The Winters Shadow

C.22: The Fight

Meanwhile...

Nat starts slowly waking up, noticing she's in a weird place. She takes a quick look around as she hears Ultron. "I wasn't sure you would wake up. I hoped you would. I wanted to show you... I don't have anyone else."

Nat groans as she sits up a little, "I think a lot about meteors. The purity in 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 have looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy." Ultron continues as Nat slowly straightens herself on the ground, breathing hard as she feels all the painful aches.

"Instead, they'll look up in horror, because of you." Ultron walks closer to Nat, "You've wounded me. I give you full marks for that. But, like the man said, what doesn't kill me...." At that moment, a bigger Ultron rips the old one's head off, ripping it to pieces. Nat scrambles backwards. "...Just makes me stronger."

Back at the compound...

Tony and Bruce are working on getting Jarvis into the body, as Clint searches for signs from Nat. He listens closely as codes come through the radio, he smiles while locating Nat on the computer. He has a location. Bucky sits by, smiling as Clint finds the location. Bucky is still a little worried, he hadn't heard from you yet. He doesn't know that you and Steve are walking in on Tony doing something he probably shouldn't.

...

"The genetic coding tower is at 97%. You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes" you and Steve hear Bruce say. "I'm gonna say this once." Steve walks in. "How about 'none-ce'" Tony interrupts him. I take a deep breath, already knowing how this is going to go. "Shut it down!" Steve yells. "Nope, not gonna happen." "Guys, seriously" I try, Tony sending me a 'Who's side are you on' look. "You don't know what you're doing" Steve tries. "And you do? She's not in your head?" Bruce asks. Wanda comes up, "I know you're angry." Wanda tries. "Oh, we're way past that." Bruce informs her.

I look around for Bucky, I don't see him. "I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade" Bruce finishes. I don't blame him, what Wanda done was very wrong and uncalled for. It would be awhile before she earned our trust back. "Banner, after everything that's happened.." Steve says. "It's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony says. "You don't know what's in there" Wanda yells, as Steve says "This isn't a game"

All of a sudden Pietro runs and undoes everything, within a second. Why did he have to do that? "No no, go on" he says, being a smartass. We hear a gun go off, and Pietro is falling through the glass floor. Clint. Bucky comes up beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder and bringing me to his side. "I'm rerouting the upload" Tony says, as Steve throws his shield to prevent it. Tony gets the hand of his suit and blasts Steve.

Wanda goes to move and Bruce grabs her, "Go ahead. Piss me off" I hear him say. I go to move and Bucky stops me, "Don't fight me Buck" I try, "Don't do this Y/N" he gritts out. I smile, running towards Tony and Steve fighting. Tony doesn't have his whole suit on and as much as I love Steve, I am not going to let him hurt Tony. I knock Steve sideways, "What are you doing?" he yells. I just smirk. He throws his shield at me but before it can hit me, Buck stops it. All of a sudden we see Thor on top of the body. We stop and watch as he gets lightning and fires it up.

The door flies open, sending Thor falling. Bucky grabs ahold of me as the body in it jumps out. "Holy shit" I breathe out, as we all wait to see what it's going to do. It stands there for a minute. Probably getting it's barings right. All of a sudden it jumps at Thor, and Thor throws it to the side. We try to run out but Thor holds up a hand to stop us. The robot is just looking out the window..

We all walk down to the floor he is on, and Jarvis, hopefully really Jarvis, turns around to talk to us. Bucky grabs me again pulling me to his side. "I am sorry. That was.. odd" he looks at Thor, "Thank you." He makes a cape appear on him. "Thor" Steve says, "You helped create this?" "I've had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at its center is that" Thor says, pointing to the yellow gem on its forehead. "What? The gem?" Bruce asks. "It's the mind stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones." I suck in a breath at that, which goes unnoticed by everyone but Bucky. "The greatest power in the universe" I whisper, "Unparalleled in its destructive capabilities." Thor finishes, looking at me weirdly. "Then why would you bring.." Steve tries but Thor cuts him off. "Because Stark is right" "Oohhh, it's definitely the end times" Bruce says.

"The avengers cannot defeat Ultron." Thor says. "Not alone" Vision says. "Why does your Vision sound like Jarvis?" Steve asks. "We reconfigured Jarvis's matrix to create something new" Tony says as him and Vision walk towards each other. "I think I've had my fill of new" Steve says, making me roll my eyes. "You think I'm a child of Ultron" Vision states more than asks. "You're not?" Steve asks. "I'm not Ultron. I am not Jarvis. I am... I am." Vision looks toward Tony and Bruce. "I looked into your head, and saw annihilation" Wanda says walking towards Vision. "Look again." Clint scoffs, "Her seal of approval means jack to me." "Their powers, the horror in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone" Thor informs us, "And they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side.." "Is it?" Steve of course asks, "Are you? On our side?"

"I don't think it's that simple." Vision states. "Well, it better get real simple real soon" Clint says. "I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't. He will end it all." "What's he waiting for?" I ask. "You" is all Vision says. "Where?" Bruce asks. "Sokovia" Clint answers, "He's got Nat there too." "If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be.. What will you do?" Bruce asks. Vision takes a minute before saying, "I don't want to kill Ultron. 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. 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."

"Well that fucking does it" I smile as Vision picks up Thor's hammer, holding it out for him to take. Everyone stands around dumbfounded. Thor looks him up and down, and I can't help but giggle. Bucky shakes his head at me but I see a hint of a smile. Thor grabs his hammer as Vision walks off. It takes him a second to gather himself. "Right" he says, "Well done" he pats Tony's shoulder as he walks away. "Three minutes. Get what you need." Steve orders.

Buck and I walk away to get what we need. "I love you doll" he says as he gets his guns and knives. "I love you more" I tell him as I lean over and give him a short but meaningful kiss. There's no telling how this mission will go. "Please be careful" I whisper. He stops and turns towards me. He grabs my chin to make me look into his eyes, "Of course sweetheart. You should be careful too. Don't do anything stupid" he smirks, making me smile. He gives me another kiss then we are off to fight a battle.

I take a deep breath as we make our way out, shivering slightly, unable to get the feeling something's going to go terribly wrong out of my mind.