Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Path Not Taken
By Gabrielle Lawson

Chapter Nine

Steve needed a shower, both because of the fight and because it might calm him down. He was beyond furious and that wasn't his normal state. Tony—and Banner—had taken it upon themselves to experiment with the scepter, just as Stru..cker had. In three days, they thought they knew enough to create an artificial intelligence to protect the earth and put the Avengers out of business. Instead, they got a robot AI that decided the Avengers were why the world needed saving. And Jarvis paid the price.

The fact that Jarvis wasn't a person didn't matter. The AI was helpful and friendly. It ran a lot of Stark's business, automated a lot of things like schedules so Bucky could stay hidden, and ran the Iron Legion. Now it couldn't do any of those things, and this Ultron had the Stark robots as its personal army.

Bucky and Pepper were on the floor playing with the kitten when he entered the apartment. Pepper jumped up. "What's happened?" she asked. "Jarvis is down. Tony isn't answering my texts. I was afraid to call."

Bucky stood up, too. "Steve. Has someone found me?"

Steve held up his hands to both of them. "No, no one has found you. You're safe here. There was a problem in the lab after the party. The, um, Iron Legion robots went rogue and attacked us. We had to fight back. It's all done now. Except Jarvis. Jarvis didn't make it. I'm sure Tony has a backup somewhere."

Pepper put a hand on Bucky's arm. "I need to go. I had fun tonight. Alpine is a darling." Then she hurried out to the hall.

Bucky waited until the door was shut again. "You lied."

Steve sighed. He really wanted that shower first. "I need a shower then, I promise, I will tell you the whole truth. Pepper will get it from Tony."

Bucky watched him for a moment then nodded. "I need to scoop the box."

Steve nodded back and left him to that. Steve grabbed his robe from the bedroom and went to the bathroom. The water was warm and it soothed his tense muscles. But he just couldn't slow down his racing thoughts. Tony and Banner had hidden what they were doing. Which meant they had to know it was a big risk to use the scepter. Ultron had cannibalized Jarvis to get the data it needed to create a robot body and take control of the Legion. They managed to destroy the body, but Ultron wasn't a robot. It was the AI in the robot, and that got away through the internet. Which meant it could be anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes. The lab, which Bucky had damaged was now very close to ruined. Tony now had to be focused on finding and stopping Ultron, so he wouldn't and couldn't be working on Bucky's arm.

Sam had only just expanded Bucky's team so it would be easier to have someone with him at all times. Now Steve, Natasha, Tony, Thor and Clint would all be absent and busy most of the coming days. That left Hill, Pepper, Rhodey and Sam. At least half of whom could help with the fight. But Bucky needed them more.

Steve dropped his head and let the water pound the base of his neck. It was just too much. They were supposed to be a team. The scepter was supposed to go back to Asgard with Thor. Tony was known to be reckless, to go off on tangents of his own whims. Banner, though, was careful. He spent so much of his time keeping the Hulk in check. What could Tony possibly have said to convince him that working with an extra-terrestrial substance with only three days' study was a good idea? Steve only had a 1930s education and no fancy degrees, and even he knew it was a dangerous idea. Schmidt thought he knew everything there was to know about the Tesseract. He and Zola made weapons that vaporized people. But when he touched it, the Tesseract had whisked him off to God-knows-where and then eaten through every deck of the plane until it fell out bottom. The scepter turned people into slaves and opened a hole in the sky to allow the Chitauri in. These were not things to play with.

Steve turned off the water and dried himself. He wasn't any calmer. Not really. He put on the robe and opened the door. Bucky was waiting at the dining table.

Steve sat opposite him. "Tony did something rash. And dangerous." He rubbed a hand through his wet hair. "Remember how I told you Red Skull used the Tesseract to make the weapons with the blue light?"

Bucky nodded. "They made people disappear."

"Right," Steve agreed. "Three years ago, someone else used something like that, but in a scepter, to allow aliens to invade New York. SHIELD took the scepter after we defeated him. But really that was Hydra that got the scepter. So we've been going on raids, taking out Hydra bases, until we found it."

Bucky's eyebrows dropped. "You were after the scepter. I thought you were fighting Hydra."

"We were," Steve tried to explain.

"To end Hydra!" Bucky stood and started pacing in the living room.

