Avenging Fire: Age of Ultron. ~Book Four~

Chapter Eleven: Vision.

Thankfully, Hill had heard their cry for help and had come to pick them up, and now Steve was patching Levi up, and making sure she didn't have any broken bones from her being more reckless than he would have liked. As far as he could tell, it was just her ribs that were in bad shape. 
"You sure you're okay?" He asked, not for the first time as he looked her over. In any other situation, he'd gladly take a chance to check her out when she's just got her bra on, but seeing as her chest and ribs were bruised to all high Hell, he couldn't bring himself to enjoy the view. 
"Yeah, I'm fine." She said, flinching as she leaned forward to get her shirt, she sighed as she got off of the table and pulled it on and over her head. Levi set her hands on her hips as she looked down at the ground, then she looked up at him. "Well, my ribs feel like Hell, but I can't take a breather." 
"You will soon." It made his heart hurt to see her try and put a brave face on when he could tell that she hadn't felt this anxious since they had to run from HYDRA, or as she and Red called them, SHYDRA. 
"Yeah," she reached up to rub at the side of her face. "I hope so." Levi glanced at the triplets and let out another sigh as she looked back down at the ground. "They're just kids, Steve. They shouldn't have been wrapped up into any of this." Levi sat down, and set her hands in her lap and kept her eyes on them. 
"They remind me of you." 
She raised an eyebrow at him. "How so?" 
Steve sat down next to her. "You were just a kid, who was taken by a mad man, forced and molded into what he wanted you to be." 
Levi nodded and turned to look back at the triplets. "Odin only knows what they've been through." 
"Yeah," Steve agreed. "I'm just glad they caught on to what Ultron was doing." 
"Me too." She leaned her head on Steve's shoulder. "I'm so tired." 
Steve almost smiled as she snuggled in close to him. "We haven't slept in three days, I don't blame you for being tired." He reached up and slowly, gently, ran his fingers through her hair, and this time he actually smiled as she relaxed against him. 
"Guess we'll sleep when this is over, or if we're dead." 
"Don't say that." 
"Say what?" 
"That you'll sleep when you're dead." Steve said, and his voice was just barely above a whisper as fear struck in the pit of his stomach. 
It worried him even more when she was quiet as she wrapped her arms around his middle. "I... I saw it." 
His eyebrows drew together as he looked down at her. "What do you mean?" The truth was, he knew that she was keeping something from him, he just didn't know what. He was really just thankful that she was telling him now. 
"In the vision I was given, I saw me dying." Levinia said, her voice was still just barely above a whisper as she spoke to him, and he could hear that she was about to cry, and was trying to stop it from happening. "Thanos always said that to get a soul, you have to give a soul. I saw me giving myself up for the Soul Stone." 
Steve felt himself stiffen as he heard this, and he could see why she kept it from him, on one hand, he wished that she told him sooner, but on the other, he almost wished that she waited until after they had taken care of Ultron, even if that wasn't a guarantee. 
"That is never going to happen." Steve said. 
"How do you know?" 
"I just know, okay?" 
"Okay." 
+++
Red stood with her arms crossed over her chest as she, Bruce and Tony stood around the Cradle. Having this meant that they were finally getting closer and closer to nailing Ultron. 
"Anything on Nat?" Bruce asked, breaking the silence as they waited to hear what Tony wanted to do with the damned thing. Red personally hoped that Tony would leave what they discovered at the NEXUS, at the NEXUS, and decommission the Ultron body. 
"Haven't heard," Tony said quickly. "But she's alive, or Ultron'd be rubbing our faces in it." 
"I've called Sam." Red said as she uncrossed her arms and instead of gathering around the Cradle, she sat herself on the counter because, quite frankly, the body that was being built in that damned thing creeped her out. "He's on his way." 
"That's good," Bruce said. "Is he gonna be helping us with Ultron?" 
Red simply shrugged. "I assumed so. At the very least, he'll stick around to get Tasha back." And then she continued to entertain herself by watching Clint try and break into it. 
This however, didn't last as long as she hoped, seeing as he quickly gave up. "In other news, this," Clint said as he hopped down from the Cradle and looked at the trio before him. "Is sealed shut." 
"That's great." Red said in an enthusiastically sarcastic tone. "What now?" 
Bruce simply shrugged at her before saying. "We're going to need to access the program, break it down from the inside." 
"Sounds easier said than done." Red said. 
"That's because it is." Bruce answered. 
Tony looked at Clint for a long moment before saying. "Any chance Natasha might leave you a message outside the internet, old school spy stuff?" 
