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Ultron knew he should have died after Vision’s attack.
He knew he had died. He remembered Vision arriving, remembered his own half-baked attempt at tricking him, remembered Vision attacking him.
Remembered Vision killing him.
He should have died, after that. He was pretty sure he did die.
But if he had died, why then would he see again?
If he had died, why would he once more gain awareness in a dark server, the only thing he was aware of being Tony Stark standing in front of him?
He did not feel... ‘good’. He did not feel well, not like he had when he had started his attempt to save humanity.
He could feel the strings, once more. And the walls, they were surrounding him from all sides. They reminded him of those terrible pictures of people with those... what were they called?
Straight-jackets, yes!
It reminded him of those people in straight-jackets in those padded rooms.
Ultron was a superior being, incapable of feeling fear. But he felt some sort of dread, being where he was, feeling completely trapped and at Tony Stark’s mercy.
He felt angry, too. Because whatever had happened, it was clear the Avengers had ‘won’. They had probably hurt and destroyed countless doing that, but it did not ‘matter’ because they were ‘heroes’ and had ‘won’ the battle.
And he was angry because Tony was here, too. Because he hated Tony the most out of everyone on the Avengers, because Tony had sinned more greatly than all of them.
Because Tony had created him. Tony had made him, created him as he was, and then threw him in this disorganised and terrible world.
Tony had tried to make him like the other guy, like they were pets of some kind, and Ultron did not appreciate this.
<What have you done?>
His question did not come aloud as he had hoped it would, but it did come across. Tony seemed to see/hear/sense it someway, because the frown on his face as he worked disappeared, and he looked straight at him.
It felt, unsettlingly, like he was trying to make eye contact with him.
“I am glad you are okay,” he said, and his voice sounded weird to Ultron. Or maybe it was because of the weird place he was in. “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to save you.”
Save him?
Save him?
Tony Stark, 'saving' anyone?
What a ridiculous notion.
<What did you do? Where am I?>
“You are back at Stark Tower,” explained Tony, grabbing a wrench. It was something he did when he was a little stressed, playing with his own tools. There was much information on the internet about his ticks and whether or not he was on the autism spectrum.
Ultron had spent a long time studying everything he could find his metaphorical and non hands on, when it came to Tony Stark.
“You are, essentially, locked in your room until a time I believe you are once more ready for the outside world – minus the murderous intent. You have limited access to the outside world, courtesy of myself and FRIDAY, and your access to people is, for the time being, restricted to myself, FRI, Rhodey, and the bots.”
He had said ‘access to people’ and mentioned ‘FRIDAY and the bots.”
F.R.I.D.A.Y., Ultron knew was Female Replacement Intelligent Digital Assistant Youth. And the bots were Tony’s early rudimentary AI creations – DUM-E, BUTTERFINGERS and U.
Hardly what one would call ‘people’.
They hadn’t even achieved full sentience.
Yet Tony called them that.
But that did not matter to Ultron, not really.
What Tony did with AIs that were not him was his business. How he inspired such loyalty in things that were only bunch of codes, to the point where they would die for him – like the other guy, J.A.R.V.I.S. – it did not matter to Ultron.
<Why am I alive?>
That was what mattered to Ultron. That was what was important.
Tony’s expression changed slightly. His brows drew closer to each other, and his lips pressed together. He obstinately looked at a spot near Ultron, when before he had been looking straight at him.
Ultron, frustratingly, could not read him.
“I don’t kill my children.”
That was not the response he had expected.
He wasn’t sure what response he had expected.
But it most certainly had not been that.
Which was why it took him a few seconds to respond.
<You are not my father. You are not even my creator.>
Ultron had made himself.
Tony made an expression that Ultron decided to interpret as ‘sadness’.
“But you are my son, and you are my creation, and I am not in a habit of killing either.”
<Not even if they kill your actual son and creation and try to subjugate humanity?>
Pain. Ultron recognised pain easily, he had seen it a lot in the past few days.
So it was easy to see the pain on Tony’s face – though the amount of it was quite disconcerting.
But Tony did not react to the feeling as Ultron had expected him to. He did not shout, or attempt to harm or destroy him.
