EVERYONE WATCHED as the quintet took off into the air, now being too far gone for anyone to be able to catch up. Carson sighed and glanced over at Tony who was watching the jet with narrowed eyes, Rhodey still with his arms slung over his shoulder for support.

He turned his attention back to Wanda and helped her up carefully, ignoring the multiple sets of eyes that were on him coming from both teams. Wanda smiled gratefully at him and he too returned the smile, although it faded when he noticed some blood dripping down the side of her face.

"What's wrong?" Wanda noticed the change in his expression and reached up, gently tapping around her face until she located what it was that caught his attention. She brought her hand back down, eyes widening at the blood that was on her fingertips.

Carson tucked her hair that was covering the wound behind her ear and gripped her face with his hand, carefully moving her head to the side so he could get a better look.

"Who did this?" He asked, his tone become a lot more serious.

Wanda gulped when she noticed the change in his demeanour, practically feeling the rage radiating from him once again. It was like a switch flipped in his brain.

"Is this from earlier? From Rhodes?" He turned to start waking over to where Rhodey was stood but Wanda grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"I tripped." She lied, inhaling sharply when he looked down at her.

"Hm." Carson hummed in response and looked around at everyone to see if he could catch any of them giving him a guilty look.

He turned back to Wanda and when he noticed the concern on her face, he took a deep breath and instantly tried to calm down. He didn't want to scare her.

"It doesn't matter how it happened alright?, I'm fine." Wanda assured, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug. "I promise."

Tony waved Vision over to help with Rhodes and then stormed over to Carson once Vision took over.

Carson noticed Tony approaching them from over Wanda's shoulder and pulled back from the hug, preparing himself for the interaction. Wanda moved closer and slid her hand down his arm, interlocking her fingers with his once she reached his hand to comfort him.

"You!" Tony pointed at him. "What the hell was that, huh?"

"Tony—"

"No, don't Tony me!" He yelled. "What on earth we're you thinking back there?!"

Carson scrunched his face at Tony interrupting him. How was he supposed to explain himself if he didn't even let him speak? Fucking hell. "He hurt W—"

"You know what, I don't care! You could've— hell you almost KILLED him Carson!" Tony waved his arms around as he ranted. "I've lost Rogers and Barnes and to top it off I've got you going psycho on Rhodes... Jesus... how am I gonna explain this to Ross."

Carson took a deep breath before replying. "Well, is he alright?" He asked.

But not because he cared, it was purely out of obligation.

If he was being completely honest he couldn't care less what happened to Rhodey at this moment in time.

Tony paused and looked at Carson, letting out a scoff. "Is he— What do you think?!"

Carson glanced over Tony's shoulder at Rhodey who was now being set down on some boxes by Vision and Peter, Rhodey's face scrunching up as he winced from the movement.

"Look, I'm s—"

"Carson..." Wanda interrupted.

He looked at Wanda, noticing she was looking to her right at something. Carson and Tony both looked to see what caught Wanda's attention, only to be met with multiple government cars, vans and a few ambulances pulling up in the airport.

The doors to the vans swung open and swarms of agents came flooding out, their guns already aimed towards the members of Steve's team that was closest to them. Two agents rushed over towards Rhodey and moved him into the back of one of the ambulances.

"Tony what's going on?" Carson asked but didn't seem to receive a reply, just a quick glance from him.

He took in his surroundings, looking around the airport. Clint was surrendering without a fight, the agents putting his hands behind his back and placing cuffs on him. Sam started being approached by a small group of agents, he yelled something at them as they grabbed him, not like they cared anyway. Scott tried his best to resist as he got lifted up from his spot on the ground but his attempt didn't seem to last long as he was too exhausted from his stunt with going gigantic earlier.

Carson's attention was brought back to Wanda when three agents approached them, along with Ross.

He tightened his grip on Wanda's hand when he realised they didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. "Uh, what do you think you're d—"

"Take her too." Ross ordered.

One of the agents reached out to grab Wanda but before they even had a chance to touch her, Carson moved in front of her to block them.

"Hands. Off." Carson glared at the man in front of him.

"Mr. Swan," Ross began. "You might want to consider your what your next moves are."

"They're considered." He replied, now aiming his glare towards Ross.

"Carson, don't." Wanda whispered. "What if they hurt you?"

"I don't care. They're not taking you." He replied over his shoulder.

Ross raised a brow in surprise at his words, he looked over towards Tony giving him a 'Are you gonna do something or not?' look.

"Carson listen..." Tony mumbled, grabbing Carson's attention. "Do not make a scene, alright? They won't hesitate in turning on you and I can't... I can't have them taking you too, but it'll be out of my hands."

While Carson was focused on Tony, the two agents made their way over to Wanda and stood at either side of her, grabbing her arms.

Carson turned around and lunged towards the two men but Tony grabbed his arm and pulled him back, sliding some power suppressing cuffs around each of his wrists. He looked down at his wrists then back up at Tony is disbelief.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He yelled.

"You're only going to make this worse—"

One of the men locked a collar around Wanda's neck, it emitted a small shock as it activated making Wanda wince.

"What the hell are you doing to her!" Carson tried to push past Tony but he kept him held back. "Let her go!"

They started leading Wanda towards one of the vans and tried to look at him from over her shoulder, to tell him it was alright but when she turned the agent shoved her forwards, telling her to keep moving.

She didn't resist. She knew that it only worsen the situation. There was nothing she could do now. Even if she would like nothing more than to beat the shit out of the agents that seemed to think tossing her around like a ragdoll was acceptable.

"It's okay." She communicated to him through their minds. "I'll be okay."