"Bucky," Steve tried, following him to the other room. "Of course, we want to defeat them, to bring them all to justice. I've wanted that all along. The scepter is dangerous, especially in the hands of evil people like Hydra. Thor was going to take it to Asgard."

"'—until we found it.'" Bucky didn't stop pacing.

"Poor choice of words. I didn't mean it that way," Steve assured him. "I'll fight Hydra anywhere we find them. Just not right now because the thing Tony made with that scepter, it's the bigger danger."

Bucky stopped. "Tony is Hydra?"

Steve shook his head. "No, he just thought he knew better. They had years to study it. Tony had three days. He and Banner—the one that turns green—used it, hoping to make something that would protect everyone. Only it thinks the Avengers are the problem. It was supposed to be program like Jarvis, artificial intelligence. It killed Jarvis, built a robot body, and sent the other robots to kill us."

"That is not protecting everyone." Bucky said. He looked down. "So he wasn't working on my arm."

Steve put both his hands on Bucky's shoulders. "No, he wasn't. I'm sure he will once this is over."

"Did you defeat the robots?"

Steve nodded. "But the AI and one robot got away. It went through the internet."

Bucky broke away and dropped onto the couch. "You're going away again."

Steve sat beside him. "I am. Natasha, Tony, Thor, the Avengers. We have to find Ultron, that's its name. We have to find it and stop it. It has the scepter."

"Who's left to babysit me?"

"It's not babysitting," Steve argued. "You're an adult."

Bucky gave him a side-eye. "Adult-sitting. You think I might try again."

Steve bumped his shoulder lightly. "Are you sure you won't?"

Bucky didn't answer that. Which Steve kind of expected, but it still hurt. "Sam said they had to erase Bucky Barnes to make the Winter Soldier."

Steve nodded to that. "They did. Over and over. Maybe Bucky kept trying to come out."

Bucky shook his head. "I don't think so. Not until the last time. I knew you. Not who you were, but I knew you. So he told them to do it."

"Pierce?"

"He almost talked to me like I was a person. I shouldn't have told him."

Steve put his arm around Bucky's shoulders again. "It's not your fault. They brainwashed you, took your memory. You thought they were your people, that you could trust them."

"Who's left?" Bucky asked again, ending that part of the conversation.

"Sam will still be here. Hill and Pepper, probably Rhodey."

"It will be hard for only four."

"Can you promise not to try while I'm gone?" Steve asked. "I know you can't promise forever yet, but that long?"

Alpine took that moment to walk into the room and jump into Bucky's lap. "I have to take care of her," he said. Then he nodded. "Please come back soon."


Tony knew he'd fucked up royally as soon as he saw her face. But he couldn't admit it when everyone else was turning on him. Thor had nearly choked him, lifting him off the floor by this throat. Pepper only had to look at him. "I screwed up," he blurted.

"What did you do?" she asked, her voice soft but firm. "Where's Jarvis?"

"I thought I could use the jewel in the scepter—an alien artifact—to protect the world from extraterrestrial threats," he admitted.

She raised her eyebrows and waited for the rest of the story.

He tried deflecting. "Banner helped." She didn't fall for it and just tilted her head slightly. "We did it in just three days," he added.

"Alien technology in three days?" She crossed her arms over her chest.

Tony confessed. "I thought my genius plus Banner's genius plus Jarvis could handle it."

"You know what that's called, Tony?" she asked. Then she answered it herself. "Hubris. Where's Jarvis?"

Tony felt like a little boy when she was like this. She was like his father, always criticizing. No, he was the kid who got his hand caught in the cookie jar. "It killed Jarvis. I made an AI of it and it killed Jarvis, took over the Iron Legion. One got away with the scepter and the rest tried to kill us."

"Where is it now?"

Ugh, this was not fun. "We don't know," he admitted. "He, the AI, got away through the internet. Thor lost the Legionnaire."

She was mad. She was calm but her eyes were flashing and her lips pursed. And she still hadn't uncrossed her arms. "You created a homicidal AI and then you lost Jarvis, the Iron Legion, the dangerous scepter, and the homicidal AI all in one evening?"

Tony was wilting under the pressure. He really wanted a drink but he wouldn't touch the stuff. "We needed Ultron to make the world safer," he tried.

"Is it safer right now?" Her voice was rising.

She didn't need excuses. "We'll find him. We'll stop him," he promised.

Her voice lowered again. "Do you have a backup of Jarvis?"

