S-21

Of Monsters and Men

Warnings: DEATH OF CHILDREN/FETUSES! Experimentation on children! Callous disregard for a child's life and welfare! Mentions of suicide, torture, and mental illness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* MB *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry was rather disappointed with how his first dinner in Tony's Malibu home ended. In fact, both Tony and himself were rather baffled by the strange actions of one Happy Hogan. Leaving them both confused and a little apprehensive.

Things had been going well, at least, Harry had thought so. Tony and he had been flirting gently back and forth, just enjoying one another's company while the resident Superhero also worked on calculations on his Starkpad, eager to hasten the conclusion of the irritating business meeting he had to get back to after their meal. Happy had been mostly quiet, if distant, but not entirely unfriendly until that point. Then something seemed to change, Happy abruptly stood from his seat at the small shared dinner table. The feet of the chair had screeched back loudly against the wooden floor, making Harry flinch at the awful noise, but drawing both Tony's and his own attention effectively. The lovers blinked in startlement as they looked upon the pasty countenance of Tony's friend.

Harry had watched as the man's mouth had opened and then closed with a sharp click of his teeth. A bright flush had then overtaken his cheeks. His fists had clenched as he'd dropped his wide gaze down from theirs and glared fiercely at the innocent kitchen table.

Slowly Tony started to rise from his chair, reaching out a hand cautiously, "Happy?" Whether the gesture was meant in comfort or something else, Harry did not know. Regardless of Tony's intentions, it was summarily rejected when Happy shoved himself violently away from the table and stormed out of the room without a word. They both stared after him, uncertain what exactly, had just happened. Harry broke his gaze away from the empty doorway to look at Tony. His mate was frowning, blue eyes darting between his Starkpad, Harry and the doorway, clearly torn on which needed his attention more immediately.

Harry pursed his lips. Whatever Happy's malfunction was, Tony had a meeting he could not walk away from. He had limited time to eat before his meeting resumed. Happy would have to wait. "Sit down, Honey. Finish your dinner."

Blue eyes focused on him as Tony reluctantly settled back down in his chair. "But...Happy..."

Harry picked up his fork and stabbed a lettuce leaf, making sure his tone was firm but gentle. It was not Harry's intention to scold his mate like a child, but Tony had more important things that needed to be dealt with first before Happy's...issues. Whatever they were. "Happy is a grown man, Tones When he's cooled down from...whatever that was. I'm sure he'll speak. Besides, I don't think chasing after him would accomplish anything other than an argument with him right now. He didn't look to be in the mood for rationality at the moment, and you have to clear up this meeting. Jarvis can keep an eye on him, if it would make you feel better?"

Jarvis readily spoke up, intent on dissuading his creator from missing his important meeting. "I can certainly do that Harry. Mr. Hogan did not go far Sir, merely to his apartment."

Sighing, Tony nodded. "Yeah...yeah alright. You're right. I can't walk away from this meeting. I just... I don't understand what that was about. He looked angry, but…"

Harry shrugged as he picked up his slice of pizza and took a big bite, rudely replying with his mouth full. It wasn't like Tony would care. "You can ask him afterwards. But like I said, I would wait until he cools off first."

Harry had an inkling Happy's upset had something to do with his presence, but he wasn't positive. Whatever the case, it was clearly a conversation Tony needed to have with the man. Harry's interference would only inflate the issue.

Silence fell between them once again, only this time, it wasn't the comfortable flirtatious thing of before. Tony was unsettled, clearly distracted from his work, but he was trying. Harry on the other had, was lost in his own head, going over the many prickly issues that he still had to deal with, starting with a few difficult conversations he needed to have with Tony. Conversations Harry had held off on having because he wanted to have them in person with the man he loved, but now that Harry was here, he was nervous.

Would Tony still want to marry him after he found out about the truth of his parents' deaths? Would it even matter to Tony that Harry had never intended for such an action to be taken?

Perhaps Harry had jumped the gun accepting Tony's proposal. The more Harry thought about it, the more worried he became, until his stomach ached, and he couldn't eat anymore. Luckily, he'd eaten most of his food, so it didn't seem unusual for him to clean up his dishes, grabbing Tony's salad bowl as he went over to the sink. Washing a sink full of dishes was something Harry could do mindlessly in his sleep.

Partway through the washing, Tony ambled over and placed his plate down, kissed Harry on the cheek, "I'll make this as quick as I can, alright?" Harry simply nodded with a small smile, and Tony went back to his office, leaving Harry alone with his troubled thoughts.

After nearly a half hour of silence, and absently moving dishes around, but not really paying much attention to washing them, Jarvis spoke. "Is everything alright Harry?"

The Valkyrie twitched, having briefly forgotten about the AI's presence. He considered a moment simply brushing Jarvis off, but when he opened his mouth, different words fell out. "Has Tony mentioned anything about his parents?"

There was a short pause before Jarvis responded. "Rarely does Sir mention his father outside of a past tense work reference. He does, on occasion, mention his mother."

Harry's shoulders slumped. "Oh…"

"If I may inquire, what does Sir's parents have to do with anything?"

Harry sighed. "I have some...information...that will probably upset Tony...and I'm...I'm afraid he'll be angry enough with me to take back his proposal. It didn't feel rushed at the time, but, looking back at it now, maybe it was? I dunno...this conversation should have happened before it, I know that much. However, I wanted to talk to him face to face. This isn't a discussion one has over the phone...or in shared dreamscapes. It just doesn't seem right. So, unfortunately, because of various circumstances, it's gotten put off for far too long now."

Harry shot a nervous glance at the ceiling.

Several long moments passed before the AI spoke again. "It is possible he will be angry, you certainly seem sure of this fact, and I'm not privy to the information you carry, so I can only speculate. However, I very much doubt that there is much you could say to Sir for him to revoke his proposal to you, Harry. Sir has been through much to have his memories returned to him. Before that, he pined after you for years, even if no one else knew about it. If your affection for one another is still standing strongly through all those years and strife apart...well, this information would really have to be something to break that sort of love for you. I only have one question."

Harry dumped the last of the dirty dishes into the soapy water. "Yeah?"

"This information, will it hurt him?"

