Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You are aware we could’ve easily done this tomorrow morning? Fresh and early, just like we like,” complained half heartedly the white haired man, sighing and kicking at some stones in the ground. He was tall and thin, yet his arms were defined with slight muscles. His complexion was quite pale, so much so that his white skin and hair almost blended into one another.

“Magical artifacts are not going to up and leave on their own accord, you know?” He added.

“Ah, don’t be like that Thusa, I’ll get you something nice later. Something… something obscenely meaty,” replied the other man, young and wiry and dark haired. At this statement, the albino looked up with much interest, making his companion laugh. “That does sound nice, doesn’t it?”

“Quite,” perked up the other, a little more lively now, “but I can wait for tomorrow morning, I’d love something nice for breakfast.”

The raven haired grimaced good naturedly as he continued walking over the uneven terrain of the woods.

“Raw meat for breakfast, mhm, very appetizing,” he said with fake gusto.

“We’re getting me raw meat?” The white haired man sped up to the other’s side, excitement coloring his expression.  

“ Yes ,” the young man laughed, “I’ll try my best to find something good, Aithusa. I promise. Now give me a moment, I need to concentrate.” He stopped, looking around, “we’re close.”

The dark haired closed his eyes and extended his hand into the air, breathing in the earthy scents of the forest. It had rained some days ago, he could tell. By the smell and the feeling of the earth as he extended his senses and delved in deep with the roots. His magic was one with the earth around them.

He felt a thump of a head on the space between his shoulder blades and he opened one golden eye to glance at his companion.

“Oh, sweet goddess, it’s been so long since I had some real meat,” Aithusa mumbled reverently.

“Well, we’re feeling melodramatic today,” the raven haired rolled his eyes and chuckled.

“It’s late, Merlin! I’m tired. I’m being the right amount of dramatic with you dragging me around this forest at these hours,” the albino buried his nose into the other’s back as he whined.

“Thusa, it’s not even sundown yet!”

“I need some sleep; I’m barely keeping on my feet as it is.” 

Merlin gave up, lowering his arm and hiding his face behind his hands. Aithusa was doing this on purpose, he knew it . The dragon turned human liked to make the warlock smile and laugh whenever he could, and he was quite obviously taking advantage of the warlock's good mood.

“You’re impossible, I need to concentrate, you hairless beast,” Merlin complained.

“Now who’s being melodramatic? You could do this in your sleep if you wanted to,” Aithusa huffed but finally relented, walking a little away to sit down against a tree. “I’ll behave now, my lord,” he added with a mocking short bow.

“ Thank you,” Merlin said pointedly, yet still smiling slightly.

The albino settled down in his place, breathing in the comforting aromas of the woodland, places like this reminded him of home. The forest was beautiful; despite how much trouble he’d been giving Merlin about it, he just enjoyed doing things in the day rather than the approaching dark. Morning people they might both be but, unlike the dragonlord, Aithusa wasn’t fond of staying up for hours on end. 

He looked at his kin’s profile. It took a lot to make Merlin smile most days, life had been long for the both of them, and not particularly kind most of the time. But today had been a good day. A lot of days had been good ever since Merlin had felt the magical pulse calling to him a couple of weeks ago. They had followed it till they reached Adirondack Park, in the USA. 

It was unusual, finding these small glimpses of old magic. It sparked something in Merlin like nothing else could, bringing a little bit of life back into his eyes, a bit of the youthfulness he appeared in body. Aithusa treasured it and hoped there would always be things in the world to feed the fire of his brother’s heart.

The white haired man vanished the bittersweet thoughts from his mind when Merlin made a thoughtful noise. The gold faded from his eyes and revealed cerulean blue. 

“Come, it’s this way,” he said. Aithusa sprinted up and reached the young man swiftly.

“Do you think it’s a creature? I hope it is,” the white haired asked in his deep yet soft voice, trying not to let his excitement get too big. They had hoped before and been disappointed, and every single time it had hurt as much as the last.

“I am still not sure. The magic is quite odd, could be anything. But it’s also… very old .” 

“That’s good, right?” Aithusa asked, but the young man looked down, a bit of his usual somber self back.

“Perhaps,” Merlin agreed halfheartedly.

“It is good, I know it,” the albino took the other’s hand for a moment and gave it an encouraging squeeze, “old is good. Like us.” Aithusa straightened to his full height, proud. He was used to slouching a little so he could talk to Merlin face to face, despite not being that much taller than the other. When he’d been a dragon, it had always been the way he talked with the other; just lowering his neck to reach Merlin’s eye level. That had unfortunately passed over to his human body, and the warlock had a hard time making Aithusa straighten up.

Merlin risked a small smile and squeezed the white hand back. Wary of hoping but willing to try nonetheless.

The young man stopped in the middle of a cluster of trees and hummed in thought.

“I feel it too. It must be here,” Aithusa answered the warlock’s silent musings.

Merlin leaned down and began feeling around the earth until he touched something with a metallic edge. A frown crept over his features, half thoughtful, half unhappy. It was hard trying to pull it out.

“ Onlīes folde ,” he told the earth gently and the dirt loosened, eager to obey him. “This…”

“What is that?” Aithusa leaned forward to get a better glimpse of the strange cubic thing the other was holding. It did look old, but also new, like someone had used parts of different objects to make it.

“This doesn’t… it doesn’t feel right.” Merlin’s blue eyes widened, “ Aithusa, opiso! ” he shouted. His eyes sparked into gold when the object in his hand burst out a crackling wave of energy.

