fiction | Part of the journey is the end

8. What if... Ultron won?

"We've seen this before, a universe in the final days of destruction. But this particular story...this one breaks my heart," said the Watcher.

Everyone exchanged an alarmed glance.

"Worse than Strange Supreme's?!" Stephen said faintly.

"How the hell does it get worse than that?" Clint asked.

"If the Watcher says this one breaks his heart then it's going to be bad," said Natasha.

"There goes my hope for watching a happy universe," said Quill.

"Let's not kid ourselves, we were never going to watch a happy alternate universe. The closest we got to a happy universe was Party Thor's and look how that ended," said Bucky.

"I'll probably die in this one too," Tony complained.

In 2015, Natasha Romanoff sped through a destroyed city on her motorcycle.

They felt uneasy at seeing the destroyed city. What happened there?

Natasha was slightly worried about seeing herself in a universe that broke the Watcher's heart. What did her variant get up to?

"Here they come. We got 90 seconds. Start the clock," said Natasha, driving away from Ultron sentries flying after her.

All of them blanched and fear crept up their spines at seeing the Ultron sentries.

"Are these the same Ultron bots that arrived in Party Thor's universe?" Gamora asked.

"Ultron doesn't have the ability to travel the multiverse at will. As far as I'm aware, only the Watcher has that ability," said Stephen.

"Yeah, but that's an Ultron who successfully uploaded himself into Vision's body and has all of the Infinity Stones," said Tony.

"This is a universe that broke the Watcher's heart, and he was confused at seeing the Ultron sentries arriving in Party Thor's universe," said Wong. "This is supposed to be someone who knows everything that's about to happen. It's not a coincidence."

"Ultron caused more than enough damage in one universe, and now there's an Ultron that can travel the multiverse?" Bruce said, cold with panic.

"I'd like to see how exactly Ultron got Vision's body," Wanda said hotly.

Vision didn't think he wanted to see that.

A man with a metal arm started the clock.

"Bucky?" Natasha said.

Bucky groaned. "I don't want to deal with killer robots."

Clint Barton, who had a metal right arm, shot arrows to take down the bots while they tried to shoot Natasha.

"Oh, it's not me, it's Clint. Clint with a metal arm," Bucky said wryly.

Clint sighed at seeing himself with a metal arm. He lost his arm in one universe and was one explosion away from losing his hearing in another.

Rocket eyed Clint's arm. It wasn't as cool as Bucky's.

A sentry saw Clint, who had a cloak that could turn him invisible.

Everyone's eyes widened.

"Holy shit, Clint has an Invisibility Cloak," said Peter.

"Where the hell did Other Clint get that?" Clint said, stunned.

Scott cleared his throat. "So..." he trailed off, facing Stephen and Wong, who immediately knew what Scott was going to ask.

"No, we don't," Wong answered.