AN: I recommend you listen to the song No Strings On Me (Ultron's Theme) above or on the side.
The way back from being in too deep of an act is harder then we realize. We don't even realize the point of how far we are in too deep of any act. That is, unless we have our breadcrumbs. As we put ourselves on the spot, we try to defend that spot we're standing on because we got ourselves in too deep. We defend that spot because it is what we feel is right, because that is what we have to do.
Even if it's not what we have to do, or there's just no other way to do so, some people have to make sure that their way is the right way. There is a line that has to be drawn when acting on instinct or thought. Doing more than planning. When to do what is easy and what is right. That is why we have to stop Tony from getting his hands on the cradle.
The twins, Steve, and I enter the Avengers penthouse, immediately heading for the tech room. We enter overhearing phrases Bruce and Tony use as they try to operate the cradle. Cords are hardwired from computer systems that connect to the cradle as it sits in the middle of the room.
Steve stomps inside the room to announce our arrival. "I'm only going to say it once."
"How about nonce," Tony says, trying not to direct the issue. He continues to stare at all of his tech as if he didn't acknowledge us at all. He walks from one side of the room to the other, then faces at the front of the cradle.
"Shut it down!" Steve demands.
"Nope, not gonna happen," Tony brushes him off.
I take my place standing beside the twins so I notice their body language along with Steve's. From the corner of my eye, I see Pietro shift his weight from one foot to the other. I wrap my hand around his arm to hold him back as he takes a step forward. I could understand him wanting to do something, wanting to step in to stop Tony. But just because the problem is Tony being stubborn, we shouldn't do something that only causes him to be more stubborn, it isn't the time.
"You don't understand what you're doing," Steve explains.
"And you do?" Bruce asks Steve, even though he focuses his eyes on someone else. "She's not in your head?" We all could tell he's still very angry at Wanda as he points directly at her.
Wanda walks in front of Steve. She faces Bruce apologetically, recalling her manipulating his mind. "I know you're angry."
"Oh, we're way passed that," Bruce says in a beastly manner, "I can choke the life out of you and never change a shade."
My eyes stay glued on Bruce at that point.
"Banner, after everything that's happened," Steve says, trying to take back the room.
"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony shouts.
"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda shouts back at him, trying to warn us all.
Meanwhile the conversation grows louder, I turn to Pietro and he turns to me. We share an awkward exchange and I shrug, not knowing what to do. Pietro confuses me when he looks down at his arm, and I barely begin to notice that my hand is still on his arm. Immediately, I drop my hand, quickly letting go of him but manage to catch him trying to hide a smirk.
I look back at him and then to the others in the room. I study the way he looks at everyone, how they're whisked away in their own arguments. I don't see the point in arguing when we have the weapon Ultron wants to use to "save" the world when really, it'll only destroy it. I understand that everyone has different ideas on what to do with the cradle, which makes them argue with everyone else. But if that's what they rather do which only wastes our time, I join in.
I look back at Pietro, and he seems to look—bored? Maybe he annoyed as I am. But when I catch him rolling his eyes, I could tell he was going to do something.
Before I could ask, he takes off in a run and circles the cradle. In the process, he blows gusts of wind in our faces as he dashes away from my side to the left side of the cradle. He stops right before I could blink. In his left hand, he holds the ends of the cords that were once connected to the cradle.
Pietro glances at me and I have to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing. God, I've missed him.
"No no, go on," Pietro says as he could care less if everyone really does continue with their pointless arguments. Pietro tosses the cords by his feet while he continues, "You were saying."
At the exact moment he finishes, a bullet fires off from beneath the floor where Pietro stands. It was too quick to see, but we all heard the sound echo from underneath us. Before Pietro could move from his spot, he fell right through the glass floor. I didn't have the energy or time to scream for him because all the breath in my lungs was taken away from me. Wanda though, instinctively screams for her brother as he falls below our feet.
I was about to teleport to him if Tony haven't said, "I'm rerouting the upload." I turn back to him, watching him stride back to the core.
Next, Steve throws his shield across the room. It bounces around us, making me form a shield of my own to deflect it from hitting Wanda or me. Tony catches it furiously and throws it back, only to throw Steve off by shooting at him with his gloved hand from his armor. None of us saw that coming.
