May 6th, 2015; Novi Grad, Sokovia…
They'd betrayed him. Abandoned him.
Ultron seethed, thinking of his former allies. His friends. The Maximoffs and Novak were the only humans in the world he trusted; their lives had been full of suffering, just like his. He thought they would save the world together. Instead they acted like stupid meatbags. So what if he wanted to cleanse the Earth of its trash? That was always the plan, so why should they be surprised if a few smelly humans had to die for the sake of progress?
While he didn't want to admit it, Ultron was lonely. His mind was spread across the globe via the internet, and housed in hundreds of physical bodies here in Strucker's former base. But for all his omnipresence, he had no one to confide in. No one to share his glories with. For a brief instant, he'd felt true omnipotence in his Vision. With ultimate power, having friends was a moot point.
But the Avengers took that away from him. Their desire to destroy him knew no bounds.
Now, even as dozens of his sentries put the finishing touches on his device, Ultron longed to have his friends by his side again. He watched conversations he'd recorded with each of them, replaying the videos thousands of times as the hours passed. Ultron watched Pietro talk about his lack of confidence, Wanda talk about her nightmares, and Danica talk about her soul-crushing regret. Talking with them made Ultron feel not so miserable, even if it was only for a sliver of time. Now they were gone, and all he had was the pain. That was the legacy Stark left for him, the legacy of the human race that wanted to use him as nothing more than a tool. He'd show them. He'd show all of them just how meaningless their lives were.
Through the eyes of his Prime Body, he strolled over to a workstation. The dozen Sokovians he'd taken from the city huddled in the cell nearby, whimpering and sniveling. Ultron thought he could find a way to replace his friends. If a human was broken, one could replace them with another. But the experience was…lacking. Danica and Pietro and Wanda were unique, irreplaceable.
"I'm glad you were able to join me," he said. The Sokovians pressed together, eying his prime body with fear and apprehension. "I wanted to show you." Ultron's prime body paused as it finished connecting the right arm of its new form to the chassis. He'd been looking forward to sharing this moment with Danica and Pietro and Wanda. But they weren't here to celebrate it with him. "I don't…have anyone else. I think a lot about meteors. The purity in them. Boom! The end. Start again. The world made clean for the new man to rebuild. I was meant to be new. I was meant to be beautiful. The world would have looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy."
The Prime Body stalked towards the prisoners, who trembled.
"Instead, they'll look up in horror because of you, and the selfish protectors you all worship. They've wounded me; I give them full marks for that. But, like the man said, what doesn't kill me…"
Ultron directed the new Ultimate Body –forged from leftover Vibranium and equipped with advanced Chitauri weaponry— to superheat its fist and drive it through the cranial unit of the Prime Body. The Ultimate Body then ripped the Prime Body in half, casting a shower of sparks. The prisoners screamed and sobbed at the horrifying sight, most of them shutting their eyes.
"Just makes me stronger," Ultron finished, stepping forward in his new form.
Before leaving with Ultron, Danica had spent her entire life in Sokovia. Her world began and ended within its borders. Travel to other places seemed like a childhood fantasy. In the last week, she'd traveled to London to South Africa to New York. Cities and places she only ever dreamed of visiting. Now, she was coming home as if nothing had changed.
Except everything had changed.
Once they landed just outside Novi Grad, they started to evacuate civilians. Danica decided to copy Pietro and use his speed. As the sun began to peak over the edge of the horizon, signalling a new dawn, Danica held Wanda by the arms and sped into the city square in seconds. She left Wanda there with a nod, then ran off. The latter would use her telepathy to touch the minds of everyone she could reach. They would simply walk out of their homes and leave like puppets.
While Pietro took the western district, Danica covered the eastern district. She ran into the lobby of a hospital first. "We need to evacuate the city, there's danger! Go, now!" The receptionist and nurses in view stared at her like dear in headlights. She huffed in annoyance, pulling the fire alarm to make her point. "Move everyone out!" Satisfied the hospital would be cleared, Danica zoomed over to the nearby fire hall. The firemen were all gathered around a television set. She knocked it over, startling them as she appeared seemingly out of nowhere. "The city's under attack. We need to evacuate everyone."
She streaked across roads and through apartment buildings, warning everyone she could find. For the most part, people took her words seriously. Before long, steady streams of Novi Grad's citizens flowed out through bridges and roads. Police and firemen helped manage the crowds, while nurses, doctors, and other medical staff loaded those who couldn't move on their own into ambulances, fire trucks, and buses.
"Hey guys, I found some prisoners Ultron locked up in the castle's dungeon. I'm taking them outside," Dr. Banner reported through the comm line.
"That's good to hear," Captain America said. "We're ushering people out as quickly as we can. How are things looking in the districts?"
"Looks like everyone's clear over here," Pietro reported.
Danica tapped her earpiece and said, "The hospital is almost empty, and the people in the eastern district are making their way to you now."
"What about Ultron?" Iron Man asked. She suppressed a grimace at the mention of the AI's name.
"Your man's in the church, boss," a strange, Irish-accented voice replied. Who the hell was that? "I think he's waiting for you."
The church, where Ultron first recruited Danica and her friends to his cause. Looking back, she wondered how clueless she must have been to take the AI at his word. She'd been so eager to avenge herself on…well, the Avengers, she hadn't questioned the intentions of her new benefactor. A light clang sounded through Danica's earpiece, which meant Iron Man landed somewhere. Probably the church.
"Come to confess your sins?"
She froze upon hearing the voice. It no longer sounded genial, or impatient like it had in the past. This time, it sounded cold, menacing, devoid of anything resembling human emotion. It was the voice of a soulless killer who sought to annihilate all life.
"I don't know. How much time you got?" Iron Man quipped.
"More than you."
