Chapter Twelve
Ariana hated to cry. Her eyes got red and puffy. She felt exhausted. And she felt pathetic. She looked at the clock on her bedside table. Five fifty-five. Dinner would be ready in six minutes. But over her dead body was she going to dinner.
She was seriously considering staying in her room until Saturday, which was only two more days away.
"Ari, aren't you coming to dinner?"
Ariana looked up and saw Steve, neatly dressed as usual and looking concern. The kiss didn't matter now, Ariana was leaving Saturday and after that Steve would probably forget about her and find a girl that actually lived in the country.
"No," she grumbled as she buried her face in her pillow.
Steve sighed. "Something happened with Tony, am I right? When Phil told him about you. . . well that's the first time I ever seen him upset. Did he overreact?"
"Yeah," she mumbled, she couldn't face him. "I'm going back to Paris on Saturday. I'm going back to ballet school and he's forcing me to quit SHIELD."
"You're leaving?" Steve chocked out as he sat on the bed next to her. "Ari, you can't leave." his voice broke. "Please."
"You think I want to leave, Steve?" she whispered. "I don't. I want to stay here. I want to stay and work as and agent. I want to help Fury and the others find the cosmic cube. I don't want to go back to Paris. But he's making me."
"Maybe we can convince him to let you stay at least," he offered. "Maybe it wont be so hard to convince Stark."
"Believe me, it is," Ariana sat up. "I've never seen my father so angry. He seemed pretty determine to send me on the first flight back to Paris. I think I should be grateful he didn't send me on the first plane tonight."
Steve gave her a sad smile as he squeezed her hand. "We'll figure it out honey, don't worry."
Honey, Ariana blushed a little when he said that.
"Are you coming to dinner?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I'm not hungry."
"Ari," he sighed. "You can't hide here forever. Come on let's go to dinner, remember what Bruce said you have to take care of yourself." he pulled her up.
"Steve," she whined.
But Steve didn't listen as he pulled her away and led her to the dining room.
Dinner was tense to say the least. The Avengers and Pepper and Ariana sat at their respective seats and on most nights they ate and talked and joked around. But this night was different. They just sat as still as status, picking at their food and once in a while muttering, "pass the butter." Everyone knew that something had happened between Ariana and Tony by the way that they kept throwing each other dirty looks and looking like they wanted to kill each other.
Pepper cleared her throat and attempted to make cheerful conversation. "So, Ari how have you've been feeling?"
"Fine." she mumbled as she picked at her spaghetti.
Pepper tried again. "Um, Tony how's that car of yours coming around?"
"It's good." Tony said simply, which seemed strange to them. Tony could usually talk non stop about cars. Especially when they were his.
Pepper finally gave up and they continued eating their dinner in silence.
Ariana couldn't take the silence anymore, she dropped her fork on her plate with a thump. "Can't we at least talk about it? Can't we compromise?"
"No, Ariana, " Tony said sternly. "You're returning back to Paris on Saturday.""Well, if you ever listened to my side for once-"
"I don't have to listen to you side. You lied to me, you're probably lying to me right now-"
"I wouldn't have to lie to you in you weren't so uptight!"
"I'm not uptight, I'm just-"
"Ariana. Tony. Living room. Now." Pepper said sternly as she put down her fork.
Ariana and Tony kept glaring at each other.
"NOW!" Pepper bellowed.
Tony and Ariana mumbled something as they went to the living room. Pepper closed the door and face them frowning, "Now we're going to talk about this. Privately and quietly. Do you understand?"
They mumbled something.
"I said do you UNDERSTAND?"
"Yes, Pepper."
"Good," Pepper said. "Now we are going to talk about this in a gentle, kind manner. No one is going to yell. No one is going to blame. Got that?" she paused. "All right?"
They nodded.
"Ariana, why don't you go first?"
Ariana took a deep breath. Grateful to Pepper, she only had one chance and she didn't want to mess it up. "Dad, I'm sorry that I lied to you I really am and I promise I wont lie to you ever again if you please let me continue my work as an agent. The cosmic cube-" No, no back up Ariana if you tell him about the cosmic cube, he will lock you up himself. "Fury and Coulson are careful about sending me on dangerous missions. They are careful of what missions they assign me and they avoid dangerous missions." Ok, half lie, but at least it's a half truth.
"I want to keep working as an agent, I promise I wont get hurt. I've worked too hard for this, dad please."
Pepper nodded, "Tony?"
Tony took a deep breath. "No."
Ariana flinched and she couldn't help but snapping. "What?"
"I said no, Ariana," he scowled. "I'd admire your little speech, it was very good. But that still doesn't mean that I want my underage daughter to work for an organization that specializes in killing someone and being killed." he grew panicked. "Oh my god, Ariana did you already kill someone while working for SHIELD?"
"No," She said too quickly. "Maybe once or twice. . But they deserved it and it's really not a big deal." but she already knew that it was a lost cause. Her days as an agent were numbered.
