A/N: Well... the hiatus hasn't been QUITE as long as usual. So yaaaaaay. Well, I did move countries again this month. That'll be my excuse this time.

Enjoy guys! I love that you enjoy this strange and convoluted story so much. Special thanks to Sorceress and Weaponofmasscreationn for being awesome. Sorceress leaves the best, most detailed, most encouraging reviews, I swear. Amelia, you know how much you pestered me to keep on writing, then you beta'd, you know what a cool bean you are XD

Five days had passed since we had discovered my father's message and the 'Save The World' Virus. Well, that's what I had taken to calling it, but the name hadn't stuck with the others yet; they thought it was tacky, apparently. Day one had been spent in a mad rush of explaining the situation so far, and an interrogation-like level of questioning by the Vision for the three of us. The questions didn't cease to be fired at me, despite my general ignorance of the important details, until sweat was pouring off my brow in fever and Aleks intervened on my behalf, sending me away to rest with the promise that he would be able to tell the Synthozoid everything that I couldn't.

Day two was my own personal fiery hell. The fever didn't abate that night, but rather became worse, and every breath felt like tearing my torso in two. I don't remember much more than briefly drifting out of the haze of sickness and pain into lucidity every now and again to see my brother hovering over me, whispering words of encouragement with worry and fear written in his eyes. Not much progress was made on day two.

Day three I didn't wake up at all.

On day Four I was roused to the stoic face of Ultron, and Aleks' angry shouts of objection in the background. I don't recall any of what was said, or the question the robot asked me, but I do know that I said yes, before sleep claimed me again.

The dreams I had that night were strange.

Then the next morning, this morning, I woke up, with agony and fever nothing but a faded memory. As my eyes came into focus, and thinking flowed freely without the hampering of headache and fog that I had almost gotten used to, something felt off.

There was a shuffling beside me, and my brother's voice calling out to the others that I was awake. "How are you feeling, sis?" he asked warily, and I turned my head to face him.

"I don't know, fine, sort of strange," I croaked, my throat dry. He pushed a bottle of water into my hand and I drank greedily. When my throat no longer felt dry and sticky, I twisted the cap back on and, though I feared the answer, asked, "What happened?"

He shifted awkwardly, and glanced sideways at where Wanda and Ultron were standing a ways away, watching our conversation but not joining in. "You were sick from your injury, and stress, perhaps. But you're better now, so don't worry." His expression had grown shielded as he answered me, and I pursed my lips, not liking that he would so obviously hide something from me. He met my eyes for just a second, saw the knowing disappointment in them, and quickly looked away.

There was a pregnant pause as I decided whether or not I would push it, drag the answer out of him, or someone else, but in the end I shook my head with a sigh and sat up. No pain from the gunshot wound in my side, not even a petty sting. I gently ran the pads of my fingers over the injury, feeling the rough skin and scabbing through the bloodstained fabric of my coveralls, but even poking at it drew no reaction. It was perturbing. I certainly didn't feel drugged, but there was no way I had healed so suddenly, especially as the object of my affliction was still as nasty as I remembered it being. Don't look the gift horse in the mouth, Katja. We have more important things to focus on right now.

With my determination refreshed, I set my jaw and stood up, Aleks flinching and moving towards me like he expected me to drop to the ground again, or shatter to pieces in front of him. "So, what's the plan? What did I miss?"

Ultron stepped forward. "The Vision has taken the USB to the Nexus for decoding. Feliks was a clever man; it was going to take a lot more than your flimsy laptop to decrypt that virus. I would have done it myself, but his face is a little less... wanted than mine."

He turned his red optics towards Wanda, and she added, "While you were sleeping, we made great progress on information gathering." I bristled at the word 'sleeping', like she was implying that I had chosen to take a nap instead of work with the others. "I had some-" she paused to choose her words, and I noted that people seemed to be doing that around me a lot, lately, "-words, with the Sokovian President. Like Aleks and Ultron had suspected, he was just a pawn for Moskvin and his associates, and now that Moskvin is dead, they have had to change their plans quite dramatically."

"And not in our favor," the android finished for her, turning back to me. "They've moved their schedule forward. We're now down to days before they make their move."

I buried my head in my hands as I absorbed this new information, but my train of thought kept getting derailed along the way by suspicion and hurt feelings. What else had happened while I was out of the picture? Aleks was hiding things from me. Wanda and Ultron had been bitter enemies last time I checked, now they were finishing the other's thoughts like they shared the same brain. The four of them together practically solved everything just fine without me. In fact, they probably would have done so even faster if I wasn't there slowing them down.

I bit down on my cheek to snap myself out of it, to remind myself to focus on the job at hand. I would just have to prove to them that I wasn't a liability after all. I lowered my hands and looked at them in turn. "Okay, that's a lot to take in, but okay. What's our next move, then?"

