Another One? || "To The End" series

Apologies Are A Waste Of Time

The three of us wandered the market for a while before I spotted an old TV sporting a familiar suit fighting Ultron on top of a truck. I frowned and stopped Pietro and Wanda, pointing to the screen. We continued watching until the robot and the capsicle crashed into a train. I looked up at Pietro, who he nodded, and took off running towards the train. I spotted Ultron about to punch Steve and ran into his shoulder before skidding to a stop, making him spin and look at me.

"I shouldn't be surprised," he said. I grinned and shook my head.

"Nope." I ran at him again, but he spun out of the way. I heard a crash, however, and looked back to see Pietro had run into him also. The robot turned to escape but was cut off by two rails surrounded by red mist crossing in front of him. He looked up at Wanda, who was now standing next to me.

"Please," he said, "don't do this."

"What choice do we have?" Wanda asked angrily. Ultron growled and shot towards us. I pulled Wanda out of the way, and the blast went to the front of the train before the robot flew off. Steve ran up to the cab, checking on the driver.

"I lost him!" I heard him say. "He's headed your way!" Piero ran over and placed a hand on my arm. "If you have the package, get it to Stark! Go! Go!" Steve ran back to us and looked between me and Pietro.

"Civilians in our path," he said. We nodded to each other and ran off, pulling the innocent civilians out of the way of the train that was plowing through the market. Soon, Wanda got the train stopped, and we stopped by a wall, where I sat on the ground and Pietro leaned on a stack of crates. Wanda ran over quickly and looked at Pietro.

"I'm fine," he said. She nodded and looked down at me. I shook my head.

"I just need to take a minute," I told her.

"I'm very tempted not to give you one," I heard. I looked up at Steve, who'd just walked up, and rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, thanks, old man," I said. "I doubt you could do better. You might break a hip."

"Well, I'm not sure you deserve one, Chris."

"Yeah, I get it, I screwed up, but apologies are a waste of time, so if that's what you're expecting, don't bother."

"The Cradle," Wanda cut in. "Did you get it?" Steve looked at her and nodded.

"Stark will take care of it." I rolled my eyes.

"No, he won't." Steve sighed.

"You don't know what you're talking about. Stark's not crazy." I chuckled.

"Are you sure about that? I lived with the man for two years."

"He will do anything to make things right," Wanda said. Steve frowned and touched his earpiece.

"Stark, come in," he said. "Stark. Anyone on comms."

"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it," the redhead told him. "Where do you think he gets that?"

⇔

The four of us rushed back to the Avengers compound and walked into the lab to see Tony and Bruce working on putting something into the cradle.