Chapter 37

Minnie had never felt that this particular spot in the lab she was staring at had ever been more interesting. There was a sombre silence as they all sat around and tended to their various injuries but Minnie couldn't do much about a bruise and a split lip other than mopping up the small amount of blood and leaving it to heal in its own time.

Guilt ate away at her insides, gnawing her out as she tried to work out a way that she could tell the others' that she was responsible for all of this. She knew that her father knew and she suspected that Bruce had also worked it out as he scanned over the algorithm which had worked but neither of them said anything to incriminate her. Part of her was grateful for their silence, it gave her time to work on her defence, but part of her wanted one of them to out her as the culprit so that she could hash it out and just be done with it. It would be easier to be outed than to have to admit to her mistakes herself.

Forcing herself to re-engage she took a deep breath and stood up from the stool where she was perched. She paused for a moment but nobody seemed to notice her so she crossed to the lab bench where Bruce was stood and stuck close to his side.

Since the Reaper had manifested inside of her, Minnie felt closer to Bruce - she felt like the two of them understood one another better than anyone else in the team could understand them. They were like kindred spirits and in a way she hoped that Bruce could serve as some kind of mentor for her, that he could help to guide her through controlling the Reaper and regaining some semblance of her life back.

Tony was stood with his back to them and Minnie was worried about him, she knew the kind of stance he took on these kind of situations, she knew that he would be blaming himself no matter what after all the whole thing had been his idea, she had just made a couple of modifications. Either way, the Stark name was once again going to be tarnished for this. Despite her worries, however, she also knew that to try and comfort him now would be futile, she needed to wait until a more private moment or else he would just rebuff her and try and pretend like everything was fine.

She tore her eyes away from her father's back and returned her attention to the conversation the others' were having. They seemed to be discussing Ultron's next move, Rhodey was convinced he was going after nuclear weapons but Steve wasn't so sure.

'He also said he killed somebody.' Clint reminded them and Minnie felt her heart rate spike a little, she had missed this piece of information before, how had she missed it...

'But there wasn't anyone else in the building?' Hill piped up between removing shards of glass from the bottom of her foot and Minnie's attention was once again brought back to her father as he turned towards the centre of the room and came forward. She watched him and didn't dare try and contribute to the conversation, it wasn't worth the speculation. She couldn't work out why they were so focused on this instead of working out where exactly Ultron had escaped to.

'Yes there was.' Tony said in a quiet voice and flipped a projector tablet so it showed an enlarged diagram of Ultron's victim.

Minnie recognised who it was immediately and felt her breath catch in her throat. This was someone who had been there for her almost her entire life, someone who had been a mentor and friend to her - someone who had never failed to give her good advice. She was, at least partially, responsible for her friend's death; even if he was just a computer programme, he still meant something to her. She felt tears spring to her eyes and she came forward slowly to examine the mess further. She felt eyes on her but she didn't care, she felt her control slipping as the Reaper fought to get out and she struggled to fight it as her emotions clouded her thoughts.

'Jarvis...' she whispered. 'This is insane...'

'Jarvis was the first line of defence. He would have shut Ultron down it makes sense.' Steve stated with his head bowed but Minnie was struggling to concentrate again, her mind was filled with thoughts and memories of when Jarvis had been there for her.

'No.' Minnie countered, surprised that she was hearing herself speak when her mind seemed so distracted. 'Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis, this isn't strategy, this is rage.' she explained, and as the realisation of his death really hit her a few tears escaped from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

Minnie was aware of Thor striding into the lab but by the time she looked up he had grabbed her father by the throat and lifted him into the air.

'Woah, woah, woah...' Bruce said and came forward but Minnie's emotions were too strong now and she acted by instinct.

'Stop!' she cried in a shrill voice and flung out an arm, she didn't mean to harm Thor, he was one of her closest friends, but she was quickly losing control. For a brief millisecond, shadows curled around her wrist before they shot out and caught Thor squarely in the chest. He was thrown back, more because he was caught off guard than he actually hurt, but he dropped Tony who stumbled back too, clutching at his injured throat.

As soon as Minnie realised what had happened she grabbed her hand in her other hand and held them tightly to her chest as more tears came. As she began to lose the first part of her control she could feel it slipping further and further loose and she was worried about what this might mean.

'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...' she gasped between her sobs and was very aware that everyone was looking at her and was positioned in their defensive stature. As she looked around at her friends who were ready to fight her at a moment's notice she was even more afraid of what she might do and who she might become.

Tony only took a few moments to recover himself before he straightened up quickly and rushed to Minnie. He took her face in his hands and studied her for a moment before leading her quietly away back to the lab bench whilst Steve questioned Thor about his findings, tracking the legionnaire.

'Deep breaths, deep breaths...' Tony muttered to his daughter as he held her shoulders tightly and looked into her eyes. She looked back at him and knew that he was using himself as an anchor for her to try and regain control. She tried to follow his deep breaths and calm herself down a little and she partially succeeded.

'I don't understand...' Helen said suddenly and Minnie was calm enough that they were able to turn their attentions back to the conversation. It appeared that the problem of Ultron took priority over their fears of Minnie losing control but Tony kept one hand on her shoulder just the same whilst turning to look at Helen who was addressing him.

