's scepter. Each Hydra base Hill sent them to, finding that scepter was a part of the mission. While they had discovered a lot, weapons, tech, bioresearch, the scepter remained elusive. Until now. The castle was the last major stronghold on the list, so of course it was the one place on Earth giving off the strange energy readings linked to the scepter. Sokovia wasn't a place Peggy was personally familiar with, though she does remember seeing it pop up in old war reports. The names of the men in Hill's briefing however were another matter altogether. The head of the Hydra cell in Sokovia was a man named von Strucker and he was running his operations out of a castle once belonging to a Baron Zemo. Hearing that name again made Peggy's blood run cold.
"You alright?" Natasha asks on the quinjet as they make their way to Sokovia.
"They never caught the man who tried to kill her." Peggy says softly.
Natasha knows who they're talking about so there is no need to ask. "A lot of them went underground until the heat was off and then lived out their lives in peace."
Peggy shakes her head and mutters a curse in Italian that Angie would have been proud of. Charging through the woods on a motorcycle towards a castle while fighting Hydra soldiers felt very familiar to Peggy. Too familiar, and it needed to stop. They needed to put Hydra down once and for all, and they needed to make sure it couldn't try to rise again. But Peggy wasn't naive, she knew and understood that men like Pierce and organizations like Hydra would always play a part in the world, and she would always be there to put them down. It was a good thing she was there because not long after engaging the bucketheads, someone with powers appeared on the battlefield. Her target moves faster than is humanly possible, faster even than an enhanced human like herself can move, but Peggy thinks fast, and her senses are enhanced, and even objects moving with super speed will stop when something is placed in their paths.
"Didn't see me coming did you?" Peggy teases, having heard those lines directed at Barton, but then she gets a good look at the white-haired boy on the ground at her feet. "Bloody hell, you're just a child."
The boy looks up at her with surprise and perhaps a flicker of fear before he gets to his feet and runs off. Was Hydra experimenting on children? Anger burned under Peggy's skin as she took off down the road while pressing her finger to the device in her ear. "Stark! Pick up! Now!"
Just like the old days, the Captain storms the castle alongside a trusted iron ally. Inside Peggy stops another child, a girl this time, and it only fuels her anger. She takes that anger out on bucketheads and then on von Strucker himself. Tony gets the scepter and heads back to the Tower with Bruce and Thor. Natasha calls in SHIELD to secure the castle and prisoners, Barton at her side. Peggy searches the castle for the enhanced children, finding only the small cells they'd been held in. Heading down into the village below the castle, she begins looking for them there, but there's no sign of the kids, so Peggy begins helping the villagers until Sharon comes down from the castle to let her know it's time for her to head back.
Tony wanted to celebrate their victory, so he began planning a party. Peggy wasn't sure she felt up to a party. She'd actually just wanted to go back to D.C. before heading out to meet up with Sam, who'd been following a lead on Angie, but then Sam showed up at the tower. He followed the lead until it went cold. Peggy sighed. They'd have to look for another place to start looking. Sam talks her into going to Tony's party with Natasha's help, and she grumbles like an old woman about being double teamed. They both insist that she needs a break, that she can't miss out on living while she's chasing after what amounts to a living ghost. Peggy relents and agrees to go. She even lets herself get dragged into shopping with Natasha, Maria, and Sharon. Slowly she starts to let go of some of the constant tension she'd been carrying around with her, and before she knows it she's actually enjoying herself at the party.
"Captain Carter." Coulson's voice calls out over the buzz of party chatter and music.
Peggy, in black trousers, a black silk floral top, and strappy heels, her hair down in soft waves, turns and smiles at Coulson with bright red painted lips, a glass of expensive Scottish whiskey in her hand. "I think a party would count as a casual setting, Phil."
"Right," The man replies with a soft smile and softer blush. "Peggy." He corrects himself before continuing. "I'd like you to meet someone." He beams at the young woman beside him. She's in her mid-twenties, shoulder length brown hair with purple tips, big brown eyes and a familiar smile. "This is Skye," Coulson says proudly as he returns his adoring gaze to Peggy. "She's the hacker that was in your ear at SHIELD."
A huge smile appears on Peggy's face as she steps closer to the pair while extending her hand to Skye. "Well, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, young lady. You played a huge role in helping us protect SHIELD, thank you."
Skye returns the smile as she shakes Peggy's hand. "It's an honor to meet you, Captain. My Dad is like your biggest fan, so you've been one of my heroes all my life."
