LIMITATIONS
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Sadie wished they would stop thanking them all. These people, the men, women, and children who were being saved, had nothing to thank them for.
Sadie didn't believe this was a courtesy, she believed that these people had the right to survive the fight the Avengers had brought to them.

The boats were filling quickly, performing trips back and forth from the helicarrier as people waited, and Sadie did her best to help, although it was getting hard to find anyone who needed her. She could have cried with joy at the sight of all the medics- doctors, nurses, physical therapists- all there to help. Finally, she wouldn't have to rely solely on her draining power, she finally had medicine.

She banged twice on the side of the lifeboats to send them off, and there were still so many more people to go. Colonel Rhodes was several metres to her left, his iron suit glinting in the sun- a beacon for the people to follow. There were volunteers dressed in red Stark Relief polos everywhere, and Sadie hoped to God Adrianne was still in Johannesburg, far away from this.

But it seemed her thoughts had jinxed the scenario as Sadie lifted her hand to her forehead, watching in disbelief as her friend approached through the crowd.

"Are you serious?" the two of them exclaimed to one another, perfectly in sync, though Sadie didn't understand any reason Adrianne had to be so exasperated.

"You came here and you didn't think to text?" Adrianne's dark hair whipped around her face as she shouted over the noise of the helicarrier.

"You left Johannesburg and you didn't think to?" Sadie responded.

"Well, there was another global crisis, what did you expect? You'd do the same," Adrianne said. Sadie couldn't argue with that. "What's with the suit anyways- are you an Avenger now?"

"There's a lot to catch up on. I'm just here to help out," Sadie said, simply, choosing to ignore the final question. "Why didn't you stay on board the helicarrier? This rock could drop any minute!"

"You know they have three whole ORs on that thing?" Adrianne said, excitedly. "It's huge! I'm scouting for patients that might need surgery."

Sadie didn't mention that she'd come across plenty in the past few hours, and healed each one herself. Instead, she decided to end their battle of questions by pulling her friend into a tight embrace and slowly manoeuvring Adrianne onto the lifeboat behind them.

"There'll be plenty on board," Sadie said, and she wasn't lying. True, she had healed countless people, but Sokovia had a population much greater than her capabilities. "You're going to want to prep for every surgery you can think of."

"Already on it," Adrianne nodded as the lifeboat gates shut.  "You stay safe."

As the lifeboat pulled out of the makeshift bay, Sadie tuned back in to her communicator, and unsurprisingly, it was bad news.

"We're out of time," Thor said, the noise of fighting still in the background, suggesting he was still surrounded by Legionnaires. "They're coming for the core."

"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier," Tony responded. "Avengers, time to work for a living."

Sadie spun around as she felt the world's heaviest footsteps behind her. The Hulk was charging past on the other side of the road to where Sadie stood, but the vibrations reverberated through the ground regardless.

Following not long after, was Natasha, driving a truck which Sadie could only assume she'd hotwired herself as the agent came to a stop before her. She hung an arm out the window, signalling to Sadie that she was there to pick her up. Take her to wherever they needed them. Wherever this core was.

Sadie glanced around her, at the myriad of doctors. There was enough help to go around. But there were not plenty of fighters, in fact, their numbers were only ten after Colonel Rhodes had joined them. And even he was helping civilians. Sadie would have to make it eleven.

Natasha seemed to be growing tired of Sadie's internal conflict, as she pushed the car horn, causing everyone within a five mile radius to jump, and shouted: "Get in, loser we're going shopping!"

Sadie barked out a laugh as she jumped into the truck. "This just in: Black Widow is Regina George, the Barbie doll I never had."

"You've never seen anyone so glamorous," Natasha smirked, stepping on the gas and taking off at past highway speed.  Legionnaires still attempted to attack, but Natasha only let the truck plow through them all, the crunch of metal providing them with a very bumpy ride.

"Romanoff," Tony's voice echoed through the communicators. "You and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini!"

"Relax, shellhead, not all of us can fly," Natasha responded, and they soon reached the church, where the rest of the team waited, ready to fight the Legionnaires that were all clambering towards a large metal structure that Sadie could only assume was the core of this rock.

"What's the drill?" Natasha asked, as Sadie let herself settle into the group beside Steve.

She half expected to hear a lecture from him about going back to the Helicarrier, or staying safe elsewhere. But she was pleasantly surprised when, instead of all that, he simply nodded in her direction, and stood firm beside her.