The albino backed away swiftly and instinctually, as he heard the tongue of their kind and the subtle order it carried. But he stopped at once when Merlin let out a painful scream.

“Emrys!” Aithusa called worried, and turned with effort, trying to get back. It had not been a command, but it had carried weight, it always did when Merlin spoke in their language. “Emrys!”

“ Kryfthéte! ” Was the answer he got, uttered with pained inflection. But this carried the heavy weight of a command. The albino felt it pressing into him.

“ No, ” Aithusa choked out, wanting more than anything in the world to go to Merlin and figure out what was going on and help him .

“ Aithusa, kryfthéte euthýs! ” The pale man gasped. The command was so clear, it shocked through him. That moment was enough for the Dragonlord’s voice to steep into his bones and sink in. There was nothing more for Aithusa to do but comply.

When he opened his gray blue eyes again, the world was big around him and he was soft and round and small. 

Only moments before he had been a human man. Now, he was a large white cat.  

He heard them then, voices approaching.

Aithusa shook his new form, and hid as was commanded, but crept close again to where Merlin had fallen to the ground. He hid in the underbrush, waiting as multiple footsteps approached. From there he could see his brother and lord, he was writhing in pain, the strange square thrown a few paces from him. He seemed to be recovering from whatever it had done to him though.

“ Come on Merlin, get up, ” Aithusa tried to say, but from his lips only small meows came. It was harder speaking into Merlin’s mind when he was in such a form, things felt one step too disconnected. He tried still, pressing his disjointed magic to the other’s direction. “ Get up ,” he sent through mind speak.

The raven haired man opened his eyes and searched the direction of the meows. When Merlin's eyes connected with Aithusa’s, the now cat could see how utterly terrified he was. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything a ‘twiping’ sound flew through the air and hit the warlock on the shoulder.

Merlin screamed as a shock of electricity ran through him.

Men came out from the shadows. Guns and weapons at hand, all trailed on the downed sorcerer.

“Fuck, I can’t believe it worked,” someone said.

They congratulated each other quickly but soon got to work in an efficient manner. They snapped a collar around Merlin’s neck of stone and iron; it looked quite heavy. The young looking man struggled but without much success; he seemed lethargic and weak, the apparatus on his shoulder dispensed electric shocks every minute or so.

They dressed in black and seemed militaristic. A symbol, like a skull with tentacles, decorated some of their gear in the subtlest of ways. A small metal pin in a shoe, an emblem on a watch. Nothing too noticeable. But in Aithusa’s perceptive eyes everything was clear. 

They began dragging Merlin’s body away and quickly the white cat began to follow. He couldn’t lose their trail and in this form, keeping up with their scent would be much easier. But then again, there was nothing in the world that could stop him from knowing where Merlin was. His kin was like a compass that was tied to Aithusa’s own heart, he only needed to follow the cord that connected them and follow it to the other part of his soul.

Merlin’s eyes meet with his again, catching a glimpse of Aithusa sneaking around, the terror inundating them was almost unbearable to the cat. 

“ No, ” the dragonlord gasped and then screamed again, stronger than he had the previous times. “ Keleúo se, ápósxou, min ixneúse me! Apagoreúo soi! Min áfikou moi poté! ” 

Aithusa’s heart sank.

One of the men punched Merlin in the face with devastating force. It disoriented the warlock, but he did not stop speaking. Mumbling the command over and over again in the speech of their kind, even though he was barely conscious enough.

The strange men dragged Merlin away, but Aithusa did not move. He trembled in place, shocked, feeling like his heart was squeezing so bad it was going to burst.

There was nothing in the world that could stop Aithusa from following his soul to Merlin’s own. Nothing except Merlin himself. 

Merlin had just forbidden him from going after him.

Aithusa felt like he was going to die.

Chapter Text

He stumbled graceless through the slightly uneven terrain, he felt displaced somehow, like his body wasn't his own. By the time Aithusa finally managed to get back to their old truck, the sun had set and it was dark and cold. By grace of being a dragon masquerading as a human, he tended to run a little hot, but he knew in the back of his mind that Merlin would be cold.

Aithusa didn't know what to do.

He fumbled open the driver's door with the spare key they kept hidden inside the truck's hood. Merlin… Merlin had kept the keys in his trousers, he'd been driving when they arrived at the park. Aithusa sat in the driver's seat, body trembling and eyes lost in the dark landscape through the windshield. He choked then, as he tried to draw breath.

This couldn't be happening. This could not be happening. He began feeling dizzy, like there wasn't enough air in the truck. How long had he been sitting there? It felt like forever. With clumsy fingers he struggled until he was able to pry open the door and throw himself out and into the rough floor. He gasped there in the sad, walked on grass, fighting to breathe and not let the panic take over him. It felt like hours had passed by before Aithusa managed to get a semblance of normal breathing back. He inhaled, raggedly, as he lay on the dirt on his side, but finally able to draw in full gulps of air.

He needed to do something, he needed to do something about this whole infernal situation now. He remembers the skull then; with its spreading tentacles all around. An evil little thing. He had seen that before, somewhere, he just couldn't quite pinpoint where or when.

