*** Yes, this series is back – I've been toying with this little AoU one-shot for a while, but lacked a lot of the motivation to write it because writer's block. I recommend you read the other three in the series first or else you'll be super lost (1. Until the End, 2. Remember, Remember, and 3. It Takes Seconds to Break).
This story begins after Ultron is first 'born' at Stark tower, specifically, shortly after Ultron first meets up with the Maximoff twins. As per usual, I follow the movie-ish, taking liberties where and how I see fit, sometimes pulling alternate plots and ideas from the comics, or AoS, or other Marvel mediums… sometimes I pull from nowhere but my own brain Gonna be a few chapters long – was supposed to be just one chapter, but then I couldn't stop writing it and now it's a little bloated for the "one-shot" class, but let's just pretend lol
Thanks so much for all the reads, reviews, follows and favs on all the bits leading up to this, guys! It makes me ridiculously happy Hope you all enjoy, again, as always – I own my OC and nothing else! ***
She'd begun to have qualms about stealing. A lot of theft paved her way around Europe. It gave her sleepless nights and rankled her conscience, almost constantly. Winnie hadn't been raised in any environment that encouraged it, and she certainly had never lived any portion of her life since then as someone who condoned theft. Necessity had changed her behaviour though. She knew a lot of it could be avoided if she didn't move around so much, but she knew that staying on the move was the most logical thing to do.
The decision to steal as little as possible meant that she wasn't staying in quaint cottages or cute seaside villas anymore. She looked around the drab hovel she was currently residing in, on the fringes of an obscure Eastern European country's capitol city, and sighed. It was mean and spare. It cost hardly anything, and if she squinted she could hardly see the stains on the walls, ceiling, and floor.
If she were a normal woman, travelling alone through Europe, there was no chance at all that this ground floor 'apartment' (it hardly deserved the name) would be her home right now. The door was flimsy, the lock on it was laughable, and the one window wouldn't close. However, being something more than a regular woman had its perks. She was able to keep people away by wrapping the entry to her unit with a wall of her power. It hardly took any focus on her part.
Winnie sighed and looked back down at the little laptop on her bed. She was scrolling through several different news sites, trying to find information on Bucky, or Steve. She found nothing on Bucky; she never did. Steve was active as an Avenger again, and that made news, but she wasn't worried about him. She worried constantly about Bucky. More than once over the past several months she had considered attempting to dip into his mind – search the world with her power if she could, try and find him, try to get inside his mind, just to feel his presence, to find out if he was alright.
She was worried about that though, concerned that she might hurt him, if she could even locate him in that way. While on the run, she had acquired a great deal of use, practice, and knowledge about accessing people's minds, either to see what they were currently thinking, look at old thoughts, or to control their actions in the present by twisting their perceptions of the things around them. However, all of this experience she had gained was always in close quarters; she'd never accessed a mind long distance.
She could practice on strangers, she knew, but after the death and destruction she'd caused in Puerto Rico, she was done with inadvertently hurting innocent people. So, accessing Bucky from afar was tempting, but not appealing due to the potential for disaster. In the end she always abandoned the thought, the risks being too great for her.
Winnie sighed again, the air whistling between her teeth quietly. There was nothing about the Avengers online right now. The last flurry of news had been after a huge battle had been waged in the forests surrounding the same city she was currently residing in. That had been a couple of weeks ago, and after the Avengers and the military had pulled out of the Sokovian region, Winnie decided that the safest place to go would be a place they'd just left; little chance anyone would be looking for her here.
She closed the laptop without touching it, and stretched her arms above her head, rolling her neck side to side. She was feeling a little restless, achy almost, because it had been raining for the past 24 hours straight and had only just stopped in the past few minutes. Due to her open window, everything in her apartment felt damp. It was unpleasant, and the already rather dingy living space was now even less appealing. Winnie pulled her sweatshirt's hood up over her head, taking a deep breath to try and clear her thoughts.
