A huge thank you to all who've read this story. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Italics signify flashbacks.

"Let go", Pietro whispered in her ear when she tried on the red leather jacket, wondering what the hell she was doing – if anybody could be fooled by her disguise as part of the team. She was not. Not an avenger, not a hero, not someone good.
"None of this would have happened if it wasn't for…"
"You're sure about that?" He interrupted her before she could place the blame and gently took her face in his hands. "I fight next to Tony Stark now but that doesn't mean I trust him. You wouldn't have seen anything if it wasn't so clear in his mind. Ultron is not our doing. He is Stark's vision."
"You can't blame Stark for all of it." It was only when she said the words that she realized their truth.
Pietro shrugged. "I can do whatever I want. Right now, I want to save the world and kick some robot's ass. And maybe that little bowman's, too."
Wanda rolled her eyes but couldn't keep from smiling, and Pietro nodded, satisfied. "It's going to be alright." He started towards the living room but stopped at the door, suddenly tense. "Just promise me you'll be careful."
Wanda moved her fingers over the jacket. It was pretty, and comfortable. And Pietro had found it for her, not Stark – a weak compromise, but maybe that was all she could hope for at the moment.
She had never been part of a team. When the bombs had come and killed her parents, they'd also erased her memories of the life she'd had. For as long as she could remember, it had only been Pietro and her. He was all she had, and all she needed – she had learnt not to let her heart reach out to people. They only died, and her heart broke. She could not survive this again. Pietro had to live, and she would fight next to Tony Stark for the rest of her life it that would protect him.
"You too", she said, with a voice reserved only for her brother, without any trace of bitterness or anger.
Pietro smiled. "Always. You know me." He reached out behind and she took his hand, and together they walked towards the avengers.

Steve caught up with the young woman after a minute, but remained one step behind her. He knew how it was to have the whole world crashing down on you – on you only, while everyone else seemed to be pretty well off. And from the look on Tony's face, their conversation had been quite intense. If she needed silence, she would get it. As long as she didn't try to run from him.
After a few minutes of walking, Wanda gave in. "What do you want?"
"How do you feel?"
"How do I feel?" She spun around. "How do you expect me to feel? My home is destroyed, my brother is dead, and wherever I go I am followed by Mister Fury's men, reminding me I am a prisoner here as I was in Sokovia."
"You are not a prisoner. And", he added as Wanda waved the comment aside, "you saved a lot of lives. I know it's not much right now but it's something you can hold on to. You turned around and did your best to make amends."
Wanda stared at him, suddenly uncertain. She wanted to laugh at him for the fairy tale, but there was something in his face that stopped her. "You really believe that, don't you?"
Why did everyone ask that? Steve sighed but his voice remained calm. "That you did everything you could? That we would not have been able to win without you? Yes, I do."
"No, not that." She turned around and started to walk again, nodding to her side. Steve closed the gap. "I mean you really believe that is enough to leave the matter behind?" Her eyes were filled with tears that did not fall. "I made him fight. I made Stark see what he feared most, and when I realized my mistake it was too late. People died."
"As they do in every war." Steve swallowed. "I've been in this business far longer than you, Wanda. The trick is to think more of those you've saved than of those you didn't."
"I want no trick."
"You need it", he said blankly, and once again found Wanda staring at him. "Trust me. You can't move on if you don't. And moving on is the only thing you have to do right now."
"Do I?" Wanda tensed. "Why? Because it would ruin your reputation as a hero if you cannot save me?"
Steve smiled sadly, recognizing the pain in her biting tone. "You know why, Wanda."

"Come get me when the city's empty. Not sooner. Do you understand?"
Do you understand that the blood of everyone who dies today is on our hands? That it is our fault Ultron is here destroying their city – our city?
Our fault. Or mine alone.
Pietro shook his head at the grimness in his sister's voice. He was actually enjoying himself, she saw it in his eyes, despite his obvious exhaustion and the bullet wound in his arm. He liked their new job – destroying robots, saving people. It surely was a nice change, but it could never make up for the bad they'd done, or been willing to let happen… only to destroy one man.

Or could it?
Her brother smiled, both reassuringly and mockingly, and though mind-dealing was her specialty Wanda knew it was an answer to her feelings: it could. If they worked together – maybe with the other avengers, in a team (she wasn't sure yet if she liked that) – they could become better people. People who helped others, people their parents would be proud of.
"You know", Pietro said, his voice filled with the affection and pride that had carried Wanda through all the years with HYDRA, "I'm twelve minutes older than you."
Wanda laughed, for his sake as well as for her own. "Go."

Just like that day, she found herself kneeling on the ground. "I thought he would be safe. I made him promise not to come back to Ultron and me until everything was alright. I…"
"I know." Steve gently put his arm around her shoulders, half expecting her to jerk away.
She didn't.
"When we took the vibranium you said we could still walk away", she murmured. "We should have listened to you."
"Do you think it would have changed anything?"
She was about to say yes when she remembered her brother's death. Twelve bullets that were meant for a little boy and Clint Barton - a father. Was there a way they could have stayed away from that war once they'd known about it?

"I have never been alone. My whole life, I have never been alone. Wherever I was, he was there. Whenever I was scared he'd be brave for me. And I was brave for him. I can't put someone else in his place."
"I know." Steve closed his eyes as Bucky's face appeared in his mind, exactly as it had been seventy-two years ago. No matter the friendships he forged with the others, or with Sam... the brother he'd had could never be replaced.

"But you're not alone. If you stay here, you will not be alone. It doesn't matter where you are, you're an avenger. You avenged yourself when you fought for the good. And when there comes another war – and it will come, believe me – you can help us to save people. And thereby avenge those who died to do the same."

Avenge those who died. Wanda felt a last teardrop rolling out of her eye. Her brother would love the thought of her laughing again, she knew. He would love the thought of her fighting again, if it didn't destroy her. Not that there was much left to destroy.
Avenge those who died. By living, and by doing the right thing even if her heart longed to let it all go and leave. Avenge Pietro.
He would love that.

Stephen waited a moment for the message to drop, then he stood up.
After a moment Wanda followed, and without a word started to walk back. Steve caught up and she reached out her hand and squeezed his for a moment, and together they walked towards the avengers.