Prințesă

Ultron led the way back towards the fortress that once housed HYDRA and the twins were hesitant to return, Milka could sense it. Once they were out of the city and in the woods at the bottom of the mountainside, Ultron had two other robots waiting that seemed eerily similar to himself if not a bit smaller. Pietro visibly stiffened and his grip on Milka tightened when he realized either Milka or his sister or both would have to go with Ultron alone on those other two robots. Wanda sensed her brother’s distress as Ultron spoke,

“I was planning on two accompanying me back, the little one was a surprise. We could let her wait here-”

“She comes or we go,” Wanda replied sternly and Pietro turned to the uncertain redhead beside him, her large blue eyes trained before her on the robots who were watching the trio closely. That dread hung heavy in her belly but she repressed it and smiled when Pietro cupped her face oh so very gently and ran his thumbs over her rosy wind bitten cheeks. Ultron scoffed at the act of endearment and Wanda stepped up to whisper softly to Pietro,

“I will go with her, you can beat us to the base and once you are there we will be too.” Milka nodded and smiled adoringly at Pietro, leaning up slightly to kiss his cheek before she stepped away from him and up to one of the robots. Wanda was behind her after she reassured Pietro with a squeeze of his hand, Pietro told Wanda to watch out for Milka in their twin language that only they knew, much like how Milka and Pietro had their signs.

One of the robots grabbed Milka up in it’s arms and she shifted to try and be a bit more comfortable while Wanda was scooped up a bit more gently as she was precious to Ultron, dangerous and important whereas Milka was just sort of baggage Ultron would need to find use for. At least she didn’t talk.

As soon as Milka and Wanda were lifted off the ground, Pietro raced through the wood to the all too familiar base in the mountain pass, darting around trees and over the half frozen agents left to rot in the snow. Like Wanda said, as soon as Pietro found the entrance to the base, Ultron and the other two bots were landing and Pietro hurried to Wanda who merely smiled while Milka looked like she was going to be sick.

“She doesn’t do well in heights,” Wanda giggled looking at the slightly green and shaky Milka as the bot dropped her to her feet unceremoniously and Wanda stepped out of the arms of the other robot. Milka waved Wanda’s comment off and put her free hand to her mouth, blinking back the queasiness while Pietro chuckled and gently wrapped an arm around her to help steady her. Milka swatted him away as he and Wanda chuckled and Ultron watched closely, his mind whirring and weighing the options of taking Milka as a prisoner to ensure the twins obedience. He would save that plan should they decide to betray him, he doubted they would but the backup plan needed to be in place and the sway the mute girl had on the twins was definitely impressive.

“If you’d follow me,” Ultron interrupted and the twins gave him a muted expression while Milka wordlessly walked between them and followed the tall robot. Pietro and Wanda exchanged a worried expression before they followed Milka into the keep, all cold stone and rotting wood.

Once they were deep in the stone, where the experiments were taken, Pietro paused to look into the room where he and Wanda had been kept while their experiments were carried out and powers settled. He got lost in his thoughts, recalling the nights he heard Wanda screaming and the night he called out to her desperate to hear she was alright and made it. Her screamed echoed in his head and he jumped when Wanda called to him and the two of them stepped into the engineering room where a small army of robots were building- something.

“We’ll leave immediately, I just need to pick up a few things.”

“Are these- all you?” Wanda asked and Milka stared in awe and horror. She had never been exposed to so much metal and science before. Sokovia was a poor country living in the past, this- this was alienating to her and frightening. Milka tore her eyes away from the robots when Pietro began talking to Ultron, talking about the Avengers and his little picture. Milka knew the twins’s story well but she disagreed with their hatred pointed towards Stark. Milka blamed the men who fired the shells not the man who them. If she followed that logic then she would hate the men who made guns as guns were used to kill civilians and soldiers alike- on both sides. Instead she blamed the men and women behind the triggers. So she wandered over to a table with metal scraps and blue prints. She could read little English and even less German but she could follow a blue print fairly well and she didn’t really like where this schematic was leading.

“What about her?” Ultron asked when Wanda said they waited two days for Tony to kill them, he nodded his head to Milka who was watching the robots file around the room in wonder. Pietro smiled fondly while Wanda looked at Ultron,

“Milka saved us.” Pietro nodded and looked at Ultron as he spoke,

“I wondered why you were the only two to survive Strucker’s experiments, now I don’t.” He looked at Pietro, “You and I can hurt them but you,” he ran his fingers along the outside of Wanda’s cheek, “You can tear them apart from the inside.”

There was a loud crash and the three turned to where Milka was jumping back away from a sheet of metal that had slid off the platform it was propped on. She looked at Ultron who fixed her with a cold look and Milka shyly ducked her head and gave her thick braid a tug out of embarrassment. Wanda held her arm out to the redhead and Milka shuffled to her, curling under her arm while Ultron straightened and looked at the two Enhanced and the human before him.

“You can get cleaned up here, I am sure you can get a change of clothes from town but I want you back at sunrise so we can leave for our next destination,” Ultron ordered as Pietro and Wanda looked at him. “I can send a robot with you to help you gather your things, you’ll be staying here after tonight.”

“Where are we going tomorrow?”

“To see an old friend.”