Chapter 15: Clint's Farm - Tony's Workshop

"OK, that's weird," Tony came down to his makeshift lab after the end of the movie to work through a few equations before the night was over. What he found was Clint, sitting half in the shadows.

Clint slipped off his stool and approached Tony slowly, cautiously. "I have a proposition for you."

Tony raised an eyebrow, "Speak, parrot... Wait, that didn't make sense."

"I was about to say," Clint frowned, the air of mystery was abruptly gone.

"What do you want?"

"Natasha has become a problem that must be dealt with. She has allies, powerful ones, ones that would destroy me if I stepped out of line."

Tony nodded, understanding at last, "You're looking for an alliance. Why should I help you?"

"Because I can help you. Your enemy, like mine, sleeps in the same room as you. I mean to declare war, but only if I know I can trust my team."

He considered it for a long time, "There are certainly strategic advantages... Deal." they shook on it. Clint grinned wickedly.

Sam turned back from the stairs to the barn and hit Banner on the shoulder, "Clint and Tony are teaming up. You and me take them on?"

"Yeah, sure."

Natasha flipped through some DVDs, trying to pick a movie for the Avengers still up for a second round, "Teams of two then?"

"Sounds good to me," Banner nodded.

Bucky was busy making several fresh bags of popcorn. He poured one bag into a bowl and tossed another in the microwave. "Hey Thor," Bucky walked halfway out of the kitchen to call down the hallway.

"Yes, James?"

"In the interest of preventing domestic violence, want to be on my team?"

There was a whirl of wheels and Thor slid into the hallway on his computer chair, "To what are you referring?"

"Prank war," Natasha clarified.

Thor brightened immediately, "Of course! I know many practical jokes!" he frowned for a moment, "Although, many may be fatal for Midgardians..."

Bucky laughed loudly, "We're so going to win."

"Not if we have anything to say about it," Natasha glanced at Steve, "right teammate?"

Steve considered the offer and nodded, "Why not?" he glanced over at Inessa, still sitting alone on the couch, ignoring them. "Who would you like to team up with? You get your pick."

Inessa crossed her arms and refused to answer. She had to train with these people to get her powers back, she didn't have to be friendly. Mallory just rolled her eyes, "She'll be wildcard. Trust me, you all don't stand a chance. Nadi- Nessie- is a pro. Just don't play cards against her."

"Too late," Natasha smiled. She glanced through the DVDs again and set them back on the shelf, "Someone else chose, nothing's catching my attention."

Banner raised his hand, "I think I know one Nessie would enjoy. It's called 'Gattaca'."

"Go for it," Banner stood and retrieved the keyboard that tied in to JARVIS' digital media database.

Bucky finished up with the popcorn and began to pass out the newly-filled bowls. He tipped in to Thor's room and pulled the Asgardian from his computer by wheeling him out the door and sliding the chair across the room towards the television, "Stop asking google if Christine knew the Angel was the Phantom, you're not going to find an answer."

When dawn came around, all morning runners were shaking tacks out of their shoes. "Amateur hour," Natasha scoffed. She walked down the hall to Inessa's door and knocked before opening. Mallory and Inessa were up and ready to go- begrudgingly.

"So, you have any big plans for this prank war?" Mallory chose to fill the silence. She could see Nadya was on the tipping point- if the Avengers played their cards right her temper could break that day and then everything would be right with their world again.

"Took us all night, but I think Steve and I have a few good ones worked out."

There was a screech of feedback through the comms and Natasha and Inessa both winced. A moment later Sam came on, shouting, "YOU COULD HAVE BROKEN MY ANKLE WHICHEVER ONE OF YOU SADISTS DID THAT!"

Natasha burst out laughing. She opened her comm and replied innocently, "That was meant for Bucky, not you."

"HE PUSHED ME INTO IT!" Sam was shouting from the bottom of a 6 foot pit that had been covered by a tarp and sand. They were jogging as usual when Bucky suddenly stopped. Once Sam caught up to him he lightly shoved him to the left and- crash.

"Rule number one of a prank war- change your routine," Steve was definitely enjoying this. Natasha and the girls ran through the opposite end of the cornfield as they usually did. Inessa saw something shining in front of them and grabbed Mallory's arm. They slowed to a stop. Natasha glanced back and missed the flash of metal- she ran smack into the invisible barrier. They were prepared this time for the feedback from the comms and the cursing.

