CHAPTER 15

Sorry for the slight delay again… I hope to get back on schedule for the next update though!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters except my own. The characters belong to MARVEL.

CHAPTER 15 SPACE

"Natasha," Hayden called. He grappled for the door frame as he slid around the corner to the gym. Eyes wide, face flushed with excitement. "Natasha, great news!"

Natasha stopped her manoeuvres against the sand sack in the middle of the gym. "What is it?" she asked, wiping at her brow.

Hayden positively vibrated in place. "Well, for one, Tony's feeling better. He can stand for a few minutes and asked to get some of his equipment to begin working on something," his hands wove through the air as if imitating Tony's tinkering, "And then, Thor just arrived from Norway. Said something about an urgent message he has to share with all of you."

An urgent message. Natasha moved towards the door, unwinding the braces from her hands. That seems important. Especially, if Thor is leaving his people just to report back to us. She threw the braces on a bench. Her steps quickened. This has to be very important.

The closer they came to their strategy room, the louder the voices grew. Fortunately, it wasn't another shouting match between Steve and Tony. It sounded like Thor and Rocket were catching up with each other and Nebula threw in the one or other grudging comment.

"Yeah, you're happy to reminisce about space, we get it," Tony cut in, "I'm sorry to be the spoil sport, but we might need to move on with the briefing."

Natasha raked her eyes over her friend. Tony looked still slightly too pale, thin like a stake. His cheeks were hollowed, but he or someone else had taken the time to groom his beard back to its usual anchor shape. "I'm glad to see you're back to business," she placed a hand on the back of Tony's wheelchair, "So, what's the great news?"

Thor was almost vibrating as much as Hayden and Natasha couldn't help the fond smile that curled her lips. I never realised how excitable Thor can get. He really lost something important with his people scattered across the universe.

Her thoughts were cut short when Thor wrapped her in a tight hug. "Natasha," he rumbled. "I'm so happy to see you again. I hope you recovered well." Thor put her down after a moment, pulling away just enough to look her in the face. Natasha met his gaze. She found a deep-seated but by now slightly subdued sorrow in his eyes.

"I, uh," Clint's face flashed before her eyes, still lost from the radar, "As well as can be expected."

Thor tilted his head slightly, then nodded once.

Across the room, Steve cleared his throat. For the first time in a long while, he looked uncomfortable with putting on his Captain America aura. Arms crossed over his chest, a slight scowl on his face. "I think, we need to move on," his eyes flickered towards the holograms of both Okoye and Carol, "Thor, what news do you have?"

Tony snorted. "Yeah, give us the news before Cap turns back into an icicle."

Steve stiffened further, if that was even possible. "I really don't think," he stopped himself, looked away, took a deep breath, "Thor, could you please give us your report."

With a nod, Thor stepped up to the holograms. After a quick glance over the maps, he began pulling up whatever information he needed. "After Thanos destroyed half the living world I went out in search for my people. They were scattered across space on their way to Midgard, but Val and our friends were able to pull them back together." He paused for a moment, then threw the map out into the room between them. "We eventually settled in the south of Norway in Tønsberg. Oldest city of the country, stored the Tesseract for hundreds of years."

A small dot now marked the new residence of Asgard. Natasha noted the proud tilt of Thor's head. He's still a king amongst his people. Even, if he seems more approachable than most other leaders. Her gaze returned to the dot on the map, nestled close to a fjord in the cradle of the coastline between Norway and Sweden. It's tactically speaking a good idea to settle there. The sea is close by for food and the mountains and generally less urbanized style is advantageous for the Asgardian style of living. At least from what I could scrape together from Darcy and Doctor Forster.

"A few days ago, Val came to me with the information that she kept in contact with someone who wanted to see Thanos dead just as much as we do. She did not give a name, said it wasn't of consequence for now and by request of her source." Natasha furrowed her brows. "They have been travelling to several planets to try and find leads on Thanos' whereabouts and next plans as well as allies we might need to plan for."

"What did they find?" Tony was typing away on a separate screen, notes and speculations flying across it.

