(Soleil's POV)
They all stood in their spots, watching as the power faded from the suit that Ultron was controlling before the lights went out completely. No one made any movement after that until Soleil took a step, and then another as she made her way to grab her right sword from the head of the robot she threw it at.
She walked with a limp because somewhere during the fighting, one of her heels broke but that was the least of her worries. Soleil pushed over the torso so that it would lay on its back in order for her to pull the Khopesh from the head of the Legionnaire before taking a look around at the mess which was made.
She then looked toward the team with a half-hearted smile. "It's a good thing I wasn't planning on asking you all to help clean up. The cleaners, on the other hand, will be receiving a generous tip."
"This isn't the time for jokes, Soleil." Steve frowned as he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Yes, of course. My apologies, Star boy." Soleil smirked as she waved her swords flippantly before making them disappear and walking over to Tony who was seated on the steps. She knelt down in front of him, looking up at his face, and used her telepathy. "What happened?"
"I'm not quite sure." Tony told her. "You know as well as I do that Jarvis said he would keep us updated."
"Where is Jarvis, by the way?" Soleil furrowed her brows as she tilted her head to the side. "We haven't heard from him since then."
Tony's brows pinched -oh, how she hated that expression on his face- before his eyes widened and he grabbed her hand, helping her up as he spoke. "Come with me."
Soleil did not protest and quickly fell into pace beside Tony so he would not be dragging her behind him, neither caring at the stares they were getting as they moved across the room.
They passed Maria who was supporting Rhodey for a moment, Tony and Soleil walked by them and Rhodey turned around while calling out. "Where are you two going?"
"To check on something." Tony declared without looking back as they rushed to make their way down to the lab. Once they got there, Tony and Soleil were not entirely surprised that the Sceptre was missing. They would have been more surprised if it were still there.
Tony let go of her hand and walked over to the table where the Sceptre was once at, resting his hands on the countertop and exhaling forcefully as he bowed his head. Soleil came up behind him and rubbed some small circles on his back in form of support and he turned to give her a small smile as thanks.
"We'll probably need to analyze the Legionnaire Ultron took control of and gather the team down here." Soleil said.
"You're right." Tony nodded.
"I'll go and do that, probably will change as well." Soleil stated as she bent down, removing her broken heel, and then switched feet to take the other off before looking back at Tony. "You check on Jarvis and what else is missing. I can't imagine that the Sceptre is the only thing he would have taken."
"Yeah. Yeah. You're right." Tony nodded, responding almost robotically which made Soleil put down her heels on the table and cup his face to turn him to her.
"We'll get through this, together." Soleil looked into his eyes, gold meeting brown ones.
"We always do." Tony said fondly.
"I have your back."
"And I've got yours."
"I love you, Sweetheart."
"I love you too, Honey."
They shared a quick kiss before pulling away and moving off to do the task they had at hand. Soleil quickly went back up to their room to change out of her evening attire and into something more comfortable, as she perceived that this would be a sleepless night.
Keeping her hair in her slicked-back side ponytail, Soleil grabbed a plain white collared, sleeveless top and some high-waisted jean shorts. She put on some ankle socks and slipped into her air force Jordan 1s high-top sneakers before heading back down to the main area.
When she enters the room she notices that Thor is missing. "Where's Point Break?"
"He went after the Legionnaire that stole the Sceptre." Natasha answered.
"Well, that's one less thing we have to inform you about." Soleil pointed out and put her hands up in surrender when Steve looked at her, crossed.
"Would you stop joking around for one second." Steve ordered, the deep frown still resting on his face.
"I'm not playing around. So, I don't know where you got that idea from." Soleil brought her hands down as she walked over to the couches in the sitting area. Between the mess of it all, Soleil found Tony's blazer jacket and put it on before looking back up at Steve. "I was stating a fact, Steve."
Steve remained silent for a moment before changing the subject. "Where's Stark?"
"He's down in the lab. I came to get you guys." Soleil said and then gestured to the shambled mess that was Ultron's robot. "I was hoping you could take the head and torso of the robot down to the lab. Please, and thank you."
