A Game of You, 6/6.
Title: A Game Of You
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: R
Pairing: Gen (pairings mentioned and present, but not really a focus in the story)
Disclaimer: Not mine! Some comic backstory is incorporated into characterizations, but this is still primarily movieverse.
Spoilers/Warnings: Takes place after "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." The story was plotted and I started writing it before the second season of "Agents of SHIELD" began. I am jossed so hard by the MCU, but hey! Fic! :)
This is the fault of phoenixrising06/
romanovasledger and
futurerustfuture-dust during all of our characterization discussions, their watching Orphan Black and our headcanons for the Red Room. Also loosely inspired by this gifset, though I don't follow that plot at all. There is going to be violence, implied violence, and all sorts of fucked up stuff that is mentioned as part of the Red Room shenanigans.
Summary: A young woman is brutally murdered by the Vory in Saskatchewan. This is tragic enough, but she also wears Natasha Romanoff's face. And she's not the only one.
Prior chapters:
One - Twinning
Two - Collecting
Three - Sliding
Four - Meetings
Five - Confronting
Six - Finalizing
Those following meteorology or tracking tremors recorded a massive spike in energies near Malmo, Sweden. This coincided with the arrival of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts in Copenhagen, ostensibly because Pepper wanted to see the ballet there and Tony was meeting with a small research facility to broker a licensing agreement. If a certain tall blond warrior from another dimension and his friends decided to arrive, hey, more drinking buddies, right?
Tony had been suitably impressed with Olga's engineering skill, and told her he would have hired her even if she wasn't Natasha's blonde clone that needed protecting. He studiously had avoided the brooding soldier next to her, and discussed plans he had for expanding the research division of Stark Industries to look into clean energy. It hadn't been part of Olga's training or implanted skill sets, but the actual physical design could fall under her expertise. "There's definitely New Orleans," Tony mentioned, tapping on his StarkPad. "But I suppose I should look into some kind of central location in Europe. We can get around EU standards, I think. Pepper will know about that kind of thing, and she's CEO anyway."
"Why do you do this?" Olga had asked, frowning at him.
"Natasha's a friend. Kind of. A teammate, I guess you could say. She's hard to get to know and make friends with, the whole spy thing, I suppose. It makes sense now." He shrugged. "And it's not like it would hurt my company. We already have the Berlin location, but that wouldn't help all of you hide or get protection. I have a feeling Marcia can protect herself, but she can always look us up if she can't."
"If you pick a location in Paris, that would make sense," Olga told him. "That would take care of protecting Thérèse, of course. But it could possibly also cover Constance and Nadine," she said.
"Thor and his buddies are going to visit Neveah," Tony said, frowning at the map. "But then that leaves your sister Natalia in the Ukraine. I have no excuse to be there."
"I do," James replied in a dour tone.
The two of them looked at him, but he didn't elaborate. "What is it?" Olga asked, brows knit in curiosity. She even reached out to touch his arm to get his attention. While Tony was concerned, thinking that the soldier would strike her, he didn't.
"I sent Steve and Sam ahead to check while I came here with you," he said. His speech was largely brusque and to the point, a holdover from the Hydra programming days. "But I remember a base near there. Where they had a chair."
"Reprogramming," Olga said, mouth parting slightly. "They give you things or take them away."
James nodded, looking almost miserable though his face was still mostly blank. It was the eyes, really. Tony could see the tightening around his eyes, the tension in his shoulders. He had seen the same thing in the mirror after Afghanistan.
"And you don't want to see it, but it needs to get gone," Tony said, nodding. "Want more help?" he offered. It was a spur of the moment thing, but he had an Iron Man suit in his quinjet, so it really shouldn't have been an issue.
"You have to meet your friends in Malmo."
"I can fly there pretty quick."
Blinking slowly, he looked from Olga to Tony before shaking his head. "We're good. Thanks, though. It's good to have backup."
Tony nodded and looked over at Olga. "Well, as for you, anytime you want a job, just give us a call and let us know. Whichever place you like, we'll squeeze you in. R&D is pretty good that way, and it's usually pretty low key. Unless you work with me, in which case I'm up at all hours of the day and build all kinds of crazy things just to see if I can. Which I usually can," he added as an aside, shrugging.
"You're like your father that way," James said abruptly, startling Tony. "I remember that about him. He built things just to see if he could, and they usually worked. Even if they were incredibly dangerous or about to explode. Sometimes because they would explode."
"Huh," Tony murmured, nonplused. "You knew a different side of him, then."
"Suppose so," he agreed. He looked to Olga. "You don't have to go with me."
"Yes, I do," she said firmly, patting the arm she was still holding on to. "Because they hurt me, and I have hidden myself away for too long. I am through being afraid. I suffered because I thought that it would keep me safer in the long run, but it wasn't true. I suffered. That's all it was, and I will not let it happen to me ever again."
James nodded. "You'll need training."
"I may remember some things. Nina thought I would. And if she and Marcia can do well with physical attacks, then it's likely you can train me, James."
