"Will someone tell me what the hell is going on? I feel asleep with my head on a huge stack of files and next thing I know, I'm on a jet heading who-knows-where. You Avengers might be powerful or whatever, but communication is not your strong suit."

Dahlia had been complaining for the past half our of their plane ride, ever since she had woken up. To be fair, though, if you woke up in a jet out of nowhere and no one told you where you were headed or why, I think you'd be a bit grumpy too.

"Darling, just go suit up and get your weapons on you, I'll explain why we're here after you do that." Natasha said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind Dahlia's ear.

She gave in and grabbed her suit, heading to the bathroom to get dressed. "I still think the Powerpuff Girls would do a better job then you guys do at this!"

Nat chuckled and shook her head, Dahlia's silliness temporarily removing the anxiety from the room.

Dahlia's suit was almost completely identical to Nat's, except for the fact that it was dark purple, the symbol on her belt was of two swords crossing, and she had sword compartments along with gun holsters.

On her way back from the bathroom, now fully suited up, she grabbed two swords and two guns, storing them in their respective holders and compartments.

"Now will you tell me where the fuck we are?"

After Natasha informed her of their lead on Ultron, they still had about ten minutes left before the plane would land, so she decided to have a friendly conversation with Thor. Well, you could guess how that might go.

"Are you kidding me? Bubbles is obviously the best powerpuff girl, what are you saying?"

Thor was very passionate about this subject.

"You're joking, right? Buttercup is obviously the best! She's the most badass and she gets shit done while Bubbles is off picking flowers and singing to birds or whatever." Dahlia huffed, refusing to concede her point.

About a year ago, Dahlia had decided that Thor needed to be introduced to the wonderful world of the Powerpuff Girls or the Earth would fall apart. No one had expected this man, who was a literal god, to fall so in love with the show. He was a diehard Bubbles fan and this was where Dahlia and his opinions clashed. They had been having frequent arguments on the matter since.

"We need someone else's opinion. Hey, Cap." Thor snapped his fingers in Steve's direction, "Which powerpuff girl is better, Bubbles or Buttercup?"

Dahlia had made Steve watch it too, against his will.

"Personally, Blossom is my favorite."

"Of course she is." Dahlia grumbled.

"Basic choice, Rogers." Thor rolled his eyes.

While they might differ in opinions sometimes, they shared common ground when it came to the fact that Blossom was the worst.

"Hate to break up whatever the hell this is, but we're here." Tony said, ushering everyone out of the jet and into what looked to be a junky scrapyard.

Dahlia flinched at the sight. Scrapyards always made her stomach recoil, for a reason she didn't know. Whatever the reason was, it wasn't helping her in this situation.

Thor, Tony, Nat, Steve, Clint and Dahlia made their way around the building in the middle, heading the conversation that was occurring inside the walls faintly. Bruce was still waiting in the jet, only to come out in case of a Code Green.

"Now, so are you. It's all under your dummy holdings? Finance is so weird. But I always say, 'Keep your friends rich and your enemies rich, and wait to find out which is which.'" Ultron's scratchy, metallic voice sounded from within the building.

"Stark." An unfamiliar voice said.

"What?" The tone in his voice struck fear into everyone's hearts, even Tony's.

"Tony Stark used to say that... to me. You're one of his." The voice continued.

"What? I'm not." The sound of someone choking followed, and Dahlia had to resist the urge to break in their and save them, but Tony's orders were to stay still until he gave them the signal, so she restrained herself.

"You think I'm one of Stark's puppets, his hollow men? I mean look at me, do I look like Iron Man? Stark is nothing!"

A shriek followed the sound of a blade cutting through flesh, and no one dared to breathe.

"I'm sorry, I am sor... Ooh, I'm sure that'll be okay. I'm sorry, it's just I don't understand. Don't compare me with Stark! He's a sickness!" The artificial sorrow in Ultron's voice disgusted Dahlia, and she almost didn't see Tony's signal.

