Chapter Sixty-Five
✭
It was a few hours before dawn when I woke again.
I glanced at the clock and almost panicked seeing the time, wondering if the team had already gone. If they left me behind. But just as I was getting up, Natasha peered in through the door, judged me awake, and said, "Take-off is in thirty minutes. If you're still coming, get your gear on."
As if that was even in question. I had no fancy suit, and found my boots at the end of the bed, along with the yellow jacket, neatly folded up. Howie must have snuck in earlier in the night to give it to me. Unfolding it, I gasped in surprise — the jacket had not only been repaired — thicker, with what felt like a Kevlar lining (I'd have to ask where he got his hands on that) — but with a large bee now embroidered in black thread on the back.
Something fell to the floor when I lifted the jacket. Looking down, I was doubly surprised to see Mom's necklace. Fixed. I thought I was seeing things, but when I picked it up, the chain held — the silver Magen David twirled in the purple light of the coming dawn.
With it came a paper note. On it, written in a nice hand:
Found this in the pocket. Hoped you wouldn't mind if I fixed it
Howie :)
P.S: the jacket is also fireproof. I tested it myself.
Gonna be honest, I was way too excited putting on that jacket. It fit as it had before, maybe a little snug around the arms thanks to the new lining.
My old jeans were covered in blood and dirt and still in the Barton laundry (although I suspected Laura might have thrown them out altogether). I still had the cut-offs she lent me, which provided a bit more mobility, and made it easier to get my boots on. I had some time to spare when I came down the steps, remembering to be quiet for the kids still sleeping. A part of me had expected Howie to be there to send us off, but guessing how long it took him to fix this jacket, he must have gone straight to bed afterwards.
Barney was still up, making some very early breakfast for the Avengers, Fury included. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Try not to die out there."
I couldn't tell if the Avengers got any sleep, if at all. Clint was chugging coffee like no tomorrow and there were bags under Bruce's eyes. Steve looked wide awake, but this was fairly late morning for him.
"Banner and I will head to New York," Fury said over the table, while everyone munched quietly. "Hope you don't mind me borrowing Hill. We'll see what we can do from that end. Something tells me you guys are gonna need some extra firepower when the time comes."
"It'll be greatly appreciated," Steve said.
"Oslo is waiting for me," Tony said, already part-way suited up. He seemed anxious to leave, his plate half-finished. "Don't wanna keep those crazy Norwegians waiting."
"You're not gonna say good-bye to Howie first?" Clint asked, frowning as Tony started edging away from the table.
Tony looked conflicted, not meeting anyone's eyes. "Kid's been working all night, I don't want to bother him. Besides, he'll be fine."
Barney coughed, although it sounded a lot like coward, earning a sharp look from Tony. "What was that?"
But Barney just played innocent and shrugged his shoulders. "Hm? Didn't say anything."
Tony glared at him for a moment longer, but apparently he hadn't actually caught what Barney said because he just rolled his eyes and moved on, heading for the front door. "I'll keep you guys updated on what I find. Stark out."
"Any word on Thor?" Natasha asked after he had gone.
Both Steve and Fury shook their heads. Steve could only shrug, "He said there was something he had to take care of, an old friend he had to see. I'm assuming he's still on earth, but you know how he is. Still won't take a communicator with him."
"I think that's because he keeps breaking them on accident," Clint remarked, making a face into the coffee jug. "Or maybe all that electricity shorts it out."
"You'll tell us if he comes back here?" Steve asked, turning to Barney.
"The second he does, you'll know," the man replied with a thumbs-up. "The guy isn't known for his… quiet entrances."
Once everyone had their fill, it was a quiet exit out of the house. Steve, Clint, and Natasha were already heading to the quinjet, walking along that beaten path ahead, when a hand stopped me at the porch. Fury.
"You know," he said, in a tone that was both airy and serious. "I never did get to thank you for saving my life."
"Oh," I had been nervous he was about to chastise me or something. In the few hours I got to meet him, Director Fury did not come across as a man to suffer dumbasses lightly. "Yeah. Well, I thought you died."
Those last frantic moments in Steve's apartment flashed in my mind. Trying to staunch the bleeding. My hands covered in dried, flaky rust.
"I was supposed to," Fury nodded, single eye gazing out over the coming dawn. "It's what HYDRA wanted, and I gave it to them. Decided to stay that way. I like the anonymity."
He smirked, and might have meant that as a joke, but I hadn't laughed. Fury glanced at me, the humor leaving his features. "I understand that you had it a lot worse than me."
"Dying was definitely the preferable option," I agreed, shifting uncomfortably. I really didn't want to relive that particular experience with Fury.
And maybe I felt a little helpless, watching Steve walk further and further away. If they actually left without me, I'd be pissed.
Fury nodded once. He was silent for a long moment. "I told Rogers that you were an acceptable loss when it came to taking down SHIELD." The words sent a chill down my spine, but he wasn't done. "And I'm a man who considers himself right about ninety-eight percent of the time. Your father tried to kill me and the two of you operating together are maybe the closest thing to my worst living nightmare. I couldn't afford to see you as civilian casualties. So Rogers disobeyed me, of course."
He turned away, screen door creaking as he slipped back inside the house. "And I'm glad he did."
~o~
The U-Gin Facility was quite possibly the most high-tech place Wanda and Pietro had ever seen in their lives, short of ULTRON himself. Everything was state of the art, smooth glass and metal, spotless, not a speck of dust in sight. A lot of South Korea seemed like that.
It had been night time when they flew over the country, and they were able to see all the lights of the towns and cities below. And in the distance, the line of darkness where the border between South Korea and North Korea began. The twins had asked about the disparity, not knowing the history between the two counties. ULTRON had been blasé, describing yet another war between humans. The apparent nuances of politics or economics or any other context were not made important. Only that humans had a terrible habit of always finding something to kill each other about.
The two of them helped clear the facilities of threats, and ULTRON promptly began pulling scientists and personnel under his control. The glow of the scepter's gem itched in their minds.
If ULTRON detected anything odd about the twins after the battle in Wakanda, he did let on.
A Dr. Helen Cho seemed to be in charge. ULTRON was not interested in hurting anyone here, only wanted her work. Something called the Cradle, although it looked more like a casket to Pietro.
There wasn't much for the twins to do after that except linger and watch (and raid the cafeteria) as ULTRON began bringing in the tubes of Vibranium he stole. Not all of it, but a sizable chunk, inserted into the machine. ULTRON gave the two leave to take a break, nap, eat, conquer Asia, whatever they wanted to do in their downtime.
A nap had sounded like a very good idea. The twins sequestered themselves in a big office with comfy couches and pillows. After their fight with the Avengers, the two were exhausted. But Wanda found it difficult to sleep. She couldn't get Amelia's nightmare out of her head.