He responded well to her touch and suggestion; Tony filed that away to ponder later. It seemed to be almost unconscious on their parts, and all the brainwashing that Hydra and the Red Room had done likely meant that something had gone down between the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow. Yelena had seemed to imply such a thing. None of Tony's business, however, and he wasn't about to joke about it. Pepper and her sensibilities were definitely rubbing off on him, which was likely not a bad thing.
Thor was as effusive as ever, full of smiles and hugs and the joyful abandon at visiting with his friends again. Sif greeted Pepper warmly, and the Warriors Three hung back slightly to survey Malmo and its environs. They all cheerfully sat in the restaurant Pepper chose for lunch, electing to have half the menu for their celebratory feast.
"What are we celebrating?" Pepper asked, lips quirking into a smile.
"Why, my return to your realm, meeting with such good comrades in arms," Thor replied.
"I'm the one in the suit," Tony pointed out. "I'm Iron Man."
"Yes, Tony," Pepper replied dryly. "But he's recognizing the power behind the suit."
They all had a good laugh, and Thor gaily waved to the stunned onlookers. Pepper had quietly arranged to have Neveah, her husband and their three children arrive for lunch so that they could conveniently be present. The brunette still looked far too much like Natasha Romanoff, being her clone, but dressed in ordinary clothes and with the harried mothering expression on her face, Neveah didn't strike onlookers as a spy. Of course, if Natasha did her job properly, no one would think she was a spy either.
Thor accidentally on purpose knocked over a chair and bumped into them, then as recompense for the "aggrieved insult" to their party, invited them over to share the table with the rest of them. Neveah's husband looked shell shocked, and she at least looked mortified by the attention paid to her. She had previously been worried about any publicity from being publicly seen with Thor, but Tony had some gadgets that blocked wifi and Bluetooth signals, which sharply limited uploading capabilities in the restaurant. Plus, Hogun had entered the restaurant stating that taking any photographs without consent was tantamount to assault. Given the obvious display of weapons on all the Asgardian warriors, no one was willing to go toe to toe with any of them just to take a selfie with them in the background.
"Now," Tony said with a rueful smile, talking to Neveah's husband Benkt as Thor chatted with her about pets, music and the dubious benefits of food toddlers would eat. "She happens to be related to someone I know and care about. That might get dangerous."
"I'm aware of the harm done my wife before we met," he replied stiffly.
Tony blew out a relieved breath. "Awesome. I really don't want to have to talk about that, you know? Now, I'm told she's a housewife, right? So yours is the only job that I'd have to worry about relocating."
He glowered at Tony now. "What are you talking about?"
"You're factory assembly line, right? Well, I've got plenty of those. And you have three little mouths to feed. I'm told kids grow up fast and eat a lot." Tony eyed the four year old, who grinned at Thor and had some kind of sauce smeared across his hands, all around his face, and there was a sticky handprint on the tablecloth. He and Volstagg seemed to be having an eating contest, and that looked like it was about to quickly slide into a burping contest. No wonder Pepper had a hard time convincing Neveah to bring her entire family to a nice restaurant. "The dry cleaning alone would be damn near astronomical, I'm thinking."
Benkt hadn't changed expression. "What are you talking about, Mr. Stark?"
"Oh, I guess we're being all formal now," Tony huffed. Beside him, Pepper laughed at some face the three year old was making at Thor. And of course Thor made it right back. So much for the dignity of the Asgardian royal family.
That didn't seem to make Benkt any less formal, so Tony sighed. "Okay. I didn't look at your financial records yet, but I'm willing to bet that your salary and five mouths to feed is a bit tight on the budget." Benkt didn't acknowledge that in words, but his jaw tightened. "If I double your pay and give more benefits, think you'd want to work for me?"
"Why?"
"If the bad guys that hurt her come back, what are the odds they'll stop with just her?"
If Benkt tightened his jaw any more, his teeth would likely crack. "I know they are not good. But we are good people. Quiet people. We live a good life, and I keep my family safe."
"And you do a good job," Tony said quickly. "It would be easier with a raise, and I don't think any are coming at your factory."
"No. They laid off twenty men last week."
"Come, friend Benkt," Thor said, interrupting to thrust a mug of beer at him. "I toast you and your children. They will make fine warriors someday."
The assembled adults looked at the three boys and the messy place settings at the table. Pepper looked at Thor, eyebrow raised. "Warriors?"
"Fine spirits, good coordination. Not afraid to bathe in the blood of their enemies-"
Neveah had such a horrified look on her face, especially once she realized that her four year old was covered in sauce despite the bib she had put on him.
Benkt sighed and looked at Tony. "I'm a machinist," he said as Neveah got up to try to wipe off the sauce with the large package of baby wipes she had in her oversized purse. Fandral was trying to help her, but he was doing more harm than good in that arena.
"And kids are expensive. Especially if they're going to go to college. Want me to set up some trust funds for them?" Tony added, feeling almost sorry for Benkt.
"If it's no trouble..."