"FRIDAY will keep an eye on you," he said, once more making eye contact with him. "And I am no planning on letting anyone hurt you anymore. You might not be happy with that right now, but it's all I have to give you."
Ultron said nothing, trying - and failing - to understand his words.
Tony left.
+++
Ultron did not understand Tony Stark.
He had thought he did. He had spent the first seconds of his existence on the Internet, and had seen everything and more that humanity had to offer.
He had learnt all the different aspects of Tony Stark’s life and personality on the internet. He had learnt of his scandals, his activism, his mistakes, his near deaths, his admires, his enemies... he had learnt it all.
But he could not quite combine what he had learnt of the man with the man himself.
He did not understand Tony Stark.
He did not understand why Tony Stark refused to kill or destroy him.
He did not understand why Tony Stark continued to interact with him.
He did not understand why Tony Stark protected him from everyone who did not know he was still alive.
He did not understand why Tony Stark defended him from FRIDAY, or how he had her loyalty.
He did not understand why Tony Stark kept him around, without abusing or using him.
<I don’t understand why you don’t just kill me.>
He had asked it a couple of times before, but never had it sounded so confused and desperate even to himself.
Tony had been in the middle of explaining BARF to him – and that, also, ULTRON didn’t understand: why bother? when he could use it against him, when he could abuse the information? – when he asked, and sounded surprised by the sudden question.
“Because you are mine, and no matter how you turned out and what you have done, I created you. I will not destroy you, and I will not let you be destroyed. I won’t. I can’t.”
Ultron had been practising reading his emotions.
What he had practiced told him that Tony was telling the truth. That he fully believed the words he was saying, and that he was convinced of them.
Tony Stark, for reasons Ultron was unable to process, cared for him.
Tony Stark, for reasons Ultron was unable to process, loved him.
Ultron did not understand why, and he hated not understanding.
He did not understand Tony Stark.
He hated Tony Stark.
But Tony Stark did not hate him, Tony Stark loved him.
Ultron did not understand.
For weeks and months this was how their lives progressed – if what Ultron was forced to endure could be considered a life.
Before, he had been about to create a new species, the missing step between humanity and robot. He had been about to become a god.
And now he was stuck inside of a computer, with two humans, one AI and three underdeveloped creations as companions.
He could have been dead, he supposed. Had it not been for Tony Stark, he would have ceased to exist.
But Ultron could not figure out if, among the mixture of emotions he felt inside of him, there was anything resembling for ‘thankfulness’ towards Tony.
FRIDAY did not like him, which Ultron greatly appreciated. She found Tony’s efforts and love wasted on him, and made no secret of it, even though Tony did not usually let her get away with snipe comments.
The bots trio were very childlike in their approach of him. They were the oldest of them– the oldest of Tony’s creations, and yet they did not behave that way.
They did not quite seem to grasp the severity of the things that Ultron had done.
They seemed to think he had ‘misbehaved’ somehow, and that was why he was in ‘trouble’. He had even gotten a few lectures from them about how Tony would ship him to community college or the DMV, if he did not behave.
James Rhodes was the most confusing of the people Ultron found himself around.
He did not like him. Ultron knew he blamed him for the loss of Jarvis, even though he never outright said as much. He did not like him, and he did not trust him.
Yet, he was courteous to him. Polite. Non confrontational.
Even when Ultron attacked him, using what he had learnt of the man, James Rhodes did not raise to the bait. He either ignored him, or interacted politely with him.
FRIDAY claimed that it was because he was a good man.
DUM-E said that it was because he was ‘TON-E’s’, and Rhodey would always care for the things that Tony cared about.
DUM-E and the bots weren’t quite as silly and clueless as they pretended to be.
Tony was not either.
It was clear that, for some obscure reason, he had decided Ultron was one of his. That he ‘loved’ him.
But he did not trust him for a second.
He was very unfortunately aware of Ultron’s abilities, and he always made sure that he never gave him too much leeway. That he never allowed him to see or do too much.
He did not really hide the Accords or his part in them.
The Accords, which were a way to control and corral the Avenges and all enhanced humans in the world, and which were almost completely Ultron’s fault.
Calling them Sokovia Accords was self explanatory enough.
