Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tony could see the exhaustion on the stranger's face as he butchered his name again.

"Aithusa, actually," the albino corrected with a sigh after the engineer introduced the spy. "A pleasure, Miss Rushman," he said quietly, body taut with tension.

"I like your hair," Natasha complimented, masquerading as Tony's assistant for the time being. The stranger came to a pause, speechless for a moment, looking at her like she had come from another world. "It's pretty."

"I… I thank you," Aithusa said very softly, like he was having a hard time getting the words out. His fingers tightened over the armrests.

"Natalie, please, take a seat. Aithusa was just about to tell us the riveting story of how his… brother got kidnaped by Hydra," Tony told the other with a disbelieving eyebrow raised. For a moment the white haired man began frowning again, feeling like he was going in circles with the Avenger, until his mind registered the full meaning of the words.

"I- I am?" Aithusa asked, caught off guard.

"I mean, unless you don't want to anymore-" Tony raised his hands in mock surrender.

"No!" The stranger shouted, almost getting out of his chair. "I- I want to, please, let me."

"That sounds very scary, Aithusa," Natasha said gently, hugging the board to her chest.

The man looked down, though he gave her a small nod. "What's your brother's name?"

"Hi- His name is Ambrose," he shuddered out a breath, but hope gathered in his face at the chance to at least get his story heard. "Ah, where should I begin?" He asked uncertainly.

"How did you and Ambro get tangled up with Hydra of all people? Were you in a place you shouldn't have been at perhaps?" Tony asked lazily reclining on his chair, though his eyes seemed to scrutinize the albino.

"Ambrose," Aithusa corrected, bristling a little. "And no, we were just… My brother and I, we were just walking in the woods. We were at Adirondack Park… The sun was setting but it wasn't dark yet. Then… Well, then a bunch of men just came out of nowhere, electrocuted Ambrose and took him away." It seemed that even just saying this was upsetting to the stranger.

"But not you?" The woman asked. Aithusa turned to her, startled. "The men didn't do anything to you, they didn't take you."

"I hid," he said, strained.

Tony seemed to take the woman's cue and planted his elbows on the desk.

"So you just let this brother of yours, who as you've stated, is the only person you have, be taken away while you hid?" The judgment on the other's voice was monumental.

"Yes," Aithusa crooked, feeling the pressure of that statement like a yoke on his back.

"How did you even manage that? You're huge."

"I'm good at hiding," the albino closed his eyes, taking a moment to collect himself. By this point Tony felt if he pushed the man anymore, actual tears would start falling down.

"So the attack was unprompted? That's just so horrible. To be walking and jumped on like that?" The assistant shook her head and lamented with empathy.

"Yeah," agreed the white haired man, swallowing.

"Man, I can't believe- I mean, seeing how much you seem to care about this brother of yours, that you wouldn't at least follow them. And you're pretty big, didn't think you'd be the kind of person to run tail between his legs."

Aithusa brought his fists to his lap and held them there, tightly. Fighting between anger and grief. "I couldn't move," he forced through his lips.

Silence grew between them until it was uncomfortable. Tony looked at his assistant then and nodded at her. He cleared his throat and stood up.

"Excuse us a moment, Miss Rushman and I have some things to discuss." As they walked just outside the office doors he turned to the other and pointed at him. "Don't go anywhere! And don't touch anything either."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aithusa mumbled before the door closed behind them.

~.~.~.~

"Good job following my lead in there, Stark," Natasha complimented him, voice going back to her regular cadence.

"Were you spying on me or something? You got here way too quickly. Thank you for that, by the way. I know you will have caught something I didn't. But seriously, how did you get here so fast?" Natasha smirked at him good naturedly but didn't answer his question.

"Well, he's telling the truth that's for sure," she assessed.

"Yeah, I thought as much. He seems too desperate to be making things up, the guy looks one sentence away from having a breakdown." Natasha nodded in agreement.

"He's hiding something though. A lot of somethings if I had to guess," she added, making Tony sigh tiredly and cross his arms. He leaned back against the wall.

"So he's telling the truth, but he's also a liar," he massaged his forehead. "Should we even try to help?"

Natasha looked through the crystal door, at the hunched man twisting his hands on his lap.

"I believe in helping people, even when they're not fully honest…" she turned to look at Tony meaningfully. "Or fully good."

"I guess." Tony sighed, knowing where she was coming from.

"But we can't help him if he's not telling the truth. Not only do we need all the information we can get, but if we can't trust that this isn't some sort of trap, that despite his honesty he isn't leading us to trouble… Then I don't think we can help him." They both looked at the stranger, thinking what the next right step should be.

"There's something you should know," the mechanic looked at his teammate, "I think there's something weird about this guy. I mean, more than what's evident." Tony waved his hand in the other's general direction.

