Hello all! Sorry for taking so long to update I've had a lot of school work and life got in the way. But I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please review guys!

Coming too was the most painful awakening I've experienced to date. It was abrupt and startling and entirely unpleasant. With a large gasp I instinctively sat up, only to fall back down when the tightness in my abdomen caused me to collapse. A cry escaped my lips at the horrible sensation. My head only had a dull ache, not enough for a concussion so that was something.

"Hey kiddo, you awake?" Peeling my green eyes open slowly they took a moment to focus in the bright light before they settled on an unarmored Tony who was seated on the jet a few feet away.

"Yeah." I croaked trying to rotate towards him to get a better view. When I groaned again, he moved forward pushing me back on the cot.

"How bout you stay there for now? Ok?" He said giving me a quick smile before patting my head lightly. I frowned at this, but didn't make another attempt to get up. There was too much pain for me to help myself up anyway.

"Did everyone make it out?" I asked grimacing at the roughness in my voice. I could kind of see Natasha out of the corner of my eye and she looked ok, but out of it for sure. An image of the Maximoff girl came to the front of my mind and I scowled. How can one person cause so much damage? Tony's face flashed with anger briefly and he leaned back in his seat, running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, but not without injury." I glanced around at Steve, Thor and finally at Bruce. My heart broke, they all looked so defeated. I was used to seeing that worn down expression on Bruce, but everyone was wearing it now.

"You got lucky Byrdie, you slept practically the whole way." Clint commented from the pilot's seat. More like I was unconscious the whole way, but I didn't say that out loud. Not in front of Bruce. "We're almost there."

"Almost where?" I asked automatically.

"A safe house." Nodding in acknowledgement I let the subject drop and we fell silent. Clint was right, almost 25 minutes later we were landing in some random field in the middle of nowhere. Steve walked over to where I was and gave me a look, asking for his permission. I gave him a short nod and he wrapped a thick arm around my lithe shoulders and with the other he held my right arm.

Gently he helped me into a seated position before pulling me onto my feet. A grunt moved out of my mouth and I blew a baited breath from behind my teeth as I straightened up. I had to stay hunched over slightly to relieve the ache in my stomach.

"Thanks." I gritted out and we awkwardly hobbled off the jet. I knew he'd rather carry me, it'd be faster, but I think he realized that I wanted to walk it off. That and we both knew that if he had to carry me in, the guilt Bruce was feeling would only increase.

Clint was guiding Nat ahead of us as he walked towards a quaint country home, it was a good size with a nice large front yard and wooden fences surrounding it. There was even a barn off to the side. It reminded me of little house on the prairie. We were in America right?

"What is this place?" Thor queried directing his question at Tony.

"A safe house." Stark replied as if he wasn't quit convinced yet.

"Let's hope." Barton commented opening up the door and leading Natasha in. Steve took on most of my weight as we walked up the stair behind the rest of the group. It looked like a normal house on the inside, not what I'd except from a spy's secret hideaway. Cap and I shared a confused look, he shrugged and we continued on in.

"Honey?" Clint called out, walking into a dining room. Was he calling out for another agent? "I'm home." A beautiful women stepped out from the kitchen then, the first thing I noticed was that she was heavily pregnant. Maybe that was why she was at a safe house because she couldn't be in the field?

"I have company, sorry I didn't call ahead." Clint continued as the two walked closer together. The woman smiled and to my surprise she approach Hawkeye and kissed him. My jaw fell open slightly and I immediately shut it. Oh ok, so….ok then.

"This is an agent of some kind." Tony remarked, mild shock on his features.

"Gentlemen," Clint said, the both of them turning our way, "and Sarah. This is Laura." Laura smiled nervously and waved. It's his wife! Or girlfriend at least. Nope, it's his wife I can see the ring.

"I know all your names." She gave an awkward laugh that made me smile. Tony, not knowing how to react shot her a wave as well. The sound of footsteps pounding on the floor started up behind us and I turned.

"Oh, incoming." Clint informed us with a warm smile, lowering himself down as an adorable little brunette girl in pigtails and a yellow jacket came running in, with an older boy about ten right behind her. Clint swooped her up in a hug and wrapped an arm around the boy.

"Dad!" The little girl shouted gleefully. He has children?!

