Natasha abruptly dropped Eleanor's arm when the group saw the remaining, very damaged, Ultron bots running to the edge of the city. That was not good, Ultron can live through the bots, they had to make sure to eradicate all of them, which would be tricky if they were dotted around random parts of the world.

"They'll try to leave the city", Thor boomed.

"We can't let them, not even one. Rhodey!". In response to Stark's order, Vision also decided that he should jump into battle again, so flew off into the distance at high speed. Eleanor watched with a slight frown as the vibranium figure got smaller and smaller, wishing with everything that she has that not one bot would escape.

The group shook it off, it was out of their hands now, and some moved back towards the centre for a re-group. Whilst walking back to the middle Eleanor looked around with a grimace, even though the city would be destroyed further when they were off of it, it was still a shame to see a place in such ruins. Especially when you could see the clear remnants of people's homes. Apartment buildings had crumbled, houses had holes blown into the sides, and cars were crushed. A lot of lives had been impacted today, and there was a common theme of guilt that they couldn't stop Ultron before it got to that point.

"We gotta move out, even I can tell the air is getting thin", Steve began once Nat, Eleanor, Clint, and Wanda were in earshot. "You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers".

Clint looked over to the centre of the church, "What about the core?".

"I'll protect it". Everyone's head snapped to Wanda who had a determined look about her.

Eleanor's jaw tightened, Wanda was powerful but leaving her alone by the core seemed risky, "Are you sure? One of us can stay".

"It's my job", Wanda nodded back at her.

"Nat, El", Clint grabbed their attention so that they could get out of there, but Eleanor shook her head.

"I'll stay, you guys go".

Nat frowned and took a step forward, "Are you insane? No".

"We'll get back in time, won't we?", Eleanor turned to Wanda for back-up, but was instead given an unsure look, which didn't help, "We will". Natasha looked like she was about to say something else but Clint began hurrying her along, "I'll see you in a minute", Eleanor nodded to her, receiving a small, nervous one back.

Wanda looked at Eleanor curiously who was eyeing up the perimeter once Steve had run off. She wasn't complaining about the fact that she wanted to stay with her, but she was confused. Since the argument in the lab, Eleanor had treated her like not just a team member, but a friend, even though they knew nothing about each other. Though Wanda did know more, she could see glimpses of the nightmares that she gives people, which only made her feel all the more guilty about it with her being so accepting.

Both women were interrupted by a certain speedster crashing through into the church and slowing down next to Wanda. Eleanor's entire body tensed up before realising who it was, and Wanda just shook her head at her twin's familiar antics. "Get the people on the boats".

"I'm not going to leave you here".

"We can handle this", Wanda gestured her head toward Eleanor who was still standing on one side of the church whilst she blasted a bot away with her red magic.

"Oh, you're here too! Don't fancy another sprint around the city then?", he smirked, Wanda tilted her head having no clue what he was referencing.

Eleanor laughed slightly and shook her head as she took a few steps forward, being careful of the rubble that still rested on the floor, "Not particularly, but we will need a ride back to the boats when you're done".

"Yes, and not before. You understand?", Wanda faced her brother as he began walking away.

He turned around with the classic mischievous Pietro look, "You know, I'm twelve minutes older than you".

"Go", Wanda chuckled, and both women watched as he sped away. From that moment on it was quiet, they didn't speak to each other, but the silence was comfortable. There was a mutual understanding between them as they worked to keep the few bots away that decided it would be a good idea to try and reach the core.

If they got through near Eleanor then she would use a baton to impale and short circuit them, the rest Wanda would tear open with her magic. It was going well, Wanda had saved Eleanor from some bots, and Eleanor had jumped on the back of one that was advancing on Wanda and dragged it to the floor whilst electrocuting it. Apparently, her best takedown moves were done when she was piggybacking.

"Thanks", Wanda chuckled when Eleanor threw the bot off of her from her position on the floor, but with sincerity shining through her eyes.