"Rule number two," Tony came over comms now, "anticipate rule number one."

Meal times were "truce" times- no Avenger dared mess with the edibles, that was just uncivilized. As soon as breakfast was over, however, the melee began again. Steve went outside with a book to read as Natasha trained Sam, but a bucket of water was waiting, balanced on top of the door. Thor roared with laughter as the bucket crashed onto his head and Steve cursed, dripping, and started shaking out his book. Before he thought to move out of place, a second trap was triggered by the slamming of the screen door behind him- a precariously hung bottle fell from the rafters above the porch and nailed him in the groin. While Steve's language reached truly impressive heights, Bucky came out and nodded appreciatively at his work.

"Rule number three- set two traps."

Inessa pushed past the buffoons in a fresh set of exercise clothes. She paced the edge of the sparring ring, waiting for Natasha. After a moment, Nat climbed out through an upstairs window, eyed her landing carefully, and jumped down. She didn't know Steve had already triggered the trap over the door, and she was entirely unwilling to be pranked again.

"Alright," Natasha dusted off her sweatpants and met Inessa's eyes. It was a weird feeling- looking straight into her eyes without a flinch or really any emotion save rage. If nothing else, taking away her powers had pissed off the kid enough to get her past the worst of her fear. She was out for blood now- a whole new kind of dangerous. "First things first, I want to see how you fight. Or even if you can fight." she kept her tone cold, emotionless. No babying- Inessa was the one who said (signed) that she could handle training, it was up to her to keep her end of the deal.

Without further warning, Natasha attacked. She kept her movements deliberately slow, made stupid mistakes, anything to give Inessa a challenge, but keep the advantage in her court. That didn't mean she let more than a couple hits land though- and those that did were to gauge her strength. Several Avengers watched from the porch, intrigued.

Inessa opened with a swing to Natasha's head- quickly countered by a strike to the stomach. She kicked out at Natasha's knee- a move that, if it had landed, would have dislocated or even broken the kneecap- not that it would ever land against more than an untrained street thug. Inessa spun around her, keeping her feet moving at all times, forcing Natasha to spin as well. It was a good strategy, but there was a lag in her movement while she spun. Nat made a mental note.

After five minutes of the mock-sparring, Natasha swept low and knocked Inessa's legs from her. The girl fell, panting. "You're keeping your hands too far from your body, you go from move to move too slowly and in a predictable sequence, there's no force in any of your hits, and I can tell that spinning move is one you use with your abilities, and you don't have those for now so don't rely on it. Also," she checked a bloodless scratch on her arm, "you fight with your fingernails. It's probably something you picked up when you were with the wolf. Only a good idea if you have blade-tipped gloves, otherwise you'll break a nail off and then you're the one in pain. With your abilities, could you form talons like what Nadya had and have them as strong?"

Inessa nodded. She wasn't speaking still, but more out of spite than fear.

"Good, I'll train you with the gloves after you've mastered basic hand-to-hand. You fight like a kid used to living on the streets, it's my job now to fix that. We'll start building muscle first. Now, put your leg out in front of you." Inessa did as she was told, "No, straight out, right angle to the other leg." it was difficult, but she managed something close enough for Natasha. "Good," Nat pulled a timer out of her pocket and set it on the ground in front of Inessa, "That's going to go off every five minutes for the next half hour. When it beeps, switch legs, then switch back. Keep them up though, or I restart the entire thing. It's how I started, and it'll feel like hell, but you'll build muscles you never knew you had."

Natasha turned away and called Sam down for his regular training. Mallory's mouth was hanging open, "Wait, so I have you to thank for that? They made us do that for weeks at SHIELD! Worst three months of my life!"

"But it worked, didn't it?" Natasha smiled.

Mallory considered it, "Actually, yeah. Still sucks though." she winked to Inessa who already was having trouble balancing and lifted her own leg in a show of support.

"Tip among friends?" Tony stopped Bucky as he walked into the barn, eating from a large tub of mayonnaise. "Vanilla pudding in the mayo jar is too cliche, everyone knows that one now. You've got to modern-up your game or you're toast."

Bucky grumbled, "I was hoping to get Sam with this one."

"You've got a handicap- you and Thor? You're the weakest team. At least Steve has Natasha to help, you and Thor just swirl around the bad ideas." he patted Bucky's metal shoulder, "You'll get there, not in time for this prank war, but maybe in the next."

