Friends; New and Old

3rd Person POV

After Ash broke Xavion's collar in her grip, Ultron unlocked her cuffs before he started to show the base and the robots that had been created to the twins, who had been standing off to the side the entire time Ash had her revelation about her best friend being attacked by the ones she called family.

"We'll move out right away. This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work."

"All of these are..." Wanda started to say but Ultron was quick to answer,

"Me. I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony. They're discordant. Disconnected. Stark's already got them turning on each other. And when you get inside the rest of their heads..."

As Ultron spoke of the Avengers, Ash could feel a small part of her brain telling her that what he was going to do was wrong, but the doubt was quickly overrun with the anger that was coursing through her veins like a deadly poison, clouding her judgment and making it that much harder to be reasonable as she continued to listen in on Ultron and the twins while she stayed by Xavion's side, hoping for him to awaken and wondering when her next "rage seizure" would happen.

"Everyone's plan is not to kill them." Pietro cuts with an almost bored tone.

"And make them martyrs? You need patience. Need to see the big picture." Ultron advised Pietro before he replied,

"I don't see the big picture. I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it... every day."

"You lost your parents in the bombings. I've seen the records." At this new piece of information, Ash turned her attention away from her friend to listen to the twins' story.

"The records are not the picture."

"Pietro..." Wanda whispered unsure only to have Ultron insist,

"No, please."

'We were 10 years old. Having dinner, the four of us. When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor. It's big. Our parents go in... and the whole building starts coming apart. I grab her, roll under the bed, and the second shell hits. But it doesn't go off. It just... sits there in the rubble. Three feet from our faces. And on the side of the shell is painted one word."

"'Stark.'" Wanda input.

"We were trapped for two days."

"Every effort to save us, every shift in the bricks, I think, 'This will set it off.' We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us."

"I know what they are."

"I wondered why only you two survived Strucker's experiments. Now I don't. We will make it right. You and I can hurt them. But you will tear them apart... from the inside."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ash spoke up with a hint of malice in her voice. She felt another rage seizure coming, but she focused every bit of energy and concentration she could muster to keep it from happening, succeeding in keeping her rage in check, but not the glowing substance that came up when she convulsed and quickly wiped her mouth before anyone could notice as Ultron answered her question with,

"As much as I appreciate your newfound loyalty to our cause, in order for me to emerge from my chrysalis, I first need the supplies to break free."

"Who would have these 'supplies'?"

Short Time Skip

After loading Xavion onto the jet they were taking to get to South Africa, the three of them were sitting in the cabin, Ash only a seat apart from twins with her suit fully on and her hair back to its normal untamed look as she fingered away some more of the glowing stuff that was trickling out from her nose, catching the twins' attention as Wanda asked with genuine concern,

"Are you alright...?"

"Yes..." Ash nodded once and blankly staring at the wall in front of her before fingering her pendant, cueing Pietro to comment with a light smile,

"I see you have your own little picture."

Ash looked over to him with her own small smile before deciding to trust them by pulling her pendant off and passing it to him and Wanda to see the pictures within.

"This is that boy..." Wanda pointed to the side where Ash and Xavion were pictured.

"He's my best friend..." Ash explained in a barely loud whisper, smiling toward the end of her sentence, "He's like my brother, we used to take care of each other back home, like you two..."

"It's mostly me taking care of her." Pietro "whispered" in front of Wanda, who playfully shoved his side while chuckling,

"Shut up."

For a moment, everything seemed light until Pietro's question darkened the mood again,

"What happened to your family?" Handing her the pendant back as she clasped it around her neck again, answering with a desolate tone,

"My home was taken away from me, I got separated from my mother and my little sister while escaping, and now... I don't even know if they survived the attack..."

"I'm so sorry..." Wanda reached over to place her hand on top of Ash's before she continued,

"Everyday I hope to find some sort of sign that they're alright, but... everyday my hope wears down, little by little..."

There was a heavy silence before Wanda gave Ash's hand a reassuring squeeze and Pietro told her,

"I'm sure one day... your sign will come."

"Thank you..." Ash gave another small smile to the twins before the jet started to land at their destination.