"Not a problem", she saluted when she stood, and Wanda had to hold back a grin at the familiarity of the stupid salute that her twin often did.

But that was when it all went downhill.

A group of bots began to surround the church and advance, but Wanda stood still on the spot. As Eleanor walked towards one, she turned to look at Wanda and furrowed her brows, "Wanda, the bots!".

There was no reaction towards her, Wanda continued looking forward but seemed to gasp out in pain as tears sped towards her waterline. Eleanor tried to move forward to help but was stopped by a bot grabbing onto her arm. Her head whipped down to the metal hand that was clutching her, "Back off!", she lifted the baton in her hand but froze at hearing a gutwrenching scream.

Her whole body jarred when she looked up to see Wanda collapsing onto her knees whilst screaming as red tendrils wrapped themselves around the bots, before a red explosion seemingly shot out of her, disintegrating the bots in the vicinity.

Eleanor was thrown back onto the floor, and patted herself down a few times, sighing out of relief when she saw that she hadn't been disintegrated as well. She was snapped back into reality when she saw Wanda sobbing on the floor, so clumsily scrambled back onto her feet, ignoring the ache from the fall, and rushed towards the younger woman. "Wanda? What's wrong?".

"Pietro". She heard Wanda manage to mutter out between her cries. A reaction like that wouldn't have stemmed from her brother being merely injured. Pietro was dead.

Eleanor felt her chest tighten as she stared in disbelief at the broken woman on the floor. "I'm so sorry", she offered up whilst crouching down next to her. She didn't know Wanda, so didn't know how to comfort her, all she could think of doing was placing a firm hand on her shoulder as she got onto her knees beside her.

The younger woman leaned into her touch and shifted slightly to rest her head on Eleanor's shoulder in her moment of weakness as she continued crying. Eleanor's jaw tightened as she tried to hold her own emotions in, Pietro didn't deserve to die, and Wanda didn't deserve to lose her brother. It was unfair and cruel.

"I need to do something", Wanda stopped crying and her voice was terrifyingly cold as she began to stand. Eleanor slowly stood with her and tilted her head at the sudden change in emotion.

"Where are you going?".

Wanda froze in place and stopped walking, turning her head to the side to see Eleanor in her peripheral, "Ultron's close".

Eleanor shook her head and took a few steps forward, "You're going alone? It's Ultron". Honestly, she thought that Wanda going off on her own to Ultron was crazy, even if he was weaker than before.

"I have to do this. Go back to the boats, please".

Seeing Wanda look so desperate, Eleanor tapped her foot a few times whilst looking around and biting her lip, "Okay, but be quick, we are not leaving without you".

Wanda nodded and began walking away again, leaving Eleanor to reluctantly start walking backwards as she huffed, feeling like this was going to go terribly. When Wanda was out of sight she swung herself round to face the front.

There wasn't much time to get back to the remaining boats before they went back to the helicarrier, and Eleanor didn't fancy being left on this hunk of rock when it got blown up by Thor and Stark. Chances are, Natasha wouldn't like it either, and there was no way that Eleanor was going to leave Natasha.

So she ran as though her life depended on it, and this time it really did.

---

After leaving Eleanor, Natasha and Clint travelled back to the boats by car. She was then called to go and calm Hulk down, and get him back to being Banner, but Ultron shot at them before he had moved on and shot Pietro. Due to this, Natasha had been carried onto the flying helicarrier by Hulk, before he jumped away to the jet that Ultron was occupying.

This left a very dazed and confused Natasha on top of the helicarrier runway as she watched some lifeboats flying back into their places on the side of it. Immediately her thoughts rushed to whether Eleanor had managed to get on one of them in time, "El, are you on a boat?", she hurriedly shouted into one of her earpieces whilst running inside.

Her heart sunk when she heard a lot of static feedback, but managed to make out a broken shout of "No". Nat took off at a sprint to reach the control room, running the fastest she had ever run "Steve, are you still in the city?".

