Nine

"Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire. Now that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia; they didn't. So our priority is getting them out...

"All they want is to live their lives in piece, and that's not going to happen today; but we can do our best to protect them, and we can get the job done. We find out what Ultron's been building. We find Romanoff. And we clear the field. Keep the fight between us...

"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..."

"Come on, let's go, move it!" I called, waving people along the streets, trying to keep a careful eye out for any children that might have been separated. So far, everything was going smoothly. Loki shimmered back into existence next to me, his golden armour glinting brilliantly even in the dull grey lighting.

"Approximately half of the city has been evacuated, and the rest are making good progress. All we need now is-"

He cut off, body tensing and his eyes narrowing.

"Loki, what-?"

Then I felt it. The slight tremors rocking through the ground, and the closer they got, the more they sounded like scrabblings, and scratchings, and-

A scream rent through the air, and the crowd surged forwards while the pavement began to crack open under their feet. I made out the robots crawling their way free of the concrete, and quickly used a surge of magic to push the civilians further down the street, while Loki began to target the metal beings.

It was simple to pull apart the robots with a combination of telekinesis and a short electrical burst, but the sheer numbers meant we had to work fast. Those at the furthest end of the street took into the air, just as I shredded the last one near me.

Loki appeared next to me again, hand already moving to cover a slice on my cheek that a flying piece of shrapnel had made. I pushed his hand away calmly, double-checking that the area was clear of civilians.

"We have to save our power, Loki. Leave it for something severe..."

"Ev-"

He was cut off again, when a shockwave punched up through the ground, practically knocking me off of my feet. Loki caught me just in time, and he held me upright as the ground beneath us began to hum and vibrate ever so slightly.

"Do you see..? The beauty of it..? The inevitability..?" The echoing voice of Ultron slithered between buildings, down back alleys, and crept through the very foundation of the city. "You rise, only to fall... You, Avengers; you are my meteor, my swift and terrible sword, and the Earth will crack with 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."

I shot Loki a confused, panic-filled glance before pressing on my ear-piece, and radioing in for my father.

"Dad, what's going on? What did Ultron-?"

"The Vibranium's creating a magnetic field around the city, and Ultron's taking it for a ride..."

I could hear the graveness behind his joking words, and I wished him well before cutting the connection.

"Ultron's lifting the city: he's planning the sixth great extinction event..."

"Your father-"

"Stark, you worry about the city coming back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back, you get killed... Walk it off."

I rolled my eyes at the Cap's pep-talk, but rolled my shoulders anyway, and continued further into the city, Loki stopping me just as we reached the street corner.

"Don't do anything foolish, Evie. Stay safe; for me..."

"I promise. The same goes to you, Loki..."

He gave me a tight smile, then pulled me into a hard, determined kiss, which was over too soon and tasted too bitter. By the time I had opened my eyes again he was already gone. I jogged down the road, nerves on end and my hands twitching with pent up energy. I was just about to question the lack of bot activity, when I rounded the corner into a plaza full of them.

"Oh great..!" I hissed, instinctively sending a blanket wave of energy at the robots. The nearest ones shorted out briefly, while the ones towards the back only seemed to get pissed. A barrage of fire was sent my way, and I only just put up a shield in time. I began pulling some of the robots apart, but I was quickly being surrounded, and I became closer and closer to being hit by blaster fire.

With a blur of motion and colour, I was standing on the opposite side of the square, watching the space I had just occupied blow sky high. I made out a blue streak zipping between the crowd of robots, wrenching them into a mess of scraps and loose wires, which I quickly joined in on. Once the stones were covered with the remains of the robots, Pietro stopped next to me, a hand on his ribs and panting heavily.

"You alright?" I asked, looking at him with concern.

"Just a bruise..." he waved me off, about to start running again when I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you, Pietro. I really needed the help."

"You're welcome. But you owe me one now, eh Stark?" he teased lightly, nudging me with his shoulder.

