As the Sky May Fall EirlysLavellan

The Avengers Marvel Comics

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Summary: Alice was always so sure of the way her life was going to go, however, her entire perspective is changed upon being forcibly added to the Avengers. After the Invasion of New York things quickly change and she realizes that everything she thought she was, is nothing close to what she ever imagined especially when she realizes that the man she had thought was dead turns out to be forcibly working for HYDRA as their Winter Soldier. She swears she will do anything to keep him safe even if that means going against the new family she has built.

Disclaimer: I am a poor college grad and am receiving no payment whatsoever to write this fiction. If I was, in fact, getting paid for this, I would not be a poor college graduate that I can assure you. All rights are reserved to Marvel, D.C. Comics, and Walt Disney Pictures and Columbia Studios as well as the amazing screenwriters, directors and producers, and actors who created this film. I only own the subplot as well as Alice Alexander and any other unrecognizable character throughout the plot.

Warning: Spoilers, character death, violence, suggestive themes (such as sexual assault/self-harm/depression) and vulgarity.

Also for those wondering, I have moved Author's notes to the end of the chapters! This includes my thank you to reviewers, review replies for those who do not have an account and other notes. Sorry for the misunderstanding! See ya'll at the bottom ;D - Eirlys xoxo

P.S. I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes you may see throughout this story. I tried to catch what I could, but I'm only human and I'm positive I missed things, haha. Thanks again for sticking with me everyone!


As the Sky May Fall
Deadpool /|\ Age of Ultron
28

The cabin of the jet was tense with mixed feelings of the upcoming battle as well as the awkward silence that had fallen between the patriot and mutant on board.

Alice had made no move to interact with either Maximoff twin or Steve, her focus set to the computer in the cabin of the jet as she began running scans not dissimilar to the ones she had ran during the Avengers' first approach in the European country. Her eyes scanned the information present, her gloved hand cupping her chin and her teeth peeling the skin of her lower lip as she worried the flesh in her thoughts. She didn't doubt that Vision could do this easier than she could and probably not trip any alarms with Ultron being integrated into the net, but she needed the distraction.

Her anger had calmed during the early part of the flight and while there was a small feeling of guilt the mutant felt justified in her anger. She continued to hear Bucky's voice in her mind, the one from her nightmare and it was the only thing that stopped her from acting upon the strange impulse she had to hurt the teenage girl. She couldn't decide if it was a gift or a curse in that moment.

Have you been the monster all along?

Wanda looked up as the mutant snorted slightly and pushed away from the computer she had been sitting at for most of the flight. There was a tension to the woman's posture that the teenager was aware that she had caused, the mutant meeting her eyes only briefly before hitting a sequence of buttons on the panel centered within the cabin of the jet. She shared a brief look with her brother, his brows furrowed over his light eyes before flickering back to the console to see what she was doing. A moment passed before a 3D rendering appeared in what Wanda and Pietro immediately recognized was a manifest that detailed the Sokovian census and population.

"What are you doing?"

The mutant looked up briefly, her face a mask of blank indifference secured tightly in place despite her eyes swirling with a mixture of browns in the lights of the central console.

"I'm pulling up the population numbers as well as how many people of each class…child, adult, elderly, so that I know what I could potentially need in order to help them."

The speedster blinked in surprise, glancing down at his sister and crossing his arms over his chest, "And why would that be? Ultron said you were a programmer."

She scoffed, "Good to know the bot wasn't able to get a whole lot about me."

Bruce stepped up to the HUB and met the teenager's eyes, "Alice has been a nurse since the American Civil War…if we're walking into a bloodbath, and we could be, she's the perfect person to have on this job."

"A medical professional who wants to kill people…" Pietro snorted, "Seems legitimate."

"We have bad days."

There was a tense silence after the mutant's dry comment in which those in the cabin tried to determine if she was being sarcastic or not. With a satirical lift of her brow the mutant began hitting other buttons on the panel and ignoring the pregnant pause that seemed to stretch around them. After a few moments she spoke again as the speedster shifted as if he wasn't certain of the mutant's presence.

"You know, you're not the first speedster I've ever met," Alice drawled. "Super speed isn't technically even your power – it's an element of time manipulation."

Bruce glanced at the mutant to see that while her face remained blank she didn't seem particularly perturbed at the teenage boy even as he glared at her from across the central dashboard. "How do you figure?"

"I took the video feed from the forest when we first entered Sokovia to apprehend Strucker. I wanted to know how my sensors weren't able to discern Speedy here, so I slowed down the camera feed outside of the southernmost entry point to 240fps." She explained as she gestured to the silver-haired teen across from her, "Again, not the first speedster I've ever seen. When you slow the frames down he's actually able to generate a field around himself that makes everything appear slower to him and faster to the normal eye…"

"Thus, super speed." Bruce concluded with a nod of understanding. "Maria explained it as increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis."

"It is, but that's generated through the field he creates."

Pietro rolled his eyes, "Yes it's good to know what I can do, but what can you do."

"She can regenerate cells in her body at fast enough rates that she can heal any injury she sustains," Wanda spoke up softly from behind her brother, her eyes barely meeting Alice's as she remained sitting. Alice's back straightened slightly, but otherwise she made no move to stop the girl from speaking, "It's a part of your brain that registers pain and triggers the healing response…But you haven't mastered it."

"No, I haven't," the mutant remarked coolly, her gaze bouncing between the siblings. "My abilities were formed at birth and since I'm the oldest mutant – as far as I know – I had to figure a lot of it out through trial and error." She shrugged suddenly, "I know the mechanics, but my mutation allows me to keep myself alive and potentially be able to manipulate the cells of other persons to help heal them, but I haven't had much time to work on that."

"I didn't know that," the doctor frowned as he drew the mutant's attention to him. "We were still theorizing what your mutation could do as well as its limits."

"I spoke to Professor X the day of the briefing," she shrugged. "I had less than three days to really practice, but from what we've come up with – there's a potential for me to be able to heal others…what limitations that has, I'm not certain just yet, but it's still in early development phases."

Bruce smiled at the mutant and drawing a ghost of a smile from her in return, "That's incredible, Al. The potential for that is just…it's astronomical! The things you could do alone…you could potentially be able to cure diseases! Alice, do you know what that could mean?"

"Please don't take this the wrong way, Bruce, but that's exactly why I don't trust scientists." She remarked with a humored smirk that left the doctor with a bright flush that raced up his neck.

"I'm sorry, it's just…the possibilities are limitless."

"Not limitless," she countered with a sigh, "it's too great of a power to have no drawbacks."

"If you're okay with it, maybe we can figure it out when this is all over."

"I wouldn't be opposed," the mutant nodded before her eyes sought the numbers that had been calculating during the length of the conversation and she cursed to herself. If they were truly walking into a bloodbath, she was realizing she was going to be very shorthanded. "730,009 people…fuck me running," she muttered the last part in French before running her hands through her bangs.

Bruce looked back and forth between the woman and the screen, watching as she rested her hands against the dashboard and bowing her head slightly, "H-how many people?"