Breathing in and out slowly, she allowed her power to envelop her, enjoying the warmth and comfort of it. In her cocoon, she was able to truly feel everything around her: the wind out in the countryside felt as if it were tickling her arms, the warmth of a baker's oven 6 blocks away felt wonderful, the smell of fresh, wet laundry snapping on a line on the other side of town was clean and refreshing… the huge robot pulling apart the bricks on the back side of the castle was loud and grating.
Wait, what? Winnie's eyes snapped open and she bounced to her feet. "Shit," she murmured, panic suffusing her limbs. She turned to her knapsack and tore it open, haphazardly stuffing her laptop and a few other belongings in it, before zipping it closed. She stuffed her feet into her boots and then grabbed her rain jacket, pulling it on in a hurry, the back pack slinging onto her back shortly thereafter. Winnie's eyes skated about the apartment, to make sure she wasn't leaving any trace of herself.
Satisfied that there wasn't anything left that could be linked to her, she pulled the door open and stepped outside, the door closing behind her on its own. Her head turned carefully back and forth, tendrils of power stretching out unseen all around her. She sensed nothing close by. Once more, before stepping out onto the street, Winnie cast out, feeling for the robot again. It was still there, and its design was certainly a familiar one: Stark.
She growled under breath, frustrated that Tony was back in Sokovia for some reason. Or at least one of his stupid minions is here. Her mental eye still on the robot, she flinched hard when the thing suddenly spun around, its red eyes moving swiftly back and forth, as if examining her presence. It can't see me, even Tony can't know how to track this part of me. Indeed it couldn't see her, but it did see the local police officer who approached it, yelling at it in Sokovian. Winnie called out wordlessly in horror when the robot swung a powerful appendage at the officer, breaking the man's neck with a violent snap. The officer fell, dead.
Standing frozen, she realized that the police were attempting to surround the metal creature in front of them, as more and more uniformed human figures began to aggressively approach the robot. Disbelief powered her actions then, she didn't know what the hell was going on, but she knew for a certainty that this wasn't Tony. Tony Stark was a lot of things, but he was not a wanton killer. Winnie considered reaching out from this distance and destroying the robot, but with so many officers that close, she couldn't risk it; her power lacked a lot of finesse from a distance.
Breaking into a sprint, she raced down the street, stealing the first car she saw. The rain let up, but the darkening streets were slick and wet and she was driving like a crazy person, many motorists yelling and gesturing at her through their windows as she careened down the road. She had to sever the mental link to the scene at the Sokovian castle, wanting to ensure that she herself didn't inadvertently kill anyone in her haste to get there.
Winnie left the car parked a block or two away from where the castle lay, running as quickly as she could down the long driveway towards the old structure. Once it had been for royalty, then it fell into disrepair and disuse, as had the Sokovian monarchy. Next it was a prison. Then it was a historical site, attracting tourists. World War II brought an end to the tourist trade, and Sokovia fell into extreme poverty. If the news from a couple of weeks ago was any indication, Winnie suspected that it had become a Hydra base during and after the Second World War. Now it was abandoned again; the police had cordoned it off after the Avengers and their troops left.
The blocked gates proved to be no obstacle for her and she ran hard, her rain boots making ungainly thumps on the wet pavement on her way up. She had her sweatshirt hood up, her blonde hair tucked inside it, and the larger hood of her jacket on top of that. Since the jacket was dark, as were all her clothes, she hoped that anyone who might have been watching, wouldn't see her approach.
Rounding the corner of the castle, out of breath and nearly wheezing from exertion, Winnie came upon the horrific sight of all of the police officers lying dead and mangled. The robot stood where it had at the start, next to the section of wall it was ripping out. Its eager gaze rose to her when she moved into sight, fists clenched at her sides.
"You're not a police officer," the robot spoke, its voice friendly, amused.
