Chapter 13: Charged

November 19th, 2013
Undisclosed Location

Natasha was all geared up and ready to go, and she was waiting near the porch for Clint to finish saying goodbye to Laura. She had said her goodbyes, and she could tell that Laura wasn't telling her something, but she let it go. Mission at hand and all. Steve was over with Tony, Terra, and Fury discussing their next moves.

"I'll take Natasha, Clint, and Terra," Steve announced, very leader-like.

"Alright," Tony agreed, adjusting his watch to the correct time. "Strictly recon. I'll hit the Nexus and join you as soon as I can."

Steve pursed his lips. "If Ultron is really building a body..."

"Then he'll be more powerful than any of us. Maybe all of us. An android designed by a robot," Tony said, agreeing this time.

"You know I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me," Steve said which actually managed to get Tony to crack a smile.

"I'll drop Banner off at the tower," Fury said. "Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?" he asked Stark.

"She's all yours," said Tony. "Apparently."

"What are you going to do?" Steve asked, knowing that Fury hadn't really disclosed his plans to the group.

"I don't know," Nick mused, looking between the two men. "Something dramatic, I hope." And he walked out to head to his jet, Banner lingering to say goodbye to Terra.

Natasha didn't know how they made their relationship work, but they did, and it was incredible. Natasha was struggling to get a relationship with Captain America to work, and both of them had such troubled pasts, but they worked with each other and maybe that was the key.

Terra had suited up with her duffle bag over her shoulder, and she gave Bruce a quick but loving kiss on the lips. "I'll see you when we get back," she promised, giving his hand a squeeze before walking towards the Avengers' quinjet.

Natasha saw Steve enter with Terra and knew that she needed to have a conversation with him at some point, but it probably wasn't the time.

"I'm gonna finish re-flooring the sun room when I get back," Clint promised to Laura, Natasha overhearing and bringing her back to the present.

"Yeah," Laura said, a happy smile on her face that also showed how nervous she was for his safety. "And then you'll find another part of the house to tear apart."

"No this is the last project," Clint said, giving her a reassuring smile. "I promise."

Clint kissed his wife at that point, both of them savoring the kiss and soothing both of their worries a bit. After that, Natasha and Clint walked towards the jet. They entered a few minutes later, both of them automatically to the cockpit and Clint taking off and heading towards South Korea.

Natasha had left Clint alone in the front and gone to the back to change into her uniform. They had been in the air for about an hour and she knew Clint would need to change as well, so she offered to go first.

She went to the private area, but she always told Steve that he could join her in that area if he was alone. She was currently in the process of taking off her farm clothes and getting ready to slip into her catsuit. As she took off her shirt, the dog tags she had around her neck, along with the silver arrow necklace made her smile as she looked into the mirror and saw herself with them on.

Steve had been mostly business throughout the flight and she didn't blame him. This was some serious stuff with Ultron and they couldn't let their feelings compromise the mission, if there were any still there. She knew she had some, but she wasn't sure about Steve. He could have taken what she said to heart and started to move on. Probably going back to find that Serena chick or trying Agent 13. Peggy's niece might be a nice connection for him. Had she been with him during his first days at Shield and not the end of them, she might have tried to even set him up with her, ignoring her feelings entirely.

Boy, would have that made things easier.

There came a knock at the door and Natasha turned to see Steve enter. He tried to act normal but it was awkward as hell. "Hey," he said, keeping his eyes on hers. "I... I thought about what you said and... I just wanted to let you know that I still love you. And I haven't changed my mind about being with you. I want to share everything with you and that includes fears and grief and pain. I should have come to you when we got to the farm but I guess I was afraid."

Natasha froze at those words. They hadn't used the 'L' word yet in casual discussion. She had said it once in Russian when he couldn't hear and probably couldn't understand. But, for all she knew this was the first time he said it to her. She turned slowly to him, eyes decently wide.

"You love me?" Natasha asked, shakily.