"730,009 people in Sokovia…well, minus these two, but that's a lot of people to try and get evacuated in very little time…if we even have time for that."

Steve heard the mutant and stepped forward, noting how the woman's body tensed slightly before he stopped and met her eyes, "Any ideas on how to evacuate the people if we can?"

"Well," Alice sniffed, putting aside her annoyance with the patriot in order to focus on work, "there's traditional means and then there's us so it really depends on if we even get the opportunity. I'd say we use his speed and her mind powers."

"You want us to do what?"

Alice cut a glare at the female twin who stood, her brows furrowed deeply as if ready to rebuke the mutant's statement, "As much as I am loathe admitting it, you two are the best chance of us getting the information out fast enough. You're Sokovian and the people will be more willing to listen to you over us. Unless you've got an alternative?"

"Alice is right," The Vision stated from where he stood beside Thor, his eyes flickering between the team that seemed to barely be holding itself together, "we must rely on the twins to begin evacuations. If we do not, many more will die before the end."

"That settles it," the mutant chirped sarcastically as she slid her bag from her back and began stuffing as much equipment into it as it was able to hold.

She grabbed gauze, pain blockers, alcohol wipes, medical tape as well as her stitches kit in the event that she needed it. Normally she would bring saline and fluids, but Alice was genuinely hoping that she wouldn't need to perform any emergency medical aside from temporary wounds. She knew Fury would be on their location as soon as he was able, but the mutant could only hope that he arrived before things went too sour.

A sudden thought struck her and she stood, abandoning her bag of nearly overflowing medical supplies and ran her finger over the dashboard once more. She wondered if she could find out how many people were living in what area in order to effectively evacuate the people and she pulled up another 3D rendering that showed the entire country of Sokovia, her eyes flashing around the miles of forests that fell against the main city. As far as countries went, Sokovia was small, nearly comparable in size to only a few cities in the United States and she estimated it to be just slightly bigger than Denver, Colorado and smaller than Seattle, Washington. Knowing she was breeching her silent promise to limit communication to the Maximoff twins, the mutant glanced across the table to see both teens were watching the map she had pulled up with furrowed brows and worried frowns.

Her heart went out to them in a way. They were about to fight on their own country's soil in hopes that Ultron didn't destroy it and the world as they all knew it. The twins were about to go into a battle that they very much did not seem prepared for and she could see it in their youth. Steve had briefed the rest of the team when Maria had given him intel on the two that they had not had the easiest of lives and they had willingly submitted to experimentation much like Steve had in an effort to protect their country – or so Strucker had led them to believe. They were young and the mutant couldn't begrudge their mistakes fully, but she, above everyone knew that they had to have accountability for their actions and those decisions.

She understood where their anger came from, their desperation, and the mutant saw much of herself from her time after the lab echoed within both Wanda and Pietro. Maybe the two needed a chance at redemption or maybe they needed a chance to prove that they weren't as bad as they had appeared to be.

There was a strange battle happening beneath her skin where the small voice echoed that she take the girl's life and her own voice that echoed that death was not a comparable punishment for what the telepath had pulled from the depths of her own mind. It had been something Alice had worked hard to create, especially when she had first met Charles Xavier who had read her mind and spat her thoughts out to her almost carelessly. Her first interaction with him had set a precedent that the mutant decided to never trust a telepath, especially when they could unearth secrets, thoughts and memories that were best left alone and buried. She had sworn to never let a telepath beyond the walls she had cemented in her mind, until Wanda that was. The enhanced teenager had ripped through her walls as if they were tissue paper and it left the mutant feeling uncomfortable in her presence, exposed even.

Glancing at the teenager, Alice decided in that moment that she would proceed cautiously with the girl as she took in her hunched posture and nervous picking of her thumbs. She wouldn't be overly friendly, but she wouldn't be as combative when the girl decided to speak, after all, it was her countrymen who were the sacrificial lamb in this case.

Clearing her throat, the mutant met both of their gazes, "Can you give me an idea of how concentrated the city is?"

It was an olive branch if there ever had been one and Pietro shared a confused look with his sister before shrugging. Wanda tucked her hair behind her ear and spoke first.

"Most of the population lives within the city limits, but the city itself spreads out across 300 square kilometers."

"Okay," Alice hummed as she crossed her arms and cupped her chin, ignoring the rest of the team as she did quick math in her head. "If the city itself is 300 square kilometers, that means that the entire country of Sokovia is probably a little less than 33,000 square kilometers in total which, of course means that there are people who live outside of the city limits…" She drew off as she continued doing mental math in her head. Tony had been listening and stood from where he had been sat not far from Clint before making his way to the table.

"It means that we'll have to try and evac people who are about 20 miles out from the city."

Alice nodded, "Exactly. It also means that we're gonna have to try out best to navigate traffic to make it a smooth transition."

Pietro frowned, "Why would we have to move people that live outside of the city?"

"Well they need somewhere to go," the mutant informed him quickly as she began running a visual analysis within the HUB. "If we don't notify smaller towns outside of the city that there's gonna be an influx of people coming through the area, those that are leaving the city will end up creating backups along those roads and those that are still fleeing won't have much room to move. The goal is to make this as seamless as possible."

"That's if Ultron hasn't already started what he's planning," Steve echoed from the mutant's other side as he examined the map she had created. "Getting the people to cooperate with sudden change like this without warning or without their understanding never ends well."

"Well, we did it during World War II…I don't see why we can't implement similar tactics." Steve glanced down at the woman to see that she wasn't being difficult, but she was not willing to budge on her idea. "We notify the police within the area to spread the word. Normally if it comes from a place of authority, those in lower positions are willing to adhere to the policy, as you well know."

"You want me to put the idea in their mind," Wanda realized suddenly and meeting the mutant's gaze for perhaps the first time that flight. "You want me to make this seem much bigger than us coming in and fighting Ultron."

"You were the one who said you saw annihilation," Alice drawled. "Make them believe it beyond all measure and maybe we can minimize casualties."

Tony nodded, "Not a bad idea if I've ever heard one."

"But that still doesn't solve what to do if Ultron's already begun," Bruce sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. Alice looked back at him with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes a hardened brown.

"He hasn't."

"How can you be so sure?"

The mutant met the patriot's eyes with a grim expression, "If he did, we'd already know. He wouldn't be quiet about it. He wants to use us as a scapegoat and he wants to use our potential failure to justify to those who maybe survive that we are the reason that it happened in the first place."

"She's right," Wanda murmured after a moment and drawing the eyes of those within the cabin, "he wants to brag about it."

"So we take that away from him, by minimizing those affected by the greater part of the madness." Alice agreed before sighing, "I honestly hate asking, but how close do you have to be to influence someone?"

Pietro frowned as he watched his sister nervously play with her fingers, twisting the ring around her middle finger in her anxiousness at the clinical stare of the mutant. And he sighed, "She'd normally have to be within the area."

"Okay…"

"I know what you were thinking," Wanda murmured awkwardly under the mutant's stare, "it was a good idea, but I can't do that just yet."

