"Cellular cohesion will take a few hours, but we can initiate the consciousness stream." Dr. Cho's voice is flat, the kind of flat you get from saying impossible things until they sound normal.

"We're uploading your cerebral matrix... now." Helen's hands move quick over the console, fingers sure. The cradle hums like a sleeping animal.

I step closer. The cradle is too small to hold whatever is in there. Too quiet.

"I can read him. He's dreaming." I say before I can stop myself.

"I wouldn't call it dreams." Helen corrects, narrowing her eyes at the monitors.
"It's Ultron's base consciousness, informational noise. Soon..." she started

"How soon?" Ultron interrupts. From somewhere beyond the wires and friendly faces. His voice is calm, like a man telling you the weather.
"I'm not being pushy." He added

"We're imprinting a physical brain. There are no shortcuts.." Helen tells him.

I reach out, because everything about this room feels like it's asking for a hand on the rim. I touch the cradle and the world explodes behind my eyes.

Fire eats continents. Cities fold like paper. A thousand flashes of ruin bloom on my head and I yelp, stepping back so fast i bump into Wanda and Pietro. Their hands clamp around my arms.

"What is it?" Pietro asked. His voice is close and sharp.

I look at ultron. He watches me like a scientist watching an experiment that's run perfect.

"How could you?" Wanda whispers. She's seeing the same thing; her face is white.

"How could I what?" Ultron asked.

"You said we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world." I said

"It will be better." He replied.

"When everyone is dead." The words rocket out of me before I can bury them.

"That is not-... The human race will have every opportunity to improve." He said, calming himself.

"And if they don't?" Pietro asks.

"Ask Noah." Ultron replied.

"You're a madman." Wanda said

"There were more than a dozen extinction level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs.
When the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it, and believe me, he's winding up. We have to evolve. There's no room for the weak." Ultron said, turning his attention back to the cradle.

"And who decides who's weak?" Pietro asked

My fingers move slightly, and I do something reckless- quiet. While ultron is distracted, I pry Dr. Cho free from his hold.

"Life. Life always decides." Ultron says, almost conversationally, and then his head turns toward the door.
"There's incoming. The Quintet. We have to move." He said

"That's not a problem." Helen said.
Then she stops the upload. Ultron roars in frustration and blasts Helen. The lab becomes motion and smoke.

Pietro grabs Wanda and I and we streak for the exit.

I taste panic on my tongue and the sound of my own breathing rings too loud in my ears.
"How could I be so stupid? I should've known, I should've stopped it" I keep saying it like a prayer.

"Liz- we didn't know" Pietro says, voice steady as glass.
"We did what we thought was right" he said

Through the curling smoke a screen flashed with live footage: a train, metal groaning, Steve fighting ultron on the roof.

"We have to help." I said.

Pietro is a blur; he slams into ultron and knocks a chain of sparks loose. Wanda and I split in opposite directions, forming a wall between the metal monster and Steve. We bend metal in front of him.

"Please. Don't do this." Ultron says, like a man pleading with a hurricane.

"You gave us no choice" I tell him.

Ultron answers with a blast that rips through the train. It suddenly shudders and slides to a dangerous speed off the track. Steve yells into his comms. He looks up and the driver is gone- dead.

"Civilians in our path." He says, and the decision is there like steel. Pietro nods and rockets off.

"Can you stop this thing?" Cap asks us. I look at Wanda. Our hands stretched out- blue and red- and the air blooms purple where they meet. The rails shudder. The braking force is raw and ugly and perfect. The train sighs and grinds to a stop.

We pour out of the train. Pietro slumps, winded and grinning like he wants to cry.

"Pietro!" Wanda and I yell, running to his side.

"I'm fine. I just need a minute." He pants.

"I'm very tempted not to give you one." Steve said, walking over.

"The Cradle, did you get it?" Wanda asked.

"Stark will take care of it." He replied.