Reluctantly Harry nodded. "Physically? No. Emotionally? I don't see how it wouldn't, at least to some degree. He might not have much care for Howard, Gods know that man was an utter bastard to Tony nearly all of the time, but Tony's mother? That's much more complicated."

Harry shook his head slowly as his mind briefly skimmed through his own memories of the woman, and the things that Tony had revealed to him in private. "Maria may not have been the best mother at times, caught as she was between feuding husband and child, but she loved Tony, and he knows it. I think she was in an impossible position with the two of them. I've thought about it over the years, and I think distancing herself from the two of them was more self-defense on her part than a lack of love or care for either one of them. Was it right? No. I don't think so, but I'm not her. I don't truly know what she was thinking, or how the relationship between her and Howard was like...but I'm wandering off on a tangent. None of that is really relevant to what I need to talk to Tony about."

Harry absently worried his bottom lip. "So, yeah...I think he'll have every reason to be upset with me. Though I'm not sure to what degree. Even if I didn't mean for it to happen, or know about it until well after the fact. He might not forgive me for what happened to Maria, at the very least."

A low considering hum echoed softly in the room. "Sir's parents are always, and likely will always be a sensitive subject for him. You are heavily indicating that you were somehow involved with their deaths. This puts me in a rather awkward position. Sir is my Creator, and this is something I should notify him of immediately."

Harry winced, opening his mouth to protest as panic seizes him. Tony could not find out like this because Harry didn't watch his own words. Before he could utter a single syllable thought, Jarvis interrupted him. "However, I believe that you have no intention of harm to him, but you will have this conversation with him within the next twenty-four hours, or I will be forced to interfere and notify him of what information you have revealed. I can only wish you luck in your unpleasant endeavor."

Harry let out a long despairing sigh as he finished the last of the dishes and set them aside to dry. "Yeah...I'm going to talk to him soon Jarvis. I promise. You won't be forced to do that."

"I sincerely hope not, Harry."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* MB *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tony leaned back in his overstuffed office chair and rubbed at his aching eyes. Lazily he dropped his head back against the rest and blinked at the ceiling. Slowly, he released a long deep sigh, the muscles in his back gradually unclenching as he purposely blanked his irritated mind. The meeting had been long, tedious, and frustrating, but now, it was finally over. With the easing of his tension, and his eyes closing for a few minutes in an attempt at relaxation, the pounding of Tony's headache began to let up. For just a few moments, he let himself enjoy simply existing for the sake of being. His mind was quiet, the house was silent, Jarvis was busy doing whatever the AI did to entertain himself when not working on projects or research for Tony or Stark Industries.

Tony didn't dare look at the old-fashioned face clock hanging on the wall, he suspected it was hideously late, or stupid early in the morning. Frankly, he did not want to know. Happy would no doubt be asleep by now, so Tony's intended conversation with his long-time friend would have to wait a while longer. Most probably Tony would not be able to speak to the man until sometime tomorrow evening at the earliest. The genius planned on spending some time with Harry, and then sleeping until his body wouldn't let him any longer. Not necessarily in that order. Harry might still be awake at this obscene hour, but then again, he also might not. Tony was half hoping the Valkyrie wasn't. Not because Tony didn't want to see his partner, but rather, Tony just wanted the excuse to crawl into bed with the other man and curl up around his body before drifting off to sleep himself.

With a pleased hum at the idea, Tony forced his eyes open and sat up. Standing, he locked his laptop and moved out of his office, flicking the light off as he shut the door behind him. To his surprise, the TV in the living room was still on, along with a side lamp on one of the room's side tables. Harry was there rapidly texting on his cell phone, looking tired and stressed. In the dim light of the lamp, and the flickering of the TV, Tony could see dark circles forming under his fiance's eyes. His lips were pressed into a thin line of aggravation as he glared down at the device in his hands.

Cautiously, Tony moved towards the other, perching on the couch cushion next to him. "I take it from you expression that investigation you mentioned to me earlier is not going well?"
Harry sighed heavily, edging into a soft frustrated growl as he dropped his phone into his lap. His fangs, normally expertly covered up in a pretense of being human, were pressing into his lower lip. "It's barely going anywhere at all right now. There was little in the way of evidence, to begin with, and this blizzard is making things even more difficult. I spoke with the parents and families this morning while some members of the Common Corps looked over the scene of the incident."

"Common Corps?" Tony interrupted curiously.

Harry blinked. "Oh, sorry. The Valkyrie version of your average Police officers or Detectives. They deal with the cases involving the general population. You know, murders, robbery, kidnapping, missing or lost children, a slew of other issues. Crimes against fledglings are rare. Crimes against Eggs are nearly unheard of."

Harry waved his hand in a distracted manner, his brow furrowed in aggravation. "They were the first ones on the scene here with the missing Eggs, and they are holding all the information currently. I've only seen part of it. Just the information they could send to my phone. I haven't had the chance to go down to the building they are working out of though I did get a chance to stop briefly at the scene and speak with a few of them there. I didn't get a choice to stay, however, and honestly, I didn't want to get in their way or compromise their work, so I left to get some warmer clothes and coffee."

Harry hummed softly as he stared down at the carpet, mind lost in his thoughts as he continued to speak. "They were the ones to get in contact with Meloth about this travesty. Then Meloth informed me and shipped me off here as fast as we could manage to try and minimize outbursts from their families, and hopefully help in the investigation. Though I'm obviously not an investigator. We have our own version of the American CIA and FBI as well, with Mages, but for the moment, because of the bloody weather, they can't fly in until it lets up."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Mages? Huh. Aren't there any already in L.A.? Or at least Cali?"

Harry made a frustrated noise and clenched his hands. "There are, of course, there are, but they aren't trained in this sort of magic. You have to understand, Mages are a very small percentage of our population. The only reason we have the numbers we do now is because of our extended lifespan, and because more of them had the ability to escape the Skrull. But the type of specialty magic and training needed for this sort of work is wide spread. There are only a few that are so inclined, and because of this they are at all times in very high demand. The ones that specialize in these sorts of magics are not currently in the state. I have ways of moving myself around without planes or using my wings, but I can't carry much with me, and I can't bring passengers at all. Or I would have brought them all out one by one if I had too. My only consolation is that this particular case is now the top priority, but that doesn't mean much in the face of this storm."