"Hi sweetheart, hey buddy." He added ruffling the boy brown hair. "How you guys doing?" The looks of confusion on my teammates faces were priceless, given I never would have expected Clint to have a family but it made me feel warm and fuzzy all the same.

"These are…smaller agents." Tony said, still dumbfounded.

"Look at your face. Oh my," Clint kissed his daughters forehead, "goodness."

"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" The girl asked in a sweet voice as Clint set her back down. Natasha moved forward with a smile and opened up her arms.

"Why don't you hug her and find out?" She said saucily. Of course Natasha knew about them. It was odd watching the Black Widow picking up a six year old and hugging her. It was cute for sure, just odd.

"Sorry for barging in on you." Steve said politely, speaking to Laura. Stark crossed his arms over his chest and sassily added,

"Yeah we would have called ahead but we were busy having no idea that you existed." I glared at him, but he ignored me. Unfazed, Clint slung his arms over Laura and his sons shoulders and replied with,

"Yeah well, Fury help me set this up when I joined and kept it off Shield's files, and I'd like to keep it that way." He said pointedly. "I figured it's a good place to lay low." There was a crunching noise and I sighed as I saw that Thor had crushed a lego house. He looked up guilty like a deer caught in headlights and slowly backed away from the destroyed house.

"How's little Natasha?" Nat asked taking the attention away from Thor who was quickly pushing the legos under the ottoman, giving Steve and I looked telling us to keep quiet. I smirked at him but said nothing.

"She's…a Nathaniel." Laura said scrunching her face up so she wouldn't get caught smiling. The grin dropped off Nat's face and she lowered herself to the baby bump's level.

"Traitor." She muttered jokingly.

"Alright so the kid's bedrooms are upstairs but they can squeeze into Cooper's room. You guys can use Lila's room if you want, and there are three other bedrooms down here. Showers all work, turn right for hot, left for cold. Yada, yada you know how it goes." Clint informed us ignoring Thor and Steve rushing out the front door, "And please try not to break anything, I like the house the way it is."

"I could do with a new kitchen." Laura sassed, Clint laughed and kissed her cheek. I glanced out the window just in time to watch Thor fly off. Where was he going? To see Jane?

"I know, I know. I'll get to it." Clint conceded walking off into the aforementioned area. "I just got through the door, give me minute woman." I smiled as the couple gripped at each other. It was adorable and I could tell that Tony was planning to use this ooey gooey form of Barton against him.

Bruce wandered upstairs mentioning that he was going to take a shower. My own clothes were disgusting and my hair was a matted mess. I would have to figure out a way to beat the others to the shower after Bruce.

At a snail's pace I made my way to the kitchen, wondering if Steve was going to come back inside anytime soon. I leaned against the kitchen counter and watched Clint pull out sandwich supplies.

"You want something to eat?" He asked stuffing his mouth with doritos. I grimaced at the thought of eating anything. My stomach was pulsating now with pain and I yearned for Dr. Cho's portable cradle. I wasn't sure if that thing could work on internal bruising but it was worth a shot.

"I don't think I could hold it down. Do you have any icy hot?"

"Of course, there's some upstairs. I'll go get it." Laura replied with a smile placing her hand over her enlarged belly.

"No, I got it hun. You stay here." He kissed her cheek and hustled out of the room and up the stairs. "Be right back!" He shouted. Laura smiled at his disappearing figure and waddled over to the fridge.

"Here, this always makes me feel better." Laura said handing me a Capri sun. I grinned and popped the straw into the pocket.

"Thanks." I chuckled sipping at the sweet contents. Laura smiled and lowered herself down into a chair. We sat in silence for a couple heartbeats before the questions started.

"Soooooo, you're an Avenger." Mrs. Barton stated.

"I am." I confirmed messing with the yellow straw, wondering where this was going.

"What's it like?" She asked excitedly, resting her head in the palm of her hand.

"I don't know, I mean I'm sure Clint and Natasha have filled you in." I replied unsure of what she wanted me to say. I couldn't imagine that my short time as a 'superhero' would be as exciting as any of the stuff the older agents have done.

"Yeah, but they live and breathe this stuff. You were normal before all this." Laura dismissed.

"Hey, I'm normal now!" I laughed getting Laura to chuckle with me.

"I don't know it's stressful to say the least, and I'm constantly terrified of everything if that's what you're asking." The woman shrugged and had a thoughtful look.