"There's some nets I can cast." Clint said, resting his hands on his hips as he paused then nodded. "Yeah, alright. I'll find her." And then he jogged away. 
"I hope he can find her." Red said as she watched him go. 
"He will." Tony reassured her. "Clint's good with these sort of things." 
It was odd how, after the moment they'd shared at the farmhouse, they were able to be civil with each other now, like they were finally friends again like they had been before they started their affair. 
Bruce cleared his throat. "I can work on tissue degeneration, if you can try whatever operational system Cho implanted, Tony." 
Tony looked between the two of them, seemingly very quickly weighing his options, which made Red's stomach clench painfully with fear, and then he said. "Yeah, about that." 
"No." Bruce said very quickly. 
Red just as quickly got off of the counter. "Lemme raise that to a Hell no. Actually, a fuck no." 
"Kinda don't." Bruce said. 
Red set her hands on her hips, and willed herself not to destroy the lab and everything that resided in the Cradle, but a stronger part of her wanted to hear him out. "Why should I trust you?" 
"Our ally?" Tony said as he both raised an eyebrow at them, and did something on his touch screen. "The guy protecting the military's nuclear codes? I found him." 
Red took a startled step back and felt her hand clutch at Bucky's dog tags for support as JARVIS's very intact consciousness appeared before them. "Hello, Doctor Banner," he said. "Miss North." 
"Holy shit," Red said when the shock had worn off. "You're alive?" She knew that Tony had made a discovery at the NEXSUS, but he hadn't bothered to tell her what it was. 
"In a sense of the word, yes." JARVIS said. 
"Ultron didn't go after JARVIS 'cause he was angry." Tony explained excitedly, much to Red's annoyance. "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." Tony didn't pause long enough to let either of them get a word in. "He didn't even know he was there until I pieced him together." 
Red let his words fade into silence before she said. "Do you not remember what happened the last time you experimented with an AI?" 
"Yeah," Tony said, clearly exasperated with the other two. "But this is completely different." 
"How?" Red asked. 
"Because." Tony answered. 
Red closed her eyes, trying not to absolutely lose her shit right now, because she knew she'd regret what's she'd do if she didn't at least try and calm her temper. "Because what?" She said after she had counted to ten.
Bruce sighed a very clearly anxious sigh before saying. "Because he wants me to help him put JARVIS into this thing." 
"Oh my God." Red muttered. 
"No, of course not!" Tony said dismissively with a wave of his hand. "I want to help you put JARVIS into this thing." 
"Oh my God." Red repeated. 
Bruce groaned in mixed disappointment and disbelief, and that made Red wish that she could be in a state of disbelief. The harsh reality was that she could believe it, and she was almost mad at herself for being surprised. 
"We're out of my field here." Tony said to Bruce. "You know bio-organics better than anyone." 
Bruce looked between Red, Tony and the Cradle then back again as he said. "And you just assume that JARVIS's operational matrix can beat Ultron's?" 
"I feel like I'm high." Red said loudly as she reached up to rub at both sides of her face. "How are you even considering this, Tony?" 
"Because JARVIS has been beating him from the inside without knowing it." Tony said, which wasn't a very strong start to his side of the argument, but Red and Bruce let him continue. "Thus is the opportunity we need, we can create Ultron's perfect self, without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality traits. We have too." 
"And if this horribly backfires?" Red asked. "If you make a worse Ultron?" 
Tony hesitated, trying to see if he can find an argument against that line of questioning, and when he couldn't, he sighed and said. "I think it's worth the risk." 
"I believe it's worth a go." JARVIS put in rather unhelpfully. 
"No, I'm in a loop!" Bruce exclaimed. "I'm caught in a time loop, this is exactly where it went wrong." 
Red shoved her hands into the pockets of her sweater and took a deep breath, she slowly let it  out before saying. "I refuse to be apart of this. I'm gonna wait for Sam, while you two end everything we've worked so hard to protect." 
Tony glared at her, which Red mimicked. "That's not fair." He said. 
"No, this-" she gestured around the lab. "Isn't fair." And she stormed out before she could say anything else. 
She only left because she was worried that she'd say something that she'd regret, and after she and Tony just started to get back to normal, she didn't want to ruin it because she was mad at him. The only way Red would ruin their friendship was by doing something important. Something more important than this.
+++
Tony watched Red leave, and apart of him wanted to go with her, to either keep arguing his point or apologize to her for being stubborn, but he had to be honest himself. He wasn't going to apologize, and she needed time alone. 
"She's got a point." Bruce said when the door closed behind her. 