The albino crawled back into the truck, fumbling for the phone in the glove compartment they had bought to keep up with the world and appear as normal as they could. Aithusa didn't like the stupid little square. Unlike Merlin, who had learned through the ages how to delicately manage his magic and interact with technology with a small amount of concentration, Aithusa lacked that skill. Dragon magic was big and raw and not meant for such delicate management. Whenever he grabbed the phone, if he wasn't careful enough it began glitching and frizzling.

The memory of Merlin laughing at him and at his frustrated rumblings invaded his mind. Aithusa's heart missed a beat and he had to push away the ringing that the images made in his mind.

He breathed in, deep and controlled. He reigned in his magic slowly, making it small and unobtrusive. He thought of his feline form and of small soft things that wouldn't break other things by accident. He thought of things with constant shape. He kept his whole concentration on the task, his face emotionless as he unlocked the apparatus. He opened the browser and wrote a simple description of the symbol he had seen.

There!

Hydra. He knew he had seen that symbol before, a couple of times on the news when the American heroes had brought down that Nazi organization. It had been plastered everywhere, that huge flying craft plummeting from the sky.

Aithusa's small victorious moment slipped through his fingers with that minuscule burst of excitement. The phone in his hands popped internally, cracking the screen and dying immediately.

The man exhaled incredulously. His white fingers ghosting over the fissures on the glass. This had happened before, but Merlin could always fix it, and even when he couldn't, he never got mad at Aithusa. If it was a bad day he'd just pat his cheek with fondness and get to work on the phone. If it was a good day he'd smile at the dragon in the skin of a man and would tell him it was okay, technology just couldn't handle how awesome and powerful Aithusa was.

But Merlin wasn't here.

He was goodness knew where, probably in pain. Most definitely in pain.

The trembling in his body returned, but now anger bloomed from his helplessness. He gave a short scream and threw the phone to the other side of the truck where it bounced and broke even more. Aithusa brought his legs up to the seat and hid his head between his knees, grabbing at his long trussed hair as he began to cry.

He prayed then, like the Druids used to do when they wanted to call the great Emrys, lord of their people, hoping somewhere out there the warlock was listening.

"I'm coming for you, I'm coming for you, I'm coming for you," he whispered over and over in the darkness like a mantra, projecting it in his mind as strongly as he could, even though the albino knew it could never be true. He had been commanded and forbidden, there was nothing that would break an order from his dragonlord, the man who had brought him into this world.

It comes unexpectedly to his mind, the memory of the witch hunts, of Merlin tied to a post, weak and delirious for he had been poisoned and dragged through the streets pulled by a horse. Merlin burning while a town he'd helped watched and raged at him as if he'd done them some great evil. Aithusa had not been helpless back then, he'd been a great and powerful dragon. He'd come to his kin's aid, had felt Merlin's pain in his own heart from afar. Still, Merlin had burned. He had not died that day, but maybe it would've been a mercy. The pain of recovery had been excruciating on the man, one of his short deaths and long healing sleeps instead would've been a mercy indeed.

Years later, when Aithusa's own kindness had landed him in trouble, Melin had said to him as he brushed through his scales tenderly, 'Two peas in a pod we are, eh? We just can't keep ourselves from helping.'

The albino's head shot up. Help. The Hydra Symbol. Those American Heroes. Hydra was their responsibility! It must be. They could help him.

Without thinking twice, Aithusa turned on the bothersomely left driven truck, taking out their paper map of the country and looking for New York in the lines.

He was rescuing Merlin one way or another, the only thing the dragonlord had stated in his command was that Aithusa couldn't be the one going after him.

The white haired man let hope beat inside his heart. Unlike Merlin, he was not as afraid of the feeling. He let it give him courage and something to hold on to. He concentrated on the feeling in his heart which always told him that Merlin was out there, somewhere.

He pulled the car into drive. He was finding help.

~.~.~.~

As a general rule, Aithusa didn't much like big cities, he thought them ugly and view obstructing. There was also a feeling of wrongness within him when he got too close to the metal monstrosities and huge radio waves that traveled through the air caused by technology. His magic vibrated oddly against them as he entered these places, a constant uncomfortable feeling prickling all over his skin. Merlin also didn't quite like them but he tended to swallow back his displeasure, the desire to know the people around and new things much stronger than the discomfort.

All that said, Aithusa loathed New York with a passion, if there ever was a big city, it was this one. Ugly metallic buildings covered the sky and hot concrete paved all of the earth. Horrid honking of cars left and right that could run you over at any moment. And the smog, sweet goddess that horrid smoke. Polluting the sky a sickly brown-gray like a thick blanket. It made the albino nauseous.

And there it was, the Avengers tower, tall and proud and so very ugly. The only thing the man liked about skyscrapers was the heights and the wind you could feel over there. Merlin had taken him to some from time to time, it was gorgeous being up there, it felt familiar. Like a distant dream he'd almost forgotten.

His heart stuttered. He needed to stop thinking about his brother and concentrate on getting him help now. Later, after he was saved, Aithusa could yell at him all he wanted for being an ass.

The albino sighed, getting in and finding one of the heroes was going to be the real problem here. He feared it would be as hard as getting inside the queen's palace, or a movie star's home if he tried the front door. As in, he would simply not be let in.

Sneaking in it was he supposed.

Aithusa hid behind a dumpster in a desolate alley and watched the world grow around him as he shrank. He padded quietly to the back of the Avengers building, his white tail disappearing from view as he swiftly went in through the backdoor when a worker was going out to take the trash.

~.~.~.~

"Sir, it appears an unauthorized life form is moving inside the tower."