"Sure sure," I mumbled, before an idea smacked me round the face. "Pietro, do you think you could run me further into the city? This just seems too quiet..."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

He gave me a dubious look, before sweeping me onto his back and speeding away. The world outside our bubble was a streak of colour, and noise, and smells, and then suddenly it was back to normal, and nowhere near where I had been before.

"Once you get out of this alley, it is Hell," he warned, his face completely serious.

"I'll be alright," I half-lied, shooing him away. He gave me one last concerned look, before sprinting down the alley and disappearing.

The next twenty odd minutes were a jumbled mess of robots, and screams, and fire, and blood, and a determination which stemmed from my very soul. Any robot that crossed my path was wiped out, and any stray citizen was quickly guided to safety. Once I had killed the last robot in my area, and stopped for a small breather, and noticed the lull in enemy numbers that had occurred minutes previously.

"The next's wave's gonna hit any minute. Whad'ya 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..!" Steve's brusque tone was a sharp contrast to the subdued tone my father's voice had owned.

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're gonna have to make a choice."

"Cap, these people are going nowhere," Nat commented, and relief flooded me, finally knowing that she was safe. "If Stark finds a way to blow this rock-"

"Not 'til everyone's safe-!"

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there; there's no math there!"

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it."

"I didn't say we should leave."

The silence that suddenly filled the earpiece was unsettling, but full of acceptance, and resignation. I let out a shaky breath, and let my head rest back against the wall, eyes slowly falling shut.

"There's worse ways to go." Nat said in a matter of fact voice, and I could only agree. "Where else am I gonna get a view like this..?" Tears filled my eyes, and I sniffed quietly, a lump gathering hot and heavy in my throat.

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff," My eyes flew open, and I hurriedly swiped the tears away. "It's about to get better."

I looked to my left, all the way down the highway, and saw the shape of the Helicarrier rising on the horizon of the city.

"Nice right? Pulled her outta mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but, she'll do..."

"Fury, you son of a bitch."

"Ooho, you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Fury chastised, and I couldn't hold back my short, shocked laugh.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D?" Pietro asked, and Cap's reply was immediate.

"This is what S.H.I.E.L.D is supposed to be,"

"This is not so bad..." Pietro admitted, and I started making my way down the road, jogging around cars, concrete, and other random debris.

"Let's load 'em up," Steve ordered, and I picked up the pace. I was ground-bound; my Iron Maiden gear having been damaged in the Battle of New York and I had never gotten around to fixing it, which I was starting to vehemently regret.

"Yes!" I heard the explosions, and the familiar sound of Rhodey's voice, and quickly searched the sky's for him. "Now this is going to be a good story..!"

"Yup... If you live to tell it..."

"You think I can't hold my own?" Rhodey argued, falling into a familiar camaraderie with my father.

"We get through this, I'll hold your own."

"You had to make it weird," I huffed, rolling my eyes at Dad's immaturity.

"How you holding up, Baby Stark?"

"Just fine; I'm heading down the highway right now. You two be careful up there, alright?"

"Sure thing, baby girl."

I watched Rhodey and my dad continue on their lap of the floating city, eyes switching to the scene in front of me when I finally lost sight of them. I reached the destroyed bridge in under a minute, and helped guide the various families and adults onto the aircraft carriers, healing any serious injuries that I encountered.

Only a few minutes of this, and the robots were back, their numbers still slumped, but enough to make us work to keep the civilians safe. Nat and Cap focused on the fight, while I set up shields and dome of energy wherever I could, to keep people a=safe from stray fire.

"I got it! Create a heat seal!" Dad's voice broke me out of my current situation, and my attention was split directly in half: my geeky, technical side listening to the solution to the problem while the rest of me focused on getting people healed, and safely onto the boats. "I could-! I could supercharge the spire from below..!"

