Make You Feel My Love
~Book III~

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers nor do I own the plot of Age of Ultron. All rights go to Marvel.
All I do own are my own characters and their stories.

~Chapter 13~
There Are No Strings On Me

"Widow?"

Steve and Maria quickly looked over at Natasha, trying their best to not show the awkwardness of the situation they had just been in.

"No, no, that's not a question I need answered," replied Natasha, shaking her head before taking a sip from her own drink.

"How?" asked doctor Cho, sending a flirty look towards Thor, which surprised Maria slightly. "How does it work?"

Thor simply shrugged, an amused look on his face.

"All deference to the Man Who Wouldn't Be King, but it's rigged," said Tony, seeming slightly embarrassed to not have succeeded with a task he had taken upon himself. Maria could only think it was healthy for him to gain a little bit of a reality check once in a while.

"You bet your ass," replied Clint.

"Steve, he said a bad word," commented Hill to which Maria chuckled, Sam only looking utterly confused.

"Did you tell everyone about that?" asked Steve, his question directed towards Tony who had obviously found his remark during their mission in Sokovia, the funniest and it was no doubt he who had told everyone.

"Steve made a little bit of an 'old man' remark on our previous mission," whispered Maria to Sam, the confused look on his face going away slightly.

"I suppose it had something to do with swearing?" he asked.

"Now, don't tell him too," complained Steve from the other side of Maria to which both Sam and Maria chuckled.

"Yes, it's a very interesting theory," boomed Thor as he stood up, placing his drink on the table before grabbing his hammer, lifting it with ease. "I have a simpler one; You're all not worthy."

"Come on!" booed Clint.

Interrupting the booing and chuckling of the Avengers and their friends, was a high pitched noise. The noise reminded Maria of one which could be heard if someone had fiddled too much with a microphone they were going to talk in because they were too nervous. The noise seemed to go through Maria's bones and she shivered at the same time as she placed her hands over her ears. Her gaze quickly moved over to Steve who she knew had a better hearing ability than herself and the others. She couldn't even imagine what pain he was going through at the sound although he barely showed it.

Then, the sound stopped. Instead, a spooky voice was heard.

"Woooorthyyy…"

Sam, Maria and Steve both tensed up at the strange, echoing voice that seemed to come from all over the place. To Maria, the voice reminded her of something one would hear during a scene in a horror movie where the demon haunting the house finally finds the strength to speak up, breaking the good atmosphere and making the main characters all huddle up together. Instead of huddling up, however, everyone's eyes instinctually gazed over towards a potential weapon they could use to battle whatever evil may turn up. Maria's gaze went down to her thigh where she had, underneath of her skirts, strapped a dagger to her leg.

She heard footsteps, as did the others, and everyone looked over to where the footsteps were coming from. There, a deformed robot who most certainly came from the Legionnaire robots (automatic robots that Tony created to help with various things) was walking towards them. It looked as though it had started to walk before it had been finished. From it, oil was leaking and it seemed to try to grab at the loose strings that it had hanging from its deformed body. For a little while, Maria felt sorry for it as it looked lost and scared. Though as it turned towards them, there was a cold look on its face that none of the robots Stark had ever made had ever had.

"No… How could you be worthy. You're all killers."

"Stark?" asked Steve quietly, indicating that he needed to do something about his bugging robot.

Maria quickly glanced over at her friend and he seemed to be working hard on trying to shut something down using his PAD. Though it wasn't working from the look on his face.

"Jarvis?" asked Tony, putting the PAD away from him.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or I was a – dream," the broken robot spoke.

"Reboot Legionnaire OS. We got a buggy suit," said Tony, still to Jarvis who hadn't even replied which worried Maria slightly.

"I heard this terrible noise… And I was tangled in…. in…. strings," the robot continued to speak, his head turning to look at the leaking threads that were attached to it.

Steve and Maria stood up, Sam staying put. Maria had grasped her dagger and was now holding it out of view from the robot, her body ready to attack or jump out of the way should the thing decide to attack.

"I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" asked Steve.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices," it said, its voice sounding rather smooth.

"Who sent you?" asked Thor.

"I see a suit of armor around the world." The voice seemed to come from the robot, though Maria recognized it was a playback of something Tony must've said at some point, seeing as it was Tony's voice that came from the buggy robot.

Immediately, Maria amongst several others, looked over at Tony. Bruce did too, though he also spoke up and what he said, worried Maria greatly; "Ultron!"

"In the flesh," replied the robot, reacting to the name Bruce had uttered. "Or no, not yet. Not this chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

"What mission?" asked Natasha.

"Peace in our time," was all Ultron said before several other robots burst through the wall behind him, immediately attacking the Avengers.

Steve kicked up the coffee table in front of him, Maria and Sam, shielding them from one of the robots that came flying towards them though also sending them flying backwards. As Maria landed on the floor, her sight was gone for a couple of seconds seeing as the back of her head hit the floor first. Once she regained her sight, all three of them sat upright, watching for a couple of seconds as the others fought against the robots.

"Maria!?" called Steve, looking over at her with a worried look.

"I'm fine!" she called, waving him off before he stood up and started fighting too. "Sam?"

"You guys don't have calm days, right?" asked Sam with a grunt as he stood up with a little bit of help from Maria.

"No, not really," she replied sarcastically before a robot came flying towards them, landing in front of them and swinging its arm at Sam.