Steve sighed and moved past her without another look in her direction, picking up intact head and torso before walking away. Clint, Helen, Maria, and Rhodey followed after him while Soleil looked to Natasha and Bruce.
"I think you have the right idea, Soleil." Natasha commented as she gestured to her outfit change. "I'm going to go change and then I'll meet you guys down there."
"Sure." Soleil said and looked to Bruce, who was fiddling with his hands nervously as he looked at her.
"Shall we?" Bruce asked softly.
"Do we have a choice." Soleil stated rather than questioned as she chuckled humourlessly.
"You said we would have to face the consequences afterward." Bruce said as he started walking beside her.
"I also said that I was hoping for good results, and would just have to deal with repercussions of telling the team after we got them." Soleil sighed. "I'm not backing out here but I can admit when we may have bitten off more than we could chew on this one."
"I'm not going say I told you so because I'm partially to blame for this as well."
"Either way, you know they're going to place this more on Tony. They will use the excuse that it was his idea, to begin with." Soleil muttered angrily before giving Bruce a sympathetic look. "Don't take the fall if you don't have to, Bruce. But I'll be taking responsibility for my actions just as much as he will."
Bruce looked at her with a small warm smile. "I think you two are stronger than you give yourselves credit for. You know that is a tough crowd to face. I don't think there is ever enough room to have all the Avengers in one place without someone's pride or morals being questioned, and egos being bruised."
"We have our fun but as soon as anything goes south, our relationship turns to shit." Soleil said before looking away. "Oh, Fury. If you could see us now. We're back to square one."
"I don't know." Bruce chuckled curtly as they rounded the corner, the lab now in sight as well as the slight animosity in the room. "This could possibly be worst."
Soleil sighed deeply before inhaling as she exhaled out a sarcastic cheer before the two entered the room. "Yay~."
Tony sees them, a grim expression resting on his face as he calls them over to show what he's found or the lack thereof. While they check everything out, Natasha joins the room before Bruce begins to speak.
"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch." Bruce explained.
Steve leaned against a different table, looking at the three of them as he repeated the name. "Ultron."
"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha said, having looked over their findings as well. She turned to face everyone, crossing her arms by her chest.
"He's in your files, he's in the internet." Rhodey repeats as he walks across the room while holding his arm which he fell on during the fight, luckily it seems to be nothing more than muscle pain which he will feel more in the come morning. Rhodey goes on to bring up an ulterior motive that Ultron could have. "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"
"Nuclear codes." Maria looks up from picking shards of glass out of her foot with a pair of tweezers.
"Nuclear codes." Rhodey forewarned and then pressed on. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."
Natasha seemed a bit iffy about that outcome. "Nukes? He said he wanted us dead."
"He didn't say 'dead'. He said extinct." Steve immediately corrected.
"He also said he killed somebody." Clint pointed out, as he gripped the railing in front of him.
"But there wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria said.
"Yes, there was." Tony stated and Soleil looked at him with a raised brow.
"What? Who else could have been in here, I was in charge of the guest list..." Soleil's voice faded away as Tony walked to the centre of the room and brought up the 3D display of Jarvis's consciousness. Soleil's hands came up to cover her mouth and muffle her small cry. "..No."
Jarvis's once floating structured orange 3D display of his algorithm, now sat just above the floor in a distorted and somewhat disassembled mess. Blue hues could be seen in small portions of the display, easily showcasing the remnants of Ultron's presence there.
"What?" Bruce breathed out as he walked towards the display and stopped right beside it, looking at Tony. "This is insane."
"Jarvis was the first line of defence. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." Steve said, not looking at the display any longer.
Bruce shook his head. "No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is...rage."
Thor barges into the lab, his steps resounding harshly against the floor as he marches towards Tony who had his back turned to him.
Tony does manage to turn around about halfway before Thor grabs him by the neck and hoist him off the ground causing everyone to move.