The Winter Soldier just sighed, disappointed. He picked at he pudding some more, then offered it to Tony, "You want some at least? It's a shit-ton of pudding, and I grew up in the Depression. Something like this was beyond gold to us back then, I'd hate to see it go to waste."

"Sure thing," Tony took custody of the pudding tub. On an impulse, he sniffed it, then laughed at Bucky's confused expression, "Just in case you were crazy enough to eat actual mayo as a prank." Tony took a small scoop, then a much larger one. A fowl taste filled his mouth and he began to choke.

Bucky jumped out of the way as Tony hurled the mayo jar at him, "Vanilla pudding in the mayo jar was old when I was young, sonny boy, but a layer of vanilla on top of garlic mayonnaise? Your father taught me that little jewel." he walked away, cackling.

By midday Inessa was considering taking a knife to the implant again. Anything but this new torture. Her legs were jelly, and Natasha was fast on the way to making her arms useless as well by having her hold them out to the sides with a small bag of sand in each. Mallory, familiar with this one too, assured her it would get easier- around a month from then when the bags were filled to weigh five pounds. Natasha was brutal.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Clint came running out of the house with nothing but a towel wrapped around his bottom half. He was a slight green-yellow color, and it was dripping onto the towel as well. "WHICH ONE OF YOU DID IT? THE SHOWER IS A SACRED SPACE!" Steve covered his nose at a strange odor.

Banner stood up from one of the lawn chairs around the fire pit and walked over to high-five Sam in the sparring ring. Natasha raised her eyebrows, amused, "Chicken bouillon in the shower head?"

"A whole brick of it," Sam said proudly.

Before dinner every Avenger had scored more points (though no one was really keeping track).

Bucky and Thor duct-taped an air-horn to the pedestal of the computer chair in the main farmhouse, then raised it to maximum. When Steve sat down and adjusted the chair, he nearly broke the desk jumping back up. A few moments later, when Sam was trying to shake out some indoor rugs during clean-up duty, Thor summoned a thunderstorm to drench only him- and it followed him whenever he was outdoors for two hours.

Banner and Sam got their revenge on the two though- Thor left his sandals woefully un-defended, and were he not a God, he would have broken his neck in the fall down the stairs when he rushed down to stop a fight in the workshop, slipped on the sandals, and found that the tips were nailed to the floor. The resulting crash and screams of rage sent the two into hiding until dinner time. It didn't matter- they'd already left a box of chocolates sitting out next to the groceries on the porch (left there by Clint as he unloaded the car for Natasha to use). The only catch (which Clint discovered instead of the intended target- Natasha) was that once you opened the lid of the box, the bees imprisoned inside made it very clear how un-funny they found the joke to be.

Clint's partnership with Tony didn't bear as much fruit as both expected. The shield in the middle of the running path that morning had pretty much been their best idea. Banner's afternoon nap on the porch gave them the opportunity to field-test a new heat-activated adhesive (which performed above expectations. Banner's newly-waxed back as a result almost ended with a Hulk-out). Beyond that though they were mostly on the receiving end. Tony went through nearly his entire tube of toothpaste, wondering all the while why it wasn't putting a dent in the garlic overdose in his mouth before he realized Bucky or Thor had also gotten to it with the spices. Clint's bowstrings had been covered in some sort of wax which ended up making his fingers slip off the string mid-draw and made him give himself a black eye.

Natasha and Steve were the golden team, or so everyone thought. They hit Sam with the hunting trap (though that one was meant for Bucky), stapled the collar of Tony's shirt to his worktable when he fell asleep on it (the fall out from that is what sent Thor head-first down the stairs), re-packed the shower-head with glitter as soon as Clint thought it was clean (now he was sparkly and smelled like chicken soup!), covered Banner's back in honey instead of aloe after his little waxing experience, replaced Thor's insect-repellant with sugar water (which would pay off later that night), and, of course, Steve had already gotten Bucky the day before with a well-spent three hours arranging and then attaching tiny magnets to his arm while he claimed to be out looking for Inessa (Mallory wasn't as good of a liar as she thought- he could see Inessa sneaking around in her room from outside).

By the time May showed up to collect Mallory, everyone was exhausted and ready to declare Natasha the winner- the only one to be pranked just once.