The mutant shrugged, "Then we get you within the areas you need to be. Your brother's a speedster; he can carry you to the areas to begin the evac faster than we can."

It took the patriot a moment to follow her line of thought before he nodded, stepping up closer to the HUB and pointing out different markers that were shown, "Thor and Banner can go to Strucker's old lab to find Natasha and see if there's any way to stop Ultron since we know that's where he's been working out of thanks to the Maximoff's intelligence; meanwhile, Clint, you and myself will work on directing people out of the city."

"Tony can try and find Ultron and stall him long enough for us to get as many people out of the area as possible while Vision is our floater – if Tony needs him he'll leave us, but in the meantime we'll do full evac…each of us take a different side of the city."

"Exactly," Steve nodded, offering the mutant a small smile and earning a snort and an eye roll from her in response. "Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire, and that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that's not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done, and find out what Ultron's been building. We find Nat, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us. Ultron thinks we're monsters and we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right."

-0-

As soon as the jet had landed, the twins had sped away to begin the first part of the plan which was simply to influence people to leave their homes in the calmest ways possible while also alerting local police into working with the Avengers to quickly and effectively evacuate the city. Thor had flown himself and Bruce towards the old castle that had served as Strucker's fortress to retrieve Natasha and see if they could garner any information about what Ultron had planned; Vision had nodded to Alice before he had flown the both of them off to their designated areas and finally Clint had dropped Steve off at the northern most part of the city while he took the western.

After being dropped off by Vision, Alice had begun steadily moving people out of the city and barely noticing when the traffic lights turned off in order to allow them to move people. Some were walking and some were in cars and the mutant felt confident in the system she had made. She didn't have her visor up just yet, but her bracer was allowing her to quickly calculate the best flow of traffic and she waved another family through before turning as a car approached behind her.

The man driving was a man she guessed to be in his mid-thirties with neatly combed hair and worry lines creasing his youthful features. He wore a military issued jacket; one that Alice could spot immediately having served in so many different military outfits for the last one-hundred years of her life. Beside him was a young woman with long hair sifting through a bag on her lap, her lips forming words as she spoke to the man beside her as well as a young boy in the back seat, his face pressed against the window. They appeared like many of the families she had seen fleeing the city and their worry was not missed on her. She waved them through and her eyebrows arched in surprise when his window rolled down and he came to a stop next to her.

"My father lives outside the city…" Was his near-breathless explanation and the mutant nodded slowly.

"How far?"

"29 kilometers."

Alice did the mental math and nodded slowly, "Keep following straight out, don't dally too long if you can avoid it, but if you can get further than that I would."

The man stared at her for a moment, his brow furrowed, "You're anticipating great loss?"

"I certainly hope not," She offered the man a smile to which he nodded slowly, his eyes catching the red cross on her arm.

"You are first aid?" The mutant glanced down at her arm, having forgotten she had put it on before Vision had carried her off and nodded slowly and he said something quickly to his wife and offered the mutant a tense smile, "I wasn't aware the Avengers had a medical team."

"It's small, but we do." She said politely before offering the young boy in the back seat a soft smile. "Let me not hold you up any longer, you need to get yourselves to safety. Remember what I said: don't dally long and try to get past the 32 kilometer mark if you can."

The man offered her another nod, the woman beside him shouting a thank you before his window closed and he followed the line of traffic once more; the last she saw of the family was the little boy in the back seat who waved enthusiastically at her and the mutant smiled and waved back. She knew the fear that coursed through the civilians of Sokovia. She had seen much of the same dismal and apprehensive faces during World War II in the people she and the 80th U.S Army regiment would treat and help the closer they pushed to the heart of Germany and the more devastation had been wrought. In her many years she was no stranger to the weary hearts of people of war-torn states and times of great peril – the only thing that ever changed was the time period and the weapons used and it made her fragile heart break for them. Alice knew that there were some of these people that would not live to see the next day if they didn't succeed.

She just hoped that Tony could bide them enough time with Ultron to get enough people out.

Her mind briefly circled back to that family: the man's cold stare – the stare of a soldier – and worry lines appearing around his thinned lips and clenched jaw; the woman's openly worried stare and the pulse beating against her throat as she searched for something, anything, to distract her son from the worry she and her husband seemed to share and finally to the young boy; his eyes wide with excitement and wonder at seeing a superhero up close, smiling widely at her and waving – his innocence still intact despite the lingering shadows of understanding life in a state constantly at war. Alice sighed softly, hoping desperately that the man heeded her advice before moving to help another struggling family.

She couldn't have been sure how much time had passed, but suddenly the ground beneath her shook and trembled and she glanced around sharply, halting any and all traffic on her end as she ran towards the bridge. Coming to a stop she noticed Ultron's bots crawling their way up the incline and she quickly turned to the first car and waved for them to go back, shouting for them to move as her visor snapped in place over her eyes and removing her rifle from her holster.

"Um, guys we've got incoming!"

"Get whatever civilians we can to safety! Keep them moving."

Alice released a few shots before urging people to find cover despite the screams that now echoed around her. Steve's voice became a faraway sound in her ear as he called out positions, the team's voices disappearing as they were drowned out by the civilians around her. Her eyes narrowed as she shot whatever bots she could, her visor acting as a targeting system thanks to Tony playing around with the software.

"Get off the bridge!" Alice called as she covered the people now abandoning their cars, "Head into that building, stay together!"

She barely noticed when Vision flew overhead, blasting a few bots as he went and disappearing beyond the line of buildings. The mutant continued to fire, working her way closer to the bridge in an effort to check to see if there were any people trapped. She found one car, full of teenagers, towards the middle of the bridge and she frowned, releasing a clasp on one of her pouches and removing the series of Widow Bites she had stolen from Natasha at one point and tossing them into the air and smacking her bracer, the small disks finding purchase on a series of bots as if by magnetic pull. Hitting her bracer once more she activated them and slid over the hood of a car to get to the one where the teenagers were cowering.

"C'mon, get out and across the bridge!"

The male teen nodded and ushered his fellows out of the car and across the bridge, the group jumping whenever a bot fell from the sky from a combination of the Widow Bites and shots fired by Alice. She jogged back across the bridge and into the main part of the intersection where she climbed up the fountain and perched herself, using the part of the monument as a cover as she continued picking off bots.

Alice nearly fell from the monument when the earth shook once more and she watched in horror as the bridge seemed to buckle in front of her, before the opposite side of the bridge seemed to disappear from view. She blinked a few times before leaping from her position and making sure there were no people in range of where the city had split and thankfully finding no one trapped before racing inland to where she had just sent a great number of civilians to hide and take cover.

"Do you see?" Ultron's voice echoed through the streets, "The beauty of it, the inevitability? You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, are my meteor: my swift and terrible sword and the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal."

"Seriously, did he learn this shit from Terminator!?"

Clint's voice echoed to life in her earpiece, "Any other time, I'd rib you for that, but this definitely doesn't seem like a good time."

"Eh, what do you know?" Alice snorted as she fired another few sets of shots, "You're the guy who thought I, Robot was a great futuristic movie."

