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 26~
The Last Stand Part 2

"Do you see… The beauty in it? The inevitability. You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword. And the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world… will be metal."

"Erik, go with Clint and Wanda, fight off Ultron as best as possible around the rest of the rock. Pietro, be everywhere," ordered Steve. "Fight Ultron's men as best as possible. We need to make sure Tony has enough space to figure out what to do."

Said people nodded their heads, making their way away from Steve and Maria.

"Maria, you and I stay on this side of the rock, fight Ultron's robots here as best as possible…" said Steve, his sentence fading off as he saw the next wave of robots making their way towards them. "You ready?"

"Not really," said Maria, her head still fuzzy after what her father had just told her.

"Hey, look at me," said Steve, Maria immediately looking over at him. "You need to focus on the battle now. Okay? I can't do this without you."

They were still standing by the edge of the rock, now facing each other. The next wave of robots was coming in closer and closer, flying towards them at a great speed. Though neither of them paid attention to them at the moment, the both of them staring at each other.

"Neither can I," said Maria quietly.

A part of her was referring to the battle. A part of her was referring to her life in general. And a part of her was referring to the new abilities her father had just told her about, which she was going to have to begin to comprehend at some point after this battle. It was a new journey for her which she was rather afraid of. She had never had powers like that, after all.

"You haven't lost me," said Steve seriously, placing his free hand on her upper arm, the other hand holding a tight grip onto his shield.

"Haven't I?" she asked, once again in a quiet voice.

Steve's eyebrow twitched slightly and he took a deep breath. He was about to answer, when Tony's voice cut him off.

"Hate to disturb you guys, but, Cap and Dalton, you got incoming."

Tony's voice made the both of them look over at the next wave of robots they had both forgotten to keep an eye on. And as they turned their heads, two robots attacked them, sending them both flying. Steve landed on a car with a groan while Maria landed on the ground, sliding on the dirt a couple of meters, unfortunately ripping a piece of her suit open over her hip.

"Got it," groaned Steve in reply to Tony's transmission.

She hissed at the burning pain, shooting the robot that had attacked her in the face before shifting to take a look on her wound. Within two seconds, the wound on her hip was healed, leaving only a rip in her suit, and she was back up on her feet, fighting robots a little away from the edge where Steve was fighting.

At one point, Maria was suddenly overwhelmed by the number of robots that attacked her. One pushed her down onto the ground, while two others grabbed her gun and aimed their own weapons at her. She widened her eyes, knowing what were to come would hurt, though she was saved by the Hulk landing next to her, grabbing the three robots and tearing them apart.

He roared loudly before looking down at her. His usually angry eyes softened slightly and she quickly stood up, brushing off her suit and grabbing her gun.

"Nat?" asked Maria, looking up at the Hulk with wide eyes.

He nodded his head, to which she smiled a relieved smile.

"Good job," praised Maria before the Hulk smirked and ran off, taking out more of the robots in his way.

Stray civilians were running away from the scene and into the store where Maria had ushered the other civilians. It was pure chaos where they were currently fighting. Though Maria was relieved to see Thor and Natasha had joined them by now.

She quickly made her way over to Natasha, avoiding robots' attacks and shooting a couple people.

"You okay?" asked Maria.

"Always," replied Natasha with a smirk, the fight immediately continuing.

Continuing to shoot robots, the fight went on. At one point, Maria's gun ran out of bullets when she needed to shoot a robot that was headed her way in a very high velocity. She fumbled for too long when reloading and was too late with shooting the robot. Had it not been for Thor taking care of the robot, Maria's body would've had more healing to do.

"We're all clear here," said Clint's voice over the com.

"We are not clear! We are very not clear!" exclaimed Steve back at the same time as he hit another couple of robots with his shield.

"All right, coming to you," replied Clint.

Maria noticed, just briefly in the corner of her eyes, how a couple of police officers had lined up to help the Avengers. She also noticed Wanda and Pietro had arrived, though she didn't see neither Erik or Clint yet.

Thor had gone, leaving Maria to fend for herself. Seeing as this wasn't something she particularly liked, she tried her best to move closer to Natasha and Steve who were still holding their ground over by the broken bridge. Though as Maria tried to move closer to them, more robots just attacked her, making her instead get further away from them. It wasn't until Wanda turned up by her side that Maria could finally take out the last robots. An arrow being shot through the head of the very last robot close to Maria alerted her of the fact that Clint and Erik had arrived as well.

"Thanks," said Maria hesitantly to Wanda, who simply nodded her head. The tension between the two, after what she had managed to take away from Maria, was still very much there even during the battle. Though Maria tried her best to stay neutral towards the young woman.

With Pietro coming to a halt next to Wanda, the three of them watched as the others carefully led some of the last stray civilians into the store, no more robots currently attacking the Avengers.

"Next wave is gonna hit any minute," said Steve through the com. "What do you got, Stark?"

"Nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface, if you guys can get clear."

