Disclaimer: I don't own anything Marvel. I just own Anna and the Oc's.

Chapter 22

The Missing

With some assistance from Maria Hill, Fury was directed to go to the farmhouse even before the team had landed there. After eating some dinner as a team, the group gathered around the kitchen and the back sun room (Tony and Clint were playing darts) to discuss what the next plan of action was to be. There were so many unknowns, they had to start to piece them together otherwise they'd be running out of time.

Anna sat across from Natasha now in a pair of Laura's old jeans and a hoodie, with Rey asleep in her lap as she ran her fingers through his fur. She was far more comfortable now that she had been sitting out on the porch in her SHIELD spandex suit. She finally felt like herself again, and even Nat, who had been shaken up the most, was starting to look more normal now.

"Ulton took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing," Fury said.

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.

"Ah, he's easy to track, he's everywhere," Fury said. "Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit." Anna snorted. "Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked.

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway," Fury said.

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony said.

"Yeah, well, I contacted out friends at the NEXUS about that," Fury said.

"NEXUS?" Steve asked.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on earth," Bruce clarified.

"So what'd they say?" Clint asked.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed," Fury answered.

"By whom?" Tony asked.

"Parties unknown," Fury said.

"Thank you unknown party," Anna muttered.

"Do we have an ally?" Nat asked going off of what Anna said.

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is," Fury said.

"I might need to visit Oslo, find out "unknown,"' Tony said.

"Well, this is good news, Boss," Nat said, "but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that."

"I do," Fury said. "I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Nat teased.

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve muttered, but had a smirk on his face.

"So what does he want?" Fury asked.

"Think about what he said when he first attacked us. He wanted us extinct. That because we were here nothing could change," Anna said.

"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies," Steve said.

"Person bodies. The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it," Tony thought out loud.

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," Nat said.

"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron is going to evolve," Bruce said.

"How?" Fury asked.

He thought for a moment before he asked, "Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

Abandoning the comfortable clothes in the laundry hamper in the bathroom, Anna was back in her uniform ready to go, just as everyone else was too. There was no time to waste as there was far too much to do. The group was getting ready to split into separate teams for their missions.

"I'll take Natasha and Clint," Steve said.

"Alright," Tony said. "Strictly recon. I'll take Anna and her rat, and hit the NEXUS, I'll join you as soon as I can."

"I resent that," Rey said as he trotted up to Anna. She bent down a little and held her hand out for him. He jumped up into her hand, which she brought up to her shoulder for him to perch himself on.

"If Ultron is really building a body," Steve said, trailing off.

"He'll be more powerful than any of us. Maybe all of us," Tony interjected. "An android designed by a robot."

"You know, I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me," Steve said.

"I'll drop Banner off at the tower. Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?" Fury asked.

"She's all yours, apparently," Tony said. "What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope," he said. "Agent Barnes? Keep in contact in case you need you know what."

It took Anna but a moment to realize what he was saying. It had only been a few days since she'd learned about the completion of Theta Protocol, so it wasn't the easiest thing to remember, but also not that easy to forget with how massive a thing it was.

"That's not cryptic or anything," Tony muttered as he left through the front door. "Come on, Anna!"

Of all the places Anna had ever been to in her line of work, she'd only managed to make it to Norway once before, which was rather surprising after all of the Asgardian drama she'd been through. It had been years since she'd been there, and even when she had it had only been a very brief period of time before the mission with Phil's team was over and they'd obtained the Asgardian weapon.

It was still one of the prettiest places she'd been to. In the high tech, highly secure NEXUS building, however, you definitely couldn't tell how beautiful the place was. It was dark, and kept very cold to keep the servers from overheating. There really wasn't much need for Anna to be there, but in case anything happened Tony would have some backup. There was definitely no need to take unnecessary risks at the moment with a multiplying murder bot out on the loss.

The techs lead Tony and Anna to the control system and allowed him full access. They watched him, ready to learn from the genius if they could, and only paying Anna a small amount of attention, primarily because she was clearly armed. It made them uneasy.

