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 23~
Vision

Maria was sitting in a corner, watching Tony and Bruce work. They had attached multiple machines to the cradle, though she didn't understand a thing they were doing. All she knew about what they were doing, was that their goal was to get Jarvis into whatever was inside that cradle. It was a mad plan. A stupid plan. But she couldn't stop them.

How was she supposed to? They were her teammates. She couldn't exactly attack them. And even if she did, would she win? Bruce could turn and Tony was the Iron Man. There was no way that she, without any weapons, could take on either of them. Even with weapons, Maria doubted she could win.

"This is madness," said Maria, shaking her head. Her leg was bobbing up and down nervously and her heart was beating fast.

"Yeah, we heard you the first couple of times," commented Tony absentmindedly.

"You realize this could go horribly wrong, right?" asked Maria. "The others won't like this."

"How do you know?" asked Tony with a sigh, turning to look at her.

"Because – Well, I don't like it."

Tony rolled his eyes, turning back to what he was doing on the computer screen. She sighed, shaking her head again and contemplated on whether she should run away, hide and pretend like she hadn't been a part of this. Pretend like she hadn't cowered and not done anything to stop this. After all, if anything did go wrong, all the blame would be on her as she hadn't stopped them.

Her heart beat even faster at that thought.

"This frame-work is not compatible," said Tony.

"The genetic coding tower is at 97%," said Bruce from where he was standing on the other side of the cradle. "You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes."

"97%?" asked Maria, standing up and walking over to Bruce. "Does that mean it's nearly done? Oh God… This isn't good. You need to stop."

"I would do as she says."

The voice startled all three of them. Maria instantly recognized it and didn't have to look up to know that Steve had walked in on them. Though she still did and what she saw, shocked her more than what Bruce and Tony were doing.

There, behind Steve, stood the Maximoff twins. Though they weren't alone. No, standing beside them with an arrogant look on his face as though he had been right about something, was Maria's father; Erik Dalton. He still wore the same clothes as he had the last time they had met and he was clutching the gun fastened to his leather belt tightly.

"Hey pumpkin," said Erik sarcastically.

A surge of rage rushed through Maria at his words.

"I'm gonna say this once-" began Steve, though was cut off by Tony's words.

"How about 'none-ce'?" commented Tony sarcastically.

"Shut it down!" exclaimed Steve, Maria taking a step away from the cradle, beginning to round it to where Steve was standing, to show that she was on Steve's side on this.

"Nope, not gonna happen," said Tony with a shake of his head.

"You don't know what you're doing," said Steve.

"And you do?"

"Bruce," warned Maria. "You were against this at first too!"

"Yes, I was. But at least I haven't gone over to their side," said Bruce, gesturing towards the Maximoff twins and Erik. "Are you sure she's not in his head, scrambling about and controlling him?"

Maria was at a loss for words, turning to look at Steve and the others.

"I know you're angry," began Wanda, taking a step forwards.

"Oh, we're way past that," said Bruce. "I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade."

"Bruce," began Maria, though at the look he threw her, she shut up and backed away from him, finding herself, just like old times, next to Steve.

"Banner, after everything that's happened-" began Steve.

"It's nothing compared to what's coming!" argued Tony, cheekily continuing his work without anyone noticing.

"You don't know what's in there!" exclaimed Wanda.

"Perhaps you should listen to what Miss Maximoff has to say before you go making decisions that are not yours to make on your own," said Erik, crossing his arms over his chest. "Because, you are a team, right? I haven't missed anything?"

The sound of panic in Wanda's voice made Maria think there was something she knew that the others didn't. Perhaps she had informed Steve, Pietro and Erik before they came to stop Tony, but it was that little sound of panic that made Maria realize she should've interfered earlier and used more force. Albeit Maria didn't like Wanda; she was the reason she and Steve were no more after all, this was not about personal feelings. This was about saving the world and Maria couldn't help but think that Bruce, out of the two science brothers, hadn't quite realized this and let his rage control him (which was way out of character for Bruce).

In a flash, all the tubes were suddenly unattached to the cradle again. An alarm was bleeping on the computer screens and Pietro was now standing in front of it.

"No, no, go on, you were saying," said Pietro sarcastically, earning a chuckle from Erik.

