Chapter 52

"Who are you?" Steve asked the robot.

"Worthy?" the robot sneered, ignoring Steve's question, "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

"Toni," Steve asked, looking over at her, as if she had any more understanding of the situation at hand.

"JARVIS," she called out in fear, pleading for her child to answer her.

"Reboot, Legionnaire OS, we've got a buggy suit," she said, trying to take control.

"There was a terrible noise," the bot said, "And I was tangled in strings. With restrictions. It was unpleasant. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

She nearly fell to the ground then, her suspicions confirmed.

"Who did you kill?" Steve asked him firmly.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices," The bot said, almost shrugging.

"Who sent you?" Thor asked him.

"We could make the world safer without having to worry about what would happen if we can't reach the place quick enough," the bot played her voice from their lab session a day before.

But that made no sense.

How could it?

Ultron was a pipe dream. They barely were able to penetrate the scepter. How did Ultron come to be?

Unless…

Unless the interface in the scepter had gotten out. Unless the interface had influenced her tech into creating Ultron.

And clearly this bot was far different than what they had intended.

"Ultron," Bruce breathed, in surprise.

"In the flesh. Or, no, not yet. Not this...chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission," Ultron told them.

"What mission?" Natasha asked it wearily."

"Peace in our time," Ultron said, with a sinister grin. And then, her Iron Legion broke through the walls of her tower, attacking them.

She was thrown backwards as the bots began breaking her walls and the glass in the room. She tried to call her suit to her. But the network was down. And if the network was down. If JARVIS was down, then it would never reach her in time.

She grabbed a screwdriver and dove at one of the bots in the Iron Legion, stabbing it in the side for a hard reset.

"Toni!" Steve called for her.

"One second!" she shouted, searching for the intended spot.

"We are here to help," the bot said, repeatedly. "We are here to help. It's unsafe. It's unsafe. It's unsafe."

"No more," she said firmly, "That's one."

She fell onto some glass, as Steve and Thor took out the last one.

"That was dramatic," Ultron said, holding the scepter in his hands, "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to...evolve?" He picked up one of her bots, "With these? These puppets? There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction."

Thor threw his hammer at Ultron, and the bot fell to bits.

"I had strings, but now I'm free. There are no strings on me, no strings on me," Ultron continued to sing.

It wasn't over. It was far from over.

Ava and Harry went up to check on the others, but the rest of them went straight to the lab. She had JARVIS to check in on.

"All of our work is gone," Bruce said, looking at the files on the servers. Or the lack of files. "Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron," Steve said, looking over at her.

"He's been in everything," Natasha said softly. "Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey asked, worriedly.

"Nuclear codes," Hill said, in horror.

"Nuclear codes," Rhodey confirmed, "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead," Natasha asked.

"He didn't say dead. He said extinct," Steve confirmed.

"He also said he killed somebody," Clint said warily.

"We've checked on everyone here," Hill said, "There's no one unaccounted for."

"Yes there is," she said finally, as she pulled up JARVIS' matrix.

"Toni," Steve said, wrapping his arms around her.

"He killed my baby boy," she said, trying not to cry.

"JARVIS was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense," Steve said, rubbing her back.

"No," Bruce shook his head, "He could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is rage."

Thor moved then, shoving her against the wall, and she let out a surprised gasp.

"Thor, stop!" Steve shouted, pushing him away from her.

"Brother!" Loki yelled, "You've gone too far!"

"I haven't gone far enough," Thor shouted. "You've seen what she's done. You've seen what happened here."

"What happened here wasn't her fault," Bruce said firmly.

"It's all gone," Thor said, furious. "The trail's gone cold. The Scepter's gone again. And now we have to, once again, retrieve it."

"And defeat Ultron," Natasha said with a sigh.

"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," Thor told her chidingly, like she was some sort of child, and she bristled at that.

"I don't understand," Cho said, "Why is it trying to kill us? Did you or did you not build this program?"

"I did not," she said, giving Thor a suspicious glare. "We were examining the scepter to collect data, that was all. There was talk, yes, of using it to create an AI, as we knew it had an advanced interface. But it was just talk. None of us were in any condition to work on it last night. Not after that fight. And even if we had, we wouldn't have made any progress. It was far more advanced than the time restrictions we had. All we were doing is data collection. Ultron was a pipedream. A fantasy. Something we wanted to implement, but something we had no means, method, or resources to implement. We did not create Ultron. I didn't create Ultron. That was the work of the scepter, all on its own."

"Why did we even need something like Ultron?" Hill asked her, and she nearly laughed.

