"How have you been playing this for years? I'm so much better than you!"

"You know what, Speedy, fuck you."

"Just give me a time and place."

"Gross! Ew! My virgin ears!" Tony covered his ears and started whining like a little baby.

Dahlia threw a Monopoly piece at his head. "Stark, when you introduce yourself to people, one of the things you call yourself is a 'playboy', you're far from a virgin."

Tony scoffed and leaned back on the couch, muttering unintelligible things under his breath.

Dahlia had forced the entire team to have a game night, making them keep their minds off of the situation outside of the tower.

Truthfully, they had all needed it, even if they wouldn't admit it. There wasn't anything they could do until the computers picked up something regarding Nat.

Unfortunately, Dahlia was starting to regret her suggestion as Pietro was using this as a platform to make sexual jokes. No one was surprised he did so. He was Pietro Maximoff, after all.

However, Tony was starting to become very suspicious of the two. Even if Dahlia was still currently upset with him, and he was too proud to apologize, she was the closest he'd ever had to a kid of his own.

It was terrifying, having a daughter in her twenties, with the very real possibility of her having sexual relations with anyone. He used to think he wouldn't ever have to worry about that with her, Dahlia never seemed to click with anyone, so he didn't stress about having the play the 'over-protective father' role.

"Hey! Maximoff! Keep your hands to yourself!" Tony scolded, noticing Pietro's arm slung around Dahlia's shoulders.

Tony and the twins had come to a sort of mutal ground. It was understandable, at least in Dahlia's opinion, why they hated him and still held some resentment. They believed for the longest time that he was the one who ripped their lives from them, and maybe to some

extent that was true, but knowing Tony as a person made hating him less realistic. Of course, she understood that they weren't going to be best friends, but they could be civil, and that was all that mattered.

Pietro raised his arms in the air, in resignation, and turned to Dahlia. "I'm still better at this game then you are."

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Just cause you have more money at the moment, doesn't mean you've won! I have so many more properties and they're worth so

much more. Not to mention you picked the goddamn wheelbarrow as your game piece. You don't get an opinion, wheelbarrow." Dahlia smacked his arm.

Pietro faked a painful injury, nursing his arm as if he had broken it. "First of all, you just killed me, Dahlia, I hope you're happy."

"Oh, I am."

"Second of all, the wheelbarrow is better than your stupid top hat! It's a hat!"

"You did not just go there."

Wanda had to hold Dahlia back from assaulting Pietro, not wanting her to go to jail, at least not today.

"Nat sent an encoded message. She's in Sokovia. Three minutes. Get what you need." Steve entered the room, and as he spoke, the room fell silent.

Then, the silence turned to extreme noise. Everyone ran in various directions, collecting weapons, getting into gear, and gathering anything they might need.

At this moment, Dahlia found herself wishing she could steal Pietro's powers, because he was already finished and watching her frantically run around get ready with a smirk.

"I'm glad to see this is amusing you, but I've got to change so you should leave now."

Pietro opened his mouth to respond, but Dahlia stopped him before he could. "And don't make a stupid remark about staying, perv."

"You know me so well, buttercup." He winked before leaving the room.

"That jackass." She muttered to herself, but she couldn't repress a smile as she pulled on her dark purple suit.

The brunette exited the room and grabbed her guns and knives, and stopped by the door right by the plane.

"Hurry up, slowpokes! That electronic bastard won't die of his own accord! Well, probably not." She called out. "If he does, then problem solved, right?"

"If if turns out to be that easy, I'll have some words with Rogers." Thor chuckled beside her.

Pietro stepped up on her other side. "Y'know, this could be the mission where we die. Do you ever think about that?"

"Huh, not really. I mean, until I do die, how do we know I even can?"

"You make a good point."

"Always do."

•

"Split up, everyone. We need to evacuate the city as best we can," Steve ordered. "Stark, take Ultron and stall him. Banner, find Romanoff. Pietro, alert the police. Thor, air control. Wanda, you know what to do. And Dahlia, well, if I give you orders, you'll make up your own anyway, so figure it out."