"A hacker who's faster than Ultron? He could be anywhere," Tony muttered. "And as this is the center of everything, I'm just a guy looking for a needle in the world's biggest haystack."

"How comforting," Anna muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

"How do you find it?" the woman world hub tech asked.

"Pretty simple," Tony said. "You bring a magnet."

"I know you."

Anna turned to look at the male tech. "Excuse me?" she asked.

"I saw you in magazines," he said, his accent thick. "You are his daughter, yes?"

"She's-"

"Yes," Anna interrupted with a smirk. "Good ol' Daddy dearest."

"Oh don't start with that," Tony said, but he didn't deny a relation. "Oh, I'm decrypting nuclear codes and you don't want me to. Come and get me."

"I like watching him squirm," Rey said smugly.

Anna rolled her eyes at the man talking to the computer, as well as the alien fox in her head. She turned back to the tech. "I world for the government," she said, patting her gun. "We both like to protect. We just do it in different ways."

"No way," Tony muttered.

Anna snapped back around. "What? Is something wrong? Talk to me, Tony."

"You are not going to believe this..."

Upon arriving back at the Tower, Anna grabbed herself and Tony some bottled water and went to meet up with Bruce and Clint. On the way back from Norway the two had been informed that Natasha had been taken captive by Ultron while retrieving the body he was hoping to transfer himself into.

"Anything on Nat?" Bruce asked when they arrived.

"Haven't heard. But she's alive, or Ultron'd be rubbing out faces in it," Tony said.

"How reassuring," Anna muttered as she moved closer to the large containment chamber the red skinned body was housed in. She knocked on the class to see if there was any sort of reaction, but seeing as there was no mind in the body, there wasn't a reaction.

"This is sealed tight," Clint said.

"We;re going to need to access the program, break it down from within," Bruce said.

"Hm, any chance Natasha might leave you guys a message, outside the internet, old school spy stuff?" Tony asked.

"I don't have many contacts in the region since Bratva found out I was a spy, but I can do a little digging, see if I have any friends still in low places," Anna said.

"There's some nets I can cast," Clint said. "Yeah, alright. We'll find her."

Downstairs below where Tony and Bruce were supposed to be deconstruction the Ultron body sat Anna and Clint monitoring the radios and making some calls to try and locate their mission teammate. Rey was of no use in this department and took his departure for some overdue hunting of city rats down in the parking garage. It wouldn't take him longer than ten or fifteen minutes to become satisfied, but it was appreciated separation so she could focus better on her work. Anna hung up her phone and sighed, rubbing her tired eyes. It had been a few days since any of them had gotten sleep.

"I'm out of contacts," Anna said. "Nothing."

"Well, we still-"

The radio to Clint's left sounded. They both looked at each other with wide eyes as he put the headset to his ear and tuned the dial. He listened carefully and then smiled. "Enter in these coordinates," he instructed as he grabbed a pen and started to write down the distant clicks Anna couldn't really make out from her distance.

She did as she was told, and typed the location into the computer only to find out the location was a familiar one. "We got her," Anna said, smiling softly over her shoulder to Clint. "She say if she's okay?"

"Fine," he said. "Ultron has her locked up."

"Shut it down!"

Anna's brow furrowed. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

The two looked up at the glass ceiling that was the floor into the lab above. Anna could just make out that Steve had arrived and was upstairs with Bruce, Tony, as well as the Maximoff Twins. Why they were there and not in a jail cell was beyond her. Pietro was directly above the two, though he didn't seem to notice them below him. Clint ushered her away from him and towards her as he took out his gun and shot up through the floor to break it.

"What? You didn't see that coming?" Clint ask snarkily.

Anna pulled out Jern Slange and headed up the stairs. What was going on was madness. Either Wanda was in Steve's head controlling him, or the Avengers were seriously fighting each other. "What the hell guys!" Anna yelled out.

Before anymore damage to their teammates could be done, Thor burst in and landed on top of the pod. He raised his hammer and summoned his lightning, nearly hitting Anna was some of the excess that wasn't in his control, before slamming it down onto the pod.