A stray shot bounced off my shield, and ricocheted into one of the engines of the life boats, exploding it and sending the boat lurching downwards. My father quickly propped it up, and began guiding it towards the Helicarrier.

"Thor, I've got a plan-!"

"It's too late, they're coming for the core!" Loki interrupted, a faint clang echoing through the earpiece.

"Get the rest of the people on that carrier!"

"On it," I answered my dad, pushing more people onto the craft while keeping an eye out for any rogue robots.

"Avengers... time to work for a living."

A few minutes later, and the ear-com crackled again.

"Romanoff, you and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini..."

"Relax shell head," Natasha drawled over my choked sniggers. "Not all of us can fly... What's the drill?"

"This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose..." There a short series of clangs, and a bestial roar. The Other Guy.

"Is that the best you can do?" Thor demanded, and my attention was once again divided. The few remaining bots turned tail and sped away, leaving my confused, and very cautious. There was a brief moment of silence, and then Steve exhaled sharply.

"You just had to ask..!"

"This is the best I can do..." I could barely make out Ultron's voice through the headset, but the volume was just enough to keep me clued in. "This is exactly what I wanted: all of you, against all of me..."

"Do I not exist?" I raged in a whisper, and I swear I heard Loki chuckle under his breath.

"How can you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Well, like the old man said... Together."

At my dad's words, the team seemed to burst into action, the Hulk's roar echoing loudly over the communication link and the buildings and streets of Sokovia, and the pounding of metal footsteps creating an uncomfortable cacophony of white noise in my ear.

I could hear the grating of metal, the cracking of stone, the zips of blaster fire, and the grunting of the other Avengers. This mass of noise lasted for only minutes before it all went quiet, and the faint groaning of Ultron could be heard.

"You know.. with the benefit of hindsight-"

There was a sharp clang, and my eyes were drawn to a smoking shape fly through the air, across to somewhere on the other side of the island. My gaze was shifted lower, and to the right, where several mangled robots were taking off from the edge of the rising city.

"They'll try to leave the city!" Thor rumbled, his voice tight.

"We can't let 'em; not even one. Rhodey?"

"I'm on it... Oh no, I didn't say you could leave. War Machine: comin' at'chu!" I watched Rhodey shoot down a few bots, who was quickly overtaken by Vision, who merely blasted them with the Mind Stone, or pulled them apart with his bare hands. "Okay... What?!" Rhodey's exclamation was ignored, and the next phase of the plan quickly rolled into place.

"We gotta move out, even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers. I'll be right behind ya."

"What about the core?" I asked, waving one last man onto the airship. I did another sweep, and found this entire side of the island deserted, save for a few lingering carriers.

"I'll protect it," Wanda spoke up, sounding completely determined. "It's my job."

"Nat, this way..."

I let out a shaky breath, and sucked in a few deep ones, noting the gradual loss of oxygen in the air. I quickly flicked my comm onto urgent, and focused on a group of people that came running around a corner, obviously deciding to come out of hiding and come aboard a ship. I jogged forward, and checked them all over, quickly healing a man who had a nasty piece of metal embedded in his left upper arm.

I nodded to Clint as he jogged up and hopped on board a carrier. His head whipped around suddenly, and I followed his gaze, seeing a small boy trapped under some rubble. I saw his weight shift forwards, and he began to make his way over.

Heavy machine gun fire suddenly rent the air, and the Hulk's enraged roar was quick to follow. My head snapped up, and I made out a blurry shape zipping through the cloud cover. I watched Clint kneel down, and lift the boy out of the rubble, tucking him securely in his arms. A sudden sizzling, sour feeling erupted in my gut, and I took an unsteady step forwards.

Time seemed to slow down, and several things happened suddenly.

The jet straightened up, and lowered its nose, bullets beginning to punch their way along the street, narrowly missing Thor and Steve who were standing several metres away. One S.H.I.E.L.D agent was shot down, just as Clint got to his feet and turned around, reacting to the noise that had come from behind him. I also noticed the silver blur at the end of the street, none other than Pietro, already racing forwards.