Inessa walked (as best she could) Mallory out to the helicopter hand-in-hand. "Give it a chance, alright? I promise you, it's not going to be as bad as you think."

"I'll try," Inessa promised.

Mallory pulled her into a tight hug and kissed her on the cheek, "Thank you for not being dead," her eyes welled up with tears she couldn't suppress, "I really thought I'd lost you, little sister."

Inessa smiled as she pulled away. Ever since they were five they'd called one another 'sister', she didn't realize it until Mallory spoke, but she had never thought she'd hear that again- and it meant the world to her. "Be safe, big sister."

"You too," Mallory wiped her eyes quickly and called out to the Avengers watching from the porch, "Take care of her or I'll come back here and kick all your asses!" they waved and she climbed into the helicopter next to Agent May. The older woman picked up a box and handed it to her with a wink. She passed it to Inessa, "Make me proud."

The chopper blades began to churn and Inessa backed away quickly. She waved and watched until the chopper vanished from sight. She had been afraid when her friend left she'd go back to how she had been- more closed off, scared, disconnected. But the strength was still there. Inessa just had to be reminded of what it felt like to be Nadya again. There was still a lot of work to be done, but it didn't seem so overwhelming now that she knew she had a friend. Before the others came to her, she opened the box and looked inside- then suppressed a wicked grin.

"The food truce still stands, right?" Bucky asked wearily as the group picked at their stew.

"Yeah, why?" Tony was the cook of the day, and he was actually very proud of the fact that he resisted tampering with everything- especially after what Bucky had done to him.

Natasha lifted up a spoonful and let it drip back into the bowl, "So it's supposed to taste like this?"

"I told you all I'm not a cook, it's never been my forte, you insisted my name be in the hat."

As one, the Avengers and Inessa took a dinner roll. "Would it offend, Tony Stark, if I had pop-tarts for dinner?" Thor enjoyed the little pastries still.

"I would be offended if we didn't order some pizzas instead of choking this down," Tony wasn't ashamed to admit it tasted like shit.

Steve stood up, "I'll call, who wants what?" It took twenty minutes more to sort through everyone's orders and find compromises, then Steve went down the hall to the study. No sooner was he out of the kitchen than they heard a bizarre scream. Everyone jumped up and ran into the hall. Steve was laying on the floor, twitching. Natasha checked his pulse, he was fine, but his whole body was in spasms. He groaned as they subsided, "Who... Put... Nat's... Tazer... Darts... On... The... Handle?" he had to pant the words out.

Clint's mouth fell open. He inspected the door carefully- no evidence of any of Natasha's lovingly named "Widow-Bites". Banner retrieved a pair of rubber cleaning gloves from the kitchen and pushed through the crowd. He opened the den door quickly and slipped in. Sure enough- on the back of the doorknob was a small blue disk. Banner hit the center of it and deactivated it. He peeled it away from the door and held it up. "Natasha, come on- we already voted you the winner!"

"I didn't do it!" she protested, laughing now at Steve.

"I'm your teammate!" he grumbled as he got to his feet.

"I swear! Come on-" Natasha waved for him to follow, "You order pizza," she called to Banner. She led Steve, Sam, Bucky, and Tony upstairs to her room. When Natasha grabbed the handle of her door (to retrieve her case of the "Bites" and prove none were missing), she was launched back into the boys. The shock wasn't at any sort of dangerous level, but it was enough to smart and piss her off, "WHAT THE HELL?"

Three more shouts came from downstairs- more victims. "How many doors did you booby-trap?" Tony was incredulous.

"THIS ISN'T ME!" Natasha snapped.

Another angry scream came from downstairs a moment later, "WE WERE JUST IN HERE WHO PUT A WIDOW-BITE ON THE KITCHEN SINK?" Poor Clint- for someone who enjoyed playing pranks he had certainly been the victim of several that day.

By the time the pizza boy arrived every Avenger was on the rampage, trying to figure out who had trapped all the doors. Banner had taken his rubber gloves off to dial the phone- and they promptly vanished. Even sitting on the couch became a hazard- that was how Sam and Tony were finally hit. Inessa had the right idea- at some point in the chaos she simply sat in the middle of the livingroom on the hardwood and refused to budge. The pizza had to be retrieved by Bucky- who's metal arm had fallen off and vanished- he still didn't know how or where it was. He'd gotten it jammed in a door and the next thing he knew he came away but it didn't. When he'd broken into the room (and been severely shocked for his pains), there was no-one there and the window was open.