"You're not Stark's," she said through a tight jaw; she was utterly incensed by the death around her. This thing would be destroyed by night's end, she would see to that, but first she needed to know where the hell it came from, and why. She may not be Nomad any longer, or part of SHIELD, but she'd be damned if she'd stand idly by and let something like this go on.
The robot chuckled. "No, no I'm not," it replied, "Thank you for seeing that, no one ever does."
"Who made you?" She growled, moving closer, gingerly stepping around the fallen men at her feet.
"Ah! But that's the best part," it answered, delighted, "No one made me!" Standing about ten feet away, Winnie glared at the creature, wondering if it would sound so glib if it could sense the angry power coiled around her right now.
"Impossible," she hissed, "Who made you?" It shrugged at her. "I don't see how that is any of your business," it scolded her, "You know, you humans are awfully nosy." It took a menacing step towards her, raising a metal fist in the air. "Time to say goodbye, I have things to attend to," it explained. Winnie nodded in curt agreement.
"Goodbye," she replied angrily, raising one hand in the air. The robot flew backwards, crashing into the wall that it had been dismantling before.
"Wha-?" It managed to get out, before she closed her fist tightly and crushed its entire body in one movement. She paused, breathing heavily, as the thing crackled and sparked, pieces and chunks of it raining down to the ground. Winnie lowered her arm and let out a breath of relief. She had only a moment to feel her triumph mingle with the horror and regret of not being able to save all these men. The next thing she knew, she was hit with something, bodily, in the side, and flew across the paved area she stood in.
It happened faster than she could have stopped, and she only managed to save herself from a painful and nasty tumble to the concrete with a wild burst of power, halting herself over the ground. She got to her feet and spun quickly, putting up a wall of energy around herself. There was nothing in this open space besides herself, the dead men, and the crushed robot. She shook her head; something had shoved her violently. Winnie thought she saw a streak of movement out of the corner of her eye and she raised her hands towards it swiftly, throwing out a powerful wave; trees splintered and cracked, falling violently when the wave hit them instead of whatever it was she saw.
Winnie moved quickly, her SHIELD training filling her muscles with the memories of evasion tactics. She ran from the areas that were well lit, racing blindly into the dark, preferring that to being visible. She crouched behind a fallen tree, staying still, flinching when drops of water, still clinging to the branches from other trees above her, pattered down onto the hood of her jacket. She felt a sudden pressure behind her as something attempted to approach at her back. Whatever it was rebounded off the powerful wall of energy she was wrapped in and it grunted, a pained noise.
She jerked around and thought, for a moment, that she saw a figure laying on the ground several feet away, but then it was gone. Blinking frantically, Winnie spun in a circle, releasing a tidal wave of her ability around her. Everything in her path was hit with it, and there was a soundless impact to the air which she felt all the way down to her bones. The surrounding trees bent under the wave of power and all froze, mid-bend. She heard more grunting and turned back to the open area again, and saw a man standing there, also frozen solid within the confines of her power. He looked to be midstride. Smiling, Winnie moved to approach her frozen target, dropping the protective cocoon of power about herself in favor of scanning the area in front of her.
"Who are you?" She barked, striding purposefully towards him, her power shoving the bodies of the fallen men out of her way without her realising it. She got closer and the young man's blue eyes widened in alarm. "Who?" She yelled. He didn't answer and she pulled back her hoods, revealing herself. It was an act of vanity, to a certain extent; she was used to being recognized and was hoping if this idiot realized he had encountered Nomad, he would give in.
Instead, he smirked at her, frozen as he was, and shook his head as much as her power would allow him. "You think I would give information to a pretty girl?" He mocked her, though his eyes belied the fact that he was still worried. She glared at him and waved a hand around them.
"You think it's noble to kill innocent men?" She snapped. "You would let the men who protect you die?" She recognized his accent, he was very likely a local; if he was in league with the robot, then he'd had a hand in killing his own people.
"They protected no one but their own corrupt interests," he replied angrily, his brows drawing down in real fury. He looked past her then and suddenly relaxed fully at whatever he spied behind her.