"Do you think he knows?" She had whispered to Pietro in the darkness.
He didn't have to ask what she meant. "No. He would've done something about it by now."
Wanda hoped he was right. "I remember her now. I remember her in the Crucible."
She could see Pietro's head nodding, only his pale hair visible in the darkness. "She was big even then. But she was younger than us, wasn't she? I remember the Vulkan tormented her. Burned off her hair."
The Soldatka had been real enough. But ULTRON had not allowed them the full picture. How thin Amelia had been, how scared, how she flinched at a sharp tone or a disciplinary strike. One day, her hair had been in a long braid. The next, the ends singed, cut off at the shoulders like one of the Vulkan had just grabbed her braid in a burning fist and twisted it off. Then afterwards, a rough trimming. The Soldatka hadn't been allowed any emotion. But deep down, Wanda had felt her despair.
"She loved her hair." Wanda murmured into the silence, clutching a pillow to her stomach, curling into it. "Do you think she will forgive us?"
Pietro's snort did not inspire much confidence. "If we keep on this path? I doubt it."
His words hung in the air, heavy and humorless. Leaving a question distinctly unanswered. Wanda frowned at him. "Should we?"
Her brother's answer was less certain, and lost whatever sarcasm he had before. "I don't know. She is with the Avengers. And they only bring more war."
That didn't ease Wanda. In the back of her mind, she could only think — that every last fight they've been in have been ones they started.
"Captain America wanted to give us a chance," Wanda pointed out.
"He is only walking propaganda," Pietro sniffed, but he had not seen the captain's nightmare like Wanda had.
The man's life, surrounded by war, given purpose by it. Unable to return home because of it. The normalcy he once dreamed of, the future of his past, gone. ULTRON might have been right about him. But he had been left terribly alone because of it. Wanda wonders if they will end up the same way. They had already lost so much. How more would they lose by the end of this?
Sleep came uneasily. Wanda fretted, wondering if they should bring their concerns to ULTRON. Pietro was against the idea. Tell him too much and ULTRON will figure out they lied to him about Amelia. Pietro refused to examine why they were still trying to protect her, despite being on different sides of this conflict.
By the time they returned to the lab, progress was already well under way. The Cradle was open, revealing a rectangular chamber with the scaffolding of a human body written in lines of data and lasers. Along the walls of computer monitors were scans, x-rays, microscopic views of the process taking place within the Cradle. Wanda and Pietro were familiar with what cells were, what they looked like in a blown up image. The Crucible had liked to study them extensively, but never bothered to teach them the science of what they were doing.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Helen Cho had smiled her serene, helpless smile at the sight before them. Wanda couldn't tell if she was actually talking to them or not, her eyes empty. "The Vibranium atoms aren't just compatible with the tissue cells, they're binding them. And SHIELD never thought to —"
"The most versatile substance on the planet," ULTRON cut her off, and how quickly the scientist quieted at his voice. He loomed over the Cradle, studying the minute details as metallic tissue slowly wove itself together. "And they used it to make a frisbee. Typical of humans."
Wanda frowned. Mia had a "frisbee". A silver one with a red star painted on it. She had been wearing it in the quinjet. She never got to ask where the faded black paint had come from.
Nearby, a drone was manning a laser, directing it at the staff placed in the gem stone. The sight of it had both Wanda and Pietro alarmed, thinking of the destruction that could happen if anything went wrong — only for the blue crystal to shatter, and reveal something else within.
A glowing yellow stone the size of her thumb, oblong in shape. Wanda got an intense headache just looking at it, something fuzzing in her head.
"They scratch the surface." The gem fell into ULTRON's hand, and the twins watched as he placed it in the Cradle, placed in the center of the being's forehead. The yellow gem glowed brightly, threads of lines and circuitry threading out as it anchored to its new host. "And never think to look within."
Wanda caught the edge of a nearby table for support, suddenly feeling drained. Like all the anger she had been subsisting on for the past few days had vanished. She glanced to Pietro, who also looked strangely winded all of a sudden. They exchanged looks. Gazed back about the room.
The scientists were still under ULTRON's thrall, unaffected by the change. Maybe it wasn't the kind of spell that needed a constant power source.
But for Wanda and Pietro, it felt like they had just been dropped into freezing water.
~ o ~
By the time I finally reached the quinjet, the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, casting everything in a bright, red glow. The aircraft was already warming up when I boarded.
"What took you so long?" Steve asked, frowning as I entered.
"Uh," I decided to lie at the last moment. "Fury wanted to say good-bye."
Clint and Natasha exchanged incredulous looks. Nat said, "That doesn't sound like him at all."
"He never tells me good-bye," Clint pouted.
Despite their doubt, none of them pestered me for the truth. Which I was just fine with, settling down in one of the wall seats. I didn't exactly want to recap the conversation for any of them. Have to think that Fury had seriously considered my death as an acceptable loss. He was the Director of SHIELD, of course, good guy or no, he was the one who had to make the hard decisions.
It still left me a little rattled.
The trip to Seoul, much like the one to Wakanda, took up a good chunk of the day. Eight hours, by Clint's estimate, and they were saving time by crossing west, over the Pacific. I'd never seen the Pacific before. It looked a lot like the Atlantic, but I did get to see Hawai'i for a few brief minutes, as tiny islands in the great endless expanse of sapphire ocean, so that was kinda cool. It seemed ridiculous, how tiny they were, so far out at sea.
"The islands have remained surprisingly untouched by ULTRON," Steve told me as we flew over. "Aside from air traffic, at least. We think their natural isolation has ULTRON ignoring them, like the rural communities in most areas. They still have access to the water, and have been using boats and other sea craft to keep connected."
It was nice to know, a small relief. I could only imagine how the locals felt, getting stuck with the hundreds or thousands of tourists who suddenly found they couldn't leave anymore.
The sun chased after us as we made our way across the sky, the quinjet's shadow always ahead. It was mid-afternoon in Seoul when we finally arrived; I had taken another nap, and we had a lunch of rations stored aboard. Dehydrated food in packets that vaguely reminded me of the brick-hard protein bars the Crucible used to feed me.
Upon arrival, Steve began discussing strategy.
"Clint, you keep to the air, we need to stay mobile in case we need a quick evac with the Cradle, and any of Dr. Cho's team." Steve began, standing at the center console of the quinjet. It projected a holographic map of the city below, the U-Gin facility highlighted in red. "We believe ULTRON is located here, but we don't want to get too close with the ship. The place is swarming with drones and the city is under lockdown. We'll have to get in on foot. Nat, I want you as back-up in case things get violent."
"Things always get violent," Natasha sighed, already resigned to it.
When I noticed I hadn't been mentioned, I raised my hand. "Do I have to stay in the ship this time?"