He told her about the strange occurrence with the security feed, the camera glitches, and the subsequent, out of nowhere, appearance of Aithusa. Natasha frowned, equally curious and wary.

"I think we should tread carefully, there is no way it isn't connected," she said. "But I want to help, do you?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess I want to help too." It was a very unenthusiastic agreement, but an agreement nonetheless. Deep down, despite the persons they had once been, both had stayed with the Avengers out of a desire to do good and help those who needed it. Even if sometimes the wariness they had learned from their lives got a little in the way.

~.~.~.~

Aithusa tried to breathe evenly to calm his racing heart and fraying nerves. Every minute that passed he felt like he was wasting time. But he wasn't really, was he? Whether he chose to stay or go from this office, there was nothing he could do. He could never disobey a command, spoken in their tongue by his lord and kin, especially not one spoken with such power. Whatever he did, he could never go to Merlin's aid himself.

He wondered what would become of him if he never got Merlin back. What would he be without his north star? He'd been alone before, of course he had, but this would be different…

He breathed again, willing some form of tranquility into himself. His mind conjured without his permission morning light between the treetops and the sound of a little river running. A hand over scales and a mischievous smile-

The white haired flashed his eyes open once he heard the double doors opening. Mr. Stark and Natalie coming back into the room with sure steps. There was a shift in the air around them, Aithusa could feel it, it seemed foreboding. Stark walked behind his desk and leaned over it, trapping Aithusa in place with his piercing brown eyes that bore into Aithusa's blue grays.

"Listen Daenerys, if you want our help, you're going to have to cut the crap and start telling us the truth."

Aithusa sank into his chair, not even bothering to correct the man on his name, he had a feeling it was not accidental he kept being called other things. Oh, but what they asked for was impossible.

"We want to help you Aithusa, but you need to be honest with us." He looked at the woman, her whole posture seemed different somewhat, surer, steadier. He furrowed his brows.

"You are one of them, aren't you? One of the heroes." Despite the phrasing, it was not a question at all. A small nod was his answer.

"Go ahead, spill it. What aren't you telling us?" Stark prompted.

Aithusa closed his eyes, he could feel his heart sinking to the ground, dread pooling inside his chest. A single tear dribbled down his cheek.

"I-" he choked a little, "I can't tell you."

"Then you really don't want our help," the words from Stark seemed to press on his anguish even more.

"I want your help, there's nothing I want more than to rescue my lord, I just can't- I cannot-" he placed his hands desperately on his chest and pressed them there a couple of times. "I cannot tell you what you want."

"It sure sounds to me like you don't wan-" Natalie stopped Stark with the touch of her hand on his arm.

"Aithusa… this might seem like a weird question, but… it kind of sounds like you can't physically tell us. Is that what you're trying to say?" She asked carefully.

"Yes." Aithusa's eyes shone.

"Aithusa is someone- somehow, keeping you from saying things?" Her expression, though carefully managed, had a small mounting horror in her widened eyes. The albino thought maybe trying to explain the situation about the commands Merlin had imposed on him might not have been the best course of action.

"It's not what you think though. It's really nothing bad," he assured earnestly.

'Oh no,' he thought as twin looks of growing realization filled the Avenger's faces, they foretold terribly wrong assumptions and nothing good for the case he was trying to present. He might've just made the situation worse.

"Look, it doesn't matter." Aithusa stood up.

"Of course it matters, who do you even want us to help if we don't have all the facts?" Natasha questioned. "Not to mention the implications that you're not being allowed to talk about things.

"I really don't think that's what we should be focusing on here." He was equally desperate to get back to the topic at hand and diverge their attention from the commands he lived by.

"Ah, how do you want us to just ignore that?" Tony asked incredulously, looking at Natasha for confirmation that he was not the only one who found it weird.

"Because saving Ambrose is more important," he stressed.

"And did you hear what he called him?" The mechanic whispered not quietly at all into the assassin's ear.

"I heard him right, you called him lord, didn't you Aithusa?" Her arms were crossed under her chest, her expression severe.

"I- I don't think I did," the albino grimaced a smile in an effort to ease them.

"I have recordings of everything that happens in this room and most of the tower; do you want me to play what you said back to you?" Tony piped in.

"Is your brother the person keeping you from saying these things? Natasha prompted, her brow slightly furrowed in concern.

"No, of course he isn't," he smiled again, trying to soothe the situation. It only made the redhead frown deeper.

"Is that one of the things you're not allowed to say?" The mechanic had crossed the desk and was standing at Aithusa's side.

"What? No," he replied a little indignantly.

"Then you're lying. We just told you you had to stop lying to us if you wanted our help." Tony pinned him down with his eyes.

Aithusa looked trapped, oh how easily he'd been caught. He couldn't fail in this, he really couldn't. It was getting harder to breathe by the moment. He looked down.

