Born Of The Same Impulse
Summary: Barely five minutes into the past and Tony has already taken care of Ultron, thus prevented Sokovia, thus – hopefully – made sure that the Civil War would never happen. All things considered, he was doing pretty well!
Then he just had to look up his fellow superhero turned time traveller on the internet.
Star Surgeon Involved In Car Crash, Condition Unknown
Chapter 17
Sam didn't know what to think of the twins. He hadn't been part of the mission to retrieve them, so he only knew what the others had told him.
Allowing former HYDRA operatives to live at the tower with them felt weird. It felt dangerous. As nerve-wracking as it had been to use Avengers tower to keep them locked up, it was even more so to watch the gradual shift from prison cell to impromptu rehabilitation center.
"Okay," he said after the first time Clint had taken Pietro to the training rooms with them. "So we're allowing them to fight us now. That's an interesting way of dealing with former criminals."
Steve gave him an exasperated look. He seemed to think that Sam was jokingly exaggerating.
"It's just some sparring," he said. "The tower's security systems are still activated, so he won't be able to do anything."
"It's the only thing keeping him from wallowing in his revenge fantasies." If Clint thought he was helping his case, he was sorely mistaken. "You should join us. It'll be fun."
Sam had noticed that more often than not, sparring was what most of the Avengers fell back on for bonding activities. There were others – the Avengers could act surprisingly domestic at times – but for the most part, the team's definition of the word 'fun' seemed to be beating the crap out of each other during training.
Sam supposed he shouldn't be surprised, considering that half of the team was made up of soldiers and superspies.
Pietro was neither of those. And, so Sam realized the next time he was dragged into the training rooms by Clint, he wasn't enjoying the sessions half as much as Clint seemed to think he did.
"It's not like there's anything better to do." Pietro shrugged, crossing his arms and avoiding Sam's gaze. Distrust and discomfort radiated from his body language, and Sam was reminded of how out of place he'd felt when he'd been new to the tower. "It gets me out of the room."
"But you don't actually enjoy fighting," Sam said.
Again, Pietro shrugged.
Sam wasn't surprised about his team's assumption, seeing as they'd met the twins on the battlefield. He hesitated, considering whether he actually wanted to go through with the idea that took root in his mind.
"There are other things you could do," he said, evidently abandoning his self-preservation wherever Clint had lost his.
Pietro tried not to show that his interest had been piqued. "What things?"
Sam decided to take Pietro along to one of the support group meetings he hosted.
He wasn't too worried; he was far from defenseless in case something went wrong, and Pietro had thus far shown no sign of misusing the tentative trust they were putting in him. Besides, they'd taken precautions.
Nobody seriously expected Pietro to try anything while Wanda was still at the tower – JARVIS had assured them that the twins had not planned anything in the days prior to the trip – and Pietro had agreed to wear a surveillance watch (practically a glorified, more comfortable monitoring bracelet) during the time he spent outside of the tower.
Steve had offered to send somebody along with them, but he'd easily accepted when Sam had declined. In a way he felt honored that the Avengers trusted him enough not to press the issue.
Pietro kept himself in the background for the bulk of the meeting. He was no war veteran – although he might have easily found parallels between himself and the people who'd come, would he care to look – and he seemed to have no desire to either join or disrupt the session. He occasionally paced the room or looked out the window, but he spent the time quietly, otherwise.
"You do this for fun?" he asked Sam after the group had dispersed. His tone held scepticism, but no scorn.
Sam paused, considering the question. "I wouldn't exactly say 'for fun'."
"There has to be a reason to dedicate your time to it," Pietro insisted, still that sceptical note to his voice. He raised his eyebrow in what might have been a challenge.
Sam wondered if he was trying to pick a fight out of boredom. If he was, he would have to try his luck with somebody other than Sam. "True. It's something that I'm good at. And... yeah, I enjoy it. I enjoy helping people."
Sam decided to do some prodding. He knew so little about Pietro, other than what his teammates had told him. The speedster didn't seem the sharing type. "Is there something you like to do?"
Pietro gave him a wry smile. "I was good at what I did with HYDRA."
"Fair enough." Sam paused. "But that's not the same, is it?"
"What?"
"You say you were good at what you did. That's fine. But you didn't actually enjoy it, did you?" If he did, Sam didn't think there was hope left for Pietro. He'd have also massively misjudged the other man.
Pietro frowned. "You mean working for them?"
