As we should all know by now- I'm very bad at keeping deadlines. I apologize for the wait, but to be fair, T. Rycbar hasn't posted in a while either. I'm pretty sure she infected me with her writer's block, so you can blame her for the wait. Again, thank you for waiting, and I hope you enjoy what I have managed to pull out of my ass this weekend.

#I'mTheDancingQueenNow

IDontOwnMarvel

"Now, this footage is sensitive information that cannot and will not leave this room. Am I understood?"

Nods all around. Clint wasn't too keen on being in the room for this, but Fury had insisted. Strongly insisted, in fact, which had left the agent with no choice on the matter. Bruce had been similarly bullied into obeying Fury's orders, although it was for the opposite reason - he hadn't been allowed in the room. No one had said it outright, not even Fury, but everyone present for the argument had been well aware of his reasons for keeping Bruce out. Even Tony seemed to realize that this was not the time for a big green freak-out. Bruce had argued, of course, but a few seconds of Fury's signature unimpressed stare had him caving and leaving the room in a huff.

"13 days she was left in that room. 306 hours that they had access to information we were never briefed on."

Tony was trying to keep an impartial look, but the way he was gripping the arm of the chair told a different story.

"I skimmed over the majority and as far as I can tell, she didn't say anything." Fury nodded towards the screen as the film started rolling. "This is day one. They only met with her once on that day before abandoning her for 22 hours."

Clint had his eyes on the screen as he watched her slowly wake up. She rolled her head around and tried to stretch out but didn't make it very far. After inspecting the room with a shockingly calm demeanor, a figure came into the room.

"Hiya Birdie."

Clint saw Tony's face fall at the nickname out of the corner of his eye, but kept his attention on the screen. Lincoln was trying to look around him but the door was closed.

"Don't be getting any ideas. There's two sentries right outside that door, along with another four at the end of the hall."

Lincoln looked up at him, finally meeting his eye like a challenge. Clint was a little proud of her confidence but worried about what that meant for the rest of the 12 days.

"Telling your enemies how much man-power you have...not a smart move."

"Oh, but dear, I'm not your enemy. Not if you play your cards right." The man crouched down in front of her and Lincoln leaned further back.

"You see, we read up a little on you when Fury made that cute little file. That was right before he kicked us out of SHIELD." They all saw the sudden change in emotion on the man's face. The next words came out of his throat like a growl. "I was thinking to myself - how could 60 years of undetected, careful work get kicked down the drain in one day? So, I put a few pieces together and found our common denominator."

"Congrats on graduating first grade math," she spat, as if the words had a bad taste in her mouth.

The man reached out to caress her cheek making everyone in the room cringe. She jerked away and though everyone else in the room saw the other hand, Lincoln clearly did not and wasn't prepared for the strike.

"That was for ratting on things you didn't understand."

He asked a similar question after mentioning Fury's name again. She stayed quiet and was rewarded with a left hook this time. He asked a second time but when she didn't respond he gripped her face. It was like her mind had left her body for a moment, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind. It wasn't until he punched her in the gut that the eerie look vanished and she doubled over with a curse.

Clint crossed his arms to hide the slight tremor in his hands, watching silently as the two sentries came into the room. Lincoln immediately tried to get away after being released from the bonds but was kicked over and dragged to the back of the room. They clipped her arms above her head after another hit to the gut and was soon left alone again with the first man. He slapped her one more time, but then...smiled at her.

"Let me know when you're ready to talk."

Clint felt sick. And by the looks of it, most everyone else in the room felt the same way.

Fury broke the uncomfortable silence. "There are 306 hours of this and we need to go through it all. You're here because you are close enough to the situation to understand the importance of handling this with the utmost care and respect. I am entrusting each of you with a section of the recovered tape to review."

He dropped down a box on the table and had them each grab one of the flash drives.

"You have 24 hours. We will meet again to report any and all pertinent information included in your tape before reviewing the final section together."

Tony was already out the door and Clint followed shortly after, not really wanting to be in that room anymore. He didn't like the numbers on his flash drive all that much either.