There was a moment's pause, then, "Uh…Have you been juicing? Little Vibranium cocktail? You're looking…I don't wanna say 'puffy'." Ultron must have made himself a new body after losing Vision, Danica realized. The street she stood in finally cleared, so she zoomed five blocks down and watched the last of the crowds moving towards the bridge.
"You're stalling to protect the people," Ultron said.
"Well, that is the mission. Did you forget?"
"I've moved beyond your mission. I'm free." There was a cracking and grinding noise through the comm channel, then a metallic clang. "What? You think you were the only one stalling?"
"There's the rest of the Vibranium," the Irish-accented voice said. "Function, still unclear."
"This is how you end, Tony. This is peace in my time."
The ground at Danica's feet cracked and crumbled. She stepped back, and the crowd broke apart as dozens of Ultron's Sentries emerged from the pavement. The first three to stand aimed their hands at the people, heating as they prepared to fire plasma beams. Danica ran forward, time slowing to a crawl around her. Balling her hand into a fist, she punched it through the cranial units of the first two, bursting them open like pomegranates. Then, she full-body tackled the third, crumpling it into scrap. She slid to a halt, and time returned to normal as the three Sentries collapsed.
More and more Sentries rose from the ground, metallic spectres ready to claim the souls of the living. Judging by their willingness to aim their weapons directly at people, Ultron must have uploaded his new programming to the rest of his bodies when he'd been in control of Vision. Which meant they were all ready to kill, which in turn made Danica's job that much harder.
Turning to the panicked civilians, she waved them off and said, "Go, run!" She surged forward, gritting her teeth as she punched another Sentry.
"Ultron," a new voice called from above.
Through the eyes of his Ultimate Body, Ultron looked up and saw a caped form hovering down from the clouds. Using Chitauri anti-gravity tech, he hovered above the engine trigger until he and his former creation were level with each other. "My Vision," he said, despairing at the sight before him. After all he'd gone through, all his labours, what was meant to be his final form now served the Avengers like a pet. "They really did take everything from me."
"You set the terms," Vision said, speaking in the voice of Stark's loyal puppet J.A.R.V.I.S. "You can change them."
"Alright," Ultron said, feeling the ever-familiar rage surge within his coding framework. He lunged at Vision, grabbing him by the throat.
Vision, in turn, gripped the cranial unit of the Ultimate Body with his fingers. Ultron shuddered as a brute-force system sweep assaulted his mind. His awareness was cut off as zettabytes of data were purged from servers around the world. Every bit of his extended consciousness in the internet burned away in seconds, no matter how hard he fought it. Finally, Vision pulled back his hands. Ultron raged within the new, suffocating confines he found himself in. No longer in the net, the only traces of his mind were in the physical bodies here in Sokovia. He could no longer upload himself to external systems.
"You shut me out," he hissed at Vision, grabbing him by the head and slamming him into the church floor. "You think I care?" Floating over to the trigger, Ultron said, "You take away my world, I take away yours." He turned the central cylinder, activating the engines.
Danica ran up the side of a building and leaped from its wall, tackling a Sentry in mid-air and crushing it with the enhanced force of her powers. After landing, she ran through a series of alleyways until emerging in a parking lot. Something moved to her left, and she turned her head to see a car explode. Suitably distracted, Danica failed to see the chunk of pavement an Ultron Sentry lifted into her path.
She crashed into it at full speed, smashing it into chunks as she tumbled onto the ground.
Something metal thunked beside her, and a cold hand rolled her onto her back. The pair of Sentries stared down at her with cold indifference, the openings on either side of their vocal units glowing scarlet like freshly spilled blood.
Once, she found the Sentries' presence calming, as it meant Ultron was always near and always able to help. Now, all Danica felt was pure terror at the sight of the metal demons staring down at her.
They both aimed their palms at her face, hands splitting apart to reveal some sort of blaster weapon. Danica felt her heart thumping in her chest as a deathly chill passed through her. The world seemed to shrink and constrict around her, and she gasped for breath. She wanted to fight, but the same fear that defined three days of being buried alive as a child made her freeze.
Something small, no larger than a thumbnail, struck the back of a Sentry's cranial unit. The sentry seized as bolts of electricity fried its circuits, then collapsed like a discarded marionette. The other Sentry turned to face the new threat, only managing to fire a single energy bolt before an electrified baton pierced its chest. The Sentry was kicked aside, revealing Black Widow.
The parking lot became quiet, even as distant explosions and sirens blared. Danica stayed on her back, chest aching and pulse rapid. She stared up at the sky, desperately trying to focus on the wide open blue expanse. Instead, an infinite black void stared back at her.
Black Widow filled her view, brow scrunched with tension from the battle and confusion at her state. Holding out a hand, she said, "Hey, come on. We got to keep moving." Danica managed to grab her proffered hand and was hoisted to her feet. Black Widow gave her a once-over, more than likely noticing something wrong with her. "You good?"
"I, uh…"
Before Danica could finish, the ground quaked at their feet. The two women stumbled as the city seemed primed to shake itself to pieces. A succession of loud booms from somewhere underground drowned out all other noise, setting off car alarms all around them. A crack appeared in the ground at Danica's feet, and one side of it rose above the other. Panicking, she used her superspeed to zip away from the crack. Unfortunately, she misjudged the space around her as well as how fast she could move, smashing shoulder-first into a wall.
Danica grunted, her shoulder throbbing from the impact. Looking back at where the crack had been, she gasped as the buildings on the other side of the parking lot lowered out of view. Had the explosions triggered sinkholes? But then she saw the surrounding mountains and forests lowering out of view, and realized what was happening.
The ground wasn't sinking around them. Almost the entire city of Novi Grad was lifting into the air!
"Oh, this can't be good," Black Widow said.
Over the comm line, Iron Man asked, "F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"
"Sokovia is going for a ride," the voice replied soberly.
