The city exploded — and not a civilian was left on it. It all crashed into the water, and Thor and Tony flew out of it alive. They lost Pietro; he died saving Clint and a little boy. Kate could barely look at Wanda, but they saved everyone they could, and for that she was grateful.

They tried to contact Bruce, but the jet was in stealth mode, and he cut off communication. No way to track him, no way to reason with him. No way to get him back, unless he decides to come back on his own. Kate's hoping he will, but she knows he's probably going to hide himself away. Away from anybody he could possibly hurt — which, to him, is everyone.

Another thing she's caused by making Ultron. Pietro's death was something else.

If she had seen it, if she had known...

Clint was a wreck over it. He was finally retiring, putting the Avengers behind him. Everyone was happy for him, too, but he seemed reluctant to go, at first.

"You sure you'll be okay?" he asked Kate, even with his packed bag on his shoulder.

She rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine. I'm fine."

"Kate, you haven't been fine since you joined SHIELD," he said. She physically winced, the truth stinging. "I'm sorry, but it's true. For a while there, you were getting better. Don't let this undo your progress. Please."

She shrugged. "I'll try. Don't worry about me."

"Just... if you need me, call, okay? And Laura said you can come and stay any time you want to get away."

Kate nodded. "Alright. Got it. Seriously, just go. You got a baby coming soon, you don't wanna miss that."

He sighed, hugging her. "Alright. I'll call you." He pulled back. "I love you, okay? You're one of my best friends. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I love you, too," she replied, fighting off tears. That sap never knew when to quit.

He turned to Nat, hugging her, too. "Make sure she's okay, okay?"

"Way ahead of you," Nat replied.

"Good. And Kate, check up on Nat, too. You both could use professional help."

Kate scoffed. "That's what Fury said when I joined SHIELD, and you remember how long that lasted."

Clint sighed, then turned back to Nat. "I love you, too. I'll call you."

"You better," she replied. "Love you, too."

He finally left, and Kate and the others stayed in the Tower while Tony began developing a new Avenger's facility upstate. It was one of his other properties, more out of the way. It didn't take long to get it move-in ready, which meant everyone going there had to hurry and pack up. Kate didn't have anywhere else to go, so she started packing.

Nat and Kate helped each other pack. Neither of them were very organized, so it took two to close a suitcase.

"Alright, there's two things we need to talk about," Nat started, sitting on Kate's floor. "Number one: what in the world was that fire beam thingy that happened in Sokovia? And number two: Why was Wanda wearing my jacket?"

Kate chuckles. "It was there, and it was red. I haven't seen you wear it in ages, anyway."

"But it was still my jacket!"

"Not anymore."

"You get kidnapped for a few hours and suddenly people are giving away your clothes," Nat mutters, rolling her eyes and throwing Kate's shirts into her suitcase. It was red; Tony bought it. "And that beam?"

Kate shrugs. "The fire beam was probably a fluke. I'm not even sure how I did it. It was exhausting."

Once everything was packed, it was about time to move out, so they all left. It was a quick and easy process — much easier than when she moved while at SHIELD — and now that they're here, they're all trying to get settled in, especially with new roommates. Thor doesn't stay, instead deciding to leave and investigate this stone business, but he drops by to say goodbye first. Apparently word of Kate's guilt got around.

"Take care of yourself," he tells Kate, wrapping her in a hug. "I don't know what I'd do without my favorite red-haired scientist."

Kate shakes her head. "Apparently you do, since you barely come down to see her."

"Life's busy outside of Midguard."

"Excuses, excuses," Kate says. "And, just so we're clear, in terms of your favorite scientists, I'm second only to Jane, right?"

He grimaces. "Well..."

"Are you serious?"

"I mean Selvig is also up there — and there's Banner. I can't make a list... I will say, though, you are definitely above Stark."

"Are you kidding me?!" Tony protests, while Kate cheers.

Thor laughs, hugging her again. "I'm serious, Kate. Be careful down here."

"You be careful up there," she replies, hugging him back.

After he says goodbye to Nat, they go wait for Fury outside the training room, as he's visiting with news about Bruce. While they wait, Nat shows Kate her phone. "Look, Laura just sent me a video of the baby."

Nathaniel Pietro Barton is laughing and smiling on the screen, his name on his onesie. Laura's voice is in the background. "Say hi to Auntie Nat and Auntie Kate!"

Nat smiles. "Fat."

Fury soon arrives with a tablet, handing it to Kate. It has a map on it, a blinking light highlighted in the center. "One of our tech boys flagged this, splashed down in the Banda Sea. Could be the Quinjet. But with Stark's stealth tech, we still can't track the thing."

