You guys seriously didn't think I'd end it there, did you? I may be evil, but I'm not an asshole!
On a side note- things may slow down for a bit. My Grandparents went to Florida for a vacation, and my grandpa got into an accident. Nothing serious, thankfully, he's on the mend now, but my Mom is going to be staying with them for awhile. Which means I'll be the head girl of the house. While my brother can do laundry and my Dad is amazing- neither of them have any idea how to shop. Or cook anything a isn't out if a package. So I'm head girl in the house for awhile- meaning I'll be double busy with both school and cleaning and all.
But I'll do my best to keep it going for you guys, and do my mom proud!
PS- the way Amy gets rescued will make you scream.
Black combat boots came in contact with the metal floor of the compound, breaking the death silence that'd come over everything. He turned his head to see a man sitting against the wall, head lolled forward, gun in his limp hand- brains spattered out on the wall behind him.
He pursed his lips together in a thin line, continuing on. There was more carnage as he continued, bodies splayed haphazardly in the hallway, blood pooling around them. Execution style shootings had occurred in some on the larger rooms, for those who'd been too faint of heart to end it themselves...
It was hard to believe one child could cause so much chaos. But she had.
He approached the door carefully- with a muttered incantation the metal fairly tore away from it's counterpart door, leading him into the darkened room. It was silent- he'd expected it to be, of course. He stepped carefully over a mess of wires on the floor, towards the small form lying deathly still. She looked like Hela.
He gently crouched beside her, rolling her onto her back. Blood trickled steadily from her mouth, it'd pooled on the floor. She was struggling to breathe, each breath making her entire form shudder and her chest rattle. Her skin was nearly ashen.
He gently laid his pale fingers on his forehead, the ancient words flowing off his tongue as easily as if it were the All-tongue. She was silent. A moment later, she began to breath more quietly, seeming less distressed.
He quietly gathered her into his arms- he'd forgotten how small mortals were. He brushed the hair from her face quietly, taking a look at who it actually was he'd rescued. He simply stared for a moment, before quietly muttering another incantation and feeling the familiar rushing sensation as they were gone.
She woke up in her room, feeling achey and odd. She didn't remember anything- had she been sick or something? Her mouth had an awful taste in it, and she felt... out of it. She swung her legs over the bed and shakily stood, brushing a lock of hair from her face and swallowing.
She caught sight of herself in the mirror. She looked like shit- clad in black converse sneakers, jeans, and her ACDC T-shirt, all rumpled and wrinkled from sleeping in them. Not to mention the unnatural paleness to her skin, and the pounding in her head...
She'd ask Tony for some Aspirin or something...
She stumbled into the hallway, running the back of her hand over her bleary eyes, before staggering into the living room.
"Tony?"
The room was dead silent. She looked up, surprised, to see Steve looking as pale as she'd ever seen him, what looked to be half of SHEILD was set up in the kitchen, and even Nick Fury was stunned into stillness for a moment.
It was Tony who moved first, bolting off the couch and pulling her into a hug that made her aching muscles scream in protest...
"Tony! Ah, god, that hurts..." she exclaimed, jerking back as everything throbbed, Tony pulled back, and she expected him to look concerned, or maybe apologize, but tears were streaming down his face as he stared at her...
"Tony?" now it was her turn to look concerned. He was... crying. She'd never seen Tony cry, ever.
She looked to Steve, at a complete loss, but the soldier simply stared back at her with that same shocked expression, like he was a doll, frozen...
"I want her in containment, now." Fury spoke curtly, and agents quietly formed a perimeter around her, one of them seizing her by the arm.
"Tony- what the hell is going on!?" she shrieked, actual fear creeping into her tone.
"Don't touch her! Godammit Nick, nobody touch her!" Tony was suddenly a wild animal, and four agents were holding back the struggling man as his daughter was escorted from the room.
She turned around and gave him one last, wide-eyed glance through the gap between the mass of bodies that was escorting her, and she was gone.
"NICK!" Tony roared.
Fury ignored him, turning to Natasha and Clint. "Try and calm him down." he ordered curtly, nodding to Tony, who was still fighting like a rabid dog. "We'll be in contact shortly."
"Where the hell is my Dad!?" she all but screamed. She'd been placed in the back of a car, the doors having no handle on the inside and the windows not buckling when she tried to break them. There was a metal screen cordoning her off from the drivers, and even then, nobody responded to the frantic questions she'd been asking.
They'd barely managed to contain her before she was thrown into an exam room, left to pace frantically, rifling through the medical cupboards, looking for anything that might be used for a weapon.