'153-204'

I stepped out of my room in my new set of clothes, quite proud of myself. I felt better despite the stinging burns on my chest and stomach. I had stuffed Winnie back into his boxes and Happy had given me a new sweatshirt. I moved carefully down the hall to try and find someone to show off my new clothes to, although I had to be mindful of the wheezy lungs thing if I didn't want to be forced into staying in a bed.

I walked slowly down the hall until I almost ran into Clint and Natasha. I smiled at them and Clint quickly stuffed something in his pocket. "Happy got me a new sweatshirt."

"It's different from the other one." Natasha commented cooly. Clint nodded and continued past me. I turned my whole body and watched him go before facing Nat again.

"I'm not very good at reading assassins but I don't think he's happy." I looked up at her for confirmation. My torso was starting to ache from standing so long.

"Yeah, he's mad about something Fury's got us working on."

I nodded back at her in understanding. "Do they have laptops here? I've run out of things to do and the infected laundry in the corner of my bathroom is driving me crazy."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Infected laundry?"

"Yes, but you shouldn't touch it either." I bit my lip and looked back at my room, not sure if I should continue with such a trivial thing. "I'm sorry, it's stupid. Never mind."

"What about the clothes makes them infected?" She seemed interested now, but I wasn't sure if I should tell her.

I shifted my feet.

"It's just...his hands. When he hit me. I took a shower so it's not on my skin anymore but he touched the clothes too, so now I can't touch them or I'll feel him too." I looked up at her with a wince, fully expecting to see confusion - hell, I wasn't sure if I even understood it. But for some reason, Nat didn't seem confused at all.

"So I can't touch it either?" she asked, tilting her head to the side curiously.

I shook my head. She paused, apparently thinking this over, before motioning for me to follow her as she made her way down the hall and into her room. It looked almost exactly like mine, but where most of the surfaces in my room were empty save for the occasionally Stark Industries water bottle, hers had all sorts of things. Slowing to a stop in front of the neatly-made bed, Nat kneeled down and pulled a box out from underneath. She placed the box carefully on the bed before opening it and pulling out a sleek black laptop, holding it out to me in an obvious offer. I took it carefully from her hands.

"It's my other laptop," Nat explained as I turned it over in my hands, unsure of what to do with the machine. "I was going to keep it for personal use, but I never got around to setting it up. You'll probably make better use of it than I would have, anyway."

"Oh...thank you," I said earnestly, shooting her a small smile as I cradled the laptop to my chest.

She nodded, lips turning up slightly at the corners before shooing me out of her room with the flick of a wrist. Even as I turned to leave, the small smile lingered on my face. Now I could watch 'The Office' while I was here instead of relying on bothering Happy for entertainment. Especially since the dude's been AWOL ever since I got back. Honestly, how did he expect me to annoy him to death if he wasn't here?

'204-255'

Natasha was unsure about the number she had been given. They must have been the hours of film from Lincoln's stay but she couldn't tell for sure. Clint seemed even more bothered by his flash drive but there wasn't really any way of knowing why unless she asked. Natasha didn't really feel like dealing with a moody Clint so instead she flipped open her laptop and plugged in earbuds. She grabbed a small notebook and pencil and pulled up the video on the flash drive. She took a deep breath and prepared for the worst.

She was able to skip through the first 5 hours of film but had to stop and listen when the men came in and started yelling at a seemingly empty body. Nat wondered for a short while how Lincoln managed to let herself disappear like that. She had seen it before in interrogations but certainly no children had ever done it.

Natasha's blood ran cold when she heard the laughter of Lincoln resonating through the screen.

"Tell me where you're from."

"Can't do that Winnie." Her face turned back serious.

"Tell me." A punch was thrown across Lincoln's face again who blanked out. Three more consecutive hits were thrown out of frustration but Lincoln had already floated back up into her mind. The man growled again and turned to leave the room. The second the room was empty, Lincoln's stone features dropped and her head rolled around trying to ease the ache from the punches. She looked up at the camera before turning away again.

Natasha skipped through several hours of silence with Lincoln just looking around or sleeping. In the 51 hours that she finally made it through she took note of the one bowl of food and bottle of water that was given to her after they undid her shackles to let her eat. Lincoln had, without a doubt, taken advantage of this. She ate her food slowly and walked around inspecting the walls and drinking the water. When she stooped to look at the door though, it whipped open and two guards came in, taking her roughly and putting her arms back up in the original position.

