"Before we turn into a monster, before we turn into a monster with 2 heads." - Coleman Hell.
After Tony had dragged his sister out of her room, Jace had actually been able to loosen up a bit and enjoy the rest of the party. Luckily, she hadn't drunk herself to a condition where she would have been stupid enough to try to lift Thor's hammer as all of the Avengers, alongside Helen and Maria, sat together in the living room. Obviously failing to lift Thor's mighty hammer, Tony had to find an explanation to justify his failed attempts.
"I have a simpler theory, you are all not worthy.." Jace and the girls were watching in the sidelines as Thor argued with the rest of the male Avengers.
"Wow bff, that hurt." Now that Jace had entered the argument, all the Avengers knew that the Asgardian had no chance in winning against the youngest Stark. Before Thor had a chance to even try to fight off his best friend's fighting remark, a piercing noise was projected all around Avengers Tower, bringing Jace back to her paranoid state she had been earlier. Closing her eyes in order to regain her stability, her ears caught sound of metal hitting the tiled floor as it came closer to the group. Crap, I know that's not Tony. Once opening her eyes, Jace followed the eyes of the rest of her teammates, and felt her breath get stuck in her throat as she came sight with what had intruded Avengers Tower.
"No… how could you be worthy?" The moment the machine spoke and Jace took account of the familiar gear it was dressed in, she knew what, or better said who, was responsible for this. And it didn't feed well in Jace's mind after what she had found out about the Maximoff twins earlier. "You're all killers."
"Stark." Jace didn't know or care which one of the two Stark siblings Steve was talking to, she immediately walked over to her brother as he called out for JARVIS. She felt a wave of worry when the Stark siblings didn't get the usual immediate response from JARVIS.
"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or, I had a dream…" Jace quickly shot her brother a look of despair as the robot began to walk back and forth. "This terrible noise, and I was tangled. And, strings… I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."
"You killed someone?" That's when it hit Jace, and the young Stark couldn't explain the emotions that had just slammed into her. "Oh my god, Jarvis…" Tony knew his sister like the palm of his hand and threw his right arm up to catch his sister before she let her emotions get the best of her. He couldn't let his own blood get hurt by something he was responsible for.
"Sorry Ms. Stark, it wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices. You should know that." Tony tighten his arm around his sister as the guilt began rushing into him, knowing that he was somehow responsible for this, even if it wasn't his idea at all.
"Who sent you?" Tony wasn't the only getting aggravated at the machine provoking the young Stark, but so was Thor. Before Jace was able to let out a remark to disguise the fact that the machine's words had actually left a mark on her, she felt it all get replaced with confusion as a recording of her brother's voice was let out by the robot.
"Ultron." Once that word was slipped out of Bruce's mouth, Jace was no longer confused, she was angry. She had in a number of occasions heard Tony and Bruce speak about their ultimate dream of protecting their world from outside threats. But that's all they assured her it was, a dream. Jace couldn't help but feel betrayed by her own brother, they always had a pact that they would never have secrets between them. But wait, I'm keeping him from knowing I was researching Pietro... I'm no better. Ultron is right.
"In flesh... Or no, not yet." Jace shrugged off her brother's arm off her, sending Tony a glare as she felt her gun-arrow being tugged behind her. Thank you Thor, this is why you're my best friend. The young Stark had no interest in hearing what this monster had left to say, she wanted to blast it to the next dimension. Then maybe Tony while I'm at it.
Before Jace could refocus, she felt herself being thrown to the floor, with Tony shielding her from the now emerging corrupted Iron Legion. The look the two siblings shared crushed Tony's pride even more than she already it, knowing that his sister was utterly disappointed in him. Without saying a word, Tony felt himself being thrown to the floor with his sister already up. He then felt a table knife being shoved at him by his little sister before she began firing at the Iron Legions coming at the two.
"I'm mad at you, but I can't live without you. So get up and help me." Jace served as a back spot for her brother as they raced upstairs, shooting bullets instead of arrows out of her weapon at every Iron Legion that was near them. She felt her heart skip multiple beats when she saw her brother floating in mid air, trying to stab the knife into the robot.
"Tony!" Hearing the concern out of his sister only frustrated Tony even more as he struggled to destroy one of his own creations. "One second little sister!" The struggle was becoming too much for Jace to just stand and watch, and she soon found herself using her weapon's power to fly off towards her brother and the corrupted robot.
"Jace Olivia Stark are you serious?!"
"Yes I am, now stab!" Once Jace hit the robot in its upper body enough to make it weak, Tony stuck the table knife into the robot, bringing himself and Jace crashing down to the floor as it was finally destroyed. Before the two siblings were able to speak, Ultron had taken control once again.
"You want to protect the world, but you don't want to change it." She wanted to cry, and Tony knew it. Jace was strong, she was strong enough to be an Avenger, but Ultron was different. He knew all of them from scratch, and he was just born a while ago. But Jace refused to be weak, much less to Ultron.
"And what makes you think you can change it? You're alone." The Avengers wanted for once stop Jace from provoking one of her signature fights, they couldn't take the idea of her getting hurt as much as already was.
"Oh, Ms. Stark. I'm not alone. And I know that you know that very well." Jace felt all of her teammates' eyes land on her once they heard Ultron's bold statement, leaving the young Stark confused at first, but realization quickly hit her. No, he knows about my research. He absorbed Jarvis, meaning all of our information. Shit.