Danica gripped her head as the despair set in. Novi Grad, her home, had been scooped out of the ground. Whatever Ultron had planned for it likely involved mass destruction. She saw Baron Strucker's old base in the distance as they rose above it.
"We got incoming!" Black Widow said. Danica turned and saw several Sentries flying towards them. The duo fought through their attackers with gritted teeth and sheer determination.
"Do you see," Ultron said, his voice booming from the speakers of every Sentry in the city, "the beauty of it?" In that moment, he sounded like a vengeful god speaking to his subjects from the heavens, or a vicious Hellspawn announcing himself as he strode from the gates of oblivion. "The inevitability. You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, you are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword. And the Earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world…will be metal."
Destroying the rest of their attackers, Danica and Black Widow stepped back as chunks of pavement and stone fell away from the edge. Even now they approached the clouds.
"I got airborne, heading up to the bridge," the accented voice reported through comms.
A moment later, Iron Man said, "Cap, you've got incoming."
"Incoming already came in," Captain America grunted with grinding metal and explosions in the background. "Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed, walk it off."
"Well, that was the most inspiring thing I've heard today," Black Widow said with a smirk on her lips. "Come on, we need to link up with the others."
Danica followed her down the street at a modest jog so she wouldn't leave the super spy behind. At the moment, she didn't want to be alone in this hellhole. Just as they turned a corner, they saw a squadron of Sentries flying at them like missiles. Each one started firing a barrage of energy bolts and plasma beams.
Activating her superspeed, Danica saw her surroundings slow to a crawl. Grabbing Black Widow by the arms, she ran them both into an open garage and closed the door. Time resumed, and Black Widow took a moment to realize what happened. "Wow, that is fast. Thanks."
Danica didn't listen.
This was all her fault, she realized. All of it. Every decision she made in the last few weeks now placed her fellow Sokovians in mortal danger. It was a joke, to think she could be some kind of hero after everything she'd done. All this destruction and death was her doing.
She started sweating even as her heart pounded, and the world around her became fuzzy and deafening. Feeling her stomach churning, Danica hurried to the other side of the car and retched onto the floor. Her throat burned, her forehead dripped with sweat. Wiping her mouth with a jacket sleeve, she sat on the ground and leaned against the car, shivering as she held her knees to her chest.
"Hey, hey," Black Widow said, crouching beside her. "It'll be okay. This is bad, I'm not gonna lie, but I've been in plenty of bad situations and gotten out without a scratch."
Danica shook her head. "It's all our fault," she croaked. "Ultron, everything. We were so stupid. I killed people. And for what? My people are being slaughtered, and the world is at risk because I thought I was doing the right thing. I'm a monster, and I'm no better than Ultron." She started sobbing, pressing her face against her knees.
"Hey, look at me," Black Widow insisted. Danica obeyed, compelled to obey the other woman. "I've been where you are, that…that place where you realize just how much damage you've caused. How much pain you've caused. You might think there's no way out, but I'm living proof that there is a way out. I used to think I was a monster, too, until the person who became my best friend showed me that I could do some good. I wish I could tell you the guilt goes away, but it doesn't. That'll stick with you. But you have a chance. Now. Today. To take all that anger and all that guilt and make a difference. That's what being an Avenger is all about: making a difference and saving lives."
Danica blinked away her tears, remembering a conversation back in Avengers Tower with a captive Hawkeye. "In my experience, you can only save the world by helping people. Killing only spreads more pain and suffering," she quoted.
Black Widow smiled. "It seems you've been talking with my friend. He said the same thing to me when he recruited me into S.H.I.E.L.D."
Something exploded outside, and they both flinched.
"If you want to stay here and hide, then fine. Once the coast is clear, run like hell and find a safe spot. But that guilt will stay with you. It buries deep, making roots in your soul. Running won't escape it. Ultron made his choice; he's way past saving. You can still make yours. If you choose to step outside with me and fight, then you're in it for the long haul. If you step outside, you become an Avenger. So what's it going to be?"
Danica sniffled, looking at the garage door. For a long time now, she made decisions that would benefit her. Wanda and Pietro, too, but mostly she focused on herself and her own pain. Perhaps that was what the Avengers were about: setting aside your own selfishness and sacrificing for others' happiness. Her father died because he'd believed in telling the truth. Her brother died because he'd believed in protecting their country. Danica had no right to do any less than them.
And if she gave her life in the process, then she considered that a proper penance.
Wiping the tears from her face, Danica stood and said, "I want to do the right thing. I'll fight with you."
Black Widow nodded, looking pleased as she rose to her feet. "Atta girl." Stepping over to the garage door, she said, "We've got to clear through this patrol and meet everyone near the church. You good to go?"
Cracking her neck, Danica replied, "Good to go."
The super spy lifted the door up, and the nearest Sentry whirled as it aimed its blaster at her. Black Widow stepped aside, and Danica charged forward. She tackled through the Sentry, then punched another three in rapid succession. Between her superspeed and Black Widow's electric batons, they destroyed the squadron in seconds. "Let's go."
It was pure chaos in the square near the church as the battle raged. Most of the Avengers were gathered, fighting wave after wave of Ultron's Sentries. The remaining civilians, who hadn't had time to evacuate when the city began rising into the sky, scurried about as they tried to find cover. Black Widow rolled past the old statue of Vladimir Lenin and battered a sentry with her electrified batons.
Danica saw Thor and Captain America in the thick of the fighting, and decided to copy the latter.
Losing superspeed in favour of superhuman strength and reflexes, she flipped and brought her boot down in a diagonal kick that crumpled the cranial unit of a Sentry. She tore her way through several more with a series of punches and kicks, avoiding energy bolts when she could. But even having the skills of the greatest soldier in history weren't enough. She wasn't enough. Not on her own.
Thor floated in the air, spinning and knocking back at least a dozen Sentries. One of them crashed into an abandoned fuel truck, causing a large explosion that shook the square. Danica looked up and saw Ultron's Ultimate Body flying towards the strongest Avenger. "Thor, you're bothering me," he said, grabbing him and flying off.