No one had ever truly loved her like Steve had. Clint and the family loved her like she was one of their own, and she welcomed that to the fullest. She suspected that Fury and Coulson had the same type, because on some level she did too. They were very kind and helpful for her, being the sort of second family that she didn't have when she got to the states. She held a love for Yelena and the rest of her surrogate family, but she didn't really know how to define that one, but Steve knew her darkest secrets. From her records at the Killing Game to the Graduation Ceremony. And yet, he still pushed through and found a way to help her see the light.

"I do," he said, stepping forward and taking her hand. He laced their fingers together. "I won't let Ultron or the Maximoffs or anyone tear us apart. That is... if you'll still have me." He said the last party shyly, hoping he hadn't pushed her away by not seeking her out at the farm.

She paused again, weighing her options. The right thing to do was to distance herself from Steve. To not corrupt Captain America. To finish the mission and disappear into the night like she was so good at doing. But Clint's words rang through her head in a private conversation they had.

"You both deserve a win. You deserve each other."

He knew the good that was in her and so did Steve. Clint viewed her as someone that was worth something, and Steve did as well. So, why would she run now? She wrapped her arms around his neck, breaking the hand-hold that they had and looked into his eyes.

"I love you too," she said, before standing on her toes and reaching up to press a kiss to his lips. Steve smiled into the kiss, and she knew in that moment, everything was gonna be okay. Whatever challenges that were ahead, they were going to be able to weather it.

"I promise we'll talk about this more later," Steve said after pulling away, brushing a finger over his dog tags that were hanging around her neck. "And celebrate it too. But for now, we need to focus on Ultron."

Natasha couldn't keep the girly smile off her face as well as she continued to change into her suit and prepare for the assault in Korea. She knew she had to get it done soon, they had a mission brief and prep before they landed as well. So she changed as quickly as possible and tried to put her game face back on before rejoining the team.

Once she got back to the cock-pit, Clint just smirked at her and she just flipped him off, but couldn't help the smile still on her face as well.

November 20th, 2013
Seoul, South Korea

Ever since they got to Korea, things were already bad. Steve had gone in for recon and Natasha, Clint, and Terra were still inside the jet, keeping an eye out for Ultron. Steve had found Dr. Cho and the evidence of Ultron was very apparent. The lab was destroyed, the Maximoffs were gone, Dr. Cho was injured, and the cradle was stolen. They hypothesis that Ultron was building himself a new body was now confirmed and they had to stop him before he escaped.

Steve was making his way out and all three of them were currently scanning the city to find Ultron and put a quick end to this. Clint and Terra were in the front while Natasha was close behind, though on the computer. Natasha did some more searching and got a hit that could prove useful.

"I've got a private jet taking off across town," Natasha reported in comms. "No manifest. That could be him."

Clint glanced down to where Terra was looking and nodded to her.

"There," Clint said, pointing down to get Natasha's attention. "It's the truck from the lab. Right above you, Cap. On the loop by the bridge."

Upon closer inspection, Clint found that it was being driven by one of the Ultron bots and a couple more in the cargo hold.

"It's them," Clint confirmed. "I got three with the Cradle in the cab. I could take out the driver."

"Negative!" Steve barked into the comm as he scaled one of the highway's legs. "That truck crashes and the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron." He climbed over the top and looked down. The truck was fast approaching, blue and white and big and fast.

Steve didn't hesitate and Natasha felt her catch her own breath watching him. With a running start, he vaulted himself over the edge of the road and crash-landed on the roof of the truck.

Natasha watched anxiously and the initial skirmish with Ultron was something she definitely didn't want Steve doing alone. She had complete confidence in him, she just wanted to be down there with him, fighting by his side. The door eventually got blown off and Steve barely managed to hold on.

"Well, he's definitely unhappy," Steve shouted over the wind into comms. "I'm gonna try and keep him that way."

"You're not a match for him, Cap," Clint said, trying to keep track of the truck through all of the roads and tall buildings.

Clint immediately got a slap from Natasha on the back of the head, and a very hard glare. Steve seemed to shrug it off, but couldn't help with a little sarcasm.