"This is the drill." Tony pointed to the core. "If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."

That was when Hulk landed in front of them, knocking away the last few Legionnaires as Ultron approached the north of the church, floating through the air eerily, arms extended.

"Is that the best you can do?" Thor shouted, and there was no response.

Instead, Ultron raised his arm in a summon, and the largest horde of Legionnaires Sadie had ever seen followed behind him, rising out of the woodworks like a horrible infestation. She tried to count the numbers, but they moved too quickly and there were far too many for her to get an accurate view.

Steve glanced over to Thor from beside her, an exasperated annoyance on his face. "You had to ask."

"This is the best I can do," Ultron said, arms outstretched like a performer. "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," Tony responded, his voice loud and confident beneath his helmet. "Together."

And despite the Hulk's deafening roar in Sadie's ears, and the thundering of the charging Legionnaires coming their way, she didn't doubt Tony's words as the team formed a tight circle around the core.

Sadie planted her feet firm as the robots attacked from all sides and she let her glowing hands and adrenaline do the job for her, the light slicing through any and all Legionnaires that tried to get past her, whether from in front or above.

The sound of metal against metal surrounded her as the team fought, Pietro ran circles around them in streams of light and Steve was still beside her, fighting off two, three, four Legionnaires at a time with nothing but his hands and his shield. It was hard to focus on those around her though, hard to think of anything besides preserving the core behind her, and preserving her life.

But soon, Sadie found herself settling into a rhythm, one that worked, and felt swift and sufficient enough to both protect and attack. For the first time, she didn't feel as though she was scrambling to keep up with her combative powers, would even go as far as to say that perhaps she had a grip on them as she did her healing and force fields.

In fact, the entire group had settled into a rhythm, each playing off each other's strengths. She could see the red light of Wanda's power taking apart Legionnaires to her right, Steve continuing his combat with flawless grace as Thor's lightning lit up the space. Vision flew over her head, aiming beams from the Mind Stone that was now a part of him and Clint's arrows whizzed around them all, never once missing their mark. And although Sadie couldn't see her, she knew Natasha would be handling herself well on the opposite side of the circle.

Soon enough, Ultron was forced outside, and the attacks began to thin until no more robots approached, but rather ran in the opposite direction, all taking off into the skies.

Sadie took a moment to catch her breath, staring around at the perfect circle of broken down Legionnaires stacked around them.

"Hopefully that's the last of it," Natasha said. "But it usually never is that way."

"We gotta move out, even I can tell the air is getting thin," Steve said, eyes still darting around the room, on guard for more threats. "You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you."

"I'll come with you," Sadie said, and continued quickly before the frown on Steve's face turned into another order. "Anyone who's behind is bound to be injured. We'll be more efficient if I can heal them up quickly, and then they can be autonomous, make their own way to boats in groups."

Steve took a moment to respond, thinking for a moment before deciding: "Okay. This is your ballpark."

"What about the core?" Clint asked, and instantly Wanda was stood at the ready.

"I'll protect it," she said, bravely, and Sadie couldn't help but admire the girl. "It's my job."

As Sadie jogged after Steve and Clint and Natasha split the opposite direction, she could barely think in her surprise of how quickly that last wave had been dealt with by the team. What had felt like an army was gone in a matter of minutes.

"I can't believe we just did that," she laughed. "God, it's insane."

Steve just shook his head; professionalism seemed to leave no room for excitement. "Hopefully this'll be over soon. Long as our aerial team stop Ultron getting out."

"Which they will," Sadie reminded him. "Let's split up. I'll go east, you go west, we'll cover more ground that way."

Steve agreed, and they parted in opposite directions. The town was eerily quiet. It seemed, for Sadie at least, the fight was over. Now, it was to help whoever was left behind.

~

Sadie's powers were almost completely drained. She could feel it, the bottom of that well so close that if she dipped her hand in too far, she'd feel the cold stone beneath the water.

She moved from boat to boat, all of them docked and full of the last bout of Sokovians, and amongst them all, unfortunately, was the odd corpse. It made her sick to see. Steve still helped people aboard and each moment, Sadie was hyperaware again of the rock dropping.

As she scanned the crowd in the final boat, she noticed Clint laying down, taking up an entire bench and leaving Pietro to settle himself on the ground instead, fast asleep.

"Three whole seats and you couldn't leave him a bit of room?" Sadie asked, with a smile. "Poor guy deserves the rest."