"Woah, Woah, Woah!" Steve called out.
Clint seemed to be the only one that stayed where he was, just watching. "It's going around."
Tony grasped at Thor's wrist and forearm as he looked down at the God, voice coming out raspy from his neck being squeezed. "Come on. Use your words, buddy."
"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Thor glared up at Tony but paused in his movement when a blade pressed against his neck.
One of Soleil's Khopesh swords pressed against the skin of Thor's neck which began to sizzle. He looked to the side and was met with Soleil's cat eyes set ablaze.
"You." Soleil hissed out menacingly, pressing the blade deeper which drew a drop of blood from the God. Soleil was trying her best to not cry over Jarvis right now but overall, she was in a very emotional state and a tense situation. One thing for sure, she was not going to let Thor putting her boyfriend in a chokehold slide. "Put. Him. Down. Now!"
"Thor! The Legionnaire." Steve said urgently as even he could sense how serious Soleil was being, and the blade was not even at his neck.
Thor kept eye contact with Soleil as only his arm moved to release Tony who grunted while stumbling backward. Soleil growled at the God but moved her blade away from his neck before making it disappear once again and then moved towards Tony.
"Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the Sceptre." Thor looked towards them with disdain before turning his head. "Now we have to retrieve it, again."
"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron." Natasha changed the focus of their target.
"I don't understand. You built this program." Helen said, looking at the discarded Ultron robot before glancing at Tony who finished composing himself. "Why is it trying to kill us?"
All eyes are now on Tony, Soleil, and Bruce who were standing near each other. Tony being the only one with his back facing the group, starts chuckling which catches everyone off guard.
Bruce immediately begins shaking his head at Tony. "Mm-mm."
"You think this is funny?" Thor looked towards Tony, with a fake smile.
"No. It's probably not, right?" Tony said as he looked back at the group, catching Soleil's eye who began to snicker behind her hand as he continued on. "This is very terrible. Is it so... is it so... it is. It's so terrible."
Thor was certainly not here for how light they were making this situation. "This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand."
"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny." Tony walked back towards Thor, entering the God's space much to Soleil's dismay as she had hoped he would stay out it -at the very least-. "It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."
Bruce looked to Soleil to see if she was going to stop this again but she shrugged, and he decided it was his turn. "Tony, maybe this might not be the time to—"
Tony turned around sharply, cutting Bruce off. "Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls?"
"Only when I've created a murder bot." Bruce stated and Soleil frowned.
She knows she told him to not take the blame if he did not have to but she did not expect him to cave in this quickly.
"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" Tony pointed out and Bruce just shrugged at that.
"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here." Steve interjected himself back into the conversation as he walked towards them. "The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD."
"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony brought up the fact.
"No, it's never come up." Rhodey shook his head.
"Saved New York?" Tony added on.
Rhodey feigned ignorance. "Never heard that."
"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers." Tony looked around the room as he continued on explaining his point of view on this. "We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but, that up there? That's... that's the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?"
"Together." Steve said, matter of factly.
Tony looked to Soleil for a moment, the confidence in that saying losing some of its meaning as he looked back to Steve. "We'll lose."
"Then we'll do that together, too." Steve squared his gaze with Tony and Tony was the first to turn away.
Soleil did not meet Tony's eyes after that as she just looked to Steve who pressed on with somewhat of a game plan. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."
"Your plan's a bit vague there, Cap." Soleil said dryly before turning to everyone else. "There are only a few useful people in this room. Natasha and Bruce, I hate to have you guys stay up all night but would you mind setting up camp here in the labs. Keep your eyes on the screens, we don't know if Ultron has left a trace that we could potentially track."
"Sure thing." Natasha said.
"Of course." Bruce nodded.
"Rhodey." Soleil called out.
"Yeah." Rhodey looked towards her.
"I need you to make those phone calls. But for everything that is holy, be subtle." Soleil instructed him. "The last thing we need is the government banging at our door. They are still not over the whole SHIELD downfall and I don't have Fury here to pass the blame onto. I'm counting on you, Rhodey. I don't want to hear President Matthew Ellis blowing up my phone about a global crisis, if we can help it."
