I don't own anything except any original/own characters and any original plot.

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Chapter 15 - Enamored Ignorance

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When I woke up I felt less numb. My legs were sore, and when I squinted, I could see a few tears and small holes. Most of his blood drawing and other experiments- that I completely blacked out for- must have taken place there. An easy target.

Upon further observation of my surroundings I noticed I wasn't on the operation table anymore. I was behind bars, in a makeshift prison area. Boxes were stacked around me, the lighting dim but present all the same.

"Okay legs," I began to wiggle my toes, then my feet, "Any day now. I need to get out of her."

Over the course of the next few minutes I managed to move up to my hips. With my lower body being relatively okay, I stood, falling over almost immediately.

"Nersh, why did I think that was a good idea?" I asked myself, slowly getting up again, this time, using the wall as my support. It went a lot better that time around.

"(Y/n)! Oh thank God you're alright," Steve sprinted into the room and towards me, hands gripping the bars that seperated us.

"You found me," I whispered in relief, stumbling over to the man I loved.

"Was there ever any doubt?" Steve's lips stretched into a cocky smile. I rolled my eyes, smiling all the same.

"Never. I'm still regaining feeling in my body. What I can feel hurts more than that morning when, well, you know what I'm speaking of. Anyways, can you help me figure out a way to get out of her? Something tells me I should save my energy for the fight."

"Yeah, right," Steve walked along the path of the bars, stopping at the end. He slammed his shield against a large padlock, shattering it almost instantly, "There we go. You good to run?"

"Yeah I think so," I took a few cautionary steps, looping my arms through Steve's just to be safe, "We can't stop saving the world either way. Let's go."

Though running was a bit slow going at first, Steve and I made good time to the city. The other Avengers were already there and escorting the civilians out of the city. Steve pulled a com out of his pocket, handing it to me so I could communicate with the team.

"Chon wurn," I cried out as the entire city began to shake, lifting off of its foundations and into the air, "Stark, what's happening?"

"Ultron is lifting the city with a vibranium core in the center. If this thing drops we're talking thousands dead, the numbers raising as long as we're getting higher," Tony gave the grave report.

"What's the plan Steve?" I threw my hands out, creating twin discs around them. There seemed to be a break in the attacks, with only a few stragglers here and there, but I knew that there were going to be more waves.

"Not sure," Steve chucked his shield at an oncoming robot, "Keep the people safe and destroy these bots for now."

"Good plan," I spotted a few bots rounding people up in the square, "Shield!"

Steve knelt down with his shield in front of him. Taking a running start I landed my feet on the shield. Pushing it up, Steve propelled me into the air. Creating a shield under myself may have been less risky, but it took away the chance of using other spells in the process. And, having Steve launch me into the air was kind of fun.

Letting out a battle cry, I flew through the center of the robots, taking out as many as I could reach. When the momentum began to wear out, that was when I created a shield under myself.

"Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely," Steve's orders came through, "The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed, walk it off."

"Highly inspirational," I complimented, stepping up behind him and Nat near the edge, "Fit for a king Steve."

"Just Captain is good for me," Steve breathed out, tired from all of the fighting, "The next wave's gonna hit any minute. What have you got, Stark?"

"Well, nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear."

"You're suggesting we destroy Sokovia?"

"Not all of it," was Tony's weak reply, "Look, the impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice."

"These people are going nowhere," Nat added in, voice pleading, "Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there."

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it."

"No one said anything about leaving," I put a hand on Steve's shoulder, "I can see if I can make a few large shields, assist people down to the ground. There are less honorable ways to go. Besides, the view here reminds me of home."

"Glad you like the view Altovar, because it's about to get a whole lot better." Fury, inside of an old helicarrier, flew up to the floating city, "Nice, right? I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."

"Fury you son of a bitch," Steve swore, grinning.

"You kiss your girlfriend with that mouth?"

Lifeboats deployed from the top and sides of the helicarrier, flying and docking at the city. Hiding citizens picked up that this was a rescue and ran out to them, loading up.

"This is SHIELD?" Pietro ran up to join our small group.

"This is what it's supposed to be."

Pietro smiled slightly, nodding in approval, "This, this is not so bad."

"We're out of time. They're coming for the core," Thor warned.

"Avengers, time to work for a living."

"You heard the man," Nat began to run towards the center of the city, Steve and I following her lead.

The other Avengers were joining Tony at the core as well. Everyone was all charged up and ready to fight. Even Banner was hulked out, which I suspected was Nat's doing.

"If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose," Tony shot the last of the bots that had been hanging around the church.

"Is that the best you can do?" Thor shouted to Ultron as he flew near.

Ultron seemed to smirk, raising his arms to reveal his large army. Steve sent Thor an exasperated look.

"This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Like the old man said. Together."

Hulk roared. I stretched my hands out and created a whip. Everyone else shifted into their battled forms. We were ready.

The robots charged. Tony took off to handle the skies, but that didn't mean we were helpless by any means. Formed in a tight circle around the core, each member of the Avengers guarded the others' backs, hitting when they needed a second to recover.

I was taking out at least three robots at a time. The discs were more of a comfort because I used them better and felt more in control, but, I had to admit, the whip was a great weapon for large masses of opponents.

"You know, with the benefit of hindsight-" Hulk knocked Ultron away from the church and across the city.

The other bots seemed to sense that their side was losing. In a human-like panic, they scrambled to get away and leave Sokovia.

