When the Lions Come

08

After stopping the train, Wanda went over to an out of breath Pietro.

"I'm fine," Pietro said. "I just need to take a minute."

"I'm very tempted not to give you one," Steve retorted.

Hudson glanced at him with a frown. "Give them a chance, Cap."

"The Cradle, did you two get it?" Wanda asked.

"Stark will take care of it," Steve replied.

"No, he won't."

Steve frowned. "You don't know what you're talking about, Stark's not crazy."

"He will do anything to make things right."

Steve and Hudson shared a look before Steve said, "Stark, come in. Stark. Anyone on comms?"

"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?"

---

After Clint had taken the Cradle to Tony and Bruce, the latter of the two asked, "Anything on Nat?"

"Haven't heard," Tony replied. "But she's alive, or Ultron'd be rubbing our faces in it."

"This is sealed tight," Clint informed.

"We're going to need to access the program, break it down from within," Bruce said.

"Hm," Tony hummed. "Any chance Natasha might leave you a message, outside the Internet, old school spy stuff?"

"There's some nets I can cast. Yeah, all right," Clint agreed. "I'll find her." He left.

"I can work on tissue degeneration, if you can fry whatever operational system Cho implanted," Bruce told Tony.

"Yeah, about that," Tony said.

Bruce looked at Tony. "No."

"You have to trust me."

"Kinda don't."

"Our ally? The guy protecting the military's nuclear codes? I found him." He brought up the 3D image of JARVIS' consciousness.

"Hello, Dr. Banner," JARVIS greeted.

"Ultron didn't go after JARVIS 'cause he was angry. He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do. So JARVIS went underground. Okay? Scattered, dumped his memory. But not his protocols. He didn't even know he was in there, until I pieced him together."

"So, you want me to help you put JARVIS into this thing?" Bruce asked.

"No, of course not! I want to help you put JARVIS into this thing." Bruce shook his head. "We're out of my field here. You know bio-organics better than anyone."

"And you just assume that JARVIS' operational matrix can beat Ultron's?"

"JARVIS has been beating him from inside without knowing it. This is the opportunity, we can create Ultron's perfect self, without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality. We have to."

"I believe it's worth a go," JARVIS agreed.

"No, I'm in a loop!" Bruce cried. "I'm caught in a time loop, this is exactly where it all went wrong."

"I know, I know," Tony said. "I know what everyone's going to say, but they're already saying it. We're mad scientists. We're monsters, buddy. You gotta own it. Make a stand." Bruce shook his head. "It's not a loop. It's the end of the line."

SOKOVIA BASE

As Natasha became conscious, Ultron said, "I wasn't sure you'd wake up. I hoped you would, I wanted to show you something. I don't have anyone else. I think a lot about meteors, the purity of 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've looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy. Instead they'll look up in horror because of you. You've wounded me. I give you full marks for that. But, like the man said, "What doesn't kill me..."" a bigger body of Ultron's destroyed him, ""...just makes me stronger." He locked Natasha in a cell.