Winnie had only a moment to turn, to catch the slightest glimpse of red tendrils flicking at the edges of her body and her head, before she went rigid, her vision going red as all of her defenses dropped, freeing the frozen man in front of her. She was faintly aware of her body going slack and falling to the ground. Two arms caught her before she slammed into the pavement, but she was lost in the red horrors in her mind by then, and didn't know.
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
Her mother smoothed down the shoulders of Winnie's dress, a smile on her face. "You look perfect, dear," her mother murmured gently, "He's going to adore it." Winnie returned the soft smile and turned to the mirror by the window. Her mother stood behind her proudly, her hands fluttering lightly around Winnie's head, rearranging her veil.
Winnie took in the sight of herself, dressed in white, soft, trimmed with lace, her long dark hair resting in perfect smooth waves about her head, and all of her framed by the gauzy sweetness of her veil.
She blinked, feeling oddly out of sorts for a long moment as the scene before her abruptly changed from her mother and the mirror. Winnie turned and smiled up at her father, her hand clasped to his arm. "It's about time, don't you think?" Her father asked her, as they made their way down the aisle.
"About time?" She asked him, uncertain. He nodded, gesturing with his head down the aisle, which was blurred and indistinct; she could see neither the guests nor who waited at the end of it.
"It's been over 70 years, he waited long enough to make an honest woman out of you," her father grumbled good-naturedly. Winnie couldn't understand, but it was alright, because they were at the altar now. Her father released her, a sad smile on his face as he melted back into the blurred nothingness of the crowd in the pews. She felt a painful stab of longing in her chest, watching him go. Winnie turned slowly to see who had reclaimed her hands. It was Bucky.
He was in his dress uniform and he was smiling sweetly at her, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "I told you when I got back we'd finally make it real," he assured her, tilting his head to the side so he could press a kiss to her cheek, and she felt his dress hat press into her hair as well. Winnie smiled and turned to face him, their hands still clasped. She was happier than she'd been in her entire life, and her chest constricted with a swelling of joy and love so intense she thought she might crack into pieces.
"Bucky," she breathed, struggling to speak through her tear-choked throat, "They took me, and you never came for me." He smiled at her. "I, James, take you, Winifred," he replied. She shook her head.
"You don't understand," she pleaded with him, "I'm not me anymore!"
"For my lawful wife. To have and to hold," Bucky continued, a serene smile on his face. Winnie's veil fluttered off of her head and she tried to turn to see where it had gone, but was drawn irresistibly to gaze back at Bucky.
"From this day forward," he spoke lovingly, his eyes locked on hers. Winnie felt her resolve melting, but gasped when she realized her dress was literally disintegrating off of her body, large swaths of the rich white fabric sloughing to the ground.
"For better and for worse."
Winnie cried out in wordless alarm as she was left standing in the Hydra issued sleeveless shirt she'd worn as their prisoner.
"For richer and for poorer."
The rest of the wedding dress melted from her and she was standing now in the same blue pants she had worn while captive. Her breathing quickened, but when she met Bucky's adoring gaze again, she breathed in deeply and returned his smile, her heart feeling like it might burst for love of him.
"In sickness and in health."
Winnie shrieked when dark globs of something fluttered across her face, realizing in utter horror that it was her hair, all of it falling out in huge chunks, tumbling off her shoulders, drifting to the ground. Her head was cold, shorn nearly bare, exposed in a way that made tears leak from her eyes. Bucky's grip on her hands tightened for a long moment and she was finally drawn back into his beautiful blue eyed gaze.
"As long as we both shall live," he finished, "I love you."
"Winnie!" A voice screamed from behind her, the voice choked with terror and panic. Winnie turned her head towards the noise, even though breaking from Bucky's gaze was painful. She stared down the aisle to see Bucky marching towards her, desperation on his features. This was not her sweet Bucky in his dress uniform. This was Bucky, powerfully built, in his gear as the Soldier, metal arm glinting sharply. His hair swung against the sides of his scruffy face as he fought to get to her, battling with some unseen force which was trying to push him back.