All she found was a plastic container with a biohazard symbol, full of used syringes. She armed herself with a few and tok her position in the , catching her breath. If they came in and tried anything, she'd stab them...
The door to the room slid open. She took a breath, waiting. No footsteps sounded. Whoever it was was clearly looking around for her, surprised she'd disappeared, they couldn't see her from where she was hunched on the other side of the exam table...
The sound of one footfall echoed in the silent room like a gunshot, then the next...
She sprang to her feet, syringe in hand...
She lost all orientation then, as she was struck with such force her back hit the wall and she sank to the floor, gasping for breath as the wind was knocked out of her.
Nick Fury crouched before he, picking up the syringe she'd dropped and noting her nose, which was now bleeding.
He frowned- he didn't like using force, this time it'd been necessary. He quietly seized her by her upper arms, ignoring how she flinched at the touching, and lifted her up onto the exam table, singular good eye staring at her.
She wasn't crying- that was surprising. Most people would've cracked.
He held a hand to her bloody nose in an attempt to slow it, looked up at him fearfully. "Where's Tony?" her voice was barely above a whisper.
"He'll be here shortly. I need you to answer a few questions." he didn't bother asking if she'd be willing to answer, instead barreling right towards the point. "What's the last thing you remember?"
She thought of brushing him off, but the question struck a nerve, and everything from confusion to fear flittered across her voice when she realized she didn't know. "I... I don't know."
"If I told you that you were presumed dead seven hours ago, would you believe me?"
She was still for a moment, a few wanton memories crossed her mind- before she nodded. "Yeah. I believe you."
Fury observed her for a moment, watching her open her mouth to speak and hesitate, closing it again, before darting a nervous glance over at him...
"I stole something, didn't I?" she asked quietly.
Fury nodded seriously. "You did. All SHEILD intel on HYDRA- you hacked a computer. Remember anything else?" he purposely left out all the details they'd had on her captivity. He didn't want to influence anything she said by mistake, didn't want to corrupt the forsthand account she'd provide...
She shook her head slowly. "No. Well, yeah, I remember talking to Tony about stealing from SHEILD, you guys were all on my kitchen... That was it."
Fury nodded, looking pensive, hands behind his back. "Do you remember how you got to your room?"
"No. I remember waking up. And I remember pain... That's it. That's all I can tell you."
"Why did you steal SHEILD intel?"
She went ridged, looking uncomfortable. "Where's Tony?" she asked finally, unwilling to meet his gaze.
"Answer the question." Fury pushed, and he watched her eyes dull as she turned to face the wall, taking a deep breath and gritting her teeth, wrapping her arms around her knees.
"I want Tony." and with that she shut down, refusing to answer anything else.
It was then the sleeve if her ACDC T-shirt moved up slightly, revealing what appeared to be a tattoo.
"Do you remember getting that?" Fury asked, quietly moving forward to roll up her sleeve.
She looked down, astonished, to see the black ink wrapping around her upper arm in bands, like a cuff. Foreign symbols wrapped around the flesh in serpentine ways, leaving her simply staring...
"No. I want my Dad..." her voice cracked painfully, and Fury quickly turned and fled the room- it wouldn't do him any good to push her over the edge right now.
Minutes later, Tony burst into the room, Steve and the others close behind.
"Nick! What the hell is going on!?" Tony demanded, brown eyes burning.
Nick calmly took a step back, sizing up the man with his one good eye. "The girl was exposed to weaponized smallpox. It was our first order of business to quarantine her to prevent a pandemic outbreak..."
"So you drag her out with no explanation whatsoever?"
"I assumed she'd understand our reasoning..."
"And does she?" Tony demanded, eyes still blazing. "Because I sure as hell don't."
Steve placed a hand on Tony's shoulder, and the man relaxed slightly. The soldier met Nick's gaze, eyes concerned. "Arguing won't do any good right now. How is she?"
Nick sighed. "The blood test for smallpox came back negative. Physically, she seems fine..."
"And mentally?" Steve began to look slightly anxious- he'd had an aunt back in the forties, who'd lost her mind and had to be placed in the asylum... He wasn't sure if he could handle getting Amy back from the dead only to loose the girl to her own mind.
"She doesn't remember these past few days. She remembers stealing from SHEILD, the discussion all of us had in the kitchen together about the theft- but nothing from her time in captivity."
Natasha nodded, looking slightly concerned. "So what're your concerns, here? Subliminal programing?"
Fury shook his head. "No. It's possible- they have advanced techniques to human control, of course, they could've done something to her... But she shouldn't be alive. If she really crippled that base, really let loose a strain if weaponized smallpox... it should've been present in her bloodstream in some amount."