Ultron heaved a digital sigh, but managed a crooked smirk. "Now; now we play the waiting game, and we pray."

The rest of the day played out in irritating idleness. After spending so much of my time asleep, and cooped up in a cell before that, I wanted to use my new, seeming miraculous, good health to do something where there was nothing to do. Aleks had gone to sleep in a quieter part of the barn and catch up on the hours he had missed while he worried over my condition, leaving me to face my boredom relatively alone, seeing as neither of our remaining companions seemed to be in a talking mood.

I had decided to spend a large amount of my free time watching Wanda practice using her abilities outside in the relative warmth of the winter sun, and was beginning to question the wisdom of the choice. As she floated suspended in the air, levitated boulders twice her size, tore old tree stumps from the ground with ease, radiating with violent red energy, I found myself stuck firmly between breathless awe and bitter jealousy regarding the woman. No mysteries regarding her had yet been solved, leaving me to stew in my curiosity. How did she come by such power? What, exactly, were the limits of what she could achieve? Who was Pietro, and what had happened to him? What was her relationship with the equally mysterious Vision, and what was her relationship with Ultron? It was clear with the obvious hatred in her eyes every time she looked at him that their history was a rocky one, and the reason loathing was personal, but neither seemed eager to share their life story with anyone, let alone someone like me. In fact, if she had not been distracted by her exercises and noticed my watching, I have little doubt she would have stopped and gone elsewhere. That was why I had chosen to sit surreptitiously in the shade of the old tractor's rusty corpse, definitely not hiding from the intimidating woman. Definitely not.

It was also why when Ultron strode out onto the grass towards her, he didn't seem to notice my presence, either. I shrunk further into the hiding place, and for a moment, I thought better of eavesdropping. I really did. But then, I had never been one to listen to good advice, even my own.

His footsteps were heavy even on the soft ground, and it was obvious she heard him coming, because she lowered to the ground and her shoulders tensed as she pointedly didn't turn around to acknowledge him. "Wanda," he prompted, voice low.

"What?" she hissed, refusing to look at him. Scarlet energy crackled at her fingers.

"You know this has been a long time coming, Wanda. There have been a lot of words waiting to be said since your betrayal."

At this she spun around, fury in her eyes. "My betrayal? Mine? Don't you dare pin this on me. Don't you dare try to make this into my fault!" A pulse of power left her, knocking his large form down so that she stood taller than him. I remembered thinking that the Vision bore the image of an avenging deity when I first saw him, but he had nothing on the picture of Wanda now, eyes glowing and hair fluttering as her power struggled to stay in control, power I was beginning to suspect could rend the world in two if she so pleased. My fingers twitched as my instincts told me to go and step in before things became messy, even if either of them could swat me like a fly with hardly an effort.

"You know, Wanda, you know that I never planned for your brother to die."

Her expression, which had been frightful before, now became terrifying in the intensity of her rage. "He didn't just die, you murdered him!" She advanced on him now, but I could feel there was something that would hold her back from ending the robot for good, whether it was her word to Vision, or something else, I wasn't sure.

He raised his hands, in a gesture that I couldn't decide was defensive or placating, before dropping them back to the ground in defeat. He sat hunched, staring at the grass, and I suddenly felt very guilty for seeing this. Before I could make the move to sneak away, I heard him speak again. "An accident. It was a mistake. I don't need to justify myself to you. I just need you to remember that I never wanted either of you to get hurt. You were never meant to die."

My heart felt like it was lodged in my throat as I watched, just as unable to tear my eyes away as she was. The silence stretched as her violent energy and anger slowly dissolved into shock and confusion, tainted by hurt and sadness. Then the quiet was broken by Ultron's voice, a name, and two simple words: "Wanda, I cared."

And with those words, words that should have made me happy, but somehow made me want to lose the contents of my stomach, my limbs remembered how to move, and I rushed back into the barn before I could hear anything else.

It took me a moment to catch my breath once I was inside, though I couldn't put my finger on why I felt so tight in the chest. I pressed a hand over my eyes and tried to get a hold of myself, while my feet began pacing the room of their own accord. Okay, I told myself sternly, so he cared about some people long before he met me- us- Feliks and Aleks. That's a good thing. The more he cares about the people who live on it, the less likely he is to destroy the Earth or something, right?

But that didn't stop him from killing people before, killing Wanda's brother.

He just said that was an accident, and she didn't exactly argue it, so there must have been at least some truth to the statement. And anyone who was all evil wouldn't have helped us like he had.

He would have helped Wanda and her brother- Pietro?- when they were on the same side, too. Y'know, before he tried to wipe out all human life.

But he said that he never wanted either of them to die, so destroying all life couldn't have been his plan.

He still would have killed me. And Pa, and Aleks. He would have dropped my home on the Earth and killed my family before he ever met us. The impact would take time to cover everything. My brother and Atyets would have been among the first to go. I would have had to watch the devastation in China on the news while I waited my turn to die, knowing that they were gone. Tears sprang to my eyes at the thought. I felt so conflicted.