"You can't!" He screamed, "You're playing into their hands! Winnie!" He was trying desperately to reach her, bowed into the terrible invisible wall holding him back. She was confused and tried to call to him, to tell him to stop fighting whatever it was, when movement caught her eye. She looked down and saw her own arm stretched out towards him, her hand stiff, the fingers clawed with strain as she released wave after wave of violent energy at him.
"Winnie! Let go of him, get away! Run Winnie! Run!" He yelled hoarsely, before he tumbled backwards and flew, screaming, down the aisle, away into the darkness awaiting at the end of it. Someone was laughing, and Winnie turned back towards the man clasping her hands lovingly. It was no longer Bucky in his uniform. Winnie felt as if the air was forced from her lungs, her skin growing cold with horror.
Reinhardt stood there, both her hands trapped in his grasp. He was laughing, so hard, and with so much vigor, that she could see his back teeth glinting in his jackal smile. "Discovery," he hissed, "Requires Experimentation." Winnie tried to scream as he leaned towards her, biting her neck, releasing a burning venom that sank through her veins and muscles like a familiar fire.
Darkness, the kind only Hydra could give her, rose up in a smothering wall to envelope her.
"You will always find us," a voice promised her darkly, before she succumbed to the pull of the darkness.
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Winnie thrashed in her restraints, coming-to in a daze. She opened her eyes slowly, incrementally, panting in fear. The dream clung to her skin like a stain. She could feel the sour taste of her own panic in her throat and mouth. "Bucky," she murmured, the memory of seeing him, both versions of himself, causing her pain.
"Did you enjoy yourself?" Came a familiar voice, "She's so good at inviting herself inside another's mind." Winnie turned her head to the side and her eyes widened in disbelief.
"How?" She asked in shock, "I destroyed you." The robot smiled at her, smiled, and she felt her face go slack with shock. It shrugged, a truly human gesture.
"I am more than just one body," it informed her pleasantly, "And although you've been annoying, it's been fascinating to finally meet you, now that I know who and what you are. Nomad." Winnie closed her mouth with a snap. She realized she couldn't move her hands when she tried to raise her fist towards the robot. Looking down, Winnie was disturbed to see snaking lines of red smoke twisting about her arms, legs, and torso. The smoke moved languidly, but felt like steel. She experimentally jerked her limbs, trying to physically free herself, but it proved fruitless.
"My friend has you quite secure," the thing assured her, "She's a big fan of yours, you know." Winnie stared at the creature, dumbfounded. "You make no sense," she snapped. It raised the metal above its cold red eye; whatever passed as a robot eyebrow, and gestured at something behind her, beckoning.
"Wanda, come here," it invited. Winnie was plastered against a half wall, just tall enough to accommodate her height, and when the young woman moved around the edge of it, the smoking red lines encasing Winnie dripping dangerously from her extended fingers, she locked her gaze on Winnie, not breaking eye contact.
"Allow me to introduce myself," the metal creature stated, "My name is Ultron. This is Wanda Maximoff." It gestured at the woman who, at least physically, looked to be around the same age as Winnie. There was a strange zip to the air, a breeze buffeting against Winnie's hair, and suddenly the man from earlier, the one she had frozen, stood next to Wanda.
"Ah, yes, and you've met Wanda's brother, Pietro," Ultron offered. Pietro nodded his head at her, smiling slyly. She glared at him, and then at Wanda, before directing the baleful glower to Ultron.
"The Tesseract is gone, how are they possible?" She spoke with rage and suspicion, trying again, in vain, to pull physically from her prison. Wanda smirked and spoke, drawing Winnie's attention.