Tony looked up from the papers he very much needed to look into before Pepper decided he was no longer welcome in their bed.

"You said life form, as in, it's not a person?" The AI hummed, as if it needed to think, Tony would find it obnoxious if he hadn't programmed it that way.

"Hard to say, my sensors keep glitching as it approaches them, but it is small in size."

The mechanic stood up from his desk, important papers left behind, and opened up holograms of the security display in the air. It was true, the cameras had a hard time catching whatever this was, like a spot in the video was being overexposed making it look mostly white all around.

"You say small, how small? A kid? A dwarf?"

"I believe the correct term is little person, Mr. stark. But I am unable to determine the exact size of it, though it is moving at a swift pace."

"Can you tell me where it's heading J.A.R.V.I.S.?" Tony frowned at the faulting sensors and precise algorithms for data gathering, all quite evidently, not doing what they should.

"It seems to be going up, sir," the AI informed him.

"Hm, it would seem we have a visitor," he stated thoughtful, "let's greet them."

~.~.~.~

They lost track of the intruder from one moment to another. Tony was perplexed, how was that even possible? Even if the sensors and video had been glitching, it was state of the art technology, he had built it himself, it was not possible for that to happen.

"Where are you?" the man grumbled, a small glimmer of concern creeping into him. Maybe he should've called this in as soon as it showed up.

"Ah, excuse me?" A soft spoken voice, yet deep in tone, came from his office door.

"I'm busy, go away," Tony said without glancing away from the holograms.

"I am afraid I can't, it's really rather important. I need help. I believe you and your team are very familiar with the Hydra organization?"

Immediately, Tony shut off all visualizations and turned to the double doors. The thick, confusing accent finally registering in his mind. This was not, as he had previously assumed, a person who worked for him or should have any business being here. It looked like a tall lumberjack got lost in the tower. But by the sound of it this person was not lost.

"How did you get in?" Tony asked with a scowl.

"I… walked." The tall stranger shrugged diffident. The man was extremely pale, if Tony had to judge by his appearance, he'd say the man was an albino.

"Did the Slavic basketball team lose you or something?" The mechanic eyed him up and down askance.

"I'm… British," the man answered instead with a slight frown, not quite angry and a bit confused, unsure if he was being made fun of.

Tony glared at him a little, doubting the validity of that statement. There was something British about the lilt of his voice, yes, but the rest was almost German in nature.

"Whatever, you can't be here, I'm calling security, Geralt." He turned from him, directing his attention to his phone.

"That's not my- Wait, no! I need your help please." The pale man entered the office in full and swiftly approached Tony.

"Now, I would advise you against getting any closer," he took a step back and looked threateningly at the other. He had not pulled out the hand repulsor yet, but he was very close "Security is on their way."

The stranger stopped in his place, torn.

"Mr. Stark, please, listen to me. My… My brother was taken by Hydra two days ago," the man pleaded, "I need help." His voice broke at the end there, it made Tony stop for a moment. Instead of letting the sudden sympathy in his chest grow, he turned his attention to suspicion.

"You hesitated. When you said brother, you hesitated," he accused the other.

"I… we're not precisely blood brothers if that's what you're asking," the stranger said uncertainly but there was something bristling beneath that. "He is my family in all the ways that matter."

There was something in the way he said that, 'blood brothers,' something old that reminded him a little of Thor. The annoyance in the albino's face shimmered down, overwhelmed by his desperation.

"Please, I don't… I don't know what to do. He was hurt the last time I saw him, and I'm sure he's being hurt as we speak. He's the only family that I have. I'll… I'll do anything for help, I swear. Anything."

Tony stopped. The desperation was real, he could tell. The man looked about ready to follow through with his promise and fall down to his knees to beg some more for good measure. Their heads turned in unison as they heard footsteps coming down the hallway. The stranger's breath hitched.

"Do you have any proof of what you're saying?" Tony asked a second later. The guy fumbled, unsure of what to offer.

"I- ah- I have a really good memory. I can tell you all the details I recall with a lot of accuracy." It wasn't much, and the white haired man seemed to know so too.

"Mr. Stark!" The double doors opened with a violent swing as the security team came in, firearms at the ready. The intruder turned to face them, walking a few steps back in alarm. He had that look, almost like a cornered animal. It gave the mechanic pause, that wasn't quite the behavior of someone who had nothing to hide. The fear was very real though.

Tony closed his eyes and sighed with self exasperation.

"God damn it," he whispered to himself. "False alarm gentlemen! And ladies," he said with a charming smile. "Friend of mine this one, he thought it'd be funny to give me a scare." He rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Nothing to worry about, we're all good."

The head of security hesitated, her gun not complexly lowered yet.

"Sir," she said cautiously. "This man was not on today's guest list." She made hard contact with Tony's eyes, looking for any sign that her boss might have been coerced into saying that. Good woman that one, he should give her a raise for her astuteness, though he already paid the lot of them a fair amount.

"We'll talk about that later, you know how I am. Always pulling the rug from under ya guys."

The security team lowered their weapons, a little unsteady as adrenalin still ran within them, their pursuit brought to an abrupt halt. They left the office though, in an orderly fashion, the head of the team glancing at Tony one last time before retreating.

The pale stranger was breathing shakily, frozen in place and eyes stuck where security had just left. Like a deer in the headlights indeed.

"Take a seat man, you look faint. They won't bite you now."