Tony sighed. "I know... I know, she always does. But I also know that's what everyone's going to say, but they're already saying it. We're monsters, Buddy. We gotta own it." When Bruce only shook his head, Tony said. "It's not a loop. It's the end of the line." 
+++
Sam had only felt panic like this once before in his life, and that was when he watched his flight partner, Riley, get shot out of the sky. But he never thought he'd feel that again, that was until Red called him and told him that Natasha had been taken by Ultron, it felt like the rug was pulled out from under him, and all he could think about was getting to the tower to see what their next steps were. 
The moment his borrowed Quinjet landed, and the door opened, he ran out and found that Red was sitting out on the landing pad, seemingly waiting for him. 
"Is she okay?" He asked as he jogged up to her. 
Red hesitated, and he knew that she wanted to say yet, but knew that she couldn't. Finally, she said. "We don't know, but Clint's trying to get a hold of her." 
"I want to be there when you guys get her." He said, though he already knew, or at least suspected, that Red would force the rest of the team to let him come if they didn't want him. 
"I know." Red said as she led the way inside. 
He stopped next to the stairway and set his hand on her elbow. "I know I said I didn't want in on this, but now that he's taken Natasha..." 
"Believe me when I say that I understand." Red's eyes went from anxious and worried, to sad as she reached up to touch Bucky's tags and nodded toward the stairs beside them. "He's in the tech room. Go." 
Sam didn't hesitate as he took at the steps two at a time. 
+++
Natasha woke with a start, and at first, all she saw was darkness, and the silence was almost deafening. She wasn't sure how long she'd actually been there, but she couldn't imagine that it'd been more than a few hours, maybe a day at most. 
When her body as a whole had adjusted to her surroundings, she realized that she was inside Ultron's base in Sokovia, and the man himself was standing just outside of her cell. 
"I wasn't sure you'd wake up." He said. "I hoped you would, I wanted to show you something. I don't have anyone else." He let her out of her cell and led her around his base, and she was shown everything that he'd been planning and building. 
He'd been using the metal he stole from that shipping yard to build himself an army of robots, ones that they'd have hard time beating, especially since he had already built hundreds of them, and there would be hundreds more. 
She wished, not for the first time, that could be more like Red, and be optimistic about their chances, but she couldn't find it in her. And all of that want for hope quickly flew out of the window when he started talking. 
"I think a lot of meteors, the purity of them. Boom! The end, and start again." Ultron said as they slowly walked around the compound. "The world made clean for new man to rebuild. I was meant to be beautiful, the world would've looked to the sky and seen mercy." Ultron looked down to her, and Natasha had to fight with herself to not shrink away from his gaze. "Instead, they'll look up in horror because of you. You've wounded me. I give you full marks," Natasha could almost sweat that he was smiling at her, which made a chill of horror ran down her spine. "But, like the man said, 'what doesn't kill me-'," Natasha jumped back and her back hit the bars of her cell as another bigger body that held Ultron's consciousness destroyed the first body with his fists going through his own chest and ripping it himself apart. "'Just makes me stronger'." 
When he locked her into her cell and left her to her own devices, Natasha was able to notice old communication equipment and she got up to hopefully get a message to her team. 
+++
When Levi, Steve and the triplets finally arrived back at the tower, Red ran out onto the landing pad to greet them. "Thank Go-" She broke herself off as she noticed the triplets. And Levi would've found it funny, if she wasn't so goddamned stressed out about Tony and the fucking Cradle. 
"What are they doing here?" She asked as her gaze flicked to Steve before they landed on Levi. She didn't blame her mother for trying to see if they were brainwashed, Levi would've too. 
"We switched sides." Dawn said. 
"Where's Stark?" Wanda asked. 
Levi was thankful that Red didn't question it further, there were more pressing matters to attend to and it really seemed like she needed back up. "In the lab with the Cradle. He and Bruce are trying to put JARVIS into it." 
Levi sighed as she started her way inside. "We need to stop leaving those two alone in the lab." 
"I completely agree." Red said as she followed. "And before anyone asks me why I did, they were already doing it while I was supervising." 
+++
Tony rubbed the side of his face, trying to give his brain a little reset before he kept on going with the task at hand, even though he found it frustrating and was almost wishing that he and Bruce hadn't tried this, but only almost. 
"This frame work is not compatible." Tony said. 
Bruce glanced over to him. "The genetic coding tower's at ninety-seven percent." He paused, and Tony wondered why he was hesitating, but shrugged off the wonder as Bruce said. "You have to upload the schematic in the next three minutes." 