"I think it's natural to feel that way. You're not a soldier or a warrior or spy like the rest of them."

"Tony's not any of those and he does just fine." I pointed out.

"True, but who wants to be like him?" She joked. I laughed at this but stopped suddenly when my stomach gave a painful lurch. I rubbed the tender area and frowned.

"You're not pregnant too right?" Laura teased. I grinned and rolled my eyes.

"If I was, you'd be the first to know. But no, I got kicked by the Hulk." I corrected with a pain expression.

"Oooo yeah you look kinda rough." Laura acknowledge scrunching up her nose sympathetically, I stuck my tongue at her childishly. "Ah. Oh hey here we are." Mrs. Barton said as Clint reappeared in the kitchen.

"I brought some clothes too, hope you don't mind Laura." Clint said waving a pair of yoga pants and a red t-shirt along with a tube of icy-hot. "You might want to use the downstairs shower though, Bruce and Nat are 'talking'." My face contorted in disgust.

"Ew. I didn't need to know that." I replied grossed out.

"That's why I warned you, you're welcome." Clint retorted resuming his mission of making a sandwich. I glanced around and noticed that the other Avengers had meandered off leaving the house more quiet than one would think a place jammed packed with super heroes would be.

"Clint, can I ask you something personal?" I queried. There was something that had been bugging me since we got here. The agent paused in what he was doing; Barton and personal weren't a very good combo. I mean we didn't even know about his family until today, I had just assumed he and Nat had a thing.

"Uh, it depends. You asking for my social?" He chirped mildly. I gave a short laugh and shook my head no.

"I don't think it's something you'll like."

"But you're gunna ask anyway." Barton sighed, "Well come on then kid, no need to beat around the bush." I frowned and nervously played with my uniform sleeve.

"Ok, um, so um," I fumbled nervously, I knew he was going to hate my question but I was suddenly so worried that I wouldn't like the answer, "Ok so when you were under Loki's control you said he made you tell him everything." Clint's expression darkened as he understood where I was going with this. "Did he know about your family?" Clint looked unsettled and I felt bad for even mentioning it, I was about to tell him he didn't have to answer that but he beat me to it.

"Yeah, he knew. But he never threatened them, he didn't have to because I was in complete compliance with him." Barton shrugged nonchalantly, but the way he was squeezing Laura's hand I knew the situation weighed heavily on him.

"And when I finally came to my senses, he had bigger fish to fry," The archer gave a short laugh, "Guess we should give him a sticker for not being as big of a dick as he could've been." Laura and I didn't laugh with him. Clint and I had a shared similar sense of grievance when it came to the God of Mischief.

"I'm sorry." Was the only thing I think of to say. Clint shrugged and took a huge bite out of PB&J dismissing my worries.

"It's over now anyway, Loki's dead." Barton reminded me, but I couldn't tell if he was trying to convince me it was done with or himself. Thor's brother was the one who forced my abilities on me, before New York Loki had come to me as a friend. He had posed himself as my neighbor named Luke while I was still studying to be a linguist during college.

He gained the trust of my 18 year old self, made me believe we were that we were something we apparent were not. I wouldn't say I was in love with him because I wasn't, our relationship wasn't like that. But I had valued him as my confidant, my best friend. But it turned out that I was just his in to SHIELD, and an experiment he wished to exploit.

I knew him for about a year and a half, he wasn't always there though because for his 'job' he traveled a lot. And in hindsight I think that most of the time the Luke I was seeing was just a conjured up image that wasn't even the real deal.

It was roughly five months before the Battle of New York when 'Luke' came back from a three month business trip. That was the longest period of time I had gone without seeing him. So he took me out under the pretense of catching up at dinner, but one second we were walking down the street and the next I was transported to some underground base.

This was my first encounter with what I call the Avenger's World or the world of crazy that Barton calls it. To make a long and extremely depressing story short, 'Luke', well at this point he told me exactly who he was, used that stupid scepter to bestow me my gifts. The process was incredibly fast and any pain that I felt was gone with the flash of brilliant blue light that Loki shot me with. He told me I was a trial run, and he kept alluding that something big was coming. I didn't figure out what that was though until Coulson called me in a few months later.