Clint stared up at her with a pained expression, and it took her a moment to realise the look was sincere. When he spoke, his voice was slow. "Moore, he's not..."

"Oh my God," Sadie said, clasping a hand to her mouth at the realisation.

She couldn't bring herself to look down at Pietro lying at her feet, feeling awful for not noticing- how could she not notice? It was horrific of her, especially as a doctor, to not notice. Sadie had been far too optimistic about their victory, it hadn't occurred to her that not everyone would be okay. Now, it was clear as day what had happened.

Sadie dragged herself to crouch beside Pietro, to examine his cause of death. She counted the bullet holes, the entrance and exit wounds, and came to the conclusion that no bullets were left in him.

Then a thought occurred to her. The damage of the bullets were what killed him. So perhaps, if she could undo the damage, if she could let his heart work again, get blood flowing back to his brain, fix this- it wouldn't be too late.

Sadie let her hands glow and got to work, healing each hole in Pietro's body until all that was left was holes in Pietro's shirt instead. Then she turned him onto his back, let her hands continue to glow as she began chest compressions, imagining the light of her power strengthening his heart, letting it beat on its own again.

"Moore," Clint's voice was soft behind her as she felt his arms on hers, but she shook him off, pausing her chest compressions only to feel for a pulse, listen for breathing. Nothing. She began again. "Moore, you need to stop."

"Wait," Sadie panted, not letting the rhythm of her compressions falter. "First rule of resuscitation- don't stop CPR until the patient is physically fighting you off."

"You're gonna break his damn ribs!"

"Better to wake up that way than not at all!" she shouted, and instantly, Clint was in her face pushing her off her arms off Pietro's chest, and she couldn't fight against him.

"He's not waking up," Clint said, softly, and Sadie glanced over his shoulder to where Pietro still lay, and watched intently for a sign of life. There was none. "You can't heal death."

"But he's a child!"

"He is dead, Moore," Clint said. Hearing the words made it real. "That's it."

"Just..." Sadie couldn't breathe. "Just let me check."

Clint moved to the side, and she scrambled forward, pressing two fingers against Pietro's neck, watching his chest for a rise and fall that never came. She could see a paramedic standing beside her, waiting expectantly. Waiting for her verdict.

So, Sadie had to do it. The worst part of her job, a task she'd hoped never to have to do today, especially not for a comrade. She let out a shaky breath, before lifting her head up, and glancing over to the paramedic, stood ready with a clipboard.

"Name, Pietro Maximoff. Time of death..." she checked the cracked watch beneath her gloves. "16:47"

Clint Barton was right. Dr Moore could do a lot of things, but her powers would never allow her to heal death.

Sadie was snapped out of her thoughts quickly though, as there was a rumbling and the city suddenly dropped.

Sadie's heart stopped in her chest as she glanced over at Steve, still not on board a lifeboat, and it was only with a second to spare that he lunged onto the side of theirs. She rushed forward foolishly, pushing past the armed guard and pulling him to his feet from where he stared over the edge.

The city was dropping at an alarming speed, Thor's lightning extending from inside it, Ultron's fire glowing from below. Then there was an explosion bigger than any Sadie had ever seen before, bigger than those in Afghanistan, in Libya, bigger than any from the fight today.

The blast sent parts of buildings flying up towards them and she knew if they were to hit these boats, there'd be no survivors. So Sadie flung out her hands, letting the light form the largest forcefield she'd ever mustered beneath the boats.

It was improved version of the canopy she'd made when the city was rising, and she could feel the last of her energy draining. But still, she held tight, feeling Steve hold her steady as she willed the forcefield not to buckle for anything as there was an assault of debris against it.

When it all stopped, the silence was deafening.

~

It was always the aftermath of these fights that troubled Steve.

When the threat was over but his muscles and bones shook violently. The serum didn't ward of fear, and it didn't ward off trauma. He sat alone in the bay of the helicarrier, the long hall full of those who had boarded via lifeboat, ready to land in Krakow.

Steve was dreading that too, being in Poland for the first time since his missions with the Commandos in the war. He just wanted to go home to his apartment and sleep for a week. He didn't want to have to deal with the inevitable press conferences, and questions, and criticisms.

Not now. Not while he was still so... raw.

Pietro Maximoff's body had long since been taken away, but Steve could still feel the weight of him in his arms, could still see Sadie trying to fix him as he'd just stood there and watched from a mile away.