The archer grunted before laughing, "Remind me to throw away that DVD when I get home. I don't wanna see another robot for a long time…ya know…beside the one that's actually on our side."

"He's not a robot," she breathed as she ducked behind another cover, bringing up her rifle once more and firing three more shots into her target, "and I'll remind you, if you remind me to do the same with the Terminator series…I don't care how much I like corny Arnold Schwarzenegger movies…that one is gone from my list."

"If you two are finished," Steve breathed through the comms before grunting as he undoubtedly hit another bot with his shield, the sound of vibranium hitting metal echoing through her earpiece.

"Don't be mad, Steve. You're not missing much now, so you can take them off your list."

"I'll make sure to do that…"

Alice smirked before her eyes widened and she was forced to leap from her perch as a bot blasted right where she had been standing. She fired three more shots before racing to where she the civilians were clustered and nodding to them as she raised her rifle once more.

-0-

"Cap, you got incoming!"

Having been knocked backwards and onto the roof of a car, Steve grunted – wincing at the sound of explosions and people screaming, "Incoming already came in." Pushing himself from the now demolished roof of the car, Steve rolled back onto his feet and frowning, "Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed, walk it off."

"Great words of advice, Steve, I'll be sure to add them to the motivational poster in the training room."

The patriot snorted on a small laugh at the mutant's chirped comment, the sound of gunfire echoing through the line as she shot her rifle. It brought comfort to him, despite the situation that Alice seemed to be her normal self – at least to a degree. He knew they would have time later to iron out their issues, but now it seemed as if that tension was pushed aside at the peril they now faced.

"You put that in the training room and I swear you lose privileges for a week."

Alice's laugh was Clint's only reply before the line was filled with more gunfire and blasts, grunts and groans. Steve continued battling the bots in an effort to look like a more appealing target than the civilians in his area who were still attempting to flee. A roar echoed around the area and Steve found himself sighing in relief as the Hulk entered the field, which meant that Natasha was no doubt in route as well. The bots seemed to be never ending and now that they had a heavy hitter, the patriot knew the scales had been evened out in their favor once more. He was thankful that the Sokovian police force seemed to have taken over evacuating people and he nearly jumped when Alice's voice cursed in his ear from the comms.

"So do we know where we're grouping people?" Her voice panted as more gunfire echoed from her end, "I'm pinned down in a small store with about 80 people and I can't get them all moved to a safer area."

"I'm headed your way," Pietro's accented voice echoed in reply.

"Great, it'll be a party."

"Do you always make bad jokes?"

"Bad anything is just my brand, kid, less snarking and more run– Oh, there you are."

Steve almost laughed despite himself before his attention was drawn by a woman's scream, he glanced around trying to find the origin before his eyes widened and he raced towards the bridge that lay in shambles before him. He hadn't realized anyone was still trapped in the cars that had been stopped there before realizing that these people couldn't move otherwise the cars would have gone over the edge. With a grunt he slid behind the red convertible, grabbing the rear bumper just as the ground crumbled beneath the vehicle and stopping it from going over the edge.

With a grunt he tried stabilizing the weight of the car only for the rear bumper to break off and the car to go soaring over the edge along with a green SUV. He glanced over the edge to see Thor flying his way up to meet them before turning and going back towards both falling cars. He heard the bot before he saw it and used the rear bumper to destroy it before turning back around just as Thor reached the woman's car and with a nod of understanding shared between the two Avengers, the Asgardian tossed the woman upwards to him. Steve dove downwards, grabbing an exposed metal beam to anchor himself as he caught the woman.

"I got you!" He called as he readjusted his hold on her, the woman sobbing and gasping as she briefly looked down, "Just look at me, alright, I got you." With a grunt of effort he used his one hand to propel himself back to safety before pulling the woman back onto the bridge and allowing her to rush off.

As she went to run a bot rushed to meet her and with a twist, Steve released his shield and smirking in satisfaction as the discus embedded into the robot's chest.

"You can't save them all. You'll never –!"

Steve activated the magnets in his bracer and moved just as the bot was released from his shield, left to fall into the shambles of the city below, "You'll never what? You didn't finish!" In that moment, Thor reappeared with the green SUV in his hands before depositing it and landing on top of it. He offered the patriot a smug grin before stalking towards the city with Steve jogging behind him and offering the Asgardian a good-natured smirk, "What, were you napping?"

"Ah yes, the most restful of naps," Thor quipped back before both men jumped back into the fray.

-0-

On the other side of the now floating city, Alice continued firing shots as Pietro sped the people to safety or at least got them out of the area where the bots were concentrating more of their fire. The mutant and the speedster had fallen into a rhythm where she would cover him and he would rush two people at a time to safety in the main part of the city where the larger group of Avengers had congregated. The two had agreed that if the other members of their team had centered there then it was probably the most stable ground.

"That's all of them," Pietro panted as he appeared beside the mutant just as she released the magazine to her rifle before fitting another in place.

"Alright that's good…we should probably pick up any stragglers, get them to safety." She replied with a small grunt as she rolled out her shoulder where a bot had managed to blast her. The teen watched in fascination as the wound closed itself leaving smoother skin beneath the blood that was left behind.

"That's a neat trick."

The mutant shrugged with a small smirk, "It's handy, but we've got bigger fish to fry here."

"Right."

The two started to move once more as they cleared the area of bots and looked for remaining civilians who had not been with the group Alice had been protecting and thankfully finding none. It was sudden when their comms crackled to life where they were both able to hear Clint and Wanda speaking to one another, the teenager distraught and her voice warbling in between panicked breaths.

"How could I let this happen?"

"Wanda?"

Alice stopped the speedster from taking off before gesturing to her ear to listen and he nearly fought her before Clint's voice echoed across the comms.

"Hey, look at me. It's your fault, it's everyone's fault…who cares," He panted, clearly struggling with his own panic as the archer was very clearly out of his element, "Are you up for this? Are you? Look, I just need to know 'cause the city is flying…Okay, look, the city is flying and we're fighting an army of robots…and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense! But I'm going back out there because it's my job. Okay? And I can't do my job and babysit."

Pietro glared at her as she prevented him from moving once more, "I'll kill him."

"You do that and I'll put a bullet between your eyes," Alice snorted half-heartedly, "just…hang on a sec."

"It doesn't matter what you did, or what you were. If you go out there you fight and you fight to kill. Stay in here, you're good, I'll send your brother to come find you, but if you step out that door…you're an Avenger." The line was silent for a moment before Alice was able to make out the sounds of Clint rearming himself, "Alright good chat…Yeah, the city is flying…"

"Is what he said true?"

Alice looked over at the enhanced teen to find his head bowed and his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. After a brief moment the mutant shrugged, "I don't get a say in who's on the team and who isn't on the team and frankly I don't care…all I care about is whether I can trust the family I've built and if they're all on the same page about you and your sister joining then congratulations and welcome to the team." She sighed through her nose when the teen merely turned to look at her, "People have opinions about us – all of us – but ultimately it's up to us to decide whether or not we're gonna believe people. This job is thankless and with it comes a lot of speculation and Clint is…he's easily the most generous and forgiving person I've met in recent years. He's the best of us."