It was heartbreaking to know that this is what Hydra was willing to do to win. They were more than willing to beat up a child just to get some answers. Not once did Lincoln utter a word about anything related to the Avengers Initiative or their future. At one point she sang about Fury drinking tea but that could be chalked up to boredom and stress.

'255-306'

Tony hated this. Honestly, it was bad enough knowing, so being forced to watch just because he was 'close enough to the situation' was so much worse. The five minute premiere to the movie he was going to have to spend countless hours watching was bad enough, now he was expected to watch fifty-one more hours of this bullshit.

Yeah, nice try, Fury. He scoffed to himself. As if I don't already know how to get out of doing homework.

When he walked into the lab, Bruce was already set up reading one thing or another. Gesturing with a thumb over his shoulder when the doctor looked up, he clicked his tongue. "Beat it. I've got to do homework for One-Eyed Willy."

"I'll work quietly-"

"Nope," Tony interrupted, pushing his hands in his pockets and watching the man expectantly. "Unless you want to turn two types of green, you should go. I'm not done with the 'Hulk Buster' so this," he gestured wildly at the man. "Needs to stay under wraps."

Bruce nodded slowly and sighed, getting up to start towards the door. "I guess I'll see if Lincoln's hungry."

"No, don't do that either." Tony called over his shoulder.

The kid really wasn't looking too great, so even that could trigger a code green if Banner lost his cool over it. That was not something he could deal with right now and it was probably the last thing that would help the beat-up teen down the hall.

After he made sure Bruce was gone he pulled out the flash drive and plugged it into the USB port on the table, sitting down in a chair. Fifty one hours of video footage showed up and he frowned at it. There was no way he was going to sit through all that. Thinking for a moment, he came up with a solution.

"Jarvis, lock the doors and pull out any part of this with vocal audio or changes in routine." He paused and leaned back in the seat. "-and any part with more than one figure in the room."

There was the sound of the lab doors clicking and a short pause afterwards until a different screen popped up in front of him. Sucking in a deep breath, he pressed play on the modified video that had shortened to being closer to three hours. He couldn't really tell what was worse- having to interact with Hydra for three full hours, or being totally alone for the other 48. He only watched the beatings for the first ten minutes before it became a little too distressing and he had to turn away to just listen while working on something else. That made it better, but he really wished he could just drown it out completely with his own thoughts. Unfortunately for his dear ego, he wasn't allowed to do that.

Tony glanced over at the screen half an hour after turning away to see the guards unlatching her from the wall and letting her fall to the ground. He narrowed his eyes curiously and rolled his chair back over. The Hydra agents placed a bowl of food on the ground with a bottle of water. Lincoln didn't react until they had left the room by getting up and trying to pull her balance together.

"Jarvis, how many times is she given food?" He asked, watching her roll her shoulders and attempt to rub away the soreness.

"Twice."

He hummed to himself in thought and tapped the table with a pen. "Make a note of that."

"Already done, sir."

He watched with great interest as the kid picked up the food after being satisfied with the state of her muscles and began eating while pacing around the room. She inspected the walls and then stared at the camera for a minute, drinking and eating before sitting down against the far wall. Her attempt to get some actual rest, however, was foiled when the agents came back in and weren't too gentle about tying her back up. She looked annoyed by the action if anything which might've amused Tony had she not been relentlessly beaten hours prior. Her mannerisms really just unnerved him.

He didn't have much of a chance to go into what might be running through her mind because of the sharp knock at the door. Sighing to himself, he paused to the video, fully expecting it to be Banner. He was not met with said doctor though. Instead, a Super Soldier stood in front of him, a small flash drive in hand.

He didn't even blink at the man. "Let me guess - you don't know how to work it."

"Everyone has their weaknesses."

Tony opened the door more to let him in and gestured to the far table. "Plug it into the desk and use Banner's headphones. Jarvis, do the same for the old man, will you?"

"Absolutely, Sir."

