Nightingale | An Avengers Tale

Chapter 34 ~ promises

Tony Stark glared uncomfortably back at Nick Fury and Pepper. When he had suggested bringing in his favorite pirate for advice on the Lily predicament, he had not expected this reaction. "Look. I don't know what I'm in trouble for this time." He nervously cleared his throat. "But I'm guessing from the impression I'm being given that it must have been bad."

"You made a girl that broke into your lab and hacked your encrypted files your newest intern?" Fury almost shouted as he shook his head in absolute bewilderment.

"I agree that it wasn't the most thought out plan." Tony quickly began. 

"Tony, be honest, you didn't think about this at all." Pepper firmly chided.

"What did you want me to do?" He practically shouted.

"You're suppose to call me." Fury roared back. "That's my job. To deal with people like her."

"Just saying you didn't know Hydra was in your midst once. They would have an absolute heyday with the miniature Einstein I found." Tony rolled his eyes as he leaned back in his chair.

"They already have." Fury calmly responded.

Tony smirked. "That's ridiculous." His heart sank as he considered the thought of what they would do to the girl. He glanced over at Pepper to see a pained expression on her face.

"Have you ever heard of Kobik?" Fury quietly asked.

"No." Tony leaned back and rolled his eyes. "It sounds like a terrible program that Hammer Indistries would come up with. "

Fury slammed a file down on the table in front of him. "The first record of her appeared after the Battle of New York. Natasha tried to bring her in and obviously failed." He paused as he began to pace. "A young girl was being trained to be Hydra's version of the Black Widow. After Hydra fell, she disappeared for a while." He shook his head. "Then we starting receiving chatter of a operative with a very specific skill set."

"She's an assassin?" Pepper quietly asked.

"As best as we can tell, she fought back at some point, and they brainwashed her."

"The poor girl." Pepper whispered as she glanced to Tony.

Tony clenched his fists in a vain attempt to keep his temper in check. "Is she still under their mind control?" He finally asked.

Fury stoped pacing as he considered the question. "We know she's broken through it once. But that was only because Barnes was there."

"Barnes? What was she doing with Barnes?" Tony's voice grew gradually louder.

"He helped train her."

"Of course he did." Tony muttered under his breath.

Fury awkwardly cleared his throat. "Tony, she can't be trusted." He paused. "Barnes had memories from before Hydra. He had a person he could go back to being. She doesn't have that; she has no memories of before Hydra."

"If I recall correctly, and correct me if I'm wrong, Romanoff changed sides." Tony frowned. "Give me an actual reason why I can't trust that kid."

"She stole E.D.I.T.H. from Peter Parker." Pepper added.

"She also returned it. " Tony shrugged as he glanced at his now very perturbed audience. "I don't know any assassins that would do that."

"She also managed to shake the Winter Solider." Fury began. "According to our intel he still hadn't figured out that she's the newest resident of the Stark household."

Tony couldn't help but smirk. It was no secret that neither he or Barnes were fans of each other. And if Lily being his newest intern brought any aggravation to Barnes, well, the thought did brighten his day. "The real reason I brought you in on this Patchy was to provide some insight as to why the DNA test I performed kept coming back as inconclusive." He smirked as Fury began to shift uncomfortably. "Unless there's something that you don't actually know."