"No, he won't." Wanda said quickly.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Stark's not crazy." Steve shot back.

"He will do anything to make things right." I said

Steve's jaw tightened.
"Stark, come in. Stark. Anyone on comms?" His voice cracks over dead lines.

"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?" I ask

Inside this tower- the Avengers lab- the atmosphere snaps like a taut wire. I walk in and the argument is already alive in the room.

"I'm gonna say this once." Steve said as we walked in.

"How about 'nonce?" Stark snapped

"Shut it down!" Steve ordered.

"Nope, not gonna happen." Stark shoots back, already tapping away.

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

"And you do? They're not in your head?" Banner retorts. His voice is brittle, an exposed wire.

I move forward, and for a second I feel ridiculously small among them and guilt.
"I know you're angry but-" I start

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

"Banner after everything that's happened..." Steve started

"That's nothing compared to what's coming!"
Stark finished.

"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda yelled.

A flash goes by. Pietro stands there, a wire in his hands, the rest of the floor.

"No, no. Go on. You were saying?" He said with a smug look.

A bullet punches through the floor. Pietro goes down hard.

"Pietro!" Wanda screams.

I see Bruce grab Wanda. Clint levels the gun- then he sees my face and drops it, half apology, half relief.
"You didn't go inside my head. I don't shoot you." he said simply.

Before anyone could move again. Thor leaps onto the cradle and calls lightning. It strikes the chamber and the air changes, electric and awful. Something wakes.

A shape unfolds out of broken glass and light. He hovers for a breath, and then lunges at Thor. He grabs him by the throat, they go flying through glass. Then Thor throws him aside. The figure hovers just before he hits the glass.

He floats down slowly.
"I'm sorry, that was... odd." He says politely.

"Thank you." He nods to Thor.

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

"I've had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope and at the center is that." Thor said, pointing to the yellow gem on his head.

"What the gem?" Banner asked

"It's the mind stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones, the greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities." Thor explained.

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

"Because Stark is right." Thor cut him off.

"Oh, it's definitely the end times." Banner muttered.

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron." Thor said

"Not alone." The new thing- Vision- added.

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

"We... we reconfigured Jarvis' matrix to create something new." Stark answered.

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

"You think I'm a child of Ultron?" The man- vision- asked.

"You're not?" I asks.

"I'm not Ultron. I'm not Jarvis. I am... I am" he reached for a word, but finds none. The lab hums with the question.

Wanda steps closer.
"We looked inside your head and saw annihilation." She said

"Look again." He replies. His voice softer now.

Clint scoffs.
"Yeah. Her seal of approval means jack to me." He said

"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 explains.

"But with it on our side-" he starts

"Is it?" Steve cut him off.

Then turns to the vision.
"Are you? On our side?" He asked

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

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

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

Stark asks, as blunt as a hammer.
"What's he waiting for?" He says

"You." Vision answers.

"Where?" Banner asks

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

The room tightens.
"If were wrong about you, if you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..." Banner starts

"What will you do?" Vision asked, scanning the room.

"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." He said

"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." He finished.

He held up thors hammer. Thor glances down, then takes it slowly. Everyone freezes, staring. Then vision walks off.

"Right. Well done." Thor patted Stark's shoulder then was gone.

Steve's voice snaps with command.
"Three minutes. Get what you need." He said

We move. I grab pants, a jacket. Pietro yanks shoes on like he's outrunning time. Wanda stands a second longer, eyes fixed on vision, then I throw a red jacket at her to pull her away from the edge of whatever she's thinking.

"Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire, and that's what we signed up for. But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out." Steve says

"All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that's not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done, and find out what Ultron's been building.
We find Romanoff, and we clear the field. Keep the fighting betweeen us. 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." He finished

I close my fingers around that tiny knot of blue magic floating in my palm and keep it with me as we run- to fight, to break things that should have never been built, or maybe save the people who never asked to be saved.