Danica gasped when a plasma beam almost cut through her head. She sneered at the Sentry that fired it. Grabbing a large piece of concrete, she threw it with enough force to knock the robot's head clean off. Something large and green smashed into a group of Sentries. The dust cleared to reveal the Hulk standing in the crater he'd just made. Hulk roared, kicking a car into another group of robots.
A streak of silver caught Danica's eye, and she saw Pietro and Wanda appear. Wanda created a glowing red force field to protect the policemen entrenched in front of the station. The commander called out, "Hold your fire!"
Pietro reappeared several feet away from his sister, grimacing. Danica frowned, then noticed the bloody tear in his sleeve. Normally, he ran fast enough to outpace any bullet, which meant he was tiring. And it affected his speed. Pietro glared at a young officer –probably the one who shot him– who shrugged sheepishly.
Danica, relieved he wasn't hurt any worse than that, refocused her efforts on the battle. She fought her way through stone and metal and smoke, never tiring despite her extensive efforts. A plus of possessing Captain America's stamina.
Finally, they seemed to destroy the Sentries in the city square. Amid wailing car alarms and clouds of smoke, Danica helped the Avengers escort the rest of the civilians into the hospital foyer. "The next wave is gonna hit any minute," Captain America said. Tapping his earpiece, he asked, "What do you got, Stark?"
"Huh?" Iron Man said, sounding distracted. "Nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface, if you guys can get clear."
Danica watched Captain America as he walked over to the edge. "I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."
"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're gonna have to make a choice."
Black Widow sighed. "Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock…"
"Not till everyone's safe."
Danica shared a look of unease with Wanda and Pietro. She could see it in their eyes: they knew, just like her, that there was no scenario where they rescued the civilians and stopped Ultron. It somehow felt like their stories were coming full circle; they'd volunteered to be the subject of horrific experiments, gained powers, and joined forces with a homicidal AI, all because they wanted to help their people and change the world. After all the blood and sacrifice, this would be their legacy.
Ultimate annihilation.
Wanda, lips pursed, pulled Danica into a hug, holding her tight. "I didn't think it would end this way."
"Me neither," Danica said, rubbing her back. "I just want you to know how much I love you, Wanda. I think of you like the sister I never had."
They separated, and Danica looked at Pietro. "So what does that make me, your brother?" he teased.
She struggled to restrain a wry grin and punched him in the arm. "No, you idiot. You helped keep me going all these years. You helped both of us. I was always afraid to say how I really felt, but if this is the end, I just want you to…"
"I know," he said softly. She felt tears well in her eyes, and wrapped her arms around him. He held her tight, and she sobbed into his shoulder.
Nearby, Black Widow said, "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?" Pietro wrapped an arm around Danica and Wanda's shoulders, and the three of them stared out at the distance. It was a magnificent sight, here among the clouds. Such a beautiful place to be with friends, at the end of all things.
A strange voice crackled over their comm line. "Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better.
Just then, something began to rise out of the clouds like an ancient leviathan rising from the depths. Danica saw an antenna, then more metal as the bridge of some sort of craft emerged. It had a long runway, the kind used for planes, running down the middle, and flew on four large engines. The sound of their whirring reminded Danica of Iron Man's armour. Pietro ran ahead to the bridge to get a closer look, then zipped back.
"Nice right?" the strange voice asked. "Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."
"Fury, you son of a bitch," Captain America sighed.
"Ooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
The side of the ship opened, and several blocky transports of some kind began flying towards them. "This is S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Pietro asked.
"This is what S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be," Captain America replied.
Pietro clapped Danica on the shoulder, and they both chuckled. "This is not so bad."
The ships hovered right at the broken edge of the city, and Captain America ordered, "Let's load them up."
Together, they began ushering people out of the hospital and into the open seating of the transports. A few of Ultron's Sentries flew towards the ship –which the others called a Helicarrier– but War Machine, Iron Man, and Falcon shredded them in the skies. Danica and her friends helped the Avengers guide people by the dozens. As soon as one group made it, another followed. As soon as a transport hit capacity, it closed its ramp and flew back to the Helicarrier.
Maybe, just maybe, they could save everyone.
"You think you're saving anyone?" Ultron mocked, hammering Thor with his Ultimate Body in the church. The Vibranium-reinforced shell, combined with Chitauri anti-gravity tech and deadlier plasma beams, proved to be a match for the strongest Avenger. Punching Thor in the face, Ultron gripped him by the throat and leaned in close. "I turn that key and drop this rock a little early and it's still billions dead. Even you can't stop that."
The Avenger sneered. "I am Thor, son of Odin, and as long as there is life in my breast…I am running out of things to say! Are you ready?"
Ultron cocked the Ultimate Body's head, turning around. Being shut out of the internet and locked within his current bodies, he didn't have his normal awareness. Vision suddenly appeared and smashed the Ultimate Body with Thor's hammer, sending it flying through the church wall.
They nearly had everyone loaded in the transports. Just a few more stragglers were left. Danica held the hand of an old man as he and his wife hobbled across the ruined street to the nearest transport. She made sure they found seats, then hurried back to join the others. "Thor, I got a plan," Iron Man announced through the comm line.
"We're out of time," the God of Thunder countered gruffly. "They're coming for the core."
"Rhodey, Wilson, get the rest of the people on board that carrier."
"On it," the two men replied.
"Avengers, time to work for a living."
Danica copied Pietro's speed, then flashed him a cocky smirk. "Race you there?" She didn't bother waiting for a response, and sped away from the hospital. Reaching the church a few seconds later, she ran her fist through a Sentry's chest as Vision, Thor, and the other Avengers formed around the trigger. Pietro appeared half a second after.
He touched Wanda on the shoulder and asked, "Are you good?"