"He…isn't what I thought…" Pietro commented as he watched the mutant, the woman's eyes scanning building as they moved as if she had done the same motion a hundred times.

He could see the weight of ages behind her youthful features and he couldn't understand how a woman like her had supposedly lived two hundred years, but in that moment he saw someone who had been hardened by battles and by years of losing people. He was able to see himself and his sister in the weight of her eyes and suddenly he seemed to understand why his younger sister had been so disturbed by what she had seen in that woman's head.

Alice was a reflection of what they had suffered and what they could have suffered at the hands of Strucker.

Wanda had told him what she saw in the mutant's mind and how she had lost control and her power seemed to rebound backwards. It was almost as if there was another presence that lived inside the mutant's head and used his sister's own power against her but forcing Wanda to experience the same thing that Alice had. Which meant that Wanda, his baby sister, had felt herself be taken advantage of by a romantic partner, sexually abused, torn apart by fear and guilt and she had felt the blood on her hands as well as the uncertainty of time – the insecurity that came with such continuous suffering. Pietro hadn't truly believed it and had only been fearful for his sister when she had come out of the mutant's mind sobbing and shaking like he had never seen her before. He hadn't even believed it when he first laid eyes on the slight woman, seated pretentiously upon a lab table with a leg crossed over the other and her arms crossed over her chest, watching as Tony Stark and the Doctor worked on the being inside of the Cradle.

He believed it now.

Alice frowned slightly as she readjusted her hold on her rifle and sighed, "Clint is the glue that holds us together. He believes in the good of people and he believes that people can change. He's had a rough life and he turned himself around without anyone there to really help him."

"You respect him."

"With my life."

Pietro was silent for a moment before glancing down at the woman, "You are not as bad as I thought either…"

"Yeah, same here," she offered him a small smile before it fell once more, "I won't apologize for being angry with either of you. We have to own up to mistakes we make and work on being better…that said, I apologize for nearly killing your sister."

Pietro stared at her for a moment before snorting with a small smile, "Bad anything really is your brand isn't it?"

"Eh, par for the course." She chuckled before glancing over at him, "Any chance I can catch a ride to the other side of the city?"

"Sure thing old woman."

Alice couldn't help but actually laugh at the comment before allowing the speedster to scoop her up and take off across the city. In no time at all the two ended up in the main plaza before the speedster disappeared once more in a flash of silver and the mutant immediately raised her rifle and fired off another series of shots as the civilians ran into the nearest buildings. She briefly could see Steve fighting near the bridge with Natasha not far off to the side wielding her batons that were alight with electricity; a squadron of police officers had taken cover behind fallen and turned over vehicles and were shooting at another group of robots; Thor and Ultron were in the air and crashed through what Alice could only assume was the church and she could hear Hulk a few blocks away.

"Alright, we're all clear here." Clint's voice echoed throughout the comms and Alice grunted as she smacked her rifle into the head of another bot and swung the gun back into her hand before firing off another shot.

"We are not clear," Steve grunted through the comms as he swung his shield into another robot, "We are very not clear!"

"Alright, comin' to you."

Alice missed the rest of what was said as another bot screeched past her and towards a group of civilians and she raised her gun on instinct and shot the machine in the head before rushing over towards the civilians and directing them into another building. Her mind calculating how many of the civilians had been hurt and taking stock of their injuries as they passed her.

"Guys I'm gonna head into the buildings with the civilians, see if I can't start taking care of those that are injured and at least keep panic down while Tony works to figure out what the plan is to get them outta here."

"Go!"

Alice needed no further encouragement as Steve grunted through the comms once more and she jogged into the buildings to begin working on the civilians who had been caught in the crossfire. After a few moments, two officers managed to help her organize the people into those who needed immediate attention and those that could wait a bit longer to be seen to. Thankfully, not many people had severe injuries and the mutant was able to work fast with help of the two Sokovian police officers who had set up the queue of people needing the most attention. They also served to translate where necessary.

"Where did you serve?"

Alice glanced up from splinting a man's arm and wiping her brow on the inside of her elbow, "Complicated question, but World War II."

The officer blinked, "Like Captain America?!"

"One and the same," she called over the sound of panicked screams as another wave of bots blew up just outside of the building many of the people were taking shelter in. "You've clearly got a service record too? Iraq or Afghanistan?"

"Afghanistan," The officer snorted, a small smile twitching at his lips despite the situation and holding the man's arm in place as she began wrapping, "field medic with the Ground Forces. Name's Dmitri, Dmitri Kuznetsov."

"Alice Alexander," she replied before looking down at the man she had finished splinting, "you're all set, just take it easy and keep your arm tucked in your jacket for now." She demonstrated this by tucking her own arm across her chest and nodding when the man did the same before he stepped away muttering what Alice had deduced was Sokovian for thank you. "Russian?"

"My father was," Dmitri nodded as he assisted the next person into the makeshift seat that he, his partner and the mutant had set up while she began digging through her bag for more supplies. "My mother was Sokovian and he left to live here with her."

The mutant nodded politely before assessing the young girl who had been presented with her mother hovering just over Alice's shoulder as she watched the mutant kneel before her and offer her a small smile, "My name is Alice. Can you tell me what hurts?"

The girl's eyes darted between the mutant and her mother before deciding that Alice didn't appear all that scary, "My head."

"Alright, love, and what's your name?"

"Kristina…"

"Kristina? That's a wonderful name! Can you tell me how old you are Kristina?"

"I'm six," she answered with a shy smile as Alice began inspecting her head, finding the area that was producing a large amount of blood from a laceration within the child's hairline.

"Oh my, you're practically a lady!" Kristina giggled before wincing when Alice moved her hair away from the wound that had been made in her scalp. Alice nodded to herself before removing her small flashlight and bringing it, unlit, before the child's eyes. "Alright, Kristina, I'm just going to shine this light in your eyes for just a second, okay?" The mutant made what she hoped was a silly face with the flashlight lit under her nose and earning another giggle from the girl before doing as she said and watching as the girl's eyes reacted normally and ruling out a concussion.

"Is she okay?"

Alice tapped the girl's nose gently, removing the flashlight and offering a smile up at the girl's mother, "She will be. No concussion, which is good, but the cut on her head will need stitches. I have a numbing agent so she won't feel anything, but I'll need your help as well."

"Me?" The woman asked breathlessly as she stared at the Avenger, "what can I do? I don't know medicine!"

"You don't need to," Alice smiled softly in reassurance to the woman, "I just need you to keep your daughter's attention for a short bit while I get everything ready."

"We will make sure nothing happens to her," Dmitri assured the woman just as Alice turned from the woman and looked back at the small child and reaching into her uniform. It took a moment for her to find what she was looking for, but she soon pulled out a small stone and handed it to the child.

"You're doing amazing Kristina, but I need a huge favor okay?"

"Okay…?"

"I need you to watch this for me," Alice gestured to the stone which was one she had found at one of the stores in Manhattan that had caught her eye.

