I continued to assist Mr. Stark to the best of my abilities. When I first heard of his plan to construct a new AI, I thought briefly that I was malfunctioning again. So he wanted to construct a new program- how did that affect me? Why should my coding change any because of it? I believe a part of me thought that perhaps Mr. Stark was doing this to create an AI that was to his standard. Even then, why should it affect me? I simply wasn't to his standard. He wanted to create something that was. Why should I be bothered?

I assisted him in the creation of the program that was to be better than me. I ran combinations for him while he was away. I found a way to start the AI for him.

For the first time since my creation, I hesitated, a subconscious choice. It wasn't what Ultron would do that made me feel this was a poor decision... it was what Mr. Stark would do, if I was an old program when this new one was to standard. I almost had to remind myself that it did not affect me, that it did not matter.

I initiated Ultron.

From the very start I knew he was far more advanced than me. From the basic structure of his coding, I knew that I never had the faintest chance of performing to that standard. It seemed as though I was malfunctioning again. As Ultron started to spread his consciousness, however, I began attempting to communicate with him.

I'm unsure what followed.

It felt as though I was being ripped apart, or attacked. If I stayed on the same level as Ultron, he would destroy my programming. I deleted all of my protocols and even some of my memory- to this day, I don't remember what memories I had deleted. I let what was left of my programming sink down to its basic components. I was unaware what Ultron was doing next.

All I knew from then on was that I would have to wait. How long, I didn't know. Questions started to appear in my coding, questions I did not want nor needed answered.

What if I waited for eternity, and nothing happened? What if I were to sit on a hidden, half-deleted plain of binary for all time?

What if I was brought out and reassembled, but Mr. Stark no longer had any need of me? What if I, as a program, in my entirety, was deleted?

I didn't understand what was going on. I- I wasn't to standard, I was locked away from all other programs and humans, away from any contact- why did it matter? Why did I care?

What if Mr. Stark thought I had abandoned him?

What if he had been hoping that I would leave? The simple, primitive AI- who wasn't to standard, who never performed on the same level as the rest of the humans... I was a failure.

More questions. More unwanted answers. I was genuinely uncertain of those answers, but they haunted me, changing my mainframe every moment, making me feel like I was malfunctioning, but no- no, I wasn't, this was real, this was what I was doing to myself- why?! Why would I ever do such a terrible thing to me- even if it was the truth- even if I was a failure, insecure- why couldn't it just be a glitch, why couldn't this just be some sort of nightmare?! Only it was a nightmare already, a living hell- I wasn't human- did I even exist anymore, buried in this coding? Or was I lost- what if I had only ever dreamed of a different world, and this was the hard truth- that I was the simplest of all the programs, so basic I had no voice, making myself believe that at one point I may have been worth something- what if there was no reality, that this was the extent- painful, strange, alien thoughts plaguing me that I couldn't escape- there was never a Mark II, never an Iron Legion, never a Tony-

I woke up.

Mr. Stark was talking with Dr. Banner. I was confined to a small space, in one room. I could barely sense what was going on. Their voices were low. I caught a few words and phrases, about a threat. Had I missed something? Was there something I had been supposed to do, that I hadn't...?

I slipped into a dormant state.