Loki suppressed my memories of what actually happened for a while, so in those five months I went about my life like nothing had changed between us with the exception that I miraculously had newfound powers. I think the asshole took pleasure in my fear and panic, he was the only one I told outside of SHIELD so you can imagine the kind of things I confessed to him. All the while he knew exactly what was going on because he was the one who did it to me!

So imagine my shock when Loki makes his glorious appearance on Earth and shouts his claims to take over the planet and all my memories of who Luke is comes crashing down around me. I don't like to go too far into it, but the overwhelming amount of betrayal and paralyzing fear was enough to make me join the Avengers.

I still have nightmares about the ordeal, not as often but enough to keep the memories at the back of my mind every time I use my abilities. So even with everyone reminding me that Loki's dead isn't comforting in the slightest because my memories are very much alive.

"Yeah." I mumbled to Clint hefting myself onto my feet, wincing at the pain in my stomach. "I'm gunna go take a shower."

"Pain meds should be above the sink." I nodded at Laura's remark and shuffled out of the kitchen.

Finding my way to the first bedroom I just wanted to flop onto the quilted bed and sleep for days. Not wanting to waste any time, or energy, I headed into the bathroom and started up the shower. Slowly, I unbuckled my boots fighting back a groan when I had to lean over to take them off. I knew that if I was this sore today it would be much worse in the morning.

When I got the rest of my uniform peeled off I could see the beginnings of the mottling skin that took up most of my lower torso. It didn't look too bad yet just red and angry. What looked worse were the deep dark circles surrounding my eyes, I'm sure some of it had to do with smudged mascara and dirt but the exhaustion was obvious.

I hadn't had an asthma attack in a while so it me harder than it usually did. That and getting tossed around by the Hulk certainly didn't help. How am I not dead? Today had all the odds stacked against me and yet I'm still kicking. Barely. Join the Avengers they said, it'll be fun they said.

As I carefully took my hair down from the destroyed ponytail that I put it in earlier that day, my mind drifted to Pietro Maximoff. He had saved my life, but why? His ill feelings towards the Avengers were perfectly clear so why did he help me? I was not going to let you die. Was what he said, but that made no sense. He was working with Ultron and the metal monster told us that the goal was to exterminate us, not kill, exterminate.

With a sigh I pushed the enigmatic Sokovian from my mind and tried not to think about the terrified expression that he held in his striking blue eyes when he found me under the pillars. My shower took longer than I wanted, it was difficult to work the tangles out of my hair and scrub all the grime off when my abdomen kept spasming painfully every couple minutes. But once I got through it, I lathered my stomach in icy-hot, popped a couple pain killers, and shrugged on the clothes Clint lent me before curling up into the softest bed I'd ever laid in and promptly falling into a dreamless sleep.

Later that night Steve woke me up for dinner and now we were were milling around the kitchen. The Barton kids had already gone to bed and someone had let it slip to the munchkins that I knew all the words to every Disney song, so I had spent the past thirty minutes holed up in Lila's room reliving my childhood playlist. She was an adorable kid, nice singing voice, but after the fifth rendition of 'Let it Go' the novelty wore off. Clint named me his kids' new baby sitter. Yaaaaayyyy.

I was sitting at the dinner table across from Nat absentmindedly spooning coco puffs in to my mouth. My stomach had relaxed enough for me to get something into it and I'll admit I have the food palate of a five year old.

Fury had shown up, that was a shock. I knew he hadn't died like the world was led on to believe but I sure as hell never expected him to show up here. But when did the one-eyed agent ever not do anything dramatic and surprising? He had us all gathered in the kitchen listening to old war stories and not that I didn't find it interesting, the former SHIELD director had yet to inform us why he was here. Apparently I wasn't the only one on this train of thought.

"Good times boss, but when I saw you I had hoped you'd have more than that." Natasha's voice was restrained more than usually, it lacked her normal spit fire attitude. It was clear that we were all still dealing with the aftermath of the twins. It pained me to my normally strong and cool-as-a-cucumber team member so bent out of whack. I knew of Natasha's dark past so I can't even imagine the kinds of things she relieved.

"Well I do." Fury defended, taking a swig of beer. "I have you." Nat and I shared a skeptical look, if that was all he was banking on right now this was going to be a shit show. None of us were completely fit for combat at the moment.

