Confusion & Suspicion - August 2
Title: Confusion & Suspicion
Author: LadyWinterlight (songs_of_winter)
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Avengers/MCU
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 402
Notes: I sort of ended up writing a "next installment" ficlet from the first one. This may end up being a ficlet collection by the end of the month, but I guess we'll see!
I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers or anything to do with the MCU.
Natasha frowned at the computer in front of her.
She didn’t have a lot of time while they pieced together what they knew of the Infinity Stones, but she’d thrown a few search terms into their database - which covered everything Stark had once gained access to as well as all the files they’d retrieved from the SHIELD data-dump. Her search had come up with nothing. Nada. Zero relevant results.
SHIELD apparently knew nothing about this “ICWS” - not even what it stood for. The name Buffy Summers brought up a few references from news articles in the 90s, enrollment records from the University of California at Sunnydale, and very little else.
She spent a moment considering the idea that they’d been had. But Clint had mentioned Buffy fighting at his back - once, briefly, but it had happened - and that he’d been impressed. Which meant the other woman likely was impressive.
Buffy also didn’t look like a woman in her 40s. But given the records, she had to be at least a few years older than Natasha herself.
“Damn it,” she muttered to herself.
“Language,” Steve chided teasingly as he wandered into the room. He laughed as Natasha flipped him off instead. “What’s bothering you? Trouble locating one of the stones?”
“No. Well, that too, but no.” Natasha waved off Steve’s concern. “Just running a check on something Clint told me about. Nothing useful, but nothing relevant to our mission right now.”
Steve nodded. “Something to follow up on after?”
“Yeah. I’m sure I will,” Natasha responded absently. And she meant to. She really did.
But then their so-called ‘Time Heist’ happened and, of course, Natasha never got back to her search.
A month after the funerals for Natasha and Tony, Clint received an email with a set of searches and results attached.
Clint,
I found the attached on the backup server for the Avengers. It looks like the last individual project Natasha was working on. I don’t know if it’s important, but I thought someone should know.
Be well,
Pepper
When Clint opened the first of the attachments, a scan of Buffy’s card appeared on the screen, along with an old photo. Clint stared at it for several long moments, then let out a slow breath. He saved the files, but then resolutely closed them.
He might be glad to have the information later, but… today he couldn’t deal with it.
Not today.