I was looking at the empty data file on the lonely holograph in front of us. My stomach feels uneasy but I swallow the tension down. This isn't the time to show off any of my symptoms or other emotions that can be seen as a weakness.
We all agreed to look into the system to find any kind of trace. Any kind of solution to adjust the scientists' failure because we all know it is no good to have a killer robot going havoc in the already broken world.
Only Thor went out to go after him. I could have too together with Loki. But I knew I wasn't in the right space with my mind, so we both agreed to help out in the laboratory. Although, I must admit, I'm not quite sure if I'm just a brick along the road instead of a better help.
"All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch," Banner says matter of factly with a hint of panic traced in his voice.
Steve sighs, his jaw clenched, "Ultron."
"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other," Natasha confirms and eyes me and Bucky who joined us later with Steve.
I take a menacing step closer to her although I peer my eyes through Tony's soul. "I've told you everything that you should know. And don't blame it on him." I point to Bucky who stands beside me, feeling unwell in this new situation. "He doesn't remember all of it."
"Enough." Steve steps in and stops our little fight before anything escalates. "What else do we get?"
Rhodey clears his throat, his eyes full of worry. "He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"
"Nuclear codes," Hill gasps.
A cold shiver runs down my spine. He can go through every file the Avengers owned. The files that once belonged to S.H.I.E.L.D. The organization that got compromised by HYDRA.
What if Ultron has the trigger words for Bucky?
And what if the vaccine-like injection Tony and Bruce invented doesn't work on me?
What if the gone-bad A.I. uses my trigger words? Though when I helped the Avengers to stop Loki, Fury assured me to destroy all the files but I'm not sure anymore if I can trust any of them now. Not when HYDRA went undercover as an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. My files and data can be everywhere.
My brain stops pondering the questions when Maria and Rhodey leave us since they need to make some calls to keep the codes of the bombs intact.
"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead," Natasha questioned into the big round when they left.
"He didn't say dead. He said extinct," Steve mutters concerned as he looks at the ground thinking about everything.
Clint chimes in, and I wish he didn't. "He also said he killed somebody and not to procreate."
"I saw nothing else within this area. Nobody got severe injuries." Loki turns to me and says in a whisper, "Did the robot refer to the power of yours to procreate?"
"Hold on a minute!", Tony shouts which makes me want to shriek but I stand paralyzed in my stature, either afraid of them knowing the truth or me spilling something out I don't want to tell. "Any other secrets you still haven't told?"
My head snaps upwards to hold my tears. I stopped breathing for a moment to keep myself sane. Luckily for me, Loki and Bucky step forward. Creating some kind of barrier with their bodies since they notice my overwhelmness.
"You are in no right to be mad at her. She has her reasons which only I can understand. I know it because I was there," Bucky growls, his balled hands trembling a little and his eyes well up, either it's from the tormenting memories we both shared or the anger boils in his blood.
Loki next to him, his body tense but his shoulders slumped when he realized what kind of relationship the Winter Soldier and I had.
He looks over his shoulders, his brows narrowed and raised before he turns around and threatens Tony, "I advise you to listen to the brainwashed machine here, Stark. Or else you must cross our ways."
Bucky glares daggers at Loki after hearing his new nickname but nods at him to confirm his last words to Tony. Tony is stunned, takes a step back, and shakes his head to himself to stop rolling any nonsense.
Before Tony can say anything, I step forward between the two. It's a lot easier now to talk with my breaths steading.
"Is now the later you talked about earlier?"
I deadpan and cross my arms with my chin up high. Tony bites his inner cheek and I take it as a yes, even though he wouldn't admit it now anymore.
"As you already know, I am the Goddess of Death. Daughter of Anubis. He created me and sent me to the upper surface to protect your species. I have powers of manipulating shadows and absorb powers but the most important power I have is to revive a person if the soul dies in my presence. I guess this is what your evil invention meant."
Tony's face turns from betrayal to understanding my situation. He walks into the middle and spreads out his arms which shows us a 3D image of something similar to a ball.
"This is insane," Bruce whispers in awe and takes off his glasses to take a closer peer to the floating universe. "This was JARVIS? This was Ultron meant by killing somebody."
Tony nods and I peel my eyes off him to look at his broken mind of JARVIS.
Steve says, "Makes sense. He was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense."
"No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't a strategy, this is...rage," Bruce explains in worry.
Tony smiles at me and I return him with a raised brow at how he can be smiling at the moment. This is not the right time to be happy. Not the time to make any jokes. This is serious. We have a raging A.I. out there and he's smiling at me.
"See, the perfect time to confess, Jazz, don't you agree?"
Loki growls at his remark and shoots a blast of his emerald magic. Tony crashes against the glass wall. Not a second later Thor barges in from his adventure of finding Ultron outside the tower. His wrath matches his brothers as he grabs a hold of Stark's throat, holding him up.
"Woah, woah, woah! It's going around," Clint adds, referring to the rage Bruce meant before which we all felt.
Tony begs Thor to use his words which Thor then answers in a mutter, "I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark."
"Thor! The Legionnaire," Steve breaks their little disagreement off.
Thor's eyes never leave Tony's but he lets him go and informs, "Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."
"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron," Natasha sighs and sits crisscrossed on a chair. If I had the strength, I'd ask her if she ever could sit normally but again... If she ever would, it would be out of her character.
Dr. Cho walks in and asks, "I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"
Out of nothing, Starks starts laughing. Bruce subtly shakes his head at him to get him to stop. I bare my teeth as I bore my finger into his arc reactor.
"This is not the fucking time to laugh. This is not the time for a damn joke," I hiss at him as a warning.
"No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so... is it so... it is. It's so terrible."
"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," Thor interjects angrily.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this," Tony snaps at me.
Banner walks past me, cutting my blow to punch this damn billionaire in the face, "Tony, maybe this might not be the time to-"
Tony cuts him off, "Really?! That's it? You just roll over, and show your belly, every time somebody snarls."
"Only when I've created a murder bot."
"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" Then Tony turns to me and Bucky. "And about you two. Why are you mad at me when I make a mistake?"
Bucky's nose flares and his jaw clenches.
Perhaps I would be too if it weren't for these hormones. But instead, I am reconsidering his words. Because he wasn't wrong. Well, Bucky didn't make a mistake. He had no choice but to be forced to be a brainwashed weapon.
Though me? I made a choice that led me to be manipulated, got tortured in HYDRA's hands and they brainwashed a Goddess who played the assassin they wanted me to be like a good girl.
"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than S.H.I.E.L.D.," Steve snarls in annoyance.
"Anybody remember when I wanted to carry a nuke through a wormhole?"
"Which you keep forgetting to mention, you had Shadow's assistance in doing so," Loki reminds him when he grabs my waist and pulls me closer to his side, protecting me.
I peel Loki's arms off of me but still hold his hand, circling my thumb over his knuckles.
With a deep sigh, I pinch my nose and confess, "I know I made a huge mistake and I'm being haunted by nightmares. That's my debt to pay but it seems not all of you think that's enough."
"Everyone makes mistakes. But let's get back to the nuke we both carried." Tony nods his head at me, a sincere smile now forming his lips. "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. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's... that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"
"Together," Steve tells us all.
"We'll lose."
"Then we'll do that together, too," Steve assures him as Tony looks at him for a moment before turning away. "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."
"Yeah," I mumble vulnerable which causes me to turn everybody's attention back to me. "Life is lonely up here when everybody crosses the threshold to the afterworld."