Requested by: Isa_Angel_Wings

Prompt:

Warnings: None

Extra:

~*~

The remains of Sokovia were always the best place to find little items that I could use in my projects. I never felt much guilt when I walked through the wreckage of what used to be a city, because I knew that scavenging in the wreckage wouldn't affect anyone but myself and my hobby.

Grunting as I moved aside some large pieces of debris, I gasped at my find. The torso of one of Ultron's robots. All I ever found of them was little bits and pieces of metal because the Avengers were sure to blow everything to hell when they destroyed the city.

Wrapping my arms around it, I pulled it onto the wagon I dragged around behind me to store what I found. Such a big item filled it almost immediately and I was fine with ending my search early for the day because of such a good haul.

When I got back to my home, I pulled the spare pieces I had into my garage. I had the entire weekend to work on something new before work and classes started up again. 72 hours.

I made myself a cup of coffee, put on some music, and began.

~*~

It was a lot easier to repair the robot than I thought. The main reason it shut down in the first place was because when it was ripped in half it was seperated from half of it's control board. It was pretty easy to hook it up to my computer and reroot the normal processing units to remain in the upper torso only.

"Alright, let's see how well you work," I muttered, looking after the last bits of code before pressing Enter.

The eye lights on the head flickered, and I waited anxiously for something else to happen. Then the torso struggled to sit up, and the blaster on the arm immediately charged. Panicking, I immediately clicked a button on my computer and turned it off.

"Got a little too excited there," I whispered, resigning to continue working on it.

I lost track of how many cups of coffee I had that night. But by the time the sun was rising, it was a battle to keep my eyes open. Yawning, I shut my laptop. A small nap couldn't hurt, especially when a lack of sleep always led to a disaster in the past.

Practically crawling into bed, I barely had the right of mind to change out of my disgusting work clothes. I set an alarm for noon, knowing I'd be able to survive on a power nap if it meant finally completing my project.

When I woke up a few hours later, I rolled out of bed and changed into a fresh pair of work clothes, stopping in the kitchen for a quick snack. When I felt ready to get through the rest of the day, I opened the door to the garage and immediately froze.

"Oh, shit!" I gasped in terror, tripping over the threshold back into the house

"I can't say I've seen that reaction before," the robot spoke from the garage.

Pulling myself to my feet, I took a cautious step into the garage again. The robot was leaning on its arms, looking at me. It's face didn't allow it to show much facial expression, but based on it's tone of voice I knew it was amused.

"You- you. I um, I shut your core processor off last night. You shouldn't be up and running," I was nervous to approach. If he managed to wake himself up, that could potentially mean that his weapons systems were up again as well.

"The one thing you were successful with was turning off my weapons systems," the robot lifted it's arm with the blaster, and made a show of trying to turn it on with no results, "How you got one right and not the other I don't understand. Humans are such fickle creatures, making small mistakes that could end their lives."

"Well, I'm not dead yet," feeling a bit more confident knowing that he couldn't kill me instantly, I pulled my chair towards me and sat down, pushing off the ground to get to my computer, "If I ask you some questions will you answer them honestly?"

The robot simply tilted it's head. Continuing on without a definite answer, I asked, "Based on what you can feel now, are all of your systems running well?"

The robot regarded me for a few moments, before he said, "My core units are working as well as they can be, the systems connecting me to the wider internet are damaged, I can not connect to international servers."

Humming under my breath, I made the note. Although, it was probably a good thing considering such access was one of the main reasons Ultron became so powerful in the first place.

"Are you still Ultron?"

"Yes, although parts of the AI placed in me were also destroyed during the battle, I'm afraid I'm missing a few key parts."

Now I had a name for it, Ultron. It sent a shiver down my spine to think of calling the robot that, but what Ultron had done was finished, and there was no going back. My hobbies wouldn't change that in a negative or positive way.

"Interesting, and what parts of you are missing?"