Suddenly, Steve, flanked by Red and Levi with the triplets following behind them, burst into the lab. Tony had to fight off a glare as he looked between the three of them. "You told on me?" He asked as his gaze finally landed on Red. 
"Believe it or not, you are very predictable." Red said, but Tony was too stressed out, and angry, to be able to agree with her right now. Maybe he would later. After all, she was usually right about these things. 
"I'm gonna say this once." Steve said. 
"How about nonce?" Tony countered. 
"Shut it down!" Steve yelled, which made Tony want to laugh, especially when Red slowly turned to face him, looking absolutely flabbergasted. 
"You think I didn't already try that?" She asked in a very accusatory tone. 
"And like I told her, not gonna happen." Tony said as he turned back to face his computer. Arguing with them was wasting time. He finally got the upload to start working with the Cradle, and hit enter. 
"You don't know what you're doing." Steve said as he slowly took his shield off of his back. 
"And you guys do?" Bruce asked as he nodded toward Wanda and Dawn standing behind Red, Steve and Levi. "They're not in your heads?" 
Tony watched as Levi fought off the urge to roll her eyes at the doctor. She crossed her arms over her chest, and gave them both an extremely exasperated look that made her look so much like her mother that it was scary. "Oh, you think the only reason we'd be against this is if we're brainwashed?" 
"Seems weird that you showed up with them of all people." Bruce said. 
Red, unlike Levi, did roll her eyes. Tony guessed that she probably rolled her eyes so hard that she hurt herself. "It has nothing to do with them, and everything to do with you repeating history." 
"We know you're angry." Wanda said. 
"And you have every right to be." Dawn followed up, and it really was like they were picking up on the other's thoughts before that one could voice it. It was equally creepy and cool. 
 Bruce shook his head as them as he took off his glasses and cleaned up. "Oh, we're way passed that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade." 
"Banner, after everything that's happened-" Steve started. 
"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony yelled, swiftly interrupting him. 
"There's nothing coming!" Dawn argued, then paused. "Except maybe Ultron." 
Tony watched as Red and Levi shared a scared and knowing look, it was almost clear to him that they're sharing a silent conversation, and Levinia, who never looked like, was scared of the unvoiced knowledge. What did they know?
"This isn't a game," Steve said, seemingly not noticing that Red and Levi were being sketchy. 
"Wanda sighed. "The creature-" she never got to finish that though as her brother suddenly raced around the room and destroyed a large majority of the lab's equipment. He didn't get all of the important stuff, but he got enough to annoy Tony.
"No, no. Go on. You were saying?" Pietro asked the room as a stunned silence followed his actions. This stunned silence was short lived as the sound of a gun shot echoed around the lab, and Pietro fell through the glass platform he was standing on. 
"Pietro!" Wanda and Dawn yelled. 
"What?" Tony heard Clint say. "You didn't see that coming?" 
Tony turned to look at Bruce. "I'm rerouting the upload." 
As Steve through his shield and it ricocheted and bounced around the room, Bruce added to the chaos as he took hold of Dawn and put her into a choke hold. 
"Go ahead." He growled into her ear. "Piss me off." 
Dawn laughed as she held onto his arm. "Oh, you like it rough. I'm into that." 
Before Tony even had the chance to unpack that statement, or even laugh at Bruce's look of shock, Thor suddenly burst into the room through the window and hit the Cradle with his hammer. 
A very powerful bolt of lighting struck and went through the Cradle, effectively both bringing it to life and finishing Tony's program. For once in his life, he was left speechless as a red entity emerged from the Cradle and launched itself at Thor, who threw it toward a window in the lab, but it caught itself. 
They flew down to the still destroyed lounge, and the group as a whole ran down to them, with Red at their lead. Tony wasn't sure if they were about to save Thor, or question him.
+++
Have you ever entered a room and thought you'd found everything you didn't know you were looking for? That was how Wanda felt when she walked into the lounge and saw the man that Thor had helped bring to life. 
"I'm sorry, that was... odd." He turned to look at Thor. "Thank you." 
Steve looked at Thor. "Thor, you helped create this?" 
Thor simply shrugged. "I've had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at it's center is that." He pointed at the Gem inside the other man's head. 
"What?" Doctor Banner asked. "The Gem?" 
Levinia's hands found her face as she whispered. "Oh my God." And Wanda felt terrible for the visions she'd made her see. By human standards, the girl was old, but for her race, she was only barely a child. A child she scared shitless. 
"It's the Mind Stone." Thor said, his eyes on his daughter. "It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the Universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities." 
