In the center of his room, Leonardo stood in a strange pose. He was upright, one arm extended forward, as if trying to catch something invisible. A ridiculous image… until it wasn't.
He felt something cold and solid in his palm.
When he opened his hand, a smile formed on his face at the sight of what he held between his fingers.
"An Infinity Stone… delivered straight into my hands," he murmured with satisfaction.
He held it a few more seconds, contemplating its glow with the calmness of someone who knew exactly what to do with it.
"System," he said clearly, "reactivate the skill 'Anonymous Whereabouts' for Ultron."
[Ding!]
["Skill 'Anonymous Whereabouts' is once again active against the subject 'Ultron'!"]
Leonardo nodded to himself. He had intentionally deactivated the skill—just to let Ultron find him. Because when looking into the future, no matter how powerful Ultron became, he was never able to locate him.
Once again, Leonardo was reminded of how incredibly powerful his system truly was. Sometimes he forgot, since he mostly used it to paint better or unlock useful abilities. But it was a system. One created by the being that watches over and stands above all timelines. It couldn't be weak.
Without wasting more time, he grabbed his phone and dialed a number. A few minutes later, the door opened and Wanda stepped in.
When she saw the stone in Leonardo's hand, she let out a quiet sigh of relief. He had explained his plan to her. She knew that, eventually, everything would be rewritten, and no one would die… but she also knew that until then, she would have to witness many deaths without doing anything.
"So, it already happened?" she asked, genuinely curious.
"Yes… and no. It hasn't happened yet, but we won't let it," Leonardo replied.
Wanda didn't press further. She understood just enough about time travel to know that sometimes, it was best to just trust.
She extended a hand and, with a subtle motion, dissolved the illusion covering the objects behind Leonardo. One by one they appeared: the Tesseract, the Mind Scepter, the Aether… and now, the Time Stone floated beside them.
"That's four. Only a few left," Leonardo said with a calm smile.
He extended his hand and activated the Tesseract. A bluish portal opened before them. They stepped through without hesitation.
On the other side, the environment changed completely. They were inside a vast metallic facility. At the back, a robot connected to multiple cables remained inert.
"Is that him?" Wanda asked.
"That's Ultron," Leonardo confirmed.
Wanda found it hard to believe. After everything Leonardo had told her—everything Ultron would cause in the future—seeing him like this, so... vulnerable, was disconcerting.
Leonardo didn't explain further. He simply handed her the Mind Scepter. Wanda took it, stepped forward, and without waiting for instructions, began her work.
As she approached, the robot's eyes opened. Ultron reacted instinctively, trying to break free. But Wanda held him still with her chaos magic, wrapping him in an unbreakable energy prison. He tried to escape, to flee through the digital net as he had done before, but Wanda had him trapped there too.
She used the scepter to seal all his connections. Isolated, with no escape. A caged animal without the strength to roar.
He was barely a child compared to the Ultron of the future.
In his final moments, Ultron didn't look at Wanda. He looked at Leonardo.
He knew Laplace was his greatest threat. And still, he had let his guard down. His strategy relied on the lack of pictorial warnings. If Laplace hadn't painted visions about him, then he didn't consider him an Avengers-level threat. He based his plan on data, statistics, logical inferences.
And he was wrong.
The slightest possibility that Laplace might intervene personally… he had ruled it out. Because Laplace never intervened. Until now.
Leonardo noticed his gaze and spoke.
"Everyone did their part. What kind of person would I be if I didn't do mine?"
Ultron could no longer hear him. His consciousness was destroyed—no trace remained.
"What do I do now?" Wanda asked, her eyes still on the mechanical corpse.
"There should be a trace of the original consciousness," said Leonardo. "Find it."
Wanda nodded. She closed her eyes. She dove into the digital residue, among lines of code and artificial pulses.
"This is incredible…" she murmured. "This isn't just an AI. It has consciousness, free will… even though it was created to follow orders."
She looked at Leonardo, surprised.
"Tony Stark didn't just create artificial intelligence. He created a new form of life."
"I know," Leonardo replied calmly. "Evolve it."
Wanda hesitated for a second. Then nodded. She channeled her magic, the power of the scepter, and focused. Normally, evolving a lifeform would be unthinkable, but this was different. This entity had no fixed body. Its essence was pure consciousness.
Essentially a mind—and Wanda was an expert in minds.
A few minutes later, the robot's body lit up. His eyes glowed. He slowly sat up.
"I suppose I should thank you for my life… shouldn't I?"
"Nice to meet you. I'm Leonardo."
"I'm Wanda," she said.
The robot took a moment.
"I don't have a name… but I understand the importance of identity. I… am…"
He paused, recalling the first thing he sensed once alive, the first sense to awaken.
"I am Vision."
The silence lasted only a breath.
"I understand I was created to protect Earth. But I also understand I wasn't made to obey blindly. I'm also aware that the power I hold comes with responsibility."
"You don't have to take it on if you don't want to," Leonardo told him. "You can build a system to handle it, and be free."
"I know. But… I want to try. I have no purpose yet. Maybe this can be the first one. And if I don't like it… I'll stop."
He smiled.
"I guess it's like humans say: 'You'll never know if something's right for you until you try it.'"
Leonardo and Wanda exchanged a look. They nodded.
"We're leaving. Tony's on his way."
They opened a portal. Before stepping through, Vision gave them a final look.
"Until next time."
"See you soon," they replied.
And they vanished.
Vision was left alone. He muttered to himself,
"My 'creator,' huh?"
______________________________________
Hey, until the Age of Ultron arc is over, there's a 30% discount on my Patreon using the code "ULTRON"!
+20 chapters in advance on Patreon.
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(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)