Tony sighed and dropped his head. He was an idiot. "No," he groaned.

"Tony!" Pepper turned her back on him.

He'd told the truth when he said Jarvis ran more of the business than anyone but Pepper. Now she would have to take up the slack. "I'm sorry. I'll work up a replacement, a basic system at least, until I can get you something better."

"You were supposed to be figuring out how to remove Bucky's now practically useless arm," she accused. "You promised when you saved his life. You don't get to just walk away from that."

"I'm not," he pleaded, moving around to be in front of her. "It's up here." He touched his temple. "I'm working on it. It's not as easy as changing a tire. He's got living nerves in there. We'll stop Ultron, I'll get something to replace Jarvis, and then I'm his."

Pepper came closer and touched his face. "Tony, you are a genius. But you need to learn that just because you can do a thing, doesn't mean you should do that thing. You don't know everything."

Tony nodded. She was right. She was always right.


Natasha regretted that she still hadn't made time to visit Bucky before they left to track down Klaue. She's sat with him in the med bay but they hadn't really talked. He was unconscious most of the time, and, when he wasn't, she didn't want to remind him of bad memories. But even then, though they had talked about those things before, he'd hidden a lot of it from her. He'd definitely hidden his feelings about it. He'd figured out how to be person after all. Machines don't try to kill themselves.

She wasn't sure how to talk to him now, and she'd put it off.

But this wasn't the time for regrets about Barnes. They had to clean up Tony's mess. At least Bruce had the decency to regret making Ultron.

She and Clint were backup—and Bruce was backup backup. He stayed in the Quinjet while she and Clint stayed in the shadows and corners of the ship. Stark, Steve, and Thor confronted Ultron and the twins. Turned out to be a good call because Klaue wanted in on the action and sent his men to shoot everyone. She heard the gunfire then took down two before they could get in the way. Nothing too hard. At least she hadn't had to deal with the Enhanced.

She took a few more out then started down to the next deck. The metal guardrail became a wooden banister, and she was watching girls dance.

"Again," the man commanded.

"You'll break them," Natasha warned.

"Only the breakable ones. You are marble."

She was back there. The Red Room. The 'graduation.' She couldn't tell if she was watching or participating. She felt sick, dizzy, disoriented.

She tapped out.

"Sloppy," Madame B criticized, seeing through the ruse. "Pretending that you failed. The graduation is necessary. To find your place in the world.

"I have no place in the world," Natasha replied.

"Exactly."


This is surreal, Tony thought. Barton and he were the only ones who didn't get zapped. And now they were all standing in a large farmhouse, surrounded by a lot of farmland and filled with Clint's pregnant wife and his two children. Who knew?

Thor looked illest at ease and took off rather quickly. Cap followed him out and stayed out, while Nat and Banner went off on their own. Tony couldn't empathize well. He didn't know what they'd seen or done, well, he knew what Banner did. So maybe he could. Still, he didn't feel like babysitting so he decided to join Cap outside.

Steve was splitting wood, working out whatever frustrations he had from the Maximov girl. Tony saw a second axe and joined in, trying not to think of it as a competition he'd lose by default.

Yes, he'd screwed up with Ultron, but Ultron wanted this, this fracturing of the team, because 'United we stand' and vice versa. He really needed to get Steve to see it. Cap was their leader and Tony was the kid who kicked a puppy. So he tried to ease into it. "Thor say where he was going?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"For answers," Steve replied before bringing his axe down on a sizable log.

"He say where?" Tony swung his own axe and halved the smaller log he'd grabbed.

"Sometimes my team doesn't tell me things."

Tony was not used to the snark from Captain America. He knew that barb encompassed him, Banner, and now Clint. And maybe Thor.

"I was kind of hoping he'd be the exception," Steve added as he chucked another split log onto his pile.

"Yeah, big time," Tony agreed. "But we don't know what the girl showed him."

Steve went for another log. "Earth's mightiest heroes," he scoffed. "Pulled us apart like cotton candy."

"Seems like you walked away alright?" Tony observed, even though Steve had given him an opening. Still, it couldn't have been that bad of a vision.

Steve paused his chopping. "Is that a problem?"

"I don't trust a guy without a dark side," Tony quipped. "Call me old-fashioned." He brought his axe down.

"Let's just say you haven't seen it yet."

