The Viper

Before the fall

KAT POV

We arrived back to the base in Sokovia, a couple of days after Tokyo. Ultron was telling me and my two guards about his plan for the Avengers extinction. It all begins at this church, in the middle of town.

Ultron had sent us to get vibranium for his suit. Said the technology he took the form in was cheap Stark metal, whatever that means.

"Did you know this church is in the exact centre of the city? The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief." Ultron said to me, as I sit in the middle of the church with him.

"Everyone creates the thing they dread. Men of peace create engines of war. Invaders create Avengers. People create smaller people. Uh... "Children." I lost the word, there. Children designed to supplant them, to help them end." He continued on.

I'm programmed to not talk. To not ask questions or wonder freely. But something in this moment felt like I needed to speak, to go out of time for a brief second, "Is that why you've come, to end the Avengers?" I said strongly.

"Ahhhh.... She speaks. Hydra is a great tool, they create the best weapons, but telling you not to speak is low. Please," Ultron said as he moved to sit next to me, "speak."

Not knowing what do to with my first order to speak, my mind began to wonder. I looked around, really trying to see what was going on around me and all I saw were machines.

"All of these are..." I asked motioning to the machinery around me.

"Me. I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant. Disconnected. Strange's already got them turning on each other. And now with our plan finally be put in motion, you will become the person known as the one who ended the Avengers." Ultron responded.

He made me feel empowered. I have no real emotion, like a robot, so for him to take me and use me as his helper, for some reason, felt like a privilege.

"We make our play tomorrow. The Avengers haven't made our location yet, but when they do, you're only mission soldat, is to eliminate them.

I nodded in agreement.

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Bucky POV

We were all in me and Sam's apartment, looking at the facial recognition scanner. We figured, if Ultron knows where the sanctum is, it's not the safest option right now, so it's probably best to move.

I was in my room, sitting at my desk reading the news like old 100 year old men do, when suddenly I heard a knock at the door.

"Can I come in?" Wanda said as she opened the door slightly to ask permission.

I nodded my head yes, and she made her way inside.

"I figured I'd come in to check on you. I know what it's like to deal with something similar."

"I appreciate that, Wanda." I started, as I turned my chair to face her, as she stood in the middle of the room, "I don't know how to accept the fact that she's gone."

"She's not gone James. I feel her. More and more each day. She needs you." Wanda responded.

"That's the thing Wanda, are you sure she is the one who needs me? Maybe that's Hydra you're feeling, and they want me back and she's literally programmed not to feel and it's not her mind."

They want a weapon. Well, I was the one who brought them into the world of the mind-controlled maniac, of course they would tell The Viper about the only other killer Hydra has let loose.

"No. When I feel people, I see them. Their thoughts as if they are a whole person. I feel the raw emotion, the pain, and the fear. While yes, she is The Viper, and she isn't herself, she still has those emotions. The only difference is, that because of the torture and the mind control, she doesn't remember how to feel them."

"So, she feels everything?" I asked. Wanda nodded her head in agreement.

"So did you. When you remember your past, do you remember the emotions? The way you felt after killing someone? Or the sadness when it was someone you knew?"

"Yes."

"Exactly. You didn't feel it at the time, but you had those same emotions, and when you remember how to feel them, you can recall how you felt when it happened." Wanda said.

"huh, I can't believe I actually understood that." I said with a chuckle.

Wanda moved to sit next to me on the bed next to my desk, "Don't worry. I've been reading a lot of new spells, and I think I've found just the one that will set her free. We just have to give her the time to heal that she needs."

"Whatever we need to do. We need to do it." I said.

Wanda and I had grown to be like siblings. She's been working so hard to find this spell to set her free and I am eternally grateful. After everything that had happened in Westview, I wouldn't have expected her to come in and make as big of a difference as she has.

As I sat there in thought, I heard someone barge into my room. Based on the annoyingness of the sounds, of course it was Sam.

"Guys, we got something." He said with a concerned look on his face.

Wanda and I both got up from where we were sitting and walked out of my room, into the living room.

The facial scanner had gone off in Sokovia, right by the same church as where we discovered Loki's scepter.

"She's outside of the base." Shang- Chi said. "They're preparing for something."

She was outside of the base sharpening her knives. She looked empty, but at the same time powerful. She was ready but I'm not sure for what.

"It has to be Ultron." I said, "He wouldn't be in such an obvious location unless it was on purpose. He wants to send the world a message. Send us, a message. He wants to hurt us, kill Katerina, kill other people, he wants it to be personal. Just like Loki did, with the scepter. That's the connection. The stone."

"Dude, are you high? The stone is gone, it went back with Steve and Dani." Sam said.

"That's not what he means dipshit. He means that the pull of the stone that is left there from the experiments, makes the area stronger." Strange said.

"Exactly." I responded.

"But why is the land so important to him?" Sam said.

"He said he wants us extinct right?" Wanda said, "He wants the extinction level event."

"Shit." Sam and I said in unison.

"Suit up." Strange said.

With that I ran into my room and got changed. My black boots, with my black pants and blue leather jacket and my dog tags. I began wondering if I needed anything else, when I thought about the box in my closet.

When the avenger's facility was destroyed, I had found a bunch of Katerina's old stuff to take, before they got rid of it. There was a couple photos, a pillow, a stuffed bear, and a suit. I walked into my closet, grabbing the box and opening it up. I haven't even looked at this stuff since she went missing. I decided to grab a photo of her and Natasha and put it in my back pocket. Maybe she needs the push.

"I'm coming Kat."