Rogers took a moment to figure out how to plug it in, but eventually managed, only mildly surprised when the screen popped up in front of him. He located the headphones and slipped them on too when the video started playing. Tony couldn't help but notice that his new guest had a little over four hours of tape to watch. It was only a little satisfying to know that his dad's hero was going to have to sit through more than he did. After the small struggle with the desk, Rogers had it all set up and pulled out a notebook, leaving Tony to press play and continue on with his own grim task.

He spent the hours listening in on the one sided conversations 'Winnie' was having with Lincoln while also trying to put together the designs for Mark-37. Personally, he thought torpedoes were looking like a good choice for the suit if it was going to be handling underwater missions.

Maybe green instead of red… He messed with the colors and added a similar Donning System that the Mark-7 had before being mildly satisfied. It was still missing something though and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was. To be fair, there was a small array of distressing sounds coming from the desk to his right. It's awful hard to work on things when you can't even listen to music. He managed to numb out the sounds of discomfort and crying after a while and really just focused on the words and real conversations.

Passing a glance at the other man in the room, he could see that the soldier also wasn't having the best of times. Rogers tensed at something before shaking his head and writing in the little notebook. Tony had only just turned back to his own work when a new kind of tone came from his own screen, sending a prickle up his spine.

"We came with a special treat for you today."

Lincoln scoffed to herself. "Well it's nice to know you still care."

Tony looked over quickly and rolled back to his screen to see what had prompted the smug attitude from her captor. The last few minutes were playing. He felt his heart sink when he spotted the cart being rolled into the room. It would have taken an idiot not to know what the purpose of the cart was. The mere idea of what was inevitable put a sick feeling in his gut, so in a last ditch effort to keep calm, he paced and tried not to stare.

So that's where the burns came from...

He really did try not to watch as Lincoln's previously unwavering confidence broke under the electrocution. So badly did he want to have gotten to her sooner. Just a few minutes extra had her paying the price, not them. She was in the process of being electrocuted when his attention was captured again by something different. The footage crackled and a deep purple light began to grow in brightness around Lincoln. It looked a hell of a lot like the purple energy responsible for closing the portal in New York. Suddenly and without warning, the room changed and the screen went white. When it came back, the machine was smoking on the other side of the room and one of the agents was laying on the floor. 'Winnie' was backing away, very terrified at what he had unintentionally discovered.

The footage ended when her captor left the room, gun in hand and Tony couldn't tear his eyes from the frozen screen. "Is that all of it?"

"Yes, sir, that's the end of the tape."

He sighed in what could be taken as shaky relief and passed a glance over his shoulder at where Rogers was still watching the tapes. Snatching the flash drive out of the port, he shoved it into his pocket and turned towards the door. "J, delete all memory of this from the system. When Cap is done, do the same with his."

"Absolutely, Metal Man."

Tony stopped short in the doorway and turned back around slowly. "What did you call me?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but it appears a part of me has been tampered with...I can only address you as...Metal Man."

He paused and tried to run through all the possible threats to Jarvis's mainframe. It really didn't take him that long to just put together who it sounded like. "And how do you address Lincoln Patel?"

"Strongest Avenger."

"Of course." He nodded to himself and turned out the door, locking it behind him to keep Rogers' footage out of prying eyes. Having a chat with a teenager about messing with someone's AI had not been on his to-do list for the day, but as his days often went now, it wasn't too far out of the ordinary. He smiled slightly at the idea though. This child had managed to not only breach his security system around Jarvis, but then proceeded to use it just to call him names.

Who knows? Maybe she won't have such a hard time bouncing back.

Watching 'The Office' for two hours had gotten really boring, so I had given up on it a while ago and plugged the laptop into a wall to start searching the helicarrier. Obviously, this was a digital affair, which led to me finding none other than Jarvis, of all things, set up somewhere not too far away. Being as bored as I was, I decided that trying to break into said AI wasn't the worst idea I'd had today, so that's what I did. The first attempt was quickly shut down, as was the second, fifth, and then twelfth. My 13th try, however, did expose a small loophole in Jarvis's code and resulted in me getting almost complete free reign of the 'guy' on my computer.

