The Mystery of Mischief

Chapter Three: Truth and Trust

Erik Selvig stared at the glowing mass that was the Tesseract—its proper name, maybe; it had yet to tell him what it preferred to be called—with half a heart and a full mind. He had been working with the Cube for the longest time, but now he was beginning to truly understand it, his thoughts opened up by the majesty that was the glowing mass.

Still, there was another voice in the back of his mind, a layer underneath the voice that spoke cordially to him, coaxing. Where did the other voice come from, and what did it want? Did he have room enough in his mind for so many things?

Perhaps he did, since his heart had been emptied out.

It was a useless thing anyway, wasn't it?

Well, not useless, but…easily broken.

"Easily broken things must be treated with care. That is why we hide them from the world." One voice—the loudest voice, the tempting one—said, echoing throughout his thoughts. When Erik heard the voice he felt a warm swelling in his chest, around his heart, where the tip of Loki's staff had touched.

"But if we continue to hide, we will only bring more pain to the universe, when we were meant to give it light." The second voice was a bit less faint than before, a bit more insistent though it didn't argue, merely stated its point. Erik could have sworn he saw the Cube in front of him glimmer when it spoke, though the glimmer was so quick, like a rabbit moving through the bushes, he was half convinced he had seen nothing at all.

Erik's lips moved, as if to comment on the debate, but he found he had nothing to say.

Had he always had nothing to say? Had he always felt this empty—empty and full, too stuffed to the brim with new information, with a wider view of the universe…though he could scarcely remember what his own world looked like, what majesty was in it.

His gaze was fixed up, beyond, as it always had been, but—

Was there something he had left behind? Something on the ground, where he could no longer fix his thoughts?

"We are running out of time. Soon, we will fade away." The warm, insistent voice spoke, another bought of heat traveling through Erik's chest.

"Yes, but our power will live on." The Cube shimmered again, its cool voice soft, reassuring. "I have faith in them."

Faith.

In who?

Faith—Erik remembered the word, what it meant, but had nothing to connect it to. Who did Erik have faith in? Was there anyone? Was there someone he trusted with his life, with his work, with his—

Heart.

Yes, there was someone.

And suddenly he remembered, felt an ache in his chest that did not come from the heat, from the warm voice and its saddening thoughts. Suddenly, he remembered everything the power that had surged through him tried to take away, to replace with nothing more than a mission, a need to reach for the vastness of space above him, to get the Tesseract working to connect Earth to the rest of the universe.

"Austin…" Erik said, the name tumbling from his lips as a tear ran down his cheek, unbidden.

He had wanted to protect his daughter—he still wanted to protect her. He still believed in her, trusted in her. But what would happen once she found out Loki was not dead, and…if the opposite happened, as well?

Erik could not ignore the directive that had been placed in his head: to create a machine to bring forth the Cube's power. Even as he thought of disobeying, of changing his mind, a sharp pain erupted through his very being. He crumbled, landing on his knees, sucking in breath through his teeth as he tried to situate the world, to bring it back into focus.

"My power has been used for an evil purpose. Not even I can reverse this." The warm, disembodied voice said. To Erik's surprise, when the heat traveled through his chest this time, it was soothing, as if the voice were reaching out, trying to take away some of his pain. "But, there may be a way to rewrite the orders that have been given, to change what will happen."

"You can be our ally, Erik Selvig. For Austin." The cool voice commented, and this time Erik was sure—the Tesseract glinted, catching his attention from where he sat upon the ground, upon his knees.

The pain had subsided, and with its retreat resolve was beginning to develop.

"For Austin." Erik repeated, nodding though it probably wasn't necessary. He still gripped at his chest, feeling his heart beat beneath his fingers.

Austin's heart was beating, too. She was still alive, still a part of this universe. He could still help her, still try to protect her as best he could. He was still her father, still a part of her life, even if he had failure stacked up against him in his past.

If he could stop what was bound to happen—change it a little bit, at least—it would give Austin a chance to live, to continue to exist in this world. He may have been a failure of a father, but now he had the chance to change that…or at least try and make up for it.

Austin had said she still loved him—

And he wanted to be a man deserving of that love. He didn't care what it took.

Still, Loki…

"What about Loki?" Erik rasped, speaking to both of the voices, a snake of fear slithering through his veins.

Loki wasn't stupid by any means, though Erik had spent a good deal more time than was probably healthy wishing that he was. He would discover Erik and Tony's ruse eventually, even if Austin didn't choose to step into the chaos of the war the Trickster was intent on bringing to Earth.