"Wait!" Bruce cautioned, but it was already too late. All was quiet for the moment after the lightning subsided, but it didn't last long. The top of the pod burst open sending Thor backwards, and Mjolnir off to the side.

Slowly, out of the smoke from the pod emerged a red and silver bodied being with the yellow stone on his forehead. The mind stone, Anna thought, recognizing the stone from the hologram the Collector had shown. That's the Infinity Stone. The way he floated up out of the container was almost like magic. Anna had never seen someone fly without the aid of technology or Thor's hammer. But this thing, this android could do so with ease. And it had only been technically alive for a few seconds.

It looked at its hands as it stood up, its eyes cautiously, scared even, looked around at the people surrounding it. As if on instinct, the android shot forward ready to tackle Thor, but he caught his shoulders and used the things own momentum against him to throw him over his shoulder towards the demolished common room. Just before it was to crash through the glass window to the outside world, it froze. It's mechanical eyes staring out at the city, while also getting distracted by its own reflection.

Thor summoned Mjolnir and moved into the living room, followed by a leaping Cap. Thor held up his hand to ward Steve off, watching the android carefully like he knew something everybody else didn't.

The rest of the team joined Thor and Cap in the living room as the android shifted its body to appear as if it was wearing a blackish-gray bodysuit. It landed on the floor gently, and looked around with soft, confused eyes as it spoke in a familiar, very distinct British voice. JARVIS's voice. "I'm sorry, that was," he said, pausing as he tried to figure out what to use, "odd." He turned to Thor and added a "Thank you."

"Thor, you helped create this?"

"I've had a vision," Thor explained. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at its center is that." He pointed to the Mind Stone.

"What?" Bruce asked. "The gem?"

"It's so much more than that," Anna said, slowly moving towards Thor. "What I don't get is why you'd risk everything on it. We both know the damage those stones bring, Thor. It's never worth it."

"What is it?" Clint asked.

"It's the Mind Stone," Thor said. "It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."

"Then why would you bring it to-" Steve started.

"Because Stark is right," Thor finished.

"Oh, it's definitely the end of times," Bruce muttered.

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron," Thor said.

"Not alone," the android added.

"Why does your "vision" sound like JARVIS?" Stevev asked.

"We," Tony started to explain, "We reconfigured JARVIS' matrix to create something new."

"I think I've had my fill of new," Steve said.

"And I've had my fill of Infinity Stones," Anna growled.

"You think I'm a child of Ultron?" the android, Vision, asked.

"You're not?" Steve asked.

"I'm not Ultron. I'm not JARVIS. I am," he muttered, "I am."

"I looked in your head and saw annihilation," Wanda said.

That explains why they're not here on our side, Anna thought, though only straying her thoughts away from the Vision for a moment.

"Look again," he instructed.

"Yeah, her seal of approval means jack to me," Clint said.

"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone, and they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side," Thor said.

"Is it? Are you? On our side?" Steve asked.

"I don't think it's that simple," Vision answered.

"Well, it better get real simple real soon," Clint said.

"I am on the side of life," Vision stated, as if explaining everything as he started to understand it himself. Everything he said sounded ever so carefully planned. "Ultron isn't. He will end it all."

"What's he waiting for?" Tony asked.

"You."

"Where?" Bruce asked.

"Sokovia," Clint answered. "He's got Nat there too."

"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be," Bruce said.

:What will you do?" Vision asked. He looked around at all of them, as if finally realizing what would happen to him if what Ultron wanted was what he wanted. "I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique, and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net, we have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others. MAybe I am a monster. I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me." Vision turned and picked Mjolnir off the ground where Thor had set it and held it out for the owner to take. "But we need to go."

There was a collective silence as the Avengers and the new guests started between Thor and Vision after that remarkable feat he'd just done without even knowing it. Thor, just as confused as everyone else, took his weapon from the android, and watched him walk off.

Thor only paused for another moment before he said, "Right," and started to follow after Vision. He patted Stark on the shoulder as he went and gave him a well earned, "Well done."

