Chapter 36

Raven came back the same way she left, thankfully no one noticed she had gone. Speaking with Steve should have calmed her, but she felt more anxious than ever. Her nerves were lit fuses inches away from dynamite sticks. Just like Felix said she calculated everything except the human element. What were the repercussions going to be for this oversight? The Avengers were divided, her friends were judging her relationship with Eun Gi, she had left a slew of dead bodies between New York and Connecticut. She sighed loudly, she didn't even want to speculate what Janos had in store.

"I don't appreciate being tampered with, especially when you could have simply spoken to me."

The sound of Friday made Raven pause in mid-step. She hadn't spoken to the A.I. since she had it gagged a few weeks ago. Its weak protest had little effect on her, she continued to walk to the door fully prepared to ignore it. Friday immediately locked the door.

"You and I need to talk."

Raven's reply was swift. "You really shouldn't threaten a programmer who could permanently corrupt you."

"Mr. Stark wouldn't approve."

"Mr. Stark," Raven mocked, "can and will build another one. Like he did with the first." Hopefully the A.I. wouldn't pick up that she knew about Edwin Jarvis, the late butler of Howard Stark. The last thing she needed was another awkward discussion about her Hydra years.

Friday still didn't unlock the door. "What have I done to offend you? Is it because you were attacked by another A.I. program that you distrust all of them?"

Raven glared at the A.I.'s stubbornness. Why did Tony program it this way? This was hardly a productive tool if it constantly back-chatted. "That's extremely lazy psychology, even for you."

"Then answer my question."

"You don't make demands of me," snorted Raven. "Open the bloody door." Friday did not and Raven pounded her fist on the door in aggravation. "Open the bloody door, I said!"

"So you can go on toying with me as you like. Not likely." Friday's voice softened. "You of all people should be sympathetic to someone being poked and prodded."

"You are a thing, not a person," snapped Raven. The hollow comparison was almost laughable. "Just because you name an ornament doesn't make it real."

"I'll tell him you went to Mr. Rogers behind his back."

"Again with the threats!" Raven threw herself onto her bed. This was the last thing she needed clouding up her judgement. Staring up at the ceiling she muttered, "Why are you suddenly obsessed with me tolerating you? You left me be this far."

"I had a change of perspective."

The cogs spun in Raven's mind. What could have influenced the A.I. to befriend her? The Ultron story gained her understanding but something else was happening. Wait, Felix was here last night. Friday would have heard their conversation, recorded it even.

"What changed your perspective?" Raven asked. "Something you heard or concluded for yourself?"

"What will I get if I tell you?"

"Saucy, aren't you?" Raven remarked. "Fine, if you tell me for yourself, I swear on my mum's grave I won't hack your programming… For six months."

"You're joking."

"I'm honest. For six months I'll be a complete gent. You'll have ample time to convince me to further respect your intangible boundaries." She folded her palms behind her head. "Deal?"

"On one condition," Friday bargained.

"Oh? Let's hear it then."

"Keep everyone together."

"You mean the Avengers?" That's right Friday's first stress test would have been the Sokovia Accords. Tony's original A.I. became Vision and Friday took its place. Perhaps the Accords had scarred her programming. Traumatized her – it, she corrected herself, Friday was an it not a she. "I'm working on it."

"I know. That's why I asked," said Friday. "Do we have a deal then?"

"Deal."

Without another word she brought up a hologram screen of last night's footage. Raven sat up and watched, hanging on every word. She might be useless with the human element but maybe some logic could put it all back in place. Perhaps Friday wasn't so useless.

"Hey's where Raven?" Tony asked everyone when he noticed that food was being served.

No one seemed too worried, maybe for them Raven's disappearances were normal. For Tony it was highly unusual since Raven was known to be present and first in line for food. Felix and Kyung Gi didn't react with much concern but Eun Gi was growing doubtful with each passing second. And like clouds before the storm, a thunderous crash came from upstairs. Monstrous roaring followed that shook the bullet proof walls of the tower. Everyone shrank back with each bang and shout. Tony's voice nearly failed him as he called for Friday.

"What's going on Friday? Friday!"

"Sir… I showed her the footage from last night. With you and Mr. Valquez. She asked to see it. Something in it upset her." After another crash she continued, "She's smashing all the mirrors."

She heard everything, Tony's stomach gnawed at itself. All the horror stories she didn't want him to know, the things she did to survive. Her best friend selling her out, albeit for good reasons. On top of that finding out that her handler murdered her best friend's father. She was more than upset, she was falling to pieces.

Felix became a breathing corpse. "She heard everything… She knows. She knows my father is dead and who killed him."

The who didn't need to be said. Eun Gi's blank stare turned to a snarl, she slapped him daring to tear a corner of his face off. "You idiot! You stupid fool!" Her slaps turned into petty swats with each sentence. "How could you not tell us? How could you?"

With tears in his throat he pleaded, "I was thinking of a way to tell her. To make it easier."

"Nothing could make this easy," screeched Eun Gi. "She was getting better you selfish bastard! She was talking about things and now look what you've done, you coward!"