"Yeah!", he shouted back from his place on one of the last boats still on the ground.

"Can you see El? She isn't on a boat". Steve began frantically looking ahead for his friend, and after a minute or so saw her bolting around a corner and down the street towards him.

"Fuck yes", Eleanor breathed out at seeing a boat, a lot of places she had tried to run past already had their boats evacuated from the city. She thought that she wasn't going to be able to reach one.

"She's nearly at mine!", Steve communicated with Natasha, knowing that she would want to be kept in the loop.

Eleanor sprinted and sprinted, grinning at Steve as she neared who had his arm extended to help her on board. Natasha had her eye on the boat that Steve was on from her position in the helicarrier, though it was hard to see what was going on, she could see a little black dot nearing it, so laughed in relief. Though the laugh faded when she saw the city begin plummeting towards the Earth.

---

Steve took a few steps back when he felt the rumbling so that he was on the ramp, and both his and Eleanor's faces dropped when they felt the descent of the island begin.

Desperately, Steve threw his body to the floor right on the edge of the ramp and held his hand out to try and reach Eleanor whilst she jumped. Their breaths were held before they felt their hands connect, and Steve twisted his body to throw Eleanor to the other side of the ramp whilst he heard Natasha yelling into his earpiece.

"I have her, I have her", he panted whilst Eleanor landed with a thud inside of the boat. For the hundredth time that day, she was winded and had to take the time to get her breath back.

"Thank you", she groaned and took her time to stand when Steve walked towards her. He smiled and patted her on the back before going around and checking that the civilians were okay.

As quickly as she stood, Eleanor sunk back to the floor again and curled up into a ball against the wall. If she had only just made it, that meant that Wanda hadn't. She shouldn't have let her go, she should have fought harder to get her to follow, then they might both be alive.

Steve looked over at her a few times with concern etched on his features, but just let her be as she stared at the floor blankly. She chewed her lip to the point of bleeding before they reached the helicarrier. The civilians had to stay in the boats as they were safely strapped into the seats, but Steve opened the back door briefly to allow Eleanor to go and find Natasha, who had been worried sick.

With a curt nod of the head towards Steve as he held the door open for her, she swiftly made an exit and began speed walking towards the control room. She kept her head down the entire way, wanting to make it clear to anyone that she passed that she didn't want to talk, not trusting her own voice.

When reaching the control room, she let out a shaky breath when she spotted her wife across the room. Nat smiled when she spotted Eleanor as well, but it quickly dropped at seeing the state Eleanor was in. Her eyes were red, her open jaw chattering as though she was cold, and her hands were wringing together. Nat rushed over to her and immediately engulfed her in a hug, she wasn't sure what had gotten her so upset, but she was there regardless.

Eleanor was proud of herself for managing to keep her composure whilst in Natasha's hold, as that is what usually encourages her to break down when she has been holding things in. But she felt quite numb. Her body was in agony from being thrown around too much, and emotionally she was done. The guilt from leaving Wanda was eating her alive.

Though being in her wife's hold did help, her muscles stopped being so tense, and Nat could tell, so she pulled away to offer her a smile, but then she just felt confused as she realised that Eleanor wasn't supposed to be alone. "Where's Wanda?".

Then it all clicked in Natasha's mind when she saw Eleanor visibly pale and start grinding her back teeth together. "Oh".

"It's my fault", Eleanor said in barely a whisper, but Natasha managed to hear it.

"No, honey, no it's not your fault", she grabbed her hands and squeezed to try and get the message across more.

"It is. She was distraught as Pietro had just died". Nat's eyes widened when she heard that as it was news to her, but let Eleanor continue knowing that asking about that would be the worst thing to do. "So she went off to Ultron, I tried to stop her, I should have tried harder".