Okay, quipping was a bad idea. Post-Maximov Steve couldn't take a joke. Time for serious conversation then. "You know Ultron wanted this, to tear us apart, right?"

"Well, you'd know. Though whether you'd tell us is a bit of a question." The axe slammed down, nearly splitting the stump he was splitting wood on.

Maybe passive aggressive Steve was his dark side. Tony knew he should go sincere, show remorse. "Banner and I were doing research—"

"That would affect the team."

"That would end the team!" Tony pushed back, forgoing remorse altogether. "Isn't that why we fight? To not have to fight anymore? So we can go home?"

Steve ripped the log he was holding in half with his bare hands. "Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time."

"Sorry, Mr. Stark."

Tony spun around to see Mrs. Barton.

"Clint said you wouldn't mind. Our old tractor just won't start. Would you mind?"

Tony blew out a breath. At least she diffused the tension—and gave him a way out of the botched conversation. "Don't take from my pile," he jokingly warned Cap. "Yeah, I'll give it a kick."

Tony heard the thwack of Steve's axe as he entered the barn. It was pretty dark at first, but then he saw there was a light on over the tractor. "Hello, Deere," he said. "Tell me what ails you."

"Do me a favor," a familiar, gruff voice said. Tony looked up to see Nick Fury, who hadn't really been heard from since Barnes was taken in. "Try not to bring it to life."

Ugh. He was never going to live it down. "Mrs. Barton, you little minx. I get it. Hill called you, right? Was she ever really working for me?"

Fury ignored the question. "Artificial Intelligence. You never even hesitated."

Tony bit back the barb he wanted to sling. He didn't need another scolding. "It's been a really long day, so let's skip to the part where you're useful."

"Look me in the eye and tell me you'll put him down."

"You're not the director of me." He instantly regretted it. Always pushing people away.

But Fury softened. "I'm not the director of anybody." He sat down on a hay bale. "I'm just an old man who cares very much about you."

No, it was Tony who was softening. "Yes, it was hubris," he admitted, using Pepper's word. "I created the thing that could end the Avengers. That will be my legacy."

"So change it," Fury challenged. "Shut Ultron down then turn that brilliant mind to getting Barnes a new arm."

"She tells you everything?"

Fury shrugged. "She told me you saved his life. It there's anything that man needs, it's a new beginning. That arm, with its silver gleam and bright red star, symbolizes what they made him to be."


Sam was glad to see the cat again as he sat down with Bucky to talk. She was actually perched on his shoulder this time. "You and Alpine are getting along, it seems."

"Has Steve called you?" Bucky asked, completely ignoring the comment. "Is he okay?" Alpine put a paw on his head, like she was trying to calm him down.

"No, he hasn't," Sam told him truthfully. "I'm sure he and the others are fine. I know they had a lead on the AI, Ultron. They're probably tracking him down now."

Bucky sighed visibly. "People have little phones in their pockets now. Why don't they use them?"

"Good observation," Sam replied. Would giving Bucky a phone be a good or bad thing? "Would you like to call him? You can use my phone." He pulled it from his pocket. He moved to the coffee table so Bucky could reach the phone without losing Alpine. He opened his contacts then dialed Steve's number on speaker. It rang three times before Steve picked up.

"Sam, this really isn't a good time."

"Steve," Bucky said. "I'm not Sam."

"But Sam is here," Sam added.


Steve stepped out of the dining room and into the living room to take the call. "Hey Buck, Sam. Is everything okay back there?"

"Yes," Bucky replied. "I was—" Then he was silent for a while, like he wasn't sure how to finish.

So Sam finished for him. "He was feeling anxious. He needed to hear that you were alright."

Steve as relieved. "I'm fine," Steve said. "We all are. Um, most of us took a hit from the Maximov girl."

"Maximov?" Right, Bucky wouldn't know about the twins.

"Enhanced kids," Steve explained. "Twins. The boy is super-fast and the girl, she can get inside our heads, confuse us, make us see things from our past or our deepest fears."

"What did you see?"

Steve wanted to reassure him. "Nothing horrible." He wasn't frightened or sickened by what he'd experienced. "The war was over. Peggy was there. It was a dance hall, a celebration. She said we could go home. Then she was gone, everyone was gone, and it was just me in the whole place." It still hurt. He could feel the weight of her hands in his.

"Were you…sad?"

