Steve's POV
"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." Bruce said looking back at us from the monitor.
"Ultron." I said. Thinking about his connection to Celeste. He obviously helped her escape. But why?
"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Nat said.
"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodes asks.
"Nuclear codes." Hill says, pulling glass out of her foot.
"Nuclear codes. Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can." Rhodes insists.
"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead."
"He didn't say dead. He said extinct." I corrected.
"He also said he killed somebody." Clint mentions.
"But there wasn't anyone else in the building."
"Yes there was." Tony brings up an image of some form of technology. After a moment I realise it's JARVIS.
Bruce walks over to it in shock. "This is insane."
"JARVIS was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." I said.
"No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is...rage." Bruce says bewildered.
Thor then storms into the room, grabbing Tony by his throat, lifting him into the air.
"Woah, woah, woah! It's going around." Clint remarks.
"Come on. Use your words, buddy." Tony wheezes out through Thor's hold on his throat.
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Thor seethed.
I decide to interrupt, "Thor! The Legionnaire. And anything on Celeste?" He lets Tony go.
"Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."
"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron."
Dr. Cho speaks up, "I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"
Tony laughs. We all look at each other annoyed with Tony. Banner then shakes his head, trying to get him to stop. This only seems to annoy Thor more.
"You think this is funny?"
"No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so...is it so...it is. It's so terrible."
"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand."
"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this." Tony argues.
"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to..."
Tony turns to Bruce, "Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."
"Only when I've created a murder bot."
"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"
"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD." I can't help but feel disappointed.
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"
"Here we go..." I sighed under my breath.
"No, it's never come up." Rhodes says sarcastically.
"Saved New York?"
"Never heard that." Everyone shakes their heads.
"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's...that's the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?"
"Together." I say.
"We'll lose."
"Then we'll do that together, too." Tony looks at me for a moment, then turns away. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. He's already helped Celeste escape, and we know what's she's capable of. We've been tracking all those storms for a few months now. I can only imagine she's helping him. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller." I say to the team.
Natasha comes over to me once everyone has headed out.
"Whats up?" I ask.
"That's what I want to know." I look to her, confused "I heard you went to speak with Celeste. How do you feel she's gone?"
"Am I meant to feel something...?"
"Well, other than the fact that you keep finding ways of mentioning her name to people, I also heard a bit of your conversation."
"Seriously, Nat?"
"Hey, I like firsthand intel. So she knew Barnes?"
"Yeah... said he was her trainer about 15 years ago. Said she considered him a friend" I chuckle slightly.
"And now she's gone."
"Yeah..."
"Listen, if she says he was gentle, and kind... I suppose there must me a huge part of the old him in there... I can see why you're a bit down about Celeste escaping. She was a potential link to finding him again."
"Thanks for understanding, Nat. Listening in was a bit much, but not out the ordinary for you"
"Well I also learnt a bit more about you, Rogers." She smirked at me.
"And that is...?"
"Love might still be in your cards" she smiled.
I laughed, "Okay, I think you're pushing it, Romanoff!"
"I mean, you never know." She holds her hands up, in surrender.
"I just can't help but feel sympathy for her."
"Sympathy?"
"Well... if she was trained by Bucky 15 years ago, and she can't be more that 30 years old... that means half of her life, if not most of her life, has been under HYDRA's control. That it's all she's ever known. No wonder she got upset when I said they weren't what she thought they were. She's loyal to them. A trait I can't fault. It's just a shame of where that loyalty lies."
Celeste's POV
I flew to the meeting point, an abandoned building somewhere back in Sokovia, it looked a bit like a church. I meet up with the twins outside.
"Celeste, are you okay?" Wanda rushes up to me. Pietro followed behind her, with a concerned look on his face also. Maybe he wasn't such a dick after all.
"Yeah I'm fine. They didn't harm me. This robot thing set me free to come here to see you two. Are you guys alright?"
"Yeah all good"
"Do you know if Fischer is okay? I know Strucker was caught."
"I think he got away. I know he means a lot to you, Celeste." Pietro said. I just nod, and suggest we go inside.
"Celeste, I think you need to know something about Fischer." Wanda grabs my arm softly.
"Tell me after, okay?" She nods in response.
Once inside we see a tall figure as it turns to us.
"Talk. And if you are wasting our time..." I instruct him.