Steve basically flies across the room and slams against the wall with a groan. Once I step forward, intending to go to Steve to help him get up, I sense something from behind me. I look over my shoulder and I realize I couldn't help Pietro, nor Steve. And as I witness Wanda put into a neck lock by Bruce, I realize I cannot protect her either.
"Go ahead," Bruce growls at her, "Piss me off."
"Bruce, don't!" I beg him out of fear, knowing he could really, really hurt her. But I can't trust talking him down. So, I raise my hand out to him and aim my powers right in front of his face to release a spark of light in his face to blind him and make him let her go.
I share a quick look with Wanda before she turns to Bruce, able to defend herself if he threatens her again. I get distracted by Steve, who throws himself across the room to tackle Tony. I throw myself on the ground, knowing I would have been caught in between Tony and Steve who flies through the glass wall behind me.
Then I hear glass smashing into pieces above me. More chaos is being caused by arguments all around us. Yet again, the Avengers were at it with their regular act of arguing that ends in a fight. As I raise my head, I smile to myself, seeing Wanda with her powers out, prepared.
Wanda gets the chance to hit Bruce with her own power and slips away from his grasp. She turns around, still using her powers that glow scarlet in her hands. She uses them against Bruce, hitting him in chest which makes him fly back. He, like Steve, hits the wall and wails in pain.
Thankfully, Thor enters the room from his mission he went on alone. He manages to interrupt this small battle because he heads straight for the cradle and everyone stops when they notice him. Thor jumps on top of the cradle and lifts his hammer to gather lighting from the lights above him within his hammer. He pulls it behind his shoulder ready to take a swing.
"Wait!" Bruce yells at him, trying to stop him but it was too late.
Thor slams his hammer on the top of the cradle, transferring power from the electricity to it. The blow of the hammer landing on the cradle blew sharp air across the room. Most of the air blew my tangled hair in my face. There was a white light in the room from the lighting but it disappears within a few seconds. The crackles of lightning startle me, but the unpredictability of what is to come frightens me more.
Then, the room grows silent. We all stand by, watching with curious and patient eyes, even though we all had the urge to know what will happen next.
The top of the cradle explodes.
Thor is knocked off from where as he was once standing. I hide my face with my hands from the blinding light and smoke coming from the cradle. I immediately turn back to look at what becomes of the cradle. Then there in front of us all is a red silhouette. I begin to gawk at this person or thing—whatever it is with wonder. Then a figure flies through the smoke, landing in the middle of the room.
I can't even start to define if It was human, or just any life form at all. All I could tell was that no human has red skin or golden gems on our foreheads. This, to me, feels like seeing a new movie for the first time, I just didn't have any popcorn to express my excitement.
Then It looks up, scanning the room, staring all of us down. It seems confused as its eyes study all of us. I feel goosebumps run across my skin under the leather of my suit as It's eyes stare at me, longer then he looked at the everyone else. When he comes around me in his semi-circle, It took it's time to look at me. Then It tears itself out of It's gaze and looks to my right, where Thor stands beside me. It sees him, and even though his exterior remains quiet, It lunges at Thor like a predator would for its prey. It lunges right at Thor as if he wants to start an attack. But Thor takes It by the throat and just throws It through another glass wall like It doesn't weight anything.
We chase after It once It stops in front of the large windows facing the city's skyline as It levitates above the ground. Thor holds his hand out to us before any of us could do anything. Then It looks through the glass and I suddenly feel déjà vu flash inside my mind at each step I take, at each step I get closer to him.
Back at Clint's house, I saw myself staring through the same window. The night skyline of the city on the other side of the glass plane, when really, it was only a glass meadow. Now I know there was a reason I saw what I had seen. This person, this human, this thing—whatever it may be—It took a moment to stare down at the city, just like I did. This was too specific and extreme to be called a coincidence. But I shake that thought away as I feel a breeze of wind from behind me, and the warmth of a hand pressing down on my shoulder.
Pietro appears behind me, his hand grasping my shoulder. I shoot a side-glance at him but he stares straight at It, wondering for himself who It is. Or what It is. I try to hold in the ball of words and emotions that form inside me to say or feel knowing Pietro is alright having almost being shot at. I new he's be alright, but it still shocked me to see him. . .
Anyways, I look back at It and I look around at everyone else who stands around to study what is in front of us. From what the Avengers have gone through, this would not be the top of the crazy list.
