Chapter Text
Tony’s phone vibrated and the loud sound it made against the nightstand woke him up quickly, with a startle. The noise was horrible and too loud this early in the morning.
Despite his brain cloudy with sleep and a pounding headache, he knew that unless he wasn’t home, then it shouldn’t be ringing in the first place. All his calls went through Friday and there was a reason for that. It was too avoid exactly this.
Tony groaned and cracked open an eye just a smidge to confirm that, yes this was his house and not some bed he had fallen into with some forgettable face.
It was too early to be awake and definitely too early to be dealing with this bullshit. “Friday, please tell me who is calling this early in the morning?” Tony buried his face into the pillow, wincing at the light pouring in as Friday took his question as a sign to take off the dimming blinds he had programmed into his windows.
The light from his arc reactor definitely didn’t help matters either. Sleeping with it always left him seeing black spots when he woke up. He took a deep breath- well as deep as he could, considering that the reactor definitely took up quite a bit of chest space. He groaned loudly.
“I must admit boss, ‘early in the morning’ must have changed it’s definition to after 12 in the afternoon.”
Tony couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up at the witty reply. Count on Friday to make an unbearable morning seem slightly less so with a personality that couldn’t have been programmed. “Save the commentary for later.”
“Yes boss. It appears as though Shield is trying to get into contact with you. You had a meeting scheduled two hours ago that you have failed to attend.”
He stretched out over the bed, rubbing at his tired eyes as he tried to adjust to the bright light Friday let in through the windows. After a night of drinking away, wallowing in self-pity after Pepper and he had just come to terms that they should take a break, a morning with Shield was the last thing he wanted to deal with. Especially since he was certain that good old star and spangled cap was gonna be there shooting his puppy eyes at him and trying to talk about the events of what happened in that bunker in Siberia. Yeah definitely not a big fan of doing that.
“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?”
He could practically feel Friday roll her hypothetical eyes as a snarky voice replied. “As I recall, you had requested that I refrian from interrupting your sleep with any non-lifethreatening calls or meetings.”
“Then why am I even hearing my phone vibrating in the first place?”
“It appears as though Shield hacked into my software to introduce a virus. One that puts down my safewalls enough for you to receive personal phone calls directly instead of through me. I allowed momentary access seeing as they took great lengths at trying to reach you.”
He would laugh at their weak attempt at hacking him if he wasn’t feeling like road kill right about now about now. “Nothing else? No attempt at stealing information or stuff? Again?”
“No boss.”
Tony sighed and sat up, feeling the strain of last night’s choices in his muscles and the leftover alcohol churn in his stomach. “Pepper, could you bring me a-“ He cut himself off abruptly, remembering just why he drank in the first place. The side of his bed felt suddenly cold.
The blanket was drawn closer, almost comforting, but not quite. A sense of longing settled deep in his chest and before he could spiral back into another hole of self pity, a soft whirring by his side drew him out of it quickly. U moved closer, lifting a claw up and in it, a plate with a glass of water and a couple of white pills for the pounding headache.
Tony reached out, drinking them both down quickly and patting his metallic arm briefly with a pleased expression. He had no idea how U managed to bring him a full cup of water and the right pills, but he didn’t really care to know. Unlike Dum-E, U was a little more competent, but he loved them both the same.
“Boss.” Friday interrupted his train of thought. “Director Fury is still waiting on the line.”
Tony glanced at one of the sensors and gave a short nod. He took shallow sips of the water, cooling his burning throat and taking the edge off the bitter taste in his mouth. Fury’s voice echoed from his phone, loud and clear. “Were you ever planning on showing up in the first place?”
Tony couldn’t help the roll of his eyes as the irritation that had disappeared, came back doubled. “Good morning to you too, dear. How’d you call directly to my phone?”
“We have people, Stark. You’re not as unreachable as you like to appear.”
He snorted at the bluff, but played along. Wasn’t the first time he caught them and it won’t be the last. Regardless, his paranoia wasn’t unfounded and it had resulted in stronger mainframes and firewalls. If anything happened, if the slightest code was tampered with, he would know. He had files with faux information created solely for the purpose of leading them in circles just to fuck with them. Maybe not specifically to mess with Fury, but those who ran the whole thing above Fury. But he wasn’t above putting Fury in the same group as the Council too. Giving them a false sense of security was a better option than showing his hand of cards too early.
“I have a good reason for not going.”
“And that is?”
“It’s boring and I have much better uses of my time. You’re not my mother, so quit nagging.”
“Then stop acting like a child.” He retorted through obviously grit teeth if the strain in his voice was any indication.
“Ouch. And here I thought you loved taking care of me.”
“Stark!”
Tony’s lips quirked up. It was all too easy to push Fury’s buttons and honestly, he had fun doing it. Despite his amusement, this was no way how he planned his morning to go. “As far as I know, I’m just your consultant. Not one of your dogs to tug around on a leash so I don’t see I have to attend debriefings if I’m not part of the team.” Tony listened to him with half an ear as he stood up and took his cell with him.
“This isn’t a debriefing. It’s something else and right now, you’ll find this has something entirely to do with you.”
Right. Because everything somehow had to do with him. A small explosion a block that had a strange energy signal down in a bakery? Call him. A mission in some remote location and it just so happens to have strange indecipherable tech? Call him.
