"Ok, there was definitely something wrong with Stark in the last part of that memory sequence. I've never known him to be so… placid." Clint grimaced and then perked up when he saw Natasha and Bruce look meaningfully at each other. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Natasha asked giving Clint an unwavering blank stare in response.
Clint waved his hand between her and Bruce. "You two have been sneaking off and whispering to each other, for the last few memories now. Spill." He crossed his arms over his chest and measured her with a stern look, intense enough to match her own blank stare.
"You know something about Stark, more specifically you know why he was acting like that." Winter turned an analytical gaze to Natasha. "Don't think I haven't noticed you try to move out of our hearing range Natalia. And you know too, don't you Spiderman?"
Peter blinked under the Mask, when he noticed everyone staring at him, he held his hands up in the universal term for surrender.
"If this affects the team-" Steve moved forward and spoke sternly in his commanding Captain America voice but Bruce cut him off.
"It doesn't and we don't know anything for sure yet." He paused and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and his finger. "Natasha and I have noticed some similarities between Tony and Marias behaviour – more specifically the behaviour she display's when she is having a 'dark day.' Which we know now means she is having a bad day with her depression… children who have a parent with depression are two to four times likelier to get it themselves."
Steve turned away from them and grimaced, he knew what they were implying.
"I know you don't like to think it, Steve but the signs are all there." Natasha interjected softly.
"What signs did you see?" Concerned, Rhodey frowned at them both.
How could I not see this about my best friend in all the time I've known him whereas Bruce and Natasha spotted it after seeing a few memories?
"Stark is good at covering it up." Rhodey startled slightly and turned to her, sometimes it was easy to forget how well she could read people. "But we spotted in both of them. With how weary they both sounded and how much effort it seemed to take them to do things that they would find easy on any other day. If the overall pessimism of Stark's thoughts wasn't enough to listen to as well… both of them seem to find their thoughts painful on those days with Stark describing them as 'angry bees' and Maria saying that they scare her."
"To be fair Tony's 'Angry Bees' is most likely a consequence of having one of the highest IQ's the world has ever seen as well as living with Depression." Bruce shrugged, "It weighs you down being Depressed… I would know."
He muttered that last part really quietly to himself, only those with enhanced hearing could hear him which caused Steve to send him a concerned glance, as everyone lapsed into a melancholy silence.
Wanda promptly broke it.
"Stark is fine." She huffed. "I don't understand why you all are suddenly acting like this changes anything. It doesn't. Didn't you see him pushing himself on Miss Potts? Disgusting."
"It's funny really. No matter what I do, you are there to make me seem like Satan"
They all stilled at that cold, familiar voice, possessing no ounce of warmth or familiarity.
Gathering up what remained of their courage, the Avengers turned around to face a current Angry Tony.
He was exuding threatening and evil vibes with such an intensity that it made a chill run down Wanda's spine.
Stalking up to her with a purely malevolent expression, he grabbed her arm tightly before twisting around and shoving her to the floor.
At once the others began to protest or moved forward to try and stop Angry Tony from hurting her more. However, they found their hands went straight through him and they could do nothing but watch as he loomed over her, grinning like a possessed Cheshire cat.
"Woah! Stark what the hell?"
"Get off her Tony she's just a kid!"
"Friend Anthony this is not a wise course of action, you are letting emotion cloud your mind-"
"What the fuck!"
"Mr Stark please-"
"Well as you asked nicely-" He straightened as his disturbing grin morphed into a cold sneer. Looking down on Wanda, he yanked her harshly to her feet." Sorry witchy- actually I'm not sorry that felt damn good. I just needed to test a theory and she was the perfect subject to test it out on."
"What theory?" Clint asked coldly as he pulled Wanda away from Tony. Frightened, she let him protectively guard her.
"Just to demonstrate the unspoken inequality in this so-called team. None of you protested after all when a known Norse God hoisted me up by the throat yet you all spoke up to defend someone you welcomed on the team after she fucked with everyone's heads, including mine!"
"Why didn't you say anything?" Bruce asked softly.
"I didn't know that it wasn't me all along." Tony's voice truely morphed with Ultron's as the skin covering his cheekbones broke, tore and stretched to reveal Ultron's harsh threatening Vibranium cheekbones and his eyes glowed red. "Until the others realised what you did to me!" Wanda flinched harshly and he almost yelled that last word in her face before pulling back and his voice became dangerously soft. "They thought that this was my true face." He waved a hand that looked like metal had ripped apart the skin over one side of his face. "That I was evil. You didn't have the decency to tell me what you did. But I knew there was something different about that PTSD hallucination...I felt it violate me and because of that I knew it wasn't me."
"IT WAS YOU! I knew it- see Steve," She looked to Steve then, "Stark is twisted and here is the proof."
"Maybe so," Tony's lip curled malevolently, seeing this Clint put himself between Tony and Wanda. "but certainly, not as much as you are little witch. If it were only up to me," His tone became darker as he addressed Wanda now moving up to her and shoving Clint harshly out of the way. "I would have ratted you out and told you the whole truth about your story from the beginning. I would've watched the Press eat you alive and enjoyed every second. Ooo this is delicious… Who's having the involuntary reaction in their Amygdala now?" Tony laughed maliciously and sang. "It isn't me."
