𝙶𝚁𝙾𝚆𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙿𝙰𝙸𝙽𝚂

Two

Days passed with the Maximoff siblings living on what they could steal off civilians. Helena didn't do much of the stealing though, due to her older siblings worry of the risk, and her lack of a power to help her in the scenario. Actually, Helena's powers were slowly becoming unstable, but she tried to keep that as much of a secret as possible.

It wasn't much damage that her powers did. A couple wilted plants and dead bugs on the window sill. But then there was that day she felt a sudden burst of energy building up inside her at the same time as the elderly man selling vegetables at the corner fell to the ground, clutching his heart. The man was whisked off to the hospital and he survived, but the fact that Helena gained energy from his near death experience scared her.

Wanda got a headache and Helena worried it was her fault, so she said she was going out for a "walk". Helena's "walks" slowly started becoming more frequent though. Whether it was truly her fault that Wanda's head started hurting or not, Helena figured it would be better to be safe than sorry.

She had just gotten back from a short walk when she found Pietro and Wanda waiting for her outside the motel.

"What's going on?" Helena asked, coming to a stop.

"We need to go meet up with someone. Stay in the room and don't cause too much trouble, okay?" Pietro asked.

"Why? Who are you meeting up with?" She asked.

"Someone who can help us with Stark." Wanda said.

Helena frowned. She didn't like the idea of her siblings going off to meet a mysterious stranger.

"I'm coming too." Helena said.

"No, it might be dangerous-" Wanda began.

"Maybe for a normal twelve year old, but we all know I'm not normal! I can help, I'm coming. Besides, I helped at the base and the Hulk was there. He's not going to even be at this meet up place, is he?"

The twins exchanged glances.

"No." Wanda sighed.

"Stand behind us, okay little one?" Pietro asked.

"Fine." Helena agreed.

The three made their way to a church in the middle of the city. They lingered outside it for a moment.

"This is creepy." Helena noted.

"Come on." Pietro mumbled, leading the way.

There was a cloaked figure in the church. The Maximoff's stood a distance away from the figure and Wanda tried to read his mind.

"Talk. And if you're wasting our time..." Wanda said, letting her threat hang in the air.

"Did you know this church is in the exact center of the city? The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God. I like that..." His voice spoke up before he address Wanda specifically, "You're wondering why you can't see inside my head."

"Sooner or later, every man shows himself." Wanda shrugged.

The figure stood up and the robes fell back to reveal of body of metal. Helena gasped quietly and gripped onto the back of Pietro's arm.

"I'm sure." The robotic figure said, "But you need something more than a man. Why else would you let Stark take the scepter?"

Helena looked at her sister, unaware that she had let Stark leave the base with the magical scepter.

"I didn't know exactly what would happen." Wanda admitted, "But I saw his fear. The scepter would control him- make him self destruct."

"Everyone creates the thing they dread. Men of peace create engines of war, invaders create Avengers, people create...smaller people? Uh... children! I lost the word there. Children. Designed to supplant them, to help them...end."

"And is that what you want? To end the Avengers?" Pietro asked.

"I've come to save the word... but yeah, that too." The robot said.

At his words, robotic figures rose up from around the room. Helena held onto her brother tighter.

"It's alright, child." The man of metal laughed, "They will not harm you."

"Who are you?" Helena asked him.

"I am Ultron." He replied.

"And you will help us get revenge?" Pietro asked, "You will help us kill them?"

"And make them martyrs? You need to see the big picture."

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

Helena looked down. Pietro had shown her the picture of his family before the bombings. Beautiful parents and two kids with wide smiles and happy eyes. Eyes that hadn't yet been filled with grief as their world crumbled around them.

"We were ten years old." Pietro said, "We were having dinner. The shells hit. The first one killed our parents and the whole building starts to fall apart. I grabbed her and we hid under the bed as the second shell hit. But, it didn't go off. It just... just sits there in the rubble, three feet from our faces. And on the side of the shell is painted one word..."

"Stark." Wanda said.

"We were trapped for two days." Pietro said.

"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." Wanda says quietly.

"We know what they are." Pietro said.

"I wondered how you survived the experiments when no one else did... but your little sister... she wasn't in the bombings." Ultron said.

"No." Helena confirmed.

"Helena. You were found in Sokovia as an infant." Ultron said, "Placed in different foster families until you ran away."

Helena closed her eyes and tried to steady her shaking hands.

"Why did you run?" He asked.

"Because she had to." Wanda answered for her, placing a hand on her little sister's shoulder in comfort.

Helena's eyes opened again.

"You are strong." Ultron said, "All of you. But I am interested in Helena's abilities."

"Why?" Wanda asked.

"They are unique."

"They're like ours." Pietro said.

"No." Ultron shook his head, "Something else. Something different..."

Helena gulped.

"W-what do you mean?" She asked.

"There's something different about you." Ultron said, "I don't know what it is, but I have a feeling time will tell."