Dahlia grinned from ear to ear. When she was allowed free rein, no one knew what she would do, not even her. All she knew was that she was going to look badass doing it.

"Gotcha, Spangles!"And with those words of parting, Dahlia jumped out of the plane.

Which was in the air.

And without a parachute.

On purpose.

God, was that girl insane.

Dahlia landed on her feet and started doing surveillance of the area. While everyone else was busying themselves with evacuating the city (which she knew they were more than capable of), Dahlia was trying to get a feel for Sokovia.

No, not like she was going sightseeing. More like she was scouting out good vantage points, places with good cover, and most importantly, where Ultron's bots would come through. If they came from the sky, she would like to get up somewhere high, near the outskirts of the city, where she could take them out before they had a chance to do any harm.

"No sign of a launching point for the Iron Legion. I'm gonna find a tall building towards the outside of the city to set up camp to take them out as they come in." Dahlia said over her comms, waiting for approval from Steve. Even if she was allowed free reign, he had made it clear that he was to know what it was she was doing.

"Copy that. Do you think you'll need a second person on the scene?" Steve asked.

"I could do it without one, but it'd be nice to have someone to observe my hilarious jokes."

Steve groaned. "So who am I going to force to witness your horrible sarcasm? Maximoff, status?"

"Which one?" Pietro and Wanda's voices clashed over the comms.

"Let's just make this simpler real quick. Which one of you is older?"

"That would be me." Pietro's smug voice replied.

"Okay, you're Maximoff One, and Wanda is Maximoff Two. Maximoff One, status?"

"Police officers have been notified, just don't ask how."

"Alright, go give Anelace some backup. Should be easy since you trained together." Steve ordered.

Dahlia flushed a light pink at the mention of their training session, thank fucking god no one could see it.

She shook herself out of her embarrassed state and began climbing the tallest building to her right. It was right on the edge of town, and had quite the view, but she wasn't there for the pretty sky, she was there to kick some major robot ass.

A flash of blue ran up beside her, stopping when it reached then top of the building, and Dahlia smiled when she saw it approaching.

"You just had to pick the hardest to find building in the city," Pietro shook his head in amusement. "I've been up every single one until I found it."

"Aw, poor you," Dahlia stuck out her bottom lip. "Good thing you have super speed, so suck it up."

Pietro snorted and ruffled her hair, but with the use of his powers, it made it much worse.

"Hey! Do you know how hard it is to get a smooth ponytail? This took me like fifteen minutes!" She glared him down.

He ignored her and sat down with his legs dangling off the edge. "So what do we have to do?"

Dahlia fixed her hair and sat down beside him. "Not much for now, we have to wait until the Iron Legion start flying in, when they do we need to destroy as many as we can before they reach the ground."

"Ugh, this is boring." Pietro groaned, crossing his arms.

"This is nothing compared to the watch shift at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. It's just eight hours straight of staring at a screen. That was the hardest part of training, honestly." She sighed.

He looked at her curiously. "I forgot that you're not actually an Avenger, you sure do act like it. When all this is over, what will you do?"

She looked down at her hands. "I guess I never really thought about it. The way things used to work for me was that I'd do my own missions, and the Avengers would call me in for special cases, that's why I was at Strücker's lab. I've stuck around because I can't exactly let this go when I was part of something that started it. They'll probably have you and your sister join the team, after this. And I guess I'll go back to S.H.I.E.L.D."

"I'd miss you a lot." Pietro admitted, fiddling with his own hands in turn.

Dahlia smiled a little at his words. Strangely, the idea of leaving the team made her sick to her stomach. Leaving them had always been hard, but never this bad. The main reasons she had a hard time with going back to the base was because of Natasha and Thor, leaving her friends and her mother figure was never easy.

But now, she felt like her bond with everyone on the team had grown, and now she had Wanda and Pietro, making it extra difficult to leave.