The pizza boy was slightly afraid of the manic look in Bucky's eyes, either that or by the screams of those still being hit with wave after wave of electric shock. "Electric short of some kind," Bucky tried to explain, "Nothing major."

"Oh," the kid nodded, pretending to understand, "Um, ok. Hey, this was in the middle of the front gate, by the way- I think the mail man just got lazy this time. It happens." he handed Bucky a round metal tin- an old film reel?

"Thanks, keep the change," Bucky tipped generously enough that he hoped the boy wouldn't draw too much attention to the farm.

"Thank you, sir!" he grinned from ear-to-ear, "Oh, and hey! I like the lightning rod, very 'Terminator'!" the kid ran back to his car and Bucky frowned.

"Lightning rod?" he walked out of the house and looked up. On the top of the highest peak was his metal arm, "SON OF A BITCH!"

Inessa kept her poker face throughout the mayhem. Mallory had given her twenty of those darts (donated by SHIELD for the prank-war). Bucky's arm? Well, that was just a matter of seeing an opportunity and taking it (literally). After he struck her, when she went to bring him out of the loft, he'd removed his arm. Inessa had a photographic memory, and it turned out she had just the right touch too. She sat in the middle of the floor, a picture of innocence, and accepted her dinner while the others tried to find all of the tazer darts.

"Pizza guy thinks the mailman left this, anyone claiming responsibility?" Bucky held the film canister up as though it were alive and dangerous.

"Not mine, scouts honor," Tony was exhausted- they all were- from the stress and strain of the day. In all they found twelve of the little darts, and prayed that was the end of them. The other Avengers denied any sort of involvement with the canister as well.

"I think I've got an old projector upstairs," Clint gingerly stood and went to retrieve the heavy case from the attic.

Bucky pried the lid off the case and braced for something horrible to happen- but inside was, as advertised, a reel of film. He picked it up and read the label on it, "Projekt Rebirth, German spelling, dated 1938."

"Huh?" Steve came over to check the reel, "I'm Project Rebirth, and it certainly wasn't 1938." he thought through it for a moment, "Wait- OK, I might know what this is. Before he worked with SHIELD, Doctor Erskine worked in a lab with Red Skull, it's how Skull got his powers. He tested the serum on himself."

"Got it!" Clint came back into the room with the large hard-sided case. He stood back and let Bucky and Steve figure out how to make it work and load in the film- it was from their era after all.

"Why is someone sending us Red Skull's old home tapes?"

Natasha rolled her eyes when Bucky pointed the projector at a blank wall and focused the reel, "What the hell kind of a joke is this? Which one of you two monkeys thought it would be funny to play with photoshop?"

"Do you know that kid?" Clint asked, incredulous. She looked very familiar, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it. She'd have to be at least in her late 80s, early 90s now, she looked to be ten in the footage. The girl was bone-thin, probably some kid brought in from the streets. Erskine and the Doctor who would one day be Red Skull- Johann Schmidt- appeared to be discussing something. The kid coughed and what could have been blood sprayed out. Erskine immediately went to her to dab at her mouth and comfort the sick child.

"You did this one, didn't you?" Natasha glared at Clint, "It's not funny, just weird."

"What's weird?" Tony was incredulous. The footage jumped- now the kid was in a machine.

"That looks like what they put me into, just a more basic version," Steve frowned as the doors closed and lights began to flash around the girl. When it opened, when the smoke cleared, the girl looked less skeletal. She looked strong. Almost like a different child.

A man went into the machine next, but Natasha ignored the video, "Fess up, which one of you thought this would be funny?"

"What are you talking about?" Sam was thoroughly confused.

"Like you don't know that's me. Come on, even SHIELD doesn't have pictures of me at that age to use for an edit. Who found what where?"

"Nat, I don't think any of us-" Steve looked around at the others. Everyone shook their head. Even Inessa looked confused and concerned.

Natasha was just pissed, "Look, by that age I was already in Black Widow training in the Red Room, and I didn't leave until I was twenty at least. So which one of you found Red Room footage? Huh? That was a horrific place. You shouldn't even use that stuff as a joke."

"JARVIS, send a suit in to check the footage for edit points," Tony spoke into his comm. Everyone watched the footage in silence until the suit arrived- young Natasha fighting the older man, improving day by day. There was a shot of her standing with one leg out in front of her- just like she'd had Inessa do.

A memory jumped out at Steve as the suit turned off the footage and collected the reel for scanning. They'd just gotten Bucky sedated (very much against his will) for the operation that would remove the metal arm Hydra grafted to his flesh. He was talking to Coulson, hung up, and suddenly Natasha was dragging him out of the Tower to go on some idiotic shopping trip- a thin excuse to just get him out and take his mind off of things. He'd tried to wrench free from her grip, but couldn't. Bucky and I are the only super-soldiers, right? he remembered being suddenly unsure of that. The thought sent chills down his spine. In a way, he knew the answer before JARVIS even spoke.

"There has been no tampering that I may detect. This is the original film strip. Cuts made to the footage and tape reconnecting several different scenes is consistent with the date indicated on the label."

Natasha couldn't accept that, "It's not real. I know it's not. I was trained in the Red Room in the 80s, I worked for the KGB for twenty- no wait-"

"We met on-mission in the late 90s," Clint prompted softly.

"Well I know I worked for the KGB for twenty years, at least, before that, and I trained for at least ten-"

"The math doesn't line up. You'd be in your 40s, 50s at least." Bucky looked down at his hands.

"No, but-" Natasha ran through her memories quickly, trying to find the point of error. She must have miss-counted time at some point, doubled something. It had been a long day, she was frazzled, she'd made a mistake. The video wasn't possible. It just wasn't.

"JARVIS, you have Nat's DNA on file?" Tony wouldn't look her in the eyes either.

"Yes, sir."

"Compare it to Bucky and Steve's. Specifically the super-soldier anomalies."

No one spoke for the full twenty minutes it took JARVIS to run his tests, then re-run them when the Avengers rejected the results. "With a 0.00001% error probability, Miss Romanoff's DNA does include the same genetic abnormalities as Mister Barnes, yet lacks the same mutations as Mister Rogers. It would appear at some point she was subjected to the unfinished version of the super soldier serum."

Banner chose to be the voice of reason, impossible as all this seemed, "For Red Skull to know the serum worked and test it on himself, he had to have seen it in action. Natasha, I'm sorry, but considering the number they did on Bucky, is it possible they did the same thing to you too? Once upon a time?"

"No, no, it's not- it's not possible. JARVIS, play back the reel, the last cut."

The suit turned to face the wall and projected the newly-scanned footage from it's internal memory. The last clip came up- Natasha, dancing. The Red Room, as a cover, doubled as a dance studio. Every Black Widow agent was part of the same ballet class- grace and death, all they'd been taught. She had hoped the last clip would show that place. She studied the dancers faces as closely as she could given the age of the footage. She remembered all of them- most died before their training was complete. Duels to the death were a weekly occurrence, and Natasha was top of her class. She was perhaps twelve in this clip. She remembered that day, that dance. Every detail was perfect- but it couldn't have been that long ago. She tried to remember exactly how long she'd been with the KGB, the time seemed much longer than it could have, yes, but- she wasn't that old.

"If it was real, I'd remember. No matter what they did. I've been around Thor's healing stones just like the rest of you. Bucky remembers. If it was true, I would too."

"Not if you suppressed them yourself," Thor's voice was soft.

"This is a shitty prank, you should all be ashamed of yourselves!" Natasha stormed off up the stairs, leaving everyone in silence.

Clint waited until he heard the bedroom door slam, "Let's call it a night- yeah?"

"I'll try to find what I can," Tony promised as the group disbursed. The cheery mood was gone.

Even Inessa was too shaken to hold on to her rage- when Sam held her bedroom door open for her she actually thanked him- it was a whisper, but it was something.

Over the next few hours there were several shouts and a "NOT COOL!" from Clint as the Avengers found the other eight tazer darts Inessa had hidden in their beds. She was just grateful no one knew she'd been the one to plant them.

For story notes, visit ProjectEchoFanfic dot tumblr dot com

And Steve is remembering Part 1, Chapter 14 for those of you wondering (I do actually plan some of this out a ways in advance).
Also- mystery solved (don't tell Thor)- Christine essentially thought the Phantom and the Angel of Music were two sides of one coin- think multiple personality disorder. She wasn't the brightest cookie in the crayon box.