Another Short Time Skip

After landing near Klaue's base of operations, the twins and Ash snuck in as Ultron cut the power to the base, leaving them undetected when they made it to Klaue in his office. He was armed but only managed to fire one shot off before Pietro sped in and disarmed his weapon, laying all the bullets out in a neat row allowing Wanda and Ash to walk in safely.

"Yeah. The Enhanced. Strucker's prize pupils and... a new one?" Klaue sat at his desk before picking up a little bowl and offers,

"Do you want a candy?"

None of them making a move as he put it back and started speaking,

"I was sorry to hear about Strucker. But then, he knew what kind of world he was helping create. Human life. Not a growth market."

At this, Wanda and Pietro looked to each other with an expression that let both Ash and Klaue know that they didn't know about Strucker's fate.

"You didn't know? Is this your first time intimidating someone? I'm afraid I'm not that afraid."

"Everybody is afraid of something." Wanda spoke with a slightly menacing tone before,

"Cuttlefish." Klaue spoke with hand motions to describe the actions as he explained,

"Deep sea fish. They make lights, disco lights... to hypnotize their prey, and then... I saw a documentary. It was terrifying."

With a rapid woosh, Pietro zipped over to the candy bowl and took a piece for himself and offered one to Ash, who took it with a lighthearted shrug before Klaue continued with,

"So if you're going to fiddle with my brain... and make me see a giant cuttlefish, then I know you don't do business. And I know you're not in charge. And I only deal... with the man in charge."

Right before the window close to him shattered and Ultron grabbed Klaue to stand over him as he bargained,

"There is no man in charge. Let's talk business."

A short while later, Klaue and one of his followers had brought the four of them to where he was keeping his stash of Vibranium and Ultron was handed a tube of the valuable ore as he mused,

"Upon this rock, I will build my church. Vibranium." Ultron tossed it to Pietro who caught it quickly before showing it to his sister and Ash.

"You know, it came at great personal cost. It's worth billions." Klaue mentioned while rubbing the branding on his neck. Ultron chuckled and closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them back up to say,

"Now so are you. It's all under your dummy holdings. Finance is so weird. But I always say, 'Keep your friends rich and your enemies rich and wait to find out which is which.'"

There was a tense moment of silence as Klaue and his follower slowly looked back up at him before Klaue whispered,

"Stark."

"What?" Ultron questioned.

"Tony Stark used to say that. To me. You're one of his."

"What? I'm not... I'm not." Ultron grabbed Klaue's arm, causing his follower to grab his gun but Wanda stayed ahead of him by using her power to immobilize his arm and Ash clicked her fingers to direct a small fireball to melt the gun right out of his grasp as Ultron yelled, "You think I'm one of Stark's puppets? His hollow men? I mean, look at me. Do I look like Iron Man? Stark is nothing!"

In the heat of the moment, Ultron slashed his glowing hand down on Klaue's arm, slicing his arm clean off to where he didn't even scream in pain. From behind them, Ash stared horrified at the scene in front of her and the twins seemed to sense her distress and gently pushed her behind them to avoid having to watch as Ultron "apologize",

"I'm sorry. I'm... I'm sure that's gonna be okay. I'm sorry. It's just that I don't understand. Don't compare me with Stark!"

Klaue was kicked down the stairs before Wanda released the man to go after his boss as Ultron ranted,

"It's a thing with me. Stark is... He's a sickness!"

"Aww Junior. You're gonna break your old man's heart." They all turned to see Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America standing there ready with their weapons.

"If I have to."

"Nobody has to break anything." Thor tried to reason.

"Clearly you've never made an omelet."

"He beat me by one second."

"Yes. He's funny. Mr. Stark. It's what? Comfortable? Like old times?" Pietro spoke with a patronizing tone while looking at all the rockets and weapons around them.

"This was never my life." Tony argued gently.

"You two can still walk away from this." Steve

"No we will... The three of us..." Wanda spoke right before Ash came out from behind them with her hands glowing a sickly orange and red and an angry expression on her face.

"Ash, what're you doing?" Tony questioned.

"Defending my own..."

"You don't have to do this..." Steve tried to convince them only to have Ultron laugh and say,

"Captain America. God's righteous man. Pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..."

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Thor argued.

"I think you're confusing 'peace' with 'quiet.'"

"Uh huh... What's the vibranium for?" Tony asked

"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan." Ultron drew Tony to him with a magnet before blasting him away as the fight commenced.

1782 Words

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