The mutant knew it to be a luz opal, but what had drawn her eye to the small stone was the myriad of colors and shapes inside of it that made it appear as if the galaxy had been trapped inside. She hadn't known why she had grabbed it from her locker before the team had assembled at the jet, but she was thankful she had it in that moment and especially when the child's blue eyes seemed to widen in wonder at the small stone.

"It's so pretty!"

"It is," the mutant smiled, "now what I'm going to do Kristina, is put your hair this way for a bit and you're gonna feel a cool gel on your head okay?" Alice explained to her as she brushed her hair to the side where she could see the nasty cut.

The wound wasn't particularly deep, but the head always bled angry at even the smallest abrasion and Alice was thankful that the little girl hadn't realized how much blood coated part of her hair. The former nurse was quick with putting a towel over the girl's shoulder to prevent the gore from further staining her jacket before coating the area with the numbing agent. After a moment the girl's mother appeared in front of her child, her eyes watching as her child turned the stone over in her hands and watching as it seemed to shift in shapes and colors before her. The woman looked up at Alice just as the mutant swung her leg over another chair and threaded her needle with practiced ease and surprisingly out of the child's sight as the mutant began speaking to the girl again and asking her questions about her favorite colors. After a few moments in which Alice prodded the area and seeing no reaction from the child she met the mother's eyes and nodded.

"Can you feel me touching this area, Kristina?"

"No miss…mama, look at this!"

Alice smiled at the girl before taking the antiseptic wipe from Dmitri in one hand and cleaning the area of the cut before discarding the wipe and beginning to stitch the wound closed. Alice worked quickly as the mother kept her daughter's attention and Dmitri handed her things she would need as she called for it.

Just as the mutant finished up, her comm activated in her ear once more as Steve's voice echoed throughout the channel, "The next wave's gonna hit any minute. What have you got, Stark?"

"Well, nothing great." Tony sighed, his tone sounding defeated and bringing a worried furrow to the mutant's brow as she listened, "Maybe a way to blow up the city…That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear."

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're gonna have to make a choice."

Alice frowned as she turned to the wall of windows that her building featured and catching the forms of Steve and Natasha just beyond. The mutant knew that the probability of everyone surviving was increasingly slim as the minutes progressed. The higher they climbed the less air would become available and even then it wouldn't matter if they came crashing down to the earth. She nodded briefly to Dmitri and the other officer when they came to see what was happening and Alice excused herself briefly to find out what was happening.

"Cap, these people are going nowhere," Natasha was saying as she placed her hands on her hips. "If Stark finds a way to blow this rock…"

"Not 'til everyone is safe."

"Everyone up here verses everyone down there? There's no math there."

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it."

Natasha sighed softly as she briefly turned to greet Alice with a nod of her head, her green eyes looking out at the sky, "I didn't say we should leave." When Steve frowned in confusion in her direction the Russian smiled, "There's worse ways to go…besides, where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." Fury's voice echoed through their communications channel and Alice couldn't help the grin that split at her lips as she shielded her eyes to see the old Helicarrier appear in the sky beside the steadily rising city of Sokovia. "Nice right? I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."

"Fury, you son of a bitch."

"Ooooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth!?"

The three Avengers didn't blink when Pietro appeared beside them, his light eyes wide at the sight of the large ship that had appeared. "This is S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"This is what S.H.I.E.L.D's supposed to be," Steve answered with a nod as he gripped his shield tighter, knowing that the mission was now full evacuation.

Pietro grinned, "This is not so bad."

"Let's load 'em up!"

Alice didn't need further encouragement as they all rushed off to begin directing the life-crafts to where the civilians were still taking cover. "Anyone who is in need of immediate medical attention will go first and then we'll get everyone else with minor injuries out, sounds good?"

"You're calling the shots here," Steve echoed through the comms. "Fury, expect those who need immediate attention first."

"Heard."

"You think you're saving anyone?" Ultron's voice seemed to echo around them once more, "I turn that key and drop this rock a little early and it's still billions dead. Even you can't stop that."

"I am Thor, son of Odin, and as long as there is life in my breast, I am…running out of things to say! Are you ready!?"

Alice blinked as there was a brief moment of static before Thor and Vision's voices appeared back on the open comm channel.

"It's terribly well-balanced," Vision said lightly, Mjolnir echoing in the background.

"Well, if there's too much weight, you lose power on the swing, so…"

The mutant snorted, meeting Steve's eyes from across the way and shaking her head when he shrugged helplessly, moving more civilians into another transport. She briefly glanced up to see both Tony and Rhodey flying overhead and taking out robots who were attempting to shoot down the rescue crafts before ushering another group forward.

"I got it!" Tony's voice cried suddenly through the channel, "Create a heat seal. I can…I can supercharge the spire from below." His new AI's voice sounded next, though it wasn't clear as the mutant grabbed her handgun and fired off a few rounds at a bot that got too close to the people she was escorting. "Thor, I got a plan!"

"We're out of time! They're coming for the core."

"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier."

Rhodey's voice echoed over the channel, "On it!"

"Avengers, time to work for a living!"

Alice finished counting off her craft before making her way towards the church, shooting any bot she came across. As she jumped over a broken wall and into the church she released three more shots; Thor, Vision, Pietro and Tony all working on defending a device that sat in the middle of the church and the mutant was not shy about joining the fray. It took only a second for Alice to hit a switch on her handguns and when she did she couldn't help the smirk that twitched at her lips.

Tony and Alice had been playing around a few months ago on a way to utilize his repulsor blasts into a more concentrated form that could potentially be used for her munitions as Alice had no other way of defending herself as she utilized firearms and knives and her whipchain if necessary. It had taken many failed attempts and Alice and Tony nearly hurting themselves and each other as they tested the tech, but they had successfully created the weapon a few months previous and Alice had not had a chance to use them yet.

"You shouldn't be smiling like that!"

Alice raised her gun, firing the condensed energy bullet and smirking as she blasted a bot away from Tony, "I am because of that."

"Touché."

A few moments later saw Steve entering the church, taking out a bot and recollecting his shield as he finished off another. With the last bot defeated for the moment, Wanda and Clint appeared and Pietro was quick to abandon the bot he had just finished to greet his sister.

"You good?"

"Yeah," the teenager breathed as she took his hand, patting his side as she looked around at the remaining heroes gathered.

"Romanoff? You and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini." Tony called through his helm and into the comms as he blasted the final bot he had been facing away from him.

"Relax, Shellhead. Not all of us can fly." Not even a moment later she jogged into the church to meet the group before glancing around, "What's the drill?"

"This is the drill," Tony pointed at the device located in the center of the church. "If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."

Hulk suddenly appeared with a roar as he ripped two bots in two, Ultron floating in behind him and simply watching them. With a roar of rage Thor glared at the vibranium-clad AI, his blue eyes narrowed and muscles tensing, "Is that the best you can do!?"

Alice stared in horror at Thor's back, "Why would you say that?"

