Thanks for all the follows guys! It really means a lot to me. So this chapter is shorter as I said in the last chapter but I hope you enjoy it all the same.
"Sir, the men have attempted to access the room however all our entry codes have been overridden." Maria Hill reported to Fury who was still watching the screen in front of him. He felt an unusual sensation, confusion. How was Tony Stark, the selfish man he had met a few years ago, able to connect so well with an emotionally damaged child?
"Tell the men to be prepared for him when he leaves but do not interrupt." He answered to the surprise of Bruce and Maria. Natasha however smiled.
Maria stuttered, "Sir, are, are you sure?"
"Lets just see how this turns out."
Tony smiled, "nice to meet you Ebony. I must say thank you for what you did for me. You saved my life." He felt all of his usual cockiness ebb out of his voice. He knew he must be very patient with her after all she had been through.
Ebony shifted uncomfortably, "You needed help."
"And thank you for giving me that help. I wouldn't be sitting here otherwise." He replied.
Ebony gave him an unusual stare, "Why are you being nice to me?"
Tony studied the girl; she looked very confused, "Why shouldn't I be nice to you?"
She dropped her head; "No one has been nice to me for a long time."
"Really? What about your family?"
Her voice was barely audible; "I haven't had them for a long time either."
Tony felt his heart begin to ache; he too knew the feeling of loosing parents, "I'm sorry." He could see her wiping away her tears.
"Not your fault," she mumbled.
Desperate to change the subject, Tony asked the first thing that came into his head, "So where do you live?"
"Doesn't matter."
He realised he had ruined his chance; he had brought back some painful memories for the both of them and knew this conversation couldn't be salvaged. "I'm sorry, Ebony but I should be going." Tony apologised, standing up and making his way to the door JARVIS had secured for him.
"I once lived on a small farm," he turned, surprised by the quiet outburst of speech, "I lived there with my family. We had a hidden garden amongst the trees by the house, my sister and I used to climb the trees together every evening so we could see the sunset. We helped our dad tend to the animals, we had pigs and sheep and even horses." Tony had sat back down by the glass and was listening intently, "Every winter, we would go sledging down the hill next to the fields when it was snowing," Ebony suddenly let out a sad laugh, "We would get to the bottom of the hill and because we were going so fast we would have to jump off. Then, when we were cold and tired, we would go back to the house where we would sit in front of the fire with mugs of hot chocolate. We would go horse riding in the summer and collecting conkers in autumn. " She stopped. Her head was still facing the floor and delicate tears splashed gently against her still hands.
She continued her story but her voice had changed to a pained whisper, "I was eleven and was walking home from school when…" she swallowed a lump in her throat, "when I saw the ambulance rush past me. I didn't think anything of it really; I just hoped that wherever it was headed, the people were okay. And then I got home and saw the fire." The tears fell freely now. "I didn't even scream. I couldn't. All I could do was watch. I couldn't even see the house from all the smoke. After that, all I can remember was standing, watching." She leaned back against the glass and let her tear stained face bathe in the yellow light, "I didn't even get to say goodbye."
At this point, Tony was speechless. His heart was thumping slightly faster than before and his mind was full of painful thoughts he had hidden away for many years.
"I remember walking through the garden a few weeks after. All the trees had been burned and the leaves had turned to ash. They never did understand how the fire started. I left for London the next day."
The conversation had thrown the room into silence. Natasha was sitting with her back against the wall, chewing at her fingernails, Bruce stood next to Fury, unmoving but clearly disturbed and Maria had dropped the professional look she had sustained up until this point. Only Fury remained looking as intimidating as he usually did.
After the moment had passed and the silence had became an awkward one, Natasha spoke, "It still doesn't explain how she gained her 'powers'."
"No, but it does show that she is regaining trust in the people around her." Bruce interjected.
"Not necessarily Banner," Fury said sternly (he had not been affected by this scene in the slightest.)
"It is possible she felt she needed to get it out. I remember when I was her age and I would just pore out all my worries to the first person I met," Maria explained.
"Sill, our mission is to discover her powers, not learn her life story." Romanov said, not comfortable with the situation-she really didn't understand children.
"What life story?" Steve asked as he walked in through the automatic door with a towel lying around his neck and a sweaty brow, "By the way Nick, you may need some new weights for the dumbbells. Thor 'the mighty' decided to bend them all at once to prove how strong he was but once he realised it was midguardian metal, they were already snapped."
"Never mind that Steve."
"What's wrong?" He asked.
Bruce pointed at the panel.
Tony didn't know how to react. He was used to these painful memories and was able to push them all to the back of his mind where they had been stored for years. He had his work to take his mind off of any thought that bothered him, and he was Tony Stark, working was pretty much all he did. Ebony, however was not able to hide these feelings, she had nothing to keep these feelings suppressed, she couldn't work to keep them at bay and keeping her trapped in this tank was not helping.
"Listen to me, I know what you are feeling, I know how awful it is to loose someone so close to you but you have to stay strong." Ebony had stopped crying and was watching Tony through blurred eyes, "You have potential. You're brave, great and powerful."
The girl stopped and snapped her head up to face him, her tears were now those of anger and she looked betrayed. "These 'powers' are not 'great'. They are horrid. They have taken everything from me! They are not a blessing as many people have told me! They are a curse!"
"You know, I have a friend that said exactly the same thing to me once." Tony replied, standing up and leaning against the railings to his right. "He is one of the smartest and most modest people you will ever meet. There are millions of brilliant words to describe him. But you see he has this other side to him, that is also brilliant but in a different way. Just like you, he detests his powers, thinking they do more bad than good. But he's wrong."
Ebony stared at him with intrest before dropping her head, "I'm sorry. I just don't like talking about it."
"Well, I don't talk about most things unless I have too." He sighed.
"I haven't spoken to many people in the last three years."
"Well, I wish I could say the same. Most of the people I talk to bore the crap out of me," Tony grunted.
"Who do you usually talk to?" She replied.
"A man who still doesn't know how to turn on the TV. Isn't that right Steve?" He shouted to the camera.
And for the first time in three years, Ebony smiled.
Sorry for the sad story; I can't write emotional pieces. Please review!