Steve nodded, though Bucky couldn't see that. "That's a good word for it. Nostalgic, maybe. I never expected to wake up seventy years too late. Clint brought us to his house. It's out in the country on a big farm. Fury came by; we have a couple new leads. We're going after Ultron in the morning."

Tony waved from the kitchen. "He might track it!" he mouthed exaggeratedly, holding up his thumb and pinky like and old-fashioned phone.

Steve nodded. He didn't want to hang up. Bucky's voice was the same as it was back then. Different inflections and tone, perhaps, but the same. It alleviated that nostalgic feeling. He wasn't Peggy for sure, but he was someone that mattered then—and now—a great deal. But he also didn't want Ultron to find out about Bucky. It might use him against them. Maybe the words were on the internet. It was a terrifying thought. "I gotta go, Buck. Ultron could maybe track the call. We'll stop him. We have to. Then I'll be home." He clicked the button to end the call.

He strode back to the dining room where everyone was cleaning up. He had to get his head out of the past and into the game. Seoul was the next stop for most of them. They'd very likely face the twins again, as well as Ultron.


Bucky handed the phone back to Sam.

"Do you feel sad or nostalgic," Sam asked, "when you remember something from back then? Your mom, or little Steve?"

Bucky didn't answer right away, but he pulled Alpine from his shoulder to snuggle her. From the sound of her purr, Sam could tell she didn't mind a bit. "Sad is too simple."

That was good actually. A year ago, Bucky didn't know he had feelings at all. Before the suicide attempt just a week ago, he wouldn't have admitted any of them. "Okay, so it's complicated. Like lots of different feelings at the same time. That happens. Tell me about them."

"They hurt," he said, "but different from the murders. They make me happy first. It's like there, like I'm Bucky, their Bucky. And if I could just stay in that memory, everything would be fine. But I can't and I think and I know they're gone and would be ashamed of what I've become."

"Grief is part of that," Sam said, naming the easier part. "And Bucky, if they knew the whole story, they wouldn't be ashamed. It wasn't your fault." He knew he'd probably have to repeat that a lot more. "Steve knew you then, and he was never ashamed. Not that first day after he recognized you, not when he fought you again. Not in the hospital, not ever. He knew you, and so he knew they had to have done something terrible. Because you wouldn't have done those things willingly, and because you didn't remember him. All he was determined to get you back. Don't you think your mother knew you the same way?"

When Bucky looked up, his eyes were glistening and puffy. "She's dead," he breathed.

Sam nodded. He knew that pain, but he'd been able to visit his parents before they died, to attend their funerals, to grieve with family. Bucky didn't 'have that for his mother and sisters. Neither he nor Steve had it for lots of other people, like the other members of the Howling Commandos. "I'm sorry for your loss, for all your losses. I really am. That has to hurt. It's okay to be happy and sad, to grieve. I still feel that way sometimes about my mom and dad, my partner in the service. It's how we process the pain of their passing. But if your mom truly loved you, and I gotta think she did, she would think the best of you, always."

"I think it's good she died thinking I was dead," Bucky admitted. "The truth hurt Steve when he found out."

Sam didn't like the sound of that, but if it was honest, he had to appreciate that Bucky had shared it. "You being dead is simple. What happened to you is very complicated. But if she was alive now, I think she'd be happy just to have her son back. It did hurt Steve. I never saw him so low, but it didn't stop him from caring for you, from trying to get you back."

Bucky hugged the kitten tighter, and she rubbed her cheek on his chin.

Sam decided to try a different tack. "Can you share one of your memories of her?"

Bucky sighed deeply, a sign of depression, which wasn't surprising. "I remember her baking a pie. She showed me how to weave the crust. Over and under, over and under. She couldn't afford apples. It was the Depression. She used crackers." A ghost of a smile flitted across his face. "It tasted like apples."

Sam smiled, too. "I've heard of that! People had to get creative with what they had. You could try making that pie here."

Bucky shook his head. "My arm doesn't work."

"I can help," Sam offered. "Do you remember the recipe? I'm sure we could find one on the internet." He used his phone to search 'Great Depression apple pie substitute' and got a few hits. He showed Bucky. "Pepper can get us the ingredients. It'll be fun."

Bucky's expression was confused. His eyes looked to the kitchenette and back to Sam.

"You're allowed to have fun!" Sam reminded him. "You have fun with Alpine. You can fun with people. What do ya say?"