"I'm a billionaire and she's related to a friend of mine. That practically makes you guys family, you realize that? And they're my friends, too," Tony said, nodding at the Asgardians. The three year old was in Thor's lap, tugging on one of his braids as he told the kids about bilgesnipe hunting. "So I guess that makes you part of his adoptive family, too."
Leaning back in his chair, Benkt shook his head. "And I thought children were going to be the most adventurous thing we chose to do."
"Buddy, you married into some kind of weird spy family," Tony replied, giving him a light tap on the shoulder. "Nothing you do is going to be normal."
Pepper chuckled beside him. "Trust us on that one. You're new to this, but we'll be able to catch you up to speed. And besides, your children love Thor. He's very good with them. I'm sure he would agree to babysit so that you and your lovely wife can have some alone time together every now and again."
The hopeful look on Benkt's and Neveah's faces indicated they were on board with Tony and Pepper's plan to relocate to one of their European locations.
***
Natasha, Clint, Steve and Sam sat in a Parisian restaurant for dinner. It was a hole in the wall location, nothing too fancy but with good enough food in large enough portions that would fill even Steve's appetite. "I think we got all of them sorted, more or less," Clint began, reaching for his beer. "So are you going to go back into hiding again?"
She sighed a little. "It wasn't hiding, not really."
"I got the impression you were going to find who you really are," Steve commented. "Because you blew all your covers when you blasted out the information from SHIELD servers."
"And you read it," Natasha murmured, her gut tightened a little. Of course he had. Why else had she put it all out there?
"Naw, I did," Sam said with an easy shrug. "He was being all honorable or some bullshit like that, said it wasn't right. But I figured, you wanted to be known. That everyone in the world would be able to see the horrible shit that different governments put you through, and you still went around saving everyone's asses like they deserved it. Superhero behavior, if you ask me," he added with a smile.
Natasha let out the breath she had been holding. "Oh."
"Please tell me you didn't think we all hated you," Steve said, shocked.
Clint merely sighed at her silence. "You know people really well, and couldn't figure that out? All of us, willing to go to bat for you anytime."
"Even if you don't ask," Sam pointed out. "Especially if you don't."
"I've done many horrible things," Natasha said slowly. "I'm not a good person."
"You are in the way that it counts," Steve said quietly. "We all do what we need to do in order to get by. I don't know why everyone seems determined to look at me like I'm some naïve idiot. I use that to take advantage, maybe, but it's not the truth."
"You?" Sam scoffed. "Take advantage of people? Oh, please. Mr. 'I'm so sorry to intrude on your house and your life and by the way, you're a good shot, right?'"
Steve laughed, and after a moment Natasha joined in with him and Clint. "Yes, but you're a friend, Sam. I don't take advantage of friends. People determined to be shitty are a completely different story."
"I think I'm shocked that Captain America knows how to swear," Clint teased.
"In five languages, thank you very much," Steve said with a laugh.
"Am I the only one here that knows only English?" Clint asked with a playfully aggrieved tone.
"Dude, I was stationed overseas in the middle of a war zone without reliable translators. Of course I learned another language," Sam said, poking him in the arm.
Natasha felt a tightness in her chest ease that she hadn't realized was there. "Thank you," she said abruptly, looking at the three of them intently. "And when I see the others, I'll thank them, too. I didn't think I could ask any of you to do this."
Clint leaned in close and Sam slung an arm around her shoulders to tenderly kiss her cheek. "I say it's leftover programming, Nat," Sam told her. "Because I get the feeling that they did quite a number on you, even after you got away from them."
"I've been making up for that damage for a long time." She gave them a tight, uncomfortable smile. "I know some of what they had me do. There are still large pieces I can't remember. And without the specific chemical compounds and triggers along with their machines, I won't ever be able to remember it."
"Probably not worth it, honestly," Clint said. "I mean, you did burn them all out."
"But it means I won't be able to make it all go away. I can't make it all balance."
"I think you've put things into more than balance," Steve told her earnestly. "You've saved countless lives before I even met you, and since then we can honestly say it's been in the millions, especially with bringing down Hydra and Project Insight. How can you say you can't make it balance?"
She blew out a breath. Leaning against Sam, she held Clint's hand tightly and gave Steve a small, sad smile. "Because I can't afford to fall back into what they turned me into. I told you, I thought I was going straight. But working for Hydra..."
"We don't know which cases were which," Clint pointed out. "But even so, not everything Hydra did was to torture innocent people. Definitely self-serving and underhanded, but even the bad guys sometimes do a good turn. Think of it this way. When we go undercover someplace pretty bad, like that time you went in with that street gang, you do some really questionable shit to maintain your cover. So if their cover is a SHIELD agent, sometimes they have to do some really good things along the way. You'll go insane if you try to figure out which case was which, even if you comb through the public archive."
"Which I have, by the way," Sam interrupted. "And I know you probably memorized it all."
"But I can't know," Natasha said quietly.
"Some things you can't go by facts," Steve told her. "Sometimes you have to go with your gut instinct. By now, I can say I know this much about you: you never willingly endanger others, and you work tirelessly to fix the mistakes others make. So tell me again why we shouldn't help you? Tell me again why you aren't worthy of our friendship?"
