The (terrible) Decision
Maria pulled her hair into a bun, careful not to touch the scar that still adorned the side of her head and ached from time to time. She took a deep breath and stared at the city below just barely stirring awake. The coffee in her hands was only doing so much to combat the lack of sleep she had gotten the night before.
She fielded questions and comments from Fury, Natasha, and even Stark deep into the night, all trying to figure out exactly what their next move was against the murderous robot. Thor had left for London a few hours before, and the rest of the team was looking to Korea where Dr. Cho still hadn’t returned their messages.
Maria tried the doctor once more, hoping that the woman had just been asleep before. After the 4th ring and subsequent failed call, the brunette sent off a message to Fury.
Hill: Nothing from Cho, want me to send out feelers to old contacts?
Boss: No, I’m getting the Avengers lazy asses up and sending them
Hill: Copy.
Boss: How many people do you need to get the Iliad up and running
Maria paused and thought about it for a moment, knowing that it wasn’t just a hypothetical question and that Fury was most likely going to send the Helicarrier out into the world once more.
Hill: 100, 85 if we're stretching it
Boss: it’s a good thing you always liked gum. Get to stretching.
The Commander shook her head, took another sip of coffee, and got to work. Person by person, she contacted each of the agents who were still active on any and all SHIELD databases. There were a lot of confirmation emails, that they would be ready to head back to the ship as soon as needed, there were also many no’s from people who had put SHIELD behind them, no longer wanting to take the risk. She couldn’t blame them, especially not after tiny feet sounded in the hallway outside her office.
“Hi Ellie,” she called out through the open door.
“Hi,” the little girl came into view, one fist rubbing at an eye, the other playing with the hem of her pajama shirt, “work?”
Maria hummed and sent off one more email before walking over to scoop up her daughter, bringing both of them into the kitchen. The weekends always felt more empty when Natasha wasn’t here, something that Ellie must have been feeling as well when she asked.
“Call Tasha?” Ellie tilted her head to the side from where she sat on the corner of the kitchen island.
“She’s on her way to Korea,” Maria shook her head having talked to the woman only briefly a few hours before.
They all were, other than Bruce who was coming back to the tower to get started on- well actually she wasn’t positive about what he was going to start on. She only knew that Fury was dropping him off before heading around the country to pick up the necessary parties for the carrier.
Ellie hummed, “Yelena?”
Maria glanced at her watch and did the time difference calculation in her head, “She might be busy but we can give her a try.”
Her daughter smiled, her gap teeth on full display as she waited for the tablet they always used to call people with. The Commander punched in the passcode and continued making the little girl’s breakfast as she scrolled through the contacts until Yelena’s information popped up. She hit ‘call’ and handed it back to Ellie who happily munched on a bowl of blueberries while waiting for the blonde.
“Rat!” Yelena’s voice was airy and bright as she answered.
“Hi, Lena!” Ellie called back just as excitedly, “And Mommy is here.”
“Hi Yelena,” Maria glanced up from where she was adding peanut butter to the toast in her hands.
“Maria Hill, do you know why my sister is not answering her phone?”
“She’s headed to Korea for work,” the brunette glanced at her watch once more, “actually they should be touching down soon.”
She rushed the rest of her and Ellie’s breakfast, wanting to be on coms should the team need her.
“You can have tablet time until I’m done working,” Maria kissed the girl on the top of the head, “don’t keep Yelena for too long.”
“I am not doing anything,” Yelena said with a shrug.
“I’ll make sure Tasha calls you when everything settles,” Maria promised.
“Good,” the woman sighed, “you think she will get me new skincare from Korea if I ask.”
“Maybe,” Maria snorted and then said her goodbyes before heading back to the office.
She settled into the chair and pulled up live feeds on all of the monitors in the room, trying her best to keep an even layout of the land while the quinjet approached Dr. Cho’s building.
“Here if you need me,” the Commander ensured her headset was functioning.
“Thanks, Hill,” Barton responded as he touched down.
For the next 40 minutes, Maria Hill held her breath. There were bits and pieces she could help with, throwing a local map to the quinjet, doing quick translations of overpasses, but for the most part, she held her breath. Every moment was near chaos as the information about what was contained in the cradle was explained.
“We got a window. Four, three… give 'em hell.” Barton called out as Natasha came flying out of the jet on her motorcycle.
“I'm always picking up after you boys,” the redhead said as she stuck an arm out and snagged Steve’s shield from where it was discarded on the road.
“Hill, eyes on the twins?” Steve called out.
“I have movement…” she watched as they got closer and closer to the rest of the team, “right behind you.”
She braced herself, the two enhanced could make or break the fight that was still building. Maria only let herself breathe as she beheld the two take on Ultron side by side with Steve.