His shoulders slumped. "Unfortunately, for all my abilities, my magic isn't the same as it was in my former incarnation, I'm much more limited in this life, even with my supposed 'fledgling God' talents. Whatever they are, I've barely scratched the surface of those. I never seem to have the time to explore them."

Tony silently reached out gently taking Harry's hand. It wasn't Harry's fault. The man was stretched thin on a normal day trying to take care of his people, and keep up with the projects of his own two companies. He had so much to do at any one time. But Tony also knew that his saying as much at this moment, would not be welcome. So instead Tony simply offered silent support.

Harry took a breath and squeezed Tony's hand back as he forced himself to straighten out his shoulders. He shifted the subject firmly away from what he considered his own personal lack. "So, what remains of the crime scene outside has now been pretty much ruined, I doubt we'll get anything more than we already have from there. I'm hoping we've been blessed with a miracle and someone left fingerprints behind inside the building. Unfortunately, the C.C. won't be able to get those results back until tomorrow at the very earliest. We have some Valkyrie technology to help, but it's not always easy to hide, and we lost much in fleeing our home world. Sometimes we have to use human technology on the sly to get things done, because we simply no longer have the tools, skills or knowledge at our disposal. It slows cases down, from what I understand. "

Slowly Harry shook his head, turning to meet Tony's eyes "This wasn't a simple smash and grab Tony. Or some twisted revenge against another Valkyrie. This was...this was professional. It's…"

He trailed off in resigned horror, voice dropping to a whisper. "Only a very sick Valkyrie would attack a Nest, Tones...it's damned near sacrilegious. There won't be any way to have a fair trial or punishment for this. The only answer my people will accept for this is blood."

Silence settled between them as Tony absorbed the gravity of what Harry was implying. This wasn't going to end in a civilized manner. Someone was going to wind up dead. He could see the dread on his fiance's face as they both thought about the long term consequences of this crime. The longer it dragged out, the uglier and more dangerous it was going to get as tempers built, and more of Harry's people demanded resolution.

"Would Jarvis be of any help?"

Harry shot his mate a faint quirking of his lips in mild amusement, but it was the AI that responded to the question. "I have already offered my assistance to Harry, Sir. After dinner, while you were busy with your meeting, I went over the information currently available with Harry and so far, the C.C. have proven themselves to be very competent. I concur with their findings at this time. Evidence does indeed point to a small team of professionals, ones with military or mercenary training, as such, they will be difficult to pin down."

Various pieces of information popped up around them on the holo-screens that Jarvis seemed to be able to project where ever he wished. Harry still wasn't quite sure how it was he managed that. "However, the C.C. do not have avenues of access that I do. I have concluded that the video footage at the scene has been tampered with. It would appear that the cameras were placed on a pre-recorded loop. They walked in nearly unhindered. Their only barrier at that point was the Watcher. This theft was meticulously planned out. The building's security and defenses were monitored before the break-in. Watcher rotations were timed and studied."

Tony carefully glanced over the available information, skimming through it so that he was familiar. Harry turned his face away, focusing on the TV for a brief time. He knew all of this by heart already and didn't want to view it again. Each time he looked it over it stressed him out further. He left Tony and Jarvis to it for a few minutes.

"Whoever committed this crime knew exactly what they were intending to take, Sir. I estimate that they were in and out of the building within less than ten minutes. These Eggs had to have been loaded into some type of transport, but as of right now, no strange vehicles were reported by witnesses in the area. It is likely that these thieves have been observing this building for quite some time. Long enough that their vehicles and movements were considered normal to the area."

Tony frowned. "Well, that's just peachy. You've got stalkers. Worse, you've got ones with patience. That level of blending in takes months."

"That was my conclusion as well, Sir."

Harry turned back to his mate. "Unfortunately, that helps me very little for the time being. I can't do anything with the information, and neither can the C.C.'s. We're forced to wait for the Mages, and hope that they can come up with additional information, otherwise, this case might go cold before it even gets off the ground. I'm sure I don't have to explain how much of a disaster that would be. Which is why I reluctantly asked for Jarvis's help, hoping you would not mind."

Tony blinked and turned away from what he was currently looking at to squint at Harry in confusion. "Mind? Why the hell would I mind?"

"Uhm...I dunno, because he is your AI first of all? And, well. I didn't want to drag you into my mess."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Harry. Honey. Baby. Sugar-butt. We're getting married. Your mess is sort of officially my mess at this point. And vice versa. Enjoy that by the way." Tony waggled his eyebrows ridiculously.

The Valkyrie stared at him in bemusement horror. "Sugar-butt?"

Tony waved him off with a slight embarrassed blush. "Nix that one. It sounded better in my head."

"It was terrible." Harry deadpanned.

Tony flapped one of his hands, as though it would somehow wipe away the god-awful attempt at a nickname. "I know, I know...but I'll find one. Eventually."

Harry scoffed, shaking his head a little in bewilderment. "Why in the world are you trying to pin a sickeningly cutesy nickname on me? Are we really going to be one of those couples?"

Harry's mate just shrugged. "Hmm…Well. Rhodey is Honey-bear. Or Sour Patch. Sometimes Platypus. Depends on the day. We won't even discuss Pepper. Hawkeye is Legolas, or Hunger Games. Tasha is Red or Widow for obvious reasons, Rogers is Capsicle, Thor is Point Break, or Goldilocks. Loki is Rock of Ages, or Reindeer Games. Really the potential with him is a lot of fun. Plus I like to watch when he and the Captain make faces.'

The Valkyrie just stared at his mate, wondering why he was surprised by this information and mutters dryly. "Of course you do."

Tony was on a roll now, and ignored Harry's grumbling. "Banner I usually call Big Guy...sometimes Big Green Rage Monster. Depends on his mood, he can be a little touchy some days."

"Can't imagine why, dear." He couldn't help the little smile tugging at the corner of his mouth now, thoroughly amused by the mental image some of these names brought to mind.

"And of course, Fury is our resident Pirate...soo…" Tony shrugged. "Figured you needed one too, and I can't use Feathers, because of the obvious."

Harry blinked, then sighed in mock exasperation. "Don't you dare. Surely you can be more imaginative than that?"