"Alright, you've had your fun." They turned to see Pincushion glaring at Angry Tony by the door.
He wasted no time in marching towards his counterpart and dragging him away from Wanda.
"Aww, come on hedgehog. Let me have some fun, Morgana deserves it you know she does." Whined Angry Tony but when Pincushion didn't say anything Angry Tony pulled away violently. "WE DESERVE SOME FUCKING JUSTICE!"
Nearly all of the Avengers flinched backwards at that rage filled yell.
"This isn't the way to get it." Muttered Pincushion as he grimaced.
"He's right, there is no excuse for unprovoked physical assault, especially not when it's against a kid." Pincushion's jaw locked at Steve's voice and his eyes fluttered shut briefly in a pained expression whilst Angry Tony became enraged, turning on him snarling rabidly.
"She's not a kid! She's Twenty-Eight, she stopped being a child ten years ago- shut the fuck up! And where was that defence when it was ME?! At least I didn't strangle her!"
"Come on man let's go." Pincushion implored, "Let Sparkles do his thing. I'm sure he'll get Morgana and Rogers to see sense."
Angry Tony smiled when he looked up to see Sparkles appear and laughed. "Good luck with that Glitterball. You have a challenge ahead of you."
However, he finally complied with Pincushion's request and stalked out of the door, not taking a moment to look back at the others.
Pincushion paused at the door and looked back at the Being. "I don't know how he did it but he somehow managed to break through the magic you put on us. You might want to make the spell stronger next time. And err..." Pausing, he frowned and glanced over each of the other Avengers faces and quickly became confused by the lack of animosity and the soft, grateful gazes he was getting from nearly all of the team instead. "What are you showing them? I was under the impression that it'd just be-"
"I am showing them all what they need to see." The Beings face became impassive and Pincushion became very awkward under their intense stare.
"Right I'll just-" Awkwardly, Pincushion edged out the door, it was so reminiscent of Peter's teenage self that Spiderman couldn't help but snigger a little bit.
It was worth it to see a true smile from Pincushion in response before the door slammed behind him.
The door in the mindscape glowed brightly around the edges as a symbol representing a lock appeared in the centre of the door, it clasped shut before it slowly faded back to its normal brown.
"What did he mean," Wanda's voice quaked as she rubbed the arm that Angry Tony had grasped with an indignant expression, "when he said the 'whole truth' about my story? I know my story!"
The Being levelled her with an intense look that made her feel like she was being Xrayed. "You don't know everything."
"You think you were the only one stalling?" Ultron asked as Wanda watched him through Tony's eyes stalk towards him around the metal detonator that had erupted from the ground. "This is how you end Tony, this is peace in my time. You see, people are flawed, they always make things to help them end. You are no different. You made me and the Maximoff's."
"I know their story, you don't have to gloat." She could feel the uncomfortable feeling of guilt rise from his chest despite his flippant words. Why didn't I figure out what he was doing earlier?
"Oh, I don't think you do, Tony." She could feel Stark's jaw drop as his shock curdled with her reignited rage at Ultron. What was he hiding from me?! "Neither do they. You are the only reason they made it from that building. Take you from the picture and they would both be dead. It was irony at its best, to watch them try to destroy you without knowing that in fact they owe you their lives."
Stupefied, Wanda froze inside Tony's head as she felt Tony still too. But that- that couldn't be possible. Could it? It was his weapons that blew up my home- that killed my parents. How could he have saved me and Pietro? If that were the case I would know.
"What-" Growled Tony, he was about to demand an answer but Ultron chose that moment to attack.
God, dammit. Now? After that bombshell…
Tony's whole body sighed as he flew out of the church.
"Fri remind me to search what he means when we get back."
"I'll remind you, Boss."
All of the Avengers found themselves in an unfamiliar room, it was lined to the ceiling with stone cobbles and decked with ebony décor lined with small silver octopus's, the things in the room which were closest to them were two dark leather chairs which held both Obadiah Stane and Barron Von Strucker.
"No." Wanda's eyes widened when she saw them and noticed the craters of SI weapons sat behind and around Strucker. "No, no…."
"It was a pleasure doing business with you Mr Stane." Strucker appeared very pleased with the crates of new looking SI weapons behind him. "These will be put to good use in Sokovia, the rebels are getting restless."
Incensed, Wanda surged forward, her hands glowed red ominously but Steve held her back. She glared at him to see that he was wearing a similar expression to the one she presumed was on her own face, it appeared to be carved out of stone.
Obadiah gave him a gracious half nod. "The pleasure was mine, Hydra will reward me graciously for my efforts." He lifted a cigar to his mouth and took a deep long breath in. "Of course, your part in destabilising Sokovia is greater than mine. I just provided the means. Use those wisely," Obadiah pointed warningly to the crates with his cigar while Strucker's men filtered into the room and greedily drank in the sight of Tony's inventions. They took them out and inspected them with awe. "They are not unlimited. I had to work hard to smuggle these here without Stark suspecting anything."