See, I could have given a few commands to mess with Tony, but I decided to be more subtle with my attack. It also may have been because I was significantly less intelligent than the man who made it, but that wasn't going to stop me from doing the most. I started with changing my own name to 'Strongest Avenger' because, well, who wouldn't? Then I had moved on to 'Legolas', 'Master Assassin', 'Doc', 'Capsicle', and my personal favorite- 'Metal Man'. I had also started working on changing Thor and Loki's in the system when Tony so rudely interrupted.

The page was shut on my computer and I gave him an innocent smile. "Happy got me a new sweatshirt."

He didn't even skip a beat, crossing his arms at me. "Are you messing with Jarvis?"

I gasped and held my hand to my chest above the burn in an offended manner. "I wouldn't dare."

Tony looked me up and down in suspicion. "How'd you get in?"

Shrugging, I looked back at the computer. "Loophole."

"There are no loopholes. I wrote the code myself."

"You sure about that, Metal Man?" I smirked, ignoring the ache in my jaw from the continued action.

He sighed in defeat, pinching the bridge of his nose and waving a hand at me. "Just do me a favor and fix the hole after you're done...changing everyone's name."

"Fine." I turned back to the computer only for a second before noticing that Tony was still standing there looking like a lost goose. "Do you need something else?"

"No. Bye." He turned and left in a manner similar to the way Clint did when I was back in the hallway with him.

I just shook my head at the interaction and went back to changing names with Jarvis. He had really complicated programming, so I had every intention to stay where I was comfortable in an effort to not accidentally damage him. Messing with him, though, was some of the first real fun and excitement I had since I had managed to slither out of that hellhole. Also, in hindsight, it might have been a good idea to have asked Tony how long I was gone for. He would have known.

The boxes in my head started shaking at the idea of the place, so I mentally shoved them further away and switched to watching mindless TV. There was no way I was going to make myself look at the place again. Not even if it was in my own memories. That just seemed self-destructive.

When I woke up later after a short nap, I reopened the computer and determined that it was not, in fact, a short nap, but a whole-ass sleep cycle that brought me to the morning on a Friday. Now, honestly, I could have fallen asleep on a Tuesday and then proceeded to sleep for three continuous days without realizing because of my inability to check dates at regular times. Maybe if I wasn't such a fucking idiot, I would have checked the date when I first got back and then tried to count back as far as I could remember. However, I am that idiot, so now I was hungry, mentally lost, and annoyed with myself.

I pulled my hood on to avoid any more awkward stares from the agents that were out and about while I set out on my mission to find food. My left eye was almost fully functioning now, but that in no way meant that I was looking completely normal. I was still pretty black and blue with the exception of the pink burns on my chest and stomach. When knocking on Clint's and Natasha's door proved ineffective, I poked my head into each room to find them empty. I had been hoping that they could direct me towards some real food, but now that plan was a bust.

Jeez, guess I'll figure it out myself. I started down the hall, sliding on the floor in my socks since I had not been given shoes. Not like I needed help anyways.

Moving slowly but surely, I passed a few agents who once again didn't stop me, but gave me a couple weird looks. I wasn't about to hold it against them though since their literal job was to notice things that are out of place. And I am very, very out of place here.

One of them gave me directions to the kitchen after my aimless wandering got me lost, and I made it the whole way without forgetting how to breathe. That was a win by my book. The room was pretty empty too when you speak in terms of people, so I didn't have much competition for breakfast. I started pulling open cabinets and looking for some food after a minute of worrying about if someone was going to stop me. When I finally found cereal, I made a grab for it, stopping my hand halfway into the cabinet when I saw the box next to it.

Oatmeal. The boxes in my head demanded attention upon being remembered, but my response was to pry my eyes away and steal the cereal away before shutting the cabinet door on the only food I had been eating for, well, I still didn't know how long I was there, so for however long I was stuck with Hydra.

The fridge actually did have some milk that was only one day expired, so I made myself a bowl of an unfamiliar cereal brand that reminded me a lot of 'Rice Krispies'. I couldn't help the drifting feeling I got while I spaced out and buried myself in my head. Before I knew it, I was looking at 18 boxes of memories in the room I constructed. The memory from my last day hadn't been categorized and boxed up yet. Currently it was floating around, free to bother me whenever it wanted. That wouldn't be helpful to anyone, so I put together a cardboard box in the void that was my head before collecting the electrocution memory and shoving it in, closing it up so that there was no chance I'd have to look at it again. This mediation thing was really starting to come in handy for bottling things up.