“Tasha, we gotta go,” Clint rushed out the words as soon as the cradle was loaded into the jet.
“Nat! Anyone have eyes on Romanoff?” the archer sounded more panicked this time.
Maria scanned every screen she had, trying to pick up that glint of red.
“If you have the package, get it to Stark! Go!” Steve called out.
“Do you have eyes on Nat?” Barton asked again.
“Go!”
Still, Maria continued to search and search until she saw the jet that had once continued the cradle, “she’s still in there.”
She said it to herself at first as the rest of the team continued to secure the city.
“Romanoff is still in Ultron’s jet!” She called out this time but was met with near radio silence, “Rodgers?”
“I-” the air was knocked out of him, and that was when Maria looked at the bottom monitor, watching as a train began a path of destruction.
“Fuck,” she rubbed at her brow, it was either save those civilians or try to rescue Natasha. Without asking, the Commander knew which choice Steve would make.
And so she leaned back and watched as the woman she loved became a speck on the screen, too far away for anyone to save her.
The tower was filled with arguing and fighting and more arguing as soon as all parties made it back. Before they made it back by the looks of annoyance each member gave the other as they deboarded.
“What the FUCK was that?” Maria had Steve pinned against the closest wall as soon as she was within arm's length.
“Hey, hey,” Tony called out as the blonde looked at Maria with guilt.
“She never left you behind! She always made sure you made it back home!”
“Ria…” Clint walked up behind her.
“No, no you don’t get to say Ria, you don’t get to try and calm me down right now,” she whirled and had a go at the archer, “how many times did she risk it all to make sure you made it back to Laura?”
“Hill,” this time it was Tony who tried to reason with her.
“Fuck off Tony we wouldn’t be in this fucking situation if it wasn’t for you trying to make something you had no right stick your nose in! I’ve saved your ass time and time again but as soon as Natasha needs help, as soon as the woman who has saved you all is taken you what? You just walk away?”
“Maria-”
“Don’t even start Banner,” she sneered, still in Tony’s face.
“Maria,” Clint cleared his throat.
“No-” she started.
“Mommy?” Ellie’s voice was out of place, she shouldn’t have been in the lab, especially not-
“Shit.” Maria stepped back and walked over to her daughter, but not before the two Sokovians got a good look at her.
It seemed like called to like as they each cocked their head to the side as if trying to pinpoint exactly why they all felt that way. Maria didn’t give them the chance to figure it out as she got back in the elevator, selected the level to their apartment, and left.
“You’re supposed to be asleep,” the brunette mumbled into her daughter's still-damp hair.
“You supposed to be sleep,” Ellie retorted, the smell of her shampoo calming Maria down as she held her even closer.
Her chest ached, her eyes burned, the only thing keeping her present was the girl in her arms. Ellie knew something was wrong, either from her training in the Red Room, being able to tell from body language alone, or from overhearing what Maria had told Yelena hours earlier. The blonde had only nodded once and then hung up.
“Come on, let’s get you back to bed,” Maria whispered to the child who was almost back asleep as they made their way back into her room.
“Aлена?” Ellie asked.
The brunette searched around the bottom bunk, and then the top (much to the annoyance of Liho who quickly made her way onto the bottom bunk with Ellie), until her fingers finally found the cool plastic surface of the flashlight.
“Have sweet dreams little bear, I love you,” she kissed the girl's forehead, pet the black cat once, and closed the door behind her.
Maria’s head spun as she approached the bar in the far corner of their living room. Their , she thought. Not just hers, not just her and Ellie’s, but a home for all of them. She poured two fingers of bourbon, knowing she should still be looking for Natasha, but also knowing that even if she found her, there would be no one to save her, not until the rest of the team had a game plan and some sleep.
It took hours of her staring at a wall, and then at a computer screen, and then of fitful sleep before there was even a tiny semblance of a plan. Clint had come in at midnight, explaining what they were planning on doing, and requesting an old radio to try and contact Natasha.
Maria didn’t hesitate for a second to grab an old radio her dad had used when she was a kid to listen to ball games. She pushed it into his hands.
“I’m going to break it,” the archer hesitated.
“Good riddance,” she responded and watched as he took the device apart.
“I’m sorry Ria… I- I tried,” Clint didn't take his eyes off the radio, “to get her back I mean.”
“I know,” she exhaled and faced the windows, watching as the city lights danced.
“We’ll get her back,” he spoke once more as he continued to work on the device.
“I know,” Maria nodded, she wouldn't stop until they did.
The Commander closed her eyes and listened as Barton began flipping through channels, pausing every once in a while. She only opened them again when there was a faint tapping sound coming out of the speakers.
“Gotcha,” the blonde smiled and looked up at Maria who felt like she could breathe for the first time that day.
