Drowning - Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Seven

Echo's POV

"We should have taken him there," Pietro said angrily as we walked through the streets of Sokovia. He was pissed that we let Stark get away but Wanda and I were confident in how self-destructive he was. "Now we're in the middle of the city and he is thousands of miles away," Pietro finished.

Smiling gently I took his hands in my own, "Trust us, Pietro," I told him and the raging fire in his eyes seemed to soften, "we wouldn't have let him go if we weren't sure."

He sighed and nodded his head causing Wanda to smile slightly beside us. "You're right, I'm sorry, Echo," he said as we continued walking. It was quite busy today and that made the wolves quite nervous, especially since they couldn't be in the city with us. They would definitely draw a lot of unnecessary attention.

"Don't apologize to me," I teased and glanced at Wanda, "apologize to your sister. If anyone she should be the person you shouldn't second guess."

Pietro rolled his eyes but apologized to Wanda as well so we continued our walk in the streets, occasionally assuring the wolves that we were safe. A little boy ran up to us suddenly, "The metal man told me he needed you in the church," he said quickly before running off again.

The three of us exchanged a look before walking further to the center of the city, each of us ready to defend the other. As we entered I noticed a man sitting in a large chair in the center of the room. Wanda spoke first, "Talk. And if you are wasting our time-"

The man cut her off in an almost robotic voice, "Did you know this church is in the exact center of the city?" I narrowed my eyes at him and stood beside Wanda, both of us were quite confused, we weren't reading anything from him. "The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that. The geometry of belief." Pietro was particularly on edge, he didn't like what was going on at all, especially since we didn't know who this man was. "You're wondering why you can't look inside my head," he stated rather than asked.

"Sometimes it's hard, but sooner or later every man shows himself," Wanda said and again I tried to pry into his mind but it was like there wasn't one.

The man stood to his feet, the blanket that was originally covering him falling to the floor and Wanda and I both backed away in shock. "Oh, I'm sure they do," he stated. In front of us stood a metal man unlike the Iron Man, this one wasn't a suit and it was obvious to tell that he was an AI of some sort. "But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark take the scepter," he concluded.

"We didn't expect... But we saw Stark's fear," Wanda said almost cautiously to the man but I felt more intrigued than cautious.

"We knew it would control him," I elaborated, "make him self-destruct. It's how the human race is."

"Everyone creates the thing they dread," the AI confirmed, "Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create avengers, people create...smaller people?" I frowned slightly. "Uh... children! I lost the word there. Children. Designed to supplant them, to help them...end."

He seemed to confuse me further and further, he acted like a human but I knew he was an AI. They can be designed to have a personality but not have actual feelings and forget things. He was different.

"Is that why you've come?" Wanda asked, taking an almost hopeful step forward, "To end the Avengers?"

"I've come to save the world," he corrected strongly, "But, also, yeah." I found an amused smile working its way onto my face, this should be very interesting.

I stood between Pietro and Wanda with a confident smirk on my face while Linkin and Nera paced in front of us. Ultron was doing business with Klaue and things seemed to be going quite well actually. "Financing is so weird, but I always say," Ultron said to Klaue, "'Keep your friends rich and your enemies rich, and wait to find out which is which.'"