AMERICA'S POV

"All right, I'm here." Apparently I'm faster than the Quinjet, so I got sent ahead.

"Be careful. Stay out of sight until we get there," Steve instructs. I nod along, but I'm not really listening to him. Inside the room beyond me are a few very familiar voices, which creates a new plan in my mind.

"About that... I have a better idea."

"America-"

"I'll apologize later. For now, you've just gotta trust me."

"America!"

I quickly shut my ear comm of, compose myself, and swallow back any fear. This could go really well or really, really badly. And Steve's going to absolutely murder me if I get shot again.

"How soon? I'm not being pushy." I hate his stupid metal voice. I really do.

"We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no shortcuts. Even if your magic gem is..." I step into the room, focusing everyone's attention on me. No one shoots. Not yet, anyway. Ultron cocks his head in mild interest.

"Looks like big sister is back. What are you going to do, run me away?"

I shake my head, letting my loose curls fall in front of my face. "No, I - I didn't know where else to go." My voice trails off, sounding desperate and forlorn. Perfect.

"I told her to come," Pietro says, glancing over at me. He doesn't even know why, but he's protecting me. Wanda looks at him. I don't think I've said more than five words to her, but she trusts her brother. "I said she'd be safe with us."

"Is that so?" Ultron moves closer to me, but I don't back down. "And why did you come?"

"The Avengers... they aren't as forgiving as they pretend to be. A billionaire with a metal suit makes a mistake and he's welcomed back with open arms. A discarded puppet of Hydra's does the same thing, and they kick her to the curb." I turn away, crossing my arms. "I thought I could trust them, that they were different. But they're all the same. Monsters."

Pietro draws me into his embrace, and I hide there for a moment. He's doing this because he doesn't want to see me hurt. He doesn't know if I'm lying, but he knows how quickly Ultron would break his promise about hurting me if there were any doubts about my allegiances.

"Fair enough. You have a point. They just can't seem to move on, can they?" Ultron sighs. Wanda approaches the cradle, running her ring-clad fingers down its edge. At least she's there and out of my mind. She closes her eyes for a fraction of a second, then screams. Pietro's by her side instantly, me close behind. Her breath is shaky as he runs a hand down her hair, trying to calm his twin down. "Hey, hey, hey," he mutters soothingly. Ultron stands, looking at the pair of them.

"H-how could you?" She knows.

That changes my badly constructed plan a whole lot. Oops.

"How could I what?"

"You said we would destroy the Avengers. Make a better world!"

"It will be better," Ultron insists.

"With everybody dead?" Pietro's blue eyes widen as she says this.

"That is not-!" He rages, then calms down a bit. "The human race will have every opportunity to improve."

"And if they don't?" Pietro asks coldly.

Ultron gestures lazily in response. "Ask Noah."

"You're a madman," Wanda states, backing up. I don't react rashly. I'm completely disgusted that I created this metal 'visionary,' but Wanda seems to have an idea, and I'm fresh out of my own.

"There were more than a dozen extinction-level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs. We have to evolve. There's no room for the weak."

"And who decides who is weak?" Pietro asks as his sister breaks the trance on Helen Cho. I just stay in tune with the conversation.

Ultron chuckles this dark laugh. "Life. Life always decides. There's incoming. The Quinjet. We have to move."

"That's not a problem," Dr. Cho says. She stops the upload of Ultron's consciousness into the cradle. Ultron immediately blasts her, but before I can help, Pietro grabs me around the waist and runs out of the room.

It's absolutely terrifying to be moving this fast without doing it myself. It takes all of me not to scream.

He deposits the two of us in a side alley with a fruit stand, leaning over to catch his breath.

"What are you doing?" I screech at him. His head snaps up.

"Getting you out of there," he answers angrily. "You really think Ultron would hesitate to kill you if you were still there?"

Someone (probably Tony) must have fixed my ear comm, and multiple concerned voices flood my ear at the same time.

"Where are you?"

"America?"

"Are you okay? Did you get shot again?"

"I'm fine!" I insist. "I'm with the twins, and I didn't get shot!"

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" I have another thought. "Steve, Dr. Cho's in the lab, she's hurt."

"I know, I saw her. I'm heading after Ultron now."

"Good. Keep me updated." I turn back to my younger siblings, something that feels weird to even think. "We need to figure this whole thing out."

"What do you mean?" Pietro asks, his eyebrows arching.

"I mean this," I say, gesturing to our group. "What is this?"

"Family," he answers immediately. "We don't leave family behind, Valeria."

Family. For the longest time, I hated the word. Didn't know what it was really like. Everyone else had one. I had a target on my back and an aching conscience. But I found one. I found my own family in Steve, in the Avengers. And now, a new family is at my fingertips, if only we work together.

Wanda still seems unsure. She plays with a heavy silver ring on her hand, not speaking. And I feel the presence of something new in my head.

I instantly back up, going into instant panic mode. My breath speeds up as fear fills me. What happened? There's no way they have me. No way at all. Pietro steps forward, a concerned expression on his pale face, but I just shake my head rapidly, hoping the pieces will fall into place and something will click. And something does. I close my eyes.

"Please...get...out...of...my...head."

Just like that, it's gone. I open my eyes to find Pietro tightly gripping my shoulders. He lets go once he realizes I'm all right.

Wanda looks stricken.

I knew it was her.

I walk slowly towards my little sister, then in a dead quiet voice, I whisper, "never do that again. Please." I know she didn't mean to, and she just wanted to see what I was thinking, but I can't handle anyone other than myself in my head anymore.

"Okay," she whispers back, eyes wide.

"We are a family," I say, looking back and forth between the two. "But I need to know how far that's going to go. How much you're willing to do. Between you and me, I get shot a lot because I tend to think everyone else deserves to live more than me. Should I include you two in that group? Because I don't want to stick my neck out for people who don't have my back."

There's a silence as all three of us absorb what I've just said. A little television propped up on the fruit stand catches my attention. The newscaster speaks in a language I instantly recognize as Korean, and while I do understand what he's saying, I pay no attention to it. Instead, my focus rests on a video of Steve and Ultron fighting on top of a truck.

To my surprise, it's Wanda who answers my question. Her dark eyes are hard as they meet mine. "Let's go."

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