"There was no Tesseract," she informed Winnie haughtily, her accent matching her brother's, "We are more than that." Winnie closed her eyes and reached out mentally, joining with her ability easily. She could feel the power emanating from Wanda, could nearly taste it as she ran it through the filter of her own invisible ability. It was different than her own power, this was immediately apparent. There was something tantalizing about it; Winnie was overcome with a sudden, ridiculous urge to link her own power with Wanda's, just to see what happened.
There was again a sudden rush to the air, and the pressure of a hand closed gently around her throat, making Winnie's eyes pop open.
Pietro stood directly in front of her, his eyes on hers. "Don't think we don't see," he warned her, his voice low, "You think no one can see, but we can see."
Her brow crinkled in confusion. "See?" She asked, her voice purposefully smaller than it had been a moment ago. Show them weakness, lure them with that lie, and gain the upper hand when they think they've won. Bucky's words, from their endless training while in hiding together, came rushing to the forefront and she slipped the advice on easily.
"You see Wanda's as red, yes? Everyone can." He told her, his voice still quiet. His breath was warm on her face and she resisted the urge to yell at him to back off. "Well, you are blue," Pietro informed her, nearly whispering the words, his eyes never leaving hers. Winnie quirked her mouth up in disbelief.
"You lie," she replied easily, "No one can see any stupid blue. You're just trying to flatter me." He backed away and released her neck, staring at her for a long moment with amused eyes, before moving in an instantaneous blur to Wanda's side.
"We can," Wanda spoke, her voice throaty, "Perhaps it is the Tesseract which makes you invisible to others, but we can see it."
Winnie's eyes darted around the room, freezing when she saw the near-faded Hydra symbol on the wall across the room. She narrowed her gaze hatefully when she saw it.
"I should've known," she grumbled, "Goddamn Hydra." She turned her loathing on the group in front of her. Ultron put both of its hands in the air.
"Oh, now, don't lump us in with those villains," it urged her pleasantly, "We are not Hydra." Wanda twitched in fury and glared at Winnie. "We are not Hydra," she repeatedly heatedly, the hazy red lines emanating from her hands jerking with her rage, "They will never control us again. No one will. Not Hydra, not SHIELD, not the Avengers, no one." Pietro nodded in agreement with his sister's words, his jaw muscles ticking in his face.
"Then what exactly are you?" Winnie asked, exasperation flooding her tone; she was just about ready to be done here. Ultron waved a hand around itself. "I have plans, plans that your friends won't like, but we aren't Hydra," it explained.
"Then how the hell are these two possible," Winnie demanded, jerking her chin towards the brother and sister staring at her. Wanda unnerved and fascinated her. Pietro just stared and stared, unnerving her for different reasons. Ultron smiled, a disturbing thing on a robot face. "Hydra likes its experiments," it offered, "Think of Wanda as Nomad 2.0."
"And Speedy?" She asked in a mocking voice, nodding at Pietro. At the same time she let a wisp of her ability flow from her hands, onto the floor, seeping it towards where Ultron stood. Let's see if he's full of crap; if they can really 'see' me.
"I am not a replication of anyone," Pietro answered her flatly. She regarded him evenly for a moment until he grinned at her flirtatiously. "I'm one of a kind," he added, winking at her. She rolled her eyes and released an extra flow of slow energy and power towards Wanda this time. That was when Pietro's smile fell and he raced to Winnie's side again, grabbing both of her hands in his.
"Stop," he growled at her. She smiled at him, as sweetly and as innocently as she possibly could. "Stop what?" She asked him, trying to infuse her tone with as much girly playfulness as possible. He blinked rapidly at her, thrown off.
"We can see, remember?" Wanda spoke from behind her brother, her voice impatient, and Winnie dragged her gaze back up to Pietro's.
"Oh right," she whispered, "Can you see this?" He frowned, his eyes not leaving hers.
"Wha-?" He began, but Winnie smiled wickedly and cut him off.
