"Do you see him?" I asked quietly as Wanda and I walked in circles around the fountain. We'd come here just to get out of the apartment and not go to the cafe. It was an off day for both of us that had quickly winded down to just searching for Pietro.
"That idiot." She grumbled as she pulled me along and off to one side then pointed through the stalls. I could see white hair and a track suit from here.
"These are the right one's, yes?" I watched as Pietro handed an older man a container of pills. That I didn't mind as much if he stole for the good of someone else.
"This is for your brother." Then he pulled a ball out of his bag and handed it to a woman.
"Thank you." She took it with a little smile, and a touch that lasted just a little too long for my tastes. This, I did mind. I crossed my arms over my chest and shifted legs as I watched.
"And this...is not for your brother." He turned around and went to pull something else out of his bag when I'd had enough.
"MIB!" I cupped my hands around my mouth to be just a little louder as I yelled for them to kiss in Sokovian.
"Silvia?" He looked back over his shoulder at us.
"Yes. It's your girlfriend and your sister. Are you going to show her the dress from Paris now?" Wanda asked with some indigence in her voice.
"What are you two doing here?" He spun around, going to zip up the bag.
"Maybe looking for the shupak that told us 'Oh! I'll be at the fountain'." I glowered at both him and the woman but I called him an asshole specifically because I didn't know her name.
"Imagine that, that you weren't by the fountain." Wanda called from next to me with the same infuriated tone that I had.
"Girls..." He sighed at both of us as we turned and went to stomp away.
"We should just lock the door tonight." I determined. Wanda nodded quickly as we speed walked.
"And electrify it." She grunted with anger. I nodded back to that.
"Costel?" Wanda paused as a little boy ran into our lower halves and looked up at us.
"Theres a man looking for you. In the old church." He motioned back towards the way he'd come. I frowned down at him as the woman from before rushed up to him, checking him over for injuries.
"What man?" Pietro's voice came over my shoulder, but I refused to look at him. I could hold grudges pretty well when I wanted.
"An iron man." Costel said over the woman's worrying.
"I see." I muttered. The name made my lips curl up with some tension as Wanda looked at me and I looked back at her with a frown. We looked at each other for a few minutes before nodding and beginning the walk to the Church.
The church itself was in disrepair. It'd been abandoned after the elders had built so long ago and a new one was put in place near houses. Now it was a home for addicts and homeless people who couldn't find a corner or an alleyway. Leaves, dirt and discarded needles littered the floor but surprisingly it was mostly graffiti free, even the chair in the center was still in tact...and someone was currently sitting in it.
"Talk. And if you are wasting our time..." Wanda started as we came through the door way. She sounded confident for sure but I knew her too well to know that she was hesitant. I was feeling almost high. Almost. It was like there was a huge pleasant hum in the room that was constantly shifting as the silence ran on.
"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." The cloaked figure spoke finally. His voice was deep and robotic sounding but still not like the one I'd remembered from the base. Wanda was frowning as she took him in but pulled her face to a solemn look.
"You're wondering why you can't look inside my head." He called from the front, still not turning around. I felt a little uncomfortable from the lack of knowledge here.
"Sometimes it's hard. But sooner or later, every man shows himself." She announced without a shake in her voice. I felt proud of her for that.
"Oh, I'm sure they do. But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark take the scepter." The figure stood now, turning around. Oh. He's made of metal but hes fully functioning without a power source. He was the power source. That was the hum.
"I didn't expect. But I saw Stark's fear, I knew it would control him, make him self-destruct." She nodded.
"Everyone creates the thing they dread. Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create...smaller people? Uh...children! I lost the word there. Children. Designed to supplant them, to help them...end." He walked forwards a tad as he spoke partly to himself. His red eyes caught on mine as we took each other in. He had to be feeling the electricity running through my body. Hell I wore so much jewelry at times, I sounded like a piggy bank walking.
"Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?" She tilted her head as she took him in. He was tall for sure, his joints creaked and air was let out as he took steps. I felt he had a flair for the dramatics.