Sam hesitated. "All of it, I suppose. The fighting. Using your powers." Hurting people in the name of a terrorist organisation.
Everybody who spend more than a couple minutes with Wanda could see that she loved her powers. She loved learning more about them. She loved honing them.
Pietro hadn't shown any interest in using his powers other than out of necessity.
"It's just what I did." Pietro crossed his arms defensively. "There's nothing more to it."
In other words, no. Whatever his time at HYDRA had been like – a means to an end, most likely – he hadn't enjoyed it. Sam usually trusted in his judgement, and he was glad that this time wasn't an exception.
"Well. There's more to you than just your powers."
Pietro's lips tightened. He quirked his eyebrow, and Sam wasn't sure what he was trying to prove with it. "Is there?"
"Sure." Sam shrugged. "I'm an Avenger – or as good as – but that's not everything. I've got plenty more going on in my life." Case in point was the past one and a half hour they'd spent. "I enjoy what I do with the team, too. But if I didn't, I could easily fall back on this."
"Not everybody has something to fall back on," Pietro said. His eyes had clouded over, and Sam couldn't tell whether it was from apprehension or from memories.
"You sure about that?" Sam hesitated. "Maybe there's something you wanted to do when you were younger? Something you were good at in school? I always loved psychology, even as a teen."
Pietro shifted his body away from him, but didn't turn his back. He pressed his lips together, his leg tapping on the floor restlessly.
"Wanda and I, we... were not exactly given the choice to finish our education." His lips twisted into was only technically a smile. "Our school was bombed, same as our home. Our entire city was in ruins. We were refugees until... until HYDRA."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Sam furrowed his brows. "That couldn't have been easy."
Pietro shrugged and didn't answer.
Sam didn't think he'd overstepped a line – not yet – and kept pushing. "But you're still young. It's not too late to look for something else. If you wanted to, you could pick up right where you left off."
Pietro snorted a laugh. "What, you want me to go back to school? Please. Don't be ridiculous."
"Why not? There are tons of adults – people in their 30s, 40s or even older – going to college. Getting a degree. Why shouldn't you?" Sam paused, and he added, "If college doesn't sound right, you could try taking online classes. There are always options."
Pietro looked at him skeptically. "My powers–"
"Are a part of you. True. But you don't have to use them any more than you want to. They don't have the power to decide your future for you."
Pietro didn't have anything to say to that. He looked into the distance, letting the words wash over him and – hopefully – consider what they could mean for his future.
It was no wonder Pietro was making progress slower than his sister was. In contrast to her, he hadn't tried seeing himself doing anything other than what he'd been doing with HYDRA.
"Just think about it," Sam told him, deciding that he'd pushed enough for the day and heading to the exit.
Pietro hesitated, but followed.
"I feel silly," Wanda admitted, although she made no move to stop what she was doing. Her hand circled uselessly in front of her and refused to conjure up so much as the spark of a portal.
Stephen thought back to his own frustratingly unsuccessful first lessons and wondered how Wanda would react if she knew just how perfectly Stephen could relate. "It won't feel so silly once you master the technique," he pointed out, pretending not to catch Wanda's eye roll.
Tony hadn't been happy about the next step of Stephen's lesson plan. He hadn't been happy about Sam taking Pietro outside the tower, and he wasn't happy about Wanda potentially mastering the art of teleportation.
There were ways of preventing inexperienced magic users like Wanda from portaling into or out of the tower, so Stephen wasn't worried.
"How long did it take you to learn?" From another person, the question might have been born from impatience. Wanda, Stephen knew, was merely curious.
"Until there was progress? A couple lessons." Stephen paused. "Until I managed to create a functional portal? An involuntary trip to Mount Everest."
Wanda's hand paused its movement. "What?"
Stephen fought the urge to laugh at Wanda's baffled expression. "My teacher had a... rather unique opinion on how to best motivate her students." He looked up, pulling his lips into a grin. "I hope this makes you appreciate just how lucky you are to be stuck with me, instead."
"So lucky," Wanda said dryly, and started up her efforts again with twitching lips and a twinkle in her eyes.
While they were working, it was easy to forget that Wanda was technically still a prisoner.
There was no guarantee that Wanda would be able to master the spell to create portals. They had quickly realized that her powers worked differently than Stephen's did, and even though there were plenty of overlaps, there were things she simply could not get the hang of – similarly as there were things she could do that Stephen couldn't dream of.