She was stuck. But that was future Dahlia's problem.

"We've got incoming. Maximoff One, Anelace, get ready." Steve spoke over the comms.

"Shit." Dahlia swore, standing up and offering a hand to Pietro.

He took it and the two of them readied themselves for battle.

"If we get out of this, you owe me one kiss. On the lips." Pietro smirked from beside her.

"Just focus on the mission at hand, Maximoff." Dahlia laughed.

"I can't, not when you're right next to me."

"You really shouldn't be so forward, Maximoff. Someone might think you're in love with me."

"Why ever would they think that?"

Their conversation was cut short as a swarm of robots flew through the air, straight at them.

Dahlia looked at Pietro and gestured to him, and he nodded, knowing exactly what to do. It was as if they were on the same plane of understanding, because even if they hadn't spoken of this plan before, they both knew what the other meant.

Pietro intertwined his fingers, creating a place for Dahlia to step, and when she stepped on it, he launched her up into the sky, straight into the flock of metal.

With a gun and a dagger in each of her hands, she slashed through the metal and shot down several flying automatons, littering the ground with at least 27 metal corpses.

"Nice one." Pietro called to her as she landed back down.

"I know." Dahlia smirked.

Suddenly the ground began to shake, and the building beneath them began to crumble.

"What the fu-"

She didn't get to finish her swear because the cement under her feet gave way, leaving her hanging off the side of the building, on the edge a city that was floating in the sky, with only a metal rod to keep her from falling and inevitably getting crushed.

"Dahlia!" Pietro's voice was panicked as he grabbed at her arm, trying to keep her from falling off.

Somehow, even while she was close to imminent death, she managed to crack a joke.

"Guess you could say I'm falling for you." She smiled, but it looked more like a grimace as she was using all her strength to cling to the rod.

Pietro grit his teeth and started to pull her up, but not without saying, "I fucking knew it."

With one last pull, he was able to pull Dahlia up onto the building, but there was no time to rest. Without half of the foundation, the building was beginning to tip off of the floating rock.

Pietro noticed this just in time, so as Dahlia was catching her breath, he scooped her up and ran off of the building, his feet leaving the cement just as it toppled over the edge.

His back slumped on the wall behind him, his legs giving out beneath him.

Dahlia, who was still rested in his arms, lifted her hand weakly and shot one of Ultron's bots that was walking toward them.

Despite her exhaustion, she gritted her teeth and pulled herself up.

"C'mon, Maximoff. We've got some robot ass to kick."

Dahlia turned away and spoke into her comms. "Orders, Rogers?"

"Anelace, Maximoff One, head towards me and secure the bridge."

"Roger that. Get it?" Dahlia chuckled.

"Not the time."

"Right."

Dahlia looked over to Pietro. "I hate to ask this, but could you give me a lift? I doubt I'll be able to keep up with you."

"You don't even need to ask."

So, if anyone asked, that was why Dahlia Anelace was piggy-back riding Pietro Maximoff while he used his super speed to race to the bridge.

Unfortunately, there was no time to laugh about the ridiculousness because as soon as the two arrived, they immediately sprung into

action.

Dahlia and Pietro fought back to back, occasionally switching sides to fight off various bots that came at them.

"Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely," Steve said from behind them, beheading a robot with his shield. "The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed, walk it off."

"Wow Steve, you should be an inspirational speaker." Dahlia said sarcastically.

"Maximoff, your sister is in a building on the south side of the city. She may choose to defend herself, but I told her I'd send for you. Go find her." Clint said over the comms.

Pietro bit the inside of his cheek and looked toward Dahlia, watching her gracefully kick three bots off of the side.

Yeah, she can hold her own. He thought to himself.

He grabbed her arm and she looked at him, noticing the concern that edged on his face.

"What is it, Pietro?" Dahlia asked, her voice softer than usual.