Where were his capable technicians then?
Picking out a towel, he made his way to the restroom fully intent on cutting off Fury’s attempt at manipulating his curiousity into meeting up with them. Because yes, he was going to call it as it was. Manipulation. They knew well that his curiousity was his downfall just as it was his strength. All he wanted was a shower to wash away the stench of scotch and bad decisions.
“Yeah, yeah.” He said off-handedly. “Heard that one before.”
“Stark.” His voice took on a more tired tone. “A few days ago, something unidentified fell out of the sky just off the coast of Vermont.”
That made him pause in his step and he couldn’t say if it was fear that made him stop. At the very least, it could’ve been a bogey or a stray missle from a weapons manufacturer that he knew was in the area, but it could also be something from outside earth’s atmosphere. “So what are you saying?”
“You saw the news right?”
“Uh-.” Tony turned on the television in his room and switched to a random news anchor station. Sure enough, it was the same feed that’s been transmitting since that thing had crashed and still no idea of what exactly hit them. “It’s the only thing that’s been showing up.” He admitted. However he couldn’t say that he had placed close attention to the news at all, what with all the constant modifications he was making on Friday and his suits. “Is it the-?”
“No, but as I was saying, this isn’t something that you can miss. You’re going to want to be here for when she wakes up.”
He paused in his step with a frown. “She?”
They had relocated her to Shield’s base of operations and he had made the hour trip just to come and see her. She made a peculiar sight albeit beautiful. Humanoid in form, she gave off the strong impression of something otherwordly even if a lot of her was covered in bandages.
With hair that was a silvery white, it was a wonder how her skin was even paler. It would’ve put snow to shame. However, like frost-bitten skin tends to do, her cheeks, shoulders, and ears had a light rosiness dusting them and there was a chill that emanated off of her and seeped towards where he stood. It sent a light chill up his spine despite the hot and humid day. His skin erupted into goosebumps and he ran his hands down his arms to try and warm himself.
The cold could’ve just been the AC on full blast, but he knew better.
Honestly, he would’ve also mistaken her for just someone with extremely low melanin if he wasn’t one-hundred percent sure that she wasn’t human. And now that he was looking for it and was aware of her non-human status, the signs were fairly noticeable.
The ears, for starters, were really weird if he was being honest. They were like-... well he was just gonna call them Bambi ears since he didn’t know how else to explain them. Under her eye and above her cheekbone, little raised circles resided there like scar tissue, but in a way that looked like it was a birthmark rather than anything inflicted. The same looking patterns hid under the bandages on her chest and down to her pelvis covered by tattered rags.
He had pictures of the wounds in the file he was looking over. They were all equally nasty and gruesome, most likely life-threatening too. However, there was a particular wound on the side of her stomach that looked like it had been very precisely done. It was a clean cut with a strange symbol he didn’t recognize. He glanced up again to the woman separated by the wall.
They had the poor lady strapped on the metallic table, arms bound by leather cuffs and legs tied down. It was ridiculous especially considering the fact that she was unconscious and clearly not in any shape to fight. She looked like she had just literally escaped hell a week ago.
She was hooked up to a monitor that displayed a steady heartbeat.
Tony briefly wondered if the sunken in look the woman had was natural to her species or actually a result of starvation. It looked like one wrong move could break half the bones in her body.
It all felt surreal. It was like looking into a fantasy film and it hadn’t really set in that there was a live breathing alien just a few feet away. Apart from Thor, he wasn’t really eager to meet another alien so soon. Not after all the others he’s encountered so far who had all wanted to kill him. The Chitauri in general, Loki throwing him out head first from a window, and even Thor who had barely pulled his punches the first time they met. He wasn’t sure if Thor had forgotten that he was most certainly human and all soft skin, or if he really had intended to kill him.
“Tony.” There was a soft voice and he startled briefly. He turned to look at Natasha who wore a carefully blank face.
It was the first time they’ve seen each other since Siberia. She had abandoned him and went off the grid for a couple months until the higher ups had agreed to put James Buchanan’s status as a innocent under duress rather than a criminal. As a result, they had only put her and those that had refused to sign the accords on probation rather than behind bars. Now Buchanan was off in some hidden location and Rogers was back and so was Natasha.
God, did he miss her. Despite her silent and private nature, she was a friend. Or as close as a person like she could be. They stared at each other for a few seconds in a weird, tense silence.
It wasn’t out of hatred, after all he didn’t hate her. He couldn’t. She had his back for awhile before things went to shit, but he understood her as much as he didn’t. Shield was her opportunity to become a better person like Iron man had been his. He couldn’t fault her for her desire to follow shield even if it created this large gap between them. She was loyal. Just not to him. Then the Accords happened and then that was it. Their tentative and already fragile friendship had snapped easier than it had been to make it.
However, she made her choice and he had made his. No need to get emotional over a friendship that probably wasn’t really there in the first place.
She motioned towards a door silently, eyes piercing and gaze calculating.
Tony nodded, unfazed and used to it, following her into a large spacious room where a large monitor sat on the wall with live footage of the alien a few rooms over playing. Fury stood by the monitors, watching with a keen eye and with Hill at his side with a small amount of files, skimming through them and reading them out softly. It was a comforting sight, so normal even. Neither looked up at his presence, but it couldn’t be said for the others sitting at the table.