Vision floated over to Wanda, she noticed a lot of the others were looking at her out of the corner of their eyes warily and she couldn't blame them. Her hands were pale and lit with snakes of scarlet, they shook violently; only stilling when Vision took one in his hand.
The red haze faded as she allowed Vision to comfort her.
"Is there any risk of that happening?" Strucker looked up in alarm.
"Not for now. He is easy to manipulate. However, once he outlives his usefulness or suspects me ...I arrange a way to get him out the way." Obadiah smiled and clapped his shoulder, "But for now, drink! Enjoy your new toys! Hydra will be well stocked for the foreseeable future."
"Bastard." Clint ground out as he clenched his fists. At that moment, he could tell that he wished both Stane and Strucker were corporeal so that he could throttle them himself.
They watched the last SI bomb they had fire at an apartment building in the distance which exploded dramatically once it hit its target. They appeared pleased with the results, however when they realised it was the last SI one they had left the rebels were beginning to panic.
"Use these." A masked rebel offered as he, helped by four of his friends, moved several boxes of crudely made unmarked bombs to the feet of Stucker, who was clearly leading the assault.
"Those? If we use them they'll know we've run out of SI weapons, imbecile!" Strucker barked sending more of the goons to his right from their posts to look for SI weapons.
The rebel smiled and held out a can of white spray paint and several stencils of the SI logo, "No they won't."
At this point, Wanda's eyes bulged because she could do nothing more than watch helplessly as the rebel sprayed the first bomb and beckoned Stucker over.
"Even Stark himself wouldn't be able to tell the difference." The masked rebel gloated, clearly Stucker thought the same as he straightened and grinned.
The scene changed again and Wanda gasped loudly when she recognised it her as her old home in Sokovia. The rubble had made it completely unrecognisable from the homely flat she had once known.
Half of the back wall and the ceiling had fallen forward fully blocking up the hole in the floor, amongst the rubble and the speckles of glass, they could see sparks flying off the damaged electrics on the far side of the room.
On the side, nearest to them there was a bed, mostly obscured in rubble, where sounds of two children crying came from, the fake SI bomb was perched precariously close to the sound. They all moved closer and peered under the bed to see Wanda and Pietro curled around each other, staring at the bomb with wide frightened eyes.
"Mum! Dad!" Pietro called out to the rubble, he tried to push himself forward a little but he grimaced in pain when his injured ankle protested at the movement. They all felt the phantom pain run across their ankles, as horror, sadness and desperation curled in their stomachs.
There was only one person this memory could've come from. Wanda swallowed heavily as her eyes drank in the sight of her brother. Pietro.
The younger Wanda sobbed and curled against Pietro's chest, one of her hand's held her head and dried blood had clotted across her hairline.
"They-they're dead!" She wailed, "They would've replied by now…it's-it's no use."
He swallowed heavily and shuddered. "We'll get the people who did this." Peering at the bomb, Pietro's face suddenly contorted in hate as he saw the name that was on the bomb. "Stark."
They felt like a fire had been lit inside of them sparking with rage and a desire for revenge.
It was disturbing to sense that coming from a child.
The younger Wanda turned into Pietro and screamed in anguish, even though the sound was muted by Pietro's shirt it was still horrific.
The fire increased in intensity.
At least I managed to save a reminder of them…
He valiantly swallowed a sob and tried to make his voice stronger to comfort her but it came out wavering more than he had hoped. "I-I managed to save this." Pietro uncurled his hand to reveal a very crumpled photo of himself, Wanda and two people who resembled both of them.
The older Wanda choked on a sob as she watched her younger self cradle the photo as if it was the most precious thing she had ever laid eyes on.
"We-we are going to join them so-on." Her eyes flickered over at the fake Stark Industries bomb and swallowed, "It-it's only a matter of time before Tony Stark kills us too."
The Avengers suddenly found themselves outside in the destroyed street several groups of rescuers were rooting through the remains of the decimated buildings.
They felt an echo of grim determination coming from whomever this memory had belonged to it was clearly from one of the rescuers.
One of the members of the closest group looked up suddenly over to the Avengers, through what appeared to be looking through an old-fashioned camera. "I detect two heat signatures coming from that building there, they appear to be," the woman lifted the camera up slightly to inspect the rubble, "five foot underground."
The two women and five men that made up the rescue party sprinted towards the collapsed building behind the Avengers.
The woman holding the thermographic camera instructed the four of the men which slabs to move while the other Woman and her friend stood by the Avengers and busied themselves with trying to get the ambulances attention.
"Thank god Mr Stark came up with the idea to adapt these infrared cameras so they could be used in rescue missions." They all felt the phantom feeling of relief hit them hard, clearly this bedraggled woman was the one who the memory had belonged to. She turned to her friend and began helping him wave over the ambulance van rolling towards them.
"I know," Gasped, the other man as he tore his eyes away from the ambulance to briefly look back at his friend next to him. "I'd hate to think what would've happened to these kids if he hadn't."