I was in the process of restacking the boxes in the far corner of my headspace when I was abruptly shoved back into the real world.

"Lincoln, wake up."

I looked up quickly to locate the origin of the voice, only to immediately turn back to my empty cereal bowl in annoyance.

"I'm very much awake. Thank you." Picking up my empty bowl, I carried it over to the sink to rinse it out.

The Super Soldier gave me a questioning look. "You weren't responding."

"Well I am now." I grumbled, still put out by his constant disapproval of me. I put the newly washed bowl and spoon aside to dry before remembering the only thing I had been wondering all morning. Now was probably as good a time as any to find out. "Rogers?"

He stayed quiet but didn't go anywhere, so I assumed he was listening.

"How long was I there?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning back on the counter. "I mean, I remember a few numbers. Seven meals, 18…interrogations - but I don't know how long exactly."

He looked to the fridge, avoiding eye contact with me. "13 days."

Oh, I gripped the edge of the counter, having started to lose my balance at the range of emotions that hit me. Better yet, I couldn't even figure out what I was feeling from the revelation that I had now been away from my family for thirteen more days. Well, even more now if I took my recovery time into consideration. That's… unnerving.

I could only muster a nervous chuckle in response. "13, huh?"

"That's right." He still refused to look in my direction, which was fine with me since I didn't want to have to deal with his sass while I was in the middle of a crisis. His attitude could wait.

"Great." I stood up straighter, burying the panic that was churning in my gut. "I need to get home."

Without giving him another glance, I pulled myself together and walked past him, out of the room. I was mindful of my ribs and breathing as I did so though, retracing my steps back to where I had seen this Iron Man last. It was important to make sure I was capable of sounding healthy when I found him because the last time I got all wheezy, I had an eraser thrown at me. He was an odd guy, but he made some sense if you actually paid attention to what his intent was.

The breakfast was sitting uncomfortably in my stomach while I walked, but I pushed aside the feeling in an effort to stick to my mission. I really just needed to know where Tony and Bruce were at on inter-dimensional travel. I wandered through the hall past the bunks and my own bedroom, into the room that Tony and Steve had been in on my first day back. Today, however, it was deserted. Seeing that my chest was aching though from the travel, I sat down and caught my breath.

I had only been given a few moments of trying to lessen the chest pain before Fury walked in. He eyed me cautiously as he walked to the far side of the room and pulled down a screen. I didn't say anything to him, but I did become increasingly more confused as the other Avengers filtered in one by one. They all gave me looks comparable to Fury's when he first came in, but they didn't mention anything right away either when they took their seat. Suddenly I felt like this wasn't exactly an open-ended meeting.

I didn't even look around before standing up in a huff. "Guess I'll see you later then."

My short walk ended just outside the door when I began to think about why they would be having a secret meeting like that. It made sense for Fury to be presenting something to Clint, Natasha, and Maria, hell, even Rogers was technically working for them, but Tony was in there with them and he hated meetings. This looked like your standard Avengers meeting with the exception of Thor of course. That meant that either there were far more missions for the Avengers than my regular Cinematic universe made it seem, or they were talking about me behind my back. That didn't sound very friendly.

Fury sat down at the end of the table, facing the group. "Is she gone?"

Rogers poked his head out the door before closing it again. "Yes, she's sliding down the hall in her socks."

Tony had to smile a little at that. It was satisfying to know that she wasn't kept down so easily after her experience with Hydra. The tampering with Jarvis wasn't something he had witnessed from her before recently, but using her socks to skate around was an old habit of hers too. Once again he was hopeful for her recovery.

"Who wants to start?" Fury asked, folding his hands on the table. "Agent Hill?"

Said Agent sat up. "She made no mention of the Avengers Initiative or our future in the first 51 hours...most of it involved taunting on her end."

Natasha nodded thoughtfully. "I actually got her laughing."

"She was just quiet in mine."

"Quiet." Steve agreed with Clint, taking a seat at the table.

"Mad." Tony muttered, looking up at Fury briefly. "But no. You struck out."

