Despite Loki's insistence that he come to Sokovia, he doesn't follow Wanda and Pietro once they arrive. He exits the ship with them, but then he stays there, and Wanda and Pietro very reluctantly leave him behind. But they promise him that they'll come back soon, and that there's nothing for him to worry about.

It doesn't take long for them to realize that they will not be back soon, and that there is a lot for him to worry about.

Once the city begins to fly, they lose him. Chaos erupts, and they lose track of where he should be. They have no idea whether he's come with them or if he's still on the ground, whether he's even still alive, and no amount of yelling into the comm gets an answer from him. And with so many robots crawling around, they're too busy fighting for their own lives to check on his. There's nothing they can do but fight, and hope that when they lose, the rest of the world doesn't lose with them.

But then there's a new voice on their comms, one Pietro doesn't recognize. "I'm glad you like the view, Romanoff," he says, "but it's about to get better."

Pietro runs through the city, searching for the others, for that noise, until he finds it. There's a ship coming up to meet them – the Helicarrier. The sight of the lifeboats nearing the edges of the floating city brings a smile to his face. Maybe they won't die today.

Pietro takes off running, searching for the nearest Avenger. Instead, he runs into two of them: Steve and Natasha, both watching the lifeboats floating their way. He joins them, his gaze glued to the sight before him.

"This is SHIELD?" Pietro asks in awe.

"This is what SHIELD's supposed to be," Steve says.

Pietro looks back at him in surprise, then returns his gaze to the lifeboats, as if they'll disappear if he doesn't watch their every move. "This is not so bad." The SHIELD he'd known would never do this. They wouldn't waste their time and energy on saving civilians. They never cared about the casualties as long as the end goal was reached. He'd never realized there was another way.

And then that man's voice over the comms comes back. "We're keeping secrets now, are we?"

"Meaning?" Natasha asks.

"You all told me that Loki was dead."

"You see Loki?" Wanda asks quickly. "Where is he? Is he okay?"

"He is very much not okay," he says. "Who's this?"

"Wanda Maximoff," Steve substitutes. "One of the Enhanced. And I've got her brother here, too."

"And that's Nicholas Fury," Natasha adds for their benefit. "The Director of SHIELD."

"And your guardian angel for the day," Fury says. "Now get everyone on the boats."

"Wait!" Wanda says quickly. "You said you saw Loki?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Fury asks.

"He's not okay?"

"He looks like he went a few dozen rounds with the Hulk and lost every single one of them," Fury says.

"Yeah, yeah, we know," Clint says. "That's old news. In his case, 'fine' means alive and sitting in his wheelchair."

"Looks like it," Fury says. "But he's not doing anything so I can't promise he's still alive."

"I think that's his new normal," Natasha remarks.

"He's kinda forgotten how to, you know, life," Tony adds.

Pietro fights the urge to roll his eyes. "Should we not be helping people get onto the boats?" It seems like a better use of their time than making fun of Loki.

"Yeah," Steve agrees, "let's load 'em up."

~~

They're almost out.

They've rounded up the last of the civilians. Now it's just a matter of getting the Avengers on the ship and letting Tony work his magic. Steve and Clint are already on the ship, helping the people get settled. Thor's not far away, and Natasha's not far from him, trying to calm the Hulk down.

Pietro's not sure what to do now. Wanda's still protecting the core, and he isn't going to leave without her. But at the same time, nobody's been able to get Loki to stay on the ship. Every time Pietro glances back at him, Loki's just staring at him, like he's waiting for Pietro to go first, but he can't. Not until Wanda's here.

Without warning, Clint takes off, running to pick up a child somewhere off in the distance. Pietro lets his gaze flicker between the two of them and Loki, occasionally straying to the ship, too. He just wants to know that everything is going well. Nobody's dying today. Not if he can help it.

But then a ship flies toward them, shooting missiles out in front of itself and mowing down everything in its path. It almost takes out the Hulk, and it doesn't stop there. It comes closer and closer, shooting almost nonstop at the ground below. Pietro's instinct is to join Loki, preparing to pull him out of the way if he has to, but then he watches more carefully, and it becomes clear that Loki's not the intended target: Clint is.

Clint notices at the same time Pietro does, and there's very little hesitation when he accepts his fate. He turns away, shielding the child with his body. Pietro doesn't think; he just does it. He runs toward them as quickly as he can, and he carries them out of the way. It all happens so fast, and his body is almost on autopilot, no thoughts in his head as he runs.

He doesn't process anything until he's stopped. He doubles over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily. Clint is still clinging to the child, waiting for the end to come, until he finally realizes that it's not. He opens his eyes and slowly straightens himself up, and Pietro finds himself doing the same. He looks Clint and the child up and down, but neither of them seems to be hurt. He'd been so sure he wouldn't get there fast enough, that one of them would have...

Clint slowly raises his gaze to the sky, so Pietro looks up, too, and that's when he understands. The ship didn't hit them because it's not aiming at them. No, instead, it's aiming straight up at the sky, the entire ship rotated so its bullets don't hit anyone. Pietro stares at it, confused. What is Ultron doing? He had a perfect shot here. Why did he stop?

Clint nudges Pietro's arm, and Pietro looks at him with a scowl. Clint gestures with the jerk of his head, and Pietro follows his gaze. Loki's staring at the ship with his eyes narrowed, more focus in the action than Pietro thinks he's ever shown. He clenches his jaw and grits his teeth, and, with the flick of his head, the ship is torn in two, an Ultron robot falling straight down the middle. When it hits the ground, Pietro stomps on its neck, snapping its head off. He raises his gaze to the ship again, just in time to watch its pieces land atop a nearby building.

Pietro just stands there for a few moments, frozen. Did Loki just...?

But then Clint elbows him again. "Go get your sister."

Pietro nods once. He glances back at Loki, but he's turned his attention to the Quinjet off in the distance where an Ultron bot is trying to escape. He pulls it back down to Sokovia, crashing it atop the same building he'd landed the other ship on. Yeah, Loki can handle himself.

Pietro takes off running, and within seconds, he's reached Wanda's side. He throws a quick, "We have to go," her way, and then they're off, returning to the ship in an instant. Pietro puts Wanda down next to Loki, and he grabs the handles of the wheelchair, pushing him to the ship with Wanda right behind him. This time, Loki doesn't protest the way he has every time before.

Clint's barely made it onboard by the time Pietro has, and if he'd been any less tired, he'd made a joke about how slow he is. Instead, he just parks Loki's wheelchair in the middle of the floor, and both he and Clint collapse into adjacent seats in unison. They don't even spare each other a glance. Pietro's head falls forward, and he closes his eyes, taking what little rest he can get.

"Pietro?" Wanda says warily.

Pietro sighs. "It has been a long day."

Wanda huffs a quiet laugh and sits down on his other side. "But we lived."

"But we lived," Pietro agrees. "All of us."

Wanda leans in and rests her head on Pietro's shoulder. He picks up his own, resting it on top of hers. This has been fun – in the least fun way possible – but they're done. The Avengers can tie up all the loose ends now.