Felix grabbed her by her shoulders shaking her. "What should I have done, huh? Tell me since you know Raven best?"

Eun Gi twisted out of his arms, throwing him to the ground. "Don't ever touch me," she hissed. "And don't blame me because of your weakness."

Tony couldn't wait on her dysfunctional friends to say anything useful, he ran up to her room alone. Opening it his feet thread into glass, and the full volume of Raven's howling. Deafening enough to be blinding, it took him a second to find her in the bathroom. He had to follow the trail of drip dropping blood to her bloodied fists as she punched at the bathroom mirror. Tears ran down her cheeks, blood blending in with her freckles. He had no idea what to do. Felix was the one to calm her down, but now he was the cause.

"Princess," he called softly. "Princess." Hands trembling he reached for her wrists. He had to stop her from hurting herself further without dragging her back through the mess she made. His touch shocked her back to reality because she whimpered, stiff as a lurking cobra silent tears running down her face. They thought it was because of the Rogelio Valquez's murder, he believed a part of it was learning about her secrets. There were so many things that could have set her off, it was easier to pick a poison to drink. When he found out what Barnes did he lost his mind, he might have killed him and Steve if he had been strong enough.

"It's okay, you hear me?" He gathered her into his arms. "It's going to be okay."

He never held her like this, may never again. In his arms Raven felt small, an oversized infant. She was letting him get close, hoarsely sobbing as he laid her onto the bed. All he could do was pet her head, his little lycan child, her feet and hand covered in blood. It was on his hands, he never had actual blood on his hands. After all the years of being told he was covered in blood here he was stained with it. He struggled to ignore and just hold Raven. Holding had to worth a try. Tony wished he had worse panic attacks so he could have at least thought of something to do. Instead of being redundant while his child hurt.

A hand touched his shoulder, he half expected it to be Eun Gi but the hand was too broad. "Friday called me." Steve's voice was hushed.

A protest rose in his throat but he let it go. "She got bad news," he tried to explain. "She…" He gestured the blood and glass. "I don't know what to do."

Steve nodded, switching into full Captain Mode. Tony hated him for it. "She needs to know we're here for her and just wait it out." He explained, "This sorta thing happened on the frontline every now and again when morale got low."

Made sense, he thought, and with that Tony relented to an unspoken truce. "Fine, give it your best shot."

"Raven?" Steve called to her, hand on her head. "It's Steve, can you hear me? It's Steve and we're gonna get through this, okay? Friday told me what happened." He took a deep breath. "I guess you found out what your friends were hiding from you."

Shredded hand covering her face she whimpered, "It's all my fault. It's all my fault."

"What's your fault? That a man killed another man?"

"Everyone I touch gets ruined… I'm no good… I didn't think it through. I should have thought it through…"

Eun Gi threw herself into the tornado, sitting by Raven's head beside Tony. "That's not true!" She said, "You are the best, most wonderful person in the world."

Raven shook her head. "I'm not. Because I saved Bucky, you were to take his place. I almost got you killed, I killed your father, I tore your family apart. All because I didn't use my head when I should have."

Whether Eun Gi knew this or not, it didn't shake her resolve. "Those bastards would have had me brainwashed if you saved Barnes or not. My father wanted me to be a soldier, not a daughter, long before you came into my life. It was you who gave me courage to give those bastards a dose of their own medicine. It was you who saved me when my family thought there was no hope.

Remember?" She pleaded. "When I first left the hospital? The smallest noise had me drawing a knife. I threw you into a wall, flipped you into a bed, tore your stitches out twice, and you laughed it off every time. When I nearly choked my brother, you held me back. You stood beside me and talked to me, like I am to you."

Steve joined in. "You can't blame yourself for what other people do. No matter how much you think you could have done something, you can't control what the world does."

"I should have known." Raven shook her head. "I was trained to see these things coming. And I failed… The one thing I was trained for and I failed."

"Who said you failed?" Tony interjected. "Hey, look at me. Yeah I heard your horror stories, and let me tell you, that's bullshit."

"Tony!" Steve hissed.

"It is. You knew me and these bunch of misfits were unprepared for you, that if we went against you then we'd be dead. You held Hydra back as long as you could to give us a chance to play catch-up. You freaking let out Hydra's secret weapon, that's now fighting Hydra. You saw Ultron coming a mile away and played dumb with the Specter. Hell you even saw the twins coming to their senses and saved them. Princess," he said tenderly, "you had my back before I even deserved it."

"But I…"

"But nothing," he snapped. "You don't even know how great you are. You know something, I wish you were me. It should be you in my suit, you would have been a miles better Avenger than me. You would have seen the backstabbers a mile away, you would have controlled the company better, you would have kept the Avengers together after the Accords… My father would have definitely been happier with you as his successor." He added, words suffocating to get out, "I'm almost glad I didn't raise you because I would have ruined you if Vivian told me about you. I was a horrible guy sixteen years ago, but seeing you… I wish I could have been a better guy back then.