"The goal is to keep her quiet." Fury shot back, not skipping a beat. "Whatever information she has brewing around in her head could end up being a matter of national security."

"But we are being honest here, right?" Tony felt himself getting worked up in annoyance already. "Just a tiny bit of you hoped that she was going to talk. Sure, you can't toture her for information, but when Hydra does, you have us jump on the opportunity to see what our future looks like without a second thought."

Fury gave him a deadpan look. "If Hydra knows something then I shouldn't have to explain to you why we should have similar information. Is there something you wanted to share, Stark?"

Tony stared back before finally giving in. "No."

Everyone else seemed to have gained a little animosity towards Fury so Tony called it a job well done. Banner had agreed with him about the whole 'knowing your future is dangerous' deal, regardless of how tempting it was. When Fury flipped on the screen revealing the same tape Tony had sat through earlier, he winced and looked to the door, wondering if an escape was viable here.

"Pay close attention to figure B." Fury pointed to the guard who inevitably was going to end up dead by the end of the film.

Immediately after the first voice came into the room on the screen, Tony got to his feet and made a move towards the door, leaving behind his co-workers. They were more required to see it through than he was since he had the honor of watching it the day before. He would just return for the discussion part when things weren't so...nerve wracking.

Standing outside of the room, he shut the door behind him and leaned against the hallway wall, pinching the bridge of his nose. They were watching a kid in those tapes. Kids are supposed to do things like skip class and sneak out with their friends. Not...get captured by Nazi terrorists and get tortured for information.

"You alright?"

He barely looked up to recognize the voice of the kid sitting criss-cross against the wall opposite of him. He narrowed his eyes at her. "Yeah. Why are you still out here?"

The unsettling calmness to her attitude didn't fade when she tilted her head to look at the door. "You're watching it aren't you?"

Tony didn't say anything in response right away, allowing her to continue over where he might've spoken.

"So that's why Barton is being weird." She hummed to herself before turning her attention more to him. "What part?"

"We're not watching anything. Mind your own business." Tony snipped, attempting to stare her down.

"It seems an awful lot like my business." Lincoln grumbled, only softening her features after a moment of glaring at him. "When do I get to go home?"

He shrugged indifferently. "Banner and I are still working on it."

Being able to move away from the topic of the tapes was somewhat relieving, but she didn't waste any time skipping onto an even more touchy subject.

"Thanks." She smiled slightly over the bruised jaw. "I know you have lives and all. I just kind of miss home, and like I said - I'm kind of on a schedule."

Tony frowned, just about to ask what said schedule was before they were rudely interrupted by an opened door. Rogers looked between the two of them before standing out of the way of the door and holding it open for Tony. "Fury wants you."

Tony rolled his eyes and made sure Lincoln saw before he went back into the room with the others. He couldn't help but overhear the short conversation that Rogers was having with Lincoln though.

"You shouldn't be out here."

Tony smiled when he could just hear the scowl he knew she was giving him. "You don't own me, Little Man."

Cap closed the door without another word and Tony took his seat at the table, confidence unwavering.

"Now that we are aware that she is capable of this-" Fury started, enunciating his point by pointing to the dead guard. "Finding out what it is that she does and how to control it is our top priority."

"It kind of looks to me like the guy had it coming." Clint scoffed, twiddling with the knife in his hands.

Fury nodded slowly, clearly not in the mood for sarcasm. "Maybe. But we have to think about what happens when the next guy doesn't."

"I'm sorry, she's getting fried in this video and all you can talk about is how dangerous she is?" Tony asked, tossing a hand up in defeat. "Shouldn't we be more worried about your precious information getting back with Hydra?"

"So far, Stark, when she's felt threatened, a wormhole spouting aliens was miraculously closed and a man turned up dead-"

"Not a man." Clint pointed at him, standing out of his seat and starting towards the door with Natasha close behind. "A monster, actually, so I think it's justified."

"I expect you to look into this." Fury directed at Tony, a man who was also getting up to leave with the two Agents.

"Sorry," He waved a hand in the air as if he was visualizing something. "Banner and I are a little tied up at the moment with something else- an interdimensional gateway, actually. I'll get back to you on that though."

"Stark-"

But Tony was already gone. After all, he had work to do.