Erik's lips twitched into a smile at the thought of his daughter simply sitting back while the world was destroyed, while the person she had come to love did the destroying. Why had he ever thought his ruse would work?

He hadn't, if he were honest with himself. But that was the thing about desperation: it tried to find a way to fix things, to make things the way it wanted them to be, even if it knew that "fixing" was impossible in the end. Erik and Stark had done what they'd done because they had felt the need to do something, regardless of whether or not it was effective in the end; doing something had seemed better than doing nothing, than failing to try and make things better in the first place. They both cared too much about Austin to simply leave her to fate.

But what about now? What could Erik—should Erik—do now that the ruse was in danger of being broken…now that it would be broken eventually.

If Erik knew his daughter even the smallest bit, he knew that she would never sit back and watch the things she loved—including Loki—be destroyed, not without a fight.

"Loki will ask you for the truth." The warm voice said, speaking to Erik's fear. "And you must give it to him."

"Give him the truth? Why?" Erik gasped, paled, felt his chest tighten again.

It was truthfully the answer he had been expecting to hear (or some flavor of it), but it was painful to swallow just the same.

"You must give him the truth, because that is what leads to actual change."

Actual change?

Yes, that was right, wasn't it? Painful as it was, annoying as it seemed, lies didn't seem to do anything but create more chaos, more facades to hide behind. Erik had lived a life of lies for many years now—lies about his intentions, about what mattered most to him, about his time and how much he had to spend with people—and it had lead his wife to divorce him, his daughter to nearly become a stranger. Lies had put Austin in danger, rather than protected her from it.

But wouldn't the truth put her in danger now?

"You can't demand that I get on a plane every time you want to go somewhere, Tony." Austin said, crossing her arms as she sank down onto the plush couch, offering her best friend, who was drinking a cup of coffee, an annoyed grimace.

"She's right, you know. You interrupted our girls night." Pepper said, taking up a seat beside Austin, crossing her legs as she crossed her arms, not appearing nearly as annoyed as Austin herself was—more unsurprised, but with a sternly perked brow that clearly told Tony he was in for it.

Tony shook his head, took a sip of coffee before gesturing wildly with the cup, almost spilling its contents. "Ganging up on me, really? And after I was nice enough to fly you to New York? I was kind of excited, you know. Stark Tower is now up and running. Yay!" He looked from one female to the next, neither of their expressions changing. "Yay? Anyone? Am I the only one who cares about this?"

"Of course not, Tony. But you could have given us some warning. The plane waiting once I arrived home—not to mention the already packed suitcase; don't ever go through my things again—was a bit much." Austin sighed, but at the look in Tony's eyes decided to let it go. He had worked hard for this, after all. "Of course we're excited—and I'm not at all surprised you decided to come all this way to work because you were bored without us around."

Tony appeared as if he were ready to protest, but then paused, nodded, shrugged his shoulders casually. "Yeah, maybe. But it was nearly finished anyway, and I had some frequent flier miles to use."

Austin thought of commenting on how Tony didn't have frequent flier miles at all, since he owned his own plane (of course) and traveled everywhere as Iron-Man anyway, but she simply shook her head and decided to overlook it, too.

They were supposed to be celebrating, after all.

Tony had been working on Stark Tower for a while; the thing was practically his child, which may or may not have been less disturbing than the idea of him actually having a real, live, human baby. As she had been staying with him (and he was afraid to leave her alone if Pepper didn't agree to come over and keep her company), Austin had taken a few trips to New York recently, but had remained stubbornly in her room, located on one of the "specialist, fanciest" floors of the tower, according to Tony. She made a promise to herself right then and there to not repeat this process while she was in New York this time, as an extension of her promise to move on with her life, actually start acting like a living person again.

New York was not a stranger to Austin. She had been there plenty of times with her mother, especially since her mother had taken up playing cello again. There were plenty of (pre-Iron Man) trips with Tony, too. Mostly New York was distracting and overly crowded, two things it took some getting used to, but as long as she went to places she liked and took frequent breaks at cafes and bookstores, Austin, who naturally preferred the quiet, could handle New York for a few days.

It also helped that Tony's tower was sound-proof.

"So, what do we want for our celebration? Cake? Champaign? Champaign flavored cake?" Tony said, drawing Austin from her thoughts as he took a seat across from her and Pepper, appearing seriously pensive.

Austin scowled at the choices (one of them, anyway), but Pepper piped up before she could: "How about cake-flavored champaign?" She laughed, joining in on Tony's joke before shaking her head. "Although honestly, I could probably go for pizza."

