Chapter Two: Flows Like Fresh Water

"She is free in her wildness, she is a wanderess, a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. 'Time' for her isn't something to fight against. Her life flows clean, with passion, like fresh water." -Roman Payne


Ben trudged through the snow, straining as he carried the destroyed body of Ultron to his little cabin home. He and his mum lived deep in the forest, away from people and the outside world. He had a few miles to go, though Ben found he was only just beginning to tire.

A perk of being what he was. It was one of very few.

Ben forced away those thoughts, instead focusing on the being he was now dragging through the snow. Ultron... It was an interesting name. It appeared that he'd been in a battle of some sort, he was so heavily damaged. Ben knew something had happened. There had been an earthquake, but that was all he knew. He and his mother lived a good thirty miles from the city, well out of the way. Ben had only been five miles out from his home when he'd found the metal man. That meant that, if Ultron had come from the city, he'd have crawled over twenty five miles.

Ben's arms tightened around Ultron's chest with the thought of the pain he must be feeling. He could sense the android's agony. The ability that shunned him from society was the same one that told him Ultron was more than a machine. He was a person. A person in pain. Not just physical pain, Ultron was hurting on the inside. Ben wanted to fix that. He was like his mum, trying to fix everything.

But there were some things he couldn't fix. He couldn't fix himself and his mum. Make them 'normal'. He couldn't fix the fact his grandparents disowned his mother when they found out she was a mutant. Couldn't fix the fact he was a rape child.

But he could fix Ultron.

With that thought, Ben trudged on, his super human grip never wavering as he carried Ultron toward salvation.


Anya Listratov was neck beep in the gritty engine of a worn 1980 Arctic Cat snowmobile. Grease and sweat clung to her olive skin as she worked. Her thick black hair was pulled up in a high pony-tail.

A petite hand moved from the guts of the machine to reach toward her work bench. With a quick command from her mind, her electric screwdriver floated to her waiting grip.

Anya was a technopath. A creature shunned by normal humans for her extra gene and her inhuman abilities. The twenty six year-old woman was a mutant who could control any form of technology with her mind. It was how she made a living.

Her job as the 'strange mechanic in the woods who could fix anything' was what kept her and her son alive. The job didn't pay well, but it was enough.

Screwing another bolt into the faulty machine, Anya straitened up and whipped her sweat covered forehead. Even in the Sokovian winter, hard labor would bring perspiration from the skin.

Anya took the five steps to the left to reach her work table and snatched up a bottle of water. She took a deep gulp of the liquid, severing how it eased the dryness of her throat. Setting the bottle back down, she leaned against the work table and sighed. Ben should have been back an hour ago. She's sent her son out to get kindling for the fire, a job that usually only took two hours. She loved her son deeply, and worried for him as any mother, but Anya knew Ben could handle himself.

Her thoughts were interrupted with the bang of the garage door sliding open. "Mum!" Anya breathed a sigh of relief before motherly rage flared in her. The boy was late, and even though she hid it, it scared her.

"Benedict Nicolai Listratov!" She yelled in the voice only a livid mother could make. She saw the boy flinch from where he stood in the open doorway of their side-sliding garage door.

"Well?" Anya demanded, crossing her arms over her rather large bust. "Come in before you become ill." That was when she noticed the silver something her boy was dragging behind him.

"Mum, he's hurt. Hurt real bad..." Ben whispered.

Panic flashed in Anya's heart as she raced over to her son. The sight that met her made her real back. Her son was kneeling over the leaking and broken form of some sort of metal man. Anya reached out with her sense. What she felt made her gasp. The android had a human consciousness. Well, not quite human, but more so than anything she'd ever felt before.

"Help me get him on the cot." Anya commanded, immediately going into doctor mode. Once upon a time, she had wanted to be a surgeon, and still retained many of her schooling.

Ben nodded and helped her scoop up the metal man and bring him to the empty cot Anya often slept in when a project kept her in the garage for days.

They set the android down gently as they could, though he was still jostled a great deal. He groaned in pain, but remained unconscious.

"Get me the box of clamps, wire cutters, a battery, Daisy, and lubricant wires." Anya ordered her son. The boy went about gathering the supplies and handing them to his mother as she needed him. First step was to set him up to a power source. The android was extremely low on power, to the point he would shut down permanently if she didn't act quickly.

Collecting the car battery her son had brought her, Anya connected the android to it. The battery worked much like a human ventricular assist device, keeping the 'heart' alive and pumping. Next was to stop the bleeding. The circuits her leaking vital fluids to keep him 'alive'.

Anya set about clamping off the torn wiring and reconnecting them when she could. As her hands worked on one part of him, her mind manipulated her other tools to repair other parts of him. 'Daisy', her favored electric screwdriver practically never left her hand.

Finally, after twenty heart stopping minutes, Anya had the android stable. It was so much like a human operation it was scary.

"He said his name was Ultron." Ben said after everything quieted down.

"Ultron..."

Ben nodded. "He must of gone through something bad to get this beaten up." Anya moved closer to her son and pulled him into a one armed hug. "He'll be okay." She murmured.

Her son looked up at her with wide blue eyes. "What do you think happened to him?"

Anya returned the gaze with her own golden green. "I'm not sure. Something happened at the city. That I know." She smirked, though it was weak. "Makes me wish we had television network or radio."

Their cabin didn't have any sort of electricity. Their water came from a well out back, their heating from a furnace in the basement and anything electric from a worn out generator behind the garage. It was one of the many draw backs of living so far from civilization. But the privacy and escape from discrimination was worth the sacrifice.

Anya rubbed her son's shoulder. "Let's go in. I'll make us some hot chocolate and we can watch a movie." Ben nodded and followed his mother inside. They might not have a network to watch normal television, but they had a DVD player to watch the few movies they owned.

"Which one do you want to watch?" Anya asked as she made her way to the kitchen to being brewing the hot chocolate.

Ben smiled as he lay down on the worn couch. "Pinocchio."

Anya smiled at hearing the title of her son's favorite movie. "I knew you were going to choose that."


A.N. Didn't change much in this one, mostly just cleaned it up some.

(Old A.N.) Okay, super long author's note. Bare with me please. I'm gonna go over some things I didn't cover last chapter. First are pairings. As in the description, this is mainly an Ultron/Oc fic, but there's also going to be Vision/Wanda, Tony/Pepper, Jane/Thor, Clint/Lauren, Bruce/Natasha, and maybe a few more. The second most common pairing will for sure be Vision and Wanda. They were one of my original OTPs, and I will forever love them. 3

Second, Peter (Pietro) lives. I like the guy too much to have him killed off. Also, instead of the twins being 'miracles' or 'engineered' they will be mutants like in the original comics. This is fanfiction, so I don't have to deal with any copy writes and crap.

Because the twins are mutants, they're going to have the mutant backstory. Peter is going to be more like the Quicksilver in Days of Future Past than Age of Ultron. Wanda will be mostly the same, but with an American accent as they were both American born in DOFP. I'll probably pull some X-Men references.

Another thing, Ben and his mother Anya are both Russian. I have absolutly no idea how to write a Russian accent, so for now their speech is normal. If anyone could give me tips on how to make them more Russian, I'd really appreciate it.


Guest Reviews:

Shingekifan001: Oh my gosh, that is seriously the biggest complement you could ever give me, I'm speechless that you think that. Thank you so much. I strive to do my best, but I honestly don't feel like I'm a very good writer. I see other fics out there that are just breathtaking and then I look at mine and feel so intimidated. Hearing you say that is such a boost to my confidence. Thank you again! 3