Nat shook her head and sat Eleanor down before she crouched in front of her and soothingly spoke a string of reassurances to her. Eleanor had her head in her hands, but Nat knew that she was listening.

"It's all gonna be o-", Nat started but froze when she saw a certain brunette sheepishly entering the control room whilst awkwardly rubbing the side of her arm.

"Huh?", Eleanor slowly looked up and followed Nat's eye line, and her eyes bulged at seeing Wanda taking a seat a few metres away. A smile briefly showed on Eleanor's face, before the situation hit her like a truck again.

"Go", Natasha snapped her out of her trance and looked back over at Wanda.

"I'll be back in a sec", Eleanor planted a quick kiss on Nat's lips before cautiously walking over to Wanda so as to not scare her. "Hey", she offered a small smile.

Wanda turned to face her with her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she played with her rings. "Hi".

"I thought you were...", Eleanor trailed off with a gulp, not wanting to bring up any words to do with death whilst everything was still fresh.

"Vision... he found me. Sorry for scaring you", Wanda croaked out, making Eleanor slowly nod in turn. Thank God for Vision.

Eleanor looked away awkwardly for a brief moment, before looking back to Wanda who was staring at her lap, "I just wanted to say that you won't be alone. We're all here for you, and if you need anything, anything at all, then you can come and get me, day or night", she spoke with more confidence this time, making sure that Wanda knew she was serious.

The younger woman slowly looked up with the corners of her lips tugged down and nodded, "Thank you, I- I appreciate it".

---

During the time that Eleanor was speaking to Wanda, Natasha had tried to get ahold of Bruce on the jet that he had flown off in, but he was in stealth mode and had turned off the communication systems. So, there was no way to find out where Bruce was, which was a hit to the team.

But, they all had to get on with helping the people of Sokovia when they got back to New York. The Stark Relief Foundation had already begun working on setting up bases for the refugees, so by the time that the Avengers returned on the helicarrier, they were just left with helping families make their way into the large warehouse stocked with beds and food.

They were going to have homes bought for them, jobs supplied by Stark, as well as college funds set up and school admissions sorted. For those who wanted to leave America to go back to the surviving edges of Sokovia or live in a different country, travel prices were covered and living arrangements were sorted. They were really trying to make up for their mistakes, but they knew it would never be enough really. People had suffered and died, there was no recovering from that.

Some of the Avengers continued working at the refugee warehouse over the week that they were being housed there until the housing was ready. Wanda was throwing herself into work, she was a big help as she could translate for those who didn't speak English. Steve, Eleanor and Natasha also continued the work there, helping with stock and keeping people comfortable.

After noticing that the kitchen was short of some supplies, Eleanor walked into the food storage room and began browsing for a different selection of foods than what had previously been laid out. She didn't want people to get bored, even if they didn't have to stay there for too long.

Whilst her mind was lost in decision-making, Natasha had snuck in and snaked her hands around her wife's waist from behind as she lifted her up into the air and spun her around a few times, eliciting a squeal from the younger woman. "What are you doing?", Eleanor laughed when she was put on the floor.

"Can I not give my wife a hug?".

"Okay Hurricane Nat, can you help me pick some foods?", Eleanor smirked and lobbed a potato at her wife who, due to her reflexes, caught it with ease whilst she plastered an offended look on her features.

After placing the potato back in its place, Natasha stared at her wife in awe whilst she was doing a terrible job of trying to balance a hoard of different ingredients in her arms. There had been too many times over the last week where they had thought they were going to lose each other, which seemed to be a common theme in their careers.

"Oh, I got a call from Clint just now", Nat remembered with a smirk.

"What'd he say?".

Nat took a step forward as her smirk grew, "Laura gave birth-".

"Oh that's great!", Eleanor interrupted with a huge grin at the prospect of another tiny Barton.

Nat grimaced slightly knowing that the smile would disappear soon, "They named him Nathaniel". The room went silent aside from the sounds of vegetables clattering to the floor.

"WHAT?!".