Tony grinned at him, and Harry felt a chill go down his spine. He knew that smile. It usually meant trouble with a capital T. "Don't worry snugglepuss. I'll find something." Tony reassured overly brightly.

Snorting softly with repressed laughter, Harry pointed his index finger sternly in his mate's direction, attempting (and failing miserably) to appear serious. "No. Just, No."

Tony wrinkled his nose and nodded his head sharply in agreement. "Yeah, I don't like that one either," Tony commented distractedly as he waved his hand, the holo-screens vanishing. "Jarvis keep looking into it. I'm sure you can find something. That looks like about all we can do right this moment."

"Of course Sir. I will continue to look into different possibilities. Can I suggest some rest for the two of you? It is quite late."

"Not yet J." Harry sighed in resignation, all the humor rapidly draining out of him. "I still have to talk to him about the other thing. Might as well do it now."

"As you wish." Jarvis subsided without protest, causing Tony to eyeball Harry in sudden apprehension.

Tony turned on the couch to face his partner, trying to ignore his nervousness. "I know we haven't been official long enough for me to have done something drastically wrong. Right?"

"It's not you Tony. You've been just fine. I just...I need to have a difficult conversation with you, one that is ridiculously overdue. You're going to be angry with me. Well, I presume you are anyhow. And...I just...I.." Harry stumbled over his words, not knowing how to start this discussion and nearly choking on his rising anxiety.

Tony reaches over to grab Harry's hand, squeezing firmly to try and gather his attention. "Hey. Harry. Breathe sweetheart. Just take a few seconds if you need to alright?"

Harry took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Once, then twice. He squeezed Tony's hand back and then let go, causing Tony to frown a little at him, but he put his hand back in his lap and simply watched Harry's face in silence. Waiting for the other to be ready to speak.

Harry stared into his mate's blue eyes and felt his stomach churn violently. His thoughts scattered to the four winds and he blurted out poorly chosen words in his agitation. "I indirectly got your parents killed."

Tony twitched, startled, but doesn't get a chance to do anything else before Harry is word vomiting so fast it makes his head spin a little.

"I'm sorry! So sorry! I didn't do it on purpose! I didn't even know about it until after the funeral when they told me, and I completely freaked out. I should have said something then but I didn't know how to, and I was sure you would hate me forever. I had so much going on at that point and..and…Pepper." Harry stumbles to catch his breath, his mind scrambling to try and somehow explain this mess to Tony when a hand clamps over his mouth, silencing him.

Harry blinks damp lashes at his childhood friend's stony expression, though his voice when it comes, is calm. Deceptively so, Harry knew. "Stop. How exactly, did you have anything to do with the deaths of my parents."

Slowly Tony removes his hand from Harry's mouth allowing him to speak once again.

The Valkyrie swallows apprehensively, dropping his gaze to the couch. "I...ugh...It was that first night we spent together as...as more than friends. That night you kissed me. You told me about some stuff and after you left I sort of...had a breakdown. With the memories of the Dursleys so fresh in my mind at that point, and then what you had shared with me...it was upsetting. I kind of trashed the living room. Meloth and Kiran came over for one of my lessons and walked into that...mess. When I calmed down I...I explained to them why I was so upset-"

"Wait. You told them?"

"I...well yes. I should have asked you before saying something, but I wasn't really thinking straight at that point...so yes. I told them. I felt better afterward, calmer. The lesson was cancelled and I just, rested and relaxed for the rest of the day. Tried not to think about any of it, to be honest. Eventually, I was calm enough to let it go. Just took things with you day by day at that point."

"And my parents?"

"I didn't find out about their deaths until you told me, Tony. I swear it. At no point did I tell anyone, or ask anyone to kill them. As far as I knew, they had passed away in a car accident. It wasn't until the brothers came to speak with me after the funeral that I knew any different. Kiran told me that they had been upset about the whole thing, and how badly it had affected me. They made some inquiries to some contacts of theirs, and somehow...somehow things got confused, and then your parents were...they were gone…"

"So their deaths were some...some screw-up?! Just who the hell were those clowns talking too? Where who their contacts? Some shadowy criminals?"

Harry shook his head regretfully. "No. I wish it were that simple Tony. Really I do. I'd be able to hand them over to you on a silver platter if that were the case. But no. It's not some nameless criminals. It was an organization. I don't have a name for them yet, but...well...they seem to be hiding within S.H.I.E.L.D."

"What?"

"The spy organization is riddled with other people's spies. Including my own people, and Jarvis. Apparently. But at the time, I didn't know about these other Agents. Kiran made contact with one of ours, looking for more information on Howard. He told me he was looking for blackmail material. Something to make him leave you alone. Our Agent within S.H.I.E.L.D. spoke with some of their own contacts and it just...spiralled out of control from there. I can't find the assassin that killed them. I only have a couple of codenames that lead nowhere."

Harry let out a soft growl of frustration. "The only thing I've been able to piece together over the years of looking is that there is an organization within SHIELD that occasionally reaches out to do things for their own reasons. They're very careful and discrete, however, and I haven't been able to plant any of my Agents into this faceless entity. It seems to be by private invite only, and I haven't been able to get one."

Tony rubbed a hand over his face as his mind raced with the new information. "So basically, what you are telling me is that your super snoopers fucked up, and my parents died because of a messed up version of the telephone game?"

"Uhm…" Harry bit his lip, bewildered by Tony's mixed responses. Anger was easily identifiable, but his mate wasn't nearly as pissed as Harry was anticipating. At least, he wasn't visibly. "I don't know what that means?"

Tony waved him off, mind already racing down various tracks. He knew it was a stalling tactic, but he didn't care right now. He would channel his anger elsewhere for the time being. He knew Harry. The Valkyrie wouldn't purposely harm Tony.

Not like this.

So.

That left the blame squarely at the feet of this mystery organization as far as the billionaire was concerned. And S.H.I.E.L.D., for being dumbfucks. Not that that was anything new. Like he didn't already have issues with them between their stalking of Harry and how they chose to deal with Tony on a daily basis, but that was on the backburner right this second. "Jarvis?"

"I'm already looking into it Sir, though it will take me a little bit of time. Any additional information that Harry could share would be helpful."

Tony looks back at Harry with a piercing stare, making the other flinch a bit. "What were the codenames?"

