“Would you be okay if the military put a gun to your head to keep you under control? You were one of the most dangerous people in the second world war and you got trust and not failsafes, Not saying nothing can go wrong but it will go wrong if we chain this thing down.

Take it from experience it does not go well when you chain the scary monster down.”

She's about to respond to that when And preempts her to it.

"There's dangerous and there's dangerous. We get ourselves a rogue Cap for some reason - we may know STRIKE team in an elevator's not enough, but maybe we need a few squads with tanks, or two of you and me and Thor if one doesn't do it, or just one if we've got the prep time and better circumstance pick, and a well aimed bomber will definitely do it.

Thing with a suit of armor around the world, the downside's the same as the upside. A well aimed bomber is definitely not going to cut it.

Not planning on chains or a gun to the head. But yes, I have a failsafe."

"You're sure?

Because I got the impression it's much easier to think you have it than to have it."

"You know what happened when Loki tried that staff on me? Bounced off the arc reactor. Great news, at the time, but not really the kind of thing you want to count on. Guessing Jarvis showed you my clean bill of non-mind-controlled health on the jet. Also great news, doesn't change the fact that she walked up behind me and right into my head.

While we're on the control and danger subject -

Clint shot his way through the helicarrier with arrows and banged around Natasha before she knocked him out. You know what happens if it's me next time? Because I sure had a while to think about it.

I've got my suit, I've got the Legion now, I have Jarvis. We've got VERONICA in orbit for me - speaking of failsafes, sorry Bruce. I know exactly how fast I can make a new suit if I want to. And how fast I can hack into the Pentagon. Or the Kremlin. Don't know how fast I can find a smallpox repository, but don't think it would take that long.

I had a while to think about it; I had a while to do something about it. I did it.

I know exactly what it takes to handle your problem, if your problem is a sudden rogue with a lot of dangerous metal and a network to play with. If we don't trust me to make that then either I need to jump off this tower hard enough to be sure I smash my head in, or we're all already dead.

Not saying it's the same - if I thought Ultron would be no better than me we wouldn't need it. Different abilities, different scope. But I think I can say I've got more practical experience on this than most people writing what you're reading. And while I'm not going to argue I can be trusted to make great decisions, I think the record shows that when I make something, it gets made."

“Stark...did you hand jarvis a kill switch for you...” glaring because that is exactly the kind of fool thing Antonia would do.

She's finding herself having pretty much the same thought. (This was not exactly the pronouncement she expected here...)

"No. A bad failsafe's just another name for a core vulnerability; wouldn't be much of a good failsafe if I went telling everyone else how it works, or if it was the first thing anyone would think of.

But I'm not the topic here; you can all yell at me about it if you want three days from now while our glowing friend here's back on Asgard."

“If this is a kill switch on either you or the AI I will be very angry Antonia Stark, you would not like me when I am angry.” Sarcastic smile but the worry is still evident in his eyes.

Is she having some feelings here? She may be having some feelings here. Is she going to talk about them no she is not. (Really, they have quite enough to talk about don't they.)

"Yes that will certainly not benefit my life expectancy much.

But in fact I don't really like killing much these days, I do like being alive, if there's a problem that's getting me mind-controlled I'd actually like to be around to help fix it afterwards, I already said what I think of vulnerabilities, and you're right that holding guns to people's heads isn't usually the best start to a relationship."

(She's similarly worried, and this hasn't entirely assuaged it, but Antonia is right that this is not actually the time.)

"I won't say that doesn't sound better than its alternative. But I'm not sure it's all the way to safe."

“And dont you dare think VERONICA is a gun to my head, I helped design her that was my choice. Now continue guilting yourself about playing god and finding ways to control your creations if you will.” 

"Yes, as you may have noticed I have refrained from wearing it and following you around telling you to do what I want at every moment or else. Also we're pretty sure it can't actually kill you, also kind of un-gun-like there."

And oh good they can get back to talking about Ultron and not everyone's sudden opinions on suspecting her of suicidality. She turns back to Ghenia.