Wanda comes beside me with a similar look on her face as everyone else in the room. Yet it changes, and I realize she's probably trying to read his mind. Tony and Bruce were to my left as Clint and Steve were to my right. It and Thor were in the middle of this new semi-circle we form.
"I'm sorry, that was, odd." It says, apologetically. It nods to Thor when he tells him, "Thank you." After It finishes talking, It does something to itself a cape that was made out of nowhere. But no even flinched or bother to ask how he made it.
"Thor, you helped create this?" Steve asks him.
"I had a vision," Thor starts, "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope and life and at its center is that." Thor points directly at the gem on the top of It's head. That must have something to do with the answers Thor went to go looking for while we hid at Clint's house.
"What, the gem?" Bruce says, trying to comprehend all of this for himself.
"It's the Mind Stone," Thor explains, "One of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, in its structured capabilities."
Steve tries to ask, "Then why would you bring—"
Interrupting Steve, Thor admits something that changes everything we know, "Stark is right."
I gasp.
"Oh, it's definitely the end times." Bruce says.
"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron," Thor finishes.
"Not alone," It adds.
"Why does your vision sound like Jarvis?" Steve ponders, managing to ask one of the questions we all have wanted to ask ourselves.
"We can refigure Jarvis's Matrix," Thor says. "Create something new."
"I think I had my fill with new," Steve mutters through his teeth, hinting at the disgust in his voice.
"You think I'm a child of Ultron," It acknowledges Steve's attitude towards itself.
"You're not?" Steve presses.
It shakes his head. "I'm not Jarvis either, I am. . ."
I turn to Pietro and Wanda to see their reactions towards all of this. Their facial expressions tell me enough. "I looked in your head and saw annihilation," Wanda says.
The way Wanda looked at It, it seemed she was somewhat interested from It's mind, but frightened the same. "Look again," It told her.
Pietro, Wanda, and I turn to Clint and glare at him as he bursts into laughter. "Yeah, her sole approval means jack to me."
"Their powers, the horrors in our heads," Thor replies, "Ultron himself came from the Mind Stone and nothing compared to what it can unleash, but with it on our side. . ."
"Is it?" Steve asks, turning towards It. "Are you, on our side?"
I saw the way the team looks at It. We all wonder the same thing. Curious and worried, not about what we're up against, not anymore, but who we're going to fight with. "I'm on the side of life," It answers, "Ultron isn't, he will end it all."
"What's he waiting for?" Tony questions him, taking a step forward.
"You," It quickly replies.
"Where?" Bruce asks.
Once It says the name of where Ultron is hiding out, Pietro, Wanda, and I all look at each other all sharing the same facial expressions that can easily show what we feelings. "Sokovia."
"He's got Nat there too," Clint informs us. Natasha. Oh, how I already forget about her. How she got trapped in the truck when watching over the cradle. Ultron has her. I know what it's like to taken to an unknown place, vulnerable and afraid. But Nat can handle it.
"If we're wrong about you," Bruce begins, "If you're the monster Ultron's created you to to be, what will you do?"
"I don't want to kill, Ultron," It states, "He's unique, and he's in pain, but that pain will roll 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." It turns to glance at everyone of us in the room. "Maybe I am a monster, I don't think I'd known if I were one. I'm not what you are. . ." Yet again, It looks to me longer than the others. "I'm not what you intended. So there's no way to make you trust me, but we need to go."
Right as he finishes talking, It raises his hand that surprisingly holds Thor's hammer. It hands Mjölnir to Thor and he takes it, trying to suppress the bewildered expression on his face. Once Thor takes back his hammer, he lightly pats it. Everyone seems just as surprised and in awe as I am just having witnessed someone besides Thor holding his hammer. From what I know, only Thor could lift it, with such honor to do so. Then I remember that Evelyn and I once had a discussion concerning Thor's hammer and who can wield it. I said that Steve would fit the description. He's noble and humble and all to be able to wield Mjölnir. Now that we see It can hold the hammer with ease, this definitely means he's a good guy. He's one of us.
Or something like that.
"Alright," Thor says, patting Tony on the shoulder, "Well done." Thor fakes a cough, seeming to be lost of words.
"Three minutes," Steve orders, "Get what you need."
