blood matted hair
“Where is she!?”
“Where is she!?”
Clint pulls him away from the door, mindful of his cast.
“Breathe, Tony.”
It’s not the first time he’s woken, disoriented and manic, wondering where Natasha is.
Clint pushes them both gently back to the bed.
“She’s in surgery,” he says, as Tony adjusts himself, looking at his cast.
He looks terrified as he turns to Clint.
“It’s my fault,” he says, voice breaking and quiet.
“It’s my fault.”
—
The room is pitch black.
Tony’s head hurts.
It’s not new.
His head is always hurting, lack of sleep, migraines, fatigue.
Except.
This is not home.
This is not the tower.
He was… we was doing something. Natasha was there… there was a van. He coughs and feels like his he can’t take a breath.
Opening his eyes, he sees Natasha in the same position as he is. Tied to chair opposite each other.
“Natasha?” He gasps.
She smiles at him, lip split, cut on her forehead but not looking too bad. He wonders if he looks the same, as his moves his face and feels crusted blood near his eye.
She’s in a singlet and jeans, and he feels the coolness on his bare chest.
“My enemies or yours?” She says, glumly.
“Mine; more likely,”
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
He looks around, there’s mirrors everywhere; it’s clear that they’re in a shipping container the metal walls.
He looks around for a way out, sees Natasha follow his lead as she tests her bonds, but the chairs are bolted to the floor.
There’s not one.
Not at this moment anyway.
“Got anything?” She asks.
He tries calling the suits and waits.
“We’ll see?” He tries to shrug.
They hear the door slide open, the groan of the metal indicating the presence of others.
High heels tap as a woman comes into view, flanked by two burly men. She’s tall and harshly dressed. Gun in hands, she points it at Tony.
“Aldridge Killian was my brother,” she tells them.
“Yours, then.” Natasha grins.
“Obviously.”
The woman shoots her gun into the container as the bullet ricochets around and shuts them up as they turn their attention back to her.
“You just had to be a pain and try and save him,” she says to Natasha, who shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “You can be.. Incentive.”
She turns to Tony, “There’s not use for pretence; I can’t be bothered with it and honestly, I want this over with. My brother; he was the… more impulsive of us two with Extremis,” she pauses.
“He sent me video, before he died of how to continue. And I think I’ve stabilised it.”
She smiles but Tony is already two steps ahead of her.
“So you need someone to test it on?” Tony says sarcastically.
The woman nods.
“It was going to be you, but, I think she’ll do better. In case I’ve got it wrong, you, can fix it.”
Frowning, Tony tests his bonds and makes an action with his hands.
She laughs.
“You think I haven’t thought of that? This is an inverse faraday cage. Nothing’s coming. Not your suit, not your super friends, or anyone really. No one knows you’re here except me.”
Natasha huffs, and the woman’s attention is centered on her.
“Don’t think I don’t know who you are, Natasha Romanoff. I don’t feel bad testing it, instead, on you. I know what you’ve done, I know what you are.”
Tony can see her, thanks to the mirrors and is impressed that her face doesn’t change. He doesn’t even know the extent of who Natasha is.
Natasha smiles dangerously, “You know who I am?” “You think this is anything new or remotely intimidating?” She asks skeptically.
The woman steps closer.
“Truthfully, I don’t care what you think. You are not my endgame. You are a means to an end. What I need from you, is a defect, something to prove that Extremis is working; which; you don’t have just yet.”
And she punches Natasha in the face.
She leaves the storage container; smug looking on her face. “I’ll be back soon.” She tells them; “be prepared for some more fun, maybe we can help each other out.”
.
Tony tests the bonds again.
“Are you ok?” He asks her tentatively.
“Glad it’s not Pepper,” she replies.
He laughs.
“I think I’ve scarred her enough for a lifetime.”
Natasha smiles too. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”
He looks over to her and winces as he sees blood run down her neck.
“It’s fine,” she says looking at what he’s looking at in the mirror as turning her head as much as she can revealing blood matted hair.
“My head hit the back of the chair when she punched me. I tried to go with it but I wasn’t expecting it.”
“I don’t like we’re in a faraday cage,” she admits, and Tony shakes his head in agreement.
“I can’t call the suits, and it means there’s no trackers that can be used; you know if you had one on you.”
Natasha sighs.
“No. They’re in my other shoes,” and he looks down at her socked feet.
He smiles at her glibness.
“Pepper will find us,” he says confidently.
“Or Clint,” she says.
“Maybe they’ll work together,” Tony tries to move, he has the itchiest eye, and blinking it isn’t helpful.
There’s a crackle of electricity and the container lights up, pushing electrical city through the only two things through the room.
It seems to last a lifetime as Tony bites hard on his tongue, his mouth filling with blood and his teeth clenching.
It stops suddenly and he concentrates on breathing, seemingly Natasha is doing the same. His eye no longer itches, and the thought seems important, as he spits the blood onto the floor.
“Tony,” she pants, “keep breathing, try not to hold your breath when it happens.”
Which is all good in theory, but in reality, impossible.
The crackle starts again and Tony braces himself, and the lightening races through.
.