"And wine!" Tony's response was automatic, his expression lighting up.

"No alcohol!" Austin but in, throwing one of the sofa's pillow at him. It hit its target—his big mouth, of course—but thankfully none of his coffee was spilled. "You know how I feel about alcohol."

"Right, I forgot you were alcohol intolerant." Tony quipped.

"I am not." Austin scowled, grabbing another pillow just in case.

"Right, because that's not an actual thing, which means there's no reason we can't drink." Tony grinned, practically begging to be assaulted again.

Austin raised the pillow to throw it, but Pepper stopped her before she could, holding up a hand. "Alright, children," She cautioned, shaking her head. "Try to behave. We can have root-beer floats or something."

"With actual beer in them?" Tony couldn't help himself, earning him another pillow in the head.

"You two…" Pepper sighed, standing to her feet, heading towards the mini kitchenette, presumably for a cup of coffee. "Austin, do you want any?" She asked, earning a nod from the auburnette. "Hey, what do you two want on your pizza, by the way?"

"Anchovies. Lots of anchovies. Dead little fish. Sound good, Austin?" Tony piped up, of course the first to answer, laughter in his tone, but Austin simply rolled her eyes.

Sometimes she wondered how on Earth she had gotten used to this man…

Austin hummed, thinking Pepper's question over in her mind, but before she could reply a voice rang out from somewhere in the ceiling—or at least the approximation of the ceiling. JARVIS often seemed as if he were everywhere at once, though Austin had spent enough time around Tony's home that the voice no longer startled her anymore, as it once had. In fact, JARVIS could be quite comical when he wanted.

"Mr. Stark, I apologize for interrupting, but there's a matter that must be addressed—the one I spoke to you of earlier." JARVIS said, not covert in the fact that he was trying to hide a no doubt sensitive matter.

There were always sensitive matters at hand when it came to Tony; there always had been, though they'd grown in rate and danger since he had become Iron-Man. Austin couldn't say she missed the days where Tony dealt in arms and was, most of the time, a royal pain in the ass (more than he was now), but at times she missed the days when his life was at least a little less violent and dangerous.

People didn't like to acknowledge the violence, of course, but it was there. Every time Tony went out to save someone, to stop destruction and havoc, he put himself in a precarious situation…but he also was constantly being faced with people who were hurt, or people who were doing the hurting. Austin didn't want to ask Tony to stop being Iron-Man, because she understood that in many ways it was the only thing that could ever assuage his guilt for what he had done in the past, but she wondered if there would ever come a day when she might change her mind.

The world continued to grow smaller—and soon, the universe would grow small, too. Though Loki was gone, there were others out there who had plans for Earth…and if there weren't now, there would be eventually; there were too many people with powers who could pose a threat. It was something she didn't want to think on, especially now that the imminent threat Loki had posed was gone, but the more time passed, the closer she grew to having to make a decision.

She would try to support Tony in whatever he decided, but would there come a time she could no longer watch him fight? When the worry became too much, or he became too injured? He had nearly died in becoming Iron-Man. Who was to say next time he wouldn't die for real…?

Austin swallowed the sudden thoughts, hiding shaking hands beneath another pillow, hoping no one had seen.

She had already lost one person, and she didn't want to lose anyone else, but…

"JARVIS, tell him I'm out." Tony groaned, shattering Austin's depressing thoughts for the moment. "Actually, tell him my phone broke—or I'm on vacation."

"I'm not sure he would believe that last one, sir. Even with your personality." JARVIS sounded both exasperated and apologetic. "And anyway, sir, he's—"

"Hello, Mr. Stark." A voice spoke from behind Austin, sounding along with the elevator door.

Austin sucked in a breath, gasped, instantly recognizing who it was. A grin spread across her lips as she turned to look at none other than Agent Coulson…who just so happened to be her mother's boyfriend (Austin was still secretly hoping they would get married one day, and liked Phil quite a bit).

But instead of smiling the pleasant, barely there smile he usually presented her with, when Coulson's gaze met Austin's, he appeared troubled, if only a small bit, training dictating his reaction, though fear and a tinge of sadness had crept into his blue eyes.

Austin felt her stomach drop with the distinct air of foreboding, and she gripped the pillow in her hands even tighter, fighting off panic.

Something was wrong—

No, something was very, very wrong.

A thought—a glimmer of hope, maybe?—flashed through her mind, but she forced it away, because there was no way it could be true.

"Phil, come in. Want some coffee?" Pepper was the first to speak, though Austin could practically feel the annoyance radiating off of Tony. Her voice was falsely cheery, but not unkind; obviously she had noticed the strange demeanor Coulson wore, as well.

