The suits come toward the group at full speed with no warning. Steve pushes Juliet away before throwing the coffee table at the bots. He wasn't expecting the table to come back at him, in Steve's moment of shock he is thrown back and hits the ground hard. Juliet runs to help her dad but almost gets attacked by one of the suits. Luckily Thor hits the machine with his hammer and Juliet sends him a quick nod before making her way towards her dad.
"Papa! Are you alright?" Juliet grabs Steve's face but he pays no attention to her as she assesses his injuries. He's trying to find a spot for Juliet to stay out of the fight. Steve notices Natasha and Bruce behind the bar. He knows that the duo won't let anything happen to his daughter.
"Juliet, I need you to get behind the bar."
"But"
"Juliet no but's. I need you to go. Now." Steve demands her and pushes her toward the direction of the Bar. Juliet sees Natasha and Bruce behind the bar and runs to the duo. One of the suits notices her movement and goes to attack but Steve jumps on it. Juliet makes it to cover just as her dad is being pushed into the wall. The wall breaks around him and the suit that he is trying to distract away from his daughter.
"Papa!" Juliet goes to stand up but Bruce grabs her before she could even move. She looks up at him and he shakes his head. Bruce adjusts their position to where his body is completely covering Juliets. If anything were to shoot at them Bruce would be the one to get hit.
Steve gets thrown onto the ground and notices that one of Tony's suits is aiming at Dr. Cho who is hiding behind the grand piano. Steve runs over to the suit and throws it to Thor who destroys it in less than a second. Juliet tries to see more but Bruce wouldn't let her move very much. She notices the fight is over after she hears her father throw his shield, slicing one of the suits in the process. Bruce also notices the fight is over and allows Juliet to move from his arms. Juliet frantically looks around and spots Steve. The moment her eyes land on him she is sprinting straight towards him. She rams herself into his back and squeezes him until her arms hurt.
"That was dramatic." Ultron says. Juliet can't figure out if he is saying that about the fight or if he is saying that about her. Either way he is the reason for the dramatics. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through."
Steve walks forward making his way towards Ultron but Juliet doesn't move with him. She let's go of his waist and stands where he left her. Juliet didn't understand his point in moving, it's like he forgot about her. Her mom always did say that he would get distracted and forget about those around him. All but one, and it wasn't Juliet's mom.
"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 questions the group but turns his attention to the girl left alone. She felt vulnerable under Ultrons gaze, why was he speaking to her? "With these? These puppets?" Ultron questions as he picks up one of the broken suits. Ulrton crushes its head like it was nothing and Juliet stares in shock. "There is only one path to peace. The Avengers extinction." Ultron looks directly at Juliet at the last statement.
Juliet goes to ask a question but Thor throws his hammer and destroys Ultron's body before she could ask. The body crumbles to the ground and before the suit completely dies Ultron says "I had strings, but now I'm free." Juliet knew that movie reference. She had never been more scared of a Disney movie than at that moment. She'll never be able to watch Pinocchio again.
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The Avengers now stand in Tony's lab as Banner looks through all of their research to see if anything was left. Juliet sits on one of the many lab chairs watching the group with hooded eyes. Her eyes are rimmed in red and now that her makeup has faded her bags are very apparent to anyone in the room. Everything is so new to the girl and being thrown into a situation like this isn't helping with her adjustment. She would like to say that she has done a good job adjusting to the new time period, but with all of this Ultron stuff happening she has never been more confused. She wished everything was as simple as it was when she was with her mother and Howard. When computers were the size of an entire room and only the most elite people and governments had computers. She never had to deal with robots trying to take over the world or kill her family.
That is what people were for.
"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out. He used the internet as an escape hatch." Bruce tells the group but it was meant mostly for Tony. They were the ones that were working on creating Ultron, and now their experiment backfired on them.
"Ultron." Steve states. His gaze never leaves Tony, who has his back faced towards the group.
"He's been in everything. files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha tells the group.
Juliet puts her head in her hands and sighs. Everyone looks in her direction for a split moment but she pays them no mind. Juliet tunes the group out as they continue to talk about what Ultron could have access to. Juliet's mind is in a million different places. If he was in every file does that mean he knows about what happened to her. Does he know more information than she does about herself? There is a whole gap of time that she doesn't remember. Does this mean Ultron has access to a time that she doesn't remember? Juliet is brought out of her thoughts by Clint mentioning that Ultron killed somebody.