Harry sighed and nodded firmly, determined to give Tony anything he could to help with the search. Surely Jarvis could find something. The AI had access to things well beyond either of the two. "Winter Soldier...and The Asset. From what I can tell they refer to the same person. The only problem is that I only know of them through word of mouth. It doesn't seem to be written down anywhere. At least not within S.H.I.E.L.D. Jarvis might be able to find more of course, since he has his metaphorical fingers in databases I don't."

Tony nodded, and suddenly changed the subject. "Now, you said Pepper's name. What does she have to do with any of this?"

Harry scowled, but reluctantly answered. Tony needed to know after all, even if the truth hurt him. "She overheard part of the meeting between us. She threatened to tell you about it if I didn't...If I didn't leave. I couldn't expose any of my people at that point, and I had absolutely no idea how you would react. You still thought I was one of the Mutants and I hadn't told you any differently. I didn't know you were my mate yet, or things would have gone so very differently. I didn't have anything to offer you, either in compensation for my screw up and your loss, if anything could in the first place, not even information. My parents were pressuring me to return home after Graduation…I didn't know what to do. Then we had that fight, and it just...it seemed better if I just let it be at that point in time."

Harry lowered his eyes in shame. "I was afraid to face you, and I couldn't tell you the whole truth yet about who and what I was. Pepper just compounded the issue."

There was silence for several minutes. Harry continued to keep his eyes down, letting Tony work through all the information Harry had dumped on him tonight. Finally, when his mate did speak again, it was soft and Harry was once more taken by surprise.

"You felt you had no other options, didn't you? Backed into a corner on all sides."

The Valkyrie Prince looked up, locking green eyes on blue. Hesitantly, he nodded. Tony sighed and rubbed a hand tiredly over his face. His tone resigned as he expanded on his thought process. "Your parents wanted you to take over SynTech. You already wanted to start up Gemini by that point. You had the silence and safety of your people and a whole host of other issues that came with that, I'm sure."

Tony shook his head, staring off into the distance as he worked through his thought dialogue. "I know expectations can be a bitch. Add in my demands on your attention and time."

Tony snorted in self-disgust, refocusing on the brunet next to him. "God...I was such a self-absorbed fucking idiot, wasn't I? Your nightmares about the Dursleys...Pepper being a conniving bitch..and then my tantrum on top of all that.."

He trailed off, and Harry just watched him, unsure how to feel about Tony being so...accepting of the entire mess. Harry had been beating himself up mentally for so long over the issues between them that he wasn't sure how to deal with a non-apocalyptic Tony.

His mate shifted in his seat, and made sure to lock eyes with the Valkyrie to drive his next point home. "Harry, I would have cut and run too. No doubt in my mind. Hell..I would have done it long before that. I'm hurt. I won't lie, that whole mess just...it fucked me up. But my shit was nothing compared to what you were dealing with. And...I understand why you didn't feel safe telling me any of that before. I can't imagine the stress you were under. Jesus...no wonder you weren't eating...or sleeping really."

Tony shook his head, at a loss. Taking a breath he reached out and took Harry's hands firmly in his own once again. "I need to think about all of this. I do. But it doesn't mean that I'm leaving you. I'm not going anywhere. I want that clear right now. Our breakup was not your fault...nor was it mine or...or even Pepper's. I think...we needed that time. To sort out our own shit and frankly...I needed to grow up Harry. A lot. The old me...would have been a terrible partner for a Prince. And I think too...that you needed to find your own confidence in dealing with your people. That wasn't something that I could have given you. So...on that front. We're okay."

Tony reached out to gently wipe away some tears on Harry's cheeks. Ignoring his partner's soft sniffles. "I love you, Harry. I'll never get tired of saying it, and I will tell you every single day, if I need to. This thing with my parents. It's heavy. But ultimately, even before their death, I was prepared that one day i wouldn't have them in my life. And I knew it would possibly have been soon after Graduation."

Harry was struggling to reign in his own emotions when Tony's words startled him "W-what? What do you mean?" The couple of tears were instantly forgotten in the wake of Tony's proclamation.

Tony nodded firmly. "These rings." Tony held up their clasped hands briefly to emphasize that he meant those exact ones that they were both wearing. "I had these made while we were still dating."

He smiled and gave a soft huff of laughter at Harry's stunned expression "I had planned on asking you after Graduation. Had it built up in my head like some grand fairy tale. I had it all planned out. I would ask you, of course you would have said yes. Because I'm irresistible. I'd give the middle finger to Howard, and we'd run off partying into the metaphorical sunset. I didn't care where we ended up, so long as I was with you. Pretty damn short-sighted of me, looking back on it, honestly."

The billionaire grinned in a self-deprecating manner at Harry's incredulous deer-in-headlights expression. "You have to understand, I knew that Howard would never accept me marrying another man, I knew that he would completely disown me at that point. I knew it. I accepted it. I figured my mother could go either way. But really, when had she ever gone against Howard in any significant manner?"

Tony shrugged his shoulders. "Her solution when I was young was to ship me off to boarding school and away from the both of them. Out of sight and out of mind. She really wasn't much of a mother...I loved her but...I don't know if she ever loved me. Not like a mother was supposed to anyhow. Either way, I would have lost them, Harry. This way was just more...abrupt...and permanent."

Slowly Harry shook his head as he tried to absorb what his mate had shared with him "I'm still sorry Tony. It never should have happened."

Harry reached out to gather his mate into his arms and rejoiced silently when Tony melted easily into the embrace. "I didn't know that things had gotten so bad between you three. You should never have had to question if you were loved by them. You were always worthy of love. They were just blind. Concerned with themselves instead of what they should have been focused on."

Tony let out a shaky sigh and nodded into the crook of Harry's neck, feeling, if not calm, at least warm and safe. He turned his head slightly so that he could speak clearly. "I know. It took me years, but...for the most part, I think I've come to terms with their combined bullshit. Howard was an abusive ass and my mother...she was afraid of him, and her solution was to placate him as much as she could and hide away whatever upset him. Which happened to be me, apparently. I don't think she sent me away to protect me. I think she did it to preserve her own reputation and sanity."