Not everyone was there, he noted.
He didn’t really get to know Wilson before the accords, but he knew he was loyal to Rogers without a fault. No lost love there honestly so he accepted Wilson’s acknowledging nod. Tony knew he still held some guilt over what happened to Rhodey, but Wilson didn’t bring it back up it. Especially since Tony had violently lashed out at him right after Rhodey had been injured. So yeah, he was fine without it being mentioned.
Then there was Rogers, who gave a strained smile and a nonchalant wave to ease the undeniably there tension. When he had first returned, their confrontation had been a little bit more than hairy so they’ve been keeping each other at a distance. Although he was happy not to talk to the guy any time soon, Rogers was undeniably still trying to mend things in an attempt to get the friendship slash professional relationship they had before the whole Siberia thing.
And there was Barton, sitting on the table, biting his nails and his eyes were a bit hard. It was like he was nervous, glancing about a bit and forcing his shoulders to remain relaxed. It was such a subtle difference, but he knew Barton enough to recognize it.
He was anxious.
There was something he wanted to say, but he wasn’t saying it. Maybe he was waiting or maybe it was something he wanted to say in private. Regardless, he caught his gaze and Tony couldn’t help the frown of confusion on his own face.
Barton had always been a neutral friend and the one with enough charisma to battle his own. But Romanoff didn’t seem partial to it so he was genuinely curious.
“Tony!” He heard Thor say. He cast his gaze to where the big guy was at the corner of the room and quickly making his way over. The smile on his face was wide and honest. He clapped a heavy hand over his shoulder and Tony let out a grunt at the hard, though well-intended, gesture. “It is great to see you here, my friend.”
His voice was soft and he placed himself between Tony and the others. It was almost like he was blocking their view of him. Thor’s eyes narrowed a bit with an unspoken question.
Are you alright?
He gave a small shrug that had Thor smiling compassionately at him. It wasn’t ideal, but at least he had a someone on his side. Tony shared a small smile, thankful for Thor’s concern and for his neutral stance on what happened in the accords. He was a bit of the bridge between him and the others if he was being honest.
“Good to see you too, buddy.” He nodded and Thor laid off with a brief concerned look.
Rhodey had his hands tied with some mission in Europe. Something about high energy pulses and a strange amount of deaths that may have something to do with radiation. Regardless, he wasn’t surprised to see him not present, but it must’ve been pretty important if that mission triumphed over this. But apart from him, he was surprised that Wanda and Vision were both missing. He must’ve been pretty obvious about his wandering gaze because Natasha spoke besides him.
“Off on government leave.” She took the seat next to Barton. “Wanda was given permission after getting into Ross’s good graces,”
How’d that happen?
“And Vision joined her.”
Now that wasn’t quite a surprise either, though he lamented not being there when they left. The least they could’ve done was say goodbye. What with everything he’s done? He bit down the bitterness. They didn’t owe him anything and he felt guilty for assuming that they did. Whatever. At least they had each other.
He nodded in thanks and ignored how her mouth twitched downwards very faintly. She seemed a bit disheartened at his lack of a response and he definitely noticed. He tried not to let that get to him.
He met Fury’s eye, putting on a cocky grin that he knew for a fact grated on his nerves. “Look I have a degree on engineering and physics, but I don’t think I need either of them to tell you that you have a real alien taking a nap just a few rooms from us.”
Fury’s mouth twitched, but Hill took pity on him and spoke up before Fury could. “She was livid when she landed so we had her sedated into an induced coma and we stripped her of her things.” She explained. “We’re trying to get her to talk to us. The WSC want answers and we’re on a time limit.”
Call him old fashioned, but he didn’t think that being sedated into a coma and waking up strapped to a metal table really instill trust. Then again, Shield was the same group that had waited until he was practically on his death bed to tell him that his dear old dad had the solution to the paladinium poisoning in his blood stream.
“Yeah, not good enough reason to just restrain her like an animal. She was livid, not trying to kill anyone right? And I can’t imagine she’d wanna tell you anything after this.” He muttered.
Fury sighed and nodded in concession. “We originally had her in a normal room, but when a few of my doctors tried to help her when she woke up, she reacted violently.” He nodded over to her position. “Don’t like it any more than you, but the higher ups get nervous so it was either restrain her or something more severe.” He motioned at the monitor. “I chose the former.”
Tony pressed his lips together, but said nothing. He didn’t have to agree, and he didn’t even have to like it, but yeah that made sense. Couldn’t risk other innocent people over one life. Well, he wasn’t exactly sure if any of those doctors were innocent, but still, in their eyes, he supposed a human life was worth more.
Inhumane if anyone asked him. But that raised a whole other array of questions. Was it inhumane if she was of another species? Did they have anything protecting her? He wondered if there’s been any changes or addition in regards to that. After all, it seems like other-worldly life visiting Earth here and there only seemed to be increasing with every year. It’d be strange for there to be no laws protecting them or whatever else there was.
There was movement on the screen and he dragged his attention to it. All that can wait for another day.