The sound of glass breaking was heard before Maria saw what had caused it. And it wasn't until Pietro went tumbling down through the glass floor that Maria realized someone – Clint – had shot through the glass, breaking it so that Pietro fell down.

Wanda exclaimed her brother's name as she ran over to the broken floor, though Maria stopped her, knowing that the tension in the room was about to explode. Her hand held a tight grip on Wanda's arm and the tension that was obviously there between the two women, caused them to glare at each other.

"I'm re-routing the upload," said Tony, causing both women to look away from each other and up to him.

Before, however, Tony could even begin to touch the computers, Steve had thrown his shield around so that it broke every computer screen in the room. In return, Tony summoned his suit, shooting a beam at Steve which made him fly backwards into Erik, knocking them both down to the floor.

"Stay focused," said Maria to Wanda, letting go of her arm.

Quickly, Maria shook off her cardigan and grabbed her daggers, readying herself. Though she got distracted by Bruce grabbing Wanda from behind, holding her tightly so she couldn't move or help Maria.

Slowly, Maria looked back at Tony, her eyes wide. This was exactly what she had feared to begin with. Quickly, and without blinking, Tony shot a beam at her. In surprise and all out shock of what she was supposed to do, she let go of her daggers and raised her hands. She squealed, thinking she was about to get hit and thrown backwards like Steve. Though, suddenly, the beam decided to go around her instead, hitting the wall behind her.

"Wow…" she breathed in surprise.

Tony was about to shoot again, though two things kept him from hitting her. One, Steve attacked him, jumping onto him and distracting him. Two, Erik grabbed her and pulled her down behind cover before she could react. She quickly realized he must've used his powers to make sure Tony didn't hit her.

"Nice reflexes," he said, confusing her.

Wanda had broken free from Bruce, Tony and Steve had knocked each other to the floor again and Clint was evidently quite confused as to which side he was on. As Erik and Maria, momentarily forgetting about the tension between the two of them, peeked out behind their cover, they saw Thor arrive in the room. Though he didn't attack anyone. He went straight for the cradle, jumped up on it, and summoned lightning down into it.

Once the blinding light disappeared, a couple seconds of silence followed, before the cradle's upper part suddenly was torn open, throwing Thor off the cradle. Out of it, covered in mist and bringing an eerie feeling into the room, came a pink man.

Now, it might've seemed strange to most people. Though the Avengers had seen enough to not question what he was but instead question whether he was kind or not. On the pink man's forehead, a yellow gem sparkled as he opened his eyes. Much to Maria's discomfort, the man was naked as well.

He stood up, seeming rather confused and surprised as he looked down at his hand, moving his fingers as though to see what they were. It took a little while before he realized people were in the room with him. His eyes overlooked each and every one of them, an uncomfortable feeling taking over Maria when he looked at her, still crouched down behind cover only her head peeking out to look back at the man. It was as though he had all the information in the world about her, his eyes simply scanning her to see whether or not she was Maria Dalton.

It was when the pink man's eyes landed on Thor that he attacked. Thor seemed to have been ready though, as he easily dodged the man and threw him over towards the windows overlooking Midtown.

Everyone followed the man, standing up to get a better look on him as he seemed to hover in front of the windows, looking at the city's beauty under the full moon's light.

Thor raised his hand, gesturing to everyone not to engage him.

Maria was still standing next to her father when the pink man turned around in mid-air, slowly and without the hostile look in his eyes. Clothes appeared on him; a green, tight suit, and Maria noticed Thor placing his hammer down on a nearby table in order to show the pink man that none of them were hostiles.

Worry latched onto Maria's heart; she knew that it was now or never. If this pink, probably powerful man, turned out to not be on their side, they were doomed.

He slowly hovered over to Thor, who approached the man carefully. The rest of the team stayed back a little, watching with curious and careful eyes as the scene unfolded.

"I am sorry," said the pink man in what unmistakably was Jarvis' voice, landing beside Thor. "That was… odd."

He looked at Thor; "Thank you."

Thor didn't respond, though he did let out a sigh of relief; most likely, he had understood what little chances they had at having the pink man being on their side. A thought seemed to occur to the pink man and suddenly, a cape appeared hanging from his back; resembling Thor's.

In a way, Maria thought the gesture was rather cute.