The words sank in and burned in her chest. She blinked back tears she didn't want to shed.
"Hey," Sam murmured, giving her shoulders a squeeze. "It's okay. He gets all intense and touchy feely like that with the rest of us, too." He grinned at her sniffle. "Steve's not going to be friends with losers, you know."
"That's one thing I never thought I was," Natasha huffed. "The Widow always wins."
"Good girl," Sam said with a smile as Clint pushed her drink closer to her.
"You still haven't answered my question, by the way," he said casually. "Going into hiding again? Or maybe you'll hang out with us?"
"Be an Avenger?"
"Fyed would hire you in a heartbeat," Clint told her.
"Or you could travel the world with us and smoke out some bad guys," Sam said with a grin.
"Fyed's got a side project for that, too," Clint informed them. "I could put in a word. It'll be good to have a paycheck and resources to fund that quest you're on. Explosives and ammo cost a lot, especially if you have to smuggle them into controlled zones."
"You've got that right," Steve groused. "Banking on my fame doesn't work very long."
Natasha snorted. "I'll bet they love your pretty face."
Steve grinned at her playfully. "Might as well make use of it, right?"
"Seriously, though," Clint said, grasping her hand tightly. Her eyes traveled from their linked fingers to his eyes. "You're not as alone as you think. And you're gonna be okay."
"Sure about that?" she asked, a slight rasp to her voice.
"Absolutely."
When Clint used that serious tone of voice, she could even believe it.
***
When planning the wedding, the general consensus amongst all of the clones was that they wanted to visit Spain. Yelena and Nina might have visited a lot of places in Madrid, but the rest of the ladies were unfamiliar with it and a wedding was a fabulous excuse to travel. Even Alia with her newborn preferred to go to Madrid, even when they were willing to travel to New Orleans. "But I've never been there!" Nina pouted.
Yelena patted her arm and pulled out swatches of fabrics for the catering hall they were renting. "It'll be better to go during Mardi Gras or Halloween rather than in the sweltering heat. How about this one for the seat covers?"
The hall itself was beautiful, a classic Renaissance building that only held one event at a time. Yelena walked down one side of the seating area for the wedding while Nina walked down the other side, giving themselves away, and they met in the middle to clasp hands and say their vows, giving each other their lives and futures. It was a short and meaningful ceremony, surrounded by all of Nina's "sisters," their families, the Avengers and a number of coworkers that could be trusted not to give it all away. Even the clones that hadn't been aware of that fact were now in on it, and were far more understanding of the paranoia that knowledgeable clones had had.
Natasha arrived for the wedding along with Clint and Izzy; it had made sense to accept Fyed's job offer to have some kind of financial backing. Plus, there was Clint to work with in New York, and she liked Izzy as soon as she met her. The woman was whip smart and sarcastic, and wasn't afraid of Natasha's past as an assassin for hire. "So... Any good contacts left that we can exploit?" had been the first words out of her mouth, as a matter of fact.
Natasha's clones didn't seem uncomfortable with the idea that Natasha was the original one; at least, no one said so. It took a while for her to wrap her brain around it, but she acclimated to the idea of having sisters. It was nice to have some kind of family now, though it clashed directly with her early programming to work alone and not rely on others. She was learning to deal with that, and to realize that she could lean on a select number of friends to help her and her sisters.
Sisters. If she put aside her irrational fears, the thought made her almost giddy. She had a family. She could actually belong.
She danced with the Avengers, with her brothers-in-law, with her sisters-in-law. She chatted with James and Olga, who decided that the Ukraine made a great base of operations to hunt Hydra agents from. It also allowed them to keep an eye on the area as well, acting as additional backup.
"You look happy," Clint commented, handing her a glass of champagne. He gave her a dramatic pause when she took the glass with a smile. "Is that a genuine smile, Natasha? I'm shocked."
Bumping his arm playfully with hers, Natasha grinned. "Stop. You're not as funny as you think."
"Of course I am." He clinked glasses with her, giving her a wide smile. "You love me and my sense of humor."
Natasha only laughed and drank her champagne. She laughed harder when Clint began to whine "C'mon, Natasha! Say something!"
"Let's not leave Izzy out of the fun, hm?" she said, dropping her empty glass on a side table. She took Clint's glass, still half full, and dropped it on the table as well. "We've ignored her long enough, haven't we?"
Clint heaved a dramatic sigh but let her drag him along. "Think they'll be okay? Your sisters, I mean."
Looking across the dance floor, she saw her face mirrored back at her, all grinning and happy. There were only so many ways they could protect her sisters, and they all understood how public her role in the Avengers would be. It would be dangerous, of course, especially if the Avengers came together and photos or video leaked to the media contained her face in them. But they had all agreed over the past few months to stay in contact and stay safe. They refused to live their lives in fear of shadow organizations.
Which meant Natasha wouldn't, either.
"Yeah, I think they will be. I think we all will."
