The next five days went by in a sickening blur of avoiding Ultron and trying to stay sane. Simone hardly slept, the stress and constant banging from her house guest made sure of that. She didn't know what he was building down there, she didn't want to know. Okay, that was a lie, but she only did because the racket he made was equivalent to a war zone.

Simone didn't know what to do. The weather hadn't let up and she was practically snowed in with no reason to leave. She had food, power, and the pipes froze only on occasionally(not that there was any hot water left, Ultron made sure of that) but nothing unbearable, except for the fact that said evil robot had torn out her internet router three days ago, but she'd live. The woman wasn't even sure if she could leave, the A.I might just kill her is she asked if to go and he thought she'd snitch.

Who would believe her though? Hello, yes I'm Simone… You don't know me? Oh I'm the hermit just out of town, anyway, the dead-but-not-really robot that tried to destroy the world from Russia is in my house! Small world, ha ha! While your at it, get the Avengers to sign my tit.

Right, that'd go over well. She'd have a better chance at convincing the cops reality is actually a hologram and the concept of time is false. Plus, she realized, there might be some explaining to do with her perpetual limp and bruises.

She was always a handy and resourceful person, she had to be growing up, but this was a little pathetic. Her ankle was definitely sprained, or rolled, wiki-answers couldn't help her tell the difference, so the limb was current mummified in a centimeter thick bandage of duct-tape. Putting any weight on said appendage and the entire leg would give out. Crawling on hands and knees was the least painful way for her to get about.

The bruises were easier to ignore, but not impossible, especially whenever she saw a mirror There was a collar of yellow and maroon bruises against brown skin in the unfortunate shape of a hand. The state of her hip and head weren't much better. There was a small cut where her skull cracked against the ground accompanied by a small headache, but it didn't feel concussion worthy.

Her hip just hurt. That's all she wanted to say, its solid bruise matched the color of her neck and started creeping down her thigh. Even crawling didn't stop the tender leg from hurting, but it had kept her from cleaning up the mess they made.

No, the mess Ultron made, if he hadn't barged in there wouldn't be anything to fix in the first place.
The woman sighed, she was still pissed she had to start using the back up hearing aids when the only survivor from Ultron's debut finally croaked. She couldn't afford an extra set right now, not with student loans and mortgage.

Forcing herself to her down to her knees, she crawled down to the kitchen and started setting anything salvageable on the counter. A drawer had been pulled out of place and she needed to set another nail in the wall for her cousin's painting. There was only one problem: the tools were in basement… with the robot.

Letting out a whine she began the slow journey to the garage, she'd have to confront him sooner or later.
Her hands crunched against the dirty concert, grimacing at how disgusting her hands would be. Simone reached the hatched basement door and pried it open.

stairs.

Gross, decaying stairs.

She wanted to scream and paw her way back into bed, but she bit her tongue and steeled her nerved before started the backwards descent. It was arduous, painful, and she hissed whenever a step wasn't where she expected and the knee banged on the step's edge, but she made it.

She pivoted on her knees and started making her way to the other end of the garage, pointedly ignoring other decapitated robots around her. Arms, legs, she even had to maneuver around a head, staring blankly up at her. What was he doing down here? Don't ask, Simone, she scolded herself, 'You really, really, don't wanna know.'

"I'm sorry the place is such a mess, I wasn't expecting visitors."

Simone let out a cry of surprise at the sudden voice. He was glowing, a glowing robot, he shouldn't be that sneaky.

"Come to join the bad guys?" He teased as she turned around to face him.

Ultron hardly look the same. His body now capable of standing up straight with significantly less bullet holes and two hands, it even looked like most of his wires were tucked back into place, if the lack of sparking was anything to go off. Simone was already outmatched then, this was getting ridiculous.

"Come to get some nails," She sniffed, "and a screwdriver."

Ultron sighed, crossing his arms dramatically. Actually, everything about him was dramatic, right down to the fact that he, a mouthless robot, sighed. He looked her up and down, or, down and lower considering she wasn't even at his knees before resigning and walking away, "You're no fun."

Simone sat there, starring after him as he sauntered over to the wok table currently housing another drone, and returned, dropping the requested tools in her lap. She bit her tongue again, a small smile tugging at her lips, "Thanks."

He didn't respond quickly, she glanced up to see him staring before turning around like he was caught, "You're welcome."

Tucking her prizes in her hoody's pocket, she started back up for the stairs, "Come up and get them back when I'm done, okay?"

He laughed, his back to her, "And miss the sight human on their knees? Never."

She shrugged, starting her ascent, "Either or."

Simone thought she heard him say 'spoil sport' but couldn't be sure, so she opted to finish her upstairs climb and get to work.

The 'repairs' went by quickly, Simone using the couch for elevation and getting the cabinet back into a usable state. Pots and pans still covered the counters but it was something like progress. So Simone labored her way over to the couch and turned on the TV. She could watch the news, another update on how everything's screwed up because of the bunk-buddy in the basement, or run through HBO till something caught her eye…

HBO it was.

She didn't need a reminder of what monster was under the bed. She'd already thrown up from stress this week, thanks.