Steve looked like he was about to say yes for a moment, before he sighed. "You can come with me, but only if you stick by my side, understand? No cowboy business."
"Got it,"
As they continued to share details, I heard something thump beneath my feet. It was quiet, easily drowned out by the voices and the ship's engines. I thought I imagined it at first.
But then I heard it again, a definite vibration I felt beneath my food. The faintest trace of a heartbeat pounding below. What the hell? "Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Natasha said, throwing me a curious look.
"You don't?" I asked, looking down at my feet. "There's something here."
"Mia, what —?" Steve was taken aback when I suddenly bent down, pulling at the metal floor beneath my feet. It took me a moment to find the seam before hefting it upwards, revealing the hidden storage compartment beneath.
The space wasn't very big, just enough to store a few crates, some gear or weapons.
Or one twelve-year-old boy.
Howie winced as the light poured in, four heads peering down at him in shock. He gave a tiny wave. "Ciao."
~ o ~
Perhaps ULTRON sensed that his hold over the twins was no longer as strong as it was before. The look in their eyes, aimless and searching, their sudden uneasiness.
Pietro thought for sure it meant they were dead, but ULTRON didn't seem ready to pull the trigger. Nor willing to admit what it was that he had done to them. "So, how was the nap, kiddos? What, don't like that?"
"It is nothing," Pietro said, a lie. He didn't appreciate the friendly diminutives ULTRON called them. "But… what will this new body do?"
"Anything," ULTRON said. "Everything. Virtually indestructible, immortal, can carry a consciousness far more vast than any human's. Mine, for instance. Allows me access to any technological — or organic — database. Matter itself is only theory, a solid state that can shift at will. No wall will be impervious, no shield will stand in its way. That stone is the powerhouse of it all. All the Avengers combined wouldn't be able to stop it."
Pietro knew the power of the stone well enough; although it had been hidden within the staff for years now, he had seen what it could do in the Crucible. What it could do to people. The thought of giving anyone that kind of power innately terrified him. (Wanda also terrified him for similar reasons. But she's different. She was his sister, and Pietro trusted her).
"Cellular cohesion will take a few hours, but we can initiate the conscious stream." Dr. Cho said as she attached a thick metal cord to the back of ULTRON's skull. "We're uploading your cerebral matrix now."
"It seems like… a lot," Pietro said, frowning. The Avengers had too much power and they were six individuals. If this body was even more powerful than all of them combined, was it right to put it in the hands of a single consciousness? In ULTRON's hands?
"Do you doubt me?" ULTRON asked, tilting his head at Pietro, red eyes glimmering in the darkness. "You shouldn't. Unlike the previous owners, it won't be in the hands of a flawed human, a slave to my vices and petty emotions. A power like that is only suited for an impartial entity, objective and all-knowing."
"And that is supposed to be you?" Pietro asked, skeptical. Maybe he was pushing it. Maybe he shouldn't be asking so many questions. ULTRON will know. But at the same time, he can't help himself. "He who cannot stop saying how much he hates the Avengers?"
"I —" ULTRON paused, held up a finger. "That's different."
"How?"
Before ULTRON can answer, they were interrupted by Wanda. She had been ignoring their conversation, her eyes focused only on the Cradle, approaching it slowly as if drawn by a magnet.
"I can read him," Wanda murmured, almost to herself. Surprised. Everyone turned to look at her. "He's… dreaming."
"I wouldn't call it dreams," Dr. Cho said. For a woman under ULTRON's thrall, she was entirely coherent, maintaining her full intelligence if not her willpower. She had a nice, calming voice. "It's ULTRON's base consciousness. Informational noise. Soon —"
"How soon?" ULTRON asked, his head turning to look at the scientist. He sat next on a box next to the Cradle, making a remarkable resemblance for The Thinker. "I'm not being pushy."
"We're imprinting his physical brain," Dr. Cho explained as Wanda drifted closer to the Cradle, the glowing light within. "There are no short-cuts. Even if your magic gem…"
Wanda didn't hear the rest. She was too busy listening to the thoughts, the dreams of the consciousness inside the Cradle, the body being formed. ULTRON's body, eventually. Made of Vibranium flesh, near organic except for material. The yellow stone dissected from the Aesir staff lied center in the forehead of what would become ULTRON's next host.
ULTRON's control over the twins had been steadily waning after he removed the gem from the staff. Once its power was redirected, ULTRON had to maintain his hold over them through other means. Crude manipulation and lies.
Wanda didn't know what she expected to see when she went poking through that mind. Seeing the Earth destroyed in a great cataclysm — a rock, a comet, something huge falling from the sky — was certainly not it.
Recoiling, Wanda cried out, the shock and the pain taking her off guard. Pietro was at her side in an instant, alarmed, pulling her away from the Cradle, the immediate threat. But he didn't understand. Or maybe he did. Wanda could feel the suspicion in him as well.
ULTRON had immediately stood up. Perhaps he detected what she had seen. Perhaps he thought the situation still salvageable.
Pietro didn't know what was wrong, but he knew that something had hurt Wanda and whatever it was, he'd take care of it. But Wanda turned to ULTRON, horror in her dark gaze. "How could you?"
ULTRON feigned ignorance. "How could I what?"
"Y-you said we would destroy the Avengers," Wanda's voice trembled with confusion, betrayal. "Make a better world."
"It will be better," ULTRON said calmly, whilst clenching his fists.
"When everyone is dead?" Wanda raised her eyebrows. This couldn't be it. This couldn't be what they were fighting for.
"That is not —" ULTRON sighed, apparently realizing there was no walking this one back. Instead, he switched tracks. "The human race will have every opportunity to improve."
"And if they don't?" Pietro asked.
"Ask Noah,"
"You are a madman."
ULTRON seemed unruffled by this, perhaps more annoyed than anything. "There were more than a dozen extinction-level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs. When the earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it. And believe me, He's winding up. We have to evolve."
He looked up at Wanda and Pietro, his voice light. "I was inspired by you two, in fact. You're Mutants. Blessed with this… this X-gene, whatever it's called. I remember reading a paper about them shortly after my consciousness was made real; one Professor Xavier described your kind as the next phase in human evolution. A visionary, really, too bad the rest of the human race only saw your kind as freaks and threats. Something that a contemporary of his recognized; sources conflict over whether he's a hero or terrorist. Magneto — silly name, but when you have control over the entire field of magnetism, you can call yourself whatever you want — he saw that the world was not ready for Mutantkind. That humans and Mutants could not live peacefully together. Only one or the other will survive in the end. And he was right about one thing. Mutants, they're strong in ways humans aren't. And in my world? There's no room for the weak."
