➫ | 𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬¹

⋆ ཾ༵༵༅ 9 ~ Old-Fashioned

U-Gin Genetics Research Lab
Seoul, Korea

Helen Cho was getting ready to preform a test and was speaking in Korean to her fellow members as she walked towards her lab. No one else entered the lab except her. No other personal was in the lab either. She was looking down at the moment and didn't realize Ultron standing there till she looked up at the last second and heard him speak. A gasp was heard from her. "Scream, and your entire staff dies." Ultron said.

"I could've killed you, Helen, the night we met but I didn't." He continued on as she looked at him. "Do you expect a thank you note?" She questioned him. "I expect you to know why." He replied back in a deep like voice as she glanced down at the Cradle. "The cradle." She quietly muttered as a clip of her voice telling Tony about the cradle was played through Ultron. "This..." Ultron started to say as he placed a hand on the cradle. "Is the next me." He told Helen.

"The regeneration cradle prints tissue. It can't build a living body." She started to tell him. "It can, you can." He said as he walked closer to her. "You'll add the materials." He added as one of his robots appeared with vibranium. "You're a brilliant woman, Helen." He said as she turned and saw another robot with Loki's scepter. She gasped as they placed it on her chest. "But we all have, room to improve." Ultron added afterwards.

-

Natasha was sitting on bed wearing a robe as she waited for Bruce to finish in the shower. While she was waiting, she had small flashbacks of her in the red room. Bruce was shaving his face when he paused for a moment to look at himself. He the continued to finish shaving his face before finally exiting the bathroom. "I didn't realize you were waiting" Bruce told Natasha. "I would've joined you, but, Uh, it didn't seem like the right time." She admitted with a small smile. "They used up all the hot water." He said to her. "I should've joined you." She replied. "Missed our window." He added as he chuckled lightly after. "Did we?" She said.

He saw the look she had on her face and sighed as he walked a few steps away, continuing to dry himself. "The world just saw the Hulk. The real Hulk, for the first time." He said before adding "you know I have to leave." That's when she spoke up "you assume I have to stay? I had this, um, dream. The kind that seems normal at the time, but when you wake..." He took a step towards her as he asked "what did you dream?" She looked down slightly before looking up at him "that I was an Avenger. That I was anything more than the assassin they made me." Bruce took another step towards her. "I think you're being hard on yourself." He mentioned and she creased her eyebrows.

"Here I was hoping that was your job." She said when she closed the small gap by taking a step forward and looking up at him. "What are you doing?" Bruce asked. "I'm running with it. With you." She told him as she placed a hand on his cheek. He grabbed her hand as she continued. "If running is the plan, as far as you want." He looked at her and slowly pulled her away from him. "Are you out of your mind?" He said as he walked away and she gave him a look. "I want you to understand that, um..." she started to say and he cut her off.

"Natasha, where can I go? Where in the world am I not a threat?" He said and she went closer to him. "You're not a threat to me." She told him. "Are you sure?" He asked her. "Even if I didn't just... There's no future with me. I can't ever... I can't have this." He added as he gestured around him. "Do the math. I physically can't." That's when Natasha looked at him with watery eyes. "Neither can I." She started to tell him. "In the red room where I was trained... where I was raised, um, they have a graduation ceremony."

She looked down for a moment before looking back up at him. "They sterilize you. It's efficient." She nodded her head as she tried to hold back her tears. "One less thing to worry about. The one thing that might matter more than a mission. Makes everything easier. Even killing." She looked down before she looked back up at him. "You still think you're the only monster on the team?" He couldn't believe what she went though then said "so, we disappear?" She looked at him and smiled.