Novi Grad, Sokovia
Spring 2015
Nina was barely able to stand by the time they made it into the lowest levels of the Sokovian Fortress standing vigil high above Novi Grad.
Strucker's Base, Pietro had explained softly as they entered the abandoned facility, responding to her obvious anxiety when she'd spotted the evidence of a bitter fight everywhere she looked. The place where the Baron who had experimented on the Twins—and her—had been defeated by the Avengers.
Just ahead of them Ultron was gesturing widely to the cavern extending deep below the base. "We'll move out right away." At first, Nina thought her head must be going fuzzy or something. There was a huge creature hanging limply—or as limply as an airplane sized creature could hang—from the ceiling. And if that wasn't enough to make her think she was seeing things, all around it were dozens upon dozens of robots appearing hard at work throughout the colossal, dimly-lit chamber. Though, just what they were working on, she couldn't even begin to guess. "This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work," Ultron explained.
Nina wasn't quite sure if she was fascinated by Ultron or terrified. Perhaps it was an equal measure of both that had her unable to look away as he enticed them with the sight of his veritable robot army in the bowels of Strucker's fortress.
But then, her mind was still throbbing and fuzzy from fever, making it hard to think. But that didn't stop a shiver of trepidation from going through her...or maybe that was an effect of the fever too...it was so hard to tell.
Fuzzy head or not, there was something about Ultron that left Nina feeling particularly uneasy. And judging by the looks the Twins kept exchanging, there was something about him that bothered them too.
But his offer to let them help destroy the Avengers was evidently one that was too good for them to pass up.
Not that Nina could precisely understand why...she'd always thought the Avengers were good guys. They had saved the world from an alien invasion, for God's sake...including ones that, if her memory wasn't playing tricks on her, looked just like the one hanging from the cavern's ceiling from chains whose breadth dwarfed Ultron.
They couldn't be all that bad, could they?
"All of these are..." Wanda was looking out at the robots working out in the immense space beyond the ledge where they stood. Her eyes were huge with disbelief and wary fascination. And Nina couldn't blame her. It felt like her own eyes were nearly popping from her skull despite her exhaustion.
"Me?" Ultron supplied happily, propulsion packs on his back and legs activating so he could reach out and pull on a chain, activating a mechanism that had a huge piece of machinery moving closer to the ledge they were on. "I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant, disconnected." Nina was by now leaning heavily against Pietro, her arms clutched tight around her torso as her eyelids threatened to drag down over her eyes. Ultron's voice began to fade as he began talking about Stark for some reason...she was so tired...and she ached everywhere...
"Everyone's plan is not to kill them," Pietro's voice seemed to vibrate against her, the bitterness in his tone rousing Nina enough to bring her attention back to what was happening around her.
"And make them martyrs?" Ultron asked with a trace of disdain, as though he couldn't quite understand immediately why Pietro didn't agree. "You need patience," he counselled, obviously attempting to be encouraging, "need to see the big picture." Pietro tensed, his arm tightening involuntarily around Nina.
"I don't need to see the big picture. I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it every day." There was no mistaking the latent pain in his voice despite the accusing cast. Next to them, Wanda made a small sound, something between warning and misery. Ultron studied the speedster before responding, nodding faintly in comprehension.
"You lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records."
"The records are not the picture," Pietro dismissed irritably.
"Pietro," Wanda warned, her own pain at the topic seeping into her voice. Nina whimpered despite herself as Pietro's grip had tightened further still, to the point where it was hurting her already abused and aching body. Immediately he loosened his grip, concern flickering across his tight features as he glanced down to her. Nina's heart nearly broke at the hurt and grief lingering in his eyes.
She couldn't imagine...
"No, please." All three sets of eyes turned back to the robot. Pietro drew in a deep breath, gathering his composure even as he glanced to his sister. Nina couldn't help the feeling of dread pooling in the pit of her stomach at the hollow look in his eyes.
"We were ten years old," he said tenderly, gaze still locked on Wanda's, seeming to draw strength from the contact as he shared the obviously bittersweet memory, "having dinner, the four of us." She could tell even before he said the words what happened next, recognizing the pain surging up in his eyes as they grew hard, while next to him Wanda's eyes dropped, growing bright with a visceral pain of her own. It was hard to witness. It was harder to hear, especially at how...angry and bitter and resigned he sounded as he explained what happened, gesturing absently as he did. "When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. It's big. Our parents go in, and the whole building starts coming apart. I grab her, roll under the bed and the second shell hits. But, it doesn't go off. It just...sits there in the rubble, three feet from our faces. And on the side of the shell is painted one word..."