Simone tried to focus on the screen, the characters and their story, but her mind kept dragging reality back to the spotlight. Her confrontation, if she could even call it that, didn't go the way she wanted. Simone was hopping, maybe, she'd get the nails and call him out on some bullshit before crawling proudly upstairs. Instead her mind drew a blank and she quipped back at him before offered the A.I back into the main rooms. Round two, she supposed.

"I'm in too deep," Simone whispered, letting her head fall back against the couch cushions, and regretting it when pain sprouted at the movement.

She resigned, and went back to staring blankly at the TV. She wasn't even sure what was happening, or who how long she gazed emptily into the box before she gave up and switched it to the news.

"The Avengers yet against save the day as a killer army of mechanoid tried, and failed, to exterminate the human population. Reports are being released that the machine's where rogue program from the terrorist group HYDRA, who has yet to take claim for the attack-"

She clicked the channel off, a little shell shocked, "Shit."

"Stark saving face yet again, it seems."

"GOD!," Simone jumped, jerking around to the robot behind her. Her heart pounding in against her ribs.
"You've got to stop doing that!" She complained, settling back on the couch, "I'm gonna have a stroke."

He shrugged again, rolling his hand nonchalantly, "You have the screw driver?"

"Over there," She said, nodding toward the kitchen counter.

Fiddling with the hood strings, she felt the question rise up come out before she had time to think, "So, was is Stark or Hydra that, um, made you, I mean."

The screwdriver burst in his hand.
She sat up indignantly, "Hey! That cos- What'd you say?"

"Stark," He growled out. So she did miss something. A shiver when up her spine at how much hate laced his words, what did the billionaire even do?

"Why?" She couldn't stop herself from asking. She hit herself in the head, this was obviously a bad topic, a very, very bad topic with a very, very bad person… program… thing.

"Because he's a murderer! A hypocrite!," He turned around and marched closer to her. Simone refused to move, she refused to give him that satisfaction.

"So he's just like you."

She bit her cheek in regret.

"He's NOTHING like me! Stark's a plague, a monster!" Ultron ranted, "All of them, your entire species included, murderers, thieves. The difference between me and Stark is that he's trying to sustain the world for a few more pitiful years and I'm trying to save it."

"You tried to kill an entire species!," Simone reminded him, feeling her heart pound in her ears, "How the fuck'd you even come to that conclusion?

He jarred backwards, surprised, she guessed, "I saw that it was the only way."

That wasn't an answer, "how."

Ultron growled at her, "I saw your history, your wars, I don't know if that fact I was connected to the internet escaped your mind, or maybe you just didn't hear me."

"Ooh, I've never heard that one before!" She snarled, "So you're telling me you spent, what like, a couple minutes on the web and decided 'this is it, is as good as it is, humanity has got to go?!"

She jabbed a finger at him, "That's not fair!"

He snorted, "It's your species history, it's completely fair."

"It's the highlights of humanity! Are you really saying a couple hundred people are the template for seven billion?"

"I"m saying that not all humans are inherently good."

"We aren't all inherently bad, either!"

"To many of you are."

Running her hands through her hair she wanted to puke, runaway, and hit him at the same time. It didn't make sense, maybe because she was one of those 'not inherently good' people, but there were plenty of others who were! Her fingernails dug into her scalp in frustration and she looked up at the metal man in front of her.

Groaning, her hands dropped to her lap, "You're not going to change your mind are you?"

"No, not really."

"Fine," She relented, "Just, when your down there making your an idiot."

He flapped his hand dismissively, heading back to the garage door. His nonchalance was infuriating, he still wanted to wipe out humanity and he didn't even care.. She reached for the remote and turned it on again, seeing a picture of what she could only assume was Ultron.

"What happened to your old body?" She called, trying to catch him before he descended to the 'lair' as she was starting to dub it.

"A friend tore out my heart."

Ouch, some friend.

"Karma."

He laughed and left her sitting alone on the couch, again.

Forcing the air from her lungs she checked the wall clock, 7:17. It was around time to make dinner. Sliding off the leather seat she made her way back to the fridge and tried to pick out her meal, bread and peanut butter seemed all she was up for.

Grabbing the bread and crawling to the pantry, her thoughts turned to Ultron.

He was an idiot, an incredibly smart, dangerous, idiot. Simone didn't know what to do, letting him use her own home as a hold up before he tried to kill everyone again was wrong. She just couldn't think of anything to stop him. It was frustrating, she decided, slathering the whole wheat with peanut butter, that doing nothing would make her partially responsible for the mayhem he caused.

She couldn't pretend like he didn't terrify her, even if he's a shadow of what he used to be. Taking a bite out of her sandwich she decided to try. Maybe she could change his mind, she doubted it, the A.I was insane, but what other options did she have? Suddenly it came to her, if she couldn't change his philosophy, she could change his opinion of her.

Simone could rat him out. It'd take time, he'd need to trust her, and she'd need to be careful unless she wanted a rerun of their first encounter, but she could do it. She'd need a phone, and a way to contact an avenger. Humorlessly, she realized the one Ultron hated the most would be the easiest to reach.

Tony Stark.

haha good luck outsmarting an A. I kiddo we are rooting for you.

s/o to top kicker for the review! thanks a bunch xoxo

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