"Three minutes," Steve said. "Get what you need."

"No way we all get through this," Tony thought aloud. "If even one tin soldier is left standing, we've lost. It's gonna be blood on the floor."

"I got no plans tomorrow night," Steve joined.

"That's not funny, Steve," Anna scolded.

"I get first crack at the big guys," Tony said. "Iron Man's the one he's waiting for."

Vision walked back in after doing whatever the hell he had been for the last minute or so and said, "That's true, he hates you the most."

"Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire, and that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that's not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we get the job done, and find out what Ultron's been building. We find Romanoff, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us. Ultron thinks we're monsters and we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right."

"Let me make a call," Anna said, pulling out her phone. "I make no promises that they'll be there in time, but I've gotta try." Anna walked away and dialed for Maria Hill. It only took two rings before the woman picked up the line. Before she could even think of saying "what" or a "hello" Anna was already speaking.

"It's going down in Sokovia," she said. "We're going to need an evacuation, and that's not going to be fast or easy. We need Theta Protocol."

"Then you'll have Theta Protocol."

Everybody was suited up and ready to go on the jet. The whole team, excluding Romanoff, was anxiously preparing as they went. They brought everything they'd need, now it was just time to suit up and wait to get there. This was the most anxious part of the mission, in Anna's opinion. Not the actual fighting itself. That was easy in terms of knowing what had to be done. It was more instinctual than anything. The waiting and the anticipation was the worst part to her.

The Maximoff Twins were secluding themselves away from the rest of the team in the back of the jet. Clearly they still weren't too comfortable around the strangers they'd thought were the bad guys to start with. It didn't help that Rey had taken it as his personal mission to watch everything Wanda did so that she didn't disturb Anna anymore than she already had with whatever mind game she'd played on her back in Africa.

Walking up to Thor, Anna sat down in one of the seats built into the sidewall of the jet. "How sure are you about this?" she asked, eying Vision up by the pilot's chair. "How sure are you that using an Infinity Stone isn't going to backfire on us here?"

"Pretty sure," Thor answered.

That didn't make her feel any better. "Gonna need more than pretty sure," she insisted.

"Really pretty sure? Like really pretty sure there is an eighty-eight percent chance this won't backfire on us."

Anna sighed. "I guess I can work with that."

"How is it you know of the Infinity Stones?" Thor asked.

"I've had plenty of dealings with them," she answered. "So have you, really. "The Mind Stone in Loki's Sceptre, the Space Stone is the Tesseract, the Either was the Reality Stone, and then the Power Stone when I was with the Guardians of the Galaxy," Anna said. "I don't like this. Since the beginning of time when they were created, why are they just now all showing up? On or around Earth, no less."

"It is most assuredly something that needs to be looked into," Thor said. "But that will need to wait. We have more pressing issues to address."

"You're right," Anna said. "First, we take Ultron down. Then we're free to question the workings of the universe."

You guys have no idea how scared I was today. I went to log into my google drive where I have all my stories, and none of my fanfiction stuff was there anymore. Turns out I have the ownership of all my docs under my old school email, and though I'm going back to grad school with fall, they deleted my account today and lost all access to all my stories. One quick email and a change of password later all my stuff is back! I just need to contact google support because transferring all ownership from one email address to the other isn't working, but at least I have everything! Good god, I hope you guys like this chapter, because I've just about had it with this week already. It's one thing after another.

Thanks to the following for their reviews on the previous chapter:

SomebodyWhoCares - A baby James you say? Hmmm

Jedi Jesla777 - It's okay. You're free to laugh at me all you'd like. It's allowed. Yeah, I honestly wasn't going to have Wanda mess with her at first seeing as how many times she's been messed with already, but it was the perfect time for some fears to be shown and foreshadowing (wonder if you know what the foreshadowing was). I love Clint too. I love him with Laura, but recently I've been reading a lot of Clint stories on Tumblr and I really think I should look on here too. He's just too lovable not to get some love even if Laura is written out.