Chapter Twenty-Two : Pent Up Aggression

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     Valencia stood in the room with her arms crossed, skeptically staring at the sentient android standing right in front of her, the Maximoff Twins and all the Avengers. They already had one android to worry about and now they had a second one. This one claimed he wasn't like Ultron but he still had a part of Ultron's consciousness so Valencia was still cautious about trusting him. She didn't let her guard down as Thor explained to them that the gem lodged in the android's head was called the Mind Stone and there were supposed to be five other stones like it in the universe. He said they were called the Infinity Stones and that they were the most powerful things in the entire universe.

     "Look, it doesn't matter if this guy is part Ultron, part JARVIS and part Mind Stone. This is exactly what got us in this mess in the first place," Valencia said as she looked at Tony. "Did you seriously not learn anything from the last time you did this?"

     "You need to understand that Stark is right," Thor said as he looked at her and she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

     "Please tell me you're joking," she said.

     "Listen, the Avengers cannot defeat Ultron," Thor said.

     "Not alone," the android chimed in and Valencia rubbed her temples as she looked at him.

     "I'm sorry, am I still supposed to call you JARVIS or should I start calling you Ultron Junior?" she asked.

     "Wait, that's supposed to be JARVIS?" Steve asked and the dark haired girl rolled her eyes.

     "Am I the only one who recognized his voice right away?" she questioned as she glared at everyone.

     "We configured JARVIS' matrix to create something new," Tony said.

     "I think I've had my fill of new," Steve remarked.

     "Wait, you all think I'm a child of Ultron?" the Vision asked.

     "Aren't you?" Steve questioned with his eyebrows raised.

     "I'm not Ultron and I'm not JARVIS. I just am," the android said.

     "I've looked inside your head and saw annihilation," Wanda said as she took a step forward towards the sentient being.

     "Look again," he said.

     "Her seal of approval means jack to me," Clint said with his arms crossed.

     "Unless you or anyone else here can look inside this red robot's head and see for yourself, shut the hell up and take her word for it," Valencia said as she glared at the archer.

     "You do remember these two messed with our heads, including yours, right?" Clint questioned.

     "Yeah, and I tried to kill your captain and your best friend and I never once heard you bitch about it when I joined," Valencia replied and Clint sighed.

     She made a very good point there. She did try to kill his friends and she actually did kill people before. But even so, they still welcomed her to the team even though Natasha needed to warm up to her a bit before she could agree with their decision. As for the Maximoff Twins, they never killed anyone. The first time they even left the HYDRA research base was when the Avengers went to Sokovia to get Loki's sceptre. What the Twins did wasn't nearly as bad as what Valencia did yet the team was willing to let her join while being hostile to these two people.

     "Listen. Their powers, the horrors 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 . . ." Thor trailed off while looking at the Vision.

     "Are you on our side?" Steve asked.

     "I don't think it's that simple," the Vision replied.

     "It better start becoming simple soon," Clint said.

     "I'm on the side of life. Ultron isn't and he will end it all," the Vision said.

     "Well, what is he waiting for?" Tony asked.

     "You," the android replied.

     "Where?" Bruce asked.

     "Sokovia," Clint answered. "He has Nat there too."

     "If we're wrong about you . . . if you are the monster Ultron made you to be . . ." Bruce trailed off as he looked at the Vision.

     "What will you do?" he asked as he looked at everyone and looked down when he realized that they wouldn't hesitate to destroy him if they did happen to be wrong about him. "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."

     The Vision picked up Thor's hammer and held it out for him to take. Everyone stood there, completely shocked as they watched Thor take the hammer from the android and cleared his throat while the Vision walked away. "Right," he said as he patted Tony on the shoulder. "Well done."

     "Three minutes. Get what you need," Steve said to everyone else.

     Valencia wasn't sure if she was going to need a gun, but she hated going in unprepared for anything so she took one anyways and put it in the holster around her thigh. She also grabbed two knives and put one in the second holster around her other thigh and the other knife in her boot. She clenched her fist and watched as a small force field briefly surrounded her hand before disappearing. She sighed as her entire hand from the fingers to the wrist disappeared and tilted her head when they reappeared.

     Valencia stopped in her tracks when she saw the Maximoff Twins waiting for the team to leave for Sokovia and she decided to talk to them. "Hey," she said with a crooked smile as the Twins looked at her. "Are you guys ready to go?"

     "You know, we never thought we would fight with the Avengers because everywhere they go, they leave destruction," Wanda said.

     "When Ultron said he wanted to destroy the Avengers, we thought we could trust him since we had a common enemy but then it turned out that he was the enemy all along," Pietro said as he looked down at his feet.

     "Ultron saw that you were vulnerable and he took advantage of that. He used you, manipulated you and exploited you. You guys were just kids when everything started. Like I said before, nobody understands your position more than I do," Valencia said as she grabbed their hands.

     "Stark took our parents from us and then HYDRA took our lives," Wanda's voice wavered as she spoke.

     "Stark can be hard headed and no, it's not the helmets," Valencia chuckled. "But I think he really wants to make things right and he could if you just give him the chance."

     "What was it like for you? Being HYDRA's puppet?" Pietro asked and Valencia swallowed the lump in her throat.

     "They staged a car accident so everyone thought I was dead. They used some sort of drug or something on me to slow down my heart so my heartbeat couldn't be detected. And when my parents were called to identify my body, they really thought I was dead. But nobody questioned anything when I was gone from the hospital so HYDRA was free to do whatever they wanted with me. I still have scars everywhere from their experiments, punishments and the missions they forced me to go on. The only reason I did what they asked was because they would've killed everyone I loved if I didn't," Valencia said as she looked at the Twins.

     "They screwed your life up too? What else is new?" Wanda scoffed but her face softened. "What was your family like?"

     "I had both my parents and two little brothers. But when I got away from HYDRA and went into hiding within the crowd, my father was killed and I never knew until six months later. So all I have left are my mother and little brothers. I regret what I did even though it was to keep them safe but if I had to do it all again, I would without a second thought," Valencia said. "But I still have my moments where I wish I could've done something different."

     "When we saw your file, it said you volunteered for their experiments. Honestly, we should've questioned it from the beginning instead of assuming you really did volunteer," Pietro said while looking at Valencia.

     "We never had a choice either. HYDRA acted as if they were the heroes just because they were the ones who pulled us out of the wreckage when our building collapsed. Then they watched us by posing as workers at the orphanage. And no one questioned a thing when we disappeared for years," Wanda said as she shook her head and Valencia smiled.

     "You see? You and I aren't very different. And right now, our enemy is Ultron and we will take him down," she said as she let go of their hands. "We need to head over to the Quinjet if we're gonna get to Sokovia, find Nat and stop Ultron from destroying the world."

     The three of them joined the Avengers on the aircraft and Tony immediately started flying them to Sokovia. Valencia pulled her hair back into a ponytail and made sure her earpiece was in properly. The main goal was to keep the fight between Ultron and them. Wanda was given the task of using her mind control to evacuate the city and reduce the risk of unnecessary casualties while Pietro was tasked to warn the Sokovian police force and get them to evacuate.

     "Ultron thinks we're monsters and we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him, it's about whether he's right," Steve said as they got closer to landing and Valencia chuckled as she cracked her knuckles.

     "The platinum bastard will be begging on his knees by the time I'm done with him," she said.

     "The important thing is we find out what Ultron has been building with all the vibranium he took and we stop him," Steve said.

     Everybody's lives were resting on their shoulders. This was the first time Valencia was saving lives instead of taking them, but maybe kicking Ultron's ass is what she needed to release three years of pent up aggression.