WELL THAT WAS a shit show. The team had just had their encounter with 'Ultron', as he called himself. He had been telling the Avengers about how they would never be able to protect the world if they didn't allow it to change. Said there was only one way to peace which was the Avengers' extinction.
Thor had had enough by then so he threw mjolnir at the last robot standing, which was Ultron. It powered down, not before it started singing a song, foreign to Olivia's ears.
Currently everyone was in the lab where Bruce and Tony had created Ultron, discussing what happened and coming up with a plan.
"All of our work is gone," Bruce solemnly said, "Ultron cleared out. He used the Internet as an escape hatch."
"Ultron," Steve muttered the name under his breath.
"He's been in everything," Natasha folded her arms, "Files, surveillance."
Olivia sighed, "Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."
Rhodey stood up, walking around the room as he held his arm, "He's in your files, he's in the Internet. What if he decided to access something a little more... exciting?"
Maria's head snapped up, "Nuclear codes."
"Nuclear codes," Rhodey repeated, agreeing, "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."
"Nukes?" Natasha questioned, "He said he wanted us dead."
"He didn't say 'dead,'" Steve nearly cut her off, "He said 'extinct.'"
"He also said he killed somebody," Clint added.
Olivia furrowed her eyebrows, "I thought there wasn't anybody else in the building."
Maria nodded, agreeing.
"Yes, there was," he clicked a button on his remote, revealing what seemed to be Jarvis... destroyed.
"What?" Bruce gasped as he walked up to the destroyed AI, "This is insane."
"Jarvis was the first line of defense," Steve said, "He would've shut Ultron down. It makes sense."
"No," Bruce shook his head as he continued to observe Jarvis' damages, "Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy. This is... rage."
Just then, Thor came storming in, grabbing Tony by the neck, lifting him off the ground with ease.
Olivia immediately rushed in, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Brother, what are you doing?!"
"It's going around," Clint commented, staying in his place.
"Come on, use your words, buddy," Tony looked down at the God, his voice strained.
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," Thor replied.
"Brother," Olivia groaned, annoyed that he wouldn't listen.
"Thor," Steve walked up, "The Legionnaire."
Thor harshly put Tony down, causing Tony to stumble. Olivia helped him from falling, patting him on the back.
"Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north," Thor said, "And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."
"Genie's out of that bottle," Natasha stated, "Clear and present is Ultron."
"I don't understand," Dr. Cho turned around to Tony (who had walked to the computer at the same time) from observing one of the destroyed robots, "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"
Tony started laughing, causing everyone to furrow their eyebrows in confusion.
"Mm-mm," Bruce shook his head.
Thor scoffed, "You think this is funny?"
"No," Tony turned around, "It's probably not, right? This is very terrible. Is it so..." he laughed once more, "It is so... It is. It's so terrible."
"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," Thor countered.
"No," Tony walked up to Thor, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."
"Tony, maybe this might not be the time," Bruce awkwardly suggested.
"Really?" Tony turned immediately, "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?"
Bruce's eyebrows raised, "Only when I've created a murder bot."
Thor stood beside Olivia, "This is ridiculous," he muttered softly, "He is so stupid."
Olivia nudged him, "Give him a break, brother. He was trying to do the right thing. I don't believe it is his fault."
Thor tilted his head before shrugging with a sigh, "Agree to disagree then."
"We didn't," Tony continued with Bruce, "We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"
Bruce shrugged and nodded.
"Well, you did something right," Steve butted in, "And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD."
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony questioned.
"No, it's never come up," Rhodey answered sarcastically.
"Saved New York?" Tony continued.
Olivia raised her hand, "I-I don't remember."
Tony turned to her, his lips pursed, "That question doesn't apply to you, Liv. You died, remember?"
"Oh, yeah," Olivia nodded, putting her hand down, "My dead brother stabbed me."
Thor looked around the room awkwardly as it came to a silence and patted Olivia on the back, both siblings sighing as they remembered Loki.
Natasha closed her eyes briefly as she remembered the worst time of her life.
"Anyway," Stark turned back around, continuing, "A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there," he pointed up. "That... that's the endgame. How are you guys planning on beating that?"
"Together," Steve replied.
Tony took a step forward, "We'll lose."
"Then we'll do that together, too."