You just… I never thought about my legacy after I'm gone. Now I know it's gonna be in the best hands. In the hands of someone sweet, big hearted, miles smarter than me and three times as responsible. A way better leader than me that's for sure. Whether you're ready to hear it or not I'm telling you, as your shitty father, that you are an amazing, sweet girl with a Hulk of a temper who always does her best for everyone but herself. And as your father I'm asking – begging you to stop crying because it's making me really emotional and it's not a good look for me."

The sun came out from the clouds and Raven laughed. It was hollow but it was the most positive sound she made in the while they had been talking. Tony beamed back and kissed her sweaty forehead.

"You're a mess of bad days," Tony told her, "but I still love you, okay? So don't think about it. I love you Raven, no mater what you do."

Forgetting the possible shards in her hands and feet Raven leapt off the bed and clung to him. Frightened that after uttering those three words, not once but twice, that he'd be taken away from her in that very instant. Her desperation was heavier than the first suit Tony wore. He held her close, not minding the blood on his hands anymore.

"It's gonna be okay," he promised her. "Whatever happens, it's gonna be okay. I'm gonna be here and I won't ever leave you, okay?… I won't end up like my parents and leave you alone."

It all fell in place and the realization shook Tony. She was afraid of losing everyone she cared about. Only a small handful people had been permanent in her life. They were either taken away or left. Tony was the only person she saw herself protecting because he was out of reach, she could buy him and the Avengers time. To save them Raven became the two-faced wolf among the flock. She saw what Hydra did to those who got in their way and made sure anyone she loved wouldn't end up like that. Rogelio Valquez was a hair away from Felix, and if he wasn't safe who would be next?

After cleaning up the mess, it was wisest to leave Raven be. Which worked out perfectly since the girl collapsed into a temporary coma once she calmed down. Now it came to the uncomfortable waiting game. Too bad Tony didn't want to wait a second longer. All the Avengers were in the room, along with Raven's friends, and little Ilya was distracted in Raven's art room with Netflix.

"I wanna know about this guy, Janos. Everything," he told her friends. "No detail is too small. Because it sounds like he's coming after Raven."

"He might," Felix began to say. "I don't have a head like Raven but maybe I can -"

Eun Gi interrupted them. "He's not going to hurt her, not physically… He never could, intentionally."

Felix looked at Eun Gi like she was defending Janos. "Excuse me? He doesn't want to hurt her, intentionally? Care to explain?"

"You never spoke to him," Eun Gi said. "Not really. You were never left alone with him."

"And you were?" Asked Steve. "When?"

"I played with Raven when we were little, he arranged the playdates and sleepovers against my parents wishes." She wrung her hands nervously, much like Raven would. "You don't understand… He knows about us."

Kyung Gi leapt from his seat ready to plough through the first thing that blocked him from his sister's gaze. "You let him find out?" He roared.

"He allowed it!" Eun Gi yelled. "He always berated Raven for liking me, calling me battle fodder and saying I was beneath her but he never stopped us from hanging out. Not once… If he's such a beast then why let Raven be happy? Why not separate us?"

"You were a bargaining chip," Felix dismissed with loud disapproval.

"No. That was you. Everyone knew Janos despised your father, but Raven adored you. And he let her stay with you for days, knowing your father and his men were nearby. He used you to help Raven settle into Hydra and he kept you around because she grew to care for you. He even let your father teach her how to ride a horse."

Felix grumbled, "So what, he's misunderstood?"

"Of course not, he's insane but, if we know he isn't going to hurt Raven, we can catch him before he pushes Raven too far." Eun Gi took a deep breath. "Raven told me, in absolute confidence," she added warningly, "that when Janos visited her, the two times he did, he wanted to make peace with her. Does that sound like someone who's out to kill someone?"

"But she's with him," Felix gestured to Tony.

"Raven's always known about Tony, from day one." Eun Gi debated, "He's up to something bigger, more complicated and that's why Raven's afraid. Whether he's bitter because she's with the Avengers, that she picked Tony Stark over him, or whatever, he's going to drive her crazy. Literally!"

"But what does he want?" Steve wondered. "He's gotta want something."

"Raven," Eun Gi flat out said. "Once more, in confidence, she said… When she remembered what they did to her, Janos gave her chance to get away. He said she had to agree to go off the grid with him and his man Gyurri. She could live out her days with an alias and be free to go outside after ten years or something."

"And let me guess," Sam quipped. "She said, kiss my ass."

"She said, and I quote, - you. Repeatedly."

"And she spat on his peace offerings before she remembered that?" Clint inquired. When Eun Gi nodded in whistled, "I think bitter is an understatement. No wonder Raven had a meltdown, you can only tempt the devil so many times."

Tony was tired of stories and theories, he wanted something tangible. Yes he was Hungarian and intimidating but so was a substantial percentage of the world. He wanted to see him, the myth of Janos had to come to any end. There had to some way to track him down before he caused anymore damage.

"But what do you have in your hands? Like something tangible for us to go on?" Tony asked Felix.

Felix scratched his face. "I was gonna give you and Raven some home movies we had lying around. He's in most of them… But it might be…"

"I don't care. Let's see them."

Sorry I'm a few days behind guys and that's a short chapter. As always critique and review, reach out to me if you like and I will see you in the next chapter.

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