Thor pushed the map into the background in favour of what looked like a reconstruction of a planet, then pulled up a landscape and crystal. "Val and her source traversed the universe and landed on this planet. Uninhabited, characterized by strong winds and desert-like landscape. Apparently, Hela lived in a cave there for some time. She left a crystal that Val recovered, and her source took back for testing."

"Is that source the best option we have?" Steve asked.

"I know that planet," Rocket chimed in. "That's not one you want to stay on for long – or can stay on for long, if you want to stay alive. The atmosphere is toxic. If anyone was there, they'd be dead within the first hours." He looked back at Nebula, who was watching the display with narrowed eyes.

She stepped forward, taking a closer look at the pictures. "Thanos told me about this planet once. I never learned what his exact plan for it was, but he was very interested in the properties of its earth." Nebula looked back up at Thor from where she stood close to the projection. "Do you know what the crystal is supposed to do?"

Thor shook his head. "Val has consorted with her source about the crystal before she came to me. From what we can tell for now, there was a spell on it to alert its previous owner if someone touched it. That as well as possible tracking spells were removed before the source took it in for further testing."

He enlarged the picture of the crystal. It was small and round. Not a natural shape compared to the crystals found on Earth. Something was off about it. Not only was the surface too smooth, but something inside it. It glimmered or flickered as if alive.

Bruce scratched the back of his head. "Well, this is an interesting development." He shoved his glasses up his nose, brows furrowed as he leaned slightly closer towards the image of the crystal. "Do we know anyone with knowledge of geology?"

"I've seen crystals like that," Carol spoke up "though I don't remember, where I came across them. But I do remember seeing them on some far away planets. They were mostly used as a kind of protection for treasures. Apparently, the structure lends itself well to retaining protection and warding charms."

"That might explain Thanos' interest in it," Steve mused. By now, he leaned against a table, chin resting in his palm. His brows were furrowed in concentration.

Okoye shifted in place. Her brows were furrowed critically. "Do you have any information on the source Val found? Who it might be?"

"It would need to be someone with knowledge of magic apparently. Knowledge of magic, as well as someone who is able to travel quickly through space and be able to dissect the crystal scientifically as well," Natasha pursed her lips. This doesn't sit right with me. Secrecy may be my specialty, but there's always a time and a place for it. Hunting a mad titan is not it.

"That's what I thought," Okoye nodded. "Given the limited information, refusal to give us a name, it might be someone you know. Someone you aren't on good terms with." Her eyes scanned across the assembled. "Which means we can't be sure, if that source is trustworthy at all."

"I trust Val. She saved my people and helped rebuild New Asgard."

Okoye and Natasha exchanged a look. It read of the same hesitation to accept that trust at face value. But really, they had no better option at the moment. Thus, Natasha accepted Thor's defence with a nod. "So, we assume we can trust them. Whoever they are." Her eyes shifted across the room.

The Avengers were comparatively tense. Tony and Steve were even exchanging looks, as if calculating how to work this out between them should their suspicions turn out to be right. I wonder, if Loki is even still alive at this point. Given Bruce's description of what happened before he fell back down to Earth, Loki should be dead. She thought back to their fight with Loki and whatever Thor had disclosed since then and what she had learned from Doctor Foster. Then again, the God of Chaos might be able to find some kind of loophole to slip away from death. He certainly did it before.

"Can you send me the info," Carol said into the contemplative quiet. "I already scour the universe for Thanos. Might as well throw the crystal into the mix. Just in case."

"Are you sure?" Steve asked. "We could send you some reinforcements."

"We could get the Benatar ready to go in a couple days," Rocket said, visibly calculating what they needed to do in his head. "Stock up on rations and fuel, clean and repair anything that got broken on the crash course out there."

"Shouldn't be too much." Nebula waved a hand. "Tony and I took good care of her while we were out there. As long as we have something to keep you occupied, we could fly out today."

Carol straightened her back, ruffled her hair with a sigh. "No, not yet I think. I'm your best bet to find anything out here in space without endangering your lives. Plus, I'm much faster than your ship could fly." She offered a rueful smile. "I'll keep looking for clues of either allies or Thanos. I need to check in with a few of my friends anyway, maybe they know more about that crystal as well." She looked at something beyond their room, her eyes losing focus for a few seconds. For just a few heartbeats, her face was overshadowed with grief.