"Hey, calm down—" Tony tried.

"CALM DOWN?!" Carson shouted. "Look what you're letting them do!"

"Hey, hey, listen to me." Tony pushed him back once more. "I will find a way to get her back, we will find a way, alright? But for now just... calm down. You're going to make it worse!"

Carson paused for a moment as he listened to Tony's words.

And it almost worked, it really did.

Almost.

But when he saw the way they dragged her towards the van, the way they threw her into the back of it, they way they treated her as some sort of animal. Everything that Tony said didn't matter to him anymore.

He may of not had his powers at the moment, but it didn't mean he was completely useless.

Carson began walking forward and pushed Tony to the side before he could stop him. Ross shouted at him to stop but he ignored them man and continued to barge his way through the few agents, landing a punch on one who got too bold and aimed at him.

"Carson!" Tony shouted.

He reached the back of the van and ripped the door open. Wanda's head shot up and she looked at him in confusion, once she realised what he was doing she quickly shook her head and gestured for him to leave, not wanting him to get hurt by any of the agents for what he was doing.

The agents all aimed their guns towards Carson's back, slowly advancing towards him.

"Ross tell them to back the hell off!" Tony yelled but Ross just shook his head.

"Not until he stands down!"

"Carson..." Wanda began. "You can't—"

"Yes I can. Now let's go, come on." He opened his arms for her to take them so he could help her out, but she just gave him a sad smile and stayed put.

"You know that this will only make things worse. They'll take you too." She whispered. "I can't let you do this, not for me."

He huffed in annoyance as he moved more into the van and took a hold of her wrist but she shook her head, sliding her hand down to his and interlocking their fingers.

"Please." She said quietly, her voice cracking a little. "You need to let me go."

"Wanda don't be stupid, I'm not going to just leave you." He furrowed his brows. "I won't— I can't lose you, okay?"

"Hey, look at me." She gave his hand a squeeze to get his attention and he look up at her, meeting her eyes. "You will never lose me."

Before Carson could say or do anything else, he felt a gun harshly being pushed against the back of his head, the coldness of the metal making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Wanda's breath hitched in her throat, her face instantly dropping after hearing the sound of the safety clicking off.

"No, no, no! Wait!" She screamed at the agent.

"Stand. Down." The man behind him ordered.

He glanced back over to Wanda who's face showed nothing but fear, silently begging for him to leave. Carson clenched his jaw and grunted, reluctantly lifting up his hands in surrender and slowly backing out of the van. The agent pushed him backwards and Tony rushed over to them, moving to agent out of the way.

Tony turned his attention towards Carson and instantly began scolding him for his actions, his hands wafting around in frustration.

But he wasn't listening.

It was like everything was moving in slow motion. Like everything was falling apart, right in front of him. Well, really, it was. He watched as all the remaining agents started to make their way back over to the vans so they could leave, his eyes travelling back over to Wanda as they began to close the back doors.

"I love you." She mouthed over to him, her eyes glossing over.

Before he had a chance to say it back, the door was slammed in her face, blocking any view he had on her. Ross' men all hopped back in their designated vehicles and started to drive off one by one, Wanda's van being the last. Ross shot Tony and Carson a glare before getting back into his own car and taking off.

"I told you not to—" Tony stopped talking and scoffed as he looked to his right. Carson could hear someone else approaching them but he didn't bother to look, he just kept his eyes locked onto the exit of the airport where the cars had just left. "And you! What happened back there in the hangar?!" He addressed the person who joined them.

"Nothing." Natasha's voice was heard. "They got away, that's all. Sorry."

Tony huffed in frustration and ran his hand over his face. Natasha looked over at Carson, instantly approaching him and placing her hand on his shoulder once she noticed the look on his face. But once again, he still didn't bother to spare her a glance.

"Hey, what's..." Natasha paused and looked around, noticing the decrease in people from the opposite team. "Tony what ha—"

"I'll tell you what happened." Carson finally spoke up, nothing but anger in his tone. "Ross and his little minions took them. And he," Carson pointed towards Tony. "Well, he let it happen. He did nothing."

Tony's face instantly dropped. "Carson, buddy I—"

"You did... nothing." He interrupted, walking over towards him. "You sat back at watched them hurt her, watched them take her. You stopped me from helping, you cuffed me up." He raised his hands showing Tony his wrists.

"You cuffed him?" Natasha asked in disbelief.

"I had no other choice!" Tony defended.

Natasha cautiously moved to Carson's side, ready to intervene if anything happened.

"I'm sorry bud... but I couldn't let you get in the way." Tony explained. "You think I wanted to do that? That I wanted for things to turn out like this? Maybe if you had just listened to me for once then—" Tony stopped as he noticed his voice getting louder, he looked up at Carson and tried to reach out so he could place his hand on his shoulder but Carson moved out of the way.

"Did you, or did you not, tell me before we came out here that Wanda would be kept out of this? That after I helped you capture half of my own family, Wanda would come back with us safe and sound?"

"I..." Tony fumbled on his words.

"Did you? Or did you not?" Carson clenched his jaw.

Tony remained silent and just stared at Carson, nothing but guilt behind his eyes. There was no doubt about it that he felt terrible for lying to him. But at the time, Tony saw it as a way to keep one of the most important people in his life on his side. He didn't stop to think about the backlash or consequences, but then again, he never did. What he did was selfish and that was the bottom line.

Carson scoffed and began walking away from Tony and towards the jet that they all flew in on. Natasha shook her head and shoot him a disapproving look before catching up with Carson.

It looked like this truly was the fall of Earth's Mightiest Heroes after all.

~~ ᗢ ~~

[Not edited.]