The Assassin pt. 3
A couple of hours later…
On air in the jet
Tony had called his father and aunt Pegs about Hawkeye possibly bringing the super dangerous femme-fetal, and asked them to delay SHIELD.
They weren’t happy about it, so there was a lot of shouting coming from him and aunt Pegs through the video call on the holographic screen. His father mostly listened and in the end, he trusted Tony to do what he thought was right. With 2 against 1, Aunt Pegs reluctantly conceded to Tony’s demands.
But she also gave an ultimatum. If in one hour after he landed that Tony didn’t ring her, she would come to the jet and busted him out off it herself. Even though Tony has tried to appease her worry by telling her that uncle James was with him.
There’s still a matter concerning the spider that put Tony on edge. And until it was resolved, he wouldn’t let the widow out of his jet and into the land of freedom. Thus, he immediately contacted his dad to meet him in the airplane after he landed. Yeah, in the airplane, not hangar.
The genius was asking his dad to apparate into the airplane in front of a no-maj. Or a person who looked like a no-maj but possibly magic.
9 hours earlier…
“Yasha?”
James’ looked taken aback before he completely shut down, no emotion could be decipherfrom his face. He has turned on his winter soldier look on. And in front of guests.
The widow slowly stood up from her spot and walked languidly towards his uncle. In panic, Tony lifted his hand. But before he could cast a spell, his uncle stopped him with his palm up and shook his head a little while saying, “Don’t.”
It took a minute for the Russian chick to get in front of James with his hypnotic hesitant walk. And seconds ticked by before her fisted hand opened up, and to his surprise, her hand was trembling.
Tony was nervous at the close proximity between his uncle and the red-head. “Uncle James, I don’t think…”
He put another stop to his words with his hand. It shut Tony up real good but it didn’t stop him from feeling nervous about his uncle’s safety, even if his uncle was the number 1 assassin in the world.
On the other hand, the fugitive didn’t seem to notice the tension in the space. Little by little, she reached out her hand. At first Tony thought that she was going to grab his godfather by the arm and possibly pinning him to the wall.
To his surprise, the young woman put her palm on James’ shirt. Soothingly, she stroked the fabric and seemingly tried to convince herself that the man in front of her was real. Tony could see that her whole body started shaking, as if she was overwhelmed by something. Something he couldn’t put his fingers on.
She took a hold of James’ shirt and grasping it tightly in her petit hand before looking up at him. Quietly, she said something in Russian,”я думал, ты умер. я увидел отчет, Яша.”(I thought you were dead. I saw the report, Yasha)
Slowly, James put his hand on top of the girlie assassin, tenderly moved his thumb back to front on her stiff knuckle andwhispered. “я был спасен.“(I was saved)
“я пропустил тебя.” (I missed you)
“Я здесь сейчас, милая. (I’m here now, sweetie),” James put his other hand on the woman’s head gently. “Я больше не оставлю тебя.” (I’m not going to leave you again)
“The f*ck,” Clint said not too quietly.
Tony choked on his laugh, “Subtle, Lady Marian, subtle.”
Their comments kind of ruined their somewhat touching moment. Tony didn’t know what they were saying, but he knew how to read the moment.
“Mer… damn,” Tony cursed, putting his hands on his hips and looked at his uncle. “Do you want birdbrain to know? I mean, about you. Because this,” he flailed his hand from his uncle and the female assassin to Clint back and forth. “needs a further and much complicated explanation.”
James opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and shook his head when the woman tensed up. “Not yet.”
“Okay,” the wizard inhaled deeply and exhaled, watching his uncle seriously. “But if I do this, I need to do it to the both of them.”
He could see the hardened look on his godfather’s face. Tony emphasized on the need to do it again. “The statute of secrecy is very important, Uncle James. You and I both know, if they found out, they would come here and do it themselves. And we don’t want that, do we?”
If the aurors noticed Tony using magic in front of the no-majs, there would be hell for Tony, especially since not many know about his status as a wizard or as Harry Potter’s son.
“What are you talking about, man?” Clint asked confusedly from beside him.
Ignoring his friend, Tony waited for James’ respond. The ex-assassin closed his eyes for a second before opening them again to stare at Tony. That’s enough of an answer to Tony.
He flicked his hand towards Clint and whispered,” obliviate.”
After that, he put a false memory charm on the man before putting him to sleep with his dad’s potion. He always brought some and put it in his dimensional hole.
Tony turned to face the red-head, who has in turn looked back at Tony wide-eyed in fear. “This is just a simple memory charm, ms. Murder. It will erase your memory of seeing me do magic. That’s it. I promise.”
“Все в порядке, ребенок. Тони хорошо. обещаю.” (It’s okay, child. Tony is good. I promise) James murmured on her ear.
But even with his godfather’s assurances, the lady looked suspicious and scared. Tony was fast though, so before she could run away, Tony casted the spell.