It hadn’t been longer than a few minutes after the doctors had injected her with a serum that she was twitching and shifting from side to side in obvious discomfort. He just hoped they knew what they were doing. She wasn’t human after all, so her physiology must be completely different. So what could react well with a human may not exactly work with her. The last thing he knew Fury wanted, was for her to die while under their care so Tony had to be certain that she would be alright.
“You don’t happen to know her do you, Thor?” Barton asked offhandedly.
Thor shook his head, frowning as he peered closely at the monitor. He was thumbing the skin on his wrist slowly as he thought, but after a few seconds, relaxed and straightened his posture once more. “I’m afraid not.”
“Well she’s an alien and you’re an alien so I kinda figured…”
“Dude.” Wilson sent him a good-natured look. “Just because they’re both aliens doesn’t mean they know each other.”
Tony huffed out a small laugh. Barton’s dry charm really did work wonders sometimes and he felt his tense shoulders relax minutely. Focusing on the slight tension of the room was not what he wanted to do and he was grateful for both Barton’s and Thor’s presence. It directed from what had happened before.
“Hello.” Said a voice from the screen. A scientist perhaps since she didn’t exactly look like a doctor.
The woman squinted and looked around with a confused, almost dazed expression. Instead of giving her a moment to grip her bearings, the lady continued. “You crashed here on earth a few days ago and as a result, were injured severely.” The woman jerked from the bonds harshly, lifting her gaze to the woman standing over her. “You also displayed signs of malnourishment and had severe lacerations over your torso and signs of past injuries. We took great care in tending to you, but-“
The woman jerked again, baring her teeth at the white coat and actually snarling at her, ears drawing back. The lady jumped back and looked directly at the camera with a concerned expression and hand down at her hip.
Fury said nothing and Tony frowned at his silence. Fury couldn’t have possibly expected that if she had been aggressive before then she wouldn’t be even more so now. But Fury, was nothing if not cunning, so Tony waited and kept his mouth shut for the meantime.
The woman bound to the table looked around frantically. Her eyes were clear from that sleepy haze now, but they looked wild as she clenched her hands and violently shook as she tried to escape.
Tony twitched in his seat, knowing that if push came to shove, they could just sedate her again. Still though, the way she desperately tried to get free and the noises of distress she made hit far too close to home for Tony to sit comfortably in his seat. He clenched his jaw and let out a slow breath to soothe his own nerves. He knew Natasha was glancing at him from the corner of her eye and didn’t intend to give her any sign of discomfort.
“Calm down ma’m, you’re perfectly safe-“
The woman snarled and let out a high pitched noise that grated in his ears. Tony flinched, but forced himself to remain calm. She was just freaking out, she wasn’t dangerous. After all, how dangerous could she be in restraints and as injured as she was?
There was no need for them to get involved, but he could see that they were itching to. Natasha and Rogers specifically, although Natasha was more subtle about it. Her lip turned downwards a bit and eyes remained firm on the screen almost like waiting for a sign to move, but Rogers tapped his fingers nervously against the table and his eyes kept going over to Fury frantically.
Eventually, Fury pressed a button on his earpiece and spoke loud and clear. “Calm her down, we can’t have her opening her wounds again.” He let go of the button and cursed to himself. “Pain in my ass…”
The doctors looked at the camera in the room before jumping into action. A few of them moved forward and held the woman down to avoid further damage to her wounds as one nurse grabbed at a stringe filled with a clear fluid.
Apparently ‘calm her down’ meant sedatives. Honestly though, he shouldn’t be surprised. Tony knew that Shield did things a certain way, but for all they knew, she hadn’t done anything to implicate that she was there to do something bad. His stomach churned as he watched the poor woman’s eyes widen in fear and her thrashing became violent.
“Fury, she’s just scared. She’s bound to a table and somewhere she doesn’t recognize. No one’s going to be happy with that.” Tony tried to reason. “At the very least, give her some space and time to adapt.”
Fury maintained a cool expression and remained firm on his decision. “If we allow her to continue like that, she could injure one of my doctors. I’m not about to risk it just because we didn’t want to cause her any discomfort.”
And yeah, he had a point, but if getting her to trust them was on their agenda, whatever the agenda was in the first place, then they were going about this the wrong way. Keeping her bound free and offering food and aid were a few good examples, but sedating her into submission just wasn’t one of them. It was inhumane.
“Look at her.” Tony pointed at the screen, feeling furious at their lack of compassion. “Does she look like she’s able to harm anyone looking like that? The only person she’s at risk to harm is herself. She’ll tear her stitches open.”
He caught the looks the others were sending him and frankly, he was a bit annoyed at the nonchalance the others held themselves with. They might not be completely okay with what was happening, but they weren’t exactly jumping to her aid either.
Not surprisingly, it was Thor who sided with him. Thor pressed his lips together with a stern look on his face. “He’s right. She is in no condition to fight and I don’t see how this is the right course of action. She will speak or she won’t and this isn’t helping matters.”
“What do you suppose we do? Let her go and offer her a slice of pie? She still attacked a few people earlier and there’s no guarantee that she won’t do it again.” Natasha spoke in a cool manner. “You know better than to take anyone at face-value.”
“Oh we all do, Romanoff.” Tony agreed easily though his tone was anything, but kind. “And I should know especially. I’ve had quite a personal experience in that field.” Tony quipped.