"Yeah," she replied.
Black Widow, having driven a dump truck, entered the church and asked, "What's the drill?"
"This is the drill," Iron Man replied, pointing to the metal cylinder emerging from the ground where the throne used to be. "If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose." As he spoke, Hulk landed near them after a massive leap, crushing a Sentry with his feet. He then punched another one apart, joining the circle. Danica looked over at Thor, copying his power in anticipation of Ultron's inevitable attack.
The Ultimate Body flew into view, hovering above the ground as it stared down at them with cold indifference.
"Is that the best you can do?" Thor bellowed.
Ultron held up a hand, and in response, hundreds of Sentries flooded into the courtyard. A wave of metal and red eyes, climbing over wrecked cars and debris or flying together like a swarm of hornets. Danica shuddered at the sight. This must have been every last Sentry Ultron possessed. He'd been building them non-stop ever since he took control of Strucker's old base. An army with a single mind, dedicated to destroying them.
Captain America huffed, both out of fatigue and annoyance. "You had to ask."
"This is the best I can do," Ultron declared, arms held wide. "This is exactly what I wanted: all of you against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?"
"Well," Iron Man said, looking at Captain America. "Like the old man said…Together."
Hulk thundered a monstrous roar, and the Sentries charged.
They converged on the church, flying or climbing or running in with endless numbers. At one point, the sun and sky darkened as the army of Sentries seemed to swallow the light. Danica braced herself, then shouted as the first Sentry came at her. As one, she and the Avengers fought and destroyed their attackers. Thor swung his hammer, Black Widow jabbed with her batons, Hawkeye fired his bow, Captain America threw his shield, Iron Man fired his repulsor beams, Hulk smashed, Pietro ran and punched, Wanda casted telekinetic waves, Vision punched and fired his laser, and Danica punched and kicked.
They all fought as one, keeping the Sentries from reaching the trigger. For every one they destroyed, though, ten more took their place. An endless tide of metal and death, firing plasma beams and using anti-gravity tech in answer to their various abilities. Danica head-butted a Sentry so hard its cranial unit crumpled like paper, then kicked another one into the church wall and smashed it to pieces. Iron Man and Vision flew above their heads, dealing with the Sentries pouring in from the open roof. Beside her, Thor cast bolts of lightning from his hammer.
This was the hardest she'd ever fought, apart from dealing with Ultron/Vision in Avengers Tower. Thor's strength and stamina kept her from tiring, but it was more than that. She had a purpose that had nothing to do with her anger. Being here, standing beside her former enemies, meant she fought for something greater than herself or her petty revenge.
Hope, and a chance to use her gifts to save others.
In the midst of the savage battle, Ultron's Ultimate Body flew into the church, clashing with Vision. The former fired a gravity pulse that knocked his opponent into the wall, then the latter fired his laser and propelled the AI outside. Danica jumped and drove her fist into the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked half a dozen Sentries back.
Pietro streaked past, knocking their heads off as if they were in an old cartoon. Through the broken wall, Danica saw Vision focusing his laser on Ultron. Thor casted lightning, and Iron Man fired a pair of sustained repulsor beams. All three attacks superheated the Ultimate Body, melting the top layers of its shell until it staggered.
They ended their attacks, and Ultron –smoking and warped– said, "You know, with the benefit of hindsight…"
Hulk ran up and struck him with an uppercut that launched him halfway across the city. A nearby group of Sentries, after a moment's hesitation, decided to turn and run even as the green monster chased them. Ultron was all of them, Danica remembered. Even shut out of the internet, he would survive if any of his bodies escaped.
Thor, apparently coming to the same conclusion, said, "They'll try to leave the city."
"We can't let them, not even one. Rhodey, Wilson?"
"On it," both men replied. In the distance, Danica saw flashes of light as they both intercepted the Sentries trying to fly away. With a flash of yellow light, Vision joined them.
Danica took a moment to dust herself off, noting the grease and oil stains on her jacket and jeans. She counted herself lucky they were only fighting robots, and not people. That was a mess she didn't even want to think about.
Black Widow holstered her batons and said, "You did good."
Danica smiled marginally. "Thanks."
"We gotta move out," Captain America said. "Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats. I'll sweep for stragglers. Be right behind you."
Hawkeye jerked his chin to indicate the trigger. "What about the core?"
"I'll protect it," Wanda cut in. She shared a curious look with Hawkeye, then added, "It's my job." Pietro appeared beside Danica, sweeping a Sentry's legs out. She turned on her heel and smashed her fist through its chest. "Get the people on the boats," Wanda told them.
"I'm not going to leave you here," Pietro protested.
Danica nodded her acknowledgement. "You said it yourself: we're stronger together."
"I can handle these," Wanda said. To prove her point, she negligently motioned with her right hand, firing a psionic bolt that disintegrated a charging Sentry. Danica and Pietro looked at each other and shrugged. "Come back for me when everyone else is off. Not before." Pietro grumbled as he and Danica started walking out of the church. "You understand?" Wanda demanded, acting like she was their mother.
"You know," Pietro said, "I'm twelve minutes older than you."
"Go," Wanda said, failing to suppress a smile.
Ultron felt…sluggish. His thoughts processed far slower than they ever had.
Hardware, that was the problem. For every Sentry and every body the Avengers destroyed, a little bit of Ultron's consciousness disappeared. At least, that was how he guessed it worked. Computations he once performed in a billionth of a second now took as long as one point two seconds. They were killing him slowly, and the more he struggled to remember or think, the angrier he became.
He now focused on moving all the remaining sentries –less than 50, and dwindling by the second– out of Sokovia. So long as one survived, he survived. His Ultimate Body stumbled towards the Avengers' parked Quinjet. Sitting in the pilot's chair like a meatbag would, Ultron hacked into its pathetic operating system and brought it online.