"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." Ultron says, sitting himself into a chair that faces away from us. "You're wondering why you can't look inside my head." He says aloud, but it's aimed at Wanda.
"Sometimes it's hard. But sooner or later, every man shows himself." Wanda responds. Ultron stands and turns back to them, revealing his new body. Wanda and Pietro seem shocked, me, not so much. I've already encountered him.
"Oh, I'm sure they do. But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark take the scepter."
"I didn't expect. But I saw Stark's fear, I knew it would control him, make him self-destruct." Wanda says.
"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."
"Is that why you've come? To end the Avengers?" Wanda asks.
"I've come to save the world. But also, yeah. We'll move out right away. This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work."
"All of these are... All of these are..." Wanda motions toward Ultron's bots.
"Me." Ultron answers. "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..."
"Everyone's plan is not to kill them." Pietro speaks for the first time.
"And make them martyrs? You need patience. Need to see the big picture." Ultron says.
"I don't see the big picture, I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it every day." Pietro says.
"You two lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records."
"The records are not the picture."
"Pietro." Wanda tries to stop him.
"No, please." Ultron insists.
"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..." he trails off.
Wanda finishes, "Stark."
"We were trapped two days." Pietro continues.
"Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, "This will set it off." We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us." Wanda's voice breaks.
"I know what they are."
"I wondered why only you two survived Strucker's experiments. Now I don't. We will make it right. You and I can hurt them." He turns to Wanda "But you will tear them apart, from the inside. Celeste here will help us." He then looks to me. I nod. It is my duty to HYDRA after all.
We start on our mission. Wanda pulls me aside when we have a moment of peace.
"Celeste... you need to know. Fischer isn't who you think he is. I know he means a lot to you, but..." she trails off.
"Wanda... what are you saying?" I ask. Where is she going with this? She doesn't speak for a moment. "Wanda, tell me."
"You don't mean anything to him like he means to you. He's only ever used you for your powers, for his own gain, to get higher in the ranks at HYDRA."
My heart drops... I can't breath...
"But he... he helped me..."
"HYDRA only uses people, Celeste. Yes, Pietro and I volunteered, but... In our time with you and Fischer... what I said earlier is true. Every man does show themselves. He showed himself, Celeste, in the month you and he were with us. I'm sorry."
All I feel is numb. Everything I know... do I know anything anymore? Was Steve right? He must have been...
Steve's POV
After a bit of time, Hill comes to where I've been sitting.
"He's all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place."
"Fatalities?" I question.
"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see. Some reports of electric shocks."
"Maximoffs and Celeste. Well, that makes sense he'd go to them, they have someone in common." I say.
"Not anymore." Maria hands me a tablet. On it is a picture of Strucker's dead body with the word 'PEACE' written in blood on the wall next to him.
"Strange..." I wonder aloud.
"How?"
"Well... Celeste was insistent that HYDRA was good. Yet she appears to be a part of this..." I head out to see Clint on his phone.
"That's a negative. I answer to you. Yes, ma'am."
I don't want to interrupt, but this is important. "Barton, we might have something."
He nods, "Gotta go." He says into the phone, then hanging up.
"Who was that?"
"Girlfriend." He answers. Funny considering he just said he didn't have one the other day.
Once I gather the team, I show them the photo of Strucker's body.
"What's this?" Tony asks.
"A message." I answer, "Ultron killed Strucker."
"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us."
Natasha speaks up "This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss."
"Yeah, I bet he..." Natasha turns back to the computer monitor, searching for something, "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."
"Not everything. We have some physical files."
"Let's do some homework" I say.
After a few hours of reading through the files, we find something.
"Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends." I say.
"Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce sighs.
Tony is looking at a file over Bruce's shoulder. "Wait. I know that guy." Collecting the photo from Bruce. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms." I give him a look. "There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything." The file says his name is Ulysses Klaue. "He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very "Ahab.""
Thor points to the scar on the back of Klaue's neck. "This."
"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it-"
"No, those are tattoos, this is a brand."
Bruce turns to the computer, typing in something. "Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way."
"What dialect?" I ask.
"Wakanada...? Wa...Wa...Wakanda." He turns back to us. What are the odds...? I turn to Tony.
"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." he wanders off.
"I thought your father said he got the last of it?"
Bruce looks confused, "I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?"
Tony and I look to my shield "The strongest metal on earth." Tony answers.
I look back to Tony, "Where is this guy now?"