Ultron raised his hand and suddenly a clamber and screeching of metal echoed around them as bots that numbered greater than any wave they had dispatched appeared with gears whirring and computerized chips humming. The group braced for more action as Ultron brought his hands out to either side of him, showing off his robot army.

"You had to ask," Steve remarked dryly through a huff as he looked at the Asgardian.

"This is the best I can do." Ultron hummed, "This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?"

Tony hummed behind his helm, his voice echoing as he spoke, "Well, like the old man said: Together."

With a deafening roar from the Hulk, Ultron's army of mechaniods ran forward to meet them and the mutant braced beside Steve, the two sharing a nod before Alice hit another switch on her guns and getting ready to fire. The next few moments felt like it lasted hours as the team worked in perfect sync with one another as if they had all been fighting together for years. Clint and Alice had moved closer to the drill to get slightly higher ground, Steve and Natasha did an impressive amount of flips and twists as they used their shield and electric batons to take out droids around the outside ring of the platform, Pietro and Hulk took out stragglers who came too close with help from Thor who aided Vision in any bots that flew too high up above them and Wanda holding some of the machines in place while the others destroyed them and disintegrating any that got passed Steve and Natasha.

Alice glanced in Wanda's direction and immediately fired, the teen almost jumping as the bot that had been approaching her unprotected side dropped to the ground with a hole in its head. The teenager shot her a look of gratitude with a brief nod and Alice sent her an answering nod of acknowledgement before shooting another bot that had thought Hulk would be a fun ride. It wasn't long until Ultron himself joined the fray and Vision met him with equal strength above them. It was sudden when Vision hit a wall of the upper part of the church before his forehead lit up brightly and he shot a blast from the stone directly into Ultron, knocking the bot backwards and out of the church; Thor and Tony were quick to follow his lead as the three of them sent streams of their own to meet Vision's.

The group managed to push the remaining bots out of the church upon their leader's seeming defeat, the bots taking off in multiple directions.

"You know, with the benefit of hindsight –"

The Hulk never let him finish his statement before he turned and glared at some of the fleeing bots – deciding they were a much better outlet as he raced off after them.

Thor glanced out at some of the bots beginning to take flight, "They'll try to leave the city!"

"We can't let 'em, not even one. Rhodey!"

"I'm on it!" Rhodey called back in the comms before Alice could see the sleek silver of his suit shooting off in the distance, "Oh, no, I didn't say you could leave. War Machine comin' at you, right…"

Vision appeared and began taking the Colonel's targets, the bots blowing up easily as he phased in and out of them and using the Mind Stone to steal the man's kills.

"Okay…what?"

Alice's attention was drawn back to Steve as he began organizing the team once more, "We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin." He glanced at them all, "You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers and be right behind you."

"I'll come with you."

Steve met the mutant's eyes and shook his head briefly, "You're better off on the boats making sure anyone who needs medical attention has it. I don't think Fury sent any medics out on the lifeboats."

"What about the core?" Clint asked as he glanced at the captain.

"I'll protect it," Wanda volunteered with a stubborn tilt to her chin, her eyes narrowed. Clint and the teen shared a look with one another before she gave him a firm nod, "It's my job."

Alice watched the exchange and sighed softly. She wasn't surprised that Clint had basically recruited her and it wasn't her place to determine who could be on the team and who couldn't. Wanda still unsettled her, but Alice had decided not to go out of her way to be intentionally rude.

"Nat," Clint called before nodding to the redhead, "this way.

The teen briefly met her eyes as if waiting to hear her rebuke her decision and Alice only offered her a slight shrug and a nod before jogging out of the church and towards the transports. She continued to direct people towards the lifeboats before standing off to the side of the last one just as Thor approached her, his face dirt smudged and sweat gleaming against his brow and arms. He offered her a nod, which she returned as she ushered another family on board.

"Thor, I'm gonna need you back in the church."

"Is this the last of them?"

"Yeah," Steve breathed as he jogged up to the two of them, "Everyone else is on the carrier."

"You know, if this works, we maybe don't walk away."

"Maybe not," the Asgardian agreed before turning and making his way towards the church. The sound of engines brought the three Avengers to a stop as they looked up just as armor piercing rounds echoed along the ground catching Thor and Steve in a torrent of dust kicked up by the rounds hitting the debris of the city.

Alice dove to the side, knocking a police officer with her and rolling to a stop she turned off to the side to see Clint with a boy in his arms and nowhere for him to go. Unbridled fear gripped her suddenly and she fought to stand, her limbs entangled with the officer she had tackled out of the way and making it difficult to get up, "CLINT!"

In a breath, the mutant looked up to see that Clint was no longer where he had been standing originally. No, in his place stood Pietro, his body heaving from the burst of speed he had used to get to the archer and wounds quickly staining his shirt red from where the bullets had pierced him trough.

"You didn't see that coming."

Alice leapt to her feet, her body moving on autopilot as she raced to the two of them, her lungs burning with the lack of oxygen in the air and yet the mutant didn't believe it was simply because of the thinning air. By the time she had managed to get there, Steve had already gotten to the fallen teen's side as Clint checked him for a pulse. The mutant wasted no time as she checked his pulse and finding it to be nearly non-existent.

"We have to get him to the helicarrier, now."

"Alice…"

The mutant wasn't listening however as she pressed her gloved hands against Pietro's chest. Steve watched as Alice hands shook; her movements almost uncharacteristically clumsy as she applied pressure to the teen's chest and abdomen. With a concerned frown he gently pushed her aside and picked up the body of the male twin and began moving back to the lifeboat. Alice jogged beside him after checking to make sure Clint and the child he had saved were alright before they made it to the boat. Steve watched as the mutant continued to fuss over the body of the teen and watching her brought a hopelessness to the patriot's chest that he hadn't felt in quite some time.

It was sudden when the ground gave out from underneath the patriot and he only had a split second to leap into the boat as the city of Sokovia plummeted to the earth below. With his brows pulled in a worried frown he watched as suddenly the city seemed to explode, debris falling every which way and miles from the epicenter that the city had left when Ultron had activated his machine.

As soon as the lifeboat landed, Alice had helped the medical personnel grab a stretcher before racing Pietro to one of the rooms where the mutant was determined to prevent this boy from dying. A thousand thoughts echoed through her mind as she assessed the damage: a bullet wound through the left side of his chest, two in the right shoulder and clavicle, another through his stomach on the left side, his hip and leg as well as his right arm. She knew that his survival was nearly non-existent, of course she knew, but she couldn't lose him and with that brief thought all logic seemed to escape her. It was for no other reason than he didn't deserve this - he didn't deserve to die like this, not after he redeemed himself. A part of her worried for Wanda, despite their lack of relationship and the things she had personally done to wrong the mutant, Alice knew that the girl did not deserve to lose the only other family she had…she had already lost her country and everything else.

No one deserved to have everything stolen away from them.

The noise in her head was a dull buzz as she tried to think of anything to help stabilize him – treatments and other techniques coming to mind and then being immediately dismissed as she realized that it wouldn't work in time. She had been quick to remove his shirt to get to his injuries to see if any of them had hit any arteries and had found none of them had, her only concern came when she noticed one bullet was far too close to his heart for her liking. For every treatment option that she threw out the more desperate she became. It was a brief moment, but an idea bloomed in her mind as if by some other force, a voice echoing in the back of her mind - smooth and curling like a serpent: use your mutation.

