See Chapter One for Disclaimer
It was easy to spot him.
Bellevue Park was full, on that pretty fall afternoon, full of families and happy people, and Maddie grunted in disgust as she pushed her way past all of them, focused solely on the man standing by himself, watching the ducks waddle out of the pond feet away to be fed by a gaggle of small children.
"Do I even want to know how you escaped?" Maddie asked lowly as soon as she reached the man's side, and he chuckled.
"I left the barest trace of myself online," a shrug followed Alexander's statement, his eyes not leaving the group in front of him. "It was quite simple to affect their surveillance and then slip away." He turned to face Maddie then, his bushy gray eyebrows raised. "I was surprised by your call."
"You stole my son," Maddie hissed, her fists clenching, the wind picking up around them. "Did you think I wouldn't?"
"No." Ultron watched the leaves swirl around them for a moment, his mouth quirking. "I knew you would reach out, whether with your friends behind you or solo. I'm assuming they didn't agree with this move?" He smiled slightly. "Or, knowing you, they don't know."
"You don't know me," Maddie snapped, although they, in fact, didn't know.
Lucky guess.
But Ultron moved the body he was wearing so he stood directly in front of Maddie, blocking her path.
"You are a mystery to most, Miss Sinclair, but to me? You are an open book. I know what you love," His eyes flicked to the children, "What you dislike," he gestured towards himself, "What you desire," His gaze caught on a family of four nearby, the parents holding hands and the children playing happily, "as well as what you think you deserve." His chin tilted so he could look at their reflection in the pond.
Maddie was bundled in a pea coat, a scarf covering the lower half of her face, a beanie half falling off her head, her eyebrows scrunched low and her fists shoved into her pockets, her expression irritated.
She looked unapproachable and lonely.
Ultron shook his head.
"I mean you no harm," he said, smiling slightly. "I come forward not to war with you."
"You stole my son." Maddie repeated herself, though less angrily, and more to remind herself why she was there. "The war has started. Consider me harmed."
"He is safe, and will be returned to you," Ultron promised, his hands raising in surrender. "I merely needed to speak with you."
"About what?" Maddie's head tilted, and she waited. Ultron smiled.
"I wanted to thank you."
"Alright, we need to form a search party."
The announcement was so unexpected it took a moment to process.
"What?"
"She needs her space, Dean," Cas spoke suddenly, really the first full sentence he'd spoken since his threat against the Avengers.
"What, Maddie?" Clint snorted. "She's not missing, she's just taking a breather." He pushed the stack of papers in front him away. "Calm down Winchester. Besides, with whatever you said that pissed her off earlier, she probably doesn't want to see you anyway."
Dean rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, and Sherlock, from where he stood arguing with his brother, snorted.
"I hardly want to spend time we could using to search for Orie focused on Winchester and his inferiority complex," Dean huffed, but didn't argue, and Sherlock simply huffed and returned to arguing with his brothers.
"You can't blame the guy though," Prentiss spoke up after a moment, and Sherlock immediately turned his focus to her. "I mean, Captain America? And Theo's alright, I guess."
"What?" Theo looked up, slightly glazed from staring at the computer in front of him. "Did somebody get a lead?"
"No." Hotch answered. "Miss Sinclair has been out for over an hour. Mr. Winchester has suggested we send out a team to ensure her safety."
"Oh." Theo turned to Dean for a second, then he shook his head. "Nah, she's probably not done yet. Anyway, listen, I think I found something."
"What?" Pietro was beside Theo in a flash, his eyes reading over Theo's shoulder.
"Well, I've been reading her blog, right?" Theo admitted, and Dean whirled around.
"She doesn't have a blog," Dean snapped, and Theo raised his hands, Pietro still reading quickly behind him.
"Dean would know if she had a blog," Sam said loyally, though he straightened and leaned forward, as if hoping to catch sight of Theo's screen without having to move.
"I get it," Theo said slowly. "It's been a few years since I've last seen her, she's a very different person, but Mads wouldn't be Mads if she didn't have a blog."
"This is definitely her blog," Pietro spoke up, before an irate Dean could say anything else. Pietro quirked an eyebrow at Steve, and Steve was moving to stare over Theo's shoulder as well.
Steve began to read, slowly.
"You know the person, the one that other people are drawn to, and you know it's not their personality that's drawing others to them, because their personality sucks?
Yeah, I'm not that person. I'm more of the type that's annoying and combative but heck, they're useful, so I'm mostly tolerated.
Yeah – that's me.
I'm lucky though, the idiots who tolerate me I'm capable of tolerating right back, again, for their own usefulness.
There may or not be feelings involved there, as well.
But ask me about those in public, and I'll deny it.
I've got a rep to protect, you know.
Steve raised an eyebrow at Dean, and he sighed. "Okay, fine. She's got a blog. What about it?"
"Well," Theo tapped the notebook at his side. "I've been making a timeline of Mad's adventures this side of the dimension. She showed up during your little spat in Sokovia, correct?"
"Right," Clint nodded. "That was – May, beginning of, I believe."
"That's where she met Ultron?" Theo asked, turning to Wanda, who nodded.
"She started out as a prisoner, but was quickly promoted."
"To Ally?" Theo snorted, not waiting for an answer. "Yeah, I'm not surprised, that's her M.O. Did their weird friendship end on a good note?"