While he could see how his biting words affected the rest of the people in the room, he didn’t have to time to cherish it.
Rogers just sighed and rubbed his eyes, quickly bringing them back to the topic. “Tony has a point. This woman is obviously in distress and wherever she came from, it doesn’t look like she’s going to want to tell us what happened to her if we’re sedating her and tying her up like some experiment.” At least that, he could agree with.
“Let me try to reason with her.” Thor said. “I don’t know her or recognize her species, but perhaps she knows of me. It could give her a sense of safety.”
That actually wasn’t a bad idea. If they could get the woman to talk to someone she recognized, maybe she wouldn’t react the way she was now. Hopefully, then, things would go much smoother.
There was a silence as Fury pondered on a decision. Eventually, he raised a hand to his ear piece and called off his previous order.
The woman relaxed noticeabley the moment the white-coats stepped away and the syringe disappeared. It didn’t stop her from trying to squeeze out from cuffs and grunting in exhertion.
Honestly, he couldn’t blame her.
Fury pointed at Thor. “Five minutes. That’s all I can do.” He murmured. “They don’t like two aliens in the same room talking even if we’re watching. Makes ‘em nervous.”
“I ask of nothing more.” He promised.
Tony smiled at Thor in relief and he offered a short nod in return. He was directed down the hall along with Natasha who had agreed to be nearby in case things went south. Though Tony was sure that if things got out of hand, Thor would have it covered and there wouldn’t be a any need for Nat. Perhaps it was just so that Natasha could analayze and observe the lady up close rather than through a screen.
“I don’t like this.” Barton muttered.
Tony jumped, and glanced over to see Barton standing next to him. He was wearing a pensive frown and biting at the nail of his thumb.
When had he gotten so close? Regardless, he pushed away his surprise and glanced at him once before looking at the screen as Thor stepped into the cell with a soft easy smile as to not frighten the lady.
“What about this don’t you like?” He asked indifferently, though his astonishment was most likely apparent. It was off-putting enough that Barton would choose to stand by him, but to say that so casually? That was surreal.
If there was something he learned, it was that Natasha and Barton didn’t just say what they thought just like that. They were spies, through and through. Sure they made their dislike known, but they never verbally mentioned it without reason. But here he was, with Barton mentioning that this wasn’t sitting well with him.
Barton grunted. “It’s too… familiar.”
Had something similar happened to him? Tony looked at him, concern written all over his face surely. It should have at least crossed his mind. Barton, after all, was a spy and if he was caught, he was sure it wasn’t just sunshine and rainbows. And just because they had chosen different sides, didn’t mean he wanted Barton to have experienced anything like he had in Afghanistan.
“Are you-?”
“Jesus,” Barton scoffed, but his tone held no malice. “I’ve gotten lucky so far, so don’t worry. It’s just…” He sucked in a harsh breath, looking at the others inconspicuously. “What do you know?”
Tony tossed the vague question around in his head. He turned to the screen again.
Her face was carefully blank, but she didn’t seem to shy away from Thor like she did with the white coats. It was easy to see where Barton was going with this. “Want me to spell it out?” He whispered dryly.
The man nodded and accepted the answer, but the furrow between his eyebrows didn’t disappear, if only, it grew bigger. “I saw the same thing… awhile back.”
Tony cleared his throat nervously and quietly, but tried to keep a teasing and light hearted tone. “Torture roughly consists of the same thing buddy. I didn’t look so different back then.” His voice trailed off weakly.
Barton shook his head with a wince. “No. I meant-…” He let out a frustrated sigh. He looked just a bit desperate and his eyes seemed pleading. He was looking for something although Tony wasn’t sure what.
He must’ve found what he was looking for because he started to speak again. “Okay. The others-… they think I’m gonna end up in the looney bin. And I’m sick of those psych evaluations with those hardass and pompous psychologists that Shield hires. And if you tell me to go to one, I will kick you in the balls alright? And you have to promise me that this stays between us. I don’t want to go to another shrink cause you think I need help too.”
Tony bit the inside of his cheek and raised an eyebrow. Just what had he been missing since he broke things off with the team? Or had this whole thing with Barton been ongoing for much longer than Siberia? “I won’t. Not if you don’t want me to, but I’m not gonna lie. You’re kinda freaking me out. Do I need to be concerned?”
“No.” He said forcefully and then lowered his voice as Rogers looked over at them for a brief second. Tony straightened and cast him a small frown and Rogers ended up pressing his lips together and looking away seemingly in discomfort. “No, no. At least, not for me. Just hear me out first.”
Tony sighed. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t listen.”
Barton looked relieved, but looked back at the screen when Fury shot them a subtle, but scolding look. They kept quiet. It wouldn’t do if the others heard, though they were far enough that he knew the others wouldn’t make out what they were saying.
On the screen, Thor made his way over to the woman, standing far enough so that she wouldn’t feel so crowded. He began with introducing himself, but got no noticeable reaction. He was persistent with trying to communicate with her; asking how she was feeling, if she needed anything, or if she had any idea what had happened to her before landing on Earth. After a few minutes went by, nothing happened. She remained still and almost mute.
Fury spoke tersely. “Three minutes.” He was clearly frustrated. “Three minutes and then I have my guys interrogating her themselves.”