Natasha's focus narrowed in on the other woman. She didn't look like this when she was last on Earth. Her mind ran through the research she had done in the meantime into one Carol Danvers. Her military career and turn into Captain Marvel, her acquaintance with Fury. It can't only be because of his disappearance.

But Carol merely shook her head, returning to the present. Her face smoothed out. Back to business. "Once I find some clue, I'll contact you and you can fly out, promise."

Thor nodded gravely to Carol's statement of authority in space. Tony typed away on the tablet in his hands, no doubt transferring the info to her over the new links he had set up.

Sure enough, Carol looked down at her wrist. "Thank you. I'll see what I can do. Hopefully, I'll return as successful as Val seemed to be."

"I still think we should get up there as well. I don't like sitting around here," Rocket sniffed. "We have our own connections we could ask for help and keep a lookout. The more eyes we have, the better."

For a moment, no one said a word. Slowly, eyes turned to look at Steve, still the unspoken leader of the Avengers even after their separation. The blond shifted uneasily in place, seemingly at a loss for words.

"To be honest, I think that might be a good idea," Rhodey said. "I mean, space is really big, so I guess there's room enough for more than one investigator running around." His eyes wandered between Nebula and Tony, before settling on Rocket. "From what I heard you have very different friends out there in the galaxy, so," he shrugged, "I'd say get that ship ready."

Rocket grinned up at him. "Yeah, that guy knows what's up."

Nebula rolled her eyes, but Natasha noted how her fingers tapped against her leg in impatience. She wants to get up there. Those two aren't from Earth any more than Carol is. Nebula knows Thanos and his tactics better than anyone else. Her input on our strategies will be invaluable, but her knowledge might also help to sniff him out.

Natasha noticed several heads turning in her direction. Slowly, as if unsure or waiting for her to say something. Looking up, she found Steve, Rhodey and Tony watching her in calm anticipation.

Steve was the first to speak. "What do you think, Natasha?"

Natasha took a moment to shuffle the information and strategies she could see in her head. "Rocket and Nebula know space just as well as Carol. True, they need to make some stops due to their restrictions with the space ship and thus might be slower in their travel. However," she met Nebula's unflinching gaze, "who better to hunt down Thanos than his own daughter?"

"He killed my sister." The words echoed in her head. A quiet admission between them in one of their early-morning sparring session. If anyone deserved to kill Thanos, it was Nebula.

The other woman inclined her head ever so slightly in silent gratitude. Rocket was far more vocal with his agreement to her assessment. He loudly declared them ready to take off and being sick of Earth and its dull inhabitants compared to the wonderous cultures he had found on other planets. Without even waiting for anyone else to acknowledge the decision, he demanded Tony send the information to the Benatar so they could take off.

The screen blinked off, dignitaries and politicians alike disappearing from sight. Steve huffed, rubbing at his eyebrow as if unsure if he should ruffle his hair or pinch the bridge of his nose. Meetings and discussions with officials, politicians or otherwise, were always tedious.

"We should charge them," Okoye muttered to herself. Her posture had closed off the longer the other leaders had explained their problems. "Their petty comments are getting tiresome. No one said they have to consult us."

Natasha hummed in agreement. "Well at least we're slowly getting back to where it was before." Her gaze wandered around the room, noting Tony's pinched brow. "Although we can hardly do anything considering Ross refuses to re-negotiate the conditions of the Sokovia Accords."

Tony's shoulders tensed visibly. Rhodey shot Natasha a pointed glare, warning her not to tread up the old argument that had split their group in the first place. Tension spread across the room, almost palpable.

"I think, we should all go and relax for a bit," Steve said, now running a hand through his hair. "After this," he gestured vaguely between them and where the political leaders had stood just a minute prior, "we earned a bit of rest."

Without another word, Tony turned his wheelchair and left the room.

"I'll go talk to him." Rhodey turned to follow his best friend. As he passed Natasha, she grabbed his wrist.

"I didn't mean it as an insult. I'll try to talk to him myself, but just in case: I'm sorry." She met his gaze unflinchingly. "But Ross does need to revisit the conditions for the Accords, if he wants to hold us to them after all that. We can't be controlled by a government in shambles."

