Hey guys! Sorry about the wait.

This really marks the beginning of the second part of the story and has a lot to do with the events of Civil War. I've been trying to take everything I can from the trailers and plot summaries they've released. I suppose I should say that there may be speculation/possible spoilers for the new movie.

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Enjoy!

Back at the Avengers base, things went back to normal. Even with the threat of an international takeover hanging over their heads, the New Avengers still trained for hours a day to make sure they were up to scratch to handle whatever challenges the world could throw at them. As it turned out, it wasn't long before their mettle was tested yet again.

"Look alive." Natasha said, practically throwing Pietro a gun. "Radar has picked up armed hostiles outside the Center for Infectious Diseases. We're going to go make sure things don't escalate any further."

Pietro sighed. This was the first iota of free time he'd had all day. "Really? Right now?"

"A true Avenger never sleeps."

Rolling his eyes he stood up and followed her to the briefing room on board the Quinjet-where Steve was crouched over a small map of a city. Little red dots were clustered around a building in the center of the map, which he indicated carefully. "This is the Center for Infectious Diseases. It houses most of the deadliest bacteria and viruses known to man-the black plague, tuberculosis, and most recently ebola. They're supposed to be using inactive parts of the viruses to find cures but the diseases themselves are still incredibly volatile. If these hostiles were to get a hand on its contents…"

Pietro filled in the blanks. Widespread infection, on a global scale. Not good.

"Does SHIELD know?" Rhodey asked automatically.

"They haven't officially requested the assistance of the Avengers, but we don't have time to wait for an official appeal. Innocent civilians." Pietro know that would be enough for Steve-he was all about rescuing civilians, no matter what the cause.

"Why don't we just wait? If we head out right now…you know we could be walking right into more legal trouble."

Steve shrugged. "So be it." And that was that. They were a team and Steve was their leader. In situations like this, his word was law-and right now, he was telling them they were about to go into battle.

~A~

A flight to Nigeria was no quick thing-but with the aid of a Quinjet it was less of a hassle than it had to be. When the jet's wheels touched down on the outskirts of Berlin the situation was still ongoing; the police directed them to the city center, where a large building made out of smooth grey concrete towered into the sky. Apparently, there were sixty hostages now-men, women, and children. About twenty or thirty men with black masks, according to Wanda's count, stood surrounding the Institute with guns raised while more men were inside the building itself, trading fire with local policemen. A man with white stripes painted across his chest stood facing them; even with a mask she got the disquieting feeling he was smiling right at them. "Steve Rogers. I was wondering when you would get there."

"No one has to get hurt." Steve replied calmly. "Just walk away from this."

"I don't think so. This is just too good an opportunity for me to pass up." His eyes flicked over the team almost lazily. "This is your new task force? Honestly, I'd expected more."

For a while they stood in a silent stalemate, no one rising to the bait. The Avengers looked to Steve, waiting for their signal to attack, while Crossbones's men looked to him. Wanda saw the punch coming a second before it made contact-and so did Steve, ducking just in time to avoid a nasty blow to the side of the head. This blatant indication of battle was enough to spur the rest of the team into action-while, Steve, Sam, Rhodey, and Vision engaged forces stationed outside Natasha, Pietro, and Wanda went into the Institute itself.

It was mayhem-people were running everywhere, bullets zinged through the air at random, and alarms were blaring while prerecorded voices repeated instructions for a net and orderly evacuation in three different languages. "Split up." Natasha said, making sure her comm. piece was turned on; out of habit Wanda checked hers as well. "But stay close. Shoot to injure, not to kill-and if you run into trouble, be sure to let me know." With that she seemed to melt into the shadows like a cat and Wanda followed soon afterwards.

She noticed someone in black trying to sneak up on her and sent a tendril of red lancing through his skull. He shuddered once and fell to the ground like deadweight, still panting heavily. She looked at him with no pity; he wouldn't be harmed, but he would be having nightmares for at least the next couple of weeks. "Where are the hostages?" she muttered as she dispatched another trio of soldiers.

"Third floor-there's a door at the end of the hall." Natasha's voice replied. "It's heavily guarded; I'm going to see if I can draw them out. On my signal, get in there and rescue them."

"How many?" Pietro asked.

"Sixty three-men, women, and children. They look like civilians; I assume they were brought in from outside."

"Don't worry. We'll get them out." In a flash he was by Wanda's side again, knocking out six or seven militants in the process. "Are you alright?" he asked her with an appraising once over for any outward signs of injury.

"I'm fine." she responded. I haven't had time to fight yet."

There was a loud rattle from upstairs and Pietro tensed on his feet like a panther ready to spring. "It looks like you're about to get your chance."