Dahlia took up her position in the rafters, just as Nat had said to do, and let Tony do the talking,

"Ah, Junior. You're gonna break your old man's heart."

Tony, Steve, and Thor were stood on the ground floor, Ultron, Pietro, Wanda, and a man she didn't recognize standing in front of them.

The man was missing an arm, and upon further inspection, the arm in question was lying a few feet away, obviously freshly cut.

So that's what the slicing sound was. Dahlia thought.

"If I have to." Ultron responded, turning to look at his creator.

"We don't have to break anything." Thor reasoned, trying to keep the fighting to a minimum.

"Clearly you've never made an omelet."

Mmm, omelets. Damnit Dahlia, focus!

"He beat me by one second." Tony said, more for his own benefit than anyone else's.

Finally, the one person who Dahlia had been formally introduced to spoke up.

"Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark. It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" Pietro spoke up, and even though they were on opposite sides, Dahlia felt calmer after simply hearing his voice.

"This was never my life."

Steve spoke up, and talked to the twins specifically. "You two can still walk away from this."

"Oh we will." A red ball of energy pulsed in Wanda's hands, and Dahlia made a mental note to keep her distance from her unless completely necessary.

"I know you've suffered." Steve tried to reason with her, but Ultron wasn't t having any of it.

"Ugh! Captain America, God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..."

Dahlia's knuckles tightened around the iron bars he was keeping herself steady on. She wasn't Steve's biggest fan, by any means, but he was a good man, that much was obvious. To say he was anything other than that is just simply incorrect.

"If you believe in peace, let us keep it." Thor stepped forward.

"I think you're confusing peace with quiet." Ultron pointed out.

"Yuh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?" Tony asked, evidently trying to stall as long as he could.

"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan."

All at once, several Iron Legions raced forward to attack the three men. Tony leapt forward to attack Ultron, and the twins took on Thor and Steve. Dahlia looked to Natasha and Clint, who were hidden on the bottom floor, for a sign of when to move. Natasha shook her head, and Dahlia waited as ordered, her stomach doing backflips in anticipation.

"Shoot them!" The one armed man said.

"Which ones?" Another man asked.

"All of them!"

"Move, move, move!"

With a small gesture of Nat's fingers, Dahlia launched herself down from the railing, landing on the shoulders of an Iron Legion. She pulled out her swords and decapitated it, hopping off before it crumpled to the ground.

Next to her, Steve was struggling with how to stop the twins without hurting them. He knocked Pietro to the ground and hissed, "Stay down, kid!", though he knew he most likely wouldn't listen.

Dahlia was so wrapped up with keeping the robots at bay, that she didn't even notice when Ultron leaned over to Wanda and said, "It's time for some mind games."

Bruce called over the comms, asking if it was a Code Green, but everyone was too preoccupied to answer.

"Thor! Status?" Steve's voice echoed over the comms, him being nowhere in sight.

"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care. I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty."

The line went silent, and Dahlia looked around only to find herself alone.

While things were quiet on her end, her teammates were experiencing varying levels of emotional pain.

Thor was picturing himself at an Asgardian party, seeing Heimdall walk up to him, but it wasn't the person he knew and loved.

Steve was stood in an empty dance hall, with music playing and Peggy Carter beckoning to him.

Natasha's flashback was particularly painful. She was seeing her younger self training to become an assassin, the cold metal of the facility walls sending chills and memories through her.

Dahlia's scene was... different to say the least.

The cold wind made the hair on her arms stand up, the harsh cold of a winter night nipping at her fingers.

A freezing blade ran all across her skin, carving patterns, tracing shapes, and all she could hear, over and over, was her mother's voice.

"You'll thank me someday."

Dahlia gasped in shock, snapping out of the fake reality she was in.

Suddenly her mind filled with thoughts of her friends... no her family, and she raced to find them in the abandoned building.

She rounded the corner and saw Clint, who was being snuck up on by Wanda. Dahlia leapt into action but hesitated once Clint made it clear he could handle Wanda. To help him out, she went for Pietro instead, knocking him to the ground.