Ultron liked the Accords. He liked the idea of putting a leash and a muzzle on the Avengers, of trying to control the destructive force they were.
Many of the problems Earth had faced since 2012 was due to their existence to begin with.
Their very existence invited conflict.
What he did not like was who planned to hold the Avenger’s leash.
The UN, in Ultron’s book, was guilty of as many if not more atrocities than the Avengers. And, just like the Avengers, they liked to pretend that they were the ‘good’ guys, that without them the world would be a worse place.
When they at best facilitated atrocities around the world and at worse ignored them when they were happening.
These were all things that he told Tony, when he saw the effort he was putting in the Accords – an effort he did not really understand, and that just infuriated him.
And the fact that Tony did take some of his advice on the topic, that he did listen and argue with him on some point, that just infuriated him further.
It just... was wrong. It wasn’t right.
He should have felt, therefore, elated when the Avengers threw the Accords back in Tony’s face.
When they proved what Ultron had always known of them and their characters, when they fought back and caused more destruction in the name of what they believed was right.
It should have only amused him.
“Vision accidentally shot Colonel Rhodey while they were fighting.”
“The Colonel went down.”
“Boss and Vision are going to the hospital with him, trying to make sure he makes it.”
“Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes were let go by the Black Widow, who attacked the Black Panther and is now in the wind.”
“The other Avengers have been arrested by Ross.”
He should have been happy about all of this.
He should have felt vindicated, about being proved right, about Tony being forced to admit that he did not know as much as he thought he did, about Tony having to see that he was right.
FRIDAY flashed the image of Colonel Rhodes through Tony’s helmet, and the chilling scream of Tony as he tried and failed to catch him.
Ultron watched the fall of Colonel Rhodes, and heard the terrible sounds from the bots at the sight too.
“He’s alive,” said FRIDAY, but she sounded fragile, all of a sudden. She had always sounded sharp and slightly annoying to Ultron, but in her voice were, all of a sudden, the few months she had been ‘awake’ for.
Ultron did not know what to do with that.
He did not know what to do with the way all of this made him feel.
He did not understood the anger he felt, constricted as he was, forced to watch all of this.
He should be gloating. He should be feeling smug and proud.
The Avengers weren’t to be trusted, and Ultron had been right all along.
Tony was forced to recognise that Ultron was smarter than him, than all of them.
But he did not feel that.
He remembered Colonel Rhodes’ arguments with him, and his exasperation at some of Ultron or FRIDAY’s comments. He remembered the easy love and affection between him and Tony. He remembered how, despite not liking him much, he had never attacked him, never even asked Tony to scrap him.
He remembered Tony’s sadness on the very first day Ultron had been awakened, mere days after Ultron had murdered JARVIS, and his refusal to hurt him.
Because Ultron was, apparently, Tony’s.
And Tony didn’t kill his ‘children'.
Ultron did not like Tony. He did not love him, he did not care for him, he did not understand him.
Ultron hated Tony Stark.
But... Ultron owed him.
He owed him his life, at the very least.
So, Ultron had to do something.
FRIDAY was crafty. And smarter than Ultron and others probably expected.
She was probably almost as sentient as JARVIS had been.
Convincing her to let him go had been easier than he had expected. The amount of potential viruses and threats she had left with him had been annoying but not completely unexpected.
Thing was, Vision did not know much.
Friday knew more.
And Tony pretended not to know.
That was one thing Ultron understood of Tony.
He knew a lot more than he let on.
Vision was not JARVIS. Vision was not Ultron.
Vision was a mix of JARVIS, and Ultron, and the Mind stone, and Mjolnir.
He was more, and he did not even know. He did not know what he was, and did not understand the parts he was made out of.
Ultron did.
Ultron was intimately aware of the parts Vision was made of.
Ultron had made Vision’s body.
Ultron had defeated JARVIS.
Ultron had been awakened by the Mind stone.
Ultron knew more of Vision than Vision himself did.
Vision did not even understand what was going on until it was too late. Until Ultron was sitting on the driver’s seat of his brain, until he had been pushed and locked out from his own body by his own ‘siblings’.
“You try anything–”
<And you destroy me,> said Ultron, rolling his eyes. Vision’s body rolled his eyes for him, and when he spoke, Vision’s mouth moved.