Nina listened to their story with growing horror, painfully aware of every change in inflection; how Pietro's grip around her shoulders would loosen then tighten again, his thumb absently rubbing against her arm, seeming to draw some measure of comfort or grounding from the contact.
It was awful. To have lived through that? She couldn't imagine the pain of losing her mom at all, much less watching it happen, helpless to do anything to stop it.
God, it hurt just thinking about what her mom was probably going through right that minute. She'd be driving herself mad with worry and fear. There could've been little doubt what happened outside their apartment, what with Nina's keys still in the door and her phone and bag abandoned on the landing. A sob tried to rise up in Nina's chest at even wondering what on Earth her mom was going to do. How would she even go about finding her? There was no way the regular police were going to be of much help, not when the men who took her were obviously professionals...and then there was the fact that the twins had told her days had passed since she'd first arrived at Strucker's facility...
By the time Wanda interjected with the name on the shell—Stark; their hatred for the billionaire now made perfect sense—Nina was trembling with sympathetic heartache, her arm having disentangled itself from hugging tight around her own body to curl around Pietro, reflexively offering whatever meagre support she could. He glanced down to her at the gesture, his hard gaze softening slightly as she gave him a weak smile, hoping to convey, well, something comforting. She wasn't quite sure how to put it into words.
But whatever she managed to say without words, it worked, and he squeezed her shoulder briefly in silent thanks.
"We were trapped for two days," he added softly, still looking down at Nina, though his blue-green eyes had grown distant and sightless. Just over her shoulder, Wanda took up their story, her voice sad at first, though it quickly grew cold enough with resentment that Nina actually shivered. They were both so angry.
"Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, 'this will set it off,'" she hesitated for a moment, looking up at Ultron with nothing short of hatred in her eyes. "We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us," she said harshly. Nina nearly flinched at the tone. Absently, Pietro chafed her shoulder.
"I know what they are," Pietro added with a small nod, his voice low and dangerous. Part of Nina felt compelled to pull away, frightened by the threatening resolve in his voice and the cool anger in his sister's. But at the same time, she instinctively wanted nothing more than to press closer, to offer what comfort she could and draw reassurance in return. It was a dark world she'd been thrust into when those men had plucked her from her doorstep. And the Twins hadn't so much as hesitated in taking her under their wing.
What they wanted wasn't evil...
...they wanted justice.
How could she argue with that?
Again Ultron was nodding with what looked like understanding, his soft voice oddly resonant but still somehow sympathetic. "I wondered why Strucker's experiments succeeded on the two of you. Now I don't." Next to her, Pietro straightened, his gaze once again focusing on Ultron as his brow furrowed slightly with interest. Behind her, Wanda shifted, her hand ghosting around Nina to rest on her brother's back.
If it was possible, the robot's face grew more serious, his frightening eyes growing more intense as he stepped closer.
"We will make it right," he assured them, glancing between the Twins before settling briefly on Pietro. "You and I can hurt them. But you," he turned to Wanda, fingertip ghosting over her face as he looked down at her with something akin to awe, "will tear them apart." Nina shivered at the undisguised cruelty in his voice, eyes dropping to where her fingers clutched at Pietro's jacket for support. Dimly, she heard the faint whir and dull clunks that signalled Ultron had stepped back from Wanda.
"And you?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious as he turned his unsettlingly human gaze to Nina. Eyes flying up to the robot, she nearly gulped as a surge of fear went through her at the scrutiny. Next to her Wanda reached out and squeezed her hand in reassurance.
"It's—it's just me and my mom," Nina finally said, her voice wavering despite her best efforts. She was too exhausted and too frightened for any attempt at appearing otherwise. "For as long as I can remember it was just us. Her and me against the world..." She faltered, a wave of fear and longing for things to go back to the way they were overwhelming her. Wanda's hand squeezed hers again as Pietro absently rubbed her shoulder, offering the same sort of comfort she had tried to give him moments before. Though she wouldn't have believed it would before, the gestures truly did help.
After a moment she managed to regain some measure of composure. "Then these men showed up and—and kidnapped me and brought me...here...I tried to fight back, to get away...but..." she trailed off, the terror she'd been fighting that day when she'd been attacked resurfacing at the memory. The consoling pressure of Wanda's hand didn't ease while Pietro's arm tightened slightly around her.