"Sorry if I don't like feeling like I am being persecuted by a mob," he mumbled quietly, but nodded. A little unsteady on his feet, the stranger sat carefully on the comfortable chair on the opposite side of Tony's desk. The businessman raised an eyebrow at the snarkiness but didn't comment on it.

"Now, what's your name Viserys?" Tony flopped down on his own seat.

"I am called Aithusa," he answered quietly.

"Eytoosa? What's that?" The dark haired frowned.

"Ai-thus-a," the stranger exaggerated the th, "and it's…" he looked for a moment for words to say, until he settled at last, eyes downcast. "Old."

"No need to spit at me big man," he said as he typed on his phone, with a look of uninterest. "Now," Tony put the phone down. "Why should I help you or care about this supposed kidnapping?"

"Isn't Hydra your problem?" Aithusa threw back without much thought. "And it did happen, I was there, I saw it happen."

"First of all, when you're asking for help, don't get all sassy with the people you want help from. Second, no, it's not our problem, we help people but the Avengers are not part of the government. Well, at least not anymore," he muttered that last bit to himself. "You could say we are a… group of friends joining together for a good cause."

"Look, Mr. Stark, I am profoundly sorry, I don't mean any disrespect," the distress had returned to the guy's face, he looked ready to start crying if this conversation didn't end with a 'Yes, I will help you.' "I just don't know what else to do, or who to go to. I… I really can't do anything to get my brother back. I'm useless-" He stopped there, his hands subtly gesturing at himself. "I would really do anything for your help, anything." He shook his head for emphasis, the white strands of his long hair swishing around his shoulders.

"Hm," Tony nodded pensively. It's not like he wanted to refuse the guy, but he couldn't just trust this random person who'd managed to go all the way to his office floor without being stopped. Something about all this was weird.

The mechanic had also not forgotten the earlier glitch, conveniently, just right before Aithusa had shown up.

"Well, you can start by telling me the truth about how you got in here." He shrugged.

"I… I'm telling the truth," Aithusa said earnestly, though gazing down for a moment at his hands. Tony narrowed his eyes.

"You walked? Just like that?" He asked incredulously. "Through the security, and the access codes, all the way up?"

"Yes. I… came in through one of the back doors. I just walked through. Straight up." Unbelievable. For a man that was supposedly so desperate, he was getting sassy with Tony, again.

"Sure Houdini," slightly, just slightly, the inventor caught a subtle tensing on the stranger's shoulders. 'Gottcha,' he thought, but put that information away for later.

There was a knock at the door.

"What now?" Tony huffed at being interrupted, again.

A redheaded woman came through the door, a clipboard in her arms. The businessman raised an eyebrow quite high while his guest tried to make himself small against the cushions of the black chair.

"Mr. Stark, you called?" She asked in a crisp professional voice.

"I have to say, I didn't think you were going to get here so fast," Tony said disbelieving, eyeing up and down her office approved attire.

"Well, I am your secretary, it is my job to be around here you know." Oh. Oh, he knew just what game she wanted to play. Tony smirked.

"Right you are there, sweetheart. Eitoosa, may I introduce you to my wonderful assistant Miss. Natalie Rushman. Natalie, Eitoosa." He gestured to the other man who nodded his head politely, which could have been easily mistaken for a short bow. The more and more Tony observed this man, the more interesting he seemed.

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."

Chapter Text

Up at the penthouse, Natasha thought the setting felt more official than their chat –more like interrogation- at Tony's office. As if, now that they were here, there was no doubt that they would be taking some action in the matter. What sort of action though remained to be seen.

Tony had a tumbler of whisky in his hand, he seemed a little better now that the bomb analogy had passed. That had stroked a fragile chord inside him placed there by their first battle together as Avengers. Natasha decided to indulge herself just a little with a small amount of vodka to sip. And Aithusa, who liked wine best, didn't feel comfortable enough to ask for it when offered whatever drink he wanted. So he sat at the bar on one of the tall chairs with a glass of water at his side on the countertop.

Aithusa was hunched, not his usual hunch which he used to talk to Merlin, but a more pronounced one to make himself small in front of these heroes he really didn't know. He became shy and timid before them. He was here because they were his best bet, but he feared for their actual trustworthiness, especially after what he'd just told them at Mr. Stark's office. He waited for whatever would come next from putting both himself and Merlin at the mercy of these strangers.

"Okay," Tony finally said. "Okay, okay, okay. So, by your wonderful analogy down there, I'm guessing Ambrose is… really powerful." He seemed quite stressed about the fact, the idea of a person with the power of a nuclear bomb upsetting to say the least. "Can you tell us why Ambrose was specifically targeted?"

"He's... different. We're different. From other people…" the albino explained tentatively.

"Different how?" Natasha furrowed her brows.

"Just… different," Aithusa shrugged helplessly.

"That's not really helping with the whole, 'letting us, help yo-' Oh, god, let me guess, you can't talk about that either." Tony's expression now looked even more tired and exasperated than before. Aithusa remained silent, a crooked smile on his lips.

The brunette groaned, massaging the bridge of his nose for a moment.

"Can you even prove that what you're saying is actually true? Cause I know I deal with a lot of weird ass things on a daily basis, but there is such a thing as scammers out there." This he said mostly out of frustration, he did believe Aithusa to an extent; for all of a stranger that he was to them, his emotions on the subject were very real.