"Back in the day I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of. And here we all are back on earth with our wit and our wills to save the world." The one eyed man walked closer to the table, taking a step purposefully with each word.

"Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission and whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction." I set my spoon down quietly on the table, taking in what the older spy was saying.

"All of this, laid in a grave. So stand, and outwit the platinum bastard." Fury took the seat next to me and based me a bread roll. I took it and nibbled on it slowly, contemplating what we were supposed to do.

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk." Natasha commented, breaking the heaviness with some humor. I gave a quiet chuckle glanced up to see Nat smirking.

"You know what Romanoff." Steve said good naturedly, crossing his arms over his thick chest.

"So what does he want?" Fury asked.

"Peace in our time apparently." I replied blandly.

"But how? How is getting there?" Tony asked from the doorway. I shrugged, hell if I knew.

"He'll become better. Better than us." Steve stated, I nodded. It made sense, if you're gunna take over the world you'll to be able to beat whoever is defending it.

"He keeps building bodies." I added thinking about the robots he had with him on the ship.

"Person bodies." Tony corrected, "The human form is efficient, biologically saying."

"And you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha told them snidely. Ultron said that we didn't know the different between peace and quiet, but he couldn't see the difference between protection and extinction.

"They don't need to be protected." Bruce interjected. He was standing by Nat, looking down at a yellow butterfly drawing that Clint's daughter had made earlier in the evening. "They need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve." Banner said in realization.

We wasted no time in stringing together a makeshift plan. Tony was to go to NEXUS and find a way to keep Ultron out of the computers and internet. Hopefully this would prevent the deranged robot from taking over any nuclear codes. And Steve, Nat, Clint and I are flying out to Seoul. The logical next step for Ultron was to build a better body, that's what we all kept saying. So the only thing he could do to improve upon himself was if he got Dr. Cho to synthesize a vibranium body for him. And we were going to prevent that from happening. We hoped. That's the plan anyway.

But when we got there Ultron had ransacked the place, shot the building up, and stolen the cradle with the growing body inside. And neither Ultron nor the twins were anywhere to be found.

"How's Dr. Cho?" I asked worriedly.

"She'll be ok, apparently Wanda freed her from the scepter's control." Cap replied. He had infiltrated Helen's lab alone, the rest of us stayed up in the jet on surveillance.

Why would she free Dr. Cho? That makes no sense, it goes against their plans entirely.

"Alright well let's find the cradle then." Clint stated.

"That could be him." Romanoff suggested pointing out a big rig moving down a side road hundreds of feet below us.

"There." Clint said redirecting our attention to an 18 wheeler traveling down the highway. "It's the truck from the lab." I peered down out of the window, sure enough there it was. "Right above you Cap, on the loop on the bridge. It's them, got three with the cradle and one with the cab. I can take out the driver." Clint offered already flipping switched to prepare the quinjet to fire.

"Negative, that truck crashes the gem would level the city. We need to draw out Ultron." Steve explained reminding us that the gem from Loki's scepter was imbedded in the body. I watched on as Cap leaped from the bridge down onto the truck. The super soldier rolled over top and dropped down the back only to have the doors blasted open. Steve flew upwards and landed back onto the broken metal door that was now scraping the road sending sparks flying.

"Well he's definitely unhappy, I'm gunna try to keep him that way." Cap yelled over the comms as he clung to the metal.

"You can't take him." Clint told him realistically. So supportive Hawkeye.

"Thanks Barton." Cap sighed. There was a blast and Steve was thrown back onto the window shield of the car behind him. I cringed when I heard the class crack through the radio. Barton flew us low through the city, level with the buildings. It always made me nervous when he did that, I knew he wasn't going to crash but you can never be sure.

Steve was rolling all around the truck trying to dodge Ultron's attacks, swinging back and forth, and hanging off the sides. It was a miracle he hadn't fallen off yet. When he lost his shield Nat unbuckled herself and moved to the loading bay.

"I'm going in."

"We've got a window…four, three, two…give 'em hell." Barton said as he lowered the plane close enough for Tasha to jump with her motorcycle.

"I'm always picking up after you boys." She commented as she weaved in and out of the cars, reaching down to grab Cap's shield.

"We're heading under the overpass, I've got no shot." Clint informed his red headed partner.

"Which way?" Widow asked wondering where the truck was.