'You built this programme,' she continued, 'why is it trying to kill us?' she asked and Minnie leaned back against the bench whilst Tony turned away and bowed his head, letting her go.

Suddenly, Tony did something that none of them were expecting, he began to laugh. Minnie looked at him with wide eyes as panic set in and she thought he had actually lost his mind. There was a stunned silence for a few moments only broken by the sound of Tony's giggles before Minnie shook her head and her eyes connected with Bruce, begging for his help. He made a noise which Tony ignored so Minnie decided to have a go herself as she saw Thor getting ready to go at her father again.

'Maybe not right now, dad.' she said in a hoarse voice.

'You think this is funny?' Thor asked, his voice dangerous and Tony snorted again before composing himself.

'No? It's probably not, right?' he asked, turning back to Thor and Minnie moved closer to Bruce again, she wanted to be near someone where she felt safe.

'All of this could have been avoided if you didn't play with something you don't understand.' Thor interjected and Tony strode up to him, squaring off with him in a dangerous way and Minnie knew that the time was coming for her to confess if she could only find the words.

'No, I think this is funny. I think it's a hoot that you don't understand why we need this.' Tony replied and Bruce sensed Minnie's agitation and tried to cool the situation.

'Tony... this might not be the time to...' he stumbled but Tony turned around quickly to turn his attention to his friend and lab partner.

'Really?' he demanded, 'That's it? You're just going to roll over and show your belly? Every time somebody snarls...'

'Only when I've created a murder-bot!' Bruce replied quickly and Minnie had to suppress a smile at his cool wit in the tense situation.

'We didn't!' Tony retorted. 'We weren't even close, were we close?' he asked and Bruce shrugged, Minnie knew this was the moment, she had to act now.

'Well you did something right...' Steve began but before this could go any further, Minnie piped up.

'No they didn't.' she said suddenly and there was a stunned silence as, once again, everyone turned to look at her. She had her eyes glued to the ground and she ventured a look up to her friends but seeing the shocked and angry looks on their faces only made things harder so she returned her gaze to the spot on the floor.

'Minnie...' her father warned but she ignored him and ploughed on.

'Dad and Bruce had a basic formula but it wasn't enough. They didn't crack, this isn't their fault. I tweaked it, I changed the programming it was just an idea and I didn't even think it would work not really. But it did, and now... I created Ultron. This is my fault.' her voice cracked with guilt and she looked back up at her friends. Bruce was determinedly not looking at her but was also staring at the ground; Tony was looking at her with a mixture of pity, pride and disappointment that broke her heart; but the looks of the others shattered all resolve she had left.

She studied the faces of the people she loved and trusted most on this planet, in the whole universe. They were all filled with anger, disappointment and shock. Thor looked especially angry and she remembered everything that he and his people had done for her, she thought about Loki wherever the hell he was and everyone else. She thought about Jarvis who had died because of what she'd done. Her only childhood friend besides Pepper, everyone she cared about got hurt and she couldn't bear it anymore.

'I'm so sorry...' she whispered but nothing would ever make her forget the looks they gave her, the look she associated with almost a kind of hatred.

'Save your apologies until after we clean up this mess.' Thor said coldly and something inside of Minnie snapped. She lost the last shred of control she had and she could feel the shadows darkening her thoughts and clouding over her vision as the Reaper took over. It was for her own benefit really, to give her time to heal whilst the Reaper was in control. The last thing she saw was Tony's expression changing to one of alarm as she whispered a final apology and then the shadows surrounded her, her eyes flashed red one more time and she disappeared from the lab. The Reaper transported her far away so that they could recuperate together.

Once Minnie was gone there was another silence and tears had come to Tony's eyes. He was frozen with his hand still outstretched in the direction of where she had stood. Nobody wanted to break the silence, to be the first one to speak. They were partly afraid of incurring Tony's wrath at losing Minnie again, they all knew that he wouldn't be taking this well when tonight was supposed to be a celebration for her rather than another reason to mourn her loss.

Eventually Thor stepped forward, doing his best to retain his stern expression but the look of guilt was evident in his features, he felt responsible for driving Minnie away when he also knew her vulnerability to the Reaper. Before he could say anything, however, Steve stepped up to Tony and put a hand gently on his shoulder.

'She'll come back, Tony.' he said softly and Tony nodded, dropping his head as he tried to hide his emotions and he stepped towards the counter, dropping his arms too. The team silently agreed to give him some privacy as Steve turned back to the others.

'What's the next step? If Ultron's in the web then that was everything we had.' Hill said and Tony turned suddenly, regaining control of his composure.

'Not everything, we can go old school.' he said and they turned to him in surprise.

'Tony are you sure...?' Bruce began, ready to insist that his friend took a time out and let them handle things for a while.

'Minnie's not a kid anymore, she'll come back but I can't just sit here and wait for that to happen. We have to deal with Ultron before he causes anymore damage.' Tony muttered, pushing past his friend and heading towards the office where he kept the hard copies of any and all information.

The team paused for a few moments, sharing uncertain looks as they tried to decide whether it was best to follow Tony or insist he took some time away from the situation. They shared a collective sigh as they realised that they needed to agree with Tony and put Minnie out of their mind, they needed to trust that she could take care of herself but they had bigger problems.