Fury sent Tony a look as though asking if he was going to argue against that too. Tony just shook his head and scoffed. He tried to think of something that would end better than Shield doing the interrogation.
Thor gave a curt nod of his head and turned back to face the woman. For a few seconds, the two just looked at each other and then Thor spoke. When he opened his mouth, a mesh of guttural sounds escaped from his throat, consisting of low and high pitched tones. She had no reaction to it either. He paused and began anew, another gathering of sounds, though this time it sounded like actual consonants that came out short and clipped, but still gibberish.
Holy shit, he felt astonished as much as he was in awe. So that was what an alien language sounded like.
Frankly, they probably should’ve seen that coming. She was an alien. From space. There’s no reason that she’d even speak English at all. It was only pure luck and coincidence that Thor just so happened to speak it, and by association, his brother too. But if there was one thing about this whole exchange, it was probably the realization that Thor knew more languages than they realized.
Tony huffed out a happy sound, surprised with how he was able to fluidly transition between languages, which all sounded distinctly different from each other. As Thor switched again, he noted that he was on his fifth language now after the first four failed to rouse so much as a twitch. It was easy to discern which was which because of the way they all sounded. They complemented one another as much as they were so inherently different.
“Tony.” Barton muttered low, just as everyone else was entranced by hearing what an alien language actually sounds like. “What I wanted to say is that, I’ve seen this exact thing before. The same pale and sunken eyed look, same injuries on the same places of the body, the same exact tears on the skin- not slashes like a sharp weapon, but tears. Do you know what a blunt knife does? It doesn’t cut, it rips through the skin messily, Tony. And that scar on the side of her stomach isn’t just a scar, it’s a brand.”
“So her torturer liked to brand people? I’m not sure what you want me to do with that. I’m not a dermatologist.” Tony clarified. He wasn’t quite sure he knew where this was going.
Barton scowled. “Yes. But her eyes were a darker blue, Tony. Before we picked her up, I was the one sent to bring her in. Her eyes were just like his. His and mine. And she had the same glazed and dull sheen when I saw her.”
He was talking about New York. He felt a shiver go down his spine at the memory. So she had something to do with New York, but the way he said ‘him’ didn’t feel like he was talking about Selvig. But Selvig was the only other man he was aware of, well who had some semblance of importance, that had been controlled like Barton had.
“Is she still…” He couldn’t help, but ask, despite seeing the lighter color of her eyes clearly through the screen. Barton shook his head and tapped at his head indicating something else. So not under control then. Now the bandage around her head made sense. Must’ve been a pretty nasty blow. “You think that, she’s in someway connected to-…?” But Tony cut himself off. No that didn’t make sense. If she was here to take over like he had, then she wouldn’t be mind controlled. And Vision had the mind stone, which Thor had briefly explained, so why and how she would be under control in the first place and in the exact same way made no sense.
“No. It wasn’t Loki.” Barton pressed his lips together at his wince at the aforementioned name. “There’s things that I saw when I was with him. I was angry, but after it was all over, I noticed some things that didn’t add up.” He shook his head tiredly. “He didn’t mess with my head, the stone made me feel loyal to him, he didn’t feed me wrong memories or mess up my mind. I know what I saw when I was with him and I don’t think he was working alone. I think he was working for someone else.”
The words came out scattered. The revelation was, honestly, even more surreal than what was going on a few rooms down.
“Tony, I was the one who treated his wounds and he was just as fucked up as her. I’m telling you it was bad and I’ve seen some shit. He was scared of something.” Barton’s face twisted in disgust, but he looked desperate. “Someone was strong enough to inflict that amount of damage on a literal god and I think we’re all glossing over that. Not even Bruce did as much damage to make him look anywhere near the picture he painted when I first saw him and even then, Loki was walking around an hour later. I know it sounds crazy, but I’m just saying that maybe things aren’t so black and white.”
Tony felt himself deflate. Barton hadn’t talked about his time with Loki even when everyone had pressed for information, but now, it was like a switch had flipped. He could see why the others would think he had been compromised if he so much as mention any of this. He almost believed that Barton had gone mad too if it wasn’t for that sincere and raw hopefulness in his eyes.
He searched hard for any trace of the same blue eyes that Barton had possessed under Loki’s influence, but found none. Perhaps the mind stone had long lasting effects, which could explain why no-name had those unnatural blue eyes that he had back then when she popped up, but this was Barton. How could he have gone against Loki, and now suddenly think that he was innocent?
“I don’t know man. This is all so…”
“I know, I know, just- if anyone can figure it out, it’s you. Maybe I am mad, but-“ Barton grabbed his hand and slipped something in it. He had to resist the urge to snap at him because one, he hated being forced to take things handed to him, and two, he wasn’t going to lie that Barton’s touch shook him up much harder than he expected. In the end, he just bit his lip and accepted it. It looked like a normal shake between two friends that didn’t look as misplaced as Tony thought it would. “Just answer me this. What color were Loki’s eyes when we shipped him off and when we met him?” Blue, his brain supplied, but that didn’t seem right.
“Time’s up, Thor.” Fury said. The whole conversation seemed much longer than five fucking minutes, but he was glad they finished before Fury could focus back on them.
Thor glanced frantically up at the camera. He hadn’t gotten a response at all from what he could tell. “But-“
“We’ll find a way through the language barrier, but right now, I don’t want you wasting any more time when we could be focusing on more important things.”
Like what? What could possibly be more important than this? Besides, Thor’s has a much higher chance of success than if they didn’t use him.
Thor’s shoulder’s slumped. Tony heard Natasha’s voice over the camera as she opened the door. “Come on, thunder cat.” She said and Tony smiled a bit at her use of the nickname. One of the many he had given Thor and one Natasha still uses here and there.
As Thor moved to Natasha, he paused, looking a bit pensive. He could practically see the cogs turning in his head as his mouth hung open. It was as if he wanted to say something. A look of realization came over his face. From his lips, a smooth sound flowed gracefully, biting like ice and yet soft like snow.
“If cursive was a sound, this is it.” Barton muttered.
He snorted at his comment, but there was no time for amusement.
The woman scowled and yanked at her chains. She understood then. Thor’s satisfaction quickly snapped into a grimace as soon as the woman bit out a few short words. Though her voice was like silk and the words in themselves sounded sweet, her tone was anything but. They were violent, harsh, and venomous. She struggled violently, to the point where she started tearing apart her wounds and blood began dripping down on the ground like a broken tap.
Thor was yanked out of the room by Natasha since his presence was clearly distressing her. He didn’t seem quite finished though as he shouted for her to wait before the doctors ran back in. As she tore at the skin of her wrists and scrabbled at table, she broke apart at one of the restraints on her arm.
Fury sighed and ordered for them to sedate her. This time, no one else argued against it, much less Tony.
She wasn’t trying to hurt them, but he knew it was futile. She tried to rip her other arm free, but the second they brought out the syringe, she went manic. The first shot didn’t do much and when the doctors panicked, they waisted no time in injecting yet another syringe with a noticeable stronger dose, she passed out within seconds.
Jesus, he cursed.
Thor was brought back into the room and seemed awfully confused about what must’ve happened in the time he walked in the hall to the room. Natasha patted his back and took a seat by Rogers.
“Well?” Fury asked, effectively cutting off the tirade of angry shouts over the morality of the situation. They were drugging her with an unknown dose without knowing exactly what it would do to someone like her. Of course now they saw how wrong the situation was. He silently fumed, but one thing was for sure, they had no idea what they were doing.
“I apologize for not realizing her partial blood before. I had assumed she was from Alfhiem, not from Jötunheim so I would’ve never expected her to know their language. I had never heard of Jötun blood mixing with someone of Aflheim and I thought it was impossible.” Thor exclaimed. “Though I fear that I may have angered her with my presence.”
“What did you say?” Steve asked.
Thor fidgeted, as though sheepish of what they had asked him. “I asked her if by chance she knew the Jötun tongue and then she told me that she would not talk to any Aesir. Although she used a bit more explicit words to describe us.”
Dissapointment over her supposed hatred towards Thor led to curiousity. Sure their talk hadn’t gone well, horrible even, but at least now Tony had an idea of what she was. That knowledge filled in a few blanks although there still was a lot left. From what Thor has mentioned, although in passing, was that Jötuns and Aesir are mortal enemies, although how that came to be or why, Thor never said. Any history shared of Asgard or other planets was sorely kept hidden. Apart from glorious battles of course.
“And now we have her sedated and with no chance of figuring what’s up with her.” Tony muttered dryly.
Fury sighed. “Stark, you’re going to have to make a translator.”
Tony bit the inside of his lip and made his displeasure obvious. “This isn’t my mess.”
“You’re here, so this includes you as well.”
Tony rubbed his eyes and ran a hand down his face. “I’m not an expert in linguistics, Fury. I can’t build a translator to translate a language I don’t know and that doesn’t even come from this planet.”
“Well figure it out. You learned astrophysics in a night; you can learn linguistics too.” Fury said. “I can give you a week and that’s it.”
Did he not listen to a word he just said? He opened his mouth, ready to snap at him before realizing it was a lost cause. If he argued, he was going to stay there for the next few hours and get absolutely no where. Staying here longer was the last thing he wanted.
Well, there was a bright side to this at least. His curiousity definitely came into play against him and he wanted to know about the woman and what her story was. But the main thing he wanted to know, was what’s on that drive Barton had slipped in his hand and what was he going to do if Barton was right that there was something going on behind the scenes.
“Fine.” He grit out. He patted Thor’s shoulder as he made his way out. “Come on Pointbreak, you’re gonna help me out.”
“So how many languages do you know?” Tony asked off-handedly as he stared at usb drive that Barton had given him.
“I know and speak all common languages in the nine realms.” Thor replied, playing with a leather bracelet on his wrist. He wore a wide grin. “While I learned and studied them, something called the allspeak is what allows me to retain all that knowledge without forgetting it.”
That was-.
Tony paused in his movements, hand outstretched to plug the usb into his computer. He glanced over at Thor who moved about with a curious expressio. He touched a few projects that Tony had scattered around. “That’s amazing.”
“My birth meant that I would someday, perhaps, take over the throne in my father’s place. Under the most strict and wisest teachers were my brother and I taught.” He took on a wistful expression.
