Chapter 15
The wind made it hard for Natasha to hear his words, but she was certain she'd heard him this time.
"He fell on your factories arc reactor, he's dead, Tony," Natasha shook her hand at him, not understanding how he could even begin to think that Obidiah was alive.
"I talked to him," Tony said, trying to prove his point.
"How?! When?!" Natasha's eyes went to his, trying to find the answers before the words left his mouth.
"He emailed me."
"And?"
"He sent a phone number," Tony placed his hands on the now-frozen-feeling railing and looked back at Natasha, "I called it."
"Why? Didn't you just think... That it was someone messing with you?" Natasha bit her lip. That might not have been the best choice of words.
"Who else would email me from his personal email account?" Tony said, more to himself than to the red haired assassin.
"Why'd you call it?" Natasha saw him shutter, "Tony, what'd he tell you in that email?" Natasha demanded.
"He threatened me, well, not a threat, exactly. It's like he was helping me," Tony tried explaining without telling the whole truth, it wasn't working.
"What did he say!" Natasha yelled, her eyes fixed on his.
"Can I just show you? It'd be easier with the visual proof..." Tony said, and although he knew he was probably scaring Natasha, he continued in this idea by exiting the roof and heading to his lab.
She followed him hesitantly.
Bruce sent Tony and Natasha confused glances as they crossed the main room, where Thor, Steve, and Clint were all in the middle of a game of three way chess, which even Natasha didn't truly understand.
They had made it up when it was obvious that Thor hated to be left out of the game.
"Tony," Bruce called to him as Natasha and him disappeared down the stairs to Tony's workshop.
Tony knew if he didn't answer, Bruce'd assume the worst and come down after him, but he couldn't come up with any words that would put him at ease.
"Natasha!" Clint called after Natasha, after Bruce's call had been ignored.
The workshop door closed behind them. Clint and Bruce exchanged a glance, which was enough for them. Not only were they teammates, but Bruce could sense when Clint had an idea. Even when he was the other guy.
"We might not want to-" Steve began as the two men got up from their seats and filed down the stairs.
Clint shrugged and followed Bruce.
MOMENTS EARLIER...
"We should let them in on this, whatever it is," Natasha suggested when Bruce called after Tony.
"Let me show you first, then you won't be as certain that that's the best idea," Tony cocked his head to the side as he typed in codes and passwords to access his locked files where he left the arc reactor blue prints.
"You certainly are thorough," Natasha said after the twentieth password.
"It's worth it, isn't it?" Tony didn't take his eyes off the screen.
Natasha shrugged unopposedly.
"Natasha!" she heard Clint call after her from the main room.
"Tony, he'll come down if I don't-" Natasha started, but was cut off by the appearance of a blue glowing machine on the screen of Tony's computer.
"Is that the original?" Natasha was vaguely familiar with how the old arc reactors look, since she herself was the one shadowing Tony while his certain model was killing him.
"No, the original was a bit more... Made in a cave," Tony said uneasily, "This is the model I made after the Vanko incident."
Natasha shook her hand unapprovingly.
"So what am I looking at?" Natasha asked, looking closely at the 3D model that was presented on a holographic platform in the middle of Tony's half-square of desks.
"This nook, in the end of the wiring," Tony pointed it out, zooming in on the area.
"What is that stuff?" Natasha pointed to the dust-like substance.
"It's uhm..." Tony began, then got cold feet once again.
"Tony."
"It's explosive," Tony explained, then through his eyes to the ground, where they remained.
"Jarvis, pull up his most recent arc reactor," Natasha feverishly yelled at the AI, beyond waiting for the distraught genius to flip through files to find what she wanted to see.
"They all have it," Tony said as the blue hologram flew up in front of Natasha's face, zooming in on the wiring once again.
"So why hasn't it... exploded?" Natasha was too busy to find a more polite term.
"I guess because it's inside a wire," Tony explained, pulling up the entire wire on the hologram, "The wire itself isn't attached to the arc reactor, it's just clasped on, so eventually, I expect, it'd start leaking out, and yeah, that might make it go boom," Tony finished, a hand running through his dark brown hair.
"How long would it take to fix it?" Natasha began running things through her head quickly, as she had so often done throughout her life, trying to figure out a scenario where Tony and the arc reactor are okay, and Obidiah remains dead.
"I dunno," Tony said angrily, not aimed at Natasha, but at the son of a UNICORN who knows more about the thing keeping him alive that he does.
"Tony! Let me in, NOW!" Clint's voice shouted from the hallway, where he had begun pounding on the door.
Natasha didn't move.
"Go ahead," Tony sank into his desk chair.
Go ahead and tell them what's going on? Or go ahead and leave him alone? Natasha thought to herself.
She left the room silently.
Tony had to turn around in his chair to make sure the assassin had disappeared the way she had come.
"Where's Tony?" Bruce's voice came from the cracked open door that Natasha slid out, then closed tightly behind her.
"He's busy," Natasha said quietly, just loudly enough for Tony to hear from his workshop.
LATER...
"So why'd you go down there?" Clint finally asked her the question that all four of them had been wondering since she came back up and sat around watching them play chess.
"Tony asked me for help," Natasha explained casually.
"Help with what?" Bruce inquired, for he knew if Tony needed help, he'd ask him, not Natasha.
"A project..." Natasha stuttered a bit, which was picked up only by her fellow assassin.
"Natasha, I swear to god. When you lie to me, I know!" Clint seemed angry at her for even considering lying to his face.
"He was just explaining something to me," Natasha said, and she didn't lie.
"Fine, don't tell us the whole story, fine, fine, fine," Clint muttered to himself, then moved one of his pieces and went back to the game of chess.
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