The End
Author: Eustacia Vye
Author's e-mail: eustacia_vye28@hotmail.com
Rating: R
Pairing: Gen (pairings mentioned and present, but not really a focus in the story)
Disclaimer: Not mine! Some comic backstory is incorporated into characterizations, but this is still primarily movieverse.
Spoilers/Warnings: Takes place after "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." The story was plotted and I started writing it before the second season of "Agents of SHIELD" began. I am jossed so hard by the MCU, but hey! Fic! :)
This is the fault of phoenixrising06/
romanovasledger and
futurerustfuture-dust during all of our characterization discussions, their watching Orphan Black and our headcanons for the Red Room. Also loosely inspired by this gifset, though I don't follow that plot at all. There is going to be violence, implied violence, and all sorts of fucked up stuff that is mentioned as part of the Red Room shenanigans.
Summary: A young woman is brutally murdered by the Vory in Saskatchewan. This is tragic enough, but she also wears Natasha Romanoff's face. And she's not the only one.
Prior chapters:
One - Twinning
Two - Collecting
Three - Sliding
Four - Meetings
Five - Confronting
Six - Finalizing
Those following meteorology or tracking tremors recorded a massive spike in energies near Malmo, Sweden. This coincided with the arrival of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts in Copenhagen, ostensibly because Pepper wanted to see the ballet there and Tony was meeting with a small research facility to broker a licensing agreement. If a certain tall blond warrior from another dimension and his friends decided to arrive, hey, more drinking buddies, right?
Tony had been suitably impressed with Olga's engineering skill, and told her he would have hired her even if she wasn't Natasha's blonde clone that needed protecting. He studiously had avoided the brooding soldier next to her, and discussed plans he had for expanding the research division of Stark Industries to look into clean energy. It hadn't been part of Olga's training or implanted skill sets, but the actual physical design could fall under her expertise. "There's definitely New Orleans," Tony mentioned, tapping on his StarkPad. "But I suppose I should look into some kind of central location in Europe. We can get around EU standards, I think. Pepper will know about that kind of thing, and she's CEO anyway."
"Why do you do this?" Olga had asked, frowning at him.
"Natasha's a friend. Kind of. A teammate, I guess you could say. She's hard to get to know and make friends with, the whole spy thing, I suppose. It makes sense now." He shrugged. "And it's not like it would hurt my company. We already have the Berlin location, but that wouldn't help all of you hide or get protection. I have a feeling Marcia can protect herself, but she can always look us up if she can't."
"If you pick a location in Paris, that would make sense," Olga told him. "That would take care of protecting Thérèse, of course. But it could possibly also cover Constance and Nadine," she said.
"Thor and his buddies are going to visit Neveah," Tony said, frowning at the map. "But then that leaves your sister Natalia in the Ukraine. I have no excuse to be there."
"I do," James replied in a dour tone.
The two of them looked at him, but he didn't elaborate. "What is it?" Olga asked, brows knit in curiosity. She even reached out to touch his arm to get his attention. While Tony was concerned, thinking that the soldier would strike her, he didn't.
"I sent Steve and Sam ahead to check while I came here with you," he said. His speech was largely brusque and to the point, a holdover from the Hydra programming days. "But I remember a base near there. Where they had a chair."
"Reprogramming," Olga said, mouth parting slightly. "They give you things or take them away."
James nodded, looking almost miserable though his face was still mostly blank. It was the eyes, really. Tony could see the tightening around his eyes, the tension in his shoulders. He had seen the same thing in the mirror after Afghanistan.
"And you don't want to see it, but it needs to get gone," Tony said, nodding. "Want more help?" he offered. It was a spur of the moment thing, but he had an Iron Man suit in his quinjet, so it really shouldn't have been an issue.
"You have to meet your friends in Malmo."
"I can fly there pretty quick."
Blinking slowly, he looked from Olga to Tony before shaking his head. "We're good. Thanks, though. It's good to have backup."
Tony nodded and looked over at Olga. "Well, as for you, anytime you want a job, just give us a call and let us know. Whichever place you like, we'll squeeze you in. R&D is pretty good that way, and it's usually pretty low key. Unless you work with me, in which case I'm up at all hours of the day and build all kinds of crazy things just to see if I can. Which I usually can," he added as an aside, shrugging.
"You're like your father that way," James said abruptly, startling Tony. "I remember that about him. He built things just to see if he could, and they usually worked. Even if they were incredibly dangerous or about to explode. Sometimes because they would explode."
"Huh," Tony murmured, nonplused. "You knew a different side of him, then."
"Suppose so," he agreed. He looked to Olga. "You don't have to go with me."
"Yes, I do," she said firmly, patting the arm she was still holding on to. "Because they hurt me, and I have hidden myself away for too long. I am through being afraid. I suffered because I thought that it would keep me safer in the long run, but it wasn't true. I suffered. That's all it was, and I will not let it happen to me ever again."
James nodded. "You'll need training."
"I may remember some things. Nina thought I would. And if she and Marcia can do well with physical attacks, then it's likely you can train me, James."