It made Stephen wonder how she would fare in Kamar-Taj. How much would she be able to learn surrounded by masters of the art, all varying in style and specialty? What would they be able to learn from her?
Wanda wasn't frustrated when they stumbled over a technique she was not able to get the hang of. She loved to learn and was eager to attempt the next step.
Wanda raised her head when the silence went on for too long and realized that Stephen was looking at her. "What is it?"
"I was thinking about introducing you to my teacher," Stephen said truthfully.
Wanda narrowed her eyes. "Not so she can strand me on a mountain?"
"Nothing like that." Stephen's lips pulled into a smile. "Kamar-Taj didn't just allow me to gain knowledge. It helped me out of a very difficult period of my life, and to find a new place. I was wondering if it might do the same for you."
Wanda didn't answer immediately. She pressed her lips together, her efforts to wave open a portal forgotten.
"It is tempting," she admitted. "My powers, they're... they've never felt this right before. I want to learn all about them that I can." She hesitated. "But Pietro..."
"It's just an offer," Stephen assured her. "Maybe you should talk to him about it. I think he would want you to do what makes you happy." He paused, his lips twitching. "Besides, he'd only be a portal away."
Wanda's lips curved into a smile. She paused, considering the offer.
The lights flickered out before she could make a decision, and the room was dropped into darkness.
"Is everybody sure about this?"
Steve's voice carried over the buzz caused by half a dozen people preparing for the experiment. In their midst stood the Cradle, hiding from sight the (as of now) lifeless body that would soon become Vision.
"As sure as we'll ever be, I suppose." Bruce barely looked up from his notepad.
"Vision?" Steve turned towards the AI, next. "You doing alright?"
"I operate within acceptable parameters."
"Fair enough," Steve muttered.
Tony was too busy leaning over Cho's shoulder to double check their calculations to interfere. Last time, Thor had used his lightning to give the Cradle the power it needed. Without him – off planet on his quest of finding the remaining infinity stones – they had no choice but to use the arc reactor that powered the tower.
"I think we're about done here," Tony announced, reluctantly admitting that there wasn't much more he could do in preparation.
The body he'd created with Cho and Vision looked startlingly similar to his prior design – although perhaps Tony shouldn't be surprised about that. The first Vision had been born from Ultron. This one had been, too.
The color scheme was a bit off, and his eyes had no irises – he looked more android and less human than the other Vision had.
"We're almost done," Tony said, stepping up to Vision. If everything went as planned, his current host would be nothing but a lifeless Iron Man armor in just a couple more minutes. "This is the tricky part. We're taking your code – your consciousness – and uploading it into the new body. It might feel odd – I don't know, this sort of thing hasn't exactly happened before – but you can't fight it."
"I know." Vision didn't turn to look at him.
Tony hesitated. "If you changed your mind, now's the time to say so. Once that thing is activated, it's gonna be too late."
"Let us proceed," Vision said instead, and he took his place directly next to the Cradle.
There was nothing more to be done. They'd finished all their preparations and done everything they could to make the process as safe and controlled as they possibly managed. JARVIS had the instructions to put the tower on lockdown if something went wrong. Just in case.
"Alright," Tony said, ignoring the nervous fluttering in his chest. "Vision, you know what to do. Dr. Cho, keep an eye on the monitors. JARVIS, begin energy transfer."
The eye slits of Vision's armor darkened as Vision left it behind.
"Channeling energy now," JARVIS said.
The Cradle powered up with a low buzzing sound, feeding off the tower's energy. Tony didn't know how long the process was supposed to take – Vision's first creation hadn't happened in a controlled environment – but he found himself growing antsy as the seconds ticked by.
"Nothing so far," Cho murmured without taking her eyes off the monitors.
"Sir," JARVIS said. "The arc reactor has reached its maximum capacity of energy it is safely able to give."
Tony shared a startled glance with Bruce. The arc reactor was able to keep the entire tower running without using a fraction of its full potential. "Push it further, J."
The buzzing swelled. The air tickled on his skin as though it had been electrified.
Even as Steve leaned forwards in expectation, Tony feared that the energy wasn't enough. It wouldn't be enough. The reactor didn't have enough energy to make the experiment work.
Tony realized that back then, the mind stone had been part of the equation – an infinity stone, one of the largest energy sources in existence. The Cradle must have been drawing power from it, and Thor's lightning had been merely the additional boost that was needed.
