Tony walked out of the barn with none other than Nick Fury himself, a man Grace never actually met but certainly heard about. By the way he half-smiled at her when he saw her, like a greeting, she guessed he'd heard a lot about her, too — though not necessarily from Tony.

They all gathered in the kitchen — the whole team — and sat down to talk, which is what they're doing now.

"Ultron took you guys out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing," Fury says, leaning back against the counter.

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asks.

"Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asks.

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony replies.

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that," Fury says.

Grace's brows furrow. "NEXUS?"

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo," Bruce replies. "Every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth."

"So, what'd they say?" Clint asks.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed," Fury replies.

"By whom?" Tony asks.

"Parties unknown."

Then, Nat butts in, "Do we have an ally?"

"Ultron's got an enemy, but that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

Tony chews his lip, thinking. "I might need to visit Oslo, find our 'unknown.'"

Nat sighs, looking at Fury. "Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that."

Fury cracks a small smile. "I do. I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum..." And then he says a word unsuitable for children, though Grace is standing right there.

Nat smirks. "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve replies, fighting a back a laugh. Grace actually does laugh; Tony told her the story forever ago, after it first happened.

Fury sighs. "So, what does he want?"

"To become better," Steve says. "Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies," Tony adds. "The human form is inefficient — biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."

Nat looks at Bruce and Tony. "When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed."

But Bruce gets an idea. "They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" Grace asks.

Bruce's eyes widen. "Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

No one has. Everyone jumps up, preparing to head to the lab where Dr. Cho should be.

"I'll take Natasha and Clint," Steve says.

"Alright, strictly recon," Tony says. "I'll hit the NEXUS, I'll join you as soon as I can."

"I'll go with you," Grace says.

"No. You're not going."

Steve speaks before Grace can. "If Ultron is really building a body-"

"He'll be more powerful than any of us," Tony finishes. "Maybe all of us. An android designed by a robot."

Steve sighs. "You know I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me."

"I'll drop Banner and Grace off at the tower," Fury says, continuing before Grace can protest. "Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?"

"She's all yours, apparently. What are you gonna do?" Tony asks.

"I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope."

"Wait, wait, wait, why can't I go?" Grace asks. "I can help-"

"No," Tony says, "and don't try to persuade me this time. I've been way too lax recently, and you need to stay here."

"You were just hurt, too," Nat adds gently. "You need to rest."

"So were you!" Grace argues. "That's the worst thing that's happened to me the whole time, and I feel fine now! I can help!"

"No," Tony replies adamantly. "No. I was stupid for letting you come last time, and look what happened. You're not ready for this. Please, for my sake, just go with Fury. Rest up."

Grace sees the expression on his face; he's tired and guilt is weighing on him, either from letting her join the fight or Ultron — or both. She sighs. "Okay. Fine."

Tony looks relieved. "Thank you."

He hugs her, kisses her forehead, then leaves with the team. Grace sighs again and slumps down on the couch, seeing as Fury isn't hurrying out the door. Bruce walks back toward his room. Fury walks over to her. "Don't sweat it, kid. You'll get there someday."

"Well, I was already doing pretty good," Grace replies.

Fury shakes his head. "No, you weren't."

"But I-"

"You may have avoided getting seriously hurt and taken down a few bad guys, but that's not all it takes. It's up here, too." He taps his temple. "You got a lot to learn. But you'll get there eventually."

Grace frowns, but she understands what he's saying. "I just don't want something bad to happen," she says quietly, remembering her dream — or vision or whatever it was.

