Make You Feel My Love
~Book III~

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers nor do I own the plot of Age of Ultron. All rights go to Marvel.
All I do own are my own characters and their stories.

~Chapter 25~
The Last Stand Part 1

"No way we'll all get through this," said Tony, putting on his Iron Man helmet while the team made their way out of the Quinjet, coming out into an open clearing in the woods close by the city. "If even one tin soldier is left standing, we've lost. There's gonna be blood on the floor."

The sun was starting to rise, a faint, orange light falling down on the Avengers as they walked in a quick pace through the woods.

"I've got no plans tomorrow night," said Steve lightly, earning a scoff from Erik.

"Well, I do," he muttered, earning a glance from Maria who was walking next to him.

"I get first crack at the big guy," said Tony. "Iron Man's the one he's waiting for."

"That's true," said Vision from next to Thor. "He hates you the most."

Maria and Erik smirked.

"Alright, Avengers," said Steve, coming to a halt at the end of the woods where the path they had been walking on separated into two. "Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire. And that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia didn't. So our priority is getting them out. Everyone uses whatever resources they got to clear the city as fast as possible."

"The majority of people are going to be at home," said Wanda with a look at the rising sun.

"Meaning we go through the houses and the apartments first," suggested Pietro.

"We still need to get help. We can't do this on our own. The people need to be alerted and the police and military can do that for us," said Steve.

"I'll alert them," said Pietro with a nod of his head.

"Good. We find out what Ultron's been building to destroy the Earth, which is what he wants. We find Romanoff-"

"I can do that," interrupted Bruce, earning a look from Steve who nodded his head before continuing.

"We need to keep the fight between us. No civilians should get hurt," said Steve. "Ultron thinks we're monsters. That we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right."

The team all nodded.

"Go," commanded Steve, the team watching for a minute in silence as Bruce jogged away from them on the path leading to the left towards the facility that once belonged to Baron von Strucker, the facility where Ultron, according to Clint, was keeping Natasha.

"Last time we fought together," started Maria, earning the attention from everyone. "We weren't really coordinated in the beginning."

"So, let's be coordinated from the beginning this time," said Steve with a nod, his eyes staying on Maria a little longer than needed which warmed up her heart both with love and grieve. "Tony, like you said, Ultron will be after you. I want only you, Vision and Thor to get into direct combat with him. He's too dangerous for the rest of us."

"Ultron's little toy-" said Clint, holding a strong grip on his bow. "What do we do about it?"

"We need to know what it is first," said Erik.

"I'll check it out while you all get the civilians to safety," said Tony with a nod of his head, his helmet closing over his face, the arc reactor sustaining energy to his suit lightning up a bit brighter as he did so.

"Sounds like a plan," said Steve, beginning to lead the team down the path to the right.

"I'll keep you all briefed on what I find," said Tony before he flew off towards the city ahead of the others, Vision and Thor behind him.

For several hours, the Avengers, the Maximoff twins and Erik worked efficiently on getting the civilians out. Wanda used her powers to mind-control the people in the East to get to safety. Pietro managed to alert the military and police, who now were helping all over Sokovia to get people out of the city. Clint, Maria, Steve and Erik all did what they could to help in the beginning albeit it had been hard since many of the people in Sokovia didn't want their help, them being Avengers and the people thinking America had repressed them.

At one point, Maria and Clint had reached an apartment where a family with two little boys were eating breakfast. Calmly, the two of them had told the family what was going on and that the city was getting evacuated. After having convinced the parents, this only after a quite heated discussion, the two boys passed Maria and Clint by. They both smiled at them, though the only thing they got back were glares. The older boy even spit on the floor in front of their boots, surprising them both.

Soon however, the military and the police had it all under control and the people were slowly evacuating without only the Avengers' help.

People were walking in a slow pace through the streets and from where Erik and Maria were standing, up high in a building already evacuated, Maria couldn't help but think it looked an awful lot like slow ants making their way through their colony.

"This isn't going fast enough," said Steve worriedly through the com from where he was directing the people away from the city. "I don't know how much time we have left."

The sun had already fully risen, now casting a warming light on them all. Though the warming light still felt cold because of what Maria knew was coming. She already was completely drained from the lack of sleep as of lately and Maria wanted nothing more but the battle to already be over. So she could go and tuck herself into a bed and just sleep for several days underneath soft and safe covers.

"We can't push them to walk fast. It'll worry them too much," said Maria through the com.

"The majority of people are already out," said Tony's voice.

Erik made a noise of sudden realization, making Maria look over at him with a raised eyebrow.

"How are things going with Ultron?" asked Steve's voice.

"There's something weird showing up on my scans. But I haven't pinpointed either him or what it is."

"Perhaps the man of metal thought better and ran away!" said Thor's voice.

"I highly doubt it," came the voice from Wanda.

"Wanda, Pietro. Do you remember what Ultron said the day we all met?" asked Erik, unnecessarily pressing his finger against the earpiece inside of his ear. "About the church being in the center of the entire city?"

"Yes, I remember," came Pietro's slightly out of breath voice.

"He didn't say a lot about it. But he still said it. How every man would be close to God due to the church being there," said Erik, Maria watching him with intrigued eyes. "If Ultron thinks he can destroy us and create a new world… What does he see himself as?"

"A God. Tony, check the church," said Steve's voice.

"On my way."

"That wasn't bad," said Maria, making her father look over at her.

"You sound surprised," he said cockily, raising an eyebrow.

"Gee, I wonder why," she replied sarcastically. "Oh, maybe because all you've ever done is make bad decisions that ruin other people's lives so I'm a bit confused still as to why you're suddenly helping them."