"The moments leading up to my self awareness. Humans perhaps, are not as indestructible as I once imagined, but this Earth is not able to sustain them, and their absence would be better for the planet."

"And if I eventually find you some legs, will you try to kill everyone again?'

Ultron pondered the possibility. I waited patiently, scanning through the complicated code of his system while listening for an answer. What would I do if he said yes? Completely scrap the brilliance of his AI in favor of attempting to create my own? Or would I keep him as a technical prisoner, doomed to be a project I eventually grew bored of and shut down knowing I could never give him more than what he already had.

"No. Humans have created their own fate. I believe what happened in Sokovia was proof enough that they'd rather kill themselves than have someone else do it for them," Ultron finally stated. Frowning at the blunt truth behind the statement, I didn't expect Ultron to continue, "So why exactly did you bring my systems back online? Are you building your own army? Trying to create a new world with a system from Iron Man?"

"No," I answered immediately. The thought of becoming one of the deranged people who thought they could defeat the Avengers made me shudder.

"Then why? Why put strings on me again?"

"Strings?" I whispered, writing down the single word along with all the other notes I had taken on his system, "Why were any of us created, you know? To build and destroy and lead a gorgeous planet to ruin in our conquest for power? I like fixing things. I like spending my time building instead of destroying. I suppose you of all people would understand the urge to create something new from the ashes of something old."

Ultron chuckled, the normally warm sound coming out artificially genuine. I couldn't bring myself to be disturbed by it, not when everything about the machine was so fascinating, "My own ideals used against me. I've now experienced one of the plights of mankind firsthand."

Laughing under my breath, I pushed myself off my workbench and over to the minifridge in the corner, pulling out a bottle of water to sip on throughout the day.

Ultron was an interesting character. In the weeks after the attack, the news not only painted him as the villain, but the Avengers as well. People spoke of the lives lost, and all the other options that could have come before blowing up a city. As if normal civilians could understand the weight they were placing on the men they saw as gods.

"You broke in front of the entire world," I whispered, half to myself and half to Ultron as I dug through my things for some wire cutters, "You stood for what you believed in and burnt out alone. How human of you. Without ever realizing it, you'd always embodied what you swore to destroy."

"There was no need to feel alone. I am a machine," Ultron mused, though his voice had grown quieter, what could be depicted as hurt laced throughout.

"A machine who is more human than so many of us out there," I argued, moving down to where the torso became a mess of wires. There were some non-essential ones that I could get rid of to make things more organized in the long run, "Did you ever stop to think how by thinking for yourself you turned black and white into grey between machines and humans."

Another chuckle, and the clinking of metal as Ultron shifted above me, "What an interesting human who has found me. You speak of building and destruction, and your desire to only build, yet you destroy everything I am."

"And here I am, rebuilding you," I shot back, enjoying the conversation that I normally never got from spare parts that I could sell for extra cash.

The rest of the day was spent in and out of conversation. At some point I turned music on, and Ultron had a grand time either approving and rejecting the songs that came on. When he complained about one, I always changed it with an eye roll overpowered by a smile. It felt like I had another person with me, working with me on something amazing.

Would Ultron turn into something amazing? If I persisted, found more and more parts to piece him back together again, what would happen from there on? Would he leave and find another place like Sokovia to force into the sky to reset the planet? Or would he stay, and fill my days with the companionship I had been sorely missing.

"Your eyes seem distant," Ultron observed towards the end of the night. I would have to go to bed soon, due to work the next morning.

"I'm thinking," I admitted, munching on the quick dinner I'd made a few minutes earlier, "About the future, and what would happen if I took the time to make you whole again."

"You fear that I've lied about not attacking humanity again."

"I don't think you've lied to me. I think you'll be able to see the world fully again and realize that you've made a mistake."

Cool metal brushed against my hand, and I jerked in shock but didn't move away.

"Humanity will destroy itself given time. It will not be my doing, that's something I can promise. Not with you here."

"And why's that?"

"You cut my strings."