"I've come to save the world. But also, yeah." He shrugged as he looked away from me to her again. I felt Pietro wrap an arm around me, pulling me closer as Wanda stared him down.
"I need to show you a few...things." He seemed to almost smile at that as he looked at all three of us and motioned to follow him. Pietro was frowning deeply as Wanda followed without another word. I went to walk behind her when he seemed to pause and then finally walk with me. I understood his hesitance, the robot seemed more human than robot with all of his mannerisms and tones of voice but I was trying to remember he was still just a hunk of metal.
"We'll move out right away. This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work." His jet packs ignited as he pulled on chains and all sorts of levers to reveal robots. So. Many. Robots.
"What is this?" I spoke up with the question for the first time since I'd met the...thing. Everything felt alive to me. Like my senses had suddenly woken up from a long hibernation.
"All of these are... All of these are... Me. All Ultron. And 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..." He motioned to the walls of working metallic bodies then drifted closer to Wanda. He was almost caressing her face as Pietro spoke up.
"Everyone's plan is not to kill them." Pietro grinded out with exasperation.
"And make them martyrs? You need patience. Need to see the big picture." Ultron shook his head, turning away.
"I don't see the big picture, I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it every day." Pietro sassed, making the motions with his hands about his family's last picture together.
"You lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records, even yours." Ultron nodded towards me, looking over his shoulder. I felt my shoulders lock as Wanda frowned at me then Pietro. I think she wanted me to have him dial it down in front of the new robot partner.
"Their records are not the picture." He took a step forward, brandishing his pointer finger.
"Please." I pleaded as I put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him some how.
"What? You don't want me to tell him? The whole reason we're doing this?" Pietro hissed, looking back at me.
"Pietro." Wanda joined now, looking annoyed and anxious at the same time. We were pretty much at Ultron's mercy now. We'd followed him all the way from the church to the old base. It'd changed entirely since we'd all been here.
"No, please." Ultron waved his hand at us, so I let go of Pietro's shoulder. Letting him tell the story I'd heard for so long.
"We were ten years old, having dinner, the four of us. When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. It's big. Our parents go in, and 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..." His voice fluctuated between short and deep at the same time as he told it.
They'd told me this story, so many times. As a reminder of why we were here every time I asked about what life was like before. Why we'd gone through the pain and the sweat and blood, it was always there as motivation. A catharsis of sorts for an unfinished family that I'd some how become apart of. I didn't have memories or pictures of my own family, if I ever had one. So. This had become mine.
"Stark." Wanda's voice sounded choked, making me want to take her hand. However I didn't. I just stood there with my head down as they spoke.
"We were trapped two days." Pietro added.
"Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, "this will set if off." We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us." Wanda now just sounded angry. It all just kept reminding me how necessary this was for us. His death was necessary, an eye for an eye.
"They know what they are." Pietro almost spat when he mentioned Stark and his team.
"And what about you?" I could feel Ultron's eyes drift to mine.
"What about me?" I raised a brow.
"I wondered why only you three survived Strucker's experiments. Now I don't. For them. But you, I still don't understand. Is it because of them?" Ultron floated close by me, motioning to Wanda and Pietro with his thumb.
"I'm stubborn." I shrugged, feeling oddly entranced by his red gaze. I could practically see the electricity running through him, moving his eyes, his cheeks, legs...There was so much.
"Stubborn only goes so far. Your own father put you under for this and yet...you've flourished." His head tilted as I felt my eyebrows skyrocket up to my forehead.
"I'm sorry? Father?" I looked back at Pietro and Wanda for help. They looked just as lost as I felt.
"Oh. Memory loss. Well, that's what I get for skimming." Ultron seemed to chuckle as his eyes froze then began moving again. I guessed he'd accessed my files and now knew more than I did. That bothered me.
"I suppose your purpose will show itself sooner or later." He shrugged, leaning closer then pulling away entirely. I swear I could hear the little gears whirling in his head.
"We will make it right, anyways. We can hurt them. But you will tear them apart, from the inside." He seemed to grin as he looked at Wanda.