Chapter 4
Little Picture
Ultron had wiped all of our data. I looked at Stark and threw him against a wall. I created a barrier so no one could stop me.
"I told you not to toy with something you didn't understand! The scepter nearly destroyed the world and my father. Look what you've done! You just can't help yourself can you!?"
"Eve this won't solve anything."
I sighed in frustration and let Stark fall to the ground. I sat down and Steve sat next to me.
"Just try and relax. We'll figure this out."
I nodded but I didn't say anything.
"Ultron used the internet as an escape hatch."
I sighed and put my face in my hands.
"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. He probably knows more about us then we know about each other. Well not Eve, there are no files on her. To him, she just a human girl."
They all looked at me and I looked at the floor.
"He's in your files and he can access anything. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"
"Nuclear codes." Maria said.
"Nuclear codes." he agreed.
"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead." Romanoff said.
"No…" they looked at me. "He said extinct."
They nodded.
"He also said he killed someone." Barton said.
"But there wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria said.
Stark walked forward.
"Yes there was."
A broken looking orange structure appeared. I didn't understand but the others looked horrified.
"This is insane." Banner said.
"Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down. It makes sense."
"Wait, this is Jarvis? I thought he was a program." I said.
"He is, this is a sort of 3D model." Stark said.
I still didn't understand but I didn't say anything.
Pietro's POV
Wanda and I went to the church to talk to someone named Ultron. There he was sitting in a chair.
"Talk. And if you are wasting out time-"
"Did you know this church is in the exact center of the city? The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief." He paused for a moment. "You're wondering why you can't see inside my head."
"Sometimes it's hard. Sooner or later every man shows himself."
He stood and he was not a man at all. More like a robot. I wasn't expecting this.
"Oh I'm sure they do. But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark take the scepter."
"I didn't expect. But I saw Stark's fear. I knew it would control him, make him self-destruct." Wanda told him.
So that was why.
"Everyone creates the thing they dread. Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create…smaller people? Children! I lose the word there, children. Designed to supplant them, to help them…end."
"Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?" she asked.
"I've come to save the world. But also…yeah."
He walked off and I looked at Wanda.
"What about the girl? I thought we agreed she wouldn't be part of this." I said.
"She won't unless we have no other choice. Come on."
We followed Ultron back to the base and then underground. There were machines working and strange sounds.
"We'll move out right away. But there's something we need to begin the real work."
I looked around. It was very impressive.
"All of these are…"
"Me. I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant, disconnected. Stark's already got them turning on each other. And when you get inside the rest of their heads-"
"Everyone's plan is not to kill them." I said.
They both looked at me.
"And make them martyrs? You need patience. Need to see the big picture." he said.
I looked at him.
"I don't see the big picture. I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it everyday."
He sounded sympathetic.
"You lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records."
"Their records are not the picture."
"Pietro."
I ignored her.
"No, please."
I looked at her.
"We were ten years old, having dinner, the four of us." I looked back at Ultron. "When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. It's big. Our parents go in, then the whole building starts coming apart. I grab her, roll under the bed and the second shell hits. But, it doesn't go off. It just…sits there in the rubble, three feet from our faces. And on the side of the shell is painted one word-"
"Stark." Wanda said.
I could hear how upset she was.
"We were trapped two days."
"Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks , I think… 'This will set it off.' We wait for two days, for Tony Stark to kill us."
"They know what they are." I said softly.
Ultron nodded.
"I wondered why only you two survived Strucker's experiments. Now I don't. We will make it right." He looked at me. "You and I can hurt them." He turned to Wanda. "But you will tear them apart from the inside." he said.
She looked at me.
"We have one request." She looked back at him. "The girl. The one with the black hair and green eyes….you leave her to us." she said.
"Why?"
I stepped forward.
"It doesn't matter. Just leave her alone."
He said nothing and turned away. Wanda and I looked at each other and I knew she could tell I was worried. We both were.