He responded well to her touch and suggestion; Tony filed that away to ponder later. It seemed to be almost unconscious on their parts, and all the brainwashing that Hydra and the Red Room had done likely meant that something had gone down between the Winter Soldier and the Black Widow. Yelena had seemed to imply such a thing. None of Tony's business, however, and he wasn't about to joke about it. Pepper and her sensibilities were definitely rubbing off on him, which was likely not a bad thing.
Thor was as effusive as ever, full of smiles and hugs and the joyful abandon at visiting with his friends again. Sif greeted Pepper warmly, and the Warriors Three hung back slightly to survey Malmo and its environs. They all cheerfully sat in the restaurant Pepper chose for lunch, electing to have half the menu for their celebratory feast.
"What are we celebrating?" Pepper asked, lips quirking into a smile.
"Why, my return to your realm, meeting with such good comrades in arms," Thor replied.
"I'm the one in the suit," Tony pointed out. "I'm Iron Man."
"Yes, Tony," Pepper replied dryly. "But he's recognizing the power behind the suit."
They all had a good laugh, and Thor gaily waved to the stunned onlookers. Pepper had quietly arranged to have Neveah, her husband and their three children arrive for lunch so that they could conveniently be present. The brunette still looked far too much like Natasha Romanoff, being her clone, but dressed in ordinary clothes and with the harried mothering expression on her face, Neveah didn't strike onlookers as a spy. Of course, if Natasha did her job properly, no one would think she was a spy either.
Thor accidentally on purpose knocked over a chair and bumped into them, then as recompense for the "aggrieved insult" to their party, invited them over to share the table with the rest of them. Neveah's husband looked shell shocked, and she at least looked mortified by the attention paid to her. She had previously been worried about any publicity from being publicly seen with Thor, but Tony had some gadgets that blocked wifi and Bluetooth signals, which sharply limited uploading capabilities in the restaurant. Plus, Hogun had entered the restaurant stating that taking any photographs without consent was tantamount to assault. Given the obvious display of weapons on all the Asgardian warriors, no one was willing to go toe to toe with any of them just to take a selfie with them in the background.
"Now," Tony said with a rueful smile, talking to Neveah's husband Benkt as Thor chatted with her about pets, music and the dubious benefits of food toddlers would eat. "She happens to be related to someone I know and care about. That might get dangerous."
"I'm aware of the harm done my wife before we met," he replied stiffly.
Tony blew out a relieved breath. "Awesome. I really don't want to have to talk about that, you know? Now, I'm told she's a housewife, right? So yours is the only job that I'd have to worry about relocating."
He glowered at Tony now. "What are you talking about?"
"You're factory assembly line, right? Well, I've got plenty of those. And you have three little mouths to feed. I'm told kids grow up fast and eat a lot." Tony eyed the four year old, who grinned at Thor and had some kind of sauce smeared across his hands, all around his face, and there was a sticky handprint on the tablecloth. He and Volstagg seemed to be having an eating contest, and that looked like it was about to quickly slide into a burping contest. No wonder Pepper had a hard time convincing Neveah to bring her entire family to a nice restaurant. "The dry cleaning alone would be damn near astronomical, I'm thinking."
Benkt hadn't changed expression. "What are you talking about, Mr. Stark?"
"Oh, I guess we're being all formal now," Tony huffed. Beside him, Pepper laughed at some face the three year old was making at Thor. And of course Thor made it right back. So much for the dignity of the Asgardian royal family.
That didn't seem to make Benkt any less formal, so Tony sighed. "Okay. I didn't look at your financial records yet, but I'm willing to bet that your salary and five mouths to feed is a bit tight on the budget." Benkt didn't acknowledge that in words, but his jaw tightened. "If I double your pay and give more benefits, think you'd want to work for me?"
"Why?"
"If the bad guys that hurt her come back, what are the odds they'll stop with just her?"
If Benkt tightened his jaw any more, his teeth would likely crack. "I know they are not good. But we are good people. Quiet people. We live a good life, and I keep my family safe."
"And you do a good job," Tony said quickly. "It would be easier with a raise, and I don't think any are coming at your factory."
"No. They laid off twenty men last week."
"Come, friend Benkt," Thor said, interrupting to thrust a mug of beer at him. "I toast you and your children. They will make fine warriors someday."
The assembled adults looked at the three boys and the messy place settings at the table. Pepper looked at Thor, eyebrow raised. "Warriors?"
"Fine spirits, good coordination. Not afraid to bathe in the blood of their enemies-"
Neveah had such a horrified look on her face, especially once she realized that her four year old was covered in sauce despite the bib she had put on him.
Benkt sighed and looked at Tony. "I'm a machinist," he said as Neveah got up to try to wipe off the sauce with the large package of baby wipes she had in her oversized purse. Fandral was trying to help her, but he was doing more harm than good in that arena.
"And kids are expensive. Especially if they're going to go to college. Want me to set up some trust funds for them?" Tony added, feeling almost sorry for Benkt.
"If it's no trouble..."