"Thanks, Barton." Steve said into comms and the fight continued.

Clint piloted the jet expertly between a couple of the buildings to try and get them behind the truck again.

"Ladies," Clint said to Natasha and Terra. "You might want to get some motorcycles ready. Cap is gonna need some help."

Natasha nodded immediately and went to the back to prep her cycle that was packed on the quintet. She went over and revved the engine, the red accents lighting up and the red hourglass on the side designating which one was hers. It was something she was working on in the shop over the past couple weeks and she was really proud of her handiwork.

"Ho boy," Terra sighed as she hopped on to straddle the one Tony usually makes for Steve on missions that are in constant supply. Natasha knew that Terra wasn't the biggest fan of motorcycles, but in this situation there wasn't much better of an option.

Terra fired up the engine and clipped her lower face mask up, and then she called to Clint, "Ready when you are!"

Clint hit a button and the door opened for them to drop in. It was narrow, so only one would be able to go at a time, and she was for sure going first. That wasn't an argument she was going to have with Terra.

"You've got a window," Clint said, noticing a sizable gap for both of them. "5, 4, give em hell."

Natasha got on the bike and sped forward, dropping out of the jet and onto the freeway, rocketing off to try and catch up to Ultron. The wind whipped into her face and she could hear the drop of another bike behind her and the jet rocketed forward and Natasha pushed the speed even more.

Natasha was weaving in and out of traffic like a pro, going at a fast pace and hoping Terra could keep up. She saw Steve's shield lying in the middle of the road and she just shook her head.

"Not even at home and I'm still picking up after you," she said to herself and leaned down her bike almost parallel to the ground and scooped up the shield without slowing down a bit.

"They're heading under the overpass. I've got no shot," Clint said from the jet, where he was watching the chase.

"Which way," Natasha said, knowing that she would be better off if she and Terra had a chance to cut them off.

"Hard right," Clint said, looking down. "Now."

Natasha banked a hard right, shield on the front of her bike to protect her from anything, and hoped that Terra didn't crash behind her. She knew that Terra wasn't the best on a motorcycle and Natasha was cutting it a bit close.

They were coming out of the alley and Terra had caught up to her nicely. The truck was dead ahead and Natasha could see Steve and Ultron locked in combat. Terra went to peel to the right of the truck, but Steve looked to be suspended over the left side of the truck. She didn't have time to go the long way around, so she laid the bike down on its side, drifting underneath the truck and coming out on the opposite side.

"Steve," Natasha yelled, taking the shield off the front of her motorcycle and tossing it towards his arm.

She didn't need much more than that with the chemistry they had developed. He wordlessly reached down with his hand when she said his name. With the help of his magnetic gloves, he caught the shield effortlessly and slammed it as hard as he could into Ultron's face.

Ultron shook his head and anger and looked directly at Natasha, which gave Natasha the extra millisecond she needed. Ultron reached out and lifted a piece of pavement right in her way, blocking the road.

Natasha herself slammed on the breaks, moving into a front wheel balance as she stopped on a dime. She turned and saw that the truck and Terra were already a huge distance away from her. She revved the bike and took off after them, mounting the sidewalk and driving up a set of stairs to try and cut them off.

Natasha was making her way down a pedestrian sidewalk, going ten times faster than anyone should, and heard Terra's call over the radio.

"Clint, can you draw out the guards," Natasha said as he banked in the jet to see what he could do.

"BEEP BEEP," Natasha yelled at some people that weren't paying attention, making sure they didn't get crushed.

Natasha worked as hard as she could to get her way back. When she did, she saw Ultron tackle Steve off the truck into a passing train. Terra was working on getting the cradle and Clint was dealing with the other bots, so she was going to go and help Steve.

"Terra get that cradle," Natasha said, lining up a ramp. "I'm gonna help Steve."