Tony snorted softly in honest amusement. "Can you imagine the scandal it would have been if any of it had come out? Already there were whispers when we were kids. The violence was escalating. I know she paid a private Doctor for their silence at least twice before I was sent to boarding school. And still, I managed to embarrass them with all sorts of articles in the paper. She was always scolding me in her letters or emails. College though, I think at that point she simply washed her hands of me. I rarely heard from her."

Harry frowned and gently ran a hand through Tony's hair. "College was pretty bad Tony. I would have given us hell for that too, but still. You never deserved any of it. They were flawed people and unfortunately, you ended up dealing with their worst traits."

Tony just hummed in acknowledgment. He had decided he was done with this line of conversation for the time being. It was getting to be too much, and they were starting to circle. Abruptly sitting up, though he made sure not to knock into Harry, he sat up and settled a laser focus on his Valkyrie. "So."

Harry blinked, and picking up on the purposeful change of mood, arched his brow playfully back. "So...what?"

"Enough of that. I want to know a couple of other things."

"Oh?" Harry responded loftily. "Such as?"

"I want to know why it is you are still hiding your wings. Mr. Happy Hogan, the surly bastard, has been asleep for hours. It's just me and Jarvis here to see them."

Harry blinked a couple of times before shaking his head with a grin. "Honestly? I'm so used to hiding them that it just didn't cross my mind that I was safe in here to do so."

"Well, you are." Tony reached out his hands and made a toddler-like grabby motion. "So lemme see them big beautiful feather dusters! I've been dying to see them."

Laughing, Harry tiredly climbed to his feet, quickly pulling his shirt off and flinging it at Tony playfully. His mate deftly caught it and dropped it on the cushion next to him, still watching Harry intently. Harry shook his head and closed his eyes for a short moment as he consciously released the inherent magic concealing them from the physical plane.

Giving a soft moan of relief and appreciation Harry vigorously shook his avian appendages, stretching them out and giving them a few sharp flaps to loosen muscles that have been held still for far too long. The entire time, Tony watched him with wide, gleaming blue eyes, taking in their every move with unabashed avarice. Harry could feel his eyes like warm brands on his skin as Tony looked him up and down with a mixture of lusty possessiveness and curiosity.

Smirking to himself, Harry purposely reached his wings out to their full height and length. Fluffing up the feathers to make them appear larger. The metallic green feathers on the underside of his pitch colored wings glittered in the dim light of the living room. The noise Tony made only stroked his ego. His smirk widened into a grin. Stepping closer, he gently cautioned Tony when the other man reached out to stroke the feathers.

"Careful, Love. The underside, in particular, can be sensitive. Normal touch won't bother me much, you can stroke, pet, lightly tug or comb your fingers through them, but don't pull. That can be rather painful."

Shooting Harry a wicked look, Tony nevertheless nodded and was gentle as he handled the softer green under feathers. "I imagine in the bedroom this will be fun to explore."

Harry readily hummed, and agreement. "I'm sure of it, but not tonight Tony."

His mate looked up at him curiously. And Harry just smiled and leaned over to kiss him on the mouth. "As much as destroying your bedroom with sexcapades would be delightful, I'm exhausted my love. I haven't slept more than a couple hours the last two days. I would really just like to go to bed and smother you with snuggles."

Tony huffed out a laugh. "You know that was the girliest, sappiest thing I think I've ever heard out of your mouth."

Harry cocked a hip into a stereotypically feminine stance, flicked his long braided hair over one shoulder with a distinct attitude and placed his hands on those same hips, looking down his nose at his mate as he ominously replied. "I'll remind you Sir...that technically I AM partially female, and entitled to every now and again express myself this way. If you have a problem with it…"

Tony interrupted him with wide eyes "No no no!" He failed his hands about in an exaggerated motion. "It's fine! I swear! I won't say a word!"

Harry scoffed in return. "Yea right...I know better than to believe that last bit."

Tony grinned, standing from his seat and sliding his arms around Harry's waist. Softly he murmured, "You caught me red handed. I have entirely too many questions about your Valkyrie nature to ever have a hope of keeping that promise."

He kissed Harry's cheek, then stepped back and gently led his partner towards the now shared bedroom. "However...all of those thousands of questions, can wait until both of us have slept until noon."

Harry sighed happily as he let himself be led without protest. "Noon sounds wonderful. Think the world will actually let us sleep that long?"

Tony's eyes scanned over his exhausted partner and his lips pressed together in displeasure. "Jarvis?"

"Already holding all calls, meetings or other disturbances that are not emergencies or related to the current Valkyrie case Sirs. Enjoy your quiet time."

Reaching the interior of the bedroom Harry flopped ungracefully backward onto the huge bed with a gusty exhalation upon landing. "You are a tech God Jarvis, and I adore you…"

"Anything for you Harry." Jarvis purred in return, causing Tony to raise an eyebrow at the nature of the banter between the two as he moves closer to the bed, looking down at his partner's blissfully closed eyes in amusement.

"Should I be jealous or turned on right now?"

Harry raises his head off of the bed to peer with laughing eyes down his still mostly clothed body at his mate. With an entirely false innocent blink, Harry then raises his socked foot in the air, wiggling the toes in Tony's direction and sweetly asks, "Undress me?"

Jarvis is suspiciously silent.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* MB *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Six hours after kidnapping was reported, Location Unknown

"Ma'am."

Slowly, the woman addressed lifted her head and attention from the small pile of documents that littered her desk to squint in irritation at the uniformed young man shuffling nervously in her open office doorway, who had interrupted her work. His name tag read 'Mason'.

Olivia Ferris was middle-aged, though gracefully so, with a still slim figure (which she fought viciously to maintain), honey wheat blonde hair and dull grey eyes. In her youth, they had more than once been mentioned as rather pretty. The harsh realities of her employment over the years, however, had stolen their inner glow, her once warm smiles, and any enthusiasm for intimately connecting to anyone else of the human race. Human beings were, in her experience, terribly selfish and destructive creatures. Herself included. These distasteful realizations had left behind the beginning of crow's feet, stress lines, a near perpetual frown pursing her lips, and a keen disappointment in life.