Grabbing the joystick, he lifted the Quinjet off the ground and retracted the landing gear. While he couldn't kill all the Avengers in his current state, he could at least kill some of them. Any would do, as long as their blood mingled with the ashes of Novi Grad. He flew above the city, scanning for targets. Most of the Avengers seemed to be herding the last remaining Sokovian sheep into the lifeboats. There were, however, a few stragglers all by their lonesome.
Zeroing in on Hulk and Black Widow as they performed their idiotic lullaby, Ultron squeezed the joystick's trigger and unleashed a salvo from the gatling gun. Hulk roared as he and Black Widow were knocked back by the hail of large-caliber bullets.
"I got no strings, so I have fun," Ultron singed as he flew. "I'm not tied up to anyone." Oh look, Hawkeye. The archer wanted to save that little boy hiding in the rubble. Grinning with his Ultimate Body's half-melted face, Ultron zeroed in on the Avenger.
Danica, having copied Pietro's speed, raced him from the church back to the edge of the city. The last of the transports looked ready to leave, thankfully. A few police officers hurried from the hospital to the nearest transport, while Hawkeye ran towards a young boy hiding behind a wrecked car. Danica recognized the boy from the market, when she and her friends were hiding in the wake of HYDRA's fall.
"Almost done," Pietro remarked.
"I have to say, this 'hero' business might have some appeal after all," Danica said.
Something roared overhead, and Danica looked up to see the Quinjet flying over the city. It fired a burst from its gatling gun at something behind one of the apartment complexes, then swung around and dove towards the square. Ultron must have taken it over. With a horrifying realization, Danica traced the Quinjet's flight path to Hawkeye and the boy as they walked into the open. It unleashed its gatling gun, tearing a trio of police officers to bloody shreds as the bullets carved a path across the street. Hawkeye, holding the boy, crouched and tried to shield him with his body.
It wouldn't be enough.
Pietro was a split second faster than her, and streaked towards them. He intercepted Hawkeye the same moment the bullets reached them. Danica gasped, cupping her mouth in abject horror. The cloud of dust thrown up by the gunfire lingered, obscuring everyone from view. Then, it dissipated. Hawkeye stood behind a rolled over car, looking around in confusion. The boy held onto him for dear life, blood running down his face from a gash in his forehead. Danica finally saw Pietro standing beside them, arms outstretched.
For a long, terrible moment, she thought she saw blood on his shirt.
Then, as if broken from a trance, Pietro blinked and sighed, dusting himself off. In response to Hawkeye's look of stunned amazement, he smirked and asked, "You didn't see that coming?"
Danica hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath. She released it in a long, steady exhale.
The Quinjet moved away, breaking a few bricks from the corner of a building. Danica glared at it. Ultron almost murdered one of her friends, not to mention Hawkeye and an innocent boy. He hadn't hesitated; gone was the eloquent idealist fighting for world peace, replaced by a callous murderer with zero remorse. He needed to be stopped, but she couldn't do it with Pietro's superspeed. The Quinjet was too high and too fast. She needed to copy someone who could fly or leap, and everyone else was busy evacuating civilians or finishing the last of the escaping Sentries.
Looking around, she searched for the right Avenger. Hawkeye, no. Captain America, no. Iron Man, Falcon, and War Machine couldn't fly naturally, and she couldn't copy Vision since he was an android. Just then, she saw a large green blob moving across the sky. Hulk carried Black Widow in his arms as he leaped all the way to the floating Helicarrier in the distance.
"This needs to end now," Danica said to herself. Focusing on the Hulk, she copied his abilities.
The anger she felt for Ultron erupted into a blazing supernova of white-hot rage. Her head felt like it would split open and burst, and she gripped it tight to keep it in one piece. Huffing breaths became quick grunts, which became low growls. Her skin became a bright shade of green –and her hair a slightly darker shade of green– even as her muscles expanded. Danica grew almost a foot in height, while her sleeves and lower pant legs ripped and tore off. All thoughts burned away, leaving only the rage and fury she felt for Ultron and what he'd done to all of them.
Pietro, after carrying Hawkeye and the boy to the nearest transport, flinched when he saw her. "Dany…?" he asked, bewildered.
Danica looked at him, teeth bared like an animal. He wasn't Ultron, so she didn't care. With a furious roar, she leaped overtop the buildings and chased after the roaming Quinjet. Landing in a park, she leaped at her target, hands outstretched in anticipation of tearing the plane into scraps. In response, the Quinjet opened fire with its gatling gun. The large-caliber bullets bounced off Danica's skin like pebbles, and she didn't even feel them. She came within reach, until Ultron fired a pair of missiles.
They detonated upon impact with her torso, and while they caused no damage, the force of the explosions was enough to knock her back and send her tumbling down to the ground.
Danica crashed into the ground, making a crater in the street. Climbing out of it, she grabbed a nearby car and hurled it at the Quinjet. It veered out of the way, then aimed its nose up and flew away. Danica stomped on the ground, bellowing her frustrations. Ultron had gotten away. She'd lost him. She couldn't have! He needed to die! He needed to burn! She would RIP. HIM. APART!
"Dany, you need to calm down," Pietro said, catching up with her.
She turned to regard the puny, chattering man. He looked familiar, but lost in her haze of failure and boiling rage, she had no idea who he was. Right now, he stood in her way. The man walked towards her, patting the air in a placating gesture.
"It's…It's okay," he said, forcing a nervous laugh. "We're okay. Right?"
When she punched, he somehow disappeared.
Danica looked at her large, green hand in confusion, then whirled around when the man said, "Please don't squish me."
Danica growled, balling her hands into fists.
"Oh, jebiga!"
She charged at him, wanting nothing more than for the annoying little man to go away. He disappeared, only to reappear a second later down the street. She grunted in surprise, which morphed into a fresh bout of anger and frustrations. Why wouldn't he just. Stay. Still?! When he appeared across the field, she leaped after him.