"But I am telling the truth," he said quietly, his expression almost heartbroken. He looked away a moment, gathering himself and breathing. Before Natasha could think to say a few comforting words he turned to them again. His face became expressionless all of a sudden, but the intensity with which he looked at the avengers could be felt in the air.

"Say, could I borrow your phone for a moment?" Aithusa asked out of the blue. Tony was taken aback by the sudden change of topic but answered all the same.

"Don't you have one?" The mechanic raised an eyebrow in disbelief, who didn't have one in this day and age?

"Ambrose had one, I broke it two days ago. Can I have yours?" He repeated, an edge of hurry in his tone.

"You do realize that isn't very encouraging, right?" Tony tightened his grip on the small square of teleology.

"Here," Natasha offered the albino her phone, it was one spare one she used for her undercover jobs.

"Thank you," Aithusa extended his hand, but before taking it he said, "I'm… really sorry about this." He picked up the phone and placed it flat on his extended palm. He looked at it intently, breathing in deeply and then out. He let his muscles relax on the exhale. After a moment the phone bristled and sparked in a small detonation on his pale white hand.

"Shit!" Tony exclaimed as Aithusa set what remained of the phone on the counter. "Are you okay?" Tony asked, hurrying from the other side and taking his hand in concern.

"Yeah, it's okay," he assured somewhat quietly. It didn't look okay, his palm was red and a little raw in parts. "Fire is kind to me," he said as if it wasn't the oddest thing to say after having a phone explode in your hand.

"Is this what makes you different? Why Ambrose was taken?" Natasha asked, looking pensive at the now useless phone.

"I'm sorry that your phone exploded in my hand," Aithusa answered, seemingly ignoring her previous comment completely. He kept his gray blue eyes firmly on Natasha's as he said this though.

"Okay, so that's a yes." The assassin nodded, a corner of her lips pulling up.

Tony looked up to the others from his inspection of Aithusa's palm, realization coming over him. He smirked for a change, realizing the albino had managed to come up with a roundabout way of giving them answers.

"Finally, some decent answers," he said. Aithusa smiled softly at them. Maybe this could really, actually work. "But first we really have to take care of this." He gestured at the burned palm.

"It's okay, Mr. Stark, really. I promise, this?" Aithusa raised his hand in the air, displaying the damage, "will be okay before you know it. I'm… different. Just like I said."

Tony looked doubtfully at the other, but nodded after a moment.

"Alright, I'm going to trust you in this. This is us, trusting one another, alright?" He gestured to the three of them, "and if we're going to work together you might as well call me Tony."

Aithusa inhaled sharply, he brought his hand to his chest, eyes wide and his face slightly baffled.

"So you'll- you'll help me?" He asked thinly. Tony shared a subtle look with Natasha and turned back to the albino.

"Yeah, man, we'll help you." The mechanic didn't even have enough time to smirk self satisfied before he got an armful of white. He found himself spitting straight locks of hair from his mouth as he awkwardly patted the taller man's back.

"Oh, good goddess, thank you, thank you, thank you," Aithusa was squeezing both of the heroes into his large frame, with a strength that was almost surprising. While yes, Aithusa was a big man, he also had an awkward slightness to him. "I'll find a way to repay you, I swear this." The albino stepped back harshly. "I ah- I'm very sorry about that. I'm just- I'm just very relieved and excited," he apologized profusely, somewhat nervous that their kindness could be taken away if he somehow screwed things up.

"Don't sweat it man, it's okay," Tony said after composing himself.

Aithusa started crying and breathing harshly.

"Oh goodness, I'm terribly sorry," he dabbed at his face with his fingers, somewhat mortified. He wasn't used to people seeing him like this, only Merlin. And Merlin always hugged him tight or maybe Aithusa would make himself a cat so that his dragonlord's embrace could be all encompassing. There were many advantages of being that small although Merlin would argue he was not small at all for a cat.

Oh, how he missed him.

"Do you want some water, Aithusa?" Natasha offered him his glass with a soft tone.

"Thank you," he answered quietly and accepted. Once he was composed enough, he turned to them with a sunny smile. The change in his demeanor was so radical it caught the Avengers off guard.

"So! How do we do this? When do we start?" He asked eagerly.

"We still need more information Aithusa, you have to try to give us something else. We can't infiltrate a Hydra hideout unless we're somewhat prepared." Natasha told him seriously.

"Can't exactly infiltrate a hideout we don't know the location of either," the engineer muttered under his breath.

"Yes. Yes, right. Ah… I'll- I'll try my best to answer in whatever way I can." Aithusa sobered up some.

"Should we call for some backup?" Tony pipped in, phone already out. "Is Cap still looking for his buddy?"

"He is, but with how dispersed Hydra has been we might not need all of us." Natasha thought for a moment. "Clint just recently finished a mission, we can call him. And you can be our heavy hitter," she smiled playfully at the mechanic.

"Noted. Ah, and the less we fray our good doctor's nerves the better. It's a pity Thor's not here though, I have a feeling you two might get along." Tony added as he taped rapidly on his phone.

Aithusa didn't say anything, a little anxious again, but made sturdier by the certainty that help would get to Merlin. Natasha came to stand before the albino and directed him quietly to sit down again.

"Let's work on what you can tell us, from the beginning. Anything you might've left out," she told him. Aithusa nodded several times, brushing his hair back and away from his face.

"Ambrose and I were looking for something in the forest, we found it, and then Ambrose was incapacitated," he started.