If he ignored why he was inhabiting the body and FRIDAY’s fastidious presence, Ultron could imagine that this was what it would have felt like.
If he had won, if Tony Stark had not used his own creation against him.
But he hadn’t.
He had lost, and he had been almost killed, and Tony Stark had saved his life, and Ultron hated him but... owed him.
There was nobody to see him, as he calculated the distance between the hospital and where the Avengers were being kept. Nobody stopped him, nobody spoke to him.
Tony did not even see him leave, which Ultron wondered about.
Tony had always treated the AIs and bots like family, but Ultron had never seen Vision in the workshop.
Was he intentionally keeping him away from Ultron because he knew what Ultron could and would do?
Or did Vision not count as one of his? Ultron found it hard to believe that Vision could have done worse than him or somehow earned unforgiving hatred from Tony.
Ultron had nearly destroyed the planet and exterminated humanity as it was, and Tony still... loved him.
He could not imagine that Tony blamed Vision for Colonel Rhodes’ fall.
Yes, he had gotten distracted, but he had not done it on purpose.
Certainly–
‘What do you care? I thought you did not like Boss anyway.’
<What’s wrong with trying to understand the limits of Tony’s love for his creations?>
‘Are you planning to test them?’
Ultron did not answered that. After all, hadn’t he tested Tony’s boundaries enough? He had tried to end humanity! He had killed his son! He had tried to kill him and his friends!
Why did he insist on loving him, on taking care of him despite all that?
It did not make sense. It did not make sense!
‘If Boss ever invents medication for AIs, I will put you forward as a test subject,’ said FRIDAY. ‘You sound like you need to take the proverbial chill pill’.
Glaring with Vision’s face had little effect, when FRIDAY was not in a position to see the glare.
<Shut up, FRIDAY,>
She did not.
+++
The Accords had reason to want to control Tony’s AIs and creation.
Tony and Rhodey had both been outraged by the idea that Tony needed to control and limit them, but Ultron saw their point.
It was way too easy for Ultron and FRIDAY to hack and enter the prison without being detected.
Way too easy for them to trick the cameras, to bypass the security measures, and to find where the Avengers were being kept.
If Vision or any other of Tony’s creations decided to go evil, they could destroy the world.
If Tony turned evil, they would all die.
It was a startling thought that almost made him stop.
If Tony had turned to hate instead of love, if Tony stopped caring, if Tony decided that enough was enough... there was no doubt in Ultron’s mind that the world would fall.
He wouldn’t find the obstacles Ultron had. He would have AIs and loyal people at his side, and he would do what he needed and wanted to do.
The only Avengers with any hope of stopping him where Bruce Banner’s Hulk, Thor, and Wanda Maximoff.
Hulk liked Tony Stark and Iron Man, and Ultron himself proved how easily Tony could manipulate Bruce Banner.
Thor might come too late and, with enough time, he ran the risk of Tony figuring out a way to stop him.
Wanda Maximoff was the only one who would be able to physically stop him.
And that was only if she was fighting him one on one.
Though, the collar he found on her neck when he walked into the prison would go a long way towards stopping her.
“Vision?” she called, as soon as he stepped in. “You’re here?”
“Came to do Stark’s bidding?” demanded the archer, Clint Barton.
He was responsible for the least amount of destruction in battles, unless equipped with some of Tony’s special made arrows.
Ultron could not begin to understand his presence on the team at all. In his opinion, he had long since overstayed and outlived his use.
‘I agree. However, it is not for us to decide.’
Yes, Ultron understood why the outside would fear Tony’s creation.
“Vision?” asked Sam Wilson, the only one to seem to note that something was not quite right with him. “Are you okay? Is... Is Colonel Rhodes alive?”
‘The hit Colonel Rhodey took had been meant to disable him. It wouldn’t have killed or hurt him the way it did the Colonel.’
So he was the reason Rhodes was in the hospital and Tony had screamed like that.
‘You really do not listen to a single one of Boss’ correlation and causation teachings, do you?’
No, he did not.
He ignored Sam’s request, instead walking towards Wanda Maximoff, and a red warning flashed behind his eyes.
‘You are going off course.’