"There's only one path to peace... The Avengers' extinct-" Jace wanted to run up and hug Thor for not letting Ultron finish his statement, letting out a deep sigh as she saw Ultron collapse into pieces. She could already sense all of the questions Tony wanted to throw at her at that moment after what Ultron accused her of, but as he muttered his last words, Jace knew it wasn't the end. Ultron had information that incriminated the young Stark, and she only prayed it wouldn't be released to the one person she actually didn't want to know.
Pietro Maximoff is going to hate the Starks even more now.
Pietro found himself playing around with the arrows he had technically stolen as he followed Wanda to where Ultron was leading them to, more and more as time went by from the last time he saw the youngest Stark.
He was positive that she didn't know who he was, much less his name, even if she was a damn Stark. But he knew hers, he always has, and he wished he didn't. Just looking at her brought back memories of that day. Pietro didn't care if she didn't have anything to do with the bombings that killed his parents, she'd probably defend and kill for Tony, just like he would for Wanda.
Jace Stark was an obstacle in his absolute revenge on the man who was responsible for he and his sister's sufferings, he knew that. The thought of destroying the Avengers as a whole should still continue to be easy for the Sokovian to do, but the more he played with Jace Stark's arrows, the once easy plan seemingly began to break down in his mind.
Wanda could read what her brother was thinking, and it took everything inside of her to not explode in red. Pietro wasn't one to second doubt himself, he moved too fast for anyone to catch up to him and was angered at it. So the fact that the ultimate enemy had been able to get into her brother's mind and doubt everything they had fought for.
"She is the enemy, brother. She is of the blood that killed our blood. Don't let a Stark kill us again." Wanda refocused on the robotic machine in front of her, feeling satisfied as she read off her brother's mind which was now full of anger, refilling his desire to accomplish their plan.
Pietro reminisced that day to Ultron, the day he lost his parents, almost lost his life. It's what he needed to remember in order to destroy all of the doubts the younger Stark was making him feel. The images of her last name being printed onto the bomb that had laid three feet away from Wanda and himself and her roster flashed together as he finished the story to Ultron.
"We waited for two days for Tony Stark, to kill us." As Wanda spat out the last name Stark, she looked over at Pietro, who knew exactly what his twin sister was doing, and he wanted to thank her for it.
"We will make it right. We will destroy the Avengers, torture the Stark's. Because you know, there is two of them." As Ultron stated the obvious, Pietro wanted to slap himself for feeling uneasy at the mention of Jace Stark, and the way Ultron said it without remorse.
"I'm impressed by you two, you've already gotten inside both of their heads." Pietro glanced at his twin sister, not having to say out loud what he was thinking since she had already read it off his mind. "I only was able to mess with Tony Stark's mind. I didn't come in contact with Jace Stark the day of the battle."
"You didn't, Wanda. But your brother here did. May I say Pietro, good job. You didn't even need mind control powers to get inside the little princess' head." Pietro didn't know whether to question Ultron more about the young Stark, as he didn't want to have any more reasons for her to be inside his mind. But Ultron didn't need permission as he continued on about Jace Stark.
"She's been researching about you, Pietro. I guess you left a mighty impression on her. She's quite of a ticking time bomb - no pun intended - or, maybe you made her that way." The oldest Maximoff didn't know if he was more angry or relieved at Ultron's revelations about Jace's recent actions, because he felt less guilty now that he knew that he had also been messing with her head just like she was. But angry at the idea of her being one step ahead of him, perhaps putting the puzzle pieces together and knowing why he hates what she comes from. Pietro had taken notice of the way Jace had realized the hatred he used to spit out her last name before he sped off.
"But my oh my, is she smart. Her IQ is unbelievable, so I wouldn't be shocked if she already knows exactly why the Maximoff twins have it out for the Stark's. Probably already told her brother, and together they could be planning a plan to finish what they started that day you both lost your parents. We can't let that happen, and we won't." That was it. Ultron had successfully alienated the doubts in Pietro's mind about Jace Stark and filled them with his original revengeful thoughts towards her brother, and now, herself.
I'm not letting her catch me. Not before I catch her.
Maaaaaaaaaan, sorry for taking a few days to update! I was busy, but here I am! At 5 AM haha, but it's worth it! I feel like I dragged on the first scene of the chapter too much and I was initially only going to write Pietro, but I needed to write that scene to establish Tony + Jace a little more and her conflict with Ultron. I hope I wrote Pietro right, I had to rewrite that scene sooooo much. And it wasn't even long enough, ugh.
But I am SO excited for the next chapter. I've been dying to write actual Jace + Pietro scenes ever since the prologue, and next chapter is the next fighting scene so yay! I have big plans for it, I'm so excited!
Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Shoutout to all my reviewers to the past chapter and for those who favorited/followed it! I AM ALMOST AT 1K READS! THAT'S INSANE IT'S ONLY BEEN THREE CHAPTERS WITH THIS ONE. Man I love you guys!
I'm also a vidder, and I made two videos of Pietro and Jace, the links are in my bio!
Leave some feedback please, it means so so so so much. I can't express it any more, it motivates me so well. I want to know how you feel about Jace so far! And the slow, but good development of Jace + Pietro! So I hope I can get some more! Till next time (: