Chapter 44: Murder, He Wrote.

"Where the hell is he?" Barton cursed, just as Tony entered the Quinjet.

"Rogers? How would I know? Weren't you with him?"

"Not Rogers! Ultron!"

Barton looked far more frustrated than before. Tony, frowned, wondering what had happened to make him so.

"What's got you all worked up, Katniss?" he asked.

"Someone is playing with our minds, and I am sick of it!" Barton said. Ah, mind tricks. That was a big no-no for Mr. I-tased-a-witch-and-I-liked-it.

"Did Ultron make use of the Mind Stone?" JARVIS asked.

"Oh, this is not the magical kind." Barton said, throwing several pictures at them. Tony grabbed two, but JARVIS caught the rest, since Tony didn't seem fully up to the task.

He looked at the pictures and—… Was that—? Was that Ultron?

"Sir, BARF equipment can—," JARVIS started to address his same thoughts, when Barton interrupted.

"No fancy science here. Just a plain old corpse."

Tony looked back at the pictures. A young man, white, blonde, obviously in his late twenties laid on the ground, a gunshot wound on his temple, blood sprayed on parts of his hair and skin. He looked like Ultron. Too much like Ultron. But Ultron was an AI. Not human. Not alive like— Tony stared at JARVIS' living body.

No.

He faced Barton. This picture had to be faked somehow.

"I want to see the body." Tony said.

"Local police is dealing with it, right now. Have fun. Maybe if you show up in your armor, Iron Man can get a backstage pass." he said, but he probably saw Tony's determination to actually go and coerce the police to give him access, so he added. "Stark, Rogers, and I were the first on the stage once the gunshot was heard. I checked. It was a real body. No tech. No magic. Still warm, but no pulse."

"And you are a forensic expert now?" Tony argued.

"He might as well be." Romanov said from behind, having just come in. "Hello, boys. I just dropped off the kids at the memorial."

"The twins?" Barton asked, though it seemed fairly obvious. Probably some different question, like weird spy shit that meant a lot more in fewer words. Or just plain Barton and Romanov. They got on like a house on fire, after all.

"They wanted to help evacuate the citizens." she said.

"That so?"

"Like good little heroes." she continued. "Where's Steve?"

"He lost sight of the assassin in the city." Barton said. "Searching for him right now. Apparently, an old acquaintance or something because Cap turned on the mic for a moment and asked me not to approach him."

"Hmm." Romanov hummed. "Back to Ultron then; how likely is it that a switch happened on stage?"

"Impossible." he said. "There was not enough time. In addition, you can't fake a mortal wound from a sniper shot like that. The man who gave that speech was the same as the one dead on the floor."

"Sir," JARVIS said. "Ultron has been speaking of suicide. Is it possible—?"

"No." Tony shut down that kind of thinking quickly.

"Assassination would be quite helpful to his plans," JARVIS continued. "And although a vibranium-based body is quite invulnerable, specialized bullets could be made to—."

"JARVIS," Tony said. "I think you are volunteering to live the rest of your life wearing a bullet-proof helmet. Am I wrong?"

"Wait," Barton said. "Ultron committed suicide via assassination?"

"No." both Stark and Romanov said.

"Ladies first, Red." Tony said, hoping that she had a logical reason for her response, instead of Tony's panic-stricken hope/gut-feeling.

She raised an eyebrow at him, knowing that he actually had no explanation prepared, but continued.

"Assassination is a huge boon for Ultron. But not so soon. Not like this. His organization —whatever it is— is not ready. He doesn't have a close circle of followers, who can work independently of him, and make use of the wave his unjust death would bring. This was hurried. Either unplanned or not planned well due to constraints we are not aware of."

The sound of hurried steps, coming in, stopped Tony from starting a tirade against the spy.

"Sorry, I'm late, guys." Banner entered with a file in his hands. "Just got the pre-prelimininary autopsy report."

"Pre-preliminary?" Tony asked.

"They don't complete and release the actual preliminary one until 24 hours have passed. This was more of an 'unofficial first notes', if anything, since their president wanted to see some results." Banner said. "I just… um, asked for a copy and got one from the officer in charge."

"They gave it to you just like that? In Sokovia?" Barton asked, and Tony kinda got it. He had been here for only an hour, and man, did the locals make it very obvious how much they hated Americans.

"I might have…," and here he looked embarrassed and somewhat sad. "Might have been recognized as the Hulk and not… corrected them when they started to panic, thinking I was going to do something."

That shut everyone up for a bit before Romanov said. "So, what does it say?"

"Oh, it's definitely murder. Cause of death… it says a shot to the temple by a… 7.62 NATO?" Banner said. "I don't speak Sokovian, so that's all I managed to get translated so far."

"Good ammunition for designated marksman rifles." Romanov said. "Though specifically created for sniper rifles."

"It's not murder." Tony insisted. "Ultron is not dead. Whether intentional or not."

"It was intentional. No doubts about that." Romanov said. "The victim is a body double."