"Why would it have?" Tony snorted. "She fought on our side, there at the end."
Theo smiled suddenly, his dimple making an appearance. "Yeah," he said with a smile. "She talks the rebel game pretty well, but when it comes down to it," Theo shook his head. "She's a better person than all of us combined."
"But," Steve's eyebrows lowered. "I wouldn't say she ended with Ultron on a bad note. If anything, she was – disappointed in him, that he couldn't see clearly."
"So – what?" Sherlock rolled his eyes. "You believe that this Ultron character imprinted on Madison so deeply that when he lost the war, he willingly chose to stay dormant until such a time as he could reappear?"
"What if he didn't stay dormant?" Hotch spoke up, and his team leaned forward.
"Behavioral Analysis?" Tasha said skeptically. "On a robot?"
"I wouldn't consider Ultron a robot," Mycroft said delicately. "Perhaps a bit uncoordinated with his feelings, but not entirely a robot."
"Alright." Dean pointed a finger at Hotch. "What do you got?"
"This Ultron, he apparently escaped to the internet following the attack, correct?" HOtch asked, and the Avengers nodded.
"And yet, no attempts have been made to try again," Rossi mused, head tilted. "He hasn't interacted with anyone in any way."
"Except for Maddie," Garcia corrected, and the team shot her a look. She shrugged. "Well, Theo's been sending me everything he's come across, regarding Maddie's timeline, and I've been looking into Maddie's work: and I found a thing."
"What kind of thing?" Dean asked.
"Well, Maddie's just one of many freelance writers that Alexander publications hires, and one of many, many authors, and the company has a waiting list three years long. From Maddie's blog, it looked like they called her, just a few short months after she first," Garcia shot Theo a look, "showed up?" Theo nodded, and she continued. "How would a company with such a long waiting list know to look for Maddie, who most likely hadn't written anything since she'd been here, and didn't have the credentials to even make the list?"
"Someone must have recommended her," Prentiss guessed.
"Exactly as I was thinking," Garcia grinned. "So I got ahold of her bosses, and no one's actually quite certain WHO made the order, just that it came from an email that can't be traced."
"But why would Ultron," Reid snorted, "Assuming Ultron is behind that, try and find her a job?"
"Guilt," JJ guessed, and the team shrugged.
"That's not all," Theo spoke up. "The company Mads is working with hires people to be liaisons, who help their freelancers organize positions all around the world, helping the writers under their care with not just finding the job, but finding housing and transportation needs as necessary. Each liaison usually has between 10-20 writers under their care."
"Let me guess," Morgan spoke dryly, "Maddie is her liaison's only client."
"Bingo. Worst part? The guys name is Url Not, spelled U – R – L, N – O – T."
"Ultron." Steve sighed.
"Yep. This guy showed up in their database less than four hours before the email about Maddie was sent."
"So we're sure, then. Ultron has been helping this whole time." Clint growled and crossed his arms, and Theo shrugged. "The only thing is – WHY? Why spend the last few years helping her find jobs, and then steal her son?"
"Well, it kind of makes sense," Sam Winchester mused, and Dean shot his brother an incredulous look.
"How?" He snapped.
"This Ultron – thing, when was he first created? Two years ago?" Sam looked to Tony for confirmation, and he shrugged.
"Closer to two and a half," Tony admitted.
"So maybe the robot has all-access to the internet, but the internet can't tell you how to feel things."
"Right." JJ made a face. "So – we're dealing with a two and a half year old in an adult's body."
"Or in other words," Prentiss smirked. "We're dealing with a man."
Garcia cackled, and Theo snorted, but the others seemed decidedly unamused.
"Ultron's intelligence isn't comparable with his ability to think like a normal person, is all I'm saying," Prentiss corrected quickly. "Mentally, he's a child, and he's simply reacting to get attention."
"He's not capable yet of deciphering between good attention and bad attention," Dean said, suddenly catching on. "Any attention is good attention."
"That was, surprisingly astute of you," Sam said, and Dean made a face.
"I'm raising an almost two year old, I've read a few books," he said reluctantly, turning away so he wouldn't have to look at his brothers grinning face. "So – he kidnapped Orie to get Maddie's attention."
"In a nutshell," Hotch shrugged.
"The good news," Sherlock mused, "Orion isn't in any danger then. Ultron would never risk Maddie's wrath by hurting the boy, so he's safe, we simply have to retrieve him. Maddie, on the other hand – " Sherlock made a face.
"If she doesn't react the way Ultron is anticipating, he'll take out his anger on her," Mycroft finished. "Which would be counter-productive for us."
"So we keep Maddie from Ultron, tell him he can't speak to her until we get Orie back, and we cage him before we have to follow through," Pietro concluded with a large smile.
"Only one problem," Dean said slowly, turning to shoot a look at Steve, who seemed to read Dean's mind, and Steve's eyes narrowed.
"Where's Maddie, right now?"
Theo audibly gulped. "Hate to say it, but she's probably paying a whole lot of attention to Ultron right now."
"It's now time for that search party, then, wouldn't you say?" Dean asked darkly, and this time, the rest of the room nodded, in unanimous agreement.
Maddie is getting into trouble and the others are solving a case. What else is new? Next Chapter up now!
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~CLC~