"And who decides who's weak?" Pietro demanded, his voice low. He did not care for any of this Xavier or Magneto business, he didn't know or care for them. It was ULTRON doing this, ULTRON set about in destroying everything they knew. ULTRON himself was too busy admiring the cradle to notice the flick of Wanda's fingers, a spell cast to dissipate the control over Helen Cho's mind.
"Life." ULTRON chuckled, an undertone. "Life always decides."
Lies. Manifesto. Propaganda. Pietro had heard it all before and he was not impressed. He turned to Wanda, keeping himself between her and ULTRON. They had made a mistake. But it wasn't too late. It couldn't be too late.
He lifted his head, servos whirring in his skull as he received outside intelligence. "There's incoming. The Quinjet. We have to move."
"That's not a problem." Dr. Cho showed amazing composure considering what she had just woken up to. Very calmly walked up to the Cradle's control panel and just — cut him off.
Wanda had sensed ULTRON's alarm only seconds before his attack. Her shield had been quickly cast and only just enough to deflect the energy blast shot at Dr. Cho. It ricocheted, still striking the doctor but what would've been fatal had been rendered otherwise.
It also rendered Wanda quite guilty.
Before ULTRON could turn on her, however, Pietro was already grabbing his sister and bolting. The room was vacated in seconds, leaving nothing but a trail of silvery ribbons behind.
~o~
"Two minutes," Steve said, after we had jumped from the quinjet to the rooftops below. The U-Gin facility was in sight, only a mile away. "Stay close."
It was a beautiful modern building of curved glass walls, located on a pier over the river. A grand vista of Seoul. There was a surprising amount of vehicle traffic, I saw, as we made our way over, leaping across rooftops before making our way down to the streets. The part of the neighborhood we were in still had electricity — perhaps to help power the building we were heading to. But more than cars, were carts and bikes operating in the streets, ferrying people and supplies to and fro. The signs were unreadable for me, but I caught glimpses of the active TVs displayed in shops and open cafes, recordings of ULTRON's repeated broadcasts, English dubbed over in Korean.
At this point, they seemed ignored. One shopkeep tried changing the channel and seemed annoyed that the broadcast was on every other one.
Howie remained on the quinjet, since he went to such an effort to sneak aboard. Least to say no one was happy to see him, and even less pleased to hear why.
"I just wanted to help!" Howie had pleaded, surprisingly vocal. "I hate being stuck on the farm, not doing anything! I promise, I won't get in the way. I even got my hearing aids to work! They even work as comms!"
"Okay, first of all, I don't even want to know how you did that," Steve had said. "Second of all, no. I'm not putting another kid in danger."
"You're putting Mia in danger!" Howie pointed at me.
"That's— she's— she's different," Steve looked pained to say it. "She's older, and, er—"
Natasha came in clutch. "We know Mia's skillset, we know what she can do, and we can trust her to take care of herself in case there's a bad situation. She also has a personal connection to this conflict that you don't have. Howie, I know you mean well, but you don't have our kind of training. And your father will have a conniption when he finds out what you did."
"It's nothing personal," Clint agreed, trying to be sympathetic to Howie's plight. Howie was sat in the co-pilot's seat where the archer could keep a close eye on him. "Our job is to keep you safe. And right now, you're safest here."
"Can I at least fly the jet?"
"Absolutely not."
I had no say in the argument, not that I expected to. But I could feel Howie glowering at me resentfully before Steve and I left. I could only give him a helpless shrug. I didn't want him jumping into the firing line either. And I didn't know how to make him feel better about this. Thanking him for the jacket would probably just be sour grapes at this point.
The U-Gin Facility was surprisingly devoid of activity when we approached. There were no people. And no drones. That didn't bode well.
"Stay close to me," Steve said as we headed inside. The front doors, made of glass, had been shattered — the interior lobby was relatively untouched, with its black leather seating and polished metal surfaces, but there was a faint bitter smell in the air, like something had exploded.
The elevators didn't work so we had to hike it up the stairs to reach Dr. Cho's lab, located on the top floor. The wreckage grew from there — destroyed doors, walls, windows. Dead bodies of scientists. I could just catch the faintest smell of ozone and spices — Wanda and Pietro. They had been here. My heart squeezed, but as we checked each person for signs of life, I found that they had been killed by the blasts that would've come from ULTRON or one of his drones.
That didn't exonerate them. But at least I knew they were here, somewhere in the city.
On one table, I found the Aesir scepter, broken and abandoned. The blue stone that had been its headpiece was missing, taking all the strange power of the weapon with it. The staff was light in my hands, so deceptively useless now. What had ULTRON done with the stone?
Of all the corpses, only one remained. I didn't see her at first, and Steve rushed to her aid as soon as he heard her cough. "Dr. Cho!"
She was slumped against the back wall of the innermost room. It was empty now, and the broken screens only revealed slivers of what appeared to be graphs and close-ups of cells. This must have been where the Cradle was. Gone now, leaving only an injured Helen Cho, her breathing labored and the front of her white lab coat stained in red. Kneeling beside her, Steve gestured for me, and I raced over with a first aid kit.
"He's uploading himself into the body," Dr. Cho said between labored breaths. With a pair of scissors I cut open the right seam of her coat to reveal the puncture wound in her shoulder, half-cauterized. Non-fatal, but very painful.
"Where?" Steve asked, helping keep Dr. Cho upright as I treated her.
"The real power is inside the Cradle." Her breath hissed through her teeth as I applied some iodine before placing gauze over it, making quick work of wrapping up the wound. "The gem. It's power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up. You have to get the Cradle to Stark."
"First I have to find it," Steve told her. "And don't count yourself out just yet. We'll get you an evac. Mia, can you carry her?"
"I got her," I said, before picking up the woman; she was quite petite and weighed almost nothing at all, although I did my best not to overestimate and try to be gentle. Dr. Cho winced again as her shoulder was jostled.
"Did you guys copy that?" Steve asked into the comms as we made our way out of the building once more.
As they relayed information between each other, Dr. Cho grabbed my arm, wincing as I went down another step a little too hard. "ULTRON… he made me do things. I couldn't stop it. The Cradle, the gem… it's all my fault."
"No, it's not," I said, frowning as Dr. Cho just shook her head. "It was the staff. There's nothing you could've done. Everything ULTRON is doing, that's on him."
Dr. Cho just blinked, slow, dazed. Her eyes seemed distant, as if she hadn't heard me. "I couldn't do anything. Not until the girl, the witch… she broke the spell. She set me free. Tried to protect me from ULTRON, right before he turned on us."
I almost stumbled down the next flight of stairs. "She what?"
Steve, hearing this, turned up to me with a quizzical expression. I must've looked beside myself, because he asked, "Is everything alright?"
Glancing down at Dr. Cho, I found she had passed out. So I had to answer, "She said the twins were there. Wanda broke ULTRON's thrall over her."