For a moment, the distant whirring of the one or other electrical device was the only sound in the room. Steve and Rhodey both considered her with furrowed brows. Okoye watched on with a neutral expression, while Natasha merely waited for their reactions. I should have worded that more carefully. Then again, Tony isn't one to mince his words either. I'll talk to him. I spent too little time with him since he came back with Nebula…

As the silence dragged on, Natasha nodded and turned to leave the room. "Good-bye Okoye. Get some rest, boys." Especially you, Steve. The circles under your eyes are still too dark even for your supersoldier physique.

Outside their meeting room, Natasha found Hayden waiting for her. The teenager was leaning against the opposite wall a few steps away, so he couldn't listen to anything said within the meeting room. As soon as he caught sight of her, a cautious smile tilted his lips. "I saw Tony leaving towards his workshop."

"Thank you. Would you like to walk with me?"

Hayden fell in step beside her on their way towards Tony's workshop. He's fidgeting. Can't even keep his gaze focused for more than a few seconds. Tense all over. Does he think, I wouldn't notice that? Natasha cocked her head. "Is there anything else you want to talk about?"

"Huh?"

"You waited for me outside the meeting, keep fidgeting and shooting glances." Natasha shot him a smirk. "I'm a spy, remember?"

A blush crept over Hayden's cheeks. His fidgeting grew more pronounced to the point where he almost stumbled over his own two feet. With a lot hming and hawing, Hayden finally seemed to find the words. "You know, you said you'd take patronage of an orphanage for the Snap. And, uh, I know you just came from a very important meeting with whatever important people, but I did some research and I might have found a house that might be good for that?"

They paused in front of the closed doors. Not a good sign. Let's just hope either he allows FRIDAY to let me in or I remember the correct code for the door. Natasha mulled the thoughts over in her head. A house for the orphanage. And we have a doctor on call from the second opinion Bruce insisted on…

"You don't have to, of course. Just in case, you know." Hayden shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

Natasha laid a hand on his shoulder to ground him. His stature loosened. "I'd like to see what you found. But first I need to talk to Tony." She waited until he met her eyes once more. "We can talk about it more after lunch and maybe drive out and take a look at it too, if you're up for it."

That got an enthusiastic nod from the teenager. He grabbed her wrist to squeeze it, before turning and trotting back towards the kitchen. Probably to help Bruce with whatever was for lunch and nick whatever he could get his hands on. Natasha turned on her heel. She tapped the old code into the keypad next to it. As soon as the sound proofing was out of the way, the steady clang of metal on metal filled the air almost covering FRIDAY's announcement of her arrival.

Tony sat in front of one of his workbenches. A visor covered his face. Nothing indicated he had heard Natasha entering his workshop. Which didn't say much. Tony's senses were anything but dulled during his work, as Natasha had long since learned.

Thus, it didn't surprise her, when, without even pausing, Tony tilted his head slightly in her direction. "Come to gloat some more?"

"No." Natasha leaned her hip against a close-by table. "And I didn't intend to then either. But it's a fact we have to contemplate." She paused, looking for any reaction from Tony. When none seemed forthcoming, she went on. "The Sokovia Accords were intended to be monitored by the government. No matter what we think about that particular morsel, after Thanos' Snap the politicians have more important things to take care of than where or how to employ our fields of expertise."

"My, my, Agent Romanoff." Tony paused his work. Slowly, he shoved the mask up to reveal a teasing smirk. Fake, Natasha's senses told her. Tony lifted an eyebrow at her. "Are you actually apologizing to me or are my ears deceiving me?"

"Yes, I am," Natasha said before Tony even had the chance to finish his sentence fully. "I'm sorry. It can't have been easy for you in the past few years and it wasn't my intention to trudge up painful, unwelcome memories."

Tony's eyes widened in surprise for all of a second, before a cool mask slid across his face, shutting off all his emotions. Natasha frowned internally. He's trying to keep me out. She shifted her stance, careful to keep it open and approachable. Hands loosely on the edge of the table, legs uncrossed.