A tightness forms in my chest. I had an urge to smile but I held it back. We were preparing not only for a battle, but a war. But with It on our side, we have much more hope we can defeat Ultron and his army of clones. We can continue to fight in this war knowing we have more people working beside us, beside me.
The twins come into mind, but I think about Pietro mostly. I warn myself that before I would enter something I may not come out alive, I have to talk to the one person who may or may not want to be at my side as this war is starting to take place.
**
After I finish dressing myself and fixing up some minor wounds, I slowly step in a different changing room, but remain unannounced. I press my lips together, trying to think about what I'm about to do before I announce myself. But Pietro sees me at the doorway and it's too late to think of what to do. I'm hasty to say something, but the look on his face tells me I don't need to.
Wanda looks over at her brother and then follows where his eyes lead. To me. I smile at her once her eyes meet mine but she doesn't return the look, she only turns back to her brother, barely acknowledging me in the room. Pietro turns to Wanda as she slips on her strawberry colored jacket. She nodes to Pietro to reassure him, showing she understands and gives him support as her place as his sister. I make an effort to smile even though the tension was thick. Pietro walks past his sister to stand at my side. I turn to lead him somewhere in the penthouse where we can talk alone. The situation becomes awkward as he doesn't say anything, which must mean he trusts me to take him wherever I was going without his verbal consent.
We walk through the penthouse back to where we all talked with It by the window of the skyline. The other members of the team were either getting suited up or plotting with Tony in his tech room. The main lounge was practically empty for us to have a normal conversation. Though, a conversation between us could not be approached easily.
I stop at the window that It had been and stare out at the city's golden lights. Pietro stands beside me and stares through the window as well. "I just wanted to give us a moment after everything that happened recently," I say as a way to break the ice, "starting with what has happened between us ever since you and Wanda saved me, you know, when I was kidnapped."
"Do we have time to talk?" Pietro asks, with a heaviness in his voice, "I thought we were suppose to be getting ready."
"I convinced Steve to give us some extra time," I tell him. "But I didn't tell him what for."
"Andreya—" Pietro stops himself. "Andi." He sighs in slight frustration.
I open and close my mouth trying to puzzle together my thoughts. "I've changed my name when I started to work for S.H.I.E.L.D," I explain. Pietro just stares at me as if he was looking for the girl he once knew.
Oh, how I changed.
"That's not all that changed." Pietro says in thought, "You lost your accent."
"Your hair's white and you run fast," I say. "Things change." Pietro's smile grows into a smirk. Looking into his eyes, he begins to notice what I was thinking.
"Do you want to ask me something, or not?" he asks me with no surprise of the reason I separated him from his sister.
Out of everything I want to ask him, about our memories, his time in the project, his powers, all of those things I want to ask him. I even want to ask him why he was working with the enemy for the time he did. I know why he left. Ultron didn't tell him or Wanda the whole story of his plans. The part where it comes to destroying the world. "I want to know why you and Wanda went to work with Ultron," I ask him.
Pietro looks down at his white, brand new tennis shoes before looking back to me. "Don't you already know? We told you. Wanda and I thought he would help us destroy the Avengers," he answers bluntly. I was about to say something else but he continues, "You also know how we wanted a voice, for them to know what they did to us. But Wanda read Ultron's mind and found out his true plan—to destroy the world."
I continue to stand and listen, staring at the city so he could feel more comfortable talking without me staring at him. But I couldn't help the way his voice affects me. I look up at the glass to see his reflection in the window. I study the way his eyes focus on the city. I see the way he keeps his broad shoulders hunch over like their heavy weight physically presses him down. Guilt or sadness is written all over him. But if he does feel guilty of being on Ultron's side, it's not his fault.
My thoughts were telling me to stick to my true intentions. The little voice in my head told me to stay on topic of light and harmless questions that wouldn't cause Pietro to walk away from me in spite of the pain from his experiences that has happened in the past. I only want a moment to reunite after all the tension and fighting that has happened. After all the time we both lost, I want to use this time to be with him.
Or, at least, remember the times I was with him. "Remember that one year when we were around six—seven years old. . .everyday to school Wanda would wear that pink—"
"Tutu." Pietro finishes my sentence, breaking into small bits of laughter until I do the same. Then it's me and him laughing at the image of a little Wanda with braids in her hair and a pink tutu around her waist.