Rhodey took that all in before agreeing. "I'll do my best."
Soleil looked to Helen. "No offence, Dr. Cho. But your services here are no longer required."
"Yeah, this is...very much out of my field." Helen smiled sheepishly.
"Clint." Soleil turned towards him. "I would like you to escort Helen to the hotel where her team is staying at. After I need you to take them to the airport, we'll have your flight situation organized by then."
Soleil looked back to Helen who still had a smile resting on her face. "Thank you, Soleil."
"It's honestly the least I can do. An apology for what's happened. Most of our parties don't have such a twisted ending." Soleil smiled back before looking at Clint once again. "I can leave it to you that they reach their destinations safely. Am I correct?"
"I'm on it." Clint mocked a salute before looking to Helen who began walking towards him, so they could take their leave.
"Maria. I need you to keep your eyes and ears on everything. Ultron is smarter than we possibly have given him credit for or could be completely blinded by rage, meaning we don't know what he could be up to. Everything is up for grabs but keep your focus on machinery parts and weapons, anything along those lines." Soleil instructed.
"Alright." Maria nodded.
"Steve, you can help her out with that."
Steve appeared to be at a slight loss for words but recovered soon enough. "Sure. If I can help, I will."
"Thor." Soleil was met with a glare from the God and she immediately rolled her eyes. "Go cool off. Your brooding is not going to change what has already happened. So, you can come back and help when you have your attitude in check."
Thor was about to say something as he opened his mouth but Steve stopped him with a look, leaving the God to turn on his heels and stomp out of the lab. Soleil sighed and looked towards Tony, his head downturned once again.
"Tony."
"Hm."
"Go take a nap."
"What?" Tony whipped his head up to look at her.
"You are currently not in the best place mentally to be of use either. So, the sooner you take a nap. The sooner you can come back down here and help."
"But."
"No, buts. Go!"
"Jeez, fine." Tony said and began walking away to exit the lab. Once he was gone, Soleil released a long breath as she looked up at the ceiling and then back down at everyone else who remained in the lab.
"So, who wants some coffee? 'Cause apparently, the night's still young."
~~~
A busy night it was indeed as everyone was basically put to work, Soleil had started off with getting those flight arrangements ready for Helen and her team. Eventually, when Clint came back and Thor was in a cooperating mood, she had them two tally up the damage done to the tower.
The entire thought of having to remodel for the fourth time gave Soleil a migraine, and only further grounded her thought of not wanting to stay in the building for much longer. Tony woke up and got changed before coming down and Soleil put him straight to work with Bruce and Natasha.
Her main goal was to keep him and Thor as far apart from each other for as long as she could. With Maria working with Steve, Soleil was left alone and the gap that usually Jarvis would fill was becoming bigger by the second.
Leaving her to handle most of the stuff herself really opened Soleil's eyes to how privileged she was to have had an AI that could basically help her out with her every need. But over the past 7 years since meeting Tony, and with that; Jarvis, he became more than just an AI program. He was a friend then subsequently family, and that meaning would go to Tony more than anyone else.
Jarvis or Edwin Jarvis was a part of Tony's family long before Soleil had come into the picture, and the AI program was made as a tribute to him as one of the few supporting people in Tony's childhood.
This loss was certainly hitting Tony harder than her -but she was not far behind- and that was the main reason among a few others as to why she sent him to take a nap before coming back to work.
She basically felt like the caretaker as well as the supervisor throughout all this, as she monitored what everyone was doing and taking in what they were saying.
But also brought tea, coffee or water around and few fruits for them to snack on because she was not in the mood to cook nor order breakfast. By the time the sun came up, Soleil was currently working alongside Thor -having taken the higher ground to set their differences aside- in order to do a final check of the damaged area and items as well as remove the remaining Iron Legion suits.
Clint had stepped aside to make a phone call as the work was basically coming to end, on their part at least.
