After stopping the train, Wanda went over to an out of breath Pietro.
"I'm fine," Pietro said. "I just need to take a minute."
"I'm very tempted not to give you one," Steve retorted.
"The Cradle, did you get it?" Wanda asked.
"Stark will take care of it."
"No, he won't."
"You don't know what you're talking about, Stark's not crazy."
"He will do anything to make things right."
Steve frowned. "Stark, come in. Stark. Anyone on comms?"
"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?"
---
After Clint and Elliot had taken the Cradle to Tony and Bruce, they asked, "Anything on Nat?"
"Haven't heard," Tony replied. "But she's alive, or Ultron'd be rubbing our faces in it."
"This is sealed tight," Clint informed.
"We're going to need to access the program, break it down from within," Bruce said.
"Hm," Tony hummed. "Any chance Natasha might leave you two a message, outside the Internet, old school spy stuff?"
"There's some nets Elliot and I can cast. Yeah, all right," Clint agreed. "We'll find her." The brothers left.
"I can work on tissue degeneration, if you can fry whatever operational system Cho implanted," Bruce told Tony.
"Yeah, about that," Tony said.
Bruce looked at Tony. "No."
"You have to trust me."
"Kinda don't."
"Our ally? The guy protecting the military's nuclear codes? I found him." He brought up the 3D image of JARVIS' consciousness.
"Hello, Dr. Banner," JARVIS greeted.
"Ultron didn't go after JARVIS 'cause he was angry. He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do. So JARVIS went underground. Okay? Scattered, dumped his memory. But not his protocols. He didn't even know he was in there, until I pieced him together."
"So, you want me to help you put JARVIS into this thing?" Bruce asked.
"No, of course not! I want to help you put JARVIS into this thing." Bruce shook his head. "We're out of my field here. You know bio-organics better than anyone."
"And you just assume that JARVIS' operational matrix can beat Ultron's?"
"JARVIS has been beating him from inside without knowing it. This is the opportunity, we can create Ultron's perfect self, without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality. We have to."
"I believe it's worth a go," JARVIS agreed.
"No, I'm in a loop!" Bruce cried. "I'm caught in a time loop, this is exactly where it all went wrong."
"I know, I know," Tony said. "I know what everyone's going to say, but they're already saying it. We're mad scientists. We're monsters, buddy. You gotta own it. Make a stand." Bruce shook his head. "It's not a loop. It's the end of the line."
SOKOVIA BASE
As Natasha became conscious, Ultron said, "I wasn't sure you'd wake up. I hoped you would, I wanted to show you something. I don't have anyone else. I think a lot about meteors, the purity of them. Boom! The end, start again. The world made clean for the new man to rebuild. I was meant to be new. I was meant to be beautiful. The world would've looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy. Instead they'll look up in horror because of you. You've wounded me. I give you full marks for that. But, like the man said, "What doesn't kill me..."" a bigger body of Ultron's destroyed him, ""...just makes me stronger." He locked Natasha in a cell.
---
Clint and Elliot got a Morse code message from Natasha and were able to detect her location.
Elliot smiled as he said, "That's my girl."
---
At the same time, Tony and Bruce were experimenting on the synthetic body.
"This framework is not compatible," Tony said.
"The genetic coding tower's at ninety-seven percent," Bruce told him. "You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes."
Steve and the twins showed up at the lab before the the super soldier said, "I'm gonna say this once."
"How about "nonce"?" Tony shot back.
"Shut it down!"
"Nope, not gonna happen."
"You don't know what you're doing."
"And you do?" Bruce retorted. "She's not in your head?"
"I know you're angry," Wanda said.
"Oh, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade."
"Banner, after everything that's happened-" Steve was cut off.
"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony interrupted.
"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda exclaimed.
"This isn't a game-" Steve began.
"The creature-"
Pietro used his speed to destroy the lab equipment before saying, "No, no. Go on. You were saying?"
Clint and Elliot shot the glass Pietro was standing next to, destroying it, and Pietro fell through.
"Pietro!" Wanda cried.
"What? You didn't see that coming?" Clint and Elliot asked, repeating Pietro's earlier words.
"I'm rerouting the upload," Tony said.
Bruce told Wanda as he grabbed her, "Go ahead, piss me off." After some fighting, Thor entered and hit the Cradle with his hammer, sending a powerful bolt of lightning through it that brought the body to life. "Wait!" They all looked in shock at the new entity.
Vision launched himself at Thor, who threw him at a window, but he caught himself right before hitting it.
Vision, in JARVIS' voice, as everyone gathered around, said, "I'm sorry, that was... odd." He turned to Thor. "Thank you."
"Thor, you helped create this?" Steve asked.
"I've had a vision," Thor replied. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at its center is that." He pointed to the gem inside Vision's head.
"What, the gem?" Bruce asked.
"It's the Mind Stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."
"Then why would you bring it to..." Steve began.
"Because Stark is right."
"Oh, it's definitely the end times," Bruce commented.
"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron."
"Not alone," Vision added.
Steve asked, "Why does your "vision" sound like JARVIS?"
"We... reconfigured JARVIS' matrix to create something new," Tony explained.
"I think I've had my fill of new."
"You think I'm a child of Ultron?" Vision questioned.
"You're not?"
"I'm not Ultron. I'm not JARVIS. I am... I am."
"I looked in your head and saw annihilation," Wanda said.
"Look again."
"Yeah," Clint agreed. "Her seal of approval means jack to me."
Elliot nodded. "Zip. Nada."
"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 the group. "But with it on our side..."
"Is it?" Steve asked. "Are you? On our side?"
"I don't think it's that simple," Vision replied.
"Well it better get simple real soon," Clint and Elliot said.
"I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't, he will end it all."
"What's he waiting for?" Tony wondered.
"You."
"Where?" Bruce asked.
"Sokovia," Elliot answered. "He's got Nat there too."
"If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..."
Vision interrupted and asked, "What will you do?" He looked at the group. "I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique, and he's in pain. But that pain will 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." He held up Thor's hammer as everyone stared at him in shock. When Thor took it, Vision walked off.
"Right," Thor said, patting Tony on the shoulder. "Well done."
Steve said to the group, "Three minutes. Get what you need."
As they started getting ready to leave, Tony loaded up F.R.I.D.A.Y. into his Iron Man suit now that JARVIS was no longer available.
"Good evening, boss," F.R.I.D.A.Y. greeted.
"No way we all get through this," Tony said. "If even one tin soldier is left standing, we've lost. It's gonna be blood on the floor."
"I got no plans tomorrow night," Steve told Tony.
"I get first crack at the big guy. Iron Man's the one he's waiting for."
Vision walked past and said, "That's true, he hates you the most."
"Ultron knows we're coming," Steve warned. "Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire, and that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, the didn't. So our priority is getting them out."