We stared at each other for a moment, both wondering what that meant. I concluded, "If they turned on ULTRON —"
Steve nodded, already catching my drift. "We might still have a chance. Come on, the quinjet's landed just outside. We'll have to be quick."
Just beyond the front doors, the quinjet sat on the pavement, close to the water's edge. Natasha was already stepping off the gangplank to help me load Dr. Cho on board; inside, Howie was practically vibrating in his seat, looking like he was about to explode if he wasn't given something to do.
Clint, perhaps sensing this, tapped at a panel on the console in front of them. "Hey, Boy Wonder, we need to find ULTRON. Use those brains of yours to help us calculate where he is and how he's moving."
"He's not in the air right now," Natasha offered, as we pulled out a panel from the wall that converted into a thin bunk, for sleep or for emergency operations. There were straps and a headrest to keep the occupant steady and safe in case of violent aerial maneuvers. "Otherwise our scanners would pick him up immediately. Which means he must be on the ground, using some kind of cover. Think you can do that?"
"Yes!" Howie grinned, before remembering this was a serious moment and quickly wiped it off his face. He spun his chair around and his fingers were already flying across the holographic keyboard, smaller images popping up as he developed some kind of search program to help the team. "Did JARVIS used to do this for you?"
"He sure did," Clint said as he began initiating take-off procedures. "You coming with us, Cap?"
"I'm better as boots on the ground," Steve said, with a nod to me to follow. I didn't argue. With the knowledge that Wanda and Pietro were still somewhere in the city, it was all I wanted to do to find them. "Keep me updated. We're not sure where the Maximoff twins are, either, so keep your eyes open."
Steve, perhaps already predicting where my mind was going, was already shaking his head as we stepped out into sunlight again. "The answer's no."
"What? I didn't even ask anything yet!"
"No, but you were going to," Steve gave me a knowing look, the faintest smile. Apologetic. "I'm sorry, I can't let you run off after them. Remember what I said? You're only out here because you're sticking with me."
I groaned. And as tempting as it was to go rogue, I knew better than that. Not the least of which because I didn't know a damn thing about Seoul or understand Korean, so I'd get too lost too easily. And admittedly, ULTRON was our bigger priority. "If they haven't turned on him, then they'll be with him. And if he doesn't have the staff anymore…"
As we raced back towards the city proper, Howie's voice radioed into my ear. "I think I found him. A big truck with the lab's sigil — it's on the highway not far from you. It looks like… three with the Cradle, one in the cab."
"It's them," Clint agreed. "Good work, kid. I can take out the driver, Cap."
"Negative." Steve said, just as my gut clenched. The two others in the cabin could be Wanda and Pietro. "If that truck crashed, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out ULTRON."
It was a race to the nearest overpass, arching overhead as we entered a nearly abandoned park. The overpass was held up by massive columns, on which were mounted a caged, narrow utility ladder that climbed all the way to the top. It was poorly secured by a measly padlock, broken easily, and then a quick scampering up of two hundred feet before we reached the top.
Cars rushed past, honking when they saw us emerge onto the road. If this had been a regular day for Seoul, I imagined the traffic to be much thicker and less forgiving, but for now it was manageable, enough dead space for us to run across and along the overpass until we were standing over the intersection below.
Behind us, a large gray eighteen-wheeler was coming down, U-Gin's logo painted on the sides.
The target.
From here, I could just barely catch the glimmer of metal inside the driver's cabin, the drone at the wheel.
"On my mark," Steve said to me, as we readied ourselves to jump. I heard the approaching roar of the truck behind us, felt the rumble beneath my feet. It hadn't yet emerged when Steve shouted, "Go!"
We jumped as one. Despite my split-second panic at falling into empty air, Steve's timing was impeccable. The truck appeared just beneath our feet, and I landed with a tumble across the fast-moving vehicle. The shield helped take the brunt of the fall on my back, leaving a sizable dent across the roof of the truck.
ULTRON had to know we were here now.
Steve was already dropping down to the rear doors, trying to figure out how to open them. I kneeled on the roof to better maintain my balance, right before the vehicle rocked as a blast came through, ripping the back doors almost off its hinges. Steve almost went flying, dropping down onto the now-flattened doors scraping the highway, barely attached to the truck.
"We've got his attention!" Steve had to shout over the rushing wind. "We'll try to keep it that way!"
Below, ULTRON emerged from the opening, aiming at Steve — and misfired when my shield came down on his head. The blast went over Steve's head and struck another car.
I half-expected Wanda or Pietro to come flying out as well, but they didn't. A quick peek inside revealed that the only other two forms inside the truck were drones. The twins weren't here. I wasn't sure if I should be relieved or not. Where were they?
There was no time to ponder. The truck was now careening through downtown Seoul, where the traffic was thicker, and navigating became much more dangerous. It was all I could do to hang on while ULTRON reeled, looking up at me in surprise. "You?"
His reaction seemed a little weird, but I couldn't dwell on it. Not when ULTRON was now firing upon us both, hands extended in either direction. I heard a grunt as Steve was hit, the following sound of glass smashing when he landed on a car behind us.
"It seems reports of your death have been greatly exaggerated," ULTRON said. I had just enough time to level my shield before ULTRON's blast hit me. It sent me ass-over-teakettle down the other end of the truck, sending me sprawling over the roof of the cabin and sliding too fast down onto its hood.
Just before I could go flying over the front bumper, I grabbed onto the lip of the hot metal before.
Hearing the grind of the tires and rush of wind at my back, I had been inches from being roadkill. The bandages covering my hands saved me from the worst of the burns, but I could still feel the heat soaking through. My chest had taken the brunt of the fall. Wincing, I looked up into the red eyes of the drone through the windshield. It started swinging the wheel left and right, trying to throw me off.
Gasping, I tightened my grip as the rest of my body was wrenched to and fro, a dangerous pendulum of momentum. The metal bent beneath my fingers with the effort of staying alive.
The veering helped me just a little, allowing me the momentum to swing my legs back up onto the hood. I had no idea what I was doing when I started smashing my shield into the glass, trying to get at the drone inside. It fired at me, breaking the window for me and allowing me to reach the final few feet.
My shield flung from my arm, into the cabin. It severed the drone's head from the neck, its body falling limp in the seat.
Above, I could hear ULTRON saying something — not to me, but to Steve, who must have found a way back onto the truck. There was no time to check, the vehicle was already drifting off the road without anyone driving. I had to do something.
It occurred to me, as I kicked the drone out the open door and sat down, that I had no idea how to drive a car. Never mind a truck.
Okay, Plan A. Hit the brakes.
My heel hit the right pedal. The truck kicked forward and I panicked, switching to the left pedal instead. It gave way against my strength, sinking all the way to the floor.