"Right," Kate sighs.

Fury smiles a bit, patting her shoulder comfortingly. "Probably jumped out and swam to Fiji. He'll send a postcard."

"'Wish you were here,'" Kate mumbles.

Nat turns to Fury. "You sent me to recruit him, way back when. Did you know then what was gonna happen?"

Fury shrugs. "You never know. You hope for the best and make do with what you get. I got a great team."

"Nothing lasts forever."

"Trouble, Miss Romanoff. No matter who wins or loses, trouble still comes around," he replies. "This time, though, we won. We'll see about the next."

"Where are you headed?" Nat asks.

"Back where I was. Nice and comfortable, away from all your mess." He turns to Kate. "But you know how to reach me, don't you?"

Kate sighs. "How many people am I gonna have to call on a daily basis?"

Fury pats her shoulder again, starting to leave. "Take care of yourselves — and each other. And don't beat yourselves up for every bad thing that's ever happened in your vicinity. Even if you unintentionally caused it."

Kate sighs, though she doesn't get long to reflect on that, as Steve returns. "Hey. Tony says to call if you ever need him."

Kate groans. "Is the entire world worried about my mental state right now?"

"Well, do you wanna worry about people worrying about you, or do you want to go to work?"

Kate sighs. "You know what, sure."

"How do we look?" Nat asks, taking a tablet from Steve.

He shrugs. "Well, we're not the '27 Yankees."

"There are few people in this world who would get that reference, and the two you're talking to ain't them," Kate replies.

"Well, I know it's baseball," Nat says. "And we've got some hitters."

"They're good. They're not a team," Steve adds.

"Let's beat 'em into shape."

They walk into the training room, where Rhodey, Vision, Sam, and Wanda are waiting for them. Steve takes the lead. "Avengers...!"

He takes in a ridiculously long breath, so Kate finishes, "Assemble!"

"Seriously?"

"What? You were taking too long."

~_~_~_~_~

A few months of living in the new facility, and Kate, even with the guilt, is starting to feel better. She hasn't forgotten what Wanda showed her, and the weight it took off her shoulders. Now that Ultron's added more to it, it's about like what it was before. It could always be worse. And just getting to train and work in the lab has been great — although a lot of time has been spent talking to Vision over games of chess. He always wins. Kate's never been any good at chess, anyway, but it doesn't stop her from complaining.

"He may be better than you at chess, but you are much better than him at personal space," Wanda comments from the kitchen, a mug in her hand.

"The difference is, he can learn personal space. I can't learn to be better at him than chess because he's literally a computer," Kate says, looking at the board in front of them.

"You will always be better than me at being human," Vision points out.

Kate rolls her eyes. "And you will always be better than everyone at being philosophical. I have no idea where on Earth you got that from, but it certainly wasn't me." In fact, Kate struggled to find any piece of him that was like her.

Wanda laughs. "He's very good with words."

He smiles at her softly. "Thank you. You are very good with... explaining things."

"Thank you."

Kate takes her turn, moving a knight. Vision smiles apologetically, moving a rook. "Checkmate."

Wanda laughs as Kate groans, getting up from the table. "I've been beaten too many times at this game. I'm done for today."

"Are you sure?" Vision asks.

"I'm positive."

"Then I will go find something else to do and leave you alone for a while. You seem upset."

"Thanks, Vis," Kate sighs. Wanda chuckles, sitting down next to her. Kate's a bit surprised, assuming she would follow Vision; they're often together. "You can go with him, if you want. I'll be fine by myself." Rhodey went to a meeting, Nat and Steve have gone out into the city for a bit, and Sam is out with his wings, patrolling.

"No, that's alright. I was just going to ask if you wanted to watch TV."

Kate smiled. "Andy Griffith?"

"Yes. We're almost done with season two, aren't we?"

"Just a few episodes left."

Kate gets up to grab the DVD where it sits on the shelf nearby. They started watching the show when Wanda mentioned her love for most old sitcoms. She'd never seen The Andy Griffith Show, however, and Kate watched it with her dad all the time growing up. They ordered all the DVDs and started watching it together. It's been fun to see all those old episodes again.

The DVD in, Kate sits back down with the remote, about to select the next episode. But Wanda stops her.

"Kate... can I ask you something?"

Kate freezes for a moment, wondering what it could be. "Um... sure."

"Why are you..." Wanda starts "... I don't know — why don't you hate me? And I know it's not just because I like Bewitched."