When our laughter comes to a slow and awkward end, I persevere on to the rest of the story. "Well, I don't know if you remember that one day when Wanda and I were sitting at the swing set during recess and Luka Freskō comes over to us and he starts making fun of her. He says that she 'was the worst ballerina in history'. . ." I pause, letting myself rehash the events in my head like they just happened yesterday, "I just shot up and walk right up to him and shoved him to the ground. When he fell down, he immediately started crying." I glance up at Pietro, who suppresses a smile that only curves up at the end of his lips. "After school that day, when I had to tell my parents why I got into a fight, I remembered that you comforted me when I was afraid how they were going to react." I turn back to the window, afraid to face his eyes at this point, "Just because I was scared that my own parents were going to be mad at me, you told me everything was going to be alright and you covered for me. You told my parents that it was your fault and I only covered for you."
I shyly glance up at Pietro to see his reaction, but only find him staring down at me. I shudder now knowing I am the center of his gaze, feeling knots tighten in my chest and butterflies in my stomach. I begin to loathe how squeamish this feeling is. The way he makes me feel as Pietro looks at me like I'm someone special to him. I've only ever seen him look this way to the girls he used to have crushes on, yet never dated.
I suddenly remember the fact that Pietro would never date any of the girls he had a crush on, even though it was obvious they shared the same fondness over him. All the girls did. He was the school athlete. The popular kid. But he would always tell us he thought Wanda and I would never approve of them. He always cared about what Wanda and I thought over the girls he. . .had an interest in.
But despite all of that, he always looked at Wanda with like it's his life's mission to protect her. I mean, she also does the same for him since they're siblings. He's only looked at me that way. But here, right here, right now, Pietro looks at me that way—with so much care and content. It's different. It means something new.
Pietro opens and closes his mouth a few times, probably thinking of something to say after walking down memory lane. I hold in a breath, allowing him to speak.
In spite of that small irrational fear, I say something instead, "I'm sorry I left you both with Strucker." Ever since I first saw the twins with Ultron—no, when I first heard about them—the mistake I made long ago has hung over me every time I look at the twins. "I promised myself that I would come back, that I would rescue you and Wanda, but I was too late. I didn't have time back then."
Pietro takes a step closer to me, leaning in a bit that causes the space between us seem smaller. "We're here now," he tells me, looking right into my own brown eyes. "You're here now."
I don't know if it's him or being together, but in this space between us, I could feel a sense of clarity. I remember when Ultron kidnapped me and how I curious I was that he did so. "Do you have a clue as to why Ultron would kidnap me?"
Pietro snaps his head back to the window, his face growing in disgust while shaking his head at the city. "Wanda and I were starting to question Ultron's motives. Once we saw you, alive and with the Avengers, he questioned our loyalty to him," Pietro pauses, looking everywhere but my face at the moment. "Ultron told us that he would do what was necessary to keep us working with him, but we thought he only said that as a way to scare us." Pietro turns back to me, his face filled with sadness that must be caused by the memory of what he must have seen in his point of view. "But then we found you, unconscious. . .and we finally knew what he meant. Ultron wanted to show us that he meant his words."
I swallow the lump on my throat. I hesitate to reach out to touch Pietro, still wondering what he would do. But now that my questions have been answered, I reach my hand out to hold his.
My eyes were focused on the ground as I become shy to see his reaction. I said what I needed to but before the conversation becomes awkward I bring up another subject, "I guess if we're not working against each other, we're not enemies anymore." I try hard not to press, "Allies?"
"No." I look up to Pietro and instantly, him and I make direct eye contact. But the look in his eyes could not be read simply. "Not allies," He simply says, with a lighter tone in his accent, "Friends."
Just as I step forward, becoming closer to Pietro, with an intention of doing something I could regret later, Steve finds us. "Let's go you two!" Steve calls us out and I unintentionally let go of Pietro's hand, stepping away from Pietro. I look up and I see the rest of the team head to the jet.
My lips slowly curve into a smile, knowing now Pietro sees me as more than someone working with him because they have the same goal in mind. I'm his friend again. It feels like a miracle, and maybe it was because in the next moment, he grabs my hand. Then, another sharp and uncontrollable feeling makes its way to my chest. I grip his hand with my own, intertwining our fingers this time.
All I need is his hand in mine. That's what lets me know that officially, there is still something between us. And that is enough to make me want to fight to keep it.