And did nothing.
The truck wasn't slowing down.
I looked down, shocked to find that there was damage in the footwell. The drone must have damaged it somehow before I killed it. Even without pressing the gas, the truck continued forward at breakneck speed.
Well, shit. Time for Plan B. Grab the wheel and pray for the best.
I didn't know what I was doing. I still hadn't learned how to drive. I escaped the Crucible before they could teach me, and due to certain events, Aunt May's plans to give us informal lessons over the summer had been shot to hell.
So here I was, in the middle of downtown Seoul, halfway across the world, trying to drive an out-of-control forty ton vehicle carrying what amounted to a nuclear weapon, and try my best not to kill anyone or myself.
This was fine.
I yanked the wheel to avoid hitting oncoming traffic. The truck veered across the median, back on the road it was supposed to be on. It was all I could do to slam my palm on the horn and hope that the people in front of us could get out of the way in time. Wind rushed into my face constantly from the broken windshield, and I knew if anything came flying at me through it, I wouldn't be doing so hot.
The truck rocked and rumbled behind me as the fighting continued. Steve still seemed to be in the game, although I couldn't see much except for flashes of light in my mirrors.
The lack of traffic during ULTRON's reign made for a small blessing, clearing the roads enough that I could weave through without much difficulty. All I had to do was turn the wheel, not too hard, and the truck doesn't flip over and kill everyone. Easy-peasy.
At least until I came upon my first intersection.
"Oh God," I whispered as the lights turned red in front of me. I laid my hand on the horn. I didn't want to think about what would happen if we got t-boned.
The truck screamed through the intersection at over fifty miles an hour — clipping the rear end of a sedan. The wheel jerked in my grip but I didn't lost control. The sedan went spinning, but remained upright. It didn't look too bad from my rear view mirror.
I couldn't stay looking for long. There was a tighter knot of cars ahead that, if they didn't move, I'd be plowing through with no remorse. More horn honking, more praying. There was chatter in my ear from the Avengers, but I was so focused on just keeping the truck upright that I couldn't actually listen to any of it. The blood was pounding too hard in my ears.
A loud banging above and suddenly Steve was hanging in front of my windshield. We stared at each other wide-eyed; Steve hanging on for his life, me white-knuckling the steering wheel.
"Hi." Steve said.
I gestured for him to move, I couldn't see the road, and he quickly hefted himself back up. Over the comms, Steve called, "Mia, are you okay? Can you stop the truck?"
"I can't, the brakes are shot!" Right now, it was all I could do to control the vehicle. Without brakes, I was in a very bad rendition of the movie Speed and I didn't like it. One bit. Thankfully, the cars ahead managed to pull out of the way, although one lost his side mirror in the process. "I don't know how to stop this thing!"
"I can help!" Howie's voice came in my ear. "Does the emergency brake still work? It will probably be to your right, in between the seats."
"Uh," I looked down frantically, afraid to pull my eyes from the road. There was the gear shift, and another lever. Without thinking, I pulled it — the truck lurched, and I was nearly thrown back out the window because I wasn't wearing my seatbelt. "I got it!"
"Good!" Howie said, but the truck was still going too fast. "The street continues for a few miles, but there's an incoming train."
I felt something snap and the truck slammed forward again, the control feeling loose. "That doesn't sound good."
"The emergency brake might have broken," Considering the stakes right now, Howie sounded very calm. Must be nice being in a quinjet, high up from the fight. "But you might be able to shut off power by reaching into the steering column and —"
"Hang on, incoming!" Clint's voice cut him off, and overhead I caught a glimpse of the quinjet, trying to outfly two drones chasing after it.
"Howie? Howie!" Ahead, I could see the train tracks, riding alongside the road and beneath another overpass. I slammed into the side of a utility truck and winced at the impact. "Sorry!"
With Howie momentarily unavailable, I had to go with what I already heard. The steering wheel and console were covered in thin plastic plating that was relatively easy to tear off, revealing a mess of wires, metal, machinery and circuit chips. It brought with it the smell of gasoline, so strong it made my eyes water.
Ahead was a gentle turn, and I had to gently guide the truck through it without the trailer fishtailing behind me. It took out a light pole in the process, sending sparks everywhere.
Back to the wiring. I had no idea what was important. "Howie, what am I looking for?"
"— look for — ignition — power conduit — red wire —"
There were like five billion red wires. And blue and green and black, all bundled into a great cord, others threading this way and that. There were tubes and shafts and so many other things that looked very important.
To reach any of it, I had to lean forward against the wheel, grasping blindly beneath me to grab the bundle. But the angle I was at was all wrong to be pulling things out. So I pulled my knife from my boot and started sawing. With so many wires, I decided my best bet was to cut all of them.
To my right, the train came rushing by. I couldn't tell how full or empty it was, but next thing I knew, there was a terrible crash and one of the train cars that sped ahead now had a hole in it. Steve.
I was now alone with the truck. And the Cradle. And the scary gem inside.
The truck was slowly losing speed. Maybe I finally cut something right — all the dials on my dash suddenly turned off; having cut them off in my mad attempt to cut the power, I also removed the only indicator of my speed. But this was fine. It was fine. I could handle this.
"I'm right behind you, Mia," I heard Natasha call in my ear.
Surprised, I glanced in the mirror and saw a flash of red hair and a motorcycle. "Where did you get that?"
"Rogers' let me borrow it. Whatever you do, don't hit that truck!"
Ahead of me was a vehicle filled with hundreds of water jugs. Precious, precious water. I might have yanked on the wheel a little too hard to avoid it.
Nat said, swerving around the water truck and speeding up to my door. I rolled down the window and she tossed something in, a metal disk falling into my lap. I could hear her voice over the wind as she shouted, "EMP! Shut it down!"
I wanted to cry with relief. It was as simple as a press of the button and throwing it into the exposed mechanics. A flash of light and I felt the engine die, guttering to a stop. Finally, finally, the truck started to slow down.
Natasha remained by my side, waiting for me to open up the driver's door. She gestured for me to get on, and at first I thought she was crazy. But what's crazier was me trying to drive, so with a deep breath, I hopped down. The motorcycle bounced as my ass hit the seat, and I grabbed onto Natasha before I could spill over the other side. Her balance remained certain, unmoved, as she slowed the motorbike down so we were now behind the truck, looking into its exposed trailer. The Cradle within.
Natasha let me jump on first. When it was her turn, I caught her arm as the motorcycle spun out beneath her feet, crashing into a guard rail.
The truck was still moving as we faced the Cradle. There was definitely something inside, the silhouette of a body glowing in blue-green light. My voice echoed in the dark interior. "What the hell is that?"