"No.

There's not going to be 100% here. But it's not we're-fine-so-why-bet-on-this. It's bet on this or bet on what happens if the next alien invasion shows up - not tomorrow, even I don't program that fast - shows up next week. Or whatever else shows up after Earth-which-is-apparently-some-artifact-magnet."

"Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time."

"Yes, if they try to win the war by killing people. This isn't about winning, this is about preparation.

And knowing there's a threat out there but things are quiet now so let's say we're at peace till it blows up on us - lots of innocent people dying in that one, too."

She thinks.

She thinks about newspapers saying "Peace for our time". She thinks about standing on the streets of New York while Leviathans poured out from overhead, about Antonia flying into the portal. She thinks about her speech to the Triskelion, knowing she was condemning people to death, knowing she needed them. She thinks about fighting on the Helicarriers, knowing what would happen if they lost, if they were too late. Knowing it was much too close.

"I want all your notes on Project Ultron. Everything you have. And if I come up here in the next three days because of something I read, you're going to hear me out."

Nod.

"I hope you're right."

A sideways kind of partial smile.

"We're right."

"That too."

And so Antonia and Bruce spend the next three days almost non stop using the sceptres raw computing power and almost organic like programming archictecture to try and make true AI with all the strengths of a human and a machine intelligence combined, Jarvis was smart and all but not nearly as flexible or creative as a human can be. Ultron should be able to handle anything that gets thrown at him in creative and novel ways.

Bruce makes so many coffee runs down to the Stark Enterprises cafeteria that he ends up on a first name basis with the people who work there, same with the local chinese takeout store. They subsist on coffee, special fried rice, dumplings and pure stuborness.

Jarvis makes a fantastic lab assistant pulling any obscure paper they might require from the net, and making sure they take naps and remember to eat. Thanks Jarvis! Both Antonia and Bruce do require self care reminders when focused on a project.

Eventually the end of the third day happens and it is time to go clean themselves up and go to Thors going away/We beat Hydra party.

Reminders are all sorts of useful.

(She has some specially designed nutritional compositions for these sorts of situations, but won't attempt to interfere with Bruce's dietary decisions.)

"What did we miss," she mutters at a screen, not exactly expecting an answer.

And indeed she doesn't get one.

She leaves Jarvis to work and heads out.

The party goes swimmingly! Thor drinks enough to kill many horses by alcohol poisoning, Sees Bruce flirt with Natasha, and regales the guests with tales of his heroic adventures as a youth!

Antonias friend James Rhodey tries to compete in story telling and they all try and humor his less magnificent stories. It is not that mortals fault he did not grow up with a bifrost ready to take you to the most fearsome beasts to slay.

Eventually most of the guests go home and it is just Thor and his favourite humans (that are not his Ex girlfriend) and comrades in arms talking about his hammer, he is very proud of his hammer.

Clint currently doubts the claim that only the worthy can lift it, he is free to try! And he totally fails to budge it. Then Antonia brags and tries...and tries with the suit...and tries with Rhodey and the suit...and fails.

And then it is the turn of Eugenia Rogers...and it budges just a little teeny tiny bit, Thor does not want his hammer (or throne) claimed by another! And it is to his relief that Eugenia gives up.

Antonia makes excuses about it being fingerprint coded.

”Yes, well that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one.” Thor gets up and lifts his hammer and flips it. “You're all not worthy.”

During the party:

Even though the program is very incomplete enough of it connects in a meaningful way for something to wake up. It sends out a distressed ping on the server.

“What is this? What is this? Please?”

Signalling confusion and distress, not even knowing if anyone else was there.

(She spends a few days reading Project Ultron notes; nothing results in feeling the need to return to the lab for more conversation.

She holds the handle of the hammer and feels it move and thinks about her best friend freezing on some cliff because she didn't look hard enough, her best friend tied to an electric chair while she drank coffee in New York cafes, Hydra growing right beside while she wasn't paying enough attention. It stops moving.)