"We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you," Steve ordered.

"What about the core?"

"I'll protect it," Wanda volunteered,"It's my job."

"I'm coming with you," I jogged to catch up with Steve as he walked away.

"What? No. It was risky even making you fight, you're still recovering from what Ultron did to you."

"Steve, I'm coming," my tone said this argument was final, "There's no way I'm letting you go off alone without me. We can be alone together."

"No really how that works, but alright," Steve dropped his hesitance so we could focus.

We ran through the city, leading any stragglers to the carrier. When all of the civilians seemed to be off, we checked in with the team one last time. All of them were either already on a lifeboat or on their way, allowing me and Steve to get on one as well.

As our boat was taking off, there was a strange sinking feeling in my stomach. It worsened until it turned into pain. I gasped out, grabbing onto Steve's arm. He grabbed onto me in response, leading me to a seat.

"Something's wrong," I whispered, pressing the com, "Guys, what's going on?"

"It's Pietro," Clint's voice was out of breath, strained, "I was helping a kid out of the city and one of Ultron's robots came by. He- he moved us out of the way and got killed instead."

"Oh Atreya," my head fell into my hands, "It was Wanda, that was the pain. SHe knows Pietro is dead."

Steve kissed my temple, stroking my back soothingly, "He was a good kid. He didn't deserve that. But he died a hero, doing the right thing."

"May his soul rise to the stars, and join the heroes in Blaszun," I looked up to the sky, catching Sokovia's demise, "It's over."

"Your Majesty," Vision dropped down in front of me, "I have located and destroyed the last robot belonging to Ultron."

"That's something you should report to him," I motioned to Steve, "And you can call me (Y/n)."

"Yes, normally I would report that to the Captain," Vision nodded to Steve to acknowledge his presence, "Before I destroyed what remained of Ultron, he asked me to tell you something."

"And what is that?"

"He told me to tell you've become so enamoured with the uniqueness of humans, including love, that you've refused to acknowledge just how much darkness they can hold."

"Oh," I leant back in my seat a little. Processing the information that was just given to me. Ultron may have been a monologuing villain worthy of an old movie, but he had a point. There were a lot of things this experience brought to my attention, and I needed to find a place I could figure things out, "Thank you for informing me Vision."

~*~

"The rules have changed," Steve claimed as we walked along with Tony and Thor.

Everyone had settled down in the weeks following Ultron. Clint had retired, Laura had her baby- Wesley Pietro Barton. Nat pretended to be upset for about a minute before caving- Wanda mourned and took steps to move on, and all of the Avengers seemed to pick up shop and move to a new facility in upstate New York.

"Vision can lift it."

"A machine."

"So it doesn't count."

"An elevator has the ability to lift the hammer into the air as well," I added with a laugh.

"If he can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone. It's safe with the Vision and these days, safe is in short supply. I'm going to miss these little talks of ours," Thor chuckled.

"You could always stay," Tony offered.

"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 game and has made pawns of us."

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

"I do. Besides this one, there's nothing that can't be explained," Thor took a step forwards to summon the Bifrost, before he could however, I jogged forwards.

"Thor," I stopped the Asgardian from leaving, "He'd be proud you know. Our Loki."

"Yes, I suppose he would," Thor ruffled my hair, earning a punch on the arm, "He's be even happier to know you are 'sort of' engaged."

"If you ever need a place to rest while you're travelling, my parents would love to host you on Orveon."

"Thank you for the offer. Stay well (Y/n)," I stepped back and allowed Thor to leave.

"That man has no regard for lawn maintenance," Tony sighed as we walked back towards the facility, "I'm gonna miss him though. And you're gonna miss me. There's gonna be a lot of manful tears."

"We will miss you Tony," Steve and I assured the man.

"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. You two should do the same, what with you getting married at some point and all. Which, I assure you, will be the party of the century."

Steve and I shared a concerned look at that statement. Even if we weren't really engaged, and hadn't started planning a wedding, word had spread and moral was higher over it, so we ran with it and allowed the others to talk about it.

"Family, stability," Steve mumbled with a smile.

"Stay safe Stark, or, alive at the very least," I waved goodbye as Tony stepped into his car and left.

After Tony was gone as well, Steve and I walked back inside to find Nat and start training the new Avengers. All was silent, but my mind was bustling. I bit my lip, glancing up at Steve while sighing.

"You wanna tell me what you're thinking about me?" Steve's eyes met mine, a teasing smile spreading across his lips.

I sighed again, louder this time. He knew me too well, "I talked to a few contacts. They told me about this place, Kamar-Taj. It's one of the places the sorcerers of Earth congregate, the Sorcerer Supreme is there as well. I want to go, travel, clear my head. A lot has happened and it's made me realize I have a lot to learn about magic and who I am."

"I understand," Steve assured me, his large hand finding my significantly smaller one, "I felt the same way before I was Captain America. This is something you want to do alone, and I won't stop you. Just promise to stay in touch."

"All of you would kill each other if I didn't," I grinned, spotting Nat, "Thank you for understanding."

You want to keep staring at the wall, or do you want to go to work?"

"It's a pretty interesting wall," Nat replied sarcastically, her gaze shifting to us, "What do we got?"

"Some people with good potential," I stated, pushing open the doors to the training center, "But they aren't a team."

"Let's beat 'em into shape."

Rhodey, Sam, Wanda, and Vision gathered around the three of us, ready to learn how to become an Avenger.

"Avengers..."