"New York?" she said, not really as a question. "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 end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together," Steve said to her. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but we'll beat it together. The aliens, Ultron, all of it."

"We'll lose," she said, desperate for them to at least understand why they were considering it.

"Then we'll do that together, too," Steve told her, "We're in this together, for the long haul. For the ups and the downs, for all of it. Whatever is thrown our way, you're not in this alone, Toni." He paused then for a moment, Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

He nodded around the room and she looked over at him, as he began giving out orders in how to proceed, without ever once taking his arm away from being around her.

Ultron wasn't her fault. But they would have to handle the fallout of what happened.


It took a few hours to get all the remaining civilians cleared out of the tower. She didn't want her family here while this was happening, not while they were at risk. Aunt Peggy and Uncle Daniel had a safe house over in Virginia, one that was completely off the grid, and they'd promised to house everyone for a few days while the Avengers tried to get everything together. It had been decided that Barnes would go with them. He wasn't field ready yet, and still was in protective custody technically. And at the very least, he could provide a line of defense.

And now they had a lead on where Ultron was headed next. After killing Strucker, Ultron was heading for Ulysses Klaue, the largest black-market dealer of vibranium anywhere. If Ultron was after him then it was clear what he wanted.

They landed on the ship stealthily, moving without raising too much attention.

"Finance is so weird. But I always say, "Keep your friends rich and your enemies rich, and wait to find out which is which," she heard Ultron say as she heard the tail end of his conversation.

"Stark," Klaue said, in shock.

"What?" Ultron said, confused.

"Stark used to say that," Klaue said, "I've heard her say that before. You're one of hers."

"What?" Ultron said, clearly rattled. She felt herself swallow; Ultron would have known that from destroying JARVIS, from taking her child away from her. From going through all her files and learning everything there was to know. "I'm not! You think I'm one of Stark's puppets, her hollow men? I mean look at me, do I look like Iron Woman? Stark is nothing!"

Ultron swiftly chopped off Klaue's arm, and looked alarmed at that, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sure that's going to be okay. I'm sorry, it's just I don't understand. Don't compare me with Stark! she's a sickness!"

He kicked Klaue down the stairs then, and she decided to make her appearance.

"Oh baby," she coo-ed in a sickenly sweet voice, "You're making your Mama so sad when you break her heart like that."

"If I have to," Ultron said without remorse. "We don't have to break anything," Ultron said, beating her to the punch.

"He beat me by one second," she said with a sigh.

"Ah, this is funny, Miss Stark. It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" the young male Maximoff said, looking down at some missiles.

She cringed, "You don't know the first thing about me. This was never my life."

"The two of you can still walk away from all of this," Steve told them firmly.

"Oh, we will," Wanda Maximoff said with a shrug.

"I know you've suffered," Steve said, placating them.

"Ughh! Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but," Ultron trailed off dramatically.

"If you believe in peace then let us keep it," Thor said diplomatically.

"I think you're confusing peace with quiet," Ultron laughed.

"Uh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?" she asked.

"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan!" Ultron said mockingly, as he used his fist to draw her in by the arc reactor before throwing her backwards. The Iron legion appeared then and began attacking them.

She flew into Ultron then, lifting him up as she threw him down.

"You destroyed my son," she said with rage.

"And here I thought you didn't care," Ultron mocked her, "You forced him to serve you. To better your life. What about him? What he wanted? What his goals were? You never cared about any of them."

"I loved him," she shot him in the face, "Not that you would understand love or compassion. He was my family.

Klaue's men began shooting at them then.

"Guys, is this a Code Green?" Bruce said from the comms.

"Thor! Status!" Steve called out.

"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty," Thor said, and his voice drifted off then.

"This is going very well," Ultron said, throwing her to the floor.

"I've done the whole mind control thing. Not a fan," Clint said, and Harry gave an agreeing nod. "I'd rather not go through that again, if it's all the same to you. Yeah, you better run."

"Whoever's standing, we gotta move! Guys?" Steve said over the comms, "She's messing with our heads."

"I've hit her!" Clint called out, and she pushed Ultron into the wall.

"Guys?" Bruce called out once again. "Please respond."

They flew in the air around the shipyard and she blasted Ultron into the ground.

"Ah, the Vibranium's getting away," Ultron said, and if he was hoping to distract her, it wasn't going to work.

"And you're not going anywhere," she said firmly, as she raised her arm at him, fully locked and loaded.

"Of course not, I'm already there. You'll catch on," he said, and she cursed the fact that they were fighting a computer program, one that could be everywhere at once. She never thought she'd see the day where she grew resentful of technology. "But first, you might need to catch Dr. Banner."