To everybody’s shock, the light from the spell bounced off of her. The young Potter took off his wand wrist-watch and inspected it carefully. “Well, that shouldn’t have happened, “he looked at her in wonder. “What are you?”
James managed to convince the Russian lady to take a rest in his bedroom and they have been in there for more than one hour. They seemed to have a history together, possibly in Red Room because of the black widow program. Maybe he remembered her somehow.
Maybe they’re catching up on old times or something. Tony hoped and prayed it wasn’t something romantic, bleh *fake vomiting. Cause thinking about his cool uncle, pun unintended, having a relationship that didn’t involve family stuff and taking out of the bad guys, was just eww. And the spy girl was literary just a young woman much younger than his uncle. There’s just no way.
Thinking about what the both of them were doing in the room just made Tony wanted to scrub his mind. Dirty thoughts, shoo, shoo.
In the meantime, Tony occupied his time with something else, like levitating Clint’s body to his bed and sat back on his seat in the passenger’s seat. He calculated that Barton would be up about ten hours from now with brand new false memories and well-time spent on sleeping. The man looked like he really needed the rest.
Tony was sipping on his cup of coffee when James came out of the room. He looked exhausted but there’s a new atmosphere around him. He appeared lighter and freer than before. Less stressful.
The older man took a seat opposite Tony’s and smiled at him. “Ask away, bachgenbach (Welsh).”
“Who is she? Where did you know her? Is it in Red Room? Have you remembered your time in that place? How about…?”
“I take it back, “the man cut him off. “I will tell you everything.”
The CEO motioned with his hand as if saying ‘be my guest’.
“I remember,” James told him quietly. “About what happened from 89-90 when HYDRA lent the winter soldier to the Red Room.”
“How? What happened?”
“When she called me, Yasha,” he sighed deeply. “Suddenly it all came back to me. They called me Yasha there and I was tasked to train a group of young girls how to fight and kill. I couldn’t even call them girls. They were only 4 to 6 years old girls. So young and fragile and they asked me to hurt and forced them to fight.”
James laughed but there was no humor in it. “That’s what the Black Widow program was all about. That’s what Red Room does, or did. She told me that she destroyed them all before escaping. There’s no more Red Room.”
“Wait, wait,” Tony looked confused. “I don’t understand one thing though. How did you just suddenly remember about it? I mean, the healer from st. Agnes wasn’t able to uncover it with magic, but when the assassin chick called your Russian name, the memory was suddenly unlock? It’s just too weird, you know.”
“I think it’s her,” the photographer made a quiet allegation. “I was there for one year and for that whole time, I started regaining my memories slowly as Bucky. Without the torture, cryogenic or the chair, I felt healed, even just a little. But I couldn’t up and ran away from there. “
James looked a bit starry-eyed for a moment. “I’ve grown attached to this one girl. She was fierce but sweet. And she was the best candidate in the program. When I remembered what they and I did to her to deprive her off of her innocence and childhood, I…”
Tony patted his uncle on his shoulder. “You had no choice. You were brainwashed, James.”
“But I…”
“Not really your fault. And if it wasn’t you, they would let others do it,” he squeezed the man’s shoulder reassuringly.
“She was…,” there’s a tear ran down on his cheek. “From all those girls and she… She was only 5, my Natalie. I loved… love her. She was the reason why I stayed. I couldn’t just leave her.”
The look on James’ face wrenched Tony’s heart. He never see his uncle this broken with guilt. The guilt that’s eating him from having to hurt someone that he loved. He assumed Natalie was Natasha Romanoff. It explained their closeness.
“Then, one day,” he suddenly looked blank. “I heard her screaming. It was the most painful horrible voice I’ve ever heard. So I barged into the room where they held her and killed all those people who were torturing her,” he smiled viciously. “Putting those bastards down, satisfied something in me. No one messed with my girl.”
“She was hurt badly and when I held her in my arms,” he stretched his arms wide, as if relieving the painful memory. “I was so afraid I’d made her injuries worse, but she… my ребенок, she was strong. She said she knew I would come and save her. At that moment, I promised her that we would run together. Then they came in and tried to separate us. Then the last thing I remembered was Natalie telling them not to hurt me. She said,’ Я заставлю его забыть обо мне. Только не делай ему больно. Пожалуйста.’”
“I don’t speak Russian, uncle James,” Tony remarked.
“She said,’I'll make him forget about me. Just don't hurt him. Please’,” James told him.
“That’s a very weird thing to say,” the wizard cocked an eyebrow.
“And Natalie didn’t have a red hair before,” said the brunette. “Her hair used to be fair. Silvery blonde.”
***
March 2005
10 o’clock
La Guardia Airport, New York
The airplane has landed in New York and currently parked in Stark’s private hangar. He had let his flight crews home to have this private meeting. Tony’s dad arrived not a moment too soon inside the Stark’s jet with a loud pop.