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan," replied Steve, closing the door behind the civilians.

Maria, Wanda and Pietro followed Steve and Natasha to where Clint was standing by the edge, looking out over the blue sky they were currently still ascending into. The higher up they got, the bigger the impact radius would get, this Maria understood. And she also understood, that if the impact radius was big enough, everything on the planet would be burnt to ashes, leaving a burned and apocalyptic would behind which Ultron would rule. That was his plan, that was his utopia.

"We're going to need a plan soon… Once Ultron begins the drop, it's too late," said Maria.

A little further away from them, she saw Erik running out of a building with a child in his arms. He took the child to the shop, the crying mother taking the child from him with a grateful look on her face.

Her heart sunk slightly.

"Cap, these people are going nowhere," said Natasha, turning her head away from Erik and back towards Steve.

"If Stark finds a way to blow up the city, innocent people will die," said Maria, taking a step forwards and looking at Steve with a pleading look, feeling slightly guilty to have to put a decision like this on Steve's shoulders. Though she knew she herself wouldn't be able to make the right decision if she had been in Steve's shoes and only found herself admiring him more because he stayed calm and was mature enough to be able to make decisions like that.

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there?" asked Natasha, raising an eyebrow at Maria. "Both you and me have done worse…"

Maria shook her head; "I'm no murderer anymore."

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it," said Steve, looking between Maria and Natasha. "If we're going to be killers at the end of our lives, the least we can do is stay with them."

"I didn't say we should leave," said Natasha quietly before sighing. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

Maria's heart sunk even more. Not only would innocent people be blown up only to save the world. But this would be the end of her life. Not that she minded it. She'd rather die with the civilians than have to live with the knowledge that so many innocent people had died because of them.

Steve looked at her with a saddened look on his face. Though when she nodded her head at him, letting him show that she was okay with it, the sadness in his eyes turned to something else. Something she couldn't describe as anything else but… admiration.

A blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff."

Maria gasped. That voice. It was Fury, undeniably. His voice caused a wave of relief to wash over her and she smiled.

"It's about to get better," said Fury's voice as something big suddenly ascended into view of them.

"Impossible…" said Maria with a smile.

"Nice right? Pulled her out of the mothballs with a couple of old friends," said Fury.

"Old friends?" asked Maria curiously.

"Me, for example," said the voice of none other than Martin Lund, a tech interested young, Swedish man who had helped Maria, Steve and Sam back when Hydra had been found lurking amongst SHIELD. Maria had actually been wondering what he had been doing lately, seeing as SHIELD existed no more. Apparently, he had not been far away.

"Martin!" exclaimed Maria, her smile widening even more.

"Well, the hellicarier might be dusty. But… she'll do to help you guys," said Fury.

"Fury, you son of a bitch," said Steve.

"Woo! You kiss your mother with that mouth?" asked Fury sarcastically.

"We need to get the civilians off the city. Stark's gonna blow it," said Clint, exchanging a relieved look with Nat, Maria and Steve.

"No problem. Deploying life-boats."

The moment Fury had said that; giant life boats were indeed deployed from the side of the helicarrier. They moved over towards the edge of the city with ease and Pietro and Wanda took a step closer, their eyes looking genuinely intrigued.

"This is what SHIELD is?" asked Pietro, turning his head to Steve.

"This is what SHIELD is supposed to be."

Maria and Clint immediately ran over to the shop, opening up the doors and briefing the police and military who met up with them, of the situation at hand. They looked just as relieved as Maria felt and soon, the lifeboats Fury had promised them had 'docked' with the flying city, holding themselves steady so that the civilians could board them. The Avengers all worked together to make sure the civilians moved calmly and that no one was left behind. Those injured and without anyone to help got the help they needed to move towards the lifeboats by Maria, Wanda and Clint. Some were in too much shock to move and those, Steve talked to, calming them down for long enough to move them to the lifeboats.

Unluckily, the rescue took a little too long and the next wave of Ultron moved in while the last civilians were boarding. So, the Avengers' task became a little more difficult. Though Tony along with Rhodey (a very surprising person who had come to help) made sure the robots didn't come close to the civilians from up above. Those who did, Wanda or Erik took out.

"I got it!" exclaimed Tony's voice through the com. "Rhodey, get the rest of the civilians to safety. Avengers; time to work for a living. Meet me by the church, now."

Maria exchanged a look with Clint, the two having just helped an elderly lady on board one of the life-boats.

"We're on our way," said Steve, gesturing for them all to start moving.

With the question of what plan Tony had come up with to blow the city up and save the world, Maria began to jog towards the center of the flying city, hopeful that this would all soon be over.

This chapter wasn't the best of chapters, I know that. But... Next week, the chapter will be much better, I promise :)

Here's a little hint for what's going to happen next week. Remember when everyone was freaking out over which important character was going to die. Well, that won't change. But there's more death coming up... I'm evil like that.