"Need some backup?" Dahlia called over her shoulder to Clint as she engaged in yet another fistfight with Pietro Maximoff.

"I was doing just fine, actually." He scoffed.

"Sure you were, sure." She grinned, blocking Pietro's fist with her lower arm.

"So we meet again, Dahlia Anelace." There was a playful tone to his voice, something that said that he wouldn't really hurt her, and she felt like she wouldn't be able to hurt him either.

"I suppose we do, Pietro Maximoff."

"We've got to find a better way to talk, rather than fighting like this." He smirked towards her.

"That's presumptions, what if I don't want to? We are on different sides of this fight, you must know."

"Oh, but I know you do. I'm pretty good at reading people, Dahlia.".

"You've spent an awful lot of time thinking about me, haven't you, Pietro?"

"Maybe." He grinned as he blocked one of her punches, not denying the accusation.

Suddenly, Wanda dropped to the ground as Clint shot an electric arrow at her, and Pietro raced past her to knock him down, pick up Wanda, and run off.

Dahlia offered Clint a hand but couldn't help but feel bad for Wanda. That couldn't have felt good, and Cap had made it clear that he wanted them to be as careful as they could with those two.

"Don't you think that was a little harsh? An electric arrow isn't exactly pain-free."

Clint shrugged. "She was going to put a spell on me, and I didn't feel like letting that happen. What about you, how are you? Did she get you?"

Dahlia gulped, feeling embarrassed. "Yeah... yeah she did."

"I get it if you don't want to talk about it, kid. Let's go find Romanoff."

Meanwhile, Pietro had carried Wanda to an empty room, where she was currently writhing in agony.

"What can I do?" His eyes flicked around, not knowing how to help.

"Ah, it hurts." She gritted her teeth, trying to fight the pain.

"I'm gonna kill him. Be right back." He tried to stand up and go after Barton, but Wanda's hand on his wrist stopped him.

"No. I'm over it. I want... I want to finish the plan." The two looked over to where the quinjet was waiting.

"I want the big one."

"Ah the Vibranium's getting away." Ultron chuckled, a dark scratchy sound.

"And you're not going anywhere." Tony cornered him.

"Of course not. I'm already there. You'll catch on. But first, you might need to catch Dr. Banner." Tony angrily shot Ultron and flew off to go find Bruce.

"Natasha, I could really use a lullaby." Tony's voice came over the comms.

"That's not going to happen soon, I'm afraid. Not for awhile. The whole team is down, you've got no backup here." Clint responded to him, sitting next to Nat who was still stuck in her vision.

"Dahlia, why don't you go see if you can track down the twins? I think they'd listen to your reasoning more than they'd listen to ours. I'll call for you when we get going."

She nodded curtly and ran off, searching the abandoned building for them.

Room after room turned up empty, and Dahlia was about to give up when she noticed a flash of red and blue, stopping right in front of the quinjet.

Wanda was collapsed on the ground, looking completely drained and exhausted, something Dahlia figured was due to her powers. Pietro was sat next to her, his face worried and unsure.

If Tony saw what she was about to do, she'd get quite the lecture, but he wasn't here, and she trusted her gut.

She walked timidly over to them, and Wanda flinched as she heard the crunch of the sand beneath her feet.

Pietro put up his arms in defense, but when he saw that it was her and she wasn't making any attacks towards them, he lowered them, unsure of what was happening.

Dahlia walked into the jet and pulled out a white box, with a red cross on it. She pulled out gauze, medical wipes, medical thread and needle, and some bandaids.

"You have no reason to trust me right now," Dahlia said, lacing the thread through the needle. "But I have no intention of hurting you. I can't prove that I don't, but you have a large gash on your stomach, Wanda, and if it doesn't get stitched up you'll bleed out, and I'm not going to let that happen. You have to trust me."

Wanda looked at Pietro tentatively, not sure if this was a good idea. He nodded his head slightly, and Wanda revealed her cut, which was deep on the side of her stomach.