Earlier that week, the android, the clever, sarcastic, dangerous robot that had somehow become someone I'd consider a friend, had basically confirmed that he cared about my wellbeing at least somewhat. He'd said that he wanted to help me get justice for my father, and allowed me part in saving the world, even when I had so little to offer. He had broken me out of prison, and promised to help save my Atyets. He'd cauterized my wound, and supplied food and water, and wanted to keep me and my brother safe, out of harms way.

He had put himself between me and the Infinitus that wanted to kill me, and carried my sorry ass out of trouble more than once. I guess it had been appealing to think, even subconsciously, that all of that had something to do with me, but really, everything Ultron did was Ultron's, and I had no right to claim credit for the goodness in him, even if it had started out so misguided.

My pacing stopped, and I stood stock-still in the middle of the barn as clarity began to settle on my mind. Ultron was still learning, still growing, still choosing who he was. Anyone who thought they could change him, control him, was kidding themselves. If Ultron got through the current adventure and decided he still wanted what he did before, then okay, the human race would defend themselves against him again, but that choice was not mine to make for him.

And if he did change, did choose... life... then I would support his right to that life with my dying breath.

"Katja."

The sudden intrusion startled me into a leap and yelp, complete with ninja chops to the air, until I managed to realize that the large, silver, smirking man who was standing behind me didn't mean me any harm. Well, no harm further than the mini-heart attack he caused by sneaking up on me while I was clearly lost in thought. Thoughts about him, a jeering little mental voice reminded me, making my cheeks heat up uncomfortably. I cleared my throat and halfheartedly retorted, "Metal Head."

He continued his slow approach, not stopping until he was well into my personal space bubble. I took a step back to compensate and swallowed thickly. His features, though they only had a limited range of expression, managed to be lit by smug humor as he took note of my discomfort. Some things never change.

The stare-off lasted several long moments before he finally commented, "You were outside, listening."

I spluttered. "Listening? To you and Wanda? Pfft- no!" He raised an eyebrow plate. "I was watching, too," I confessed with a sheepish grin. "You got your ass handed to you."

"The ass you like to appreciate so much."

"That's the one."

He hmmed his amusement noncommittally, still looking at me intently, which struck me as odd, as usually he would continue the banter. There was another pause. "You have questions," he said after a moment, and I wondered how I could always be read so easily.

"Yeah," I admitted, swallowing again. There was a tension in the air that I was unaccustomed to, putting me on edge, making me feel like a deer caught in the headlights.

He spread his strong metal arms in a mockery of an inviting gesture. "Here I am, ask away." There was a dare in his voice, but I couldn't figure out the implications of it. It was right there; 'I dare you, I dare you', but dare me to what, exactly? To be bold? To follow my instincts?

"Did you love her?"

Crap. Hell no. That was not my voice. That was definitely someone who just sounded exactly like me. There was no way I would say something like that.

Crap. I did.

Even as my face fell with the implications of my lack of brain-mouth filter, his didn't shift more than a brief blink of surprise. Was he thrown off by the question, or that I actually had the guts to ask it? I opened my mouth to retract it, to laugh it off and punch him in the shoulder as one does when one stuffs up, but he got there first. "Yes," was his answer.

Something in my gut twisted painfully, and it wasn't the bullet wound. I grinned, because humor is easier to deal with. "Well, damn, you know you're a looker when even the AIs think so. She is quite the catch. Shame you screwed up, then, man." I laughed. I thought it sounded pretty convincing.

.He didn't take the bait, but he did take another step closer. It made me upset, so I took another one back. I didn't like this game anymore, not when I wasn't winning. "You surely have more questions then that," he murmured, and I could still hear it in his tone, 'I dare you, I dare you'. Dare me to what?!

All the swallowing in the world couldn't dislodge the lump from my throat. Giving up would be admitting defeat. Still, all I managed was a strangled, "Now?"

He knew what I meant. He always knew. "No," was all he said, as he took another step, and this time I stayed put, trying to look defiant even as my breathing became shallow.

I wet my lips and pressed on, trying not to be intimidated by those glowing red eyes. "Why not?"

"Because," he replied, leaning marginally closer, "people move on."

He was so close, and there dare was still clear in the glass of his optics, and then he was gone, walking away with his usual saunter, clearly enjoying himself, the jackass. I rolled my eyes skyward, but couldn't help the quirk of my mouth into a grin. "You know," I called out teasingly, and he paused his step, looking over his broad shoulder at me curiously, "you might be one of my favorite people, like top 20, at least."

His torso rattled with a metallic chuckle as he resumed his walk. "Likewise."

A/N: Tadaaaa! What did you guys think? Sorry no Vision in this one... he had more important things to do. Sorry for the constant delays!

REVIEWWWWWWWW thankyou -w-b