After greeting and hugging his dad tightly, he asked,” Where is my dear sister?”
“She’s with Andromeda and she can spell her name now,” Harry boasted proudly.
“Genius runs on our bloodlines after all,” Tony bragged. “I brought her a present from Vienna. I bet she’ll love it.”
“She will love everything her favorite brother gives to her, Orion,” he smiled.
Tony called for James and the Russian girl to come out of the room. They all sat down on 4 different seats, minus Barton who was still sleeping soundly in the bedroom.
“Hello, my name is Harry James Evans,” Harry extended his hand out towards Romanoff. “What’s your name?”
The young woman had her fingers fisted on James’white casual button down shirt and sat still on her seat, glaring suspiciously at his dad. Rude.
“ведьма.” (witch)
“волшебник, котенок” (wizard) Uncle James corrected.
"He’s one of the people who saved me. He’s a good friend.”
“My name is Natasha Romanoff.”
“Hello, ms. Romanoff,” his dad took out a note book and a needle from his jacket pocket. “In my community, I’m what people called a healer, or doctor in no-maj’s world. No-maj is people who lack any magical ability or aren’t born in a magical family.”
“Like me?” She asked quietly.
“That’s what we’re going to find out, ms. Romanoff,” the healer said calmly. “I only need a drop of your blood on this paper. I’m going to do a lineage spell. That’s it.”
When the young lady still looked hesitant, James grabbed the needle,” Let me try it first, okay?” He put his hand on her head reassuringly and pricked his finger before letting a single drop of blood fell onto the paper.
Harry swift his hand over the notebook and suddenly words and lines started to appear, producing a family tree of one James Buchanan Barnes. And next to his grandmother was his grandmother’s sister who has a word witch next to her name.
“Your grandaunt certainly was a witch, James,” Harry stated the obvious.
“I told you,” he remarked before looking at his… (daughter? Kid? Protégé?) Romanoff.
“Do you want to try?” She gave a short nod and held her hand out for the needle.
She did the same thing James did and his dad casted his spell. Like with Uncle James’ blood, the lineage started to appear. As Tony had thought, there were wizard and witch in Romanoff’s lineage, her great grandmother and grandfather. But what made him gasped in shock was her grandmother. He wasn’t familiar with her name but her designation was a magical species.
When he looked up from the notebook, he could his dad looking quite taken aback before he regained his composure and said,” Interesting.”
“What’s interesting?” James asked, trying to hide his perplexed look. Romanoff was doing the same thing, but the slight trembled on her lips was a telling of her nervousness.
That’s when Tony gave out the baffling details his uncle told him a few hours ago,” This,” he pointed to Romanoff’s grandmother’s name,” might be the reason why her hair changed color from blonde to red.”
His dad looked at him,” She was blonde?”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “Her hair color was fair the last time I saw her. Before today, I didn’t even remember her. I lost my memory from 89 to 90. That was the year that I knew her.”
“Tony has put a light onto that front,” Harry nodded and reprimanded his friend. “You should have informed me about it before. I could have helped you.”
James looked uncomfortable at being scolded and tried to change the topic. “Anyway. What is her grandmother had to do with Natalie being immune from magic?"
Harry sighed before smiling. “I think I can explain this anomaly of hers. She has magic or had. A wizard or witch manifested their magic in early age, but when the magic is being forced to manifest before its time, it usually could go in two directions. Either it will manifest or it will not. But in Ms. Romanoff’s case, the magic is gone. Not depleted, but it just cease to exist.”
“Ho… how?” She voiced herself.
“Depends on what you were forced to do or what you felt you must do when you were a child,” he looked at her gravely.
“She was trying to help me, I think,” James trailed off, looking open-eyed at the young woman. “You said you made me forget.”
Her mask broke a little as she smiled sadly at James. “You told me if they found out that you have remembered, they will hurt you and made you forget about me. If you forget, they wouldn’t hurt you.”
“Memory charm is a powerful magic,” Harry tapped on the book. “It’s impossible for a child to cast it. But in your case, the blood running through your veins is magic and with your core, it helped made the spell happened. And when you met again, the spell broke somehow."
“Blood?” James asked.
“Yes,” his dad pointed at the name Tony pointed out before. “Your grandmother’s species and their descendants have a certain characteristics to their appearance like their fair-colored hair. That explained the spell working and why your hair turned its color.
“You might not have magic anymore but your grandmother’s blood strengthening itself inside you to pay for the loss of magic,” Harry smiled at her. “Your immunity against magic? Well there are a lot of things we don’t know about her species yet with their secrecy. Maybe that’s one of their characteristics.”
“So, what creature was she?”
“Veela. You’re a squib and a quarter veela”
***