"What were you looking for?" The redhead prompted. The albino looked down for a moment.

"We were looking for something like us."

"Something? Not someone?" Natasha asked as Tony told J.A.R.V.I.S. to take notes down.

"Either or, we didn't exactly know what we were looking for."

"And was it like you?"

"Yes?" Aithusa frowned, "but also no. It wasn't… right."

"That is very unhelpful," Tony said.

"I apologize, I'm not trying to be sparse right now, I honestly do not know," Aithusa shrugged helplessly. "Ambrose said it didn't feel right, maybe… like there was something off about it, wrong."

"Then Hydra incapacitated Ambrose?" The dark haired pressed on.

"No, not at first. It's what we found. This thing, it… did something to Ambrose. Hurt him. He- he screamed before he told me to hide and stay back. Then… Hydra came and put a collar on him," a little ire shone in his eyes through the melancholy as he finished.

"Do you have to obey everything he tells you to?" Natasha sat on the stool next to him, getting comfortable.

Aithusa pulled away from his memories to look at her.

"No, just… certain things."

"But this one was one of them, right?" She prompted him again and he nodded quietly. "What's the difference?"

"Well, the way he says it, it has to be different, like us. Not any random thing he says will do; otherwise we'd never get to eat what I want," he smiled jokingly, though without much effort.

"We have to start looking somewhere, can you tell us what direction they went?" Tony asked.

"I think can do better than that," gray blue eyes shone. "I can possibly lead you exactly to where Hydra is holding him."

"But you say you didn't follow them?" The mechanic frowned.

"I didn't but… I can tell where he is." He hesitated, again looking for the right words to get around the commands he lived by. "As I said… there is something that connects us. In my heart I can always tell where Ambrose is, like a compass. It is part of what makes us different."

"That is very helpful, weird, but very helpful right now." Tony placed his hand under his chin in thought. "Let's look at the facts. Ambrose was taken on purpose; that stinks of a trap a mile away. They had guys waiting for you there."

"It's scary…" Aithusa said coldly. But Natasha could read the deep rooted worry in his body and anxious mannerisms. "Knowing that someone out there knows about us. That they are lying in wait."

Tony shivered at that. He agreed wholeheartedly, it was scary.

"Oh-kay," the mechanic loosed himself from the strange way Aithusa's words had captured him. "Not only were they waiting for you but most probably know who you are. Have you ever crossed paths with Hydra before?"

"Not at all," Aithusa shook his head. "Not that I know at least. I mean…" He paused for a second, thinking deeply. "Perhaps?"

"You don't think you have?" Natasha asked."

"If we have, I don't think they would've known who we were on sight.

"Are you sure?" Tony frowned.

"Positively."

"Hydra had a lot of S.H.I.E.L.D. access to people's records. I think they would've known about you one way or another," the mechanic insisted. At this Aithusa seemed to smile privately.

"I would dare you to try and find us in your databases but we don't have that kind of time," he said quietly.

"J.A.R.V.I.S." Tony frowned at the albino, piqued by the perceived challenge. "Run a search for Aithusa on the background."

"Will do Mr. Stark." Answered the machine. Aithusa startled at that, looking around for the disembodied voice.

"It's just the AI, don't worry," Natasha reassured. At that, the gray blue eyes of the albino widened.

"Technology and us, we don't mix well," Aithusa randomly pipped in.

Natasha and Tony looked at each other for a moment.

"It has to do with that, right?" Natasha peered inquisitively at the other. "Ambrose was taken because of this. What clashes with technology?" She asked no one in particular.

"I- I- I wish I could've met Thor as well," the albino added, again, most oddly. Nervous.

"That seems like a very good lead there, are you aliens?" Tony wondered, not willing to take anything off the plate. At Aithusa's incredulous grimace, the mechanic kept going. "Gods?"

The white eyebrows of the albino raised up, not completely negating.

"Are you seriously gods?" The raven haired pressed, he honestly shouldn't have been surprised by this point. Aithusa made a so-so expression and movement with his shoulders. "But something like that then?" Tony groaned and rubbed his face with both hands. "I can't believe we're playing charades to get basic information."

"We've done weirder things," Natasha smirked a little, then continued. "Something like a god then."

The albino hummed, hunching in his seat, dark eye bags prominent on his pasty skin.

"So now we also know you don't agree with technology and you are sort of like Thor," Natasha summed.

"Alright," Tony sighed, "we have that, it's not a lot of information, but it's something. We'll put a pin on the whole, 'what disagrees with technology' thing for now."

"And Aithusa can take us to wherever Hydra might be holding Ambrose," Natasha added.

"We'll be like the three musketeers and D'Artagnan," Tony joked.

"I ah-" Aithusa looked stricken. "I can't go with you."

"Ah, shit, right, you're a civilian."

"No. That's not- There's nothing more I want than to go with you and rescue Ambrose but I… I can't."

"Did he… did he order you to not come for him?" The mechanic grimaced. The albino didn't answer, but the tear sliding down his cheek was answer enough. He dabbed it away, looking up for a moment and taking a breath.

"You looked exhausted, Aithusa," Natasha said. The white haired huffed as he nodded.

"I haven't really slept since my brother... you know. I can't believe the last time I was talking with Ambrose I was complaining about not getting enough sleep," he chuckled darkly.

"How about you take a nap?" She offered him.