I watched the fire come closer and closer to Clint and the boy, and Pietro come closer and closer. I stared desperately at the space that the three could collide, tears welling in my eyes, and bile rising in my throat. Every fibre in my being screamed for me to get closer, and a sudden spike in my core made me lose focus.

Time sped up again, and suddenly I was face to face with Clint, standing only two metres away from him, a large blue shield erected in front of me, protecting him, and the boy, and the blur that was Pietro. Clint's horrified eyes were locked on mine, words forming on his lips, his foot lifting to step forward-

Hot pain erupted all across my back, causing me to bow backwards and scream out in anguish, the blue shield flickering before finally exploding in a shower of blue energy. Warm wet flooded the front of my clothing and armour, and I sank to my knees, shaking, and cold, and achy, and feverishly hot...

I was suddenly staring up at the sky, tears trekking down the sides of my face as I coughed up blood, and gasped desperately for air. Clint's blue-grey eyes and his dirt-streaked face suddenly blocked my view of the heavens, desperation clear in them, his mouth forming pleas I could not hear. Pietro was next to me as well, holding onto my hand while the ringing in my ears slowly began to clear.

"Looks like you owe me now, Maximoff," I chuckled, before I was cut off by another round of coughs. Pietro shook his head sadly, a few tears dripping from his own dark brown eyes.

A coldness started at my fingers and toes, and began a slow march along my limbs, mirrored by the appearance of Loki, who roughly pushed Clint and Pietro away, devastation written clear on the lines of his face. I stared dazedly at his lips, trying to work out what he was saying.

'Evie... stupid... leave me..?'

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.

Steve's words from earlier, although it seemed more like a lifetime ago, popped into my head, and I was graced with a moment of clarity.

"Ultron... was wrong..." I spluttered, the cold lapping at the edges of my torso now. "We aren't monsters..."

"Evie, no..." Loki moaned, heartbreak etched into his eyes and expression. His hands, bloodstained and warm, pressed on either side of my face, desperately trying to push magic into me, to heal me, but I knew I was done. The moment Loki's skin touched mine and I felt warmth, I knew I would not recover from this.

"I love you... so much..." I gasped, tears blocking my vision, wincing at the cold burned at my heart. I shuddered violently, and suddenly many pairs of hands were present on me at the same time. I met the eyes Steve, and Thor, and Pietro, and Clint, and finally Loki. Surrounded by some of the people I loved most in the universe, having fought for something I believed in, I was finally ready to let go.

"Tell my dad I love him... Please?"

Many nodded, but Loki just pressed his lips softly to mine, one last time.

"I will spend the rest of my existence searching for you in Valhalla. This will not be the end!" he choked through gritted teeth. I gave a weak smile, my eyes fluttering closed as I surrendered to the cold.

"Until the next time, Loki..."

My mind became hazy, and I began to float away, the faces of my friends, and family, and loved ones slowly sinking into the darkness. One sentence followed me into the cool darkness.

"The next time..."

I drifted.

A/N: I'm a horrible person, and I'm sorry! D:
I hate that I've done this, but this was the only way I could logically see this story ending. Don't worry, there will be at least a third story. Whether it be about C.A:CW, or Thor: Ragnarok, I will not leave it here. Again, I'm sorry for doing this, but it hurts me as much, if not more, to do this to Evie. Evie's my baby-brain-child after all!

Anyway, if you've enjoyed, leave a review, a favourite or a follow, and if you didn't, leave me a review to let me know why. I would appreciate if you could follow or favourite me as an author, so you can get an update to any other storied I may write. A short one-shot will be coming out soon, about Evie's talk with Odin that is mentioned in Chapter Six.

Anyway, sorry for the long delay on this story, but I hope it's been worth it.
Love you guys so much!

Ta-Ta!