"There wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria tells Clint as she picks out glass from the bottom of her foot.
"Yes, there was." Juliet and Tony speak at the same time. Tony pulls up a projection of Jarvis' database. Juliet shakes her head at the destroyed AI projected in the middle of the room.
"What?" Bruce is in disbelief as he walks up to the projection. "This is insane."
"Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." Steve looks down then looks over to where his daughter is sitting. He notices how she looks blankly at the projection of Jarvis. She leans her head against her hand and her eyes look to have a slight red tint around them. She's tired, he thinks to himself.
"No. Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy. This is rage." Bruce observes and the group can't help but agree with his statement.
Juliet didn't notice Thor was gone until he came back and headed straight towards Tony. The moment Tony was in arms length Thor grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up. Tony's eyes went wide before telling Thor to 'use your words, buddy.'
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark."
"Thor! The legionnaire." Steve demands from the god. So that is what those suits are called, legionnaires, cool. Juliet's notes to herself.
"Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north. And it has the scepter." Thor says directly at Tony.
"Wait, isn't that the thing you guys just got from that HYDRA base?" Juliet pipes up. The group was shocked that she was still up, she looks like she is about to fall over and pass out.
"Yes it is. Now we have to retrieve it, again." Thor tells Juliet. The girl nods before putting her head back in her hand. She tries to stay awake and listen to the rest of the conversation but sleep takes over.
The group continues to debate and argue. None of them notice the girl that has fallen asleep in the chair. They all question Tony on how he could have created a program like Ultron but he tries to explain to them that his work wasn't close to finished with Ultron. The volume in the room grows louder but Clints picks up on the light groan coming from the girl. He looks over in her direction and sees her completely knocked out in the chair. Her mouth is slightly open and she is letting out soft exhales through her mouth.
"Tony, as much as I would love to hear about your reasoning for creating Ultron, but was anyone going to notice the literal sleeping child in the room?" Clint asks and everyone's attention turns to the brunette sleeping peacefully in the chair.
"She's so peaceful." Natasha mumbles to herself but the group hears it loud and clear.
"If I were you Cap I would take my kid to bed. And a little word of advice, kids come first. Always." Clint tells Steve as Steve walks over to his sleeping child. Steve doesn't want to wake her up but he doesn't know how to pick her up from her position on the chair.
"Come on doll. Wake up." Steve gently shakes her arm and Juliet's eyes crack open. She lets out a groan and stretches out her body before looking up at Steve with tired eyes. "I'll carry you. I just need you to wrap your arms around my neck."
Steve kneels down and Juliet wraps her arms around Steve's neck. Steve picks her up bridal style and tries to adjust her in his arms. She lets out a groan from all the moving but ends up finding a more comfortable position before falling right back asleep. Juliet's head is positioned in Steve's neck and he can feel her breath. The group smiles at the father daughter dynamic. They all knew that Steve needed this, they all believed that Steve would make a perfect parent and here he is with a 14 year old daughter.
"To answer your question, Stark. I plan on beating that Together." Steve says before turning around to make his way out of the lab.
"We'll lose." Tony states. Steve stops for a moment before turning his head around to Tony.
"Then we'll do that together, too." They hold eye contact for a moment before Steve turns back around and walks out of the room. "I'll be back after putting her to bed. When I come back we can figure out a game plan." At that last sentence Steve is out of sight.
"He really pisses me off." Tony tells the group and they all chuckle.
"Yes, Tony, we know." Natahsa laughs out while the group nod their heads at Natasha's statement.
Upstairs Steve lays Juliet down on her bed and takes off her shoes. He can't imagine that the dress she is wearing is very comfortable but he's not going to change or wake her up. He adjusts her sheets and pulls them over her. The sheets land just above her shoulders and her comforter lands just under her shoulders. He watches as she moves around trying to find a comfortable position before setting down. Steve notices Sergeant Bear on the bedside table and he lays it down next to his daughter. He watches her sleep for a few more moments before laying a kiss on her forehead.
"I love you till the end of the line, kid. No matter what, I'm here for you." Steve gets up from his position and leaves the room, before closing the door he takes one last glance at his daughter. She moves once again and snuggles into her bear. Bucky would love her, he thought to himself before closing the door. Now he has to figure out the next move with the group. Great.