"I've never done anything to ever ruin lives," replied Erik sternly. "You just haven't seen the bigger picture of it yet."

"Yeah, right-"

She was cut off by Erik pushing her against the wall, holding her in position tightly as his face came close to hers, an angry scowl on his face. "Don't speak of things you don't know shit about," he growled quietly.

Fear mixed with anger made Maria push him off her, glaring equally as angrily back at him.

"I know you left us for Hydra. I know you've tried to clone me, probably because I wasn't the daughter you wanted. I know you drove mum into hurting me because, unfortunately, I look like you. So tell me again what picture I don't get."

"You've got everything wrong-" he started, his scowl suddenly gone.

Though Erik was interrupted by the ground suddenly beginning to shake. It wasn't much in the beginning and Maria and Erik both assumed it was a simple earthquake at first. Though nothing was ever simple when it came to the lives of the Avengers and soon, the shaking turned into a single violent jolt that caused both Erik and Maria to fall to the ground.

Immediately, Maria jumped up again, looking out over the railing of the balcony they were standing on, overlooking the city. She saw a crack in the ground that separated the center and some parts around it from the rest of the city and worry latched onto her heart. From up where she was, quite far away from the circular crack itself, it looked small. Though she doubted it actually was seeing as she heard screams from the people of Sokovia; not everyone had made it out in time.

"What the hell…" breathed Erik as he joined her by the railing.

"Come on," she said as she led him down the stairs and out into the street, beginning to jog towards the closest part of the crack, taking out her pistol as she heard the sounds of a fight.

With Erik by her sight, she regrouped with Wanda, Pietro, Clint and Steve who were all fighting against Ultron's metal suits which were crawling quite creepily out from the deep, deep crack. Some of the civilians who had been trying to make their way over a bridge, the last civilians, were standing a little off from the fight, hugging their loved ones and watching with worried and scared eyes as the Avengers fought the suits off. Maria made her way over to the civilians, ushering them into a nearby store that was large enough to hold them all without any problem. In there, they'd be safer than out in the open.

As she exited the store, satisfied the civilians were as safe as they could be at the moment, she joined the fight, shooting several suits in the head with the pistol her father had given her. To her surprise, the seemingly normal pistol didn't use bullets. Instead, it shot a kinetic ball against her targets, making whatever part she hit explode. Slightly distracted by this surprise, Maria didn't notice one of the suits sneaking up on her from behind and she ended up on the dusty ground.

The suit turned her over, holding her hand with the pistol down against the ground as it lifted its other hand above her head, a light appeared in its hand through which she knew a killing beam was going to come and in her panicked state, her free hand went up to hit its face, hoping to distract it or unbalance it in some way. Though, the most surprising of all things happened instead.

The suit was pushed, by a seemingly invisible force, up several meters into the air. Shocked as to what had happened, Maria reacted a little too late and shot the suit on its way down. Though the dead suit landed on her, knocking the air out of her lungs.

Two hands lifted the suit off of her before helping her to stand back up. She coughed slightly, holding onto the strong arm next to her as she recovered from the hit.

"What was that?" asked Steve's voice from next to her and she realized it was he who had helped her up.

"I don't know…" she replied vaguely, still holding onto his arm as she turned her head to look at the dead suit.

"Why, your powers of course," said Erik simply, stomping down on a suit that was trying to crawl away from him. "Honestly, don't you remember a thing I taught you back in the days?"

"I-I don't understand," said Maria, shaking her head.

Erik rolled his eyes, the momentary pause in attacks from the suits making the others look at her too. Lifting his hand up, debris from fallen suits lifted up into the air. It was no surprise to them that he had this power. He had demonstrated this shortly the very first time the Avengers met up with him, though that time he had only made small things fly out of people's hands. This time, he demonstrated a different side of his powers as more debris from suits lifted up into the air, the metal bending at his will and touching other parts until it formed a perfect sculpture of Maria's mother smiling softly over at her and Steve.

"Remember when I said we've got the same powers," said Erik, his hand still up in the air. "Well, I can't just heal quickly."

"Impossible," breathed Maria. "Why haven't I been able to do it before then?"

"You have," said Erik sadly as he slowly lowered his hand, the sculpture breaking and the debris falling down to the ground again. "You've just… forgotten somehow. As a child you could do the most amazing things with your powers. You used to make your dolls walk around as if someone else was playing with you. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen… You were so strong. But then, things happened. I left and… you suddenly didn't remember it anymore. Why don't you remember it the way I do?"

"I… I don't know," breathed Maria, her hold on Steve's arm tightening.

From beside her, Steve wrapped a protective arm around Maria's waist; "I don't think now is the best time to talk about this. We need to focus on the mission."

Erik looked at Steve with a monotone look on his face before he nodded his head. He opened his mouth to say something else when suddenly, the ground gave another lurch. Had it not been for Steve's good balance and his arm around her waist, Maria would've fallen again. For some reason, during each big battle, Maria always ended up on the floor a lot of times.

She hated it.

Instinctively, Maria grabbed Steve's hand, her heart warming up and her courage rising as he squeezed her hand back, the two of them running over to the bridge which was dividing into two. It didn't take long for them all to understand that the ground they were standing on was ascending up into the air. The crack had formed a circle around the center of the city. And now, that center was flying, at quite a high velocity, up in the air.

"Oh, this is bad," said Clint from next to Maria, who grabbed his arm as the ground shook slightly; afraid they'd topple over the edge as they stood way too close to it.

"Great," said Pietro gloomily. "I don't like heights."