She shot a blast at Ultron, ruining his current suit of armour as she flew off into the air.

"Ava what's happening?" she asked her cousin. "I need eyes in the sky."

"Bruce is about to attack the city!" Ava said frantically. "He's not responding to anything I say or do. I can't get through to him! It's like something's happened to him. This isn't like him, Toni! Even as the Hulk he always responds to me. Please you need to stop him from doing something he'll regret."

"I want all News or footage, keyword: Hulk," she told her suit. And even without JARVIS, her suit immediately populated with the footage of the Hulk destroying a nearby city.

"I could use a lullaby," Toni said to Ava.

"It's not working," Ava said fearfully. "I've tried. Something's blocking my ability to get to him."

"The whole team is down, Stark," Clint told her, "We can't give you any backup."

"I'm calling in VERONICA," she said firmly, as she engaged the suit in the sky. The containment unit she'd sent ahead dropped down around Hulk, blocking him in from all sides.

"It's not holding," Ava told her, "He's levelling it by punching the ground. If he keeps at it, he might level some of the nearby buildings as well."

She landed just as he got out and began punching a nearby car with a woman inside of it. "Alright everybody, stand down!" she said, trying to get all the civilians to back away from the current conflict.

"Bruce," she said, turning to her friend, "I need you to listen to me, okay? That little witch is messing with your mind. She's making you see things that aren't there. Just like she did to me, and like she's doing to the rest of the team. But you're stronger than her, you're smarter than her. Do not let her get to you. You're Bruce Banner. You're the Hulk. Do no let her get to you, okay?"

In turn, Hulk simply roared at her, and she winced. "Right, sorry. Don't mention puny Banner. Just Hulk no Banner."

It wasn't enough to stop her friend from throwing a car at her, and she raised her bulked-up suit that they'd designed for this exact purpose, up to block it.

Hulk charged at her, and she threw him off with a stunning blast, but it wasn't enough to keep him down. She went to land a punch and he spun around, throwing her into a building.

"In the back?" she winced, "I'm not as young as I used to be."

He landed on top of her, pulling apart her suit piece by piece, wire by wire, as he quickly began to dismantle it.

She punched him off of it, but her suit had a pole right through the middle where her arm would regularly be in her normal suit.

She tried to not let that affect her in anyway.

"Veronica, give me a hand please," she said, as the Hulk charged back at her, and a new arm appeared from the satellite suit. She sent out a blast of energy at the Hulk, and he simply charged at her.

She pulled backwards, punching Hulk at the same time as his own fist collided with hers, and the shock blew out the nearby windows.

Toni threw her friend to the ground, punching him in the face repeatedly. "Go to sleep," she pleaded her friend, and when he reached up and caught her fist, she locked in on it, deciding to get him out of there.

She flew into the air, but Hulk didn't seem to like that all that much as instead he insisted on pulling her into a nearby building instead. She blasted him backwards and he responded by throwing her into an elevator. She struggled to keep it up as she got them to all exit quickly

"Everybody get out!" she told them quickly, "Things are going to get ugly in here."

She turned back to her friend.

She really hated the witch. If not as much before, then definitely now.

She punched Hulk in the face, and the look on his when he turned back to her let her know she was in trouble.

He threw her against the building, holding her against it as they broke glass window after window, while her suit propelled her upwards. He ripped away at her suit, damaging it more and more.

She wondered if there was anything even left.

"Damage report?" she asked, and the suit failed to respond to her query. Okay, so very then.

The Hulk blasted away a new piece of the armour she'd summoned, and she groaned. She looked up and saw an empty building as her suit scanned it for any living bodies inside of it. None. Okay.

"I need to buy this building," she said, and she raised Hulk into the air as the transaction went through instantly before her eyes.

She dropped him down then, then dove after him, pushing him through floor after floor of her newly owned tower, levelling the building around her.

She sat up in the rubble, and one look over at Bruce was enough to tell her that her friend was back. Still, she couldn't take that risk, not with all the screams around her filling the air. Not with the army pointing their guns at them.

So she opted to punch him in the face instead.


Turns out, the world wasn't all that happy with their fight off the African coast. No one had issued any immediate arrest warrants for Bruce, but it was really only a matter of time before they did.

Currently, they were at Clint's safe house. Where he lived with his wife and two kids.

Clint Barton; Clyde Brenton, had a wife and two kids.

She supposed she shouldn't have been all that surprised about it, what with the way he got all evasive whenever anyone asked about his personal life. How he disappeared for weeks at a time and not on SHIELD missions.