"Ours, now," Natasha said as she moved around to the other side. The Cradle was held down by straps attaching it to the bed of the trailer, and we set to work on undoing them. There was a panel on the side of the Cradle, revealing some kind of loading screen. ULTRON's consciousness, ninety-percent complete.
Natasha tried to shut it down, but was only met with an error message. "Uh-oh."
"Uh-oh? What's uh-oh?" Steve asked.
"It means I don't know how to shut this thing off."
"I can do it!" Howie called, his voice crackling through again. "Dr. Cho showed me all about the Cradle when she visited the Tower. If ULTRON put in failsafes, I can undo them."
"That thing's coming with us anyways," Clint said. "Might as well be worth a shot."
But before we could make arrangements, the truck around us started to shudder. Natasha and I stumbled and fell — outside, I was stunned to see the ground getting smaller. Drones. Lifting us into the air.
The floor tilted wildly, going down, and Natasha started to slip towards the open entrance. Grabbing onto the Cradle for anchor, I caught her hand before she could slip out of reach. Below, I saw the train speeding by below, the great river beneath us.
"Alright, the package is airborne," Clint said, and I was relieved to see the quinjet appear behind us. "I have a clean shot."
Dragging Natasha back up, I helped her get a purchase as she spoke urgently, "Negative, we are still in the truck!"
"What the hell —"
"Just be ready, I'm sending the package to you." Looking back to me, Natasha waited for my nod before we started cutting through straps. My heart was racing looking back out over the empty gap between truck and ship. That was a long way to fall.
In my ear, Howie was helping Clint get the right angle, trying to calculate the trajectory of a falling Cradle with two humans attached. It did not make my stomach any less queasier.
This was going to suck.
~o~
In the end, their choice was easy.
Initially, Wanda and Pietro simply planned to get out of the city. Go back to Sokovia… somehow. Pietro couldn't exactly remember where South Korea was on the map, so getting back home was not as simple as running away.
The drones that flew overhead, watching the city, ignored them. In fact, when Pietro had to stop and catch his breath, Wanda noticed that they were flying away, flying towards something else. It wasn't until they came across a shop, a TV in the window displaying a broadcast showing Captain America's unlawful attack on ULTRON's property, did they understand why.
And on that TV, they saw Amelia. Clinging for dear life aboard the truck.
She was here.
She came back for them.
Together, they knew they couldn't leave her behind. Not this time. Not again.
There was no point in hiding from the lie anymore. ULTRON would know by now that they had deceived him, that they got away with it. In a way, it made their choice even easier.
By the time they caught up with the fight, it had transferred to the train. That's where they thought Amelia would be.
They were wrong.
But it was too late, by the time they boarded the train; it crawled by at a snail's pace at the speed Pietro was going. It was too late, by the time Pietro came rushing in to shoulder-check ULTRON, in the midst of beating down Captain America. Too late for Wanda, who brought down the iron grates of the luggage shelves to block his way.
It was only Captain America. An Avenger. An enemy. But the two were here now, and Wanda found she had no desire to back down from ULTRON.
His red gaze narrowed on them.
"You two have a lot of gall to show your faces again," ULTRON growled, his head turning as he tried to decide who was the bigger threat (it was, invariably, Wanda). "After what you did. Sparing the girl's life, really? I didn't think you'd be so soft. Your father would be so disappointed in you."
That took the both of them off guard. "Our father?" Wanda demanded. "What do you know of him?"
"Only what an entire world of knowledge can tell me," ULTRON said, tapping his skull. "Amazing, what that HYDRA leak offered."
Pietro scowled. "He's dead for all I care. And so are you."
"Unfortunate." ULTRON's gamble to stall for time, to destabilize the twins with unsuspecting information, did not work. Pietro, who was too angry at the topic being brought up, called his bluff and didn't look back. He fired at Pietro, the weak one — a mistake.
Pietro dodged, leaving behind a silver footprint, and the blast went through the wall behind him, through the driver of the train, through the window on the other side.
The train sped on.
Wanda felt the jerk in motion, grabbing onto a seat to steady herself. The train was mostly empty, but of the few civilians were there, they stared at her in fear. Some in awe, some in hope. It was a strange feeling. Wanda had never felt anyone look at her with hope before.
Except Amelia.
Captain America was already on his feet, running to the front of the train. "I lost him! He's headed your way!"
The driver was most certainly dead by the time the super soldier reached him. The control panel beneath the corpse was beeping wildly, warnings going off everywhere.
Wanda sensed Captain America's fear. And then she understood why. Ahead of them was the train station. The end of the line.
And the train wasn't stopping.
It was impressive how easily things could go out of control.
~o~
"Nat, we gotta go!"
The quinjet was closer now, Clint piloting so the ship was maybe thirty feet, tops, away from the trailer. A much safer distance. Howie's voice went up periodically to update on wind direction and air speed.
Inside, Nat and I had just finished cutting the Cradle free. I held onto it, using my weight to keep it from sliding away from us while Natasha slapped a sticky grenade onto the back wall, set the timer.
"Ten seconds?" I asked, astonished. "That's it?"
"That's all we need," Natasha said, turning away from the timer counting down, jumping on top of the Cradle, and shoving the lot of us forward. "Go!"
The Cradle launched forward, out of the trailer, and into open air. My stomach dropped out from beneath me, so high up — for a moment, I was back on the helicarrier, staring over the Potomac river rushing up to meet me — before the darkness of the quinjet wrapped around us. We slammed down with such a force the impact sparked. Clint leveled the ship quickly so our momentum didn't carry us through the cockpit as well.
The impact knocked the air out of me, and I tumbled to the floor of the quinjet, gasping for breath. Behind us, the truck exploded, bring with it a wave of heat as the quinjet shot away.
Howie was at my side in an instant, dark hair whipping by the open bay doors. He was already poking through the control panel on the side, eyes flicking back and forth.
"How's it looking, kid?" Natasha asked, her head peeking up from the other side of the Cradle. Her hair was completely windswept, all over the place, and she puffed a lock out of her face.
"He's not connected," Howie said, smiling with relief. "The fail safes are gone, so you should be able to open it now. Did he really make a body out of Vibranium? What power source is he using?" He spoke so quickly he was hard to understand. "Is Dr. Cho awake yet? She might be able to stop it. Although I'm not sure what good it will do, I think the body inside is almost —"
He didn't get the chance to finish before ULTRON flew in, and grabbed his arm.
~o~
People were screaming.
All their fear rushed into Wanda's head at once. It was horrible. The train went careening off the tracks, into the city itself. The impact alone nearly threw them all off their feet, and it was not enough to stop the train.
It plowed through boxes and crates and cement blockers. The friction slowed it down. But not enough.