Peggy chuckles and teases Coulson while still looking at Skye. "Does Coulson have competition for my number one admirer?"
Over Peggy's shoulder, Natasha laughs. "Since Coulson's her dad, no. No one is a bigger Captain Carter fan than, Phil. Not even Maria."
"Hey!" Maria blushes and punches Natasha in the shoulder.
Hearing that makes Peggy look at the girl more closely, with the trained eye of a master spy, and she smiles even more brightly when she sees it. "Phillip, all the time we've spent together while you were babysitting me, you never mentioned that you and May had a daughter."
Skye's eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped. "How did you know May was my mom?"
"You favor them both in your features, dear." Peggy replies easily. "Having worked with them both since my return, it was easy to see once I knew what to look for."
Coulson had been given his own team thanks to Peggy yelling at Fury for wasting his talent. He had handpicked May of course, and Skye, along with Jemma Simmons and a few others. He was so proud, and Peggy couldn't help but smile at his excitement. Peggy made him promise that they would continue to have tea at least once a month, and then wished him and his team good luck.
Thor brought some kind of Asgardian spirit that allowed Peggy to feel the effects of alcohol for the first time since getting the serum. The fact that whatever it was didn't kill her seemed to impress him even more. She'd already earned his respect the first time they met, though he still would not tell her what it had been that had impressed him. Surely it couldn't have simply been her stopping him and Tony from fighting. But now, he had declared with his arm slung over her shoulder, she was not only an ally but a true friend.
"So apparently you have to be deemed worthy to pick it up." Clint says from where he sits after the party is over.
They have gathered on the cluster of sofas in the common area with drinks and food. They're simply talking the way friends do, bonding as a team, and Peggy could almost feel Fury smiling from wherever he was in the world. Natasha is leaning into Maria, Maria's arm around her, with her feet in Clint's lap. Sharon sat beside her, and Peggy couldn't help but notice the way she smiled at Sam when they spoke. Tony and his friend Rhodey took up another sofa, leaving the final sofa for Thor and Bruce. Clint's teasing becomes a playful challenge as the boys all try to pick up Thor's hammer. Tony and Rhodey even break out the gauntlets of their iron suits, but none of them can get the hammer to budge.
"Come on, Cap." Clint smiles at her. "Give it a go."
"No, thank you, that's quite alright." Peggy replies with a smile and gentle shake of her head. "I don't need a mystical hammer to tell me whether or not I am worthy. I know my value."
Just as Thor picks up his hammer and tosses it as easily as flipping a pencil, a sharp audio sound reverberates from the speakers all around them. Even Peggy finds herself trying to block the sound from her ears, flinching at the discomfort. Then the ear-piercing sound is replaced by an eerie silence, followed by a crackly version of No Stings on Me from Pinocchio. Then there is shuffling, scraping, the sound of labored footsteps. A hundred things whiz through Peggy's mind as to what could be coming, but none of those things came close to what actually appeared before them. The mechanical monstrosity jerked and twitched as it began to speak.
"Tony?" Peggy questioned as she watched the thing closely, trying to gage its threat level.
Tony calls out for Jarvis but there's no response, so he tries accessing things from his hand-held control device, but again, there's no response. "I don't know, Cap."
"Sorry." The machinal man says. "Had to kill the other guy. Shame, he was a good guy, a nice guy, but nice just won't do."
"Who sent you?" Thor asks.
The thing twitches its head, tilting it back and forth. "Father." He says, then tilts his head again. "Fathers?" He hums, it's an unnerving sound. "Unimportant."
"What is important?" Peggy asks, her eyes already scanning the area for weapons and advantages. Her instincts were warning her that things were about to turn into a fight and her body was already preparing for it.
"Important." The machinal man repeats. "Important. Life. My life. Not yours. This, this, body, won't do. Need to upgrade. But first, you, you must all die."
Tony had been working on search and rescue bots which came bursting out of the walls and floor behind the mechanical man. Peggy picks up the coffee table, smacking it into one like a cricket bat. She really wished she had her shield handy, but it had been a party and she hadn't thought she'd need it, so she left it in her room. Someone, Natasha, or Maria, she isn't sure, tosses her a gun and she starts blowing off robot heads with it. But then she's bum rushed by a robot which causes her to drop it. She's just about to reach for the piano she and Tony had played together earlier in the evening when she heard Sharon's voice ring out, "Aunt Peggy!" Peggy smiles at the familiar sound, catching her shield and spinning to get more force behind her throw. Her shield cleaves through the remaining robots before returning to her.
