Note: Spoilers for 'Age of Ultron' and the 'AoS' episodes around then.
"Shifting Focus"
Fitz tugged on Hunter's sleeve, and met Coulson's eye. He tilted his head towards the office, and his two new friends followed him in.
"This isn't the best time," Coulson said.
"I've suddenly gotten a soulmark," Fitz said. "I've never had one, and it's… weird. I needed to tell someone, and I can't trust anyone else around here."
"Alright, mate," Hunter said, crossing his arms. "Show us."
Fitz pulled up his left trouser leg and showed them the writing on his calf.
"I see what you mean," Coulson said, his eyebrows jumping. "That's definitely…"
"Different," Hunter said.
"It's the same font computers use when they boot up," Fitz said.
"It would make sense for someone who's computer-mad to be your soulmate," Coulson said, his lips quirking up at the corners.
"But who writes that precisely?" Hunter asked incredulously.
"Maybe it's a robot," Coulson replied. Fitz scowled at him.
"It depends on whether or not you believe a robot can have a soul," he said.
"Or an Artificial Intelligence, like the one in Stark's building?"
"Oh God. My soulmate is an AI?" Fitz's breathing sped up. "That's… that's not right."
"I'll call Pepper," Coulson said. "Wait… uh, no. I'll call Maria. She'll be able to tell us whether JARVIS has a soulmark."
Hunter shoved Fitz onto a chair and stood beside him, a hand on Fitz's shoulder, while Coulson placed a call to Maria Hill. She appeared harried when she showed up on the screen, and glared at them.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Could you ask whether JARVIS has a soulmark?" Coulson said. She gaped.
"Could I…? No! We have bigger problems here, Phil. And it doesn't matter anymore."
"Why not?"
"Because Ultron destroyed JARVIS."
"Ultron?" Hunter said. "Who's that?"
"An evil robot who wants to kill everyone," Hill said. "Stark and Banner created it. We're in the middle of a battle here."
"When was Ultron created?" Coulson asked. His hands were clenched at his sides. "Can we do anything to help?"
"You have your problems, we have ours," she said. "It's seriously only been a matter of minutes, although it feels a hell of a lot longer."
"Minutes?" Fitz said. "But—"
"Where is he?" Coulson said.
"Don't fight our battles for us. Unless this is how you plan to reveal yourself to the Avengers?"
"Agent Hill," Fitz said, standing up and striding to the screen. "My soulmark appeared less than fifteen minutes ago, and it's in computer-style writing. If it's possible for an AI to have a soul…"
Hill stared at him, then turned her gaze to Coulson.
"I'll get someone to pick him up," she said. "Agent Fitz…"
"Whatever it takes," he said. "If I'm the only one who can stop him—"
"He wants to bring about world peace by eliminating the Avengers," Hill said. "Some of them don't deserve to be wiped out, particularly Barton and Rogers."
"Or Thor and those arms," Coulson added. Hunter choked on air. Fitz fidgeted.
"I'll change into something a bit more…" He gestured to his casual clothes.
"Wait on deck," Hill said. "Is there anyone you want to bring with you?"
"These two," Fitz said, gesturing to Coulson and Hunter.
"I have to stay here," Coulson said. "Hunter?"
"I'm happy to go with you, mate," Hunter said, slouching over to Fitz's side. "Anyone else?"
"Probably can't spare anyone else," Fitz mumbled, and Coulson shook his head. "And there's no one else I'd trust, anyway."
Hunter slung an arm around his shoulders. "Then let's get suited up."
"Maybe if we build someone for Ultron," Tony suggested. He only received dirty looks – and not the fun kind – for that. "Look, we all saw his soulmark on the security footage. Who'd seriously have a robot for a soulmate except another robot?"
"Maybe von Strucker made something?" Steve said.
"Look, we're following the trail to Wakanda," Natasha said. "That's it. The sooner we stop… him, the better."
"I should run handwriting analysis on the mark," Tony said.
"If it's online, he'll have found it by now," Bruce said. "You know that."
"If he's even bothered looking."
"He knows he has a soulmark. Of course he'll try to find his soulmate. Wouldn't you?"
"It looked like a written hand," Thor said. "Mortal or immortal, it seems that Ultron's soulmate is possibly a flesh-and-blood being."
"They're screwed," Clint said in a sing-song voice.
"So if his soulmate is human, it has to be a robo-phile," Bruce said. "Or an asexual."
"Please," Tony said, and he snorted. "No offspring of mine has a chance of being asexual."
"That's narrow-minded and wrong," Steve said, frowning at Tony. "Are you straight?"
"Yeah."
"Your old man… what's that saying? Played for both teams? Even made a pass at me once. His soulmate was only a few years old and I was blank." He shrugged, and Tony stared at him, jaw on the ground. "It was tempting, but he could also be an asshole. Otherwise I definitely would've… but that's another story. Point is, sexuality isn't genetic."
Clint hid chuckles behind his hand, shaking shoulders betraying his amusement. Tony just looked semi-traumatised.