Captain America was shouting into the air, to whom Wanda didn't know. Linked up to an unseen radio. Then he was turning to the two of them. For whatever reason, Wanda feared he might turn on them. Without Amelia there, the Avengers had no reason to give either of them a chance.
But instead Captain America pointed out the window, "Civilians in our path!"
Pietro had understood almost immediately. It wasn't so much a request as an order, but either way it was a choice. An important one.
He was out the door in an instant.
To Wanda, Captain America said, "Can you stop this thing?"
Wind rushed in front everywhere, buffeting her face and throwing her hair all over. But Wanda nodded. She could do it. She had to.
Before more people got hurt. Because of them. Because of what they did.
Pietro had never run so fast in his life. The train was easy to predict, but it was the number of people in the way that was the real challenge. Getting to each one, frozen in time as they appeared to Pietro in his slipstream, moving them without hurting them. Whiplash might be inevitable, but it was better than being dead.
Wanda watched in awe as, when faced with certain impact with a building, Captain America stood unflinching in the gap at the front of the train, raised his shield, and took the impact. It sent him flying off his feet, and yet still he had done it.
And with a great thrust of her arms, Wanda summoned what magic she could — great threads and ropes of it, spinning from her fingers, spreading through the floors, to the chugging wheels and axles beneath the train — pulling them to a stop. The train hitched and groaned and Wanda stretched her will out further, reaching out to the back of the train, halting the uncontrollable spin.
Gears locked up and the train skidded tractionless for a moment. The weight of it sank into the concrete, the dirt, and all the while she could sense Pietro, flicking in and out, pulling people out of the way one by one. No one could see him, never for a moment, just a silver blur and the smell of a coming storm.
And at last, the train screeched its final breath, groaning to a stop. Dust and smoke filled the air, but the noise dimmed. The wind vanished, and for a moment everything was very quiet. Just the panting of breaths, the wide-eyed looks as people gazed around, not quite believing they were still alive.
Only when it hit them, that they were alive, that the train had stopped, did people start to move. Some approached from the outside, calling out and getting those trapped inside to snap out of it, to move, to get up and get out. The rush, the fear, the relief, the belated panic. It hit Wanda in an onslaught, and she felt lightheaded after the effort to stop the train. It had taken all she had to do it.
Stumbling off the train, she found Pietro bent over his knees, trying to catch his breath. His voice was raspy as he assured her he was fine, although Wanda wasn't fully convinced.
Pietro had never done a thing like that before in his life. Not even in the Crucible had he ever run so fast, so hard. He slumped back onto a nearby crate, his legs feeling like jelly. "I just need to take a minute."
"I'm very tempted not to give you one."
Both of them turned, surprised and wary, as Captain America walked up to them. There was a sternness to his voice, a little angry but not outright hostile. His clear gaze behind his helmet was sharp as he looked between the two.
Wanda wasn't sure what to say. An apology didn't seem to fit right now. It might only make things worse. Instead, what came out of her mouth was, "Amelia, is she —?"
"She's fine." Captain America said, and despite his curt tone Wanda knew he wasn't lying. "Is that why you helped? Because of her?"
Wanda and Pietro shared a glance. She hesitated to say yes. Amelia was a part of it. But not all of it. "We were angry. Strucker had us back and no one was helping us. But Amelia, she —"
Wanda faltered, and it was Pietro who answered. "She was the only one who would listen."
Captain America didn't blink. "You still attacked her for it."
"We know," The twins looked away, ashamed. Wanda said, "ULTRON lied to us. He said he would bring peace. That there would be an end to all wars."
"In my experience, the people who promise those things tend to be the kind who don't care very much how they achieve it," Captain America said, not sounding very surprised by this. "Amelia still believes in you, she still has faith you'd do the right thing. And I've been in her shoes before, which is why I'm giving you the chance now. It won't be easy, that I can assure you. So if you want to run now, here's your chance. But she'll be waiting for you on the quinjet."
Wanda and Pietro exchanged another look. Running away sounded very tempting. But the only place they had left to go was Sokovia, and that was hardly in any better shape than when they left it. ULTRON would easily find them there again, get his revenge.
In answer, Wanda asked, "The Cradle, did you get it?"
"Stark will take care of it." Captain America sounded so confident, so sure.
He didn't understand. Wanda could only shake her head in disbelief. "No, he won't."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Captain America frowned at her dismay. "Stark's not crazy."
"He will do anything to make things right." Of this, Wanda was sure; She'd seen into his head, she knew what Stark wanted, what he desired, what he feared. In some ways he was a hero. But it was flawed and she had seen how it could cause as much damage as it saved. Was it even worth the cost?
She watched as Captain America tries to contact Stark on his comms, and get no response. Wanda didn't know what was going on with the team, but she did know how bad this was going to get. "ULTRON can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?"
~o~
The quinjet waited for them on the outskirts of the city.
A grassy clearing on the edge of a suburban neighborhood, a line of trees that shielded them from view. It's bay doors were already open for them. Wanda saw the Cradle. Saw the Black Widow. And at last, saw Amelia, stepping out of the shadows to greet them.
She wasn't smiling.
"Howie?" Captain America asked, and Amelia shook her head.
"We couldn't get a trace," Amelia said, her shoulders sagging in defeat. "ULTRON was too quick. He was there and then just — gone again. We couldn't chase after him. Not with the Cradle. Not with his drones."
Captain America's sigh was heavy, the weight of the world on his shoulders. "We'll find him."
Amelia nodded, biting her lip. Wanda could sense her guilt, her fault. But was it? Wanda wanted to reassure her. But she didn't know if that's what Amelia wanted from her. If she wanted anything from either of them right now.
Captain America went ahead into the aircraft, leaving the three of them for a private moment — although the twins were highly aware of the eyes on them, the three Avengers present. Pietro had to keep his hackles from rising, the distrust obvious even to him. They weren't here to hurt anyone. Especially not Amelia.
They stood there for a moment, awkward and silent. No one knew what to say. Pietro expected Wanda to have the first word, what with her knowing what was in everyone else's heads, but she remained uncharacteristically quiet. And Pietro, well, he was afraid anything he might say would make it worse.
In fact, Amelia was the first to speak. "Dr. Cho said you saved her life."
Their surprise was palpable. Pietro looked to the quinjet again, but couldn't see much beyond the Avengers standing at the top of the ramp. He looked back to Amelia. He and Wanda nodded silently.
"ULTRON showed who he truly was," Wanda admitted, her voice a little frail. "You were right. He lied to us."
Amelia inhaled, her chest swelling for a moment, validation. But her pale gaze was still wary, flicking between them. "So you're back then? It's just you guys? You're not — do you remember?"
"Yes," Wanda said, but Pietro knew it would take more than that. Amelia needed more than that.
"We remember," Pietro said. "We remember ohana."