"What?" She growled out aggressively when Mason simply continued to loiter, saying nothing, eyes darting about as though she were a poisonous snake he couldn't walk away from but didn't want to agitate. Mentally, Olivia made a note to make sure she closed that blasted door next time. At this rate, she was never going to get through her work for the day will all these constant interruptions. If it wasn't one thing, it was another.

At her tone, Mason instantly snapped to attention, and Olivia barely refrained from rolling her eyes. "Sorry, Ma'am. The...packages have arrived."

Nodding sharply, she stood from her desk and strode purposefully passed him out of the door. Paying no mind when the young man scrambled to keep up with her longer than average legs, firing rapid questions as she went. "When did they arrive? Why was I not notified immediately? Why are they two hours overdue? Where any of them damaged? How many were they able to procure? Did we suffer any asset losses?"

Olivia swung a left down white and grey sterile hallways, leaving the messenger to scurry after her like a winded rat as he tried to answer her questions as swiftly as possible.

"They arrived twenty minutes ago, Ma'am. The Doctor sent me to you as soon as the packages were unloaded and placed in the Isolation Lab. I do not know why they are two hours late, but I suspect the lousy weather to be the cause. I do not know if any of them were damaged in transport Ma'am, you would need to ask the Doctor, they were still unloading the last of them when I left to inform you. I believe that they were able to obtain a total of fifteen Ma'am." Mason gasped for breath after his long response, hoping his answer was acceptable.

Olivia merely grumbled in clear dissatisfaction and was oblivious to the wilting form of the man behind her. "Well, at least they were able to gather a decent amount to study. This is a huge breakthrough in the Sinclair case. It's the first time we've ever gotten any sort of proof of his human experimentations."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Olivia stopped as she approached a set of steel and glass doors. Using her passcard, they opened smoothly for her. She turned her head to pin the young man with a piercing glare. "This is Level six Clearance. I don't have to tell you the ramifications to yourself should you be stupid enough to breathe a whisper of anything to see or hear concerning this case do I? The Doctor may certainly trust you, but I do not. Keep that in mind. I would have no compunction about eliminating you should it become necessary. Lab gophers are easily replaced. There are many clawing to fill any available void."

Mason again snapped to attention. It was sloppy. The boy was pathetic. He was no soldier, and she didn't expect him to have the fortitude to last very long in this research and investigation section. Unfortunately, assistants with both brains and military training, who also had the stomach for this sort of work without being a complete mental case were not as common as she would have liked. They made due with what was sent their way.

"It will never be a necessity, Ma'am!"

Olivia hummed in displeasure before turning to walk into the Lab, promptly ignoring and forgetting about the young man. He was the Doctor's problem while in here, not hers. He was only her problem when he fucked up, and she dealt with problems harshly. Turning her attention to the fifteen individual egg crates that were padded with sweet smelling hay, she swiftly approached the plain steel tables they were sitting on. While her outward expression did not change, internally she was ecstatic.

Finally, after years of digging, bribing, threatening, stalking, they had something. Physical proof of Sinclair's depravity. The man was admittedly brilliant in the scientific fields he chose to play in. But he dealt with questionable people and materials. There had been rumours before Sinclair had even finished college, curtesy of an anonymous outcry witness, though they had not reached her employers ears until several years afterwards. Unfortunately, the person's whistleblowing had initially been swept aside as paranoid trash.

Sinclair came from a privileged home and upbringing, adopted from a fairly young age by the Sinclair couple, who had no children of their own. His adopted mother was a popular socialite and his father an intelligent (if sometimes flighty) successful biologist. Both were investigated and passed over as normal and nonthreatening. Though rumour had it Alice Sinclair was a shark in the social game when she chose to be.

When Harold Sinclair's biological parents were investigated however, things became difficult. Supposedly, Harold was born to a Sarah Smith, at home, in 1980, on October thirty-first, at exactly ten-o-three pm, father unknown. Nothing could be found on the man, and not for lack of trying either. There simply was no information there that led anywhere. The conclusion was that either Sarah Smith had not known who the father of her child was, or she had taken the secret with her to her grave.

Biological samples of Harold were impossible to get a hold of. Every test they tried failed. It was perplexing.

In contrast to the elusive father, Harold's mother was average in every way, too much so. Accomplishing nothing of interest in her life, before she decided to end it just a few months before Harold was adopted by the Sinclairs. A closed adoption. Upon reading the files, it gave the impression that this humdrum, uninteresting Sarah Smith had somehow known Alice Sinclair (maiden name Walker), and purposely chosen them to give her child over to. Sarah had taken months to plan her suicide and took into consideration where her son would end up, and with whom. It was strange. The mentally ill, in Olivia's admittedly limited experience, almost never took other people into consideration when taking certain actions. She felt that suicide was a deeply selfish act, and for Sarah to so carefully look after her son's needs beforehand was suspicious of her. It smacked of conspiracy, but of what Olivia couldn't yet fathom.

Harold Sinclair himself was nearly impossible to pin down. Nothing stuck to him, or his people, who were just as difficult to pin down. The one they had captured had been a fluke. Entirely an accident. Dumb luck. They had been severely injured while on the job. Ironically enough, for the same people as herself. When other's had rushed to try and save his life, discoveries were made.

Unfortunately, the exact nature of what things had been uncovered was apparently over Olivia's pay grade. She knew only the basics. It had taken over two years for the man to break and tell them anything, and even then, it was just the barest information before he was found dead in his holding cell. Confirming that Sinclair had eyes and ears even here. It was a shame, because whispers said that the man had been high up and well respected by many.

But now, it ultimately didn't matter. Now they could start unraveling Sinclair's organization. It wouldn't be swift, but any progress was good in Olivia's mind. They could finally nail the bastard.

Taking her time she studied the items before her critically. Snatching up a flexible measuring tape, she immediately went to work on basic information. The Fifteen eggs were roughly twelves inches tall by eight inches in diameter and one hundred and twenty times the size of the average chicken's egg. They were huge, and nothing currently living on Earth could have laid them.

They had to have been somehow manufactured in a Lab like setting. The colors were varied and honestly, pretty in some instances. Some were solid colored, some speckled, some swirled, some bright and gaudy, others earthy and understated. They ran the gamut typically found in bird's eggs and even a few that didn't. There were no two exactly alike, and she wondered if the colors meant anything significant. She reached to pick one up when she was rudely interrupted.