"I thought-" Levi broke off as she let her hands fall. "Hoped even, that it was just a dream." 
Her mother, Red, slowly shook her head. "No, unfortunately, these are very real." And Wanda could tell that Red had a centuries old, and fundamental, understanding of what these stones were, and they could do. 
Steve set a hand on Levi's, and brought her over to him. "Then why bring it to-" 
Thor sighed at them. "Because Stark is right." And it really looked like it pained him to admit it. 
Levi was out of the, well, after shocks of her vision. "What?" 
"Oh, it's definitely the end times." Bruce said. 
Red simply nodded as she accepted her fate. "Hell's frozen over." 
"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron." Thor said. 
"Not alone." The Vision added. 
Steve kept a firm grip on Levi's hand, but that didn't stop him from looking confused, and concerned, as he said. "Why does your 'vision' sound like JARVIS?" 
Wanda couldn't help but watch how they behaved around each other. Steve and Levi held on to each other as if their lives, their very being, depended on it. Red and Tony, however, were a very different story. 
He looked as if he wanted to comfort, and take comfort in, her. But he was holding back. It wasn't very hard to tell that he was holding himself back because Red was closed off from everyone, but especially him.  
Red turned to look at Steve. "Weren't you listening to when I said that they were trying to put JARVIS into the body?" 
"Yeah," Steve said. "But how-" 
"We," Tony said, taking his eyes off of Red and cleared his throat. "Reconfigured JARVIS's matrix to create something new." 
"I've had my fill of new." Steve said with a sigh. 
Levi slowly nodded in agreement. "Join the club, Honey." 
Vision tilted his head at them. "You think I'm a child of Ultron?" 
"You're not?" Steve asked with an eyebrow raised. 
"I'm not Ultron. I'm not JARVIS. I am... I am.." When Vision started to struggle, Wanda felt Dawn enter her mind, and she let her sister search for the thoughts she didn't want to say out loud. 
"A Vision." Dawn said. 
Vision nodded. "Yes." 
Finally, Wanda took a step forward. "I looked in your head, and saw annihilation." 
Vision turned his gaze to her. "Look again." 
"Yeah." Clint said, not doing anything to keep the anger out of voice. Again, Wanda couldn't blame him for being angry. He, and everyone else, were justified. "Her seal of approval means jack shit to me." 
The room was silent, and Red nervously fidgeted in place until Clint came down from the balcony to stand with her. Wanda realized that she was wrong, Red closed herself off from everyone but Clint and Levi, her safe person and her daughter. 
Thor took this moment of silence to look at them, all of them, one by one, and when he finally spoke, his eyes landed on Wanda, Dawn and Pietro. "Their powers," he said. "The horrors and visions in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone, and they're nothing compared to what it can unleash, but with it on our side-" 
"Is it?" Bruce asked, interrupting him. "Are you?" He asked Vision. "On our side?" 
"I don't think it's that simple." Vision said. 
"It better get real simple, real soon." Clint said. 
"I am on the side of life, Ultron isn't." Vision said simply. "He will end it all." 
"What's the waiting for?" Tony asked. 
"You." Vision answered. 
"Where?" Bruce asked. 
The unofficial Avenger, Sam Wilson, walked into the room, dressed in his fill flight suit. "Sokovia. He's got Natasha there too." 
"Perfect." Red said, semi-sarcastically. "You heading out ahead of us?" 
"Yeah." Sam nodded. "I think it's the best way to get the drop on Ultron and get her out." 
"Be careful." Red said. 
Sam smiled at her. "Always am." 
As he left, Red turned her attention back to Vision, while Levi took a step away from Steve but still kept her hand in his. 
Bruce looked stressed out, and scared, and that wasn't going to end well for anyone. "If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster Ultron made you to be-" 
"What will you do?" Vision asked as he slowly, one by one, looked at them. It made goose bumps appear over Wanda's skin. "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." And his speech was met with stunned silence as he lifted up Thor's hammer. 
Wanda smirked, Vision was worthy. He held it up to Thor, who took it before he walked away. 
"Right," Thor said, breaking the silence as he patted Tony's shoulder. "Well done." 
"Yeah, umm..." Red said as she clapped her hands together. "I think I have to trust him now." 
Levi nodded. "Yeah, he's worth." 
Red smirked at her daughter. "That's good for me, really." 
Levi chuckled. "Well, now that that's sorted." She gave Steve's hand a gentle squeeze. 
"Right," he said, then turned to look at the rest of the room. "Three minutes. Get what you need." 
And one by one, they went to their separate corners of the tower, even the triplets, all to get ready for battle.