"They always say that time changes thing, but you actually have to

change them yourself."

- Andy Warhol (The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, 1975)


"Lover's quarrel?"

Diana has a sixth sense for the other woman in the plane as she steps up to her side. A look back can only confirm for her that she too, had a falling out with one of the members of the team. Not that Diana really expected much from Steve, but being spurned by him had forced her to take a step back and look at things from his perspective. He had been correct, she had no right demanding things from him with her abrupt departure, but she had no other thought then but to want to help him, bring him back to his previous self.

And as for her own words? Diana frowns. They had been spoken in the spur of the moment, but they held the truth, no matter how damning it was to both him and herself. She does want Steve. After much reflection during their time apart and learning to discern between the constant reminders of him and Steve Trevor, she realizes that she has long made peace with the man she had lost and sees Steve as a man of his own. Someone who is good to the core and wants the best for everyone and the world...even if it might seem to mean that he would have to sacrifice his own chance at living for it.

Martyrs...Diana fights a smile at the irony. To fall for martyrs….She thought a few decades of stewing in Steve Trevor's absence would have taught her a thing or two about them.

"Ignore him." Diana can feel Natasha's grimace and this time, does not fight the smile growing on her face.

"Yes, I've noticed you are," she comments and it only takes a second for the spy the catch the true meaning behind her words as she jabs her elbow into her side. Diana amicably recoils in feinted pain as Natasha seats herself in the jet.

"And what are your issues, hm?" she retorts, side-eying the other members of the team clustered at different ends of the jet.

Diana sighs and shrugs. "I don't know," she says. Although, she has an idea of what, or to be more appropriate, who is holding back Steve - she doesn't know how she would approach that topic with him. Or if it is even in her jurisdiction to.

"Give him time," Natasha stretches out her legs. "He'll come around, or I will for both you and him."

Again, Diana smiles. She suspects there is some viability behind Natasha's reasoning. She had her time. Decades of it. Diana had been both fortunate and unfortunate enough to have been given stolen time with Steve Trevor; she had experienced losing him twice. Steve had only lost Peggy and what could have possibly been their future together once. Added with her still being alive as a ticking reminder of what could have been...she cannot empathize with him on that matter at all; a living hell, could possibly be what Steve is going through right now.

"Are you staying here or going out?" Natasha asks as Steve sounds off on dropping down on the lab first. Both of them automatically switch on their communication units.

"Depends," Diana says after pausing to listen to Steve's and Ultron's conversation. "Can you keep up?"

Natasha's grin is all the answer she needs. "Window opening in, four. Three..."

As Barton counts down, Natasha jumps up onto the parked motorcycle as Diana takes a few steps back. Barton's signal has both of them fly out the opened latch. Natasha's vehicle meets the gravel with a reflexive bounce as Diana flies past her and towards the truck. As the redhead picks up Steve's discarded shield, Diana focuses all her attention on the truck.

"Hard right, princess!"

Heeding Barton's direction, Diana angles herself to make the sharp turn as Natasha sounds off alarms at the pedestrians in her way. The truck is within her view and she shoots into the back, knocking out a wayward minion in the way.

"Was that as fast as you could go?" Natasha heaves as she rolls up to her side. The ends of Diana's lips quirk up as she paces around the Cradle. Distantly, she hears Natasha start to tell Barton that they have the Cradle, but a sudden lurch disrupts her words as the doors behind them flap open.

"The package is airborne. I have a clean shot."

"Diana and I are still in the truck, Clint," Natasha catches her eye, the repercussions of her action brewing in her vision. Diana nods. "Be ready, we're sending the package to you."

"What..?"

Again, the truck tilts upward, making the incline unmanageable to the assassin as Diana struggles to hover in place. With gravity fighting the both of them, Natasha is the closet to the locks and frees the Cradle. It flies into the waiting Quinjet. Confident that it is secured, Diana lets the winds suck her out of the truck. However, as she turns midair to sign at Natasha to let go, that she would catch her, a swarm of Iron Legions hit her from the side.

"Natasha!" Diana spirals in the air, fighting against the mechanical hold of her opponents as Clint too, shouts for the assassin's presence. Punching a metal head off, Diana tries her best to steer her direction of flight back towards the truck and Natasha, but she is too encumbered in the air to make progress.

"If you have the package, get it to Stark!" Steve's voice resonates through her earpiece. Hearing the hesitation in Barton's silence, Steve orders him to go one more time. From her periphery, Diana can see the Quinjet steer itself away from the fight as she grapples with the Iron Legion.

"Diana, if you have a spare hand -"

"Not right now, Steve." Diana struggles to reply as the trajectory of her airborne fight shifts towards a body of water; her foes would see her drown with them. Steeling herself at the mere seconds left between her and oxygen, she stretches her feet down and wraps her feet and ankles around one Iron Legion. She pulls the trapped leg down hard and is able to rip its hold on her as she lets go of it and slams her head against another. It hardly does much to the robot, but it does laxen its hold for a second. A second which Diana rips her arms out of its embrace and shoots a foot against its head. Fortunately, the robot is already damaged and combined with her strength, it flies off as she turns to face the remaining two robots.