Tony looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the right words. He waved his hands in the air as if they were going to give him the right words. Ariana looked at Pepper for support, but she looked pale too. What's the big deal? They know what agents are require to do. And uh, FYI dad, those people that I killed usually tried to kill me first.
"You are definitely going back to Paris," he chocked out as he left the room. "I can't even look at you anymore, Ariana."
Ariana gaped in shock. She turned to Pepper who had a hard time meeting her eyes. "Pep," she whispered. "Does my dad hate me?"
"No, of course not," Pepper said quickly. "He's just overwhelm right now. . .we are all. I think it's better that you let him cool down for a little while." Pepper forced a smile as she left after Tony.
Ariana sighed as she rested her head in one of the couches. Her life as an agent was over. Her father hated her. Steve and her weren't even going to try for a relationship because she was going back to Paris and she guessed maybe a mental institutor after this. She might as well be dead.
"What's wrong with you?" Pepper demanded as she entered the bedroom she shared with Tony. "You just abruptly left, without offering Ariana any kind of explanation and-"
"I didn't know she killed Pepper," Tony blurted out as he grabbed the bottle of whisky that sat on his night table and poured himself a glass. "I didn't know my own daughter was a killer at seventeen."
"It's part of SHIELD, honey," Pepper said gently as she sat next to him. "She can't help it, besides if she did. . .kill, it was probably a bad guy. They never go after innocent people."
Tony stayed quiet.
"She thinks you hate her."
"What? I don't hate her." he exclaimed. "I love her. I'm just scared for her and . . .of her. I hadn't realize what she had become."
"Agent or not, she's still your daughter, Tony," Pepper said gently. "She's still your little girl. Your little ballerina. Even if she's different now."
"I don't want her to go back to SHIELD, Pep," he blurted out as he rested a head on her shoulder. "I don't want her to get hurt or worse be killed. I could never forgive myself."
"Lives come with risk, Tony," Pepper whispered. "And sometimes we have to let our love ones take those risks themselves."
There it is, Audriana thought that night as she glanced through her window and saw the helicarrier floating above her. That was SHIELD HQ and that was where the director and the others held together information. Especially information about a certain agent.
She looked at the mirror and hoped that she could pass as Ariana. These people were agents. Smart people. They weren't eight year old girls at an airport who wanted her autograph.
Her short black hair reached her chin, she was wearing shorts and a white t-shirt and guessed it was something Ariana would wear.
"You're Ariana, you're Ariana," she whispered to herself. She closed her eyes and imagined what the helicarrier looked like. She didn't need to know exactly how it looked like, just something so she would be able to teleport there.
Audriana remembered the picture Red Skull had given her of Ariana in her cat suit.
She imagined the long, dark depressing hallway.
Audriana opened her eyes. She was there.
The helicarrier was full with agents, but nobody seem to pay attention to her, a few of the young interns mumbled hello to Audriana and Audriana mumbled back hello.
"Excuse me," she asked sweetly to a young intern boy who was preparing coffee.
The intern looked up. "Yes, Miss Stark?"
"I was wondering if there was a private computer I could use," she continued sweetly. "I need to get reports of my most recent missions."
"Information like that are kept in files," the intern boy said. "In folders in room G17." he pointed to the end of the hall.
"Thank you!" she replied. This really was too easy.
Audriana opened the door to room G17 and was grateful that there was no one there, there were only rows and rows of drawers packed tightly with files and labels. Audriana scrolled to the letter S. She pulled out the drawer and quickly went to the files. Her eyes widened when she finally reached her sister's file: Ariana Elizabeth Stark, Agent Code 2369. AKA-The Black Swan, DOB-12/24/94.
"Bingo," she snatched the file and put it quickly in her bag. She closed the drawer and ran to the hallway. She needed to get out quickly.
"Ariana."
Audriana flinched. She turned around slowly and saw a man with an eye patch and trench coat glaring at her as if she were a criminal. "I thought you were in the hospital."
"Um, I got out?" it sounded more like a question. Wait, Ariana had been in the hospital why? And who was this guy? She guessed it must be the director because he had the no nonsense attitude.
Fury nodded. "All right. Feel better. Don't be running around, Ariana or people will start to think that you're up to something."
Ariana nodded as she disappeared down the opposite corridor.
"Ariana!"
Audriana turned around annoyed. What now? She saw a woman with red hair waving at her. "Hey I thought you were in some family meeting or something?"
Audriana just glared at her. Screw her, she was running out of time. She turned around and ran to the next hallway.
"Hey, wait!" Natasha turned around to where Audriana had ran off too, but when she looked she wasn't there. "That's weird," Natasha mumbled. "She was here, just a second ago. I didn't even know she could run that fast."
But Natasha felt an eerie feeling in the pit of her stomach. And that was never a good thing. Ariana had seemed. . .strange. She was usually so bubbly and carefree but when Natasha had looked at her, she seemed. . .annoyed and vicious.
And had she always had that tattoo of the pink and black shooting stars on her right ankle?
-End of Chapter Twelve-
