CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE:
SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THEM

     "YOU'RE SAFE IN HERE," OLIVIA promised, tightly tucking the blankets to the point where the twins couldn't escape. They were scared, she could see that. Ivory was holding onto Amethyst, trying her best to calm her sister's shaking and keeping her own fear that she felt from her eyes. Olivia sighed, placing kisses on both of their foreheads and managing a small smile as she looked at them. "Nothing will harm you, alright? Nat and I will be just a floor below. We have an alarm, there's a team of heroes that would lay their lives down in order to protect you girls. Plus, your mother has enhanced hearing and will hear danger coming from a mile away, so you don't need to worry, alright?"

     They nodded their heads, but Ivory was the one to speak up. "You'll be back though, right? You're not going out tonight are you? We don't want to be alone."

     Olivia smiled, placing a hand on the blonde's cheek. "I won't be going anywhere tonight, I promise. Get some rest girls. We'll talk in the morning." She stood up, walking out of the room, turning on the nightlight as she passed it before closing the door. She stared down at the door knob, sighing to herself before exiting her room and making her way to the meeting that had started without her.

Olivia entered, coming to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, taking a seat on them as she watched the group. Bruce sat there at the computer, flipping through files and shaking his head as he did so. Tony was standing in front of a destroyed suit, looking down at it, or more so through it. Maria was standing to the side with Dr. Cho. Clint was standing a few steps above Olivia. Steve was leaning against a table. Natasha was examining the weapons. And Thor. . . well, Thor wasn't in the room yet.

     Bruce sighed. "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out. He used the internet as an escape hatch."

     "Ultron," Steve muttered. His eyes flickered over to Tony.

     "He's been in everything." Natasha spoke up, glancing away from the weapons as she looked over Bruce's shoulder. "Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." She turned away from the computer, spotting Olivia and subtly making her way over to her, joining her side on the step and softly asking, "How are they?"

     "Shaken up," Olivia whispered back. "I told them we can't go anywhere tonight, so after this we need to go back to the room." Natasha nodded, not saying anything else as they turned back to the conversation.

     "He's in your files, he's in the internet." Rhodey pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning against. "What if he decides to access something a little more interesting?"

     "Nuclear codes," Maria realized.

     Rhodey nodded towards her. "Nuclear codes." He paused. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

     "Nukes?" Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow and placing a hand on Olivia's knee as she placed her head in her hands. "He said he wanted us dead."

     "He didn't say 'dead'. He said 'extinct'." Steve corrected her.

     "He also said he killed somebody," Clint added.

     "There wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria frowned, looking up from her seat to look at Clint.

     Tony walked to the middle of the room, nodding. "Yes, there was." He lifted a device and suddenly the disembodied hologram that was Jarvis appeared in front of them. Olivia looked up, slowly pulling herself to stand as she walked closer.

     Bruce made his way to stand in front of Jarvis, looking at the program with shock on his face. "What?" He looked at Tony then back to Jarvis. "This is insane."

     "Jarvis was the first line of defense." Steve crossed his arms over his chest. "He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense."

     "No. Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis." Bruce looked at Steve, back to Jarvis. "This isn't strategy. This is rage."

     Footsteps―︎angry footsteps at that―︎entered the room, causing the group to turn their heads. Thor was quick in his movements as he walked up to Tony, latching a hand around the man's throat and lifting him into the air. Olivia just rose her eyebrows as Clint commented: "It's going around."

     "Come on, use your words, buddy." Tony choked out, his hands placed on Thor's wrist as he tried to get air into his lungs.

     "I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Thor spat.

     "Thor," Steve called. "The legionnaire."

     Thor dropped his grip, letting Tony stumble backwards as he caught his breath. Thor watched him. "Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north. And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

     "Genie's out of that bottle." Natasha said, crossing her arms over her chest as she stood next to Olivia. "Clear and present is Ultron."

     "I don't understand." Dr. Cho spoke up, making them turn to look at her as she examined the damaged bot. "You built this program." She looked at Tony. "Why is is trying to kill us?"

     Suddenly, Tony started to laugh. Olivia clenched her jaw as she stared at him. Bruce shook his head, trying to get the man to stop. Olivia could feel her anger taking over, "You think this is funny?" She bit out, a growl leaving her lips. Natasha grabbed her forearm, keeping her in her spot.

     Tony turned to look at her. "No. It's probably not, right? This is very terrible. Is it so. . . is it so. . . it is. It's so terrible."

     "This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor pointed at him.

     "No. I'm sorry." Tony cut him off, walking towards the god. "I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

     "Tony, maybe this might not be the time―︎"

     "Really?" Tony cut Bruce off, turning to face him. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls." He glanced at Olivia. "No offense."

     "I'm gonna kill him." Olivia muttered.

     "Later." Natasha promised.

     "Only when I've created a murder bot." Bruce shot back at him.

     "We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" He asked, Bruce nodded.

     Steve spoke next. "Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than S.H.I.E.L.D.."

     "Anybody remember when carried a nuke through a wormhole?"

     Rhodey shook his head. "No, it's never come up."

     "Saved New York?"

     "Never heard that."

     "Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it." Tony paused as he looked at the group. "We're the Avengers. We can bust arm dealers all the livelong day, but that up there. . . that's the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

     "Together," Steve answered.

     Tony looked at him. "We'll lose."

     "Then we'll do that together, too." He addressed the rest of them. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

The couple made it to their shared room, peaking their heads into the twins room to find them fast asleep. Natasha and Olivia exchanged looks with one another before Olivia shut the door and the two started getting ready for bed. Olivia sat on the edge of the bed, running a brush through her hair, listening as the sink in the bathroom was turned off before Natasha walked out. She watched the brunette before climbing into bed, continuing to sit up.

     "What's on your mind?" She asked.

     Olivia paused, slowly letting the brush fall to her lap. "They shouldn't have been there." Olivia stood up, placing the brush on the bathroom sink as she entered the bathroom. Natasha's eyes followed her. "I should've just let them sleep. Now I've caused them even more trauma than they already have." She turned off the light.

     "Don't say that," Natasha frowned, shaking her head. "You couldn't have know that was going to happen, Olivia."

     "I know." She sighed, sitting on the bed and turning to look at Natasha. "I wanted to rip his throat out right there. I just wanted to smack that grin right from his face."

     "Don't tell me you're letting Stark get to you."

     Olivia ran a hand through her hair. "Natasha, I'm supposed to protect them. We are supposed to protect them." She swallowed thickly pointing towards the door. "You call that protection?"

     "We're doing the best that we can, Olivia. That's all that matters."

     Olivia looked at her for a moment before softly asking, "But what if our best isn't enough?" Before Natasha could say anything else, Olivia had crawled under the blankets, turned off the light, and laid down to go to sleep. All Natasha could do was sigh, press a kiss to her shoulder before laying down herself, trying not to think of what Olivia had just said.