"Diana -"

"Hold on," she unwraps her lasso and traps the two robots within its hold. They struggle, but Diana's rope is too strong even against their metallic strength and with a few twirls of her golden lasso, she is able to both cleave the robots at their waist and throw them into the river below.

"Diana."

"What, Steve?" she looks around at the city beyond her, trying to spot traces of their altercation with Ultron and his Iron Legion; her search is halted quickly. Smoke and sirens plant a clear path to where she assumes Steve will be.

Her assumptions are proven true as she lands by his side, opposite of two of their foes; the lasso slides back into her one hand. Steve puts one of his own on her shoulder to stop her. "They're on our side."

She raises an eyebrow as the girl, Wanda, negates her current thoughts with a new worry. "Fight us, and you lose time."

From her side, she sees Steve shake his head as he removes his hand off her shoulder. "What do you mean?" her eyes narrow.

Wanda levels her gaze with hers: "Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it," she pauses. "Where do you think he gets that?"

Diana frowns, but the girl's assessment of Stark calls for too little doubt in her head to disprove her words. With Steve most likely in the throws of disbelief, she tries to phone in the lab but to no avail. "Unless more than one of us can do a transatlantic flight…" her voice trails off.

"Dr. Cho's company has a private plane, we can use that." Steve finally speaks up.

"And do we trust them?" Diana asks aloud. The boy's glare does nothing to stop the distrust she has with them.

Steve gestures at the train behind them. "They helped me stop this and they went against Ultron's orders," he shrugs.

"Destroy your enemies by making them your friends," Diana echoes. "I will follow your lead, Steve but the others may not so easily."

Steve nods. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there then, I guess."

And what of ours? Diana errently thinks. But she keeps the thought to herself as Steve guides their ragtag crew towards the research building. With a few superfluous words and heated emphasis on the endangered future, the company easily grants them access to the plane.

The scene that greets them upon their arrival at the lab does little to assuage her assumptions on Stark as Steve interrupts the argument brewing in the lab. Diana lets it ensue without her interference, stays on the sidelines as even the twins confront the stubbornness that is Stark, and only comes in once...It..comes alive.

Automatically, she follows Thor, lets him abate Steve's apprehension as she approaches the new being.

"Who are you?" she echoes everyone's thoughts, watching It descend from the air.

"You think I am a child of Ultron?" It questions. The gaze It casts around everyone makes her wonder if he can see into their minds, not unlike the former enemy lingering at the edges of the room.

"You're not?" Steve takes a step forward from her side.

The new being begins a steady ascent towards them, his visage changing with every step. Once he comes within a foot of the Captain, he is fully endowed in garbs strangely reminiscent of hers and Thor's. "Look again," It says.

"He is telling the truth," a flash of red from her periphery confirms that the Maximoff twin had ventured into the foreign being's mind.

"Yeah," Clint snorts. "Her seal of approval means jack to me."

Diana grimaces as Thor turns towards them and takes a stand by what she supposes, is his creation's side. "Their powers, the horrors in our heads," he begins. "Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone, and they're nothing compared to what it can unleash." He gestures towards the said stone steeped into the red skin of his companion. "But with it on our side…"

"And are you? On our side?" Steve cuts in, redirecting the attention back to It.

"I don't think it's that simple," It says.

"Well it better get simple real soon," Clint snaps. Diana glances at him from the side, feeling the worry for their missing companion return to her.

The red being seems to sigh as he turns his head to the side. "I am on the side of life," he finally settles. "Ultron isn't, and he will end it all."

"So what's he waiting for?" Stark calls out.

Again, It turns its head, but this time, to face Stark. "You."

"And where?" Banner asks.

"Sokovia, because he's got Nat there too," Clint answers, revealing that above all that has encompassed in the passing minutes between them, he had yet to truly halt from his search for his partner.

Bruce shakes his head. "If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be…"

"What will you do?" It cuts off, realizing that It had yet to win the audience before him. "I don't want to kill Utron. He's unique and he's in pain," It explains. "But that paine ill roll over the earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net - we have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others -" he begins to pace. "Maybe I am a monster. I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me, but we need to go." It suddenly lifts up Thor's hammer causing everyone to step back. Mostly everyone. Diana lingers where she had always stood, more interested than cautious about the being's abilities.

"Right," Thor clears his throat. He takes his hammer back from It. "Well done."

Steve seems to snap to attention upon the mention of those words. "Right," he repeats. "Three minutes, everyone. Get what you need." And then his eyes fall onto hers.

"Diana.."

She nods. It is time they have their talk.