Tony cleared his throat feeling slightly uncomfortable. Seems like Loki was certainly making a comeback today and it felt surreal to be talking about him after so long. “Probably become king?” He asked.
Thor shrugged. “Back as a child, before the truth of Loki’s bloodline came to light, we both believed we had equal opportunity to ascend to the throne. I have lived for over two-thousand years. I know about culture differences and major historical events, but my strength lies in fighting and battles. The royal court and upper classes loved me more, for I am what the Aesir believed as the ideal warrior, but the people of the town, farmers and weavers and such, loved Loki just a bit more and I never truly understood why.”
“Huh.” Tony didn’t expect that actually.
The huff that he heard sounded like a laugh as Thor agreed with him. “I know, it’s strange. My brother has a brilliant mind. Although younger than I, he excelled in lectures and had a cunning mind for diplomacy, getting my friends and I out of trouble more times than I would have cared to admit. He would have made a great king.” Thor bit his tongue, stopping his rambling rather short. “Forgive me. I realize now that I am only talking about a man who is not the same one I knew.”
Tony gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just… odd is all.”
“That my brother was not always so cynical as you remember him?”
Tony stuck the usb into the port and watched as Friday skimmed through the information quickly. There wasn’t much to begin with so it wouldn’t take long. “No. It’s just that you say he would’ve been a great king. He must’ve thrown a tantrum when he didn’t get the throne so reigning over us was the next big thing huh? The psycho- uh no offense-,” Thor frowned, but didn’t say anything. “Well he didn’t seem all that benevolent-like king material that you mentioned.”
Thor pressed his lips together and leaned against the table, knocking over tech that Tony really should’ve thought about when bringing Thor down to his lab.
“Yes, he was definitely different than the person I grew up with. However, there is one thing that I forgot to mention. Though I doubt it will change anything.”
Tony hummed in response, putting aside the information file from Barton’s drive without opening it. He wasn’t about to do that now especially with Thor standing next to him and instead began opening up images parts of the brain that allows for processing of sounds and determining speech. If he wanted to create a translator for the woman’s language, he had to try and break it completely down. Know exactly what makes it tick.
“If it helps, my brother never wanted the throne.” Thor continued, oblivious to the way Tony paused at that new snippet of information. “He would’ve become a great king, but he never wanted the crown, didn’t even really like dealing with so much responsibility or the weight of the crown. He hated diplomacy even if he was good at it. ‘Dealing with presumptuous and entitled babies dressed in royal garbs’, he said to me once.” Thor laughed time himself. “I remember it still, we were arguing and he told me ‘dress a hog in drapes and it’s still a hog’. No. He was much rather content with traveling the nine realms, spending time with-… ah it doesn’t matter anymore. He was much happier spending time by himself now, I suppose.” He trailed off rather weakly, leading Tony to ponder if he had been about to say his late mother.
He nodded at Thor’s words, frowning at the number of things that just kept making no sense. A power-hungry mad man who wasn’t interested in a position of power? An intellectual who hated diplomacy and princely duties and preffered freedom and independence? At least that’s he assumed princes’ had to do. Still, all those things conflicted with one another. No one just up and goes to another planet to rule if they didn’t want it in the first place.
Thor made his way over to the door in the midst of his silence. “My friend, do you mind if I take from your fridge? I find myself terribly hungry.”
“Yeah, yeah, go ahead. It’s always open.” He said absentmindedly.
His hand hovered over a file labeled a random generic mix of numbers and letters. He opened it and a pixelated photo of an underground bunker popped up. In the midst of a group of people in white coats and soldiers, stood two familiar people, both facing the camera. Barton with bright blue eyes and Loki, looking just as pale and sickly as that alien chick they have back at shield right now. His eyes were dull and glowed just a mild blue. He had to wait as the next image began loading.
“You know,” Tony muttered, barely catching Thor’s attention. “Did he even look like your parents?”
“Our parents.”
“Right.” He said nonchalantly. “Did he?”
“No.” He shrugged. “My Father had dark hair in his youth and he and I share share the same tan face, but I took after my mother the most.”
“Going off by you, was she lovely?”
Thor smiled softly to himself and looked downwards at the floor in rememberance. “She was ethereal. Golden hair, beautiful blue eyes, and a smile that I know my brother and I adored. It was the best feeling, when she smiled at you.” He cleared his throat. “Pardon my rant, I trailed off. No, Loki never bore any resemblance to them. Always different, too pale, too thin, too sharp, but I assumed he had merely taken after another family member. My uncles perhaps or even my mother’s side of the family.”
He hummed. “Despite not really being related, you both have the same eyes. Could’ve been enough to convince everyone you guys were related. Though I’m surprised no one figured it out, what with that Edward Cullens vibe he was putting out.” He dangled the bait in front of Thor, wondering if Thor would correct him, or just agree. Either way, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear the answer or not. Barton’s question echoed in his ears.
Answer me this. What color were Loki’s eyes when we shipped him off and when we met him?
Without looking at Thor, he could practically see the confusion in his face. “The same? His eyes are not blue.”
The next image popped up. This one of Loki as he was chained up and led out of the penthouse. His eyes were no longer the same dull color. No longer blue. Tony’s felt his breath leave in one go.
“Tony, my brother’s eyes are-“
Green. They were green.