"Hard right…now!" Nat swerved her cycle, fishtailing somewhat as she regained her balance.

"Oh geez." I muttered as Romanoff turned down a heavily populated street. We are a huge danger to society at times, it was a wonder that there weren't more people protesting against us. I sucked in a sharp breath when Tasha slid underneath Ultron's truck, barely coming through the other side before she was crushed. Was that really a necessary risk?

Just then Ultron lifted up a piece of earth out of the ground directly in Natasha's path, which she narrowly avoided.

"Since when could he do that?" I asked in exasperation. Alright world I'm ready for the surprises to end.

Steve and Ultron resumed their fighting on top of the truck, only for the metal man to use the same weird geokinetic abilities to throw Cap from the cab while simultaneously causing a seven car crash. The cars flipped through the air, all crashing into one another and miraculously Steve made it out unscathed. Seriously how did the guy just magically finesse his way out these kinds of situations and manage to come out on top.

"Clint I need to get down there." I said rising from my seat and pushing my sore abdomen from my mind for the time being.

"Everyone's leaving me." Clint grumbled, "Alright hold on." He steered around the highway system getting as close as he could to the fight. I ran to the back and opened up the docking door.

"You ready?" Clint questioned. As I'll ever be.

"Yeah!" I shouted over the wind, taking a steadying breath. Clint gave me a countdown similar Nat's and at one I jumped. There was a short sensation of falling before I smacked down into the truck, using my abilities to soften the blow. Ultron whipped around startled and Steve used the advantage to get a good hit in knocking him towards me where I rammed him with a pulse of energy.

Clint barreled toward the truck and I ducked when he took a few shots at Ultron attempting to gain the attention of the robots inside the cab. It worked and they took off into the sky. Ultron flew up into the air, hovering just out of Steve's immediate reach. Cap wasted no time however, before tackling Ultron into a passing train. I stared dumbly at them for a second before reacting.

"You have got to be kidding me." I yelled as I used the truck momentum to leap onto the train after them. It took a minute to find them, but all I had to do was the follow the sounds of screaming passengers.

"Duck!" I told Steve as I hurtled a ball of energy at Ultron sending him flying to the ground. It didn't deter him in the slightly, he instantly jumped back up and fired at me. I blocked his shot easily but fell on my ass when the robot charged my barrier like a linebacker. Steve quickly ripped the metal man away from me and I shielded him from the laser bullet that Ultron shot at him.

"I'm going in, guys can you keep him occupied?" Tasha questioned.

"What do you think we've been doing?" Cap replied out of breath. Our fight continued on for a few more minutes, and I tried as best as I could to protect Cap and myself while still keeping the passengers safe.

"The package is airborne." Clint informed us, "I have a clean shot."

"Negative I am still in the truck." Natasha said.

"What? Nat get out of there!" I shouted at the same time as Clint said,

"What the hell are you doing in there?"

"Just be ready, I'm sending the package to you." I couldn't hear the rest of what was going, Ultron got a lucky hit in and I rolled to the back of the car with an 'ooff.' I made a move to get back up, pausing briefly when the pain in my stomach flared up.

"I've got the cradle. What—wait they took Nat!" Clint hissed, "I'm turning around."

"No, take the package to the tower." Cap commanded firmly, "That's our top priority."

"Yes sir." Clint bit out frustratedly. I didn't get much time to panic about my teammates capture before a blur flashed passed Steve and then Ultron was then sprawled on the floor. A hand wrapped around my upper arm yanking me into a standing position and pushing me back behind something. Or rather someone, it was Pietro oddly enough. What the hell?

Ultron took a menacing step towards the both of us but the metal guards shifted red and bent in front of us in a protective manor. Wanda stood behind Steve, hands outstretched and glowing red. Ultron turned towards her.

"Please, don't do this." Ultron pleaded with her.

"What choice do we have?" Wanda countered. What was she talking about? Why were they helping us? Ultron turned back around and fired a string of lasers in our direction. Pietro pushed my head down and behind the steel seats pulling us both out of the way as the front of the train blew out. The sentient robot then blasted out the side door and escaped.

Bewildered by the sudden appearance of the twins I quickly removed myself from Pietro and dashed over to Steve. The speedster sent me a questioning look but flashed to his sister all the same.