The stone was safely locked away in a high-security vault that even Tony needed several minutes to open.
"We need to stop," Tony decided reluctantly. The reactor's emergency supply only lasted so far. "That's it," he called, louder, "we need to try again some other time."
The suit stood next to him motionlessly like a statue. Its eyes stayed dead.
Unease gnawed at Tony's gut, and he raised his voice. "Vision! You need to go back, you hear?"
Nothing. Bruce started to mutter under his breath, taking swift steps towards Cho.
Tony swallowed bile. "JARVIS?"
"I am unable to initiate contact with Vision." He paused. "I don't believe he can hear you."
The power went out and Tony's heart skipped a beat. The only light illuminating the room were rapid flashes of energy twitching over the Cradle, making it look like it was going to burst any moment.
Tony had never realized how much it looked like a coffin.
"Vision!"
Something wrapped around his middle and held him back before he could make more than a few steps towards the Cradle.
"Are you crazy?" Steve yelled, his arms digging into his skin like vices. "Don't touch it!"
The Cradle kept leeching off every scrap of energy left in the reactor. Once the power ran out completely, Tony didn't know what would happen to Vision.
Tony wondered what he was feeling this instant.
Orange light washed over room, and Stephen stepped out of his portal with Wanda at his side. "What's going on?"
Tony didn't know how Stephen was supposed to help. He was no scientist. He hadn't even been there the first time it had happened. "It's Vision. We used the Cradle–"
"Yeah," Stephen cut him off. "You mentioned."
"It's not enough." Tony brows were furrowed. His eyes kept twitching back and forth, unwilling to let the Cradle out of his sight. "The reactor. It's not enough energy to finish the transfer."
"And Vision–?"
"Possibly dying as we speak. No pressure."
Stephen frowned at him but Tony couldn't bring himself to care. He'd done everything to make sure fate wouldn't repeat itself, and all it had gotten him was the opportunity to screw it all up in a completely new, unexpected way.
"Stephen..." Wanda's contemplative voice tore Tony out of his bleak thoughts. She shared a look with Stephen, more meaningful than words they could have exchanged. "Do you think...?"
Stephen's gaze sharpened. It twitched from the Cradle to Wanda and back, giving him a calculating, somewhat frantic look. "There's not much more to lose," he muttered, and he gave Wanda a nod. "Try it."
Tony hated being out of the loop. "Try what?"
Wanda's hands overflowed with magic and made Tony startle back, bumping into Steve by accident. Energy twisted and enveloped the Cradle before Tony or any of the others could stop her.
"What are you doing?!"
Stephen grabbed Tony's upper arm when he tried to throw himself forward. "Don't!" Stephen's face was illuminated by red light, same as everything else in the room. "Her powers – we've been studying them. They're energy, Tony."
A meaningful look, and it all clicked. Wanda's powers came from the mind stone. The stone was the missing variable from the equation.
Tony turned to watch, forcing tense muscles to keep still and not try to rip Wanda away.
The Cradle gave a guttural groan, lit up in a blinding red and powered down. Wanda's powers went out alongside it, leaving the room completely dark.
Tony swallowed heavily, not daring to move. "Why. Why'd you stop?"
"I didn't. The machine did," Wanda whispered. "It wouldn't accept any more."
There was silence as everybody seemed to hold their collective breaths. Orange light flickered up, Stephen conjuring spheres of magic that seemed to have no purpose other than to brighten the room.
The Cradle opened with a click, and Tony tensed alongside everybody else who stood close to it.
Nothing happened for several agonizing moments.
A metallic, gleaming hand gripped the edges of the Cradle and hoisted up a body that looked both strange and familiar in all the right ways.
Vision's chest heaved as though he was taking a deep breath.
(He didn't actually need to breathe. It was more about the ability to mimic the gesture and convey its meaning than the actual act. Tony wondered how real it felt for Vision.)
Tony's breath got stuck in his throat as their eyes met.
"I believe the experiment was a success," Vision said in a voice that was poised, tentative and human, so unlike the mechanical speakers of the armor had been.
Bruce muttered a shaky, "Incredible," and something in Tony's chest unraveled.
A/N: Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or a lovely, wonderful day to you, depending on what or if you celebrate!
Beta'd by the wonderful Igornerd, To Mockingbird and PyrothTenka!
Let me know what you think!
~Gwen