They ran to the next level, not stopping until they reached the last door on the right. Two men were guarding the doors-Pietro took one and Wanda took the other. They were alone in the hallway within seconds, only to find they still had the heavy door of what looked like some kind of vault to deal with. Luckily Wanda managed to unlock it losing telekinesis and they stepped inside.

The room where the hostages were being kept seemed to be abandoned. Its sides were lined with shelves, which in turn were lined with lock boxes full of substances she could barely imagine. Rows of people knelt on the floor, hands above their heads. The youngest seemed to be a five year old girl, crying pitifully as she glanced up at the new arrivals-and the other two militants who stood at the front of the room with their guns cocked. "Stop!" one of them cried, drawing a gun and nudging it into the side of the girl's head. "Stop right there or I'll shoot!" The little girl began to cry uncontrollably, her small body convulsing with sobs. Wanda felt her fingers begin to heat up in anger. No child should have to be held at gunpoint. But he got the message across-the twins stopped in their tracks.

"Good." the other man said. It didn't take mind powers for Wanda to realize they were more scared of the Avengers than they were willing to admit. "Now, we're just going to stay here until reinforcements come-" He droned on while Wanda focused on the gun in his hand. Ever so slightly she began to pull it towards her-and by the time he realized what was going on it was too late. "Shit!" he cried as she gun flew out of his hand and straight into hers. Her hand closed around the barrel coldly and she quickly switched the safety to the 'on' position. Immediately, the other guard threw his gun to the ground and put his hands up.

"Now we make the demands." she replied. "And here they are: you're going to come with us and you're not going to make any trouble. If you so much as think about towing the line I'll make you say your worst nightmares." Not surprisingly, no one but up a fight and she and Pietro were able to ferry the hostages out with no problems. "All hostages are secure." she said into her comm. link. "Awaiting further instructions."

"Good work." Steve's voice replied. "Bring them out front. We just about have everything locked down."

"Follow us." Pietro said, repeating his instructions in a couple of languages to be sure he was getting the point across to the crowd of people watching them in a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. "We'll help you get to safety." A low murmur began to spread through the crowd; a few people seemed to be saying prayers of thanksgiving and a few others even hugged the twins and called down the blessings of God upon them. The little girl slipped her hand into Wanda's and didn't let go as they wound their way down the hallways of the Institute and out into the late afternoon sunlight.

Almost as soon as they stepped out the front door, a line of bullets flew past Wanda's head and embedded themselves in the wall behind her; by some stroke of luck she was still alive. Sam landed in front of the small group almost instantly, deflecting most of the bullets with his mechanical wings. "I thought Steve said we were clear." Pietro muttered in exasperation.

"We are not clear." Sam replied. "We are very, very not clear. Nat, can you-"

"Already on it." She ran up to them and began to lead the civilians around to the back of the building, where police trucks waited to carry them to safety. "Pietro, I need you come with me and make sure we're safe."

"But-" He glanced back at Wanda almost helplessly.

"Go on." she replied, turning back to the fight itself. "I can handle myself." She didn't wait to see if he was leaving; she had to focus on the fight at hand and plot a suitable course of action. The police were doing a good job of keeping pedestrians back so the 'war zone' was clear of citizens-only militants and superheroes remained to fight. Sam and Vision circled overhead-the Mind Gem in the center of Vision's forehead glowed yellow every so often as he shot a ray of light-while Rhodey and Steve worked ground assault. There were still about fifteen militants left fighting, their numbers having been greatly diminished-but Crossbones was nowhere to be found. "Where do you need me?" she asked, running up to Steve and Rhodey.

"We just need to get the last of them subdued." Steve replied. "Help wherever you can." She nodded, eyes scanning the ranks of soldiers to see where she could be of service. As it happened, a couple of soldiers with extremely large pistols were trying to sneak up on them both and she took care of them before they could come any closer. "Thanks."

"No problem." she replied easily.

For the next ten or fifteen minutes they picked off the militants calmly and methodically. While Crossbones's forces may have been trained in what they did, they were simply no match for trained members of the Avengers team. Soon, Steve was polishing off the last of the soldiers and Wanda was allowing herself a chance to relax for the first time since the whole ordeal had started.

"I'd say this calls for a celebration." Rhodey said cockily, landing next to her as the last couple of militants were apprehended. "Who's up for prime rib?"

Steve was just replying that prime rib sounded delicious when Crossbones reappeared. He was coming from a distance away, walking slowly-so Wanda didn't see the suicide vest he was wearing until it was almost too late.

He was walking straight toward a group of children, who stood watching in wide eyed terror.

Time seemed to slow down and lengthen out; Steve shouted at her to levitate him and she complied instantly. She watched with an almost calm detachment as Crossbones floated six, seven, and then eight feet in the air; someone was talking in the background, but she couldn't listen. All that mattered was the person in front of her-and how imperative it was that she not lose focus.