Her body was stiff and cold, cold like it had been for most of her life in the Red Room. The chill settled deep in her bones and wouldn’t warm no matter how closely she held herself.
“I wasn't sure you'd wake up,” a metallic voice pulled her from the memory.
“I hoped you would, I wanted to show you something.” Ultron stalked closer as he spoke, “I don't have anyone else.”
Which meant the twins from Sokovia had made the decision to stay away from the robot.
“I think a lot about meteors, the purity of them. Boom!” his voice echoed as he continued to talk “The end, start again. The world made clean for the new man to rebuild.”
Natasha sat quietly, her head pounding, her bones cold, it was too much- too much like the room.
“I was meant to be new. I was meant to be beautiful. The world would've looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy. Instead, they'll look up in horror because of you.” Ultron faced her fully now, his red eyes boring into her.
“You've wounded me. I give you full marks for that. But, like the man said, 'what doesn't kill me…'"
There was an explosion as Ultron fell apart in front of her, only to be replaced by a bigger, scarier version of the robot, "…just makes me stronger.”
“You’re a monster,” the Russian shook her head from where she sat in the cell.
“I prefer the term experiment- no-” he stopped himself, “creation.”
She said nothing as she watched him pace.
“But I don’t need to explain the difference between the two, not to you, not to someone who lives with-” he took a deep breath as if smelling her, as if he needed it, “a beautiful creation.”
The room became impossibly colder as she took in his words.
“Elizaveta. I sure hope I’m pronouncing that right, there’s not too much on her,” Ultron paced, “no, no, she was wiped nearly clean thanks to Maria Hill, your-”
He snapped his fingers, “Girlfriend, that’s the word. How progressive you humans have become, or at least, some of these humans. The ones that no longer believe in a God that- oh would you look at that I’m rambling.”
“Maria Hill tried her best to keep the girl off the records. Did you know she even kept from naming the girl after herself? Elizaveta. But without Hill as a last name. Really she did a fantastic job of keeping her in the shadows,” the robot turned and got close to Natasha, “but you… your mind is full of her. Ms. Maximoff recounted everything she saw in your mind of the little girl.”
The redhead thought she might throw up from panic, after everything Maria had done to keep Ellie safe, it was her fault that the machine knew of the child.
“You see I’m a bit… obsessed with others who have been created. When I found out there was a third to my collection?” Ultron grabbed the bars of the cell hard enough to leave impressions of his metal fingers behind, “it was a very special moment for me.”
“You’ll never see her,” Natasha ground her teeth together.
“Well, I already have,” his eyes closed as a monitor behind him crackled to life, “once I knew what to look for.”
Surveillance footage from Stark Tower began to play, every clip contained one thing. Ellie.
Her skipping into the lobby, her following Maria around the halls, her giggling as Steve threw her over his shoulder-
“Yes,” the robot sighed as the next clip played.
Ellie was running down a hall, Maria and Natasha following as the girl teleported from one end to the other, then back. Maria placed her hand on the girl’s head and smiled as Natasha leaned into her side.
Ultron breathed in again as if trying to regain control, “Yes, I’ve already seen the girl and confirmed that I want her.”
“You won't get her,” Natasha growled out, she would die before letting that happen.
“Oh, but I will!” the robot’s voice was chipper once again as he turned.
Ultron began walking away but paused at the computer monitor that still broadcasts clips of Ellie.
He spoke barely above a whisper as he said once more, “I will.”
Her breathing was coming in rapidly as she watched Ultron walk out of the room, her heart was pounding. She closed her eyes, flashes of the Red Room flooded her vision.
The marble floors, the polished wooden banisters, the blood of girls old and young. She couldn’t breathe.
Her eyes flew open and she took in the room she was in once again if not only to keep from the horrors of her mind. The redhead would deal with those later, right now she needed to find a way out. A way to Ellie.
Natasha’s teeth chattered from the cold as she looked around the room. She reached for an old tarp thrown over a table just to keep herself warm.
Or that’s what she would say if any of the robots came by because what she found under the cloth was going to be her ticket out if Clint remembered their mission in Cambodia so many years ago.
Taking apart the radio was the easy part, finding a strong enough frequency to carry to her partner was more difficult than she wanted to admit. She monitored the guard robots, found their pattern of rotation, and waited until she had a long enough window to send out a tester distress call.
An hour passed, and then two, but every time she had a window, she took it and typed out the message in Morse code. It had taken her only a few minutes of listening to the radio as quietly as she could to realize she was back in Sokovia. Over and over she sent out the location, and over and over she waited for a response.
Until finally, there was one. Natasha didn’t dare to move, not even as the radio next to her clicked a set of letters.
W-E A-R-E C-O-M-I-N-G