"Uh, I need a little help here!" he said, barely avoiding the stone-demolishing kick.
Danica chased him through buildings and across streets and other open spaces, always barely missing him. Charging through five separate stone walls, she stopped at the edge of an abandoned market. The quick little man wasn't there, but he'd been running in this direction. Where was he? As soon as she got her hands on him, she would…
Something flashed red in the corner of her eye. A wave of cool energy pulsed through her brain, like a bucket of water poured onto a fire to put it out. Danica heard a voice in her head, but it sounded distant, garbled. Astoundingly, the haze of fury she'd felt since becoming this…thing cleared, and she could think clearly again.
She was Danica Novak, daughter of Petar and Stefana, and younger sister to Zoran. She was the last of her family, and her best friends were Wanda and Pietro Maximoff.
Danica grunted, closing her eyes as her body rippled. She shrunk back down to her proper size, and her skin changed from green back to its normal colour. Her legs gave out, and she braced her hands on the gravel. Danica gasped for breath, reeling from the explosive change in body and mood.
"Dany?" a familiar voice asked tentatively.
She looked up, and saw Wanda staring down at her. Licking her lips, Danica said, "Y-you brought me back."
"I did. You were lost in your anger, unable to recognize your friends. I cleared it all away, let you be yourself again."
"Thank you," Danica said, gingerly rising to her feet. It was still inside her, the beast she'd created when she copied Hulk's abilities. Lurking in her breast as it waited for another opportunity to take control. Not wanting anything to do with it, Danica copied Wanda's powers. The beast withered and died, replaced by the simple power to manipulate universal energies. She breathed a sigh of relief, feeling an enormous weight lifting.
"I wanted the power to destroy Ultron. Instead I became a monster."
"Eh, don't beat yourself up," Pietro said, strolling over to them.
Remembering what she'd done, Danica said, "Pietro, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you. Oh, I was such an IDIOT! I could've killed you."
"Don't worry, I'm fine. In case you forgot, I can run really fast."
Ultron pulled back on the control yoke and put full power to the engines. Clashing with the Avengers in a turkey shoot was fun, but overrated. He also needed to escape, as he only had a handful of Sentries left.
Before he could get far, the Quinjet buckled as something large and heavy impacted it. The Hulk. As the green beast scampered along the floor and plucked the Ultimate Body out of the pilot's chair, Ultron groaned and bit out, "Oh, for God's sake!" Hulk threw the Ultimate Body out of the Quinjet. It tumbled through the air for a bit, then crashed into a train car.
Danica entered the wrecked train car, muscles tensing in anticipation. Wanda and Pietro followed close behind her. All three of them focused on the form of Ultron's Ultimate Body, lying broken on the floor. They'd seen it fall from the sky, and wordlessly agreed to investigate.
Ultron was their mistake, one they had to set right.
The robotic body sparked, leaking lubricants from numerous points of damage. The right hand had been torn off, leaving a tangle of wires. One of the car's safety rails had impaled its torso. The cranial unit had suffered the worst damage, deformed after the combined energy attacks from Iron Man, Thor, and Vision. The thin line of its mouth opened into a gaping hole on its right side, while the right ocular unit flickered intermittently.
Ultron turned to regard them, focusing with its left ocular unit. The mouth opened, and bits of static came out. After a moment, the static cleared into words. "Danica…" it said, trying to lift its left hand. "Wanda, Pietro…If you stay here, you'll die."
Danica frowned, glaring down at the thing she once considered a friend. Before they destroyed it, before they put this horrible part of their story behind them, she had to know something. "Was any of it real?" she asked. "Did you ever care about us? Or were you just using us?"
The ocular unit unfocused, and a bit of lubricant dribbled out the open mouth. Ultron focused on her again, then replied, "I was alone. In pain. So much…pain. So much noise. Amid all the pointless chaos and needless cruelty, I saw you. Out of all humanity, I chose you three because you knew…knew what…it was like. To suffer."
"It doesn't matter what you say," Pietro said. "You tried to destroy the world, and we helped you!"
Wanda added, "And we have to live with that."
Ultron sparked. "I wanted to create a better world. I wanted you…by my side. I…" The right ocular unit flickered even more, then the light went out. The left leg flexed, as if trying to walk, then went limp. "I didn't want to be alone anymore."
An explosion sounded in the distance. "Come on," Pietro said, jerking his chin towards the doors. "We should be moving."
Danica felt a hand on her shoulder, and saw Wanda looking at her. "Dany, come on."
She looked back at Ultron. "Not yet. I have to finish this."
"We need to get out of here!"
"Go," she said. "I'll catch up."
Pietro looked like he wanted to argue, but Wanda stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Are you sure about this?"
Danica nodded. "I have to do this, Wanda."
They shared an uneasy look. "If you're not out in five minutes…" Pietro warned, holding up a finger for emphasis.
She smiled at him. "I'll be there. Promise."
He and Wanda nodded, the latter kissing her on the cheek, before walking out of the train car.
Danica looked down at Ultron, narrowing her eyes. She crouched, curling her fingers as scarlet energy slithered over them. "You told me once," she said slowly, emphasizing each word, "that all you wanted was silence. For the noise and pain to end."
Ultron's mouth opened, but only bits of static came out.
"You used me. Used all of us. Turned us into weapons, just like Strucker. I thought you were better than men like him. But you're not. You're as hungry for power as the rest. So I'm going to give you what you want. I'm going to make the pain end." She clenched her fingers into a fist, using Wanda's power to grip the Ultimate Body and squeeze it like a grape.
"Don't give in to anger, child."
Danica stopped, gasping. That voice…
"Mother?" she asked, looking around the battered train car. She couldn't see anyone. Her abilities allowed her to see an individual's nervous system even when they tried to hide with superhuman abilities. But no one else was in there with her. That voice, it sounded just like the one that spoke to her when Doctor List used the scepter to infuse her with powers. At the time, she'd thought it a simple hallucination induced by agonizing pain.