"You ok?" I asked Steve as I helped him to his feet. He nodded briefly before the train made a violent shudder as it was derailed. I braced myself against the supporting pole and grimaced as the passengers screamed. Steve looked directly at Pietro and said,

"There are civilians in our path." The speed demon wasted no time before taking off to rescue the people who were trapped in front of us. "Can you stop this thing?" He asked Wanda, she looked unsure but blasted red tendrils down into the main frame of the train and instantly I felt the train lurch as the wheels rotation became restricted. I latched onto the metal pole again before I could topple over.

As Wanda strained to bring the train to a stop, I put up a shield at the front of the train to protect the remaining passengers. It was a miracle when the giant thing finally stopped moving.

The passengers all scrambled off the train, and we headed out where Pietro was waiting for us. I was surprised to see him out of breath, I hadn't thought that possible.

"Are you alright?" Wanda asked him worriedly when she ran off the train to her brother who was hunched over with his hands on his knees.

"I will be fine, give me a minute."

"I may not want to give you that." Steve commented, giving the twins are hard look. The two Maximoffs shared an uneasy glance.

"Where is the cradle?" Wanda asked.

"Stark has it, it's safe with him."

"Is it? I saw into Ultron's mind. Like you said, Ultron can't see the difference between saving the world and destroying it." Wanda explained looking directly at me. "Who do you think he gets that from?" Tony, I answered immediately in my mind. A queasy looked passed over Steve's face

"Stark, come in." Steve said into the comm. After a brief pause, "Stark." Again no response. That's not good. Cap's eye's flashed to me and I frowned. We needed to get back, now. Before that idiotic genius did something stupid.

"Alright, if you two are coming with, we're leaving now." Steve said. Wait, what?

"What that's it? You're just gunna take them to the tower?" I asked incredulously, gawking at Cap's rash decision.

"We want to help." Wanda commented, her face screamed honesty but my gut begged to differ.

"You two are about as helpful as a flu shot filled with cancer." I snorted.

"Sarah, we need all the help we can get." Steve told me shooting a disapproving look in my direction. Apparently my comment wasn't as funny to him as it was to me. Well I thought it was clever.

"What if they're Trojan horsing us?" I countered. A flicker of recognition crossed Cap's face and I waited for the 'I understood that reference' but it never came, probably not the most appropriate time for it anyway.

"Then that's my decision." I frowned in displease at his response.

"Well it's a stupid ass decision. This could put the team in danger."

"Well then I'm pulling rank." I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, jutting one hip out slightly.

"Oh, how democratic of you Captain America."

"You're not even American Byrd." Alright well he had me there. I was actually born in Germany, I just gone K through 8th in the States that's why my accent was more American than German.

"Feel free to put us in our place should we prove to be a threat." Pietro intervened taking part in the conversation. I glared at him, but contemplated the offer. If they did turn on us we would definitely be able to take them out. Right?

"I don't trust them."

"Well right now trust is a luxury we don't have. Deal with it." Cap said bluntly. I let out a huff in clear annoyance. This was so stupid, if this went south we could only blame ourselves. But it's not like our situation could get much worse.

"We don't have a jet." I said giving up on fighting with the old man. "Clint took off with it."

"Then we'll take Dr. Cho's." Oh right, she took one of Tony's quinjets to fly back to Seoul after the attack on the tower.

"Who will fly it? Jarvis is incapacitated." I reminded him, wondering to myself if I had enough in my bank account to fly all of us back to the U.S. commercially.

"I can fly it." Steve stated taking on an expression that could only be compared to a preening peacock. I raised an eyebrow at this.

"I think World War II planes are a little bit different than the quinjet Cap."

"Widow and Barton have been teaching me." The soldier defended.

"Oh yeah, since when?"

"Uh, about three months."

"Yup, I'll walk to New York thanks."

"Sarah come on, I'm not that bad. I can get us there."

"When we die I want my headstone to say, 'Here lies Sarah Eliza Byrd. Daughter, Sister, Friend and Avenger. Too bad she let Steve Rogers fly a modern aircraft, she was too trusting, her fatal flaw.'" Steve pushed my face playfully away from him. After living with a team made up of mostly male counterparts, I had learned that the fasted way to diffuse awkward tension was to make a stupid and pointless joke.

"This generation is so dramatic." Steve replied rolling his eyes.

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