Natasha revved the gas and sped forward as fast as she could. She jumped the makeshift ramp she found and launched herself up in the air. The motorcycle went crashing to the ground and completely getting trashed, and breaking her heart a little. Nat focused on the moving train at the moment, aiming her gauntlet and shooting out her grappling line, securing it to the side of the train and using it to swing into the window of the car just behind Steve, rolling in. She jumped to her feet, Steve between her and Ultron, and readied for a fight.

Steve got up and now it was 2 vs 1. Steve kicked his fallen shield to bounce it to waist height, grabbed it, and launched it straight at Ultron. There was no room for error in this narrow train full of civilians, one wrong move could get an innocent severely hurt.

Ultron deflected the shield right back at Steve and charged at him, tossing him behind him. Natasha went in for an attack, only to be hit right in the chest by a repulsor blast, scorching her uniform and sending her flying into the back wall. A sizable dent was left there, and a groan by Natasha was all that could be heard.

With an angry yell, Steve distracted Ultron yet again by spinning and slamming the blunt side of his shield into Ultron's back as hard as he couldUltron took the hit, spun, and grabbed the shield and spun Rogers around into the subway wall. He started pounding away on the shield again and again, before he finally found an opening and connected with Rogers' ribs, landing a sweet shot. Natasha slowly picked herself up from the dent and watched Steve talking shot after shot from Ultron. She pulled her pistol out of her holster and aimed at the robot's head, hoping to draw attention away again.

At that point, a blue blur slammed into Ultron and knocked him off Steve. Once everything caught up, Natasha saw the Maximoff boy standing on the other end of the car. Something must have happened to break them up, and Natasha didn't have a lot of time to question it at the moment.

A second later, red magic brought down a couple of metal beams and trapped Ultron from advancing, and the Maximoff girl stepped in front of Natasha, ready to do battle as well.

Ultron noticed the two new arrivals and looked to Wanda. He spoke to her, almost with a somber tone in his voice. Natasha was surprised at the complexity of emotion that he conveyed, it was almost unnerving.

"Please," Ultron pleaded. "Don't do this."

"What choice do we have?" Wanda spat at him. So messy break up it was.

Ultron looked flabbergasted, but quickly got over it and wheeled on Pietro. He fired a blast that barely missed Pietro, but the blast did travel through the entire train and smashed through the front, killing the driver and breaking just about every control that was there.

Ultron himself bailed out of the doors that were to his side and headed back towards the cradle, which was in the process of being stolen at the moment.

"I lost him!" Steve shouted into the comms. He was already running, launching himself over seats and past terrified passengers. "He's headed your way!" He was at the front of the train in seconds but it never would have been fast enough. The driver was undeniably dead, slumped over on the console with a hole still burning through his back. The windshield was shattered too, and Steve could feel the wind tear at his skin with every moment they drew closer to a dead end. One the driver couldn't switch tracks from because they'd just passed the turning point.

Natasha managed to make her way up to the front of the train, the twins not far behind her. Her chest still ached, but she was fighting through the pain because the battle wasn't done yet, especially when they were on a runaway train. There was another conversation going on through comms, but Natasha wasn't paying attention to it, more focused on there being no way to stop this train as they were coming up very rapidly to the end of the tracks.

"There are civilians in our path," Steve said to Pietro, pointing out the broken windshield. Pietro nodded and ran out, starting to move people out of the way of the runaway train.

Steve then looked at Wanda. "Can you stop this thing?"

The girl looked lost. She managed to get out a nod after a bit though, and started to compose herself. At that moment, the train plowed through the barrier and Steve put up his shield to try and stop any debris from coming through and hurting people. Wanda placed her hands out and red tendrils of magic shot out and started to slow the train. A particularly large chunk of debris came through and Steve was tossed backwards forcefully.

"Steve," Natasha yelled as he got thrown back.

She was about to go and see if he was alright when she noticed a little girl crying next to her mom. The mother appeared to be unconscious, and the little girl was out in the open. Natasha quickly rolled over to the girl and wrapped her up, covering the little girl's body with her own and protecting the unconscious mother's head. Natasha groaned slightly as the little girl was pressed into her heavily bruised chest and yelped a few times as random debris came through the front of the car and glanced off of her back as she protected the young girl.