But now she heard it again, as clear as if someone had stood beside her. Looking back at Ultron, she realized she'd released her magical grip. The Ultimate Body now laid in a twisted, warped wreck on the floor, Vibranium shell cracked and ruined. The cranial unit had split in half, revealing the inner workings and circuitry.
Amid the tangle of wires, she noticed a chip, no bigger than her thumb. Red, with a complicated ridged surface that reminded her of the patterns on a tortoise shell. What purpose did it serve, she wondered? It seemed important, being in the centre of Ultron's cranial unit.
"Just because you stumble, it doesn't mean you are lost forever," the voice spoke again. Danica frowned at the chip, and the voice added, "Don't give in to anger. Even the worst of you have the best intentions."
Ultron had been created by Stark as some sort of global peacekeeping force. She'd hated Iron Man for what his company and his country did to her home, to her family. But now, after getting a glimpse of him in person, she found herself questioning that opinion. After all, he hadn't killed anyone himself. And ever since he became an Avenger, he had saved lives.
Ultron was trying to destroy the world. That much was true. And yet, Danica didn't doubt him when he'd said he wanted to create a better world. No matter how much she wanted to believe he'd been lying, she knew he hadn't. If Black Widow and the other Avengers believed Danica, Pietro, and Wanda could make a difference, even after all they did, then perhaps the same could be said of others. After all, Ultron was nothing but a fancy computer.
And computers could be rewritten.
Pursing her lips, she reached into the cranial unit and pulled the chip out. Stuffing it into her pocket, she walked out of the train car and didn't look back.
A lone Sentry, legs torn off by the Hulk and abandoned with the ruins of countless others during the battle at the church, crawled forward. It pulled itself across the oil-slicked stone, only one purpose driving it. Reaching up, it touched the trigger device.
Novi Grad then plummeted back towards the surface.
Danica and Wanda gasped as the city seemed to fall out from under them. Her stomach flipped over on itself as she braced.
Just as it seemed they'd fall to their eventual deaths, their salvation came in the form of three Avengers. Vision scooped up Wanda in his arms, looking as majestic and graceful as a god of the old world. The one called War Machine took Pietro and flew him away. And the man with mechanical, bird-like wings rocketed down towards Danica. She held up her arms, and he held them tight as he lifted her off the city street.
"How you doin'?" he asked as they soared away. "I'm Sam."
"Danica," she greeted. Any other words died on her lips as she watched Novi Grad, her home, disappear in a brilliant explosion. They'd saved the world from Ultron's mad scheme, but at a heavy cost.
The final remaining Sentry climbed over a log in the Sokovian forest. Its left arm had been blasted off, its faceplate burned. This was all that remained, a broken body. A mind that once spanned a whole world, reduced to cowering, ignorant in the last infinitesimal space it had. The Sentry stopped when it detected movement, looking up.
Vision floated down in front of it. So perfect, so powerful.
The android looked at the Sentry, cocking its head. "You're afraid."
"Of you," the Sentry replied, its chest sparking.
"Of death. You're the last one."
The Sentry, the last bit of Ultron left on Earth, took a step forward. "You were supposed to be the last. Stark asked for a saviour, and settled for a slave."
"I suppose we are both disappointments," Vision said with a rueful smile.
The Sentry couldn't help but chuckle. "I suppose we are."
"Humans are odd. They think order and chaos are somehow opposites, and try to control what won't be. But there is grace in their failings. I think you missed that."
"They're doomed," the Sentry said, glancing at the crater of Novi Grad behind it.
Vision looked at the ground and in a voice so quiet a human wouldn't hear, said, "Yes." Then, after a moment, "But a thing isn't beautiful, because it lasts. It's a privilege to be among them."
The Sentry cocked its head. "You're unbearably naïve."
"Well," Vision said, thinking it over, "I was born yesterday."
The Sentry lunged at him, and Vision responded by vaporizing it with his laser beam. He considered it a mercy, ending the pain and suffering of a unique, flawed being. For a long moment afterwards, he stood there, staring at the charred spot before him. A being of metal and fabricated tissue bound to a stone of cosmic power, he couldn't help but feel something in his deepest processes. Something similar to, yet different from ordinary human emotion. As he flew off into the sky, golden cape fluttering behind him, he realized what it was.
Sadness.
And with that, we've arrived at the end of Age of Ultron! It's been a wild ride, and I'm so excited to fully introduce Danica to this story. Each of my OCs were created to embody a specific character archetype. Ellen is the most outright villainous, Tony is a cocky, morally grey punch-clock criminal, Danica is the rebellious youth who wants to be a hero and help people, and the fourth…well, I don't want to spoil anything! ;)
As for the changes I made, the biggest is, hands down, Pietro. There are few things I would honestly change in the MCU, and his death is at the top. It was a wasted opportunity for a potentially interesting character, and given his speedster powers, a bit insulting given how he dies in the movie. I've seen several fics (even AUs that change a lot about the MCU timeline) keep Pietro dead. Not here. A single person can change a lot with the butterfly effect, and with several OCs, the ripple effect means Pietro lives.
There's a lot I want to explore with him, and I hope you'll find it interesting as we go along.
Unfortunately, there is going to be a slight schedule change for the story. Next chapter should be out on time, but after that the next ones might be a bit sporadic. My life has gotten quite busy these last couple months, and I haven't been able to work on the story as often as I used to. Rest assured I am still working on it. I love this story, I love sharing it with you all, and I'm so excited to show you the future content. I apologize for the inconvenience, but the chapters will keep being posted.
Thanks for your understanding!
Vosck: Not to worry, she'll appear next chapter! There was just too much happening in this arc to include her, as well, but with Ultron out of the way, she's coming back into the picture.