✁✁✁✁
As Olivia laidback in one of Stark's offices, she played with her knives, waiting for Steve to come back up to them. Everyone was looking up information about Ultron and what he has done from when he escaped to now.
Steve finally entered the room, handing Thor a tablet.
Olivia sat up from the couch she was laying on.
"What's this?" Tony questioned, interested in what Thor was observing.
Thor harshly handed the tablet to Tony, knocking some of the breath out of him.
"A message," Steve replied, "Ultron killed Strucker."
Olivia stood up and placed her knives back into her void (without needing to see), going over next to Natasha as she looked at the picture that showcased Strucker's corpse.
"And he did a Banksey at the crime scene, just for us," Stark referred to the word "peace" that was on the wall from the man's blood.
"This is a smoke screen," Natasha added.
Olivia nodded as she looked away from the screen, "Yeah... Why send a message when you've just given a speech? Doesn't make sense."
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss," Steve suggested.
"Yeah, I bet he..." Natasha tried to pull up a record, but it was showcased as deleted. She nodded, "Yeah. Everything we had on Strucker's been erased."
Rogers shook his head, "Not everything."
The look of realization dawned on their faces and they immediately rushed to get records that were on paper.
Soon they got everything they could and met back up at the office they were at, setting the boxes of paper and immediately looking into them to try and find new information.
"Known associates," Steve pulled up another box, opening it, "Baron Strucker had a lot of friends."
"Well, these people are all horrible," Banner noticed as he looked through the papers that were in a file that showed some of them.
Stark furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at what Banner was seeing.
"Wait," Tony pointed to the picture Banner was currently holding, "I know that guy."
Banner took the photos out and handed it to Tony who looked through them.
"From back in the day," Tony continued, "He operates off the African coast. Black market arms."
Steve gave him a dead look.
Tony returned the look, "There are conventions, alright? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything," he glanced at the photos and papers in the file. "He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab."
Olivia looked at the paper in her hand and noticed a mark on the man's neck.
She went up in between Tony and Steve and pointed at it, "This?"
"Ah, it's a tattoo, I don't think he had it."
Olivia shook her head and looked more closely in it, "Those are tattoos," she pointed to them before pointing to the strange mark, "This is...a..."
"Brand?" Natasha finished, helping her out, knowing she couldn't recall the word from her limited knowledge.
Olivia breathed out, "Yes. Thank you, Tasha."
Natasha blushed at the nickname, but luckily no one noticed.
Olivia continued, "It's a brand. I don't think it's a tattoo."
Bruce nodded after his computer beeped, "Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief' in a much less friendly way."
"What dialect?" Steve questioned.
"Wakanada..." Bruce pronounced it wrong before correcting himself. "Wakanda."
Steve looked back at Stark who sighed before looking to Steve.
"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony trailed off.
"I thought your father said he got the last of it," Steve furrowed his eyebrows.
"I don't follow," Bruce stood up, "What comes out of Wakanda?"
Steve glanced down at his shield, everyone following.
Stark looked back at them, "The strongest metal on Earth."
✁✁✁✁
Everyone was on their way to the Salvage Yard after Stark had told them that Klaue (the man's name) was there.
As they finally got there, they heard Ultron talking to Klaue, his anger brewing up.
At one point, Ultron did cut off Klaue's arm. Olivia nearly winced as she then saw Ultron kicking him down the stairs.
Fortunately, Tony (along with Steve, Thor and Olivia beside him) arrived right on time, flying down from his Iron Man suit oh-so-dramatically.
"Ah, Junior," he landed on the ground, in the middle of Thor and Steve, "You're gonna break your old man's heart."
Ultron turned around, along with two teenagers, one of which Olivia recognized.
Ultron shrugged as he took a few steps foward, "If I have to."
"Nobody has to break anything," Thor tried to reason with the robot.
"Clearly you've never made an omelet," Ultron replied.
"He beat me by one second," Stark mused.
Olivia rolled her eyes, but knew a part of her was laughing.
"Ah, yes," the teen with bleached blonde hair started sarcastically, "He's funny," he then began to take a few steps forward, his sister following close behind, "Mr. Stark. It's what? Comfortable? Like old times?"
"This was never my life," Steve spoke, "You two can still walk away from this."