Clint frowned. "You're suggesting she staged the entire thing? The suicide attempt, the release of the weaponized smallpox..."
"Possibly."
Tony punched the wall in frustration. "Seriously!? Didn't you see the broadcast- she explained EVERYTHING! They manipulated her- she thought it was her father! Hiw can you still think she's in league with HYDRA!?"
"I don't want to believe it either, Tony." Bruce said quietly. "But what else could explain her survival- hell, her SHOWING UP back home hours after she was supposedly left for dead- if it wasn't staged?"
Fury frowned. "That's were the second theory comes in. She's got some sort of runic carving, some sort of brand in her skin- it seems like extra-teresterials might have been involved."
All eyes turned to Thor, except Tony, who crossed his arms and looked impatient. "I could care less about what happened. She's alive- that's what matters. I want to see her."
Fury nodded. He'd expected as much, honestly- the girl could do no wrong in Tony's eyes. He was far more interested in seeing her than what'd happened.
He was let into the room to find her curled up on the exam table, knees to her chest and chin resting in the valley created by her kneecaps. Nothing but anxiety was on her face as she stared at the floor.
The doors slid shut behind him, and her gaze snapped up, anxiety increasing tenfold...
"Hey..." He moved slowly, quietly sitting beside her on the exam table. He remembered the distraught way she'd spoken to him on camera- begging forgiveness, expressing how even thiugh she knew there was no redeeming herself, she'd wanted him to know she'd tried... for him, she'd tried.
He blinked as his eyes grew moist. None if the same desperation was in her demeanor now, only anxiety as she refused to meet his eyes...
She was trembling, shaking like a nervous rabbit cornered by a cat, and he gently reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder. As soon as he touched her, her gaze darted up, eyes wide.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, i shouldn't have stolen frim SHEILD, my Dad said it was the only way..." her gaze lowered again, and her lip began to tremble. He was surprised THAT was what she was apoligizing for, out of everything that'd happened...
But then he remembered nick telling him the last thing she remembered was stealing from SHEILD, and it made sense. Suddenly he was relieved- imagining all the trauma she'd been spared by forgetting everything she'd endured.
He quietly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him.
"You don't remember, but we went over this already." he said, resting his chin ontop of her head. "You lied- you said that you wanted to hack it for fun. But later- you confessed the real reason. You confessed everything. And I forgive you."
She slowly relaxed, melting into his hold. Dull green eyes looked up at him, relief showing clearly on her features. "What'd my Dad say about it?"
Tony felt something akin to tearing stitches from his chest, and he swallowed. She'd forgotten everything during caltivity, he reminded himself, she hadn't known it'd all been a ploy... How did he explain this to those hopeful eyes?
"Amy." his voice was surprisingly level and calm, and he gently smoothed back a lock of chestnut hair in a soothing gesture.
"You know a lot of things have hapoened since we found you, right?"
She nodded, still looking confused. "Yeah- where did I go?"
Tony paused. He'd been given strict instructions, not to mention anything from captivity for fear of influencing her subliminally- that meant he could tell her nothing. She'd have to remember it on her own.
"You were missing... for days, Amy." he got out, feeling emotion begin to claw at his throat and willing his voice not to crack. "What happened- was a result of torture. None of it was your fault. None of it. You did nothing wrong, okay?"
"Okay..." she still looked confused.
"We still don't know all the details of what happened to you. Bits and pieces. I-I'm not allowed to tell you what I know. What I witnessed."
She looked concerned, looking over at him. "SHEILD can make you do that?"
"No. SHEILD can't make me do anything. However, they... suggested I not mention anything, as they didn't want it to influence your recollection. And I agreedd, because as your Dad- I feel it's in your best interests. Trust me, okay?"
She nodded, looking serious. Still, her posture showed she was completely at ease. Tony couldn't help but wonder how long it'd be until she started having flashbacks- the therapists had said she might remember bits and pieces all at once, or slowly, over a span of years... He had no idea what to expect.
"Can we go home?" she asksd, suddenly looking hopeful.
Tony couldn't help but smile at the normalcy in that tone. "Give me a few minutes, and yeah, we can go home."
"Cool. Can we get pizza?"
Tony smiled. She was really here- she was still Amy. Asking for pizza. He was so glad she was alive- he didn't care how, or why, she just WAS. And hell, he'd have bought her the entire city if she'd asked for it.
But she hadn't. She wasn't materialistic like that. She just wanted pizza.
"Yes. We can get pizza."
"Did I mention I love you?" she said with a grin, and Tony tried not to melt.
"As you should." he replied with an arrogant grin that made her roll her eyes before he exited the room. She was here.
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