After a few more seconds, Natasha felt the train stop and she just breathed heavily, composing herself. She heard footsteps and someone came close, placing their hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" the comforting voice of Steve came and Natasha breathed a sigh of relief that he was okay.

At Steve's words, Natasha rolled off the little girl and the mother she was protecting. The mother seemed to have woken up and scooped up her daughter before turning to Natasha.

"Thank you," the mother said in Korean. "You saved my and my daughter's life."

"Don't worry about it," Natasha replied in Korean, still kinda breathing hard. "I'm just glad you're safe." The mother and daughter scurried out of the train and Natasha just sat where she was for a moment, leaning up against the side of the mangled train.

"Hey babe," Natasha said to Steve looking up at him. "We need a vacation after this. Somewhere warm, tropical, and private. Just so we can do nothing but sit on the beach, get a tan, and have sex all day long."

Steve watched the mother and daughter go, smiling just a little. He chuckled at Natasha's words and offered her a hand to help her up. "Sounds good to me." He lifted her to her feet. "Come on. Day's not over yet." They marched out of the train and immediately spotted the Maximoffs. Wanda was curled almost protectively over her brother, obviously concerned for his health and safety.

"Are you alright?" Wanda asked Pietro quietly.

"I'm fine," Pietro gasped. "Just need to take a minute."

Steve approached the twins, radiating authority. "I'm very tempted not to give you one."

Wanda turned to face him, planting herself between Steve and her brother. Despite the strategic move, she did not appear confrontational. "The Cradle. Did you get it?"

"Stark will take care of it." Steve responded, so they must have been successfully in getting the Cradle.

Wanda's face fell, which was interesting to Natasha. "No, he won't."

Steve glanced at Natasha to get a read on her thoughts on this, but his words were directed at Wanda. "You don't know what you're talking about. Stark's not crazy."

"He will do anything to make things right," Wanda persisted desperately.

Steve contemplated that very seriously, and decided to get an actual account on this. He switched the overall main broadcast channel and called out. "Stark, come in. Stark. Anyone on coms."

In the silence that followed, Wanda seemed to have been proven right. "Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?" she said, and Natasha followed everything she said, and surprisingly, agreed with her.

"Steve they're right," Natasha said, finally managing to stand up straight, but it wasn't easy. "This has nothing to do with the things between Stark and I. Stark's got something in his pocket, and it's not going to go our way."

Natasha got real close to Steve then, and spoke in French, knowing that Steve would be able to understand but the twins might not.

"I don't trust them," Natasha started. "But they could help us with whatever Stark is planning. He has Bruce, and probably Clint on his side. We need to make sure whatever is in that cradle is destroyed."

"This isn't about choosing sides," Steve replied. "But we'll take them with us. I get the feeling they want to stop Ultron just as much as we do. They can help us destroy the cradle and if that goes well we'll take it from there."

When they turned back to the twins, they seemed to have already figured out what they were speaking of. Natasha mentally cursed herself, as she knew Wanda could read minds to an extent. Even if she didn't speak French, she knew Steve wasn't as fluent as she was, which meant he mentally translated rather than just speaking as Natasha did.

"If you would allow it," Pietro spoke up to the two Avengers before them. "We'd like to go with you and help in any way we can. We..." Pietro looked to Wanda. "We didn't know what Ultron really was or what he planned. But we'll follow you to fix the mess we made."

Wanda stood at his side, a sign of support. "The first step is destroying that cradle."

Steve glanced at Natasha. "Alright then. We're going to need a ride."

A/N

There's another chapter. Updates will probably be about this quick, full time job only gives me a little bit each day to transpose over from the forum to the story and make the edits I need to. Plus, I work an IT job, so when it gets to my weekends, I don't like to get on computers a lot lol.

Next chapter we'll finish up with Age of Ultron and head into some fun events between Age of Ultron and Civil War, including a big surprise for everyone.

Once again, big thanks for writing contributions from A Velvet Rose and SarahCon