"I would not do that."

Scowling, Olivia turned to the Doctor Evan Moore who had crept up to her side without her notice of his approach, "And why not?" she bit out. Glaring at the tall, but gaunt whipcord of a man. He was not handsome, though he might once have been, under the scarring that marred his face. Despite his off-putting appearance, the man had a mind like a bear trap. He was just as vicious at times too.

He sniffed at her, and spoke rather condescendingly. "The shells are very brittle. They do not tolerate handling very well. We have already lost three of them in transport and movement."

She frowned, but then shrugged callously. "We were going to have to break a few open to study them anyhow. We still have twelve left. What was found inside?"

"Ahhh…" He offered her a lopsided smile. Olivia tried not to grimace in return. The scarring on the man's face twisted the expression into something grotesque when he tried to smile. No one knew what it was from, as far as she was aware, the man had never once mentioned it himself. But the scarring wasn't what made her internally coil like a viper about to strike. She had seen terrible wounds and scarring on people several times over the years of her climbing career. The scars, while unpleasant, weren't what always put her instincts on high alert.

It was his eyes. They should have been a warm, rich brown color, but any emotion they might have held simply didn't exist. They were dark empty pits that bored mercilessly into the unfortunate individual they were laser-focused on. She's even gone so far, in the privacy of her own mind, to conclude that they were soulless. This man lived for science, and had no compassion, interest, or care for anything else. He was one of the most brilliant minds in the world, but his personality was sorely lacking. Olivia could admit to herself that the part that unnerved her the most, however, was not his lacking of morality, it was the ease in which he could hide it. Outside of the laboratory setting, when needed, Evan could don a mask, unlike anything she had ever witnessed before, fooling anyone who did not work closely with him. He would be warm, charming and witty. She's watched him more than one seduce both men and women, with for his personal pleasure or further funding of his pet projects, depending on his whim at the time.

For some reason, Evan had never felt the need to hide himself from her. Even after years of working side by side with the Doctor, Olivia still did not know if this fact was a good thing or not. Nor she was stupid enough to broach the subject with him. He was a predator that was barely human as far as she was concerned, saved only by the grace of working for the same employer as she was. Olivia was sure, that if left to his own devices in the outside world, he would quickly become even more of a monster than he was permitted to indulge in here under the supervision of their superiors.

"You will be displeased to know that one was simply badly decomposed genetic material. Little more than slime and a half-formed fetus. The smell was vile. The transport truck will need to be purified." Evan's dispassionate voice shook Olivia from her thoughts, and she mentally scolded herself for getting distracted.

He continued on smoothly, not seeming to noticed her lapse. She knew better. Evan noticed nearly everything. "It appears that at some point in the process, whatever was intended to grow inside of it had died and begun to rot within the shell. I had it taken already for testing of the contents and shell pieces."

He paused, and she nodded in response while inquiring. "The other two?"

"The other two are more promising. Inside there appeared to be something resembling human fetuses. Both appear nearly finished in development. However, as we suspected, there were deformities found."

She felt her stomach turn. As much as she had intellectually known that Sinclair was dabbling in some twisted science, having this sort of proof was...well it was sickening. "What sort of deformities?"

The man gave a delighted little noise as he considered the possibilities. "Upon initial examination, both fetuses appear to be dual-gendered."

The woman blinked in surprise. "What? Why?"

The man shrugged indifferently. "We don't know at the moment, but it may or may not be an intentional deformity. One of them looked to be even further along in whatever process Sinclair was attempting to achieve. It looks to have developed nearly complete wings. Ruwick told me that it breathed and even cried weakly for several minutes before it died. The other had only begun to develop stumps. They didn't find that one until after it was already dead."

"That's...I don't even have words for it. Just what is he trying to do?" She frowned and shook her head at the scientist before her. These eggs had once been, at some point, human children. She couldn't understand what Sinclair was trying to accomplish with this, and she was furious that infants were involved at all. She had to remind herself that human experimentation was the lowest of the low, and it should not shock her as much as it was.

Forcefully Olivia pulled herself from her spiraling thoughts for the second time. "Their deaths were unfortunate, but we can advance our understanding with their end. I want everything tested and studied, as I'm sure you know. Get everything you can, and then...once we are sure we have everything we can get, find a way to have them pass on humanely. I can't imagine existing as one of these...things...could possibly be living. They are possibly in pain. They likely have a whole host of mental issues to go along with whatever else Sinclair has mixed into their genetic makeup. If they even have human intelligence, to begin with."

She turned away from the table after eyeing the eggs one last time, pausing by the door as the Doctor cleared his throat to garner her attention. She looked back at Evan questioningly. "Yes, Doctor?"

"Shouldn't we perhaps keep a couple alive for a short time. We could likely learn more about what exactly Sinclair was hoping to accomplish with these mutations. They do seem, on the surface at least, to be purposeful after all."

Unconsciously she curled her lip in disdain at the idea, but had to reluctantly concede the point, whether her instincts rebelled against the notion or not. "Very well, no more than four. I will see about procuring space for them. For now, destroy the rest of those monstrosities when you are done with them."

The Doctor lit up gleefully, and half spun to continue his work.

"However, Doctor…" The woman's voice drifted in a poisonous drawl

He turned his head to regard her cautiously.

"You are to keep in mind that the ones you select for further research are not pets. We are not keeping the abominations that Sinclair created. They are for short-term study, and then they too will be euthanized. Understand? At this time, we are not documenting their growth. Only what he has tried to create in his apparent madness, do I make myself clear?"

Slowly the Doctor nodded, mind whirling through all the tests and procedures he could use on the specimens before they died under the strain or were destroyed by his superior's order. He could tell that she would not tolerate their presence for long. Briefly, he pitied the ones unfortunate enough to be kept. Their lives would be brutal and short.

The woman turned away and returned to her office until such a time as they had further information for her. The Doctor watched her go before shaking himself from his contemplations and also continued on his way.

It was no matter either way. Evan would do what he needed to do to further their understanding of whatever this thing was that Sinclair was playing with. Whether or not the creature suffered was rather a moot point. They were going to be destroyed anyhow. Better that they were at least useful in the meantime, and if he found a little amusement or pleasure in the coming procedures?

Well...that was no one's business but his own.