He could see her approaching now still standing tall and healthy, despite it all, gloves and hat hanging from her utility belt. Her hands still glowed blue.

"I'm glad you're okay," she said, standing over him. "It seemed pretty hopeless up there for a while..."

Steve nodded in agreement- for some reason, words were not coming out of his mouth. He thought back to how she'd looked when they thought that rock was about to blow with them on it, how she'd scrambled to contact her mother.

How he and Natasha weren't scared at all, both in a mutual understanding, but how Sadie had been so terrified. Steve figured it was because of how much she had to live for.

If it weren't for Fury- if the events of last year were true, and Nick Fury had really died, then there would have been nothing to save them.

He looked down at the rosary he held in his hands.

"Hold on, are you okay?" Sadie added, quickly. "'Cause you're pretty quiet and I'm not used to this. I feel like I need to fill the space, so whenever you're ready..." an awkward laugh. "We could talk?"

But what could Steve possibly say? His mind was in a billion places at once and he couldn't decide how to feel after all of this. The two of them were the direct opposite it seemed. Steve was steady during the fight, Sadie after.

He put his hands over his face and felt Sadie's touch ruffling his hair gently, before she tilted his head up, giving him no choice but to drop his hands and look at her again. He could feel the familiar power of her healing running over his scalp like hot water.

"Anything you need, okay?" she reminded him, letting her warm hand drift to the side of his face. He closed his eyes, and she gently stroked her thumb across his cheek. When she dropped her hand, the skin where her touch had been felt suddenly cold, but he was calmer. "Anything at all."

"I know," he said. It only made it worse that he did.

"And whatever it is, I'm a doctor, remember?" Sadie added, in her best showman voice, her white teeth peeking out in a mischievous smile. "So you don't gotta look too far. I got a remedy for everything."

Then she walked away, leaving Steve to his space and his thoughts so she could go and treat more of the many patients that needed help. And she'd been doing it for hours. Every time he'd seen Sadie in the battle, he had been so relieved- and when she'd fought by his side he'd been so proud.

Steve knew that Sadie had exhausted her powers, he imagined that once all of this was over, she would spend at least twenty-four hours sleeping. He remembered how she'd mustered up so much of that power through it all, and how he'd held her up as she protected the lifeboats, for fear of her falling off the edge.

But, despite all that, he could see Sadie now, knelt down before an elderly lady, her hands already readied in a glow.

And he could see the exhaustion in her body. Steve wondered if the only thing holding Sadie up was the sturdy material of her suit- that damned suit that had made him so worried and so reassured at the same time. Reassured, because it would protect her. It wouldn't leave her as vulnerable as her polyester scrubs.

But the suit made Steve worry, because it meant the inevitable. Isadora Moore was a part of all this now, and he couldn't keep her out of it if he tried. Perhaps this was Steve's fault. He'd let their friendship become far too personal, far too quickly, and she was bound to suffer for it.

He should have left things how they were. When Sadie was just Doctor Moore, and Steve was just Captain Rogers, and their only interaction was for that case study that had proved more trouble than it was worth. When he wasn't so attached.

But the truth, the terrible, selfish truth of it, was that he was glad he didn't leave things that way. He was so glad to know Sadie Moore that it scared him, because Steve Rogers had a habit of losing the people who he cared about the most.

And he wanted to say it. Steve wanted to go over to where she stood with a clipboard and pen in her glowing hands, and say:

"I care about you so much, it hurts. Do you have a remedy for that?"

...
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hi all! so I've really surprised myself with this, I didn't think I'd get an update out till later this week since I've had a lot on from work, to helping one of my best friends with her move- she's moving across the Atlantic so we've been packing all her stuff into removal vans and it's been kinda long and tough if I'm honest

that said though, I'm literally trash for writing and couldn't help myself, so here's an update!

that's the end of the battle of sokovia and if I have any inkling of how much you guys love Pietro then I think you'll all be pretty sad Sadie couldn't save him- HOWEVER- this was actually a really important event for her both character wise and from a storytelling perspective. I think one of the main dangers with Sadie's mimicry is this idea that she can do/heal "anything" but that just cannot be the case- because it will just make the story super dry and ruin all stakes if she could bring back the dead. Hope you all understand!

anyways, please let me know how you all are, and what you thought of this chapter! you know I love hearing from you guys x ❤️❤️

-Amber.