"Jarvis!"
Tony watched as Jarvis's code scattered before his eyes. The sadness in his gaze was indescribable.
"Sir…"
Just as his eyes welled up with tears, a slightly embarrassed voice came from inside the armor.
"Sir, I'm not dead. I've just transferred back into pure program form."
Tony froze.
"Jarvis, delete all the data you had a moment ago!"
"Alright," replied Jarvis, although a barely visible message appeared within the HUD: Data has been securely backed up.
"Sir, in thirty seconds the first series of nuclear missiles will reach their target. Do you wish to initiate the destruction procedure?"
"Why are you even asking me that? Of course destroy them!" Tony didn't have time to think. If this didn't destroy them, what was he waiting for? For Ultron to finish his plan?
---
On the wreck of the crashed helicarrier, Aron had just sent Brainiac and the remaining AIs back where they came from. When he looked up, at an altitude of ten thousand meters he saw an intercontinental missile explode, turning into a brilliant firework.
"Looks like Skynet's Judgment Day will have to wait," he murmured with a faint smile. Fortunately, he had let a bunch of artificial intelligences fight each other online. If he had summoned just one, like Skynet itself, without a counterbalance… the world might already be finished.
His gaze fell on the dismantled body of vibranium Ultron. Compared to the other AIs he had seen, this Ultron had actually done a good job. Step by step, he had built an advantage, with almost no mistakes, and had created huge dominance against the Avengers.
"It's just that… he was unlucky I'm here," commented Aron as he moved toward the wreck. He bent down and with his bare hands began pulling the Reality Stone from Ultron's body.
"Ahem…" came a voice behind him.
Aron turned and saw Thor, barely climbing up the wreck of the carrier. His face was tired, and a trail of blood ran down his lips. His Asgardian armor was dented, the hit from Mjolnir that he had inflicted on himself earlier had clearly not been without consequences.
"My friend… have we won?" Thor asked hoarsely.
"Thor… I thought you were already in Valhalla." Aron smiled, he was glad to see him alive, despite his earlier mistakes.
"Haha! Valhalla waits… but not now, khm…" Thor coughed, spitting out several mouthfuls of seawater.
"May I ask you a question?" he continued as he approached Aron, completely uninterested in the Infinity Stones Aron was pulling from Ultron.
"People ask all sorts of things. Go ahead."
"Earlier you said… that I have a sister? I am a prince of Asgard. I have only a younger brother. Why did you say I have a sister?"
Aron paused, ready to answer, when suddenly the air was torn by a powerful roar.
"Hulk?" Thor instinctively turned toward the source of the noise. "It's me! Your friend Thor!" he shouted, suspecting nothing.
"HULK!! SMASH!" echoed out, and the massive green figure charged, sending Thor flying back hundreds of meters into the sea with a single blow.
"Where did Tony Stark take the Mind Stone?" Aron wondered, thinking how he could use it to calm Hulk. But the jewel was with Tony, who had not yet returned.
"Alright… physical hypnosis will have to do," he said, put away the Reality Stone, and moved toward Hulk at a speed even he couldn't follow.
"Roar?" Hulk looked around in confusion, but Aron was already beneath him. An uppercut sent him into the air, followed by a flurry of combined strikes. Hulk flew back and forth like a punching bag while Aron recited a familiar line from the movie:
"The sun's getting real low… the sun's getting real low…"
"That's how Thanos took down Hulk – and I can do the same."
At this stage, Hulk had not yet reached the level where his rage grew without end. Aron, with the extra strength he had, managed to overpower him in less than two minutes.
Hulk began to shrink, turning back into Bruce Banner. Aron caught him before he fully transformed and carried him to safety.
---
When Aron and Dr. Bruce Banner returned near the wreck of the crashed space carrier, they found a gathered crowd near the ruins.
After the sinking of the carrier, only a few metal parts stuck out from the water, barely recognizable. Around them, the survivors stood huddled, still under the impression of what had happened.
"It's finally over…" someone murmured while looking at Ultron's completely destroyed remains.
Everyone felt relief, but the peace lasted only a moment.
"But Ultron's influence hasn't disappeared," Aron quietly added, looking toward the horizon.
"Jarvis is already working on restoring the financial system," Tony Stark chimed in, descending from the sky in his suit. "I'll be a billionaire again soon."
Tony had arrived in the company of a woman. It was Agent Maria Hill, the same one who had jumped into the sea when the SHIELD carrier began to fall and had managed to swim to one of the nearby islands.
It turned out that the island Tony later landed on was the very one where Hill had found refuge.
"Later…" Tony muttered, but Maria had already noticed familiar faces.
As soon as she saw the rest of the team, she paused for a moment, surprised, then hurriedly looked around, as if searching for someone.
"No…" she said quietly. "Fury hasn't arrived yet?"
---
Far from the shore, in the open sea, a black head barely broke through the waves. Nick Fury was swimming, fighting the currents.
"Come on…" he muttered to himself. "Just a little more, just hold on."
He was approaching the island, but the journey was exhausting. While he was near the carrier, he had had the chance to see the battle from another perspective.
Above him, Aron and the Avengers had fought Ultron and his robot armies. Then he had seen the carrier sink…
Fury had mistakenly assumed that the entire structure had disappeared underwater. In reality, part of it had still been above the surface. But he hadn't noticed, too focused on his own survival.
He clenched his teeth and kept swimming toward the shore.
"Just a little more…" he repeated. "Just a little more and I'll be on the island."
——
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