"See this," she spoke loudly and angrily, startlingly him, and then released the explosive burst of power she'd been holding back the entire time; she had the information from them she wanted, and her ruse was complete now. Nomad 2.0 or not, Wanda was not a match. Winnie's vision went white as nearly every pore in her body let forth a rush of energy. She felt euphoric release in every muscle.
When the blinding light left her eyes, Ultron was a pile of broken parts, Wanda was laying crumpled against a wall on the other side of the room, and Pietro was flat on his back, behind a nearby table, junk and debris all over and around him. She hadn't destroyed the building, she didn't want to do that. Her goal had been incapacitation, and she considered herself successful, though she had very purposefully tried to aim terrible violence in Ultron's direction.
Winnie stepped away from the wall she'd been pinned to and strode towards Pietro. She considered killing him, and his sister. Winnie eyed Wanda's crumpled form, contemplating the threat someone like that posed. She chuckled; Winnie knew very well the threat someone like Wanda posed. Somehow, despite their current situation, she didn't think the Maximoff siblings were the biggest threat. I'm not going to be a murderer.
Winnie's gaze shifted to the broken bits that remained of Ultron. Ultron was the threat, of that she felt certain, she just didn't know exactly how he was a threat. Shaking her head, she turned away, crouching down next to Pietro and placing a gentle hand on his forehead. She released a flow of power into his mind easily. Let us just find out the threat that Ultron carries, then, shall we?
She caught glimpses of things. Terrible things. Miniature versions of Wanda and Pietro, as terrified children, mourning suddenly and violently, dead parents. A bomb - Stark Industries? A life of hardship and cultivated grudges. A decision to join Hydra.
Loki's staff; the familiar item making her shudder, her stomach roiling. Eerie blue light. Pain, both mental and physical, as Pietro lay strapped to an operating table, listening to his sister screaming in agony in another room; the price of their grudge.
Glimpses of a fight, in the forest surrounding this building; she caught snatches of her friend's faces in this man's mind. The Avengers were fighting these guys too? Her own face appeared, pulling her hood off again outside. She looked a lot prettier in his mind's eye than she actually thought she was. Maybe blonde does suit me. It wasn't hard to discern the tenor of his thoughts when he'd first laid eyes on her. Surprised pleasure, admiration, slight fear, but mostly a stunned kind of appreciation.
Shaking away his stupid crush, she focused, driving a deeper wedge into his mind. Pietro groaned, his back arching as he twisted on the ground, but Winnie had to know, had to know what their end game was.
Ultron. Image after image of Ultron. She couldn't make out all the things Ultron was saying in Pietro's mind, but she understood their meaning: Ultron sought power and domination. It sought to right wrongs. This appealed to Pietro.
Winnie wanted details and ground her teeth in frustration when Pietro's mind only revealed another image of her own face. He was intrigued by her power, deeply appreciative of her appearance, and thoroughly enjoyed her general ferocity when she spoke in his mind's eye. "Goddammit," she muttered, glaring at him in frustration, "Get over it, buddy."
A picture of Steve's shield filled Pietro's mind. Ultron mingled over the image. "Strongest metal on Earth," it said, "Indestructible. Perfect." Horror flooded Winnie's very bones as Pietro's mind showed her Ultron's greatest hope: an endless army of itself – tall, strong, silver, menacing. There was a wisp of something else, a grand plan "the big reveal", said the Ultron in Pietro's mind, but there was no more information to explain what the "big reveal" was going to be. Ultron hadn't told Pietro and Wanda. Again the image of the indestructible army. Winnie flinched from the imagined violence the image contained.
She scrambled to her feet, breaking the connection with the speedster. Winnie paused to again consider killing the siblings that lay unconscious in the room with her. She reached her hand out towards Wanda, but couldn't do it. She had seen enough to understand that these two were Hydra guinea pigs, like she was; Wanda was the way she was because Hydra had likely been attempting to recreate Winnie. Besides, the real threat is Ultron. She recalled it saying it was more than just one body. She had destroyed this body and hoped that would buy her enough time to get help.
I have to contact Tony.