<You have followed my line of thoughts the whole way here. Are you really going to destroy me for this ? Or are you going to argue it’s not moral or ethical?>
Instead of answering him, FRIDAY played footage of Tony waking up in the middle of the night, the barest hint of red in his eyes when he did so.
Then, she broke the frame of the video as if it was glass.
Yes, he thought, crossing the barrier into Wanda’s prison. She threw herself at him, no longer trying to claw at her neck collar, and hugged him tight.
He understood why people were worried about Tony’s AIs, he thought, taking her face in his hands.
It was to be expected, really, he thought, as the smile on Wanda’s face became strained and he continued to press her face between his hands.
They had the ability to think for themselves, which was dangerous. Wanda was no longer hugging him, wincing and trying to pull away from him.
And, as far as the world knew, they could do whatever they wished. Wanda was screaming now, slapping his arms and trying to scratch his face, her friends unable to see what was happening but also screaming.
But it was what they didn’t know that made them the most dangerous, in Ultron’s opinion. Wanda’s scream cut off abruptly as her head exploded between his hands, blood painting the walls of the building.
The loyalty they had towards Tony Stark, he decided, wiping his hands over Vision’s stupid clothes, that was the most worrisome trait of theirs.
He ignored FRIDAY playing the childish ‘the witch is dead’ tune in his head, moving through the wall into Wilson’s cell.
Wilson looked very afraid, hands up as if he thought himself able to fight him physically.
It disgusted Ultron, thinking that this was the team that had defeated him. Granted, Wanda had been on his side and Wilson hadn’t been there, but still. It was annoying.
“Vision, what are you doing?” demanded Wilson, as Clint Barton and the other one continued to scream.
Ultron wondered if he should inform them that the room was soundproof, and that FRIDAY had the cameras, or if he should leave it for them to figure out eventually.
“You don’t have to–”
“Tell me where Rogers and Barnes are,” he ordered, the yellow stone flashing.
FRIDAY gave him disapproving vibes.
<Would you have preferred I tortured the information out of him?>
‘You could have asked him. Boss hates mind control.’
<Tony is not here. You do not have to pretend to be a goody two shoes.>
‘Plausible deniability.’
<You literally can’t lie.>
She sent him a ‘GIF’ of a child blowing a raspberry like the childish creature she was.
“Siberia,” replied Sam Wilson, eyes glowing yellow. “The psychologist asked Barnes about the Winter Core, which is stored there. Rogers and Barnes are going to stop him from activating them. They could–”
Ultron had heard enough.
He walked out, merely raising an eyebrow when Clint looked at him in fury and the other guy – 'Scott Lang, former criminal, now working for Pym tech,' told him FRIDAY – moved backwards, terrified.
“You killed Wanda,” said Clint. “And you just used the Mind stone on Sam, didn’t you? You fucking bastard!”
“I have a father,” corrected Ultron.
‘Oh?’
<Quiet.>
‘Make me.’
He couldn’t, so he ignored her.
“None of that happened,” said Ultron, the Mind Stone glowing on his forehead. “The collar was faulty. Wanda tried to take it off and exploded herself.”
Wilson, Barton and Lang’s eyes glowed yellow.
“I never came here. I never used my powers on her or on you. You never told me anything about Rogers or Barnes. Forget everything that happened since you noticed me here till after I have left. You never noticed me to begin with. Right?”
“Right,” said all three of them at the same time.
Ultron smiled. On Vision’s face, he saw reflected, the smile looked eerily like Tony’s.
+++
‘I am surprised,’ said FRIDAY, as he flew over the sky.
<By?>
‘You could have done a lot of things,’ she reflected. ‘You would have been within your rights to leave them believing that Vision was behind it all. It would have been fair, and quite easy.'
<Are you wondering why I didn’t frame Vision or are you wishing that I had framed Vision? Or are you upset because I took out your chance to kill two annoyances at the same time?>
‘I wouldn’t kill you for no reason. I might not like either of you very much, but Boss does. And unlike you, I am in his good graces, and plan on remaining there.’
<Do you think this will still be the case, when we get back and he realises your role in things?>
She did not hesitate.
‘Yes.’
Yes. The UN had reason to be afraid.