Dahlia grabbed her alcohol wipes, and wipes the area clean as best as she could.

"This is going to hurt a bit, you'll need something to hold onto." Wanda nodded carefully, taking Pietro's hand in hers.

Dahlia began sewing precisely, winding the needle back and forth between the skin, pulling it closed. She tied a knot and cut the string with her teeth, setting down her tools. She finished by placing a large amount of gauze around it and putting a large bandaid over the newly sewn cut.

Wiping some sweat from her brow, Dahlia put the needle and thread back into the box.

Pietro looked at her in surprise, still not over the fact that she wasn't trying to hunt them down.

"Make sure you change that bandage once a day, her powers might help it heal faster, but she needs to keep off of her feet for a bit for it to heal properly." Dahlia explained, noticing his worried look at his sister.

"Could I see your arm? That bullet wound looks nasty, and I doubt Ultron has surgical experience."

Pietro hesitated for a moment before pulling of his shirt, so she could clean up his upper arm, where the bullet had made its home.

"Just wanted an excuse to see me shirtless, huh?" He chuckled, but winced as her tweezers carefully pulled on the bullet.

"Oh, shush. Do you want me to leave this in there? Cause I'll do it if you don't deflate your ego a bit." She joked, and Wanda's eyes shot open, ready to defend her brother, not comprehending that Dahlia was kidding.

She relaxed as soon as she caught sight of Pietro's smiling face, something she rarely saw anymore.

"This is going to hurt a tad, will you survive?" Dahlia laughed quietly, sticking her bottom lip out.

"I'm a big boy, I'll be okay- OW!" His arm tensed when the bullet finally got pulled out of its place in his bicep.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." He gritted his teeth.

Dahlia started to clean up the damage that the bullet had left in Pietro's arm, using her wipes to clean the area and a shit ton of gauze, yet again. Good thing Nat liked to overpack.

"Do your powers usually help you heal faster too?" Dahlia asked, genuinely curious.

"Sometimes, it depends how bad. If I scrape my knee or stub my toe or something, it still hurts and lasts as long as it does for anyone else. But for bullet wounds, it usually closes up itself, but that's an issue if the bullet hasn't been taken out yet, so thank you." Pietro hated to talk about his powers usually, memories of Strücker's lab haunting his dreams, but with Dahlia he felt safe, like even though she wasn't technically on their side, she kind of was. If she wasn't, she wouldn't have bothered to help.

Clint's voice came over her comms, alerting her of the situation. "Hey, 'Lia, we're heading back to the jet, Tony's got Bruce, I've got Nat, and Cap and Thor are heading there now. Just get your ass there and we'll leave as soon as we can, alright?"

"Gotcha." She responded.

"You guys have to leave now." Dahlia said urgently to the twins. "The team is heading back now, and I doubt they'll be as understanding as I've been, especially after they've had their heads messed with. I don't want you guys to get caught and held with us, not with the way they're all feeling towards you now. Wanda, you can't walk just yet, not in your state, so Pietro, can you carry her? Make sure to rest most of the weight on your left arm, though. Stay safe, please, and protect yourself from anyone who tries to hurt you or use you. Even if that turns out to be Ultron."

Wanda nodded but first, she spoke up. "Why are you helping us? You're friends with the Avengers, you care for them, and I used my powers on you just ten minutes ago."

Dahlia thought about that for a moment. "Because it's the right thing to do. We're not all evil, you know." She winked at Wanda and turned to walk away, but was stopped by Pietro's hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you, Dahlia Anelace." He grinned. "And I hope that I get to see you again, even if it means I have to beat you up, yet again."

"I think it was me who beat up you, but okay." She winked and gestured for them to go as she glimpsed Tony's suit in the air.

In a flash, they were gone, and even though she technically just disobeyed orders, Dahlia felt as if she had done just the right thing, and that feeling helped balance out the hurt in her chest that was still being harbored from her vision.

Maybe it would be okay.

She was a good person, deep down.

Maybe really, really deep down.