Thor dropped another robot onto the pile they had section off in a corner of the room, brushing his hands off as he looked towards her. "That should be the last of them."
"Thank you." Soleil said as she wrote it down on her tablet before looking to the bar, to take note of all the shattered glasses and any other damaged equipment. Her head buried in the device as she loosely directed Thor about. "Do you mind just setting any furniture that's not completely broken, upright. I'll most likely be donating anything that I can, and the rest will mostly be scrapped for parts."
She did not get a response from the God but she could hear the shuffling of furniture around so she just let out another 'thank you' and actually received a small 'you're welcome' in return.
Getting better. A small smile made its way onto Soleil's lips as she walked around the bar and started to look over the equipment. The sound of the elevator opening and Maria's voice cause Soleil to straighten up from her spot behind the counter.
"He's all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place." Maria explained her findings and then looked to Soleil who fell into pace beside them. "You were right."
"I was kinda hoping I wasn't." Soleil said as she accepted the tablet from Maria to look over the reports she found.
"Fatalities?" Steve asked the three of the ascended the stairs.
"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and 'something too fast to see'." Maria said.
"Maximoffs." Steve muttered.
"The enhanced kids?" Soleil questioned as she looked up from the device.
"Well, that makes sense he'd go to them, they have someone in common." Steve stated and Soleil had to sigh in agreement based off the report that was written about them.
It was a tragic accident and she could understand them being upset, enraged even. The only problem was despite it being Stark weapons that hit Sokovia, it was not Tony's doing. They had found tons of Stark weaponry that was still being sold around once Stark Industries came out of the weapons dealing business.
Stark Industries last line of weaponry became a hot commodity due to there no longer being a supply to meet the demand, this was especially big in the black market. There was no plausible way to keep track of every unit and every shipment that slipped under their noses.
They are only two people even with the exception of Pepper, but she focused on showcasing Stark Industries new image in energy and looking to future as per Tony's wishes.
It's just not fair. What is happening to them... Soleil thought to herself as the fact that they even volunteered for Strucker's experimentation only made her want throw up even more.
"Not anymore." Maria appeared to have brought up an alternative person that Ultron and the twins were after. Reaching over to swipe to the next image on the tablet Soleil was holding.
Soleil's pupils narrowed back into their slitted form as she looked at the image, in the prison cell that Wolfgang Von Strucker was supposed to staying; was him dead. He was laid out on the bed with 'PEACE' written in his blood against the wall, and you could even see a metal body at right side of the photo.
Soleil handed the tablet to Steve for him to get a better look as they made it the top of the stairs, hearing Clint's voice in nearby distance behind them.
"That's a negative. I answer to you. Yes, ma'am." Clint said into the phone using a hush tone before Steve interrupts.
"Barton. We might have something." Steve said.
Clint acknowledges him as he bids his farewells to the person on the other side of the line. "Gotta go."
Steve raised a brow. "Who was that?"
"Girlfriend." Clint said halfheartedly which seemed to get Steve off his back who continued walking with Maria while Soleil gave him a knowing smirk. He narrowed her eyes at her and Soleil snickered to herself before turning to look down at the lower level.
"Hey, Thor. We've got something to look at." Soleil called out and watched as Thor put down a single seater couch like nothing and nodded before making his way to stairs. Clint walked up beside her and she smirked at him, mocking his tone. "Girlfriend~."
"Shut up!" Clint chuckled as he bumped her shoulder, causing Soleil to laugh softly.
Thor caught up soon after and they all made their way down to the lab, meeting back up with Tony, Natasha and Bruce. Maria had gone back to keep her ears to ground for anything else should could find while they deal with what they've currently got.
Tony sees Steve hand the tablet off to Thor and questions it. "What's this?"
"A message. Ultron killed Strucker." Steve announced as Thor slammed the tablet against Tony's chest with only a split second glance at the man.
"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." Tony said looking at image, Bruce coming around and looking at it over Tony's shoulder.
