Summary: Missing scene from "Avengers - Age of Ultron." Tony and Clint struggle to get Banner safely out of South Africa while Steve, Natasha, and Thor suffer under the Scarlet Witch's spell.

Salvage

Part 4

PenPatronus

"Natasha, I could really use a lullaby," Tony's singsong voice called over the coms.

Clint's stomach warped. The witch must have gotten to Banner. "That's not gonna happen. Not for a while," Barton reported. He cradled the Black Widow's face and his stomach twisted again when she didn't meet his gaze. "The whole team is down. You got no backup here." Clint lifted Natasha into his arms and carried her, bridal style, across the deck of the grounded ship.

"I'm calling in Veronica."

Barton sprinted towards Thor. "Stark, I need you to send the Quinjet to my location. I can't carry all three of them, and some of Klaue's men are still milling around." Right then, Barton saw a tall, thick man in camo sneak out from a dark office and lift a machete over Thor's unshielded back. Barton shifted Natasha's weight against his chest, unsheathed a gun from her hip holster, and fired a bullet between the mercenary's eyes. "If Ultron comes back I won't be able to protect them. At least, not for long."

Clint heard Tony gulp. "They're hurt? Cap's hurt?"

"You worry about the Hulk, I'll worry about our team."

"I need you to prime the nuclear railgun, Barton. Might need it if Veronica can't take him down."

"Wouldn't that bury you and a quarter of the city?" At Stark's silence, Hawkeye frowned and gnawed on his bottom lip. "I'll get to you as soon as I can."

"I remotely activated the Quinjet," Tony said. "JARVIS is coming." The coms went dead.

A hiccup-sob erupted from Natasha. Her red eyes looked towards Clint, but not at him. Sharp nails dug into his shoulders. "Changed my mind…I d-don't want to be an a-assassin." The witch's spell glowed so bright that Natasha's cheeks burned crimson.

"Nat, you're safe, you're ok," Clint reassured her for the tenth time. "I'm here. I've got you."

"They won't let you do this to me," Romanoff whispered. "My team…My boys…They'll come for me. They'll save me."

"Yes, we will," Clint promised. He sat Natasha down beside Thor and grabbed the god's wrist. "Goldilocks, you with me?" he asked, wrapping Thor's trembling fingers around Mjolnir.

Thor's grip tightened instinctively around the hammer. "I can still save you," he said, eyes wide but unseeing. "Not a destroyer, I'm not a destroyer…"

Footsteps behind him. Clint nocked an arrow and raised his bow in less than a second. "It's just me," Captain America croaked. Steve dropped his shield and raised his palms in surrender, then waved his hands like he was trying to shoo away a fly. "That's not real," he said to himself. "She's not real…" He collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath.

Barton grasped Steve's arm and studied his blinking eyes. "Cap, can you see me? You know where you are?"

Steve nodded, and then clenched his eyes shut hard. "It's like you're a mirage. I can see you but you're a…a ripple." Steve mimed the motion by rippling his fingers. "Tony…?"

"Hulk's on a rampage. Stark went after him."

"Gotta help him…"

Suddenly, the entire ship screeched as if in pain. Iron and steel bent, and then the top deck separated completely from the whole. Clamps tossed the roof aside and then ascended back up into the Quinjet's torso. The jet lowered, hovering, and extended its ramp right down to the waiting Avengers. Clint immediately carried Natasha inside and strapped her up tight in a seat. "I have no place in the world," she muttered over and over. Cap managed to get the disoriented Thor on his feet and, together, he and Hawkeye shepherded the god into the ship.

Something in the distance exploded so loudly that the sound vibrated the entire jet.

"—is unconscious, Sir," JARVIS' broken, garbled voice informed Tony. "—on their way—news reports—Ultron…"

Knuckles tapped against Tony's nose. Someone was knocking on Iron Man's Veronica-ized suit like it was a door. "You alive in there?" a familiar voice called. "Pizza delivery for Tony Stark!"