"Oh, we will," the brunette sister responded in a sarcastic tone.
"I know you've suffered."
Ultron scoffs, nearly cutting off Steve. He chuckled, "Captain America. God's righteous man. Pretending you could live without a war," he chuckled lightly. "I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but—"
"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it," Olivia pulled out a weapon secretly, knowing this probably won't go they way they wanted.
But then again, when does it ever?
"I think you're confusing 'peace' with 'quiet', Agent," Ultron retorted.
"Uh-huh," Tony moved past it. "What's the vibranium for?"
"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan," Ultron's metal face contorted in a slight smile.
"Boring!" Olivia shouted before attempting to throw the sword at the large robot.
At Liv's words, everyone began to fight (aside from Natasha and Clint), using their powers, technology or skills as their secret weapon/strategy.
Ultron dug a Tony first, pulling him through some kind of magnetic force proceeded by shooting laser beams from his fingers. Tony got up quickly and immediately Ultron and him started fighting.
Other robots started coming at Steve, Thor and Olivia, prompting them to fight back instantaneously.
Just then, the blonde boy crashed into Thor, messing him up. Next it was Olivia whom he ran into from far away, throwing her back.
He ran to her, only to make sure he hadn't killed her, only seriously injure her. (He wasn't sure if she was one of the OG Avengers, so he decided to let her live).
Lucky for Olivia, she was only slightly injured with a few already-forming bruises.
Olivia groaned as she looked up at the teen. "I thought I told you to go home, kid."
"First of all, my name's not kid," the boy raised his finger up. "My name's Pietro. Second of all, I don't have a home, new-avenger-lady."
Ignoring the last statement, Olivia continued, "I don't have a home, too, kid. I know it's hard, but you probably shouldn't be trying to kill other people."
"It's the only other way to get revenge."
"How about you start by getting a home first?"
"How about you start by getting a home first?"
Olivia chuckled as she stood up, slightly groaning. Pietro chuckled as well, part of him forgetting about the fight.
Liv narrowed her eyes at him, "We bonding over the fact we have no homes?"
"I think we are," Pietro winced. He looked back at Liv before saluted and left, "See you around, Miss Lady."
"See you around, kid," Olivia nodded. She then was about to summon a weapon to continue fighting with robots that seemed to be coming her way, but that was postponed when suddenly she was in a whole new place.
Olivia furrowed her eyebrows, looking at the sight behind her. It was a redhead girl, sitting in front of a blonde girl who looked like a younger version of Liv.
Olivia stared at the engagement ring in Natalia's hand, dumbfounded. Natalia had brought it out in the morning when all the other girls were in the bathroom, leaving them alone.
"Olivia, will you please marry me?" she asked, "When we get out, I wanna marry you."
"Yeah," Olivia broke out of her trance, her face breaking out in a wide grin, "Yeah, I will."
Natalia exhaled a breath of relief as she slid the ring on Olivia's finger.
The redhead had found the ring when she was a child, and no matter how hard she tried to make it hers, it never felt like it. So she kept it, hoping one day she could find the rightful person to give it to. When Natalia and Olivia started dating, she looked between the ring and Olivia, and right then and there, she knew it belonged to the blonde.
"What are we gonna do now?" Olivia asked as she smiled.
Natalia chuckled, "We-"
"Romanova!" A man called out, "Report to Madame B.!"
Natalia immediately stood up, "Yes, sir," she answered before turning around, kissing Olivia on the cheek, "I'll be right back."
And with that, she left to see Madame, awaiting to hear the information she needed.
Olivia decided to follow the teenager she figured out to be Natasha, but was suddenly engulfed in a bright while light.
And there it was. All of her memories crashing back into her brain.
Olivia fell to the ground, her breathing labored as she gripped her head, the pain overwhelming.
Instead of feeling relieved, it felt like someone was stabbing millions of knives into her brain.
Olivia began to shake as she buried her face in her hands, everything bottled up inside of her, waiting to be exploded.
It was scary, feeling like a ticking time bomb that could go off at any second.
Nevertheless, Olivia stood up and decided to go find the rest of the team, even if her whole body was trembling enormously.
As she looked, though, everyone was in pain, on the ground, reliving their worst fears.
Olivia knew what hers was.
Remembering.