"Nick, what a pleasant surprise." said Tony with a condescending tone, "before you and the agent here catch up can I have a word with you?"
Nick nodded at Tony as the two slipped out of the room.
"Well, regardless of what we are going to call you, you need to eat." said Bruce. "Doctor's orders."
Em looked blankly at him then to the tray of food beside her. "Seem to have lost my appetite." she said giving a weak smile at him.
"Force feeding you will be a last resort." he said with a smile..
She picked up the fork and took a bite of the chicken and rice.
"There you go." said Bruce looking over to Steve. "I need to go set up some tests for Em."
Em looked to Bruce.
"Just a few scans to see if we can determine what was done to you. Nothing painful I promise." he said. "I'm trusting Steve to make sure you eat and get some rest. Don't worry about Nick. We have time to sort this out."
As Em took another bite, Steve exchanged a look with Bruce to let him know he would handle it. Bruce had left and Em continued to eat. She made no eye contact with Steve.
"Raisa." he said. "Does that name sound familiar to you?"
She slowly looked up, "No, it doesn't."
"You looked panicked when Nick said that." said Steve. He saw her hand shake as she set down her fork and reached for her water.
"Well, it is a bit unnerving to be told you are someone you have no memory of being. "she said.
"Nick's a good guy. He wouldn't lie." said Steve trying to reassure her.
"What's Shield?" she asked.
Steve took a seat next to her on the bed. "Nick will explain. I think you should rest."
She looked at him in disbelief. "That's not going to happen."
He just smiled. "Ok, well, there is no way to force you to."
"What if you're wrong?" he asked.
Steve turned to look at her as her tone of voice changed. "About the nap?" he said trying to keep the conversation light.
She smiled, "No, I mean about me. Maybe I am the enemy."
His expression shifted and she thought perhaps she upset him, "You're not."
She looked at him. He seemed so sure. It was so strange to her to see this man whom she met a few hours ago sit here and be so adamant that she was not a threat. It was a very unfamiliar feeling. Their eyes locked. She saw the determination. He was not budging.
"I wish I was as sure as you." she said.
He reached over and put his hand on hers. She looked at him surprised. His eyes were gentle.
"Why are you so sure of me?" she asked. She honestly wanted to know.
"Because you given me no reason not to be" he said looking down at his hand atop hers. "And alone is not a lot of fun, it can play with your head."
She squeezed his hand, "Well thank you, but don't get too attached. You can't convince me alone is not the safest thing right now. Once morning comes and this concussion hows to be nothing, I will be on my way."
"Nick, what do you mean she worked for you? She claims she worked at a government facility in Montana? She never mentioned Shield." said Tony.
"That's how she has been programmed. " said Nick taking a seat on a long couch in Tony's living room.
"Programmed?" he questioned. It irritated him how casually he said it. " She's human, not a computer." said Tony.
"Hydra wasn't above human experimentation and since they infiltrated and infected Shield, neither were they. Raisa never worked for the government. She was placed in Montana as a test to see what stuck in her mind." he said watching Tony's reaction.
"You said she worked for you, so you allowed this?" asked Tony not enjoying what he was hearing.
"She didn't come under my supervision until later. My understanding is she volunteered." said Nick.
Tony shook his head, "That does not make it right. Experimenting on the mind? If that is true, then that girl was tortured and just because there are no physical scars everyone sleeps better at night?" his disgust was apparent.
"What's done is done." said Nick looking down at his hands. He knew there was no point in arguing. It would change nothing.
Tony took a deep breath to stifle the growing rage. "So, why are you here?"
"I need to talk to her. The experiment did not go as planned. She was kidnapped after Shield fell. Probably sympathists to Hydra but they had the technology to finish the job." he said.
"What job, Nick?" asked Tony.
"The experiment was to create a new breed of intelligence in war setting. Not a soldier but a weapon none the less." said Nick. Tony just stared at him. "A person who could sense threat and basically see what threat was coming in enough time for the troops to counterattack. In some cases, a new breed of telekinesis. Most cases of telekinesis involve the person needing to be within sight of their target to move it. They meant to create a breed that could just act on the threat they sensed. Essentially throw off the enemy before they descend."
"Nick, please tell me you did not know this was going on." said Tony.
"I did and I tried to stop it. When I failed, I did the best I could do by removing agents from the program one by one. Sometimes Shield denied my request but Raisa was one I was able to get moved to my supervision."
"Why would they allow her to transfer out?" asked Tony.
"If they felt they were not excelling in the experiments and programming they were more apt to let them go. Raisa didn't show the progress they wanted. Turns out she was faking." said Nick.
"Faking?" asked Tony.
"She saw what they were going to do before they would do it. She sensed them as a threat. The experiment worked, but they never factored in someone who would resist. So she played dumb. They never saw through it til she was kidnapped." said Nick.
"Who kidnapped her? How would she not sense that as a threat?" he asked.
"It was an experiment, I'm not sure what the results actually were or how her abilities work. Her memories may not be hers. They may have been programmed." he said.
"Steve stopped a man from attacking her. She refused to go to the hospital so he brought her here. Then we had another gentleman appear at our door claiming to be her husband. We have footage of him and Jarvis can tap into surveillance for the other images. We then realized she was wearng a ring that turned out to be a tracer. She's convinced she is a government agent whose memory was being erased after she discovered a plan that was to take down the Avengers so we could be regulated and controlled by the government. She had no clue we were the Avengers til we told her."
At Tony's words Nick sat forward, "What? A government plan to regulate the Avengers? That doesn't sound like Hydra?"
"Well, Nick, times are a changing and it seems we don't have a lot to go on. So now what?" asked tony.
"Now? Now someone brews some coffee and Raisa and I have a talk." said Nick.