Tony opened his eyes and saw Hawkeye through the cracked, flickering HUD. His voice may have been aloof, playful, but his just-seen-a-ghost expression betrayed his concern. Stark ordered JARVIS to release him and the suit opened like an oyster. Unfortunately, it froze halfway through the sequence, leaving the left side of Tony's body pinned under squealing hinges. Barton swung his bow off his back and jammed one end of it into the narrow space between Tony's hip and the padded interior of the suit. With Barton pushing all of his strength and bodyweight into the makeshift crowbar from above, and Tony pushing upwards from below, the pair managed to make enough room for the inventor to crawl out. "What took you so long, Legolas?" Tony quipped when Barton pulled him to his feet.

Clint scowled at him. "It's been, like, five minutes!"

Tony stretched his arms high and wide. "That was a long five minutes," he sighed. "I think I have two concussions. Is it possible to have two concussions at once? Veronica's shocks need an upgrade…"

"Stark! Barton!" another familiar voice shouted. "Over here!"

Tony and Clint scrambled south over piles of debris. Cap wrestled a steel beam off a heap of bricks and launched it away. Droplets of green blood rained down on Stark and Barton as the pillar sailed over their heads. "Oh, God," Tony groaned, clutching Clint's uniform as if for dear life. "I killed him. He can't be killed—but did I kill him? Cap? CAP?"

Steve made a hole wide enough for them to fit through. He jumped into it, chest-deep, and Tony followed. Together, the two Avengers rolled a half-naked, sweat-soaked, dirt-stained, blood-splattered Bruce Banner onto his back. Tony skimmed a trembling hand up Banner's frowning face and into his black hair. "Bruce."

Banner's frown deepened. His eyebrows formed a "v" shape. Jaw muscles flexed under pale skin. He spoke so softly that his friends barely heard the question. "Wha' happened?"

Stark and Rogers exchanged glances. "Touch of the flu, big guy," Tony said. "You turned a little…green."

Bruce pursed his lips together tightly and then licked them. "It was different this time…Worse…I'm always tired after it happens but this time I feel…dead. And I-I saw something, something strange…" Bruce finally opened his eyes and searched for Tony's. "I saw the Hulk," he whispered, "but he…he was RED." Banner squinted up at them. "Tony, you're bleeding." Steve saw the blood on Stark's shoulder and his eyes followed the trail up to his skull. "I hurt you, didn't I?" Bruce whispered. "I hurt—Oh, God, how many people…?"

Sirens erupted in the background. The voices and footsteps of onlookers got louder, closer. Clint crouched beside the hole and held his hand out. "We better get out of here, guys."

Tony gently slipped his hand underneath the back of Bruce's neck. "Can you move?" he asked quietly.

Bruce nodded. A slim, shallow, small tear escaped nearly unnoticed from his eye. "I'm tired. I'm cold," he said.

Steve took his arm. "You're sweating," he pointed out.

"Why am I so cold?"

"We'll get you a blanket." Tony took Bruce's hand and squeezed. "On three, alright? One—two—three!"

Bruce made it into the Quinjet, but not to a seat. He collapsed against the center console and slid to the deck, trembling, and motioning for the others to just leave him there. As the jet took off, policemen and civilians, wounded and unwounded alike, shouted at him. Someone helped him put pants on—Tony, he realized dully. Someone else wrapped a blanket around his shoulders—Steve, he thought. Nearby, Thor paced the deck like a caged animal while Natasha slumped, muttering to herself, in her seat. Not one Avenger made eye contact with another.

Bruce shivered. Maria Hill's voice startled him, and the exhausted timbre of Tony's voice depressed him. He heard Clint's voice once in a while, and Cap's twice. Eventually, Bruce fell asleep. He didn't see or hear Tony, who wrapped his friend up in another blanket and pulled him close, letting Banner use his lap as a pillow.

The End

(Reviews are always appreciated!)