"A decoy?" Barton said. "But he sounded too much like Ultron. The speech, the movements, everything."

"That's because we either have been seeing a body double every time he makes an announcement, or… Ultron based his political persona after an actual person. He copied their face and voice, destroyed their records, and then mind-controlled them into giving a speech before dying into a pre-planned assassination."

It was anyone's guess which theory Romanov preferred.

"This wasn't Ultron's plan." Tony refuted, even though it seemed quite on point for the AI. But that would mean he just killed someone. In cold blood. "Cap just went after the human assassin he called 'Bucky.' Ultron didn't just find Cap's old war body and hire him for his own assassination."

"We can't know for sure how he is involved, whether through mind control or payment, or something else. But this is the answer that makes the most sense, Stark."

"But—!" he interrupted, only to be interrupted in return.

"This is my field of expertise," she insisted. "I know what I'm talking about. You don't."

"So Ultron has been planning on ending the charade like this all along?" Banner said. "Since days before the first announcement?" he sounded horrified. "If he's alive, and hiding somewhere, preparing to take over from his decoy victim, having planned this and more, weeks in advance, while we followed after him blindly— how can we stop him? How can anyone ever stop him?"

"We can't out-think him." Romanov agreed.

"Our setup is reactive, too." Barton said. "We can't help but play to his tune."

"Ultron wants to commit suicide." JARVIS abruptly said. "Pardon my interruption, but it seems you are all working under a common misconception as a result of Mr. Stark's secrecy, which, while understanding at the time, is no longer necessary. I aim to correct this."

"This assassination was not the work of a suicidal man." Romanov said.

"Ms. Romanov, Ultron is not a man." JARVIS started. "I understand you are very well versed in human psychology, but your knowledge is not applicable to an Artificial Intelligence lifeform. Some of it, perhaps, but certainly not all. As a possibility earlier, you mentioned 'constraints we are unaware of'. Ms. Potts' message is able to address that. If Sir would like to explain?"

Tony forced a smile at the accusing gazes sent his way. "We don't have enough time for everything, but long story short: Ultron is being mind-controlled by the Mind Stone, which is under the control of the same alien who sent the Chitauri in New York."

"No fucking way." Barton said. "Loki was sent to Asgard. Thor said he died."

"Loki was working with someone. He got his army from somewhere, after all."

"And this someone wants to attack Earth again?" Romanov asked.

"I don't know for sure." Tony said, feeling weirdly uncomfortable under her gaze.

"I think you do know." she said. "'Cassandra was right. They have Helenus.'"

"Not familiar with the myth." Barton said. "What does it mean?"

"It means that Stark somehow knows but cannot explain that Earth will be invaded again, only worse. Ultron also knows this. They are both trying to prevent it. Only Ultron got mind-controlled by the aliens through the Scepter before he could do anything."

"You read up on the story?" Tony asked.

"I did my homework." Romanov answered. "How much of this is true at all? Can we even believe anything? Can we believe that Ultron is truly mind-controlled?"

"Tony," Banner said. "We didn't see a different, original Ultron. Our integration trials failed. We only met the homicidal one."

"His eyes are blue, Bruce." Tony said. "He tried to look like me, as a kid. But I don't have blue eyes. Neither does Pepper, nor you."

"We have just established that he makes plans upon plans weeks in advance. Pretending to be mind-controlled could be part of his plans."

"He was scared, Red." he said. "Something he or we did in Kathmandu changed things, and he can no longer fight against the Stone like before. In LA, he told me he was running out of time."

Romanov softly said. "He could be playing you, using your emotions and your guilt; you know that, right?"

"I know what I saw. I don't care what any of you think at this point. Ultron is somewhere in this god-forsaken city trying to kill himself because he sees no other way to be free, and I am not about to allow that."

"Stark…" Barton started, and then turned to the whole team, sans Rogers, who was not present. He seemed hesitant. "For now, let's follow his lead. If it's mind-control…"

"Clint," Romanov said. "Loki mind-controlled you. You couldn't remember a thing. It was different. Ultron is not like that."

"We don't know that." he said. "I could have been no different from me now, except for being loyal to Loki. Selvig built a portal under mind-control, after all. It certainly didn't turn us into brainless zombies."

Romanov gave a resigned sigh. "Ok, Stark. I'm in."

"Even if we agree on this, where do we go?" Banner asked. "We have no idea where he is."

"And how do we save him?" Barton asked. "It doesn't seem like knocking him out would work."

"With regard to the first question," JARVIS said. "I might have an answer."

Everyone turned and looked at him, waiting.

"The Novi Grad Church, at the center of the city." he said.

"The abandoned one?" Banner asked. "We went there the first time. Ultron had left."

"My… younger brother likes efficiency and hates to waste resources." JARVIS said, reminding Tony of that stupid search for the AI in LA, when he had actually been in his own backyard the whole time.

"The most dangerous place can sometimes be the safest." Romanov said. "We can start there and then search outwards in the city. If he is still here."

"Don't jinx it, Nat."