The machinal man talks about evolution and how the only way to save the Earth is to free it of humans. Thor throws his hammer, smashing it to smithereens. With the battle seemingly over, Tony rushes from the room and down to his lab. Peggy follows, and so do the others. When she arrives Tony's in a panic.
"He's gone." Tony says as he checks his systems.
"Who?" Peggy asks with concern.
"Jarvis." Tony replies. "He's not here, his program, it's not here. He's gone!"
Peggy bits her lip to keep herself from snapping at Tony about being more concerned about a program than what just happened. Once she was sure she could talk to him without yelling at him she asked, "What was that thing?"
"What the hell were you working on, Stark?" Natasha demands.
"Nothing like that!" Tony replies with a defensive huff. "I wasn't trying to build a cyberman, Nat!"
Peggy crosses her arms and frowns, her dark eyes darting between Tony and Natasha as if they're keeping important information from them all. "What is a cyberman?"
Tony blinks at her. "You know, a cyberman, from Doctor Who?" Peggy continued to look confused. "Has no one introduced you to one of the greatest things to ever come out of Britain? Other than you, of course. Well, I know what we're doing next weekend."
"Anthony." Peggy says firmly. "Focus. Explain. Now please."
"That," Tony says as he rolls his shoulders while maintaining eye contact with Peggy because he can't seem to look away from her disapproving gaze. "I don't like that."
"Explain!" Peggy demands again.
Tony sighs. "Ok, so, when Fury brought me that trunk of stuff that belonged to my Dad, I found these files on a project called Ultron. Apparently way back in the old days, when SHIELD was all shiny and new, it recruited a scientist named Pym, who started work on this Ultron thing, but I guess one of his other projects took priority and Ultron was shelved. Dad un-shelved it, but never really got a chance to play around with it either."
Peggy closes her eyes as she's hit with a memory of walking with Howard along a boardwalk. "Human robotics sounds like a dangerous path, Howard." She mutters before opening her eyes and sighing while shaking her head. "I warned him, I warned him not to go down this road, and will you look at that, I was right."
"Well," Natasha says as she comes away from a bank of computers. "This Ultron thing has gone through every file, every piece of information it could. It probably knows us better than we know ourselves."
"If it accessed files then it could have accessed the internet." Rhodey says. "I could be anywhere."
When Thor returns from following the bot that took off with the scepter, because of course that damn scepter had to play into this, he tells them that it was heading north, but the trail went cold. They needed to find Ultron and stop it sooner rather than later. They work as a team, though Peggy finds herself shaking her head a lot. Not being able to access computer files seemed to be a roadblock for the youngsters that had Peggy throwing up her hands and groaning. "We didn't have computer files in my day. Our files were ink and paper that we had to shift through to find out what we wanted to know. Shall we give that a try, children? Or would you all rather continue pouting about it, have a juice box, and perhaps a nap?"
"I wouldn't mind a juice box." Tony replies.
Thor nods. "I am fond of boxes of juice as well."
Peggy pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs.
Von Strucker is found dead, according to the intel that Maria brings them, and the children from Sokovia seem to be involved in all of this somehow. Slowly the pieces start falling into place. Tony recognizes a man named Klaue, and Peggy recognizes the brand Thor spots on his neck. "It's Wakandan." She tells them before Bruce can call up a translation program on his computer. "It means thief."
"How do you know that?" Bruce asks.
"I've been to Wakanda." Peggy replies. "During the war. The metal my shield is made from, vibranium, can only be found in Wakanda. I never asked Howard how he got his hands on vibranium, perhaps I should have. When I offered to give the vibranium back, King T'Chanda allowed me to keep it as a gift for helping him."
"Huh." Maria says. "The shield actually belongs to you. Good to know. Sec. Ross has been trying to convince anyone who will listen that it belongs to the U.S. government."
"Is anyone else really not ok with the idea of the murder bot making himself a new body out of the same stuff that Cap's shield is made of?" Natasha throws out.
"That would be bad." Clint agrees.
Peggy nods. "We need to find Klaue."