"You should have seen the men who brought her in; not one was less than a little beat up," Pietro broke in then, an impish grin teasing his lips. Nina started at how...admiring he sounded. She'd felt like she'd failed when she hadn't been able to escape, but he thought that what she'd done was admirable despite the fact that she'd been captured. It sent a flutter of warmth to the centre of her chest. A low chuckling sound came from Ultron.
"A fighter," he declared thoughtfully. "Of course." It was incredibly disconcerting to see a robot smile, she thought with a shiver. The A.I. nodded to himself after a moment, reaching out as though about to touch her the way he almost had with Wanda. Unable to help it, Nina tensed, only barely able to keep from flinching away. But he didn't get close enough to touch her anyway, his fingers curling back to himself as he retracted his arm. "It's a pity your abilities have yet to manifest. I'm terribly curious what they'll be. You could be so helpful..." he trailed off. Nina's eyes blew wide as anxiety suddenly began thrumming in her chest. Pietro's arm tightened again, something she was abruptly grateful for considering how weak her knees suddenly felt.
"We don't know yet if Strucker's experiments worked. All we know is—" Pietro hesitated, glancing nervously down at Nina, as though he very nearly said something he shouldn't have.
"That she didn't die?" All the blood left Nina's face as her knees finally did give out. It was only Pietro's grip that kept her from collapsing outright. Wanda's hand tightened almost painfully. Ultron, meanwhile was either oblivious to her reaction or didn't particularly care. "That she didn't die is promising," he mused. "In every other attempt Strucker made, subjects died within the first twenty-four hours, their bodies torn apart by the Sceptre's energy—I've read the files—" he editorialized before resuming his theorizing, "the only other ones to survive were the two of you... It makes it likely that her body has accepted the Sceptre's effects and is even now adjusting to her new abilities; it was several days before the two of you began to exhibit your new powers, after all."
Nina shivered again, this time definitely from distress...she didn't want powers...did she? Part of her couldn't deny the appeal...
The Twins, meanwhile, looked thoughtful, exchanging loaded glances that seemed to hold entire conversations, eyes flickering to her in turn.
Neither contradicted Ultron.
All at once a chill of fear shuddered through Nina, as did a flutter of anticipation.
"Oh, I'd say it's very likely she has powers. But that may just be my optimism speaking," Ultron murmured, sounding rather upbeat in the most unsettling way.
Meanwhile, Nina's mind was reeling, fighting against the haze of exhaustion trying to drown her again. So much so that she paid little attention to the conversation continuing on around her. More than that, she barely noticed when Pietro began urging her along beside him, leading her deeper into the lower levels of the base.
It was several minutes before she was able to drag her focus back to her surroundings, disoriented to realize Ultron had led her and the Twins away from the cavern to a range of smaller, nook-like storage rooms, one of which a smaller robot was depositing what looked like a cot and some blankets and even some food. Nodding in silent thanks to the larger robot, Pietro proceeded to guide Nina into the makeshift room, Wanda close on his heels as he led her toward the cot.
She tried her best to hold in a pained whimper as Pietro helped ease her down, but it didn't quite work. Mortified at being such a burden, she tried to apologize even as Wanda draped another blanket around her shivering frame—when had she started shivering again?—but the words ended up being little more than a gasp. Seeming to know exactly what she was about to say, Wanda just rubbed her back soothingly while Pietro shot her a sympathetic smile, brushing a few clinging strands of hair from her face.
"Don't worry about it," he said offhandedly, though not unkindly before standing and gesturing between himself and Wanda as she settled on the cot next to Nina. "We know what it's like."
Behind him Ultron watched from the door of the little room, his human-like eyes glowing with curiosity as he watched the three of them interact. Nina tried to ignore him, not quite succeeding.
"You should get some rest," Wanda ordered gently. Nina only nodded tiredly, unable to argue.
"And we need to be going." The three of them looked up to Ultron, who was still watching them impassively from just outside, "we have a lot to do." Wanda's eyes widened minutely as she glanced from her twin, down to Nina and then up to Ultron. Pietro shifted, looking distinctly uncertain as he met Nina's bewildered gaze.
"But what about Nina?" Wanda broke in worriedly. "We can't leave her on her own right now!" Ultron chuckled.
"Don't worry," he said cheerfully, "I'll look out for her. After all," he added as one of his sentries walked up to stand beside him, its eyes shifting from pale blue to red as Ultron's voice suddenly emanated from the smaller robot.
"I can be in two places at once."
A/N: Thanks for reading!
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