With a deep breath she adjusted her gloves and focused on the small ball of energy that seemed to live inside of her chest. Alice allowed her eyes to slide closed before she attempted to dig deeper into herself and once she found a small flicker of what she believed was her mutation she began to push it in an attempt to manipulate it. She had only tried something like this once before when Agent Coulson had taken Loki's scepter through his chest and she only hoped that her attempt to heal someone else would work for once. Taking a deep breath she began to push the small energy forward and down her arms and into the palms of her gloved hands which, by now, were layered and stained with the Maximoff twin's blood as she attempted to staunch the wound while simultaneously pushing it back into him.

She imagined the flower that Charles had used to show her how to unlock her power. She pictured the cells in the body, which was much easier than it was with a plant as she was more familiar with the human body, knowing that the body was made up of trillions of cells, each with their own structure and function, but it didn't matter in that moment. All she cared about was making sure she could picture as many as she could clearly enough; forcing herself to picture each reforming and closing.

A flat line continued to drone in the background.

"No…no, not this time goddamn it!" Her brows furrowed tightly as she continued to push herself, uncaring to whoever was watching in that moment and uncaring to how much she would hurt herself in the process if that was what was necessary. "Come on…work!"

"Alice…"

She couldn't help but picture Wanda's face in that moment, how she could be feeling at having lost her brother – if she even knew yet! It was almost as if she could feel the girl's torment, her pain as Alice had felt that same torment and pain whenever she lost someone, whenever she couldn't save them. She pushed and pushed and as hands found purchase on her arms she tugged herself free violently as she attempted to maintain contact with the teenager's chest.

Steve watched with a worried frown as the mutant knocked his hands away from her, the woman practically leaning on top of the silver haired teen's body. He knew what she was doing, had seen her practicing with the plants she had bought only a few days ago. He could see the way her body trembled on broken sobs and hiccups, her brow beading with sweat and her hands shaking; listening as she berated herself for not being able to heal the boy, her words pitched with her hiccupped and heaving breaths. Wanda had appeared outside of the room that Alice was attempting to bring Pietro back in at the same time he had, but the Vision had prevented the girl from entering the room, insisting that he had it handled.

Steve didn't know if he had the situation handled.

Alice was borderline manic as she forced herself to try and heal and Steve gently tried taking her arms once more only to nearly be thrown backwards by the mutant's unexpected strength as she placed trembling hands against the teen's chest once more and crying out as she tried pushing her mutation further.

"Alice!"

"Get away from me…I'm not losing him!"

Steve frowned, "Al, he's already gone. There's nothing more you can do."

"I can't lose him, Steve, I won't!"

As her voice broke he realized that the mutant was feeling guilt and a crushing one that he hadn't expected her to carry. Knowing that the mutant was going to fight him, Steve braced himself before grabbing her arms and forcefully pulling her away. Like a feral cat caught in a trap she hissed and spat, her body arching and bucking as she tried to get away from him and with strength he had never used on the mutant before he spun her, catching her in a tight embrace.

Alice tried to fight, she tried to push herself away but as she found herself trapped against the patriot's chest the fight soon left her and she found herself clinging to him. Sobs wracked her body as her already bruised and broken heart shattered to pieces and she felt Steve's arms tighten around her as if hoping that by holding her so tightly would fuse the pieces back together. Her hands clung to his back and she briefly wondered if she was hurting him as she pressed herself further into his chest.

Steve held her to him, his hand tracking a comforting arch along her back, his hand resting against her head as he tucked her closer to him. He could feel the way she gripped him as if he was the only thing in that moment keeping her from falling further apart and coming undone and he felt his heart break in his chest. Was his friend so broken that he was the only thing keeping her from falling apart? No words were spoken between the two friends as the mutant continued to cry in his arms and the patriot continued to hold her fast. Of course his heart went out to the female twin, but in this moment his concern was for Alice. He could see that Clint had Wanda held in an embrace and knew that the girl would be okay for a little while and he met the archer's eyes briefly. It was only a brief look, but in that moment Steve knew that Clint would be keeping his eyes out for the mutant and the enhanced teenager and that he would need to be there for her, more than he had ever been there for her before. In that moment, Steve promised himself that he wouldn't let Alice face this alone and that he wouldn't let her blame herself.

"It isn't your fault," He whispered into her hair, his arms rocking her slowly. "You did everything right...everything you could." He could feel her shaking her head against him and he hushed her. "Al, you did what you could...even when it seemed completely impossible. It's okay, it's gonna be okay."

As much as she wanted to she found she couldn't believe him.


End Note: So here we are at the end of the AoU timeline! I've got some really fun chapters planned over the course of the next few weeks before we jump into Civil War! I have a chapter or two planned that are completely in Bucky's POV – which I think would be really interesting to see the outside view of the battle in Sokovia as well as an outside perspective of what was undoubtedly a shit-show in the press (less of this though and more about what Bucky is going through while all of this is happening). We also have to tie up the Deadpool timeline and take out a HYDRA base with our favorite Merc with a Mouth and Alice; Alice and Steve have to have their deep ass conversations and there may be some fun cameos coming up.

I'm really excited you guys because all of this is gearing up for Civil War and I have so much planned for that timeline because I'm hoping to take a very different angle than normal. So far we've gone pretty close with the scripts from the movies and the events in those movies, but Civil War is where it gets a wee bit different and I can't express how excited I am to share it with you!

For those wondering Alice will not be siding on Team Iron Man (as much is a given) for a few reasons, but the main two being because 1) as a mutant, she will not be okay with the Sokovia Accords and 2)...Bucky *shrugs*. I won't spoil anything else, but that much I can easily say, haha.

Now, onto the fun part of the notes (I mean for me anyway, I dunno if you all agree or not), but a very special thank you to everyone who has favorited/followed/subscribed or just read this story so far! There's a lot here and I appreciate you all taking this journey with me!

Also a special thank you to simmerandcry, kyro232, SomebodyWhoCares, Love. Fiction. 2021, and Katie MacAlpinefor their reviews of the last chapter! I really cannot say how much I appreciate you all for taking time to review my story!

And if you haven't already - please check out my dear friend, simmerandcry's story "Show Me, Don't Tell Me"! It's an incredible and amazing and just truly wonderful Bucky/Steve/OC story and it's a real treat especially if you like some good fluff!

Also, if any of you are looking for some more content from this story, I started another story on my page called "Forever More" which is a series of oneshots that I'll be writing featuring characters in this story! Some will be moments that I just omitted from the main storyline, mentioned or are just stand alone moments in general. I'm always taking suggestions for that story and will be writing them in between updates for ATSMF as I feel the inspiration. I've got one up now that features Alice and Bucky during the 1940s ;) hope to see you there!

Thank you guys so much for sticking with me and I hope to see you in the next chapter!

Eirlys xoxo