"This is a smokescreen." Natasha pointed out before asking a question in hopes that someone may understand Ultron's methods. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"
Steve crossed his arms. "Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss."
"Yeah, I bet he..." Natasha turned back to the computer trying to bring up Strucker's file but only got the same results that she's been getting all night. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."
"Not everything." Tony said which got everyone's attention as he looked to Soleil. "Do you still have those boxes that were recovered?"
Soleil titled her head in confusion before it clicked. "Oh, yeah! I do."
"What boxes?" Steve questioned.
"Let's walk and I'll explain." Soleil said as she turned around. "This goes back to 2012 after Tony hacked into SHIELD's system to find out about what they were keeping a secret. Once Fury deemed that there servers were much too easy to be infiltrated, he decided to go back to more..old school methods."
Soleil opened the door to her office and let them all in as she continued to speak. "Keeping stuff on good, old-fashion paper. It was a smart choice, despite how much space it takes up."
The all watched as Soleil walked over to her bookshelf behind her desk and pulled at random book, her body blocking which one it was. The bookshelf released some steam before it began moving aside.
"After the fall of SHIELD, the DODC was in charge of clean up." Soleil said and entered the -basically- walk-in closet which had a regulated temperature in order to keep the paper preserved. She pushed out a cart with several boxes on it. "And I got my hands a lot...a lot of SHIELD files. The end."
Natasha smirked at her. "Not bad."
"Was that always there?" Bruce asked.
"You got your separate lab. I had to get something for myself as well. Though I did not think it was going to be used for storing SHIELD files, I was planning to use it for more Stark Industries' stuff. But either way, it worked out." Soleil shrugged before stopping cart in front of them. "You guys start with these, while I pull out some more. There was no order when they came in, and I was not about to make it my job to organize them. Sorry, but I'm also not."
"Well.." Steve looked at the pile of boxes already in front of them. "Let's get to work, I guess."
The team began going through the files one by one, as the documents were indeed completely disorganized. They started to make a mess of Soleil office but at this point she did not give a flying fuck to bark after anyone because the tension was still too thick between them, even if it was hidden under the surface.
"Known associates." Steve commented as he brought over another box to the table they brought out to go over everything. "Baron Strucker had a lot of friends."
"Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce said, discarding one file and picking up another to open up. As he began reading through it, the information seemed to catch Tony's eye.
"Wait. I know that guy." Tony announced and took the file from Bruce to get a better look. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms."
Tony takes out a printed photo of the man as Steve gives him an accusing look, which Tony immediately puts down. "There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very Ahab."
Thor scrutinized the image before pointing at the man's neck. "This?"
"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it..." Tony shakes his head.
"No, those are tattoos, this is a brand." Thor indicated to several darker pigmented drawings on the man's skin, while the symbol on his neck appeared to be raised skin after healing over time.
Bruce runs the picture through the scanner on Soleil's desk before bringing it the monitor to try and analyze the symbol. After searching through a variety of symbols, the system eventually finds a match. "Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief'. In a much less friendly way."
"What dialect?" Steve asked.
"Wakanada...?" Bruce answered before immediately looking back at the screen before correcting himself. "Wa...Wa...Wakanda."
Soleil raised a brow but kept her mouth shut as she thought to herself. I wonder if I should make a call to Nakia. Maybe she knows something about this Ulysses Klaue guy.
Tony takes a moment himself to let that information sink in before he looked back at Steve. "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..."
"I thought your father said he got the last of it?" Steve said, recalling the conversation he had with Howard Stark who told him when he first picked up the prototype of his shield that that was all the vibranium they had.
"I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?" Bruce questioned as he stood up from his seat.
Tony sighed as he stepped to the side and looked toward Steve's shield resting on the ground. "The strongest metal on earth."
"Where is this guy now?" Steve asked, all of them now sensing the urgency of needing to find Ulysses Klaue especially since this man was branded a 'thief' by Wakanda. Because if he has gotten his hands on some vibranium, then that is exactly what Ultron appears to be going after.