Temper in Red *Editing*

Chapter Twenty-Three

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

"And you do?" Bruce scoffed, glaring at Wanda. "She's not in your head?"

"She's not in anyone's head." I tried to assure him but he didn't even show any sign of hearing me.

"I know you're angry." Wanda nodded understandingly.

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

"Banner, after everything that's happened..." Steve tried to talk sense into him.

"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Stark cut him off.

"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda yelled at him.

"This isn't a game." Steve tried to calm everyone down.

"The creature," Wanda began. As she spoke I watched as Pietro used his speed to run across the lab, destroying the equipment.

"No, no. Go on. You were saying?" He smirked as the doors of the lab opened again. Without any warning Clint stormed inside, shooting the glass beneath Pietro's feet, causing him to fall through.

"Pietro!" Wanda and I both yelled as we hurried over to him, helping him up.

"What? You didn't see that coming?" Clint scoffed, using Pietro's words against him.

"Go ahead, piss me off." Bruce glared towards myself and the twins. He opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could Thor strode into the room, pounding the cradle with his hammer and causing lightning to shoot through it.

"What the hell did you just do?!" I looked at Thor with wide eyes as the body inside sat up. "Are you crazy!"

"Yeah, he's the one we should be calling crazy." Stark scoffed.

"What's that supposed to mean." I narrowed my eyes at him, wishing that I could set his ass on fire in that moment.

"Wait!" We all seemed to freeze at the familiar voice of Jarvis, Jarvis who was dead. All of our heads turned towards the body that Thor had brought to life, our eyes widened. "I'm sorry, that was...odd. Thank you."

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

"I've had a vision." Thor informed all of us. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at it's center is that."

"What, the gem?" Bruce frowned as Thor pointed at the gem in the middle of the body's forehead.

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

"Then why would you bring it to..." Steve trailed off.

"Because Stark is right." Thor said.

"Oh, it's definitely the end times." Bruce muttered under his breath.

"Amen." I shook my head.

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron." Thor declared.

"Not alone." The body corrected.

"Why does your "vision" sound like Jarvis?" Steve asked.

"We...we reconfigured Jarvis' matrix to create something new." Stark explained.

"I think I've had my fill of new." Steve shook his head.

"You think I'm a child of Ultron?" The body, Vision, asked.

"You're not?" I raised a brow.

"I'm not Ultron. I'm not Jarvis. I am...I am..." Vision seemed to struggle to find what he was trying to say.

"I looked in your head and saw annihilation." Wanda spoke up.

"Look again." Vision insisted.

"Yeah." Clint scoffed. "Her seal of approval means jack to me."

"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone, and they're nothing compared to what it can unleash." Thor told all of us. "But with it on our side..."

"Is it?" Steve looked at Vision. "Are you? On our side?"

"I don't think it's that simple." Vision shook his head.

"Well it better get real simple real soon." Clint glared at him, tightening his grip on his gun.

"I am on the side of life." Vision tried to explain. "Ultron isn't, he will end it all."

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

"You." Vision said.

"Where?" Bruce frowned.

"Sokovia." Clint answered this time. "He's got Nat there too."

"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..." Bruce began to shake his head, clearly unsure of all of this.

"What will you do?" He looked around at all of us. "I don't want to kill Ultron. 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. Maybe I am a monster. 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."

"Right." Thor patted Stark on the shoulder, grinning widely. "Well done."

"Three minutes. Get what you need." Steve told all of us.

"Come on, I can get you some fresh shoes." I offered Pietro. As we headed for the doors though a hand on my arm pulled me to a stop. I glanced up to see that it Steve.

"Barton can do that, we need to talk." He nodded for Barton to take the twins. Slowly everyone else left the room, leaving us alone. "What happened back there? Why didn't you help?"

"If I remember correctly, I did help." I pointed out.

"That's not what I mean and you know it." He shook his head. "Ever since we pulled you out of that cell you've been off. What happened in there?"

"You said we had three minutes." I recalled. "It's going to take a hell of a lot longer than that to tell you everything."

"Give me the short version then." He insisted, still not letting go of my arm.

"Fine." I huffed. "I don't have my powers, at least not for now. Happy?"

"What-" he started.

"Nope, time to go." I shook my head as I led the way out of the lab, trying to let everything go. We had an asshole to go and kill.