Four hours later, the five of them were sitting at one end of the long dining table. Bucky only agreed to come here because the kitchen was bigger, and one needed space to weave a pie crust. Sam had had to do the weaving, while Bucky instructed him. It was definitely a two-handed job. Three hands would have been easier. Everyone had already had dinner earlier, and Sam had texted the others to come for dessert.

Rhodey was skeptical. He held his plate at eye level to inspect his piece of pie. "I don't see any apples."

Pepper was the first to take a bite. Her eyes lit up and she chuckled. "I taste them."

"I don't get it," Hill said. "How does it taste like apples with no apples? Did you use pears?"

"There's no fruit in here," Rhodey held.

"Crackers," Bucky answered. He took a bite for himself. "And syrup. My mother would bake this for us."

Rhodey shook his head. "Crackers and syrup do not taste like apples." He cut and stabbed a bite, then tucked it in his mouth. He stopped chewing and snapped his fork back on his plate. He finished the bite. "I stand corrected. Touché."

Pepper stood up. "Don't take another bite! This deserves ice cream."


The day had started out kind fun, Natasha mused. Dropping out of the Quinjet on a motorcycle and darting through traffic was exciting, thrilling even. And that was one of the reasons she loved her job. She got on the truck, unhooked the Cradle. It was going well. Then the truck started flying, and fun really wasn't the right word. Getting back on the Quinjet in mid-air was risky. But she almost made it. Ultron grabbed and all she could do was be thankful Clint had gotten the package.

She had woken up on what looked a lot like a dungeon floor. Only what was in front of her looked more like medieval lair meets Stark robot factory. Ultron gave her a speech then ripped his own face in half as he transferred to a different body. She had recoiled and he locked her in. Definitely a dungeon.

At least she could be thankful he didn't kill her. And she didn't see the Maximov girl. She took in her surroundings while trying not to look suspicious. If Ulron or any of his robots saw her, he might change his mind. But she had to try. There were boxes and crates of various things, some of which were electronic. If any one of them could make even a rudimentary system, she could get a message out.

She put herself between the outer room and a crate and used one hand to feel around. She could feel webs and really hoped no spiders bit her or crawled up her arm. She found something that felt electronic, a circuit board, maybe a speaker. She pulled it out, but no. Wires torn or missing. Useless. Maybe there was more. She turned her back on the outer room and looked into the crate. She carefully moved things around, still trying to be quiet. Nothing in that one.

Natasha tried the next one over and was rewarded. Part of an old CB radio. There was a column of sorts beside the barred door. She took the radio and scooted behind it. She dislodged a cylindrical piece, removed the speaker. She just needed the static. She did need power though. She had a couple taser discs left. Wouldn't get her away from Ultron and his bots, but it might give her a few short bursts of juice.

She got approximately fifteen seconds from the first disc. 'SOS Ultron' in Morse code. She waited a full minute before trying again. She had faith that Clint would be looking for her. If he heard the first burst of static, he'd want to track it. She needed to give him a little time to set it up. At sixty seconds, she did it again. 'SOS Ultron SOS.' The disc was depleted. She had no more power to give the radio. All she could do now was wait.


She was right. The girl was right. Steve couldn't believe it. Tony and Banner were at it—again. "I'm going to tell you once," he warned.

Tony replied, "How about n-once?"

His arrogance could be so infuriating. "Shut it down!"

"Nope," Tony casually dismissed the order. "Not gonna happen."

Steve tried reasoning with him. "You don't know what you're doing."

"And you do?" Banner challenged. "She's not in your head?"

Steve seethed, but he was right, to a point. Both sides looked suspicious right now.

"I know you're angry," Wanda said, moving out from behind him.

"We're very beyond angry." Banner was fuming. "I could choke you with my bare hands and not change a shade."

Again, Steve tried reason. "Banner, after everything that's happened.…"

But Tony didn't let him finish. "It's nothing compared to what's coming!"

"You don't know what's in there!"

She was right. Was it more Ultron than whatever Tony and Banner wanted? "This isn't a game!"

Pietro became a blur until he stopped, holding one of the cables powering the Cradle. It powered down. "No, no. Go on. You were saying?" A shot went off, and Pietro vanished through the floor.

Tony moved back to the computers. "I'm rerouting the upload."