The shock came out of nowhere, hitting the back of her leg with a stinging pain that made her cry out. Steve turned toward her, but it was too late-her leg buckled traitorously underneath her and she lost control of the prisoner. He went flying-straight into a high rise apartment building. There was a minute of complete and total silence as everyone watched in horror; she was cold all over with dread as she realized just what she had done, inadvertently or otherwise.

Then the building exploded, debris flying out for yards in every direction. There were numerous screams as people were burned by flaming brick or cut by flying glass but Wanda barely heard them; she was too busy watching the heavy building of steel and glass crumble like a sheet of paper crushed in a giant's fist-and all the people dying inside.

Steve grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the explosion and shielding her with his body at the same time. "Come on!" he yelled, shouting to be heard over the din. "We have to get out of here!" She followed him numbly, wondering faintly how she was still standing.

Steve didn't stop running until they were a safe distance away-at which point she stopped short and looked her over appraisingly for injuries. "Are you alright?" She barely managed to nod; she was shaking in a way that had nothing to do with the aftereffects of the Taser shock. Of course he saw right through her and embraced her tightly. "This isn't your fault. What happened back there had nothing to do with you-absolutely nothing."

"If I'd just been paying attention-"

"This isn't on you, I promise. No one can blame you; everyone saw that it was an accident-"

It didn't matter. People had still died.

Just then the other members of the team found them. "What happened?" Natasha cried. "Where did that explosion come from?" Wanda felt every pair of eyes on her but she purposefully avoided all of their judgmental looks. Of course if they thought there was a screw up they would automatically turn to her.

A squadron of police ran up to them-and they didn't look happy. "Eyewitnesses saw her lose control of the prisoner," the squad leader said in heavily accented English, gesturing to Wanda with a nod of his head. "We'll need to take her into the station and have her answer a few questions."

She felt Steve's hand on her shoulder, strong and protective. "If any of your witnesses are half as reliable as they say they are, they'll remember that she was doing just fine until someone tased her in the back of the leg."

"I'm afraid we'll have to step in here." Another group of people dressed in black outfits with the SHIELD eagle emblazoned on their shoulders joined them. "Miss Maximoff, follow us please." the leader said quietly-a woman with piercing green eyes and steely white hair. She let no room for question or argument and Wanda didn't see what she could do besides follow them with a cold terror in the pit of her stomach. She did notice how the agents fanned out to surround her with guns cocked, like they thought she was dangerous-or a monster.

Pietro looked like he wanted to protest-and he wasn't the only one. "We'll come too." Sam said.

"That won't be necessary, believe me. You will all be subjected to individual questioning." the agent continued. "You will be expected to wait in the vicinity until we call you."

"I'm coming now." Steve replied coldly. "Wanda Maximoff is a member of my team and I want to testify about this afternoon's events."

He stared down the head agent, neither one willing to give even half an inch. Wanda suspected they could have kept the grudge match going for at least another twenty minutes if the agent hadn't given in first-probably in the interests of time. "Fine. Let's go." She pointed up the street and they fell in step beside her. Wanda glanced back at the team one last time, hoping for a last reassuring glance from Pietro.

Unfortunately, he looked just as worried as she did.

~A~

Once they reached the aircraft the agent (she had told the two Avengers they could call her Lane but nothing else) said would be flying them back to the United States, Wanda was directed to a room that was little more than a glorified holding cell. Steve was offered a place in the captain's cabin but declined, preferring to sit with her instead. "Don't worry." he said, guessing rightly that she was nearly making herself sick with dread about how this was all going to turn out. "Everyone saw what happened. They know it was an accident. They know it's not my fault."

"It's a little hard not worrying when they literally pulled me aside for individual questioning." she replied. She kept turning the events of the last hour over and over in her head, as if by thinking hard enough she could find a solution and save all of the people she'd killed. "How many?"

"There's not a definite number, but more than ten. Most of them civilians. Rescue efforts are ongoing."

"Oh my God." She'd never had a panic attack before but she felt very certain she was about to have one now-or at least, she was teetering on the brink. "Where's Crossbones?"

"They haven't found a body, but it's likely he was blown to pieces."

She shook her head, playing with a little ball of magic for a lack of anything better to do. "Maybe they do have a right to lock me up."

He sighed. "No one is going to be locking anyone up. This is just something routine we have to do after a mission gone wrong. You aren't in any trouble." And yet he knew, sickeningly, that he was lying. The government was out for blood-and he couldn't say he wasn't worried they had just found a scapegoat in Wanda. "Everything will be just fine." He reached out to touch her hand softly; it was shaking like a leaf in a gale force hurricane.

Meanwhile, Wanda wondered if he was trying to convince her or himself.

So this is based off a rumor I heard a while back about something like this happening at the beginning of the movie and triggering the Sokovia Accords. I don't know if it's actually true or anything but I found a way to work it into the story.

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