"I- Okay, yes. He's the reason." Oh, good goddess, this couldn't be happening.

"Oh my god," Tony threw his hands up in the air and walked to the window walls. Natasha approached the albino instead, carefully.

"Aithusa," she began, placing a hand on one of his hands, which he kept bussing against each other in a self soothing manner. But the man took a quick step back away from her, his gray blue eyes pained.

"No, I know what you are thinking and it's nothing like that. And I know that probably makes it sound worse, but you don't understand. If I try to explain this to you, you will not understand it."

Natasha and Tony shared worried glances.

Aithusa huffed, frustrated by how things were going. He was suddenly filled with a rush of gladness that Merlin and he had kept to themselves as much as they did, dealing with other people was the worst.

"Okay, so, who-who even is this guy? Really?" The mechanic crossed his arms, angry now. "To you I mean, you say you're not 'blood brothers' as you put it, but you refer to him as your brother. But also, you called him lord, which is super weird, let me tell you. You don't call other people lord in a normal, healthy relationship." He turned to Natasha, as if seeking confirmation "And, to top it all off, this random guy is controlling what you can and can't say. And do?" Tony seemed right about to fume, his face contorted in disgust at the things he had just thrown back at Aithusa.

"Are you in some kind of cult? This sounds cultish." Tony paced his office in need of some self soothing himself.

"I'm not in a cult, Mr. Stark." Aithusa glared.

"Well then you two have one of the most toxic relationships I've heard of, and that's saying a lot considering that I've been a pretty toxic person most of my life."

"You wouldn't understand," the albino said again, distressed.

"It's funny to me how you keep saying that yet I haven't heard you even try to explain it."

"It's…" Aithusa covered his face with a hand, his emotions a horrid mess inside of him, and Tony's exuberance not helping a bit in the matter. "It's complicated," he whispered.

"Of course it is," the mechanic rolled his eyes.

"Well, try at least," Natasha asked, the only person keeping a cool enough head in the room. "Just try to explain it, Aithusa."

The tall albino took in deep calming breaths. He had not thought looking for help would be easy, it had never once crossed his mind that it would be. Somehow though, he had not thought it would be this kind of hard. Aithusa inhaled deeply, soothing the fire within him.

"Ambrose, he's… He is like my brother. To me. We share a piece of the same thing, here." He placed his hand on his chest. "In our hearts, it connects us. But… he's been a father to me too, for a long, long time. Sometimes he still is. He… brought me into this life, he raised me and taught me and cared for me. And he's…" he gulped, knowing his next words would go amiss, but they were asking for honesty, he could not untangle these things from one another. "Undeniably, he is my lord. He's everything to me," his gray blue eyes shone when he looked at them, but he could see, they did not understand. He looked down, dread pooling in his chest.

"Have you…. Have you ever pledged your life to someone or something? Something so important you might forsake everything else for it? Maybe a cause, an ideal… a person."

"I have," Natasha said unexpectedly after a moment of quiet.

Tony threw a concerned look at the both of them, the assassin shouldn't've been sympathizing with the wackadoo explanations of this man, she should be fighting against them.

"That is bonkers, you're brainwashed," he said thoughtlessly.

Aithusa bristled. Tony noted, oddly enough, that his breath was very hot.

"Look, if you don't want to help me out of the goodness of your heart, I'll give you this," he spat in the heat of the moment but immediately felt a sinking feeling in his stomach at what he was about to say. "Think of a nuclear bomb, it has a complicated working system that no one quite knows how it works. It's powerful, but it's also sitting somewhere where no one will ever activate it. Now think of that same bomb, being poked and prodded by people who don't understand even a small fraction of its workings. What do you think will happen to a bomb like that under those circumstances?"

Tony looked alarmed and seemed slightly faint at the whole prospect, his face was pale though his composure held.

"It goes off eventually," Natasha answered seriously.

"It goes off eventually," the albino agreed. "As defenders of the earth, as you have claimed for yourselves, I really do not think that would be something you want."

Aithusa noted the redhead placing a subtle, calming hand on Tony's bicep and the man straining to breathe evenly.

"If you don't want to help for my sake, that is fine, I can live with that. But help me because of what consequences this could bring." The tension in the room was palpable, the mechanic seemed to be struggling to collect himself, "I'm… I'm not saying this so you're afraid of him or whatever idea you're making of this in your minds. That is the last thing I want. But if that can in any way convince you to help me with this, then by all means, please focus on that fear or your sense of duty."

"Okay," Natasha took a deep breath. "Let's take this somewhere else. And a brake while we're at it. Now, how does a strong drink sound?" She turned to Tony who still looked quite queasy.

"Wonderful, it sounds amazing. Let's go, everyone." And with that the mechanic left them behind in the office, waking away as fast as he would without actually running.

Natasha smiled at him half heartedly. "Welcome to the Avenger's tower Aithusa."