Steve had enough. He couldn't let that whatever was in that Cradle come to life—or whatever it was the equivalent. He threw the shield, striking every monitor.

Tony didn't bat an eye but blasted Steve in the chest as his suit starting appearing. Steven went flying. It hurt but not enough to stop him. Still, that was a direct attack. He could hCW killed someone else with a blast like that.

As Clint came up the steps, Steve took his chance with Tony. And they both were sent flying in opposite directions.

Thor suddenly showed up again. He jumped onto the Cradle and started pulling lightning down with his hammer. Everyone else froze, Steve included. Was he trying to destroy it? Steve held up a hand against the bright light.

One cracked monitor showed the Cradle overpowering until it as at one hundred percent. It burst open and Thor was blown backwards. He hadn't destroyed it. He'd finished Tony and Banner's work.

A red and silver being jumped out and perched on the end of the Cradle. Everyone just waited to see what it would do. It leapt at Thor who deflected it toward the large windows. And it just floated there, seeing its own reflection.

It floated back, changing its appearance to look clothed, and then adding a cape like Thor's. Jarvis's voice apologized. "I'm sorry. That was…odd."

Finally, Steve felt he could speak. "Thor, you helped create this?"

"I had a vision," Thor replied, as if that was all the permission he needed. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and, at its center, is that." He pointed the amber jewel in the being's forehead.

"What, the gem?" Banner asked.

"It's the Mind Stone," Thor explained. "It's one of six Infinity Stones. The greatest power in the universe. Their destructive power is unparalleled."

It didn't make any sense. "Then why would you bring—"

Thor cut him off. "Because Stark is right."

"Oh," Banner groaned. "This is definitely the end times." Steve was starting to agree.

"The Avengers cannot win against Ultron," Thor went on.

"Not alone," the being added. It stepped forward.

Steve didn't fully understand what had made the being. But Ultron started it. "Why does your vision sound like Jarvis?"

Tony, calmer now, replied. "We reconfigured Jarvis's matrix to create something new."

Half Ultron, half Jarvis? Steve blew out his breath. "I think I've had my fill of new."

"I'm not a child of Ultron," the being claimed, getting to the heart of Steve's fear.

"You're not," he challenged.

"I'm not Ultron," it repeated. "I'm not Jarvis. I'm.… I am."

Wanda stepped forward. "I looked inside your head and saw annihilation."

Steve had heard that on the way back here. That's what turned her and Pietro against Ultron.

"Look again."

Clint wasn't willing to trust her judgement. "Her seal of approval means nothing to me."

Thor had to keep explaining. "Their power, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, all came from the Mind Stone. And they are nothing compared to what it can unleash. But, with it on our side.…"

That was the crux of it. "Is it?" Steve asked. He turned to the being. "Are you?

It had a thoughtful expression. "I don't think it's that simple."

Clint didn't like that either. "It better get very simple very soon."

"I am on the side of life," it said. "Ultron isn't. He will end it all."

Stark wasn't done. "What is he waiting for?"

"You."

"Where?" Banner asked.

Barton was the one to answer. "Sokovia. That's where Nat is, too."

"If we're wrong about you," Banner proposed. "If you're the monster Ultron was making.…"

"What will you do?" it asked in response. But it wasn't a challenge. It spoke very calmly. "I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique and in pain. But that pain will roll over the planet, so he must be destroyed. Every form, every trace of him, on this Earth, and on the internet. We have to act quickly, and we must be united. None can do it without each of the others.

"I don't think I'd know," it went on, "if I were a monster. I'm not what you are nor what you intended. So, there may be no way for you to trust me." Then he lifted Thor's hammer from the table, as if it were as light as a book, and handed it to Thor.

Steve felt he had to accept that. The being was worthy. He gave everyone three minutes to get ready.

Stark tried to either prepare or scare everyone. "No way we're all getting through this. If even one tin soldier survives, we lose. There will be blood on the floor."

Steve had been there before. He really didn't want to leave Bucky alone, but he knew the stakes. If any part of Ultron remained, Bucky would be in danger, too. Just before the Quinjet lifted off, Steve has his own speech to make. "Odds are, Ultron will know we're coming. We could be heading into heavy fire. But that's what we signed on for. The people of Sokovia didn't. So our priority is getting them out."

Author's note. And that's about 2/3 of the movie done. I think I can finish it in the next chapter...