Even though she doesn't describe it, Fury understands. "That's not your responsibility right now, kid. That's theirs. They're the Avengers, you know; they can take care of themselves." He sighs. "For the most part." Grace laughs, and he smiles. "Come on. Let's get you and Dr. Banner back to the Tower."

~~~~

When Tony gets back to the Tower, Grace is already there. She hugs him, relieved that he's back and okay. Not long after, Clint arrives with the body Ultron had Dr. Cho build for him inside a thing called the Cradle, though his consciousness or whatever hasn't been fully uploaded to it yet.

Nat is gone.

Clint isn't even entirely sure what happened. One minute they were in the air and she was hanging onto the Cradle, the next she was just... gone.

Sometime later, Grace and Tony walk back into the lab, where Clint, Bruce, and the Cradle are.

"Any word on Nat?" Bruce asks.

Grace shakes her sadly while Tony replies, "I haven't heard. But she's alive, or Ultron'd be rubbing our faces in it."

Clint is trying to open the Cradle. "This is sealed tight."

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

Tony looks at Clint, thinking. "Any chance Natasha might leave you a message, outside the internet, old school spy stuff?"

Clint nods. "There's some nets I can cast. Yeah, alright. I'll find her." He leaves the room. Grace sits on a nearby table.

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

Tony grimaces a little. "Yeah, about that..."

There's a long pause as Bruce an Grace realize what he's talking about. "No," Bruce says.

"Dad-" Grace starts.

"You have to trust me," Tony says.

"Kinda don't," Bruce replies.

"Our ally? The guy protecting the military's nuclear codes?" Tony pulls up a projection of Jarvis, now intact. "I found him."

"Hello, Dr. Banner," Jarvis says. "Grace." Even in the situation they're in, Grace can't help but smile.

Tony continues. "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."

Bruce sighs. "So, you want me to help you put Jarvis into this thing?" He gestures to the body in the Cradle.

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

"And you just assume that Jarvus' 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 says. Grace doesn't know what to think.

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

"I know, I know," Tony says. "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. It's not a loop. It's the end of the line."

Bruce looks down at the Cradle, considering. Finally, he sighs. "Fine. But if it goes wrong again, none of this is my fault."

They get to work, easily beginning to upload Jarvis to the body. Grace watches, filled with anxiety, playing with the bracelet — Savior — on her wrist.

"This framework is not compatible," Tony eventually says.

"The genetic coding tower's at ninety-seven percent. You've got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes," Bruce replies.

And then Steve shows up, shockingly, with the Maximoff twins in tow. Grace stands, causing both of them to look at her. She looks at Pietro.

"I'm gonna say this once," Steve says.

"How about 'nonce'?" Tony replies.

"Shut it down!"

"Nope, not gonna happen."

"You don't know what you're doing."

"And you do?" Bruce asks. He points at Wanda. "She's not in your head?"

Wanda steps forward. "I know you're angry-"

"Oh, we're way past that," Bruce replies. "I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade."

"Bruce," Grace says, shocked.

"What?" he says. "She was in your head, too, and you're not angry?"

Grace looks at Wanda, and Wanda looks back at her, her entire expression screaming the words, 'I'm sorry.' Grace looks back at Bruce, remembering her conversation with Fury. "Well, what I saw taught me something."

"And what I saw destroyed a city."

"Look, after everything that's happened-" Steve starts.

"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony shouts.

Wanda looks at Tony. "You don't know what's in there!"

"This isn't a game!" Steve says.

"The creature-!" Wanda starts.

But then Pietro is off like a shot, and then, suddenly, all of the lab equipment is destroyed. He stops. "No, no. Go on. You were saying?"

And then an arrow goes through the floor where he's standing, causing the glass to break and him to fall through. Both Wanda and Grace rush forward, though for two different reasons. "Pietro!" Wanda shouts.

"What?" Clint says from below; he was the one who shot. "You didn't see that coming?"

"I'm rerouting the upload," Tony says. Steve throws his shield, and everyone ducks as it goes around the room. Tony quickly puts on the hand piece of his suit and blasts Steve as the rest of the suit comes to him. Grace realizes how dangerous this is about to get and puts on Savior.

"The Avengers are being children," Grace says to Sai by way of explanation.

"Why am I not surprised?" Sai replies.

Wanda starts to use her powers, but Bruce grabs her from behind. "Go ahead and tick me off," he threatens.

Steve runs up to Tony, going to punch him, but Tony blasts himself back. Wanda gets out of Bruce's grip and pushes him back.

Before Grace can even do anything, especially without hurting anybody, Thor arrives from out of nowhere and jumps onto the Cradle, calls down lighting, and fills the whole Cradle with pure power. There's shouting from all sides, though the physical fighting has stopped.

Finally, Thor stops, and there's a few seconds of silence.

Then, the body in the Cradle explodes out of it, sending Thor flying to the ground. Everyone looks in awe at the red and dark green body that just emerged. It looks at Thor.

Then, it flies at him, going to attack. Thor ducks, and it goes crashing through the glass wall and out into the main area, where it stops at the window, looking out. Steve runs over, shield in hand, but Thor stops him. Grace gently flies over to Thor, watching it with curiosity.

It stays silent for a long time, but then it turns as everyone else enters the room. Then, Jarvis' voice comes out of it. "I'm sorry, that was... odd." It looks at Thor. "Thank you."

"Thor, you helped create this?" Steve asks.

"I've had a vision," Thor replies. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at it's center is that." He points at the gold stone on the thing's head.

"What, the gem?" Bruce asks.

"It's the Mind Stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."

"Then why would you bring it to-?" Steve starts.

"Because Stark is right."

Bruce sighs. "Oh, it's definitely the end times."

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron."

"Not alone," the thing says.

"Why does your 'vision' sound like Jarvis?" Steve asks.

Tony steps forward, amazed, looking at it in awe. "We reconfigured Jarvis' matrix to create something new."

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

The thing looks at him. "You think I'm a child of Ultron?"

"You're not?" Steve asks.

It shakes its head. "I'm not Ultron. I'm not Jarvis. I am... I am."

"I looked in your head and saw annihilation," Wanda pipes up.

"Look again."

"Yeah," Clint says, walking forward, "her seal of approval means jack to me."

"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," Thor says. "But with it on our side-"

"Is it?" Grace asks. She looks at it. "Are you? On our side?"

Its brows — or at least where they should be — furrow. "I don't think it's that simple."

"Well, it better get real simple real soon," Clint says.

"I am on the side of life," it says. "Ultron isn't; he will end it all."

"What's he waiting for?" Tony asks.

"You."

"Where?"

"Sokovia," Clint answers. "He's got Nat there, too."

Bruce steps forward. "If we're wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be-"

"What will you do?" It asks. "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." It looks down at itself. "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." It grabs Thor's hammer from where he left it and holds it out to Thor.

Everyone looks on, shocked. Thor takes the hammer, almost numbly. The thing walks off, unaware of what it just proved.