"I'm a billionaire and she's related to a friend of mine. That practically makes you guys family, you realize that? And they're my friends, too," Tony said, nodding at the Asgardians. The three year old was in Thor's lap, tugging on one of his braids as he told the kids about bilgesnipe hunting. "So I guess that makes you part of his adoptive family, too."
Leaning back in his chair, Benkt shook his head. "And I thought children were going to be the most adventurous thing we chose to do."
"Buddy, you married into some kind of weird spy family," Tony replied, giving him a light tap on the shoulder. "Nothing you do is going to be normal."
Pepper chuckled beside him. "Trust us on that one. You're new to this, but we'll be able to catch you up to speed. And besides, your children love Thor. He's very good with them. I'm sure he would agree to babysit so that you and your lovely wife can have some alone time together every now and again."
The hopeful look on Benkt's and Neveah's faces indicated they were on board with Tony and Pepper's plan to relocate to one of their European locations.
***
Natasha, Clint, Steve and Sam sat in a Parisian restaurant for dinner. It was a hole in the wall location, nothing too fancy but with good enough food in large enough portions that would fill even Steve's appetite. "I think we got all of them sorted, more or less," Clint began, reaching for his beer. "So are you going to go back into hiding again?"
She sighed a little. "It wasn't hiding, not really."
"I got the impression you were going to find who you really are," Steve commented. "Because you blew all your covers when you blasted out the information from SHIELD servers."
"And you read it," Natasha murmured, her gut tightened a little. Of course he had. Why else had she put it all out there?
"Naw, I did," Sam said with an easy shrug. "He was being all honorable or some bullshit like that, said it wasn't right. But I figured, you wanted to be known. That everyone in the world would be able to see the horrible shit that different governments put you through, and you still went around saving everyone's asses like they deserved it. Superhero behavior, if you ask me," he added with a smile.
Natasha let out the breath she had been holding. "Oh."
"Please tell me you didn't think we all hated you," Steve said, shocked.
Clint merely sighed at her silence. "You know people really well, and couldn't figure that out? All of us, willing to go to bat for you anytime."
"Even if you don't ask," Sam pointed out. "Especially if you don't."
"I've done many horrible things," Natasha said slowly. "I'm not a good person."
"You are in the way that it counts," Steve said quietly. "We all do what we need to do in order to get by. I don't know why everyone seems determined to look at me like I'm some naïve idiot. I use that to take advantage, maybe, but it's not the truth."
"You?" Sam scoffed. "Take advantage of people? Oh, please. Mr. 'I'm so sorry to intrude on your house and your life and by the way, you're a good shot, right?'"
Steve laughed, and after a moment Natasha joined in with him and Clint. "Yes, but you're a friend, Sam. I don't take advantage of friends. People determined to be shitty are a completely different story."
"I think I'm shocked that Captain America knows how to swear," Clint teased.
"In five languages, thank you very much," Steve said with a laugh.
"Am I the only one here that knows only English?" Clint asked with a playfully aggrieved tone.
"Dude, I was stationed overseas in the middle of a war zone without reliable translators. Of course I learned another language," Sam said, poking him in the arm.
Natasha felt a tightness in her chest ease that she hadn't realized was there. "Thank you," she said abruptly, looking at the three of them intently. "And when I see the others, I'll thank them, too. I didn't think I could ask any of you to do this."
Clint leaned in close and Sam slung an arm around her shoulders to tenderly kiss her cheek. "I say it's leftover programming, Nat," Sam told her. "Because I get the feeling that they did quite a number on you, even after you got away from them."
"I've been making up for that damage for a long time." She gave them a tight, uncomfortable smile. "I know some of what they had me do. There are still large pieces I can't remember. And without the specific chemical compounds and triggers along with their machines, I won't ever be able to remember it."
"Probably not worth it, honestly," Clint said. "I mean, you did burn them all out."
"But it means I won't be able to make it all go away. I can't make it all balance."
"I think you've put things into more than balance," Steve told her earnestly. "You've saved countless lives before I even met you, and since then we can honestly say it's been in the millions, especially with bringing down Hydra and Project Insight. How can you say you can't make it balance?"
She blew out a breath. Leaning against Sam, she held Clint's hand tightly and gave Steve a small, sad smile. "Because I can't afford to fall back into what they turned me into. I told you, I thought I was going straight. But working for Hydra..."
"We don't know which cases were which," Clint pointed out. "But even so, not everything Hydra did was to torture innocent people. Definitely self-serving and underhanded, but even the bad guys sometimes do a good turn. Think of it this way. When we go undercover someplace pretty bad, like that time you went in with that street gang, you do some really questionable shit to maintain your cover. So if their cover is a SHIELD agent, sometimes they have to do some really good things along the way. You'll go insane if you try to figure out which case was which, even if you comb through the public archive."
"Which I have, by the way," Sam interrupted. "And I know you probably memorized it all."
"But I can't know," Natasha said quietly.
"Some things you can't go by facts," Steve told her. "Sometimes you have to go with your gut instinct. By now, I can say I know this much about you: you never willingly endanger others, and you work tirelessly to fix the mistakes others make. So tell me again why we shouldn't help you? Tell me again why you aren't worthy of our friendship?"