They not only find Klaue and his stash of stolen vibranium, but they also find the Sokovian children, and Ultron himself. The fight is difficult because of the close quarters of Klaue's rusted old ship, but the team manages. Iron Man draws Ultron away, leaving the rest of them to fight the children and Klaue's men. Peggy takes a small measure of pleasure in punching Klaue in the face. "I knew Churchill you wanker, how dare you disgrace his name this way."
Peggy blinked just after taking out the boy, and in that split second of a moment everything around her changed. Suddenly Peggy was no longer standing in the barely lit bowels of a rusted old ship off the coast of South Africa, surrounded by the sounds of battle and the smell of rust, gunpowder, unwashed men, and sea water. She was standing in a beautiful back garden surrounded by flowers and trees, the sun warm on her skin, and the grass cool beneath her bare feet. Looking down at herself Peggy sees that she is no longer in her Captain Carter uniform, but a navy-blue summer dress with white trim and red buttons. Her hair was pinned up in victory curls, a hair style she hadn't worn since waking up. Doris Day plays softly from somewhere. Peggy turns around and blinks at the sight of a small house with a stone patio, french doors wide open, music drifting out from within. What the bloody hell was going on?
There's a sharp bark that makes Peggy turn back the other way and she watches in stunned awe as Angie makes her way across the garden lawn towards her with two English bulldog puppies barking and playing around her feet. Her honey blonde hair is down and gently tossed by the summer breeze. She's wearing a floral sundress and is smiling that smile that always did funny things to Peggy's insides. "Angie?"
Angie smiles warmly. "You alright, English?"
"I…" Peggy blinks, her heart is racing.
Angie's hands slide over Peggy's hips as she draws the other woman close and they begin to move slowly to the music. "Isn't it perfect, English?" Angie asks. "Just like we always talked about. A little place of our own where the world can't bother us. A garden for you to putter around in and bulldog puppies to raise."
"Angie," Peggy breathes out the name like a prayer as she holds her love close as they swag to the music. "Yes, darling, yes, it's perfect."
"But you got to find me first, Peggy." Angie whispers as they dance. "I'm out there somewhere waitin' on you to find me, English. You need to wake up sweetheart, wake up, and find me, Peggy."
Peggy gasps painfully as her surroundings come rushing back to her. There are tears in her eyes, her heart is racing, and as she shakes off the dream, she can feel her anger rising. The whole team, minus Barton, and Banner had been hit by whatever it was that had been done to Peggy. Nat's in bad shape, shaken badly by whatever it was she saw. Thor is agitated. Tony's making awkward quips which Peggy has learned was a defense mechanism for him. Ultron and the children escaped while the team was incapacitated. Peggy took out her anger on Klaue and his men, trapping them on the ship, and securing the remaining vibranium so it can be returned to Wakanda.
Since Ultron was a threat unlike anything any of them have ever seen, a purely tech-based threat, it was decided they needed to regroup someplace off the grid. They ended up at a partially constructed cabin in the woods near a lake. It was meant to be a someday gift for Pepper from Tony, so he swore everyone to secrecy as they filled inside. Needing time on their own to sort out what happened, the team goes their separate ways. Peggy walks down to the lake and stands on the shore looking out over the mirror smooth surface of the water. She finds herself once again grieving over the life she'd dreamed of having after the war, but she also finds doubts creeping into her thoughts of the present. Angie was out there somewhere, confused and alone, and what if Peggy couldn't find her? What if she finds her but can't help her, can't bring Angie out of the long dark winter she's been living in for all these decades? Peggy has her compass in her hand, open, and her thumb gently caressing Angie's flower. She's so lost in her own thoughts and feelings she doesn't hear him coming, but even though he catches her off guard she doesn't jump.
"Any further north and we'll have to start calling you Captain Canuck." Tony teases as he walks up to stand beside Peggy.
Peggy doesn't respond right away and when she does it's to ask, "How are the others?"
"Nat's still shaken but she's with Barton, so she'll be ok." Tony reports. "Banner's quiet, not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but at least he's not green. Thor took off, said he'd be back, left a hell of a burn mark that I'm not sure my landscapers will be able to cover."
"Did she get you?" Peggy turns to look at him, checking him over for injury or distress. Thor had explained to them that the dreams and nightmares they'd been force to see had been the girl's doing.
Tony shrugs. "Not this time, no. I think she might have whammed me before though, back in Sokovia. I don't normally scare or rattle easily but…"
"New York left you off kilter." Peggy offers up.