Maria grabbed the arm before it could hit him and used all her strength to push the robot away from him.

"Go," she called to Sam who was still defenseless without any weapons. "Go!"

Sam tensed and went to hide behind the bar while Maria held onto the robot for as long as she could. Though, obviously, the robot was stronger than her and he managed to wriggle out of her grasp. He hit her, which sent her flying again. Though this time, Maria lost her dagger as she landed and it slid away from her reach. The robot calmly walked over to her while she regained control of her body after the bad hit she took. And as she started to make for her dagger, the robot grabbed her feet and dragged her away from it.

As he let go, Maria was prepared to wrap her legs around its torso and make a cool Widow-move on it. Though instead of letting her do so, the robot bent down and placed its hands around her throat, lifting her up as it choked her. Luckily, before the robot could make her truly start to choke, Thor smashed his hammer into the back of the robot, making it crumble into pieces while Maria once again, fell to the floor. He offered his hand to Maria which she took gratefully before fighting alongside of the Asgardian.

Her eyes landed on one robot who flew towards the gaping hole in the wall, holding the scepter of Loki.

Though she didn't have time to react to it much as Steve's shield flew past her and hit the last robot left to fight. Now, only Ultron was left and all Avengers and their friends included, turned towards him.

"That was dramatic," he said. "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?" Ultron walked over to the parts of the suit that had been standing the longest before he took up the head of it, crushing it with his hand as he continued to speak. "With these? These puppets… There's only one path to peace. The Avengers' extinction."

Maria gasped at Ultron's words and as if on que with her worry and horror, Thor threw his hammer at Ultron, breaking him apart as well. Though Maria was sure it wasn't the end of Ultron. Something in the way he had been speaking and not running away from them told Maria that this body wasn't the only one he could use.

"I had strings… But now I'm free…" The Disney melody was sung from the crumbled parts of Ultron as the lights shining through the eyes of the deformed head of Ultron died out.

"Loki's scepter," breathed Maria. "He took it."

Thor looked at her shocked before taking off through the hole in the wall, possibly to trace them to wherever they were going.

"What just happened?" asked Sam as he walked up to Maria, his question directed to everyone.

"I don't know… But I think Stark and Banner know," said Steve, crossing his arms over his chest as he turned towards the two scientists.

Bruce looked over at Tony, seeming to be trying to find help in where to start. However, Tony didn't look at Bruce. His eyes were still on the broken suit which Ultron had been using earlier, a look of horror on his face. As he noticed all eyes were on him, he turned and walked up towards the labs instead, everyone following him.

"There are no strings on me."

Germany, Berlin

Erik Dalton was sitting at the end of a long, mahogany table, eating a steak with a side of mashed potatoes, peacefully and calmly. A glass of wine was standing before him and a quivering butler was standing behind him, ready to pour more wine into the glass whenever it was needed. The butler's eyes were fixed on Erik's wine for he didn't want to see what was left of the rest of the guests.

Some of Erik's men were standing by the door, cleaning their guns which had only recently been used. They weren't talking to each other, knowing their boss wanted to eat in silence.

It had been a business dinner in which Erik was going to meet up with what was left of Hydra after Strucker's downfall. Word had spread fast that Strucker was now in jail for life which left an opening for the role of the leader of Hydra. The dinner had been held at someone's house, hence why there was butler serving them. Though when Erik had informed the other goons that he was open to take on the role Baron von Strucker had left behind, they had laughed at him. He had continued to persuade them, trying to make them see that he knew what Strucker had been working with better than they did as he had been helping him slightly. Though they still laughed at him.

"You? Last time I heard, you only joined Hydra because your little girl would be safe that way. You ain't loyal," they had said.

In a fit of rage, Erik had given the sign to his men who immediately put bullets through each goons' head. Now, their plates of steak were bloody and messy.

Anyone who tried to remind Erik of his past would always end up the same way. Unfortunately for them, they hadn't known that.

Putting down his cutlery on his now empty plate, Erik used the white napkin that had been given to him at the start of the fancy dinner, to wipe his mouth before also wiping away the splatters of blood from his face.

"Desert, please," he said, the butler seeming quite shocked at his words.

"A-Are you sure, sir? Don't you think it would be nicer if you'd eat in a-a different roo-"

"Desert, please," repeated Erik with a determined and angered look sent towards the butler.

"Of course, sir," the butler said, immediately putting down the bottle of wine and grabbing Erik's plate, taking it and bringing it inside of the kitchen.

Erik had watched the butler intensely and come to the conclusion he was too afraid to stay quiet about what had happened. And so, he looked over at his right hand thug - Harry – before nodding towards the kitchen door and silently ordering him to kill the staff in there.

"Sir!" another thug called as the doors of the kitchen swung close, muffling the noises of murder. "Sir, you've got a… message."

Erik, raised an eyebrow at the thug before waving him over. "What message?"

"An… E-mail, sir," said the thug, showing the phone to Erik who cocked his head to the side.

"Ultron? Is this anyone we know?"

"No, sir. Word has it, he attacked the Avengers at their base."

"Ah, so he's on our side when it comes to the Avengers at least," said Erik, smirking. "I wonder what he wants our help with."

"Shall I send a reply, sir?"

"Yes… Tell him, I'll very much would like to meet him in person."