Kate turns to her in surprise. "What?"

"It's just, I overheard Steve and Nat talking — and I didn't mean to — but they said you usually hold grudges. And after what happened, and what I did, I figured... you know, that you'd hate me."

Kate sighs. "Wanda, why are you asking if you can just read my mind?"

"I did that once, when I was with Ultron. I'm not gonna do that again. That's not who I am anymore."

Kate's expression softens, and she takes in a breath. "Listen... what you showed me, that day on the coast? It helped me more than hurt me. It was tough, but I needed it. And you never would've been with Ultron if I hadn't made him. I did much worse than you did, believe me."

"I saw what you did. I saw what I showed you."

A lump forms in Kate's throat, a sinking feeling in her stomach. "And?"

"And it was different."

Kate's brows furrow. "What do you mean?"

"Your worst fear was confronting him."

"Well, I don't know if I'd say that's my worst-"

"No," Wanda argues. "I looked in your head. That was your worst fear. And you did it. You confronted him, you got out of it. How?"

Kate shrugs. "I don't know. But I keep thinking about it. I just... Do you know what he meant by the choice I had to make?"

"No."

"Powers only go so far," Kate sighs.

"I'm sorry. For everything."

"Okay," Kate says. "We'll call it all even. For what it's worth... I'm sorry, too."

Wanda smiles a bit. "Okay."

Kate smiles back, turning back to the TV, but before she can press play, Sam's voice comes over the intercom. "I've got a sensor trip on the roof of the storage building, but I'm not seeing anything. Is something buggy or what?"

Kate groans. "Let me go see."

Wanda sits up. "Do you need-?"

"Just hang tight."

Sam speaks again. "Wait a minute. Hold on."

"What? You need back up?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"I'm coming to you," Kate replies, meeting him in just a few moments. Once there, she sees literally nothing. "Is this a joke?"

"No, I've got something," he replies, looking in front of him. "I can see you."

Suddenly, there's a whole person there, wearing a red and gray suit and a bug-looking helmet. "Goodness gracious great balls of fire," Kate says, jumping back.

The man presses the side of his helmet, revealing his face as he laughs. "That's funny that you're saying that. Hi, I'm Scott."

"What are you doing here?"

"First, I'm a big fan of you both."

"Awesome," Kate says. "Who are you?"

"I'm Ant-Man."

Sam smirks. "Ant-Man?"

"What, you haven't heard of me? No, you wouldn't have heard of me."

Kate sighs. "You wanna tell us what you're here for?"

"I was hoping to grab a piece of technology— just for a few days, I'm gonna return it. I need it to save the world. You know how that is."

"Sure."

Sam rolls eyes, walking forward, talking on comms. "Located the breach, bringing him in."

"Sorry about this!" Scott says, suddenly shrinking before Sam can grab him. Then, Sam gets punched back out of nowhere.

"What on earth?" Kate says, searching the roof while Sam flies off and scans the ground.

"Breach is an adult male who has some sort of shrinking tech. Got him in the grass."

Kate hurries off the roof, following Sam's lead. She doesn't have any special goggles to see that small. But it looks like Sam is fighting literally nothing, get punched around and shooting at the air. Kate can't even help without any tech and the risk of burning Sam. "I don't even know what to do right now! Do you want me to call Wanda?"

"That's enough!" Sam shouts, punching downward. He hit his mark, because Scott grows big again.

Kate goes to grab him, but he swings at her, saying, "Sorry!" She dodges, hitting him back into Sam, who lifts him high into the air, but he shrinks again. Sam lands, and then Scott grows and jumps on his back. Sam flies, and they go skidding through the grass until Scott shrinks again. Kate searches, but sees nothing until Sam smacks his wings together and hits Scott, who grows, then shrinks once more.

"You know what, I'm gonna get Wanda. Or Vision. Or both."

Kate runs inside, wishing she'd grabbed a comm, though Sam's patrol comm comes over the intercom again. "He's in the storage building! I'm going in!"

"Wanda, we've got an issue!" Kate shouts, bursting into the living room.

Wanda's already standing. "What is it?"

"Ant-Man," Kate says, heading back to the storage unit.

"Ant-Man?"

"He's inside my pack!" Sam shouts.

By the time Kate, Wanda, and Vision get out there, there's no sign of him. They search the grass for at least half an hour and find nothing. The only trace is a missing old prototype from storage — a signal decoy.

Sam looks at them like they're making a pact. "It's very important to me that Cap never finds out about this. Okay?"

"Just call me Schultz," Kate replies. "I know nothing."