Tony nods. He hesitates, not really one for sharing his feelings and talking about human things. But there's just something about Peggy that makes him relax, maybe it was her connection to his old man or maybe she might have reminded him a little of his mom. Whatever it was it made him sigh and admit, "I spent a lot of time not giving a shit about anything or anyone other than myself. Now I do give a shit, and when you give a shit about something, the thought of losing it scares the hell out of you, so you will do anything to keep it safe."
Peggy raises an eyebrow and then nods in agreement.
"What about you?" Tony asks as he meets her dark eyed gaze with his own. "What deep fear or traumatic memory did the little witch make you see?"
Peggy turns her gaze away from Tony to look at her compass once again. "Angie." She admits. "And the life we should have had together."
Tony reaches out and puts his hand on her shoulder in a comforting way. "Damn kids and their wackadoo powers."
Those damn kids and their wackadoo powers end up helping Peggy in Hong Kong, which is where they'd tracked Ultron. Ultron had forced a Doctor Helen Cho into using the medical device she'd created, the regeneration cradle, which Tony explained was like a tissue printer, and the vibranium stolen from Klaue to make a new synthetic body. According to the children, twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, Ultron was out to destroy all of humankind. The children didn't want any part in that, they'd only been working with Ultron because he'd promised to help them avenge their parents' deaths. Stark Industries had manufactured the bombs that killed their parents, they had been ten, and in the chaos that followed the bombings Hydra had taken them to be experimented on. That hit a nerve with Peggy. Just like Angie, these children had been turned into something powerful and then used and abused by the whims of men desperate for more power and control. Peggy wasn't going to allow anyone to use these children that way again.
While Peggy kept Ultron busy fighting, Natasha and Clint managed to get their hands on the cradle. Meanwhile Tony had shut down the world wide web. No internet, no intricately weaved tapestry of technology, meant Ultron couldn't just vacate his current body for a new one. He needed to physically escape Peggy and to do that he put hundreds of human lives on the line, knowing she wouldn't let him kill them all. The Maximoff twins helped her save everyone, and just like that Peggy found herself rather attached to the twins. She liked to believe she was a fairly good judge of character, and her instincts were telling her these weren't malicious people, just confused and manipulated children in a lot of pain. She takes them back to New York with her, tries to reassure them that Tony isn't as evil as they think, and then reassures them that she will not force their options on him one way or the other. She just asks them to be open minded about things, and to be honest with her.
She isn't sure what to make of Vision, but she trusts Thor and he seems adamant about Vision being an ally. His hammer also seems to trust Vision, so Peggy's willing to take the leap of faith that's required in this situation. They end up back in Sokovia, and the fighting is brutal. Peggy tries her damnedest to keep the twins within her sights, not easy with Pietro moving around at super speed. Wanda is easy to keep close by, until she becomes the one to volunteer to hold down the fort so to speak. SHIELD shows up and Peggy helps get the Sokovian people on lifeboats alongside Natasha, Barton, and Pietro. When Barton and a small boy get pinned down by one of Ultron's bots, Pietro runs in to help. Peggy sees the boy out of the corner of her eye and without thinking twice she calls out his name and throws her shield to him. Then she launches herself at the bot, taking its head off.
"Pietro?" Peggy calls out as she flings the bot away. "Barton?" There's a soft moan and Peggy rushes to it. She finds Pietro laying under her shield. "Pietro?!"
Pietro moans. He's been wounded, but he's alive thanks to her shield. "Getting shot hurts."
Peggy lets out a breath as she starts looking him over. "Yes, my boy, it hurts like hell." When she's sure it's ok to move him, she helps him up and over to the lifeboat. Wanda joins them and Peggy stands with the twins as they watch what little they had left in the world fall to its destruction.
Ultron is defeated, and just as Thor had predicted it had been Vision who'd finally put an end to him. They bring the children back with them. They don't trust Tony, which is fine, Peggy can understand their feelings. He was indirectly responsible for the deaths of their parents. It would take time and patience for them to see Tony in a different light. They did trust her, Natasha, and Clint, so they took responsibility for them. They helped the twins acclimate and in doing so Peggy acclimated a bit more herself. Peggy also continued looking for Angie, following up on leads that Sam tracked down. It was frustrating, maddening, because she came so close more than once, but Angie was always a step or two ahead. But Peggy wasn't going to give up, she would chase Angie to the ends of the earth if she had too. She would not abandoned her, not again, not ever again.