Speedy Eagle

Final Battle

She collapses against Pietro, eyes open as she stares at nothing, dazed. Wanda lets out a scream of pain and anguish, losing control of her powers. Anything in the church is shredded as her powers surge. She collapses to her knees. Thor takes off to the church as Steve runs to Pietro and Anastasia. Clint sets the child down and goes to them as well. Clint picks the child up as Steve and Pietro grab Anastasia.

Hulk jumps onto the hellicarrier, Natasha in his arms. He sets her down gently before jumping to the quinjet. "Oh, for god's sake!" Ultron curses as he is thrown out.

Clint hands the child to his mother and goes over to Anastasia, who was set in Pietro's lap. He holds pressure to the wound on her stomach, tears streaming down his face. As Clint sits down near Pietro a man comes over to help him. "No, no. I'm fine. Oh, it's been a long day. Help her!"

Wanda twirls her powers in her hand as she kneels by Ultron. "Wanda," Ultron says. "If you stay here, you'll die."

"I just did. Do you know how it felt?" Wanda uses her powers and slowly, painfully, take out Ultron's core. "It felt like that."

A robot, left torn in half crawls towards the core, engaging it. The city falls and Steve barely makes it off, jumping onto the last lifeboat. Tony crashes into the bottom and jets move it faster towards the ground. Tony engages his uni-beam. "Thor, on my mark." Thor calls his lightning. Wanda is sent flying through the air and Vision comes to her. He picks her up and takes her off the city. "Now!" The city disintegrates, pieces becoming so small that they wouldn't kill billions.

On the quinjet, the doors close before Hulk. "Hey big guy," Natasha says. Hulk walks over to a monitor. "We did it. The job's finished. Now I need you to turn this bird around, okay?" Natasha stands before a monitor on the Hellicarrier. "We can't track you in stealth mode, so help me out. I need you to." Natasha is cut off as Hulk shuts the screen off.

Ultron climbs out of the hole where Sokovia once stood. Vision lands softly before his broken and tattered body. "You're afraid," Vision states.

"Of you?"

"Of death. You're the last one."

"You were supposed to be the last. Stark asked for a savior, and settled for a slave."

"I suppose we're both disappointments.

Ultron laughs. "I suppose we are."

"Humans are odd. They think order and chaos are somehow opposites, and try to control what won't be. But there is grace in their failings. I think you missed that."

"They're doomed."

"Yes. But a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. It's a privilege to be among them."

"You're unbearably naïve."

"Well, I was born yesterday." Ultron lunges at Vision and is destroyed instantly.

When the lifeboat lands on the Hellicarrier, Pietro is the first off. Clint leads him down to the infirmary where they set Anastasia down and she is immediately taken away. Pietro paces through the Hellicarrier, waiting for Wanda. Vision lands and Wanda crawls out of his arms, falling to her knees. Pietro runs over and tries to comfort her. He leads her to where they are working on Anastasia. They sit outside, waiting. Clint walks up to them and kneels down. The look on his face says it all.

Wanda breaks down further and Pietro clings to her. They cry together until they can no longer. A man leads them to a room where they sit down and fall asleep.

The next day, Clint takes a jet to his house. At the farm, Lila and Cooper sit on the couch and Laura is in the kitchen. She stops and turns around. Clint stands there with his bags in his hands. He sets them down as Laura comes up to him and they hug. Cooper and Lila get up when Clint comes back in with Anastasia in his arms. She smiles at them all weakly as Laura gets her a light meal.

A week later, Tony drives to the new S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Helen walks through the lab and Erik walks through another. Natasha stands in a blank room, looking at the wall. She gets a message and when she looks at it, a little baby sits there. Laura says, "Say hi to Auntie Nat." The boy's shirt reads Nathaniel Pietro Barton.

"Fat," Natasha comments.

"One of our tech boys flagged this, splashed down in the Banda Sea," Fury says, walking in. "Could be the quinjet. But with Stark's tech, we still can't track the damn thing."

"Right."

"Probably jumped out and swam to Fiji. He'll send a postcard."

"Wish you were here. You sent me to recruit him, way back when. Did you know then what was going to happen?"

"You never know. You hope for the best and make do with what you get. I got a great team."

"Nothing lasts forever."

"Trouble, Ms. Romanoff. No matter who wins or loses, trouble still comes 'round."

"The rules have changed," Steve says, walking with Thor and Tony.

"We're dealing with something new," Tony says.

"Well, the Vision's artificial intelligence."

"A machine."

"So it doesn't count."

"No. It's not, like, a person lifting the hammer."

"Right. Different rules for us."

"Nice guy. But artificial."

"Thank you."

"If he can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone," Thor says. "It's safe with the Vision. In these days, safe is in short supply."

"But if you put the hammer in an elevator," Steve starts.

"It would still go up," Tony reasons.

"Elevator's not worthy."

"I'm going to miss these little talks of ours," Thor says.

"Not if you don't leave," Tony reminds.

"I have no choice. The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That's not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate games and has made pawns of us. Once all these pieces are in position."

"Triple Yahtzee?" Tony asks.

"You think you can find out what's coming?" Steve questions.

"I do," Thor says. "Besides this one," Thor starts, hitting Tony, "there's nothing that can't be explained." Thor calls Heimdall, leaving a scorch mark on the ground.

"That man has no regard for lawn maintenance. I'm gonna miss him, though. And you're gonna miss me. There's gonna be a lot of manful tears."

"I will miss you, Tony." Tony calls his car and it rolls to him.

"Yeah? Well, it's time for me to tap out. Maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book and build Pepper a farm. Hope nobody blows it up."

"The simple life."

"You'll get there one day."

"I don't know. Family, stability. The guy who wanted all that went in the ice seventy-five years ago. I think someone else came out."

"You alright?" Tony asks.

"I'm home."

Steve stands behind Natasha as she stares at the wall. "You want to keep staring at the wall, or do you want to go to work? I mean, it's a pretty interesting wall."

"I thought you and Tony were still gazing into each other's eyes. How do we look?"

"Well, we're not the '27 Yankees," Steve says, passing Natasha a tablet.

"We've got some hitters."

"They're good. They're not a team."

"Let's beat 'em into shape." Natasha and Steve walk through the door and there stand War Machine, Vision, Falcon, Pietro and Wanda, ready to train.

"Avengers!" Steve calls.

4t*