"Phil? His first name is Agent. And this is a security breach. I feel violated—and so does my new tower." Austin heard Tony say from behind her, heard him get up, saw him as he walked over to where Pepper stood, Coulson starting towards them.

Austin remained where she was, that feeling of forebode anchoring her to her seat. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped at her pillow even more tightly, needing something to center her, to keep her grounded.

Something was wrong—

So, so wrong.

But what?

And why could she feel it? She had been feeling (mostly) fine since she'd left the restaurant with Pepper, and had come to assume that her off feeling was merely due to nerves and lack of good sleep. Nothing strange had happened since then, but now she felt as though a lead weight had been placed on her chest.

Would this continue to happen?

Was there no way of stopping it, whatever it was?

"Coffee would be great, thanks." Coulson took Pepper's offer after a pause, stopping before Tony as he said. "I apologize for the interruption, but it's really rather urgent."

"So was my celebration. Cake flavored champagne and all." Tony quipped.

"I'm sorry Mr. Stark, but as I said it's urgent. It's about Austin." Coulson said, taking the cup of coffee that Pepper handed to him.

Austin may have imagined it, but Pepper's hands appeared a little shaky with the mention of Austin's name, and the same look of fear Coulson had appeared in her features before she pushed it away.

Suddenly, Austin had the urge to steal one of Tony's suits and fly away—not that one would fit her.

"Austin?" Tony echoed, his demeanor instantly changing when he spoke. It wasn't often he turned hard, serious, but when he did it was quite a sight to behold.

A sight Austin never liked seeing.

Still, she understood the three older adults in the room were trying to pretend she wasn't there, that they could settle the matter themselves—that she shouldn't be bothered with it, that they should be allowed to protect her.

Austin grit her teeth and shakily stood to her feet. "I'm right here, you know." She said, jutting her chin out towards Tony, Pepper, and Coulson, a distinct air of displeasure in her tone.

It wasn't that she didn't appreciate their concern, their desire to look out for her, to shield her from harm. Tony had been there for her when she'd needed him a thousand times; she liked to think the same could be said of her. Sometimes she needed to be protected just like anyone else, to know she was cared for, that she didn't have to try and do everything on her own, but now…

Now she simply wanted to be able to stand on her own two feet, even if it was only briefly.

She had come this far with the help of others, and wanted to be able to repay them in this way.

Also…she wanted to believe in herself, believe that she could keep going, and truly gain a hold on her life once more.

"I'm sorry, Austin." Coulson turned towards her, meeting her gaze directly, though his vision wavered, darting away after only a moment; it was unlike him. "But unfortunately…I'm here to take you in."

His words seemed to echo, demanding silence afterwards.

Austin swallowed thickly at those words, heart beating quickly in her ears as she realized that Coulson was serious, that he was, indeed, there to take her in—but in to where? And—

"Why?" Tony was the one to ask this, to step in front of Coulson as if he could shield Austin from the SHIELD agent. "You don't seriously expect me to believe that she's done something to warrant being taken in like a prisoner."

I already feel like a prisoner, Tony—in my own body. Austin thought, gripping the edge of the couch as her chest tightened, something wavering on the edges of her vision.

Images—

More images, just like before. More things she could both see but not see, not reach out and grasp though they looked to be so close to her. Images she could not truly focus on, that she could neither remember nor understand.

Images that were not hers.

…but then whose were they?

"She's not a prisoner, Mr. Stark." Coulson said calmly, evenly, though even he took a deep breath before he continued. He pulled something from his pocket—a phone?—and held it up for them all to see. "But there is this."

Austin looked at the device, at its screen and what flashed across it, and paled, the forebode she felt only increasing.

It read:

Foreign Radiation Detected

So...hello everyone! Sorry it's been a while. You really have Infinity War and reviewer HP2011 to thank for my return. Thank you so much for the support!

I realized I never officially stated that this series is an AU...sorry about that. So here's the official statement: this story is an AU, though how alternate is yet to be seen.

I have several new ideas for this series, and I will work my hardest to pull them all together as coherently as possible. I've read over the previous book and chapters again, but as it's been a while since I worked regularly on this story, please ignore my inconsistencies if you can. I will do my best to finish this series and update when I can. Your continued reading and support means a lot to me!

This chapter was originally going to be longer, but I felt it would be nice to finally put a chapter out. I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think!

Thank you to my reviewers from last chapter: Sophia, HP2011.

See you next time! Be well, and God bless!

Cross ~