The words sank in and burned in her chest. She blinked back tears she didn't want to shed.
"Hey," Sam murmured, giving her shoulders a squeeze. "It's okay. He gets all intense and touchy feely like that with the rest of us, too." He grinned at her sniffle. "Steve's not going to be friends with losers, you know."
"That's one thing I never thought I was," Natasha huffed. "The Widow always wins."
"Good girl," Sam said with a smile as Clint pushed her drink closer to her.
"You still haven't answered my question, by the way," he said casually. "Going into hiding again? Or maybe you'll hang out with us?"
"Be an Avenger?"
"Fyed would hire you in a heartbeat," Clint told her.
"Or you could travel the world with us and smoke out some bad guys," Sam said with a grin.
"Fyed's got a side project for that, too," Clint informed them. "I could put in a word. It'll be good to have a paycheck and resources to fund that quest you're on. Explosives and ammo cost a lot, especially if you have to smuggle them into controlled zones."
"You've got that right," Steve groused. "Banking on my fame doesn't work very long."
Natasha snorted. "I'll bet they love your pretty face."
Steve grinned at her playfully. "Might as well make use of it, right?"
"Seriously, though," Clint said, grasping her hand tightly. Her eyes traveled from their linked fingers to his eyes. "You're not as alone as you think. And you're gonna be okay."
"Sure about that?" she asked, a slight rasp to her voice.
"Absolutely."
When Clint used that serious tone of voice, she could even believe it.
***
When planning the wedding, the general consensus amongst all of the clones was that they wanted to visit Spain. Yelena and Nina might have visited a lot of places in Madrid, but the rest of the ladies were unfamiliar with it and a wedding was a fabulous excuse to travel. Even Alia with her newborn preferred to go to Madrid, even when they were willing to travel to New Orleans. "But I've never been there!" Nina pouted.
Yelena patted her arm and pulled out swatches of fabrics for the catering hall they were renting. "It'll be better to go during Mardi Gras or Halloween rather than in the sweltering heat. How about this one for the seat covers?"
The hall itself was beautiful, a classic Renaissance building that only held one event at a time. Yelena walked down one side of the seating area for the wedding while Nina walked down the other side, giving themselves away, and they met in the middle to clasp hands and say their vows, giving each other their lives and futures. It was a short and meaningful ceremony, surrounded by all of Nina's "sisters," their families, the Avengers and a number of coworkers that could be trusted not to give it all away. Even the clones that hadn't been aware of that fact were now in on it, and were far more understanding of the paranoia that knowledgeable clones had had.
Natasha arrived for the wedding along with Clint and Izzy; it had made sense to accept Fyed's job offer to have some kind of financial backing. Plus, there was Clint to work with in New York, and she liked Izzy as soon as she met her. The woman was whip smart and sarcastic, and wasn't afraid of Natasha's past as an assassin for hire. "So... Any good contacts left that we can exploit?" had been the first words out of her mouth, as a matter of fact.
Natasha's clones didn't seem uncomfortable with the idea that Natasha was the original one; at least, no one said so. It took a while for her to wrap her brain around it, but she acclimated to the idea of having sisters. It was nice to have some kind of family now, though it clashed directly with her early programming to work alone and not rely on others. She was learning to deal with that, and to realize that she could lean on a select number of friends to help her and her sisters.
Sisters. If she put aside her irrational fears, the thought made her almost giddy. She had a family. She could actually belong.
She danced with the Avengers, with her brothers-in-law, with her sisters-in-law. She chatted with James and Olga, who decided that the Ukraine made a great base of operations to hunt Hydra agents from. It also allowed them to keep an eye on the area as well, acting as additional backup.
"You look happy," Clint commented, handing her a glass of champagne. He gave her a dramatic pause when she took the glass with a smile. "Is that a genuine smile, Natasha? I'm shocked."
Bumping his arm playfully with hers, Natasha grinned. "Stop. You're not as funny as you think."
"Of course I am." He clinked glasses with her, giving her a wide smile. "You love me and my sense of humor."
Natasha only laughed and drank her champagne. She laughed harder when Clint began to whine "C'mon, Natasha! Say something!"
"Let's not leave Izzy out of the fun, hm?" she said, dropping her empty glass on a side table. She took Clint's glass, still half full, and dropped it on the table as well. "We've ignored her long enough, haven't we?"
Clint heaved a dramatic sigh but let her drag him along. "Think they'll be okay? Your sisters, I mean."
Looking across the dance floor, she saw her face mirrored back at her, all grinning and happy. There were only so many ways they could protect her sisters, and they all understood how public her role in the Avengers would be. It would be dangerous, of course, especially if the Avengers came together and photos or video leaked to the media contained her face in them. But they had all agreed over the past few months to stay in contact and stay safe. They refused to live their lives in fear of shadow organizations.
Which meant Natasha wouldn't, either.
"Yeah, I think they will be. I think we all will."
The End