"Now that we've turned Stark's perception of his father on his head, I should probably tell you that we have incoming," Natasha said.
"Who is it?"
"Hill." She pressed a few buttons on the jet's console. "You're on, Maria."
"Did any of you notice whether Ultron has a soulmark?" Hill asked. They all looked at each other.
"What makes you ask that?" Bruce said.
"Because if that's true, I might have his soulmate with me."
"What?" they shouted.
"I'm bringing him on board. He works for… a friend, and reported that he'd just received a soulmark in computer font, at around the same time Ultron came to 'life'."
"Can he be trusted?" Steve said, stepping closer to the monitor.
"Yes," Hill said. "He's SHIELD all the way."
"SHIELD-SHIELD?"
"HYDRA tried to recruit him, but he refused. Then they tried to execute him, and he ended up with minor brain damage. He's… look, you can trust him."
Steve sighed. "Better bring him on board."
"He's bringing a friend. They can help you in the fight even if Fitz isn't Ultron's soulmate."
"Fitz?" Tony said.
"Leo Fitz."
"He worked on our equipment!" Clint said, sitting up straighter.
"He's one half of FitzSimmons," Natasha said. "I've met them before. You should've said who it was at the start. They can't lie to save their lives."
Maria half-smiled. "I'm sure he'll be flattered that you remember him."
"Are you kidding?" a voice said in the background. "The Black Widow and Hawkeye remember us? Bloody hell!"
"Fitz, you'd better not fanboy over any of them," Maria said sharply. "Not the time."
"…Yes, Agent Hill."
They were soon joined by another jet, and a line between the planes allowed two men to zip onto the Avengers' ride. Clint was the first to greet them, and burst out laughing.
"Lance Hunter, what the hell are you doing here?" he asked.
"Hunter's here as my friend," Fitz said. "Nice to see you again, Agent Barton. You too, Agent Romanov."
Clint swiftly introduced everyone, kicking Tony's foot when the billionaire continued to play with his phone instead of looking up. He didn't speak again until they were nearly at Wakanda.
"I've heard of you, Fitz," he said. "Encountered some of your papers when I first hacked SHIELD's files. Put them aside for light reading, and instead it kept me up all night."
"Uh… sorry?" Fitz said.
"Don't be. Well, I mean, Pepper yelled at me for the whole engineering fury which resulted, but then Extremis kind of distracted us, so I'm pretty sure she's forgotten."
Fitz's mouth opened and closed several times, blushing, and he turned to Steve.
"W-what's the plan, sir?" he asked.
"We get you inside, arrange for you to meet Ultron, negotiate a peace treaty."
"I'm going with you," Hunter said.
"And if I'm not his soulmate?" Fitz said.
"Then we get you the hell out of there," Tony said. "You're not Avengers. This isn't your fight."
Fitz and Hunter crept through the vibranium storehouse until they reached the room angry voices were coming from.
"…Stark said that."
"What?" That was definitely an electronic voice.
"It was Tony Stark who said that." Fitz and Hunter peeked around the doorway. "You remind me of him."
All Fitz could focus on was a large robot. He knew there were other people in the room, but he'd never seen anything like this before.
"You think I'm like Stark?" Ultron thundered. "How dare you!"
He raised a blade, and Fitz knew something bad was going to happen. Before the blade could come down on some part of his enemy, Fitz leapt forward.
"Stop! Don't do that! Put it down!" he shouted, grabbing Ultron's arm.
Red eyes met his. Fitz's breath caught, and he quickly let go as the blade fell to the ground. A metal hand grabbed hold of his wrist, and Fitz couldn't look away. He swallowed, and wondered whether he was supposed to keep talking.
"Hello there," he whispered. "You… can talk, can't you?"
"This should be impossible," Ultron said, and Fitz's legs nearly went from under him at the confirmation. "But you're right here. Seems they were telling the truth."
"Where are your words?" Fitz said.
"On my back."
Hunter snorted, and Fitz glared at him, aware that his cheeks were probably fire engine red. He bent over and pulled up his trouser leg to show the words on his calf. Ultron squatted down and read the words.
"Can I see mine?" Fitz asked. Ultron's eyes flashed once, and he turned as he stood.
"They're under the tape," he said.
"Will it hurt if I…?"
"No."
Nevertheless, Fitz peeled it away carefully, and exhaled in relief. "It's my writing."
"It'd be awkward if it wasn't," Ultron said. "Leave that off."
He balled up the tape and threw it aside, narrowly missing the man with white hair.
"You are Ultron's soulmate?" he asked in a European accent. One of the Latverian twins Steve had mentioned, presumably.
"Yes," Fitz said, and he grinned. "Thought I'd never get a soulmate, and then today a mark finally showed up. Couldn't believe it at first."
"Well, no extinguishing all of humankind since you're part of it," Ultron said. "Just the Avengers."