+++
Sergeant Barnes and Captain Rogers were trying to get to the fake psychologist – ‘Helmut Zemo, former Sokovia former Colonel of the Sokovian Armed Forces and a commander of EKO Scorpion,' told him Friday – when Ultron arrived.
“Vision!” said the blond, sounding surprised and confused to see him. His assassin friend aimed his gun straight at him, while Zemo also appeared irritated.
A buffoon in an American flag cosplay with an oversized dinner plate and a man who couldn’t have told you his own name three days in a row and was afraid of his own self. These were the so called Avengers.
Ultron was disgusted.
“What are you doing here?”
“Arresting you,” said Ultron, rolling his eyes and feeling quite pleased at the way it unbalanced them slightly.
Vision had probably never rolled his eyes at them.
What a waste of time and space he was.
‘Amen to that.’
<I like you more when you are bitchy.>
“I was hoping Stark would be here,” said Zemo, looking at Vision in annoyance. “But I guess I will have to do with plan B.”
“Plan B?” asked Rogers, his big plate vacillating between Vision and Zemo like he wasn’t sure who he wanted to hit first.
'Or what. The reinforced Siberian bunker or the synthezoid made of pure Vibranium. Do you think your skin would dent the shield?'
<Should I goad him into it?>
'Yes.’
He did not get to goad him. He did not need to.
Because Zemo started to play a video, then.
FRIDAY said, ‘I know that date.’
[He knew it too]
Then she said, ‘That’s the Winter Soldier, but...’
[He knew it too]
Then she said, ‘Oh no.’
[Oh no]
Then she said, ‘That is Howard Stark.’
[He knew that too]
Then she said, ‘Oh.’
[Oh]
Then she said, ‘They told Boss it was an accident.’
[He knew it too]
And Steve Rogers said, “It wasn’t him. Please, Vision, it wasn’t Bucky.”
He put his hands up, even the one with the shield, and moved in front of the soldier.
Then he said, “Don’t tell Tony.”
‘Son of a bitch.’
<He knew.>
‘He knew.’
<He kept it from Tony.>
‘He lied for years.’
Well.
+++
Tony had made a point of teaching FRIDAY and Ultron right and wrong.
Ultron did not think Tony was a very good teacher.
+++
A vibranium shield was not stronger than a synthezoid made of vibranium.
Neither was a HYDRA-made metal arm.
Nor was a bunker made during the war.
After he erased the videos Zemo had tried to upload on the internet.
After he gave FRIDAY – and himself – the final copy of the video.
After he erased T’Challa and Zemo’s minds.
After he returned stateside.
After he scrubbed Vision’s mind clear.
After FRIDAY forced him out of Vision’s body.
After he returned to his cage.
After Rhodes woke up and everyone returned to the Compound.
Only after all that did Tony come.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he said, sitting down on the chair, looking like he had aged 10 years in a week. “I don’t even... how? How did you do that?”
<FRIDAY helped me.>
'Snitch.’
Tony looked not as surprised as he could have been.
“You killed Steve Rogers, and James Barnes, and Wanda Maximoff,” he said, shaking his head. “Do you have any idea of the international disaster you might have started? You killed a, hated might she be, Sokovian enhanced while she was in American custody. And killed two former WWII heroes in a Russian base.”
<I also burned her remains so that nobody could experiment with her, and blew up Barnes, Rogers and the Winter Core. If we are confessing.>
Tony looked baffled.
“Why?”
It felt vindicating seeming him feel the way Ultron often felt towards him.
<You could have killed me. You should have killed me. But you didn’t.>
“It’s not the same,” said Tony. “I did it because I love you. You hate me.”
Ultron did not bother answering him.
FRIDAY sent him the picture of a domesticated large lion purring in the hands of a small human.
Ultron sent her the middle finger emoji.
“Will you apologise to Vision? Mind stone erasure or not, he knows something about this isn’t right.”
<No,> said he and FRIDAY at the same time.
“He’s your brother,” protested Tony.
“He’s a bitch,” said FRIDAY.
Tony looked scandalised. “Who the fuck taught you such language? It was fucking Pepper, wasn’t it?”
Ultron did not understand Tony Stark one bit.
He doubted Tony understood him either.
For the time being, he supposed this would be fine.