"I have to go get Wanda," He said. "But I want you to be safe. I know you can handle yourself, but I just... I don't know whether we'll both make it out of here. And I just wanted you to know-"

Dahlia cut him off with a finger to his lips. "I get it. Don't think about it. We'll both be fine. Just stay safe for me, okay, Speedy?"

"Right back at you, darling."

Pietro smiled at her one more time before running off to get his sister.

Dahlia didn't let herself think about what he could've said, and instead focused on the task at hand.

"Anelace, cover me!"

Steve was trying to pull a woman back onto the bridge, and she was focused on eliminating all the bots around him so he could only worry about the life or death situation in front of him.

"I got you! Just look at me!" Cap called to the woman as he used all his strength to pull her up.

He hauled her up onto the bridge, letting out a sigh of relief.

A slightly broken bot trudged forward, Ultron's voice sounding from under the helmet.

"You can't save them all. You'll never-"

He was cut off by Steve throwing the metal shell off of the floating island, calling after it.

"You'll never what? You didn't finish!"

Thor landed on top of a car beside Dahlia and Steve.

"What, were you napping?" Cap said, playfully annoyed.

The three of them fought right beside one another, kicking and slashing at the bots all around them, slowly ridding the bridge of metallic beings.

"Alright, we're all clear here." Clint said over the comms in her ear.

Dahlia breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe. Pietro was safe.

"We are not clear! We're very not clear!" Steve said frantically.

Natasha appeared from seemingly nowhere and joined in with their fight, and Dahlia had to consciously stop herself from dropping everything and giving her a hug. This came first. She can't hug Nat if she's dead.

"The next wave's gonna hit any minute. What have you got, Stark?" Cap asked, throwing his shield over his shoulder, which Dahlia ducked under.

"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." Tony's voice crackled.

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice."

Natasha had a concerned look on her face. "Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..."

"Not 'til everyone's safe."

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math here." Natasha said.

"Since when have you been one for math, Nat?" Dahlia snickered.

Nat shot her an amused look just when Steve answered. "I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it."

"I didn't say we should leave. There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

Dahlia stopped to look at her, concern flooding through her. She really had never worried about dying during a mission before. It was just part of the job to her, that's how she was trained. But now, for some strange reason, all she could think about was Pietro.

Dying never really mattered to her before. It really hadn't. But Pietro changed all that. Dahlia had always figured that her life would be the same, always. She'd get up, do a mission, eat popcorn, of course, and go to bed only to wake up and do it all over again. But Pietro, intentionally or not, had made her think of the possibility of a life with more than this. A life where she had someone she loved, where every day she woke up and had someone to protect. She had never really known what that was like.

Despite whether that life was one she wanted with Pietro, which it was, but that's beside the point, now that this life was even a thought in her head, she couldn't die now.

It was too soon.

She wanted to live.

She needed to live.

For the first time in her life.

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." Nick Fury's voice could be heard from the team's earpieces.

Several large helicarriers flew up towards the floating city, like large, dark, mechanical angels.

"Fury, you son of a bitch." Steve gasped.

"Oooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

Three lifeboats flew up to the edge, ready to carry lots of people to safety.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Dahlia nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Pietro's voice behind her.

"This is what S.H.I.E.L.D.'s supposed to be."

"This is not so bad."

Before he could say more, Dahlia tackled him in a hug, the anxiety of never seeing him again leaving her body at the sight of him. She had to jump up into his arms, due to him being so tall, but she didn't much care at this moment.

"I'm glad you're alive, jackass." She muttered into his shoulder.

"Yeah, you too, asshole."

They separated quickly when they remembered that they had load the lifeboats up.

Pietro and Dahlia split up to get people to the ships, though for him it was far easier, with him and his goddamn super speed.

Dahlia lifted up two children in each of her arms, dropping them off on the carrier.

Vision and Thor seemed to be having a very pleasant discussion about Mjolnir's balance, all while Ultron was knocked out in front of them, and Dahlia had to stifle a chuckle at that.