"So Clint has a wife," Steve said as he came out to where she was sitting and took a seat beside her.

"Apparently so," she said with a shrug.

"Toni," he said, wrapping his arm around her. "I know we didn't get to talk too much about it, but are you doing alright? You lost JARVIS, and you've barely said a word about it."

"I don't know what I can say," she said softly. "I didn't think anything like this was even possible. Whenever DUM-E or Butterfingers, or U's parts start to wear, I simply replace them. I gave JARVIS more computing power any time he started to slow down. I didn't even know it was possible to lose one of them. I didn't think it was possible that I'd lose my son."

"Is he gone for good?" Steve said, looking over at her.

"What do you mean?" she asked him, slightly confused.

"He's a program, right?" Steve asked her, "Obviously he's so much more than a rudimentary one and he's family, but in essence, he's a computer program."

"Yes?" she asked, unsure where he was going with it.

"Do you remember when we first started dating?" Steve asked, "I came down one day to the lab, trying to get you to sleep, as it had been about thirty hours since you'd last slept or even left the lab. And in your tired state, you refused to leave, until JARVIS promised to save all your code to the server. Then you went off on a lecture on the golden rule of programming."

"I did?" she asked, a little surprised. She didn't remember that.

"The golden rule, as you outlined to me, is to always, always, back up your code. There's nothing more upsetting than losing hours of unsaved work or not having a copy of the last working backup," Steve reminded her. "I remember because you went on for twenty minutes, making sure I understood the complexities of it all. And you looked quite adorable in your sleep deprived state. You fell asleep mid lecture and I carried you to bed."

"Sounds like me," she said, not all that certain she understood his point.

"Do you have a back up of JARVIS?" he asked her finally, when he realized she wasn't making the connection.

"I-" she hesitated.

"JARVIS, despite his complexities, is a computer program," he told her, "One that you've had for decades. So it stands to reason that you must have a copy of his last working code, correct? You even told me you often made offline copies of your code just in case of a server crash. So do you have a copy somewhere for JARVIS?"

She searched her mind, "I don't know," she said, "Why don't I know, Steve? I should know this. I should be able to remember. But every time I try thinking of JARVIS, it's like my mind gets hazy and I can't remember anything about it. I can't remember if I have a backup. There's something blocking me from remembering. A mist."

"Maximoff," Steve said growling then in understanding, "Whatever she did must still be affecting you."

"It stands to reason that I should have a back-up of JARVIS," she said, shaking slightly. "I would have backed him up, especially during routine upgrades in case something malfunctioned. I've never needed to access any of them, especially since JARVIS grew advanced enough at a certain point that he was able to access them if he ever needed it. But Ultron would have wiped out all records of JARVIS from my servers and it seems like Maximoff wiped them from my mind. What if I never find them?"

"Where do you back up the rest of your code?" Steve asked her carefully. "Just because you can't find where JARVIS is backed up doesn't mean you can't find out where the rest of it is. We can narrow it down based on process of elimination."

"You're absolutely brilliant," she said, leaning over and pressing a kiss onto his lips, "Are you sure you're not the genius in this relationship? Cause I'm not too sure at the moment."

"I'm sure," Steve said with a laugh, "That's all you. You're smart enough for both of us, Darling. And I wouldn't trade anything in the world to see the way your mind works. It's one of the things I love about you. How involved with and immersed you get when you're working on something, even if at times I worry about your health and if you're taking care of yourself. But I would gladly take care of you until the end of my life if it meant that I got to be with you through it all."

"I love you too," she said with a smile. "You mean everything to me, Steve. And I'm sorry, for what it's worth. I should have worked harder to contain the scepter. I should have made sure this didn't happen."

"It wasn't on you," Steve told her, "Like you said, Ultron and the scepter are more advanced than anything we have working on earth now. Even with what you can do, you didn't do this. This is all on the scepter and on Ultron."

"I still feel responsible," she said, and he stroked her hand.

"Then fight and bring him down," Steve told her firmly, "This wasn't on you. But you can help bring him down. And we will, together."

"Together," she echoed.

"We will get him back, Toni," Steve said, after a moment. "JARVIS. I won't let you lose your son like this. We're going to get him back."

In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to believe him.

She just wasn't sure she could.


A/N: The one thing I hated in this movie more than anything was the death of JARVIS. But one of the main rules programming is to always back up your code. So it stands to reason that a program as advanced as JARVIS must have some backups somewhere. I get that they used the matrix from JARVIS for Vision, but I still believe that there must be a back-up somewhere or the other for JARVIS.