"There's a first time for everything, huh?" Tony chuckled hollowly. "Never thought I'd see the day, when the double agent owns up to her mistakes."

"Look who's talking," Natasha shot back. "You worked hard to reshape your image. I heard, you actually proposed to Pepper. The Tony I knew a couple years ago wouldn't have done that."

"Yeah, I left behind a couple broken hearts." Another fake smirk. Seemingly haughty, better than you. But Tony's shoulders were tense. He turned back to his work to avoid Natasha's intense gaze.

She allowed him to escape for the moment, considering his words. The defence mechanism she had triggered with her words. The cocky playboy philanthropist Steve would probably already be annoyed at even after all their time working together. They were never particularly good at reading each other. Too many expectations neither of them would meet. Much too stubborn to admit to their mistakes or misgivings.

A look around the workshop revealed several new projects Tony was working on. Updates for his suits, something that looked like a portable device to keep the AI with him in the suit. Improvements for Rhodey's leg braces. Giving in to temptation, Natasha stepped closer to the table. These are amazing. The care and precision. Above that table was a flickering hologram of all their suits with the same technology marked in red lines on the legs. She trailed a finger along the notes along the margins of the suits. Thoughts for improvement and efficiency. A single note caught her attention. It simply read "Iron Spidersuit? Falcon?" As if Tony had considered to include some kind of precaution or general support in those suits as well.

Peter's and Sam's faces flashed in front of her mind's eye. Both dusted. One with Tony in space, the other with them in Wakanda. No one had even seen Sam disappear. To think Tony might have seen his kid disappear right in front of his eyes. Natasha's breath stuttered. And we weren't there to help him. He went up against Thanos with an unusual team.

"Something caught your eye, Agent Romanoff?"

The tone was deceptively light. As if expecting a snake to strike at any moment. And somehow it hit Natasha even harder, that this was the feeling Tony must have had over the past years whenever he thought of them. Unwilling to succumb to an unfair rule, switching sides, fighting him on every step. No wonder he was unwilling or unable to ask us for help when something did happen.

With just a few steps, Natasha was back beside Tony's workstation. He looked up at her with distrust hidden deep in his eyes, behind a wall of brash confidence. But now Natasha knew what to look for. "How can you stand being in the same room with us?"

It's not what she wanted to ask. Not by a long shot. But the words fell from her lips anyway. From the shocked expression on Tony's face her own must for once reflect every emotion she otherwise tried to hide away.

"After everything that happened," she began again, "how can you even look at us and consider working with us?"

"You didn't do it on purpose. You had your reasons and I had mine."

Natasha offered Tony a hand. After a moment's hesitation, Tony allowed her to pull him to his feet.

"And what now?"

"Can I hug you?" Another surprising question coming from her. And again, Tony blinked back at her in confusion for a few moments. Natasha kept perfectly still while he made his decision.

After a moment too long, Tony finally pulled her into a hug.

Natasha kept her arms carefully around his shoulders where he could feel every movement of her hands. Just in case Tony had any doubt as to her intentions.

"Hayden told me about the orphanage you want to build," Tony mumbled into her shoulder. "If you need anything."

"I know, Tony," Natasha assured him. "I'll tell you everything about it. He actually seems to have found a house suitable for our little enterprise."

Tony stepped back, confident grin back at full force as if their little quarrel and moment never happened. "Well, that might be because I asked Pepper to look into unused houses we might acquire for little money." He paused. "If you want to, of course."

Natasha rested her hand back on Tony's shoulder. "Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah. Now shoo. I need to finish this project and you keep distracting me." Tony sat back down in front of his workbench. The mask slid over his face as he went back to tinkering.

"Mister Stark, Mister Banner would like to inform you and Miss Romanoff that lunch is ready," FRIDAY chimed in.

Natasha smiled at Tony's groan. "Now come. You'll be able to concentrate better after we get some food in you. You're still recovering after all. And Bruce's curry is really good."

"Yeah. Recovering. I'm not a damn grandfather, who needs to eat at exactly noon sharp or he won't be able to function."

"No, that would be Steve," Natasha shot back, a laugh hiding in her voice. It earned her an honest chuckle from Tony as she let the doors fall closed behind them.