"A-actually, about that," Fitz said. "Um, they were the ones who brought us here. My boss and I worked out that you might be my soulmate, and the Avengers were already on their way, so we met up and they brought Hunter an' me."
"Why are you here?" the woman asked, frowning at Hunter.
…Wait. Hunter's eyes widened as they met Fitz's.
"I'm the support team, so to speak," Hunter told her. "What's your name, darlin'?"
Her jaw dropped, and the white-haired man gasped.
"I am Wanda Maximoff," she said.
"Well, Wanda, would you like to check my soulmark?" he said. "Hey, Fitz, thanks for asking me along."
"Isn't this lovely?" the man sitting down said, laughing nervously as Ultron's head swivelled to face him. "Everyone meeting their soulmates. Aren't you lucky? I'm still looking, so, uh…" He trailed off and gulped. Fitz took Ultron's arm and pulled him closer.
"Sweetheart?" he tried. Ultron's head turned again, red gaze meeting Fitz's. "Killing the Avengers won't make people safer." Ultron opened his mouth… thing, and Fitz jumped in. "B-but if you want? Uh, HYDRA definitely doesn't want world peace. They want to kill anyone who opposes them, which includes me." Ultron's eye-slits narrowed. "Besides, think of all the people you'd put out of work. I'm all for electronics – I'm an engineer, after all—"
"What's your name, my soulmate?" Ultron asked, and his other hand touched Fitz's hair.
"L-Leopold Fitz."
"Should probably tell you my name," Hunter said. "Lance Hunter."
"I'm Wanda's twin brother, Pietro," the blond said, moving to his sister's side. Fitz was suddenly very glad that he didn't have siblings, and that Ultron was also an only child.
"I've just read all about you, Leopold Fitz," Ultron said. "You're the perfect soulmate for me. Now let's go and kill all of HYDRA!" He sounded very cheerful. "Oh, we'll still need vibranium."
"Why?" Fitz said.
"To make a smoother body for you to bond with," Ultron explained matter-of-factly.
Hunter sniggered. Fitz cleared his throat.
"We can talk about that later," he said. "Right now, this room's a tad crowded. I'm sure you can—"
"I'll check the surrounding area," Pietro said. "You, keep your hands off my sister."
Hunter held up his hands. "The Avengers will still be out there. Don't hurt them, or bang goes our ride home."
"Fitz isn't leaving me," Ultron said, his voice deceptively light.
"I didn't bring anything with me," Fitz said. "Besides, maybe you could come with me?"
"I'm not going anywhere near Stark!"
"No one says you have to, Ultron."
"Ooh! I like how you say my name. Your accent pleases my circuits."
Fitz blinked. That was a new one. "Right. Uh—"
Pietro ducked back into the room, scowling.
"What is wrong, brother?" Wanda asked.
"One of them," Pietro spat, "is my soulmate."
"Which one?" Hunter said.
"The blond archer. Clint Barton. Hawkeye."
"Oh, he's cute," the sitting man said. Ultron glared at him.
"Let's go… somewhere else," Fitz said quickly. "Come on. I think we all need to have a long talk, and this isn't the place for it."
"So how did Pietro and Clint find out?" Phil asked Fitz, relaxing back in his computer chair with the phone on speaker.
"Apparently Pietro ran right into Clint, who said, 'Where's the fire, honeybun?' It took Pietro a few seconds, and then he said, 'Under my feet, babe'." Phil laughed. "The four of them are talking."
"Four?"
"The twins, Clint, and Hunter."
"Where's Ultron?"
"Uh… well, he's here. With me. Holding me, to be specific."
"I look forward to meeting him," Phil said.
"He's looking forward to meeting you, too," Fitz said. "And everyone else who's important to me. Uh… and if you could draw up a list of people we want dead, that would be helpful. I, uh, mentioned Ward, so if you have a location for him…"
"I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you, sir. Ultron's keen to get started."
"I'm sure he is."
Phil smirked as he hung up the phone. Gonzales was gonna be pissed when he found out that they were getting a sentient robot at the base.
I had more lines after that, but decided that it would be funnier to leave it there.
Well, Fitz/Ultron was my own idea (because I'm weird and inappropriate like that, and this is a definite fix-it for EVERYTHING). Hunter/Wanda was requested by WabbitWanderer95, and Clint/Pietro was requested by Niom Lamboise, Child_of_Band, KarlaColt82, and steampunkunicorn. Have I missed anyone? I wasn't planning to write a chapter centring on Clint/Pietro, since we see them together in the film, so I threw them in as a background pairing. Now Phil has to write his 'Hey-I'm-alive-again' speech. Eh. Not my problem.
Okay, so I watched the finale of season two of 'Agents of SHIELD' today, and I have all these FEELS! And PHEELS! And I'll probably end up writing some stuff related to it in future chapters, but I thought everything was okay and then more bad stuff happened and now I want to curl up and cry and write many fix-its.
…Please review! And thank you to everyone who sent their best wishes for my speedy recovery. My left eye still looks scary because half of it is bloodshot, but meh. Could be worse.