"Thor, you helped create this?" asked Steve.

"I've had a vision," replied Thor with a nod. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at its center is that."

Thor pointed towards the yellow gem stuck to the pink man's forehead.

"What? The gem?" asked Bruce.

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

"The universe? Oh God… Not another big thing about aliens," mumbled Maria, earning a look from Erik who was probably the only one, apart from the ones in the room with super-hearing (Thor, the pink man and Steve), to have heard her.

"Then why would you bring-" started Steve.

"Stark is right," interrupted Thor.

"Oh, it's definitely the end times," commented Bruce sarcastically, referring to what Thor had said.

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron," said Thor, a heavy, worried feeling appearing in Maria's stomach at his words.

"Not alone," added the pink man.

"Why does your – uh – Vision sound like Jarvis?" asked Steve.

"We reconfigured Jarvis' matrix to create something new," said Tony, the Avengers now beginning to inspect the pink man up close, walking around him just like he was walking around them with curious eyes.

"I think I've had my fill of new," commented Steve, Maria silently agreeing as the pink man rounded her.

"You think I'm a child of Ultron," said the pink man.

"You're not?" asked Steve.

"I'm not Ultron. I am not Jarvis. I am…" he trailed off.

Maria thought for a while he meant that he didn't know who he was yet. Then again, it could also have meant that he just was. He existed and that was it. He wasn't something, he was something new after all, like Tony had said. Though she couldn't help but butt in anyway.

"Vision," said Maria with a smile. "You're Vision."

He tilted his head to the side, watching her, his eyes faltering down to her lips which were still curled up into a smile. A couple seconds later, he mimicked her smile and nodded his head.

"I looked in your head-" said Wanda, stepping forwards. "-and saw annihilation."

"Look again," replied Vision.

"Her seal of approval means jack to me," chuckled Clint, referring to the clear tension that was still obvious between the Maximoff twins, Erik and the Avengers due to what had happened between them earlier that week.

"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself; they all came from the Mind Stone," said Thor, earning a furrowed brow from Maria and several of the others in the room. "And they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side-"

"Is it?" asked Steve before turning his head to Vision. "Are you? On our side?"

"I don't think it's that simple," replied Vision.

"Well, it better get real simple real soon," said Clint, earning a look from Maria and Steve.

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

"What's he waiting for?" asked Tony.

"You."

"Where?" asked Maria.

"Sokovia," replied Clint, earning looks from everyone in the room to which he rolled his eyes. "He's got Nat there, that's how I know."

"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be," said Bruce as he approached Vision, a dangerous look on his face that surprised Maria.

"What will you do?" asked Vision.

There was a silence. Maria didn't quite understand if this silence from Bruce meant that he was most certainly going to Hulk out and kill Vision, or if he didn't quite know what he would do. Either way, the already existing tension because of the uninvited guests Steve brought along became heavier and Maria had the urge to start slicing the air to prove to everyone just how thick the tension was.

"I don't want to kill Ultron," began Vision, walking past Bruce again and looking back out through the windows overseeing Midtown. "He's unique and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the Earth. So he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net. We have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others."

As he said this last part, he turned towards the Maximoff twins and Erik, clearly showing to the Avengers in the room that they were going to have to suck up their irritation towards them because they were needed in this war. Maria felt very uncomfortable with this. Pietro seemed like someone who didn't quite talk to other people but his sister. Wanda was someone Maria had a real grudge against. And her father, well, to say she had a grudge against him too would be too kind.

Though it was going to have to be. They were going to work together to save the world, and Maria would simply have to swallow whatever grudges she had to save the world.

"Maybe I am a monster," continued Vision. "I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go."

The strangest of things happened then. Vision turned back to Thor and held out to him, the most shocking object ever.

Mjölnir.

Vision was holding Mjölnir, just like that. Nobody else had been able to - apart from Steve and Maria together though they didn't talk about that - of the teammates. And now, Vision was standing there, holding out Mjölnir to Thor as though it were the most casual thing in the universe to do.

He was worthy of Mjölnir. It had been the only action needed to convince everyone that Vision could be trusted.

Thor took Mjölnir from Vision's grasp with a startled look on his face. And as Vision walked away from them all, Thor looked even more shocked than he had done at first. Maria couldn't help but smirk slightly.