"No. No, no. I couldn't. I need my brother to be safe first." Aithusa shook his head, filled with resolve, but evidently tired.

"That's more than two days of no sleep," Tony raised an eyebrow.

"We need to figure out how I can guide you to him." Aithusa frowned.

"Yes, we do, but first, we," he gestured at Natasha and himself. "Need to figure some things out and catch our buddy up on everything. You'll like Clint, great sense of humor that one. In the meantime, you won't be of use, so how about you go sleep instead of doing absolutely nothing?"

Aithusa seemed thorn. The redhead stood up and smiled kindly at him.

"We'll wake you up as soon as we need you, you won't miss a thing."

"I… Okay," he said softly, lowering his head.

"Good, come on, I'll show you to a guest room." The mechanic patted him on the back and led him into a corridor.

The sun was still high in the sky, which usually made it a little hard for Aithusa to fall asleep. But as soon as he took off his flannel and undershirt to lay down, he faded from consciousness. He had not expected it would be that easy with how high strung he was. But there he was, dead to the world, the curtains of the windows not even drawn close.

~.~.~.~

"Well, you guys definitely got into a pickle while I wasn't here," Clint commented once he was caught up with the situation. It was well into the night once everything was said and done, Thai takeout spread between the three of them as they ate on the couches in the main room of the penthouse.

"It was mostly Stark," Natasha said solemnly, as she had another mouthful of pad thai, making Stark squeak in protest.

"Yeah, sure it's my fault and not the fault of the guy who literally brought the problem to our door.

"Yes," the spies said in unison. Tony rolled his eyes though he wasn't actually annoyed.

"Anyway, we should call your guy in, figure out how he can lead us to these Hydra leftovers. It'll be good for us to do some more cleanup on these guys as well." Clint brought the topic back on track, taking a sip of his beer.

"Let's hope they're really just the leftovers and nothing more," Natasha knew since the moment Steve, Sam, and her had uncovered Hydra under S. .L.D. that it wouldn't be as easy as exposing them. There were always groups who refused to disperse, looking for ways to rise again, stronger than before.

"I dunno, he looked pretty beat, maybe we should let him sleep until tomorrow," the mechanic replied.

"The sooner we know where to look, the faster we can start reconnaissance and come up with a plan of attack Stark," the archer pushed back, not unkindly.

"Yeah, true." Tony leaned back, quite tired himself.

"I'll wake him up," the redhead offered, getting one last bite of her dish before standing up and leaving.

When Natasha reached the guest room the albino had been given, she knocked politely on the door.

"Aithusa," she waited a moment. "Aithusa, are you up? Our teammate is here, we want to discuss some things with you." When she heard no sound or sign of movement, she knocked a little harder. "Time to wake up Aithusa," but there was no answer. "Aithusa? I'm coming in." She opened the door slowly, the guy was as she'd thought, sound asleep and dead to the world. He lay on top of the covers diagonally over the bed, breathing softly and calmly, it looked like he almost hadn't made it as he had one leg dangling off the edge.

Natasha huffed a little at the sight and walked closer. His position didn't look all that comfortable but who was she to judge? She raised her hand to shake his naked shoulder but stopped. She took in a restrained breath at the sight illuminated by the light of the hallway, her hand hovering in the space between them. Natasha could see them more clearly as her eyes adjusted to the dark. Scars. Dozens of scars all over his pale white back and arms.

She took in a restrained breath. A lot of the marks were little faded knicks, almost like childhood hurts if it weren't for their location and quantity. But some others… Natasha knew torture, and some of these looked almost medieval in nature. She breathed in, centering herself. She shook Aithusa by the shoulder into wakefulness.

"Come on, wake up," but the albino was a heavy sleeper and took a while more to rouse up.

"I slept in, Merlin?" He mumbled against the duvet, "s'it sunup already?" he blinked beadily at her once he was on his elbows and getting upright.

"It's Natasha," said the assassin, pretending she had not heard a thing. "Our teammate is here, we want you to join us so we can talk about finding where Ambrose is." She backed away a few paces, giving him space to dress back up.

Awareness seemed to return a little to him for he scrambled, still half asleep, to put on his faded blue shirt. From the corner of his eye Aithusa caught sight of Natasha looking at his exposed back. He put his plaid on and turned to her with a nod.

"Lead the way."

As they walked the hallway up to the common room of the penthouse, the albino, hunching a little more than usual, got close to her ear.

"It happened when I was very young," he said quietly, Natasha looked up at him with a frown. "I saw you, I know you want to know about the scars."

"You don't have to tell me," she said after a moment, not denying his statement. He smiled at her kindly though sad.

"It was a long time ago," he shrugged a little, voice soft and oddly beautiful. "Most of them were made by evil men," the way Aithusa said it made it seem like a story was just about to unfold. "I was trapped in a well, I was… not alone. The place was too small for the both of us. And I grew… wrong. It left scars on my body. The men left scars on my body."

"You're very thin, but you do have a fair amount of muscle mass," Natasha assessed carefully, not really wishing to overstep even though Aithusa had been the one to broach the topic.

"Quite perceptive of you," the white strands of his hair swayed as he nodded. "I was growing and it made an impact on my body." He passed a subtle hand over his arm, remembering. They were quiet for a while until Aithusa stretched his back and stood tall. "I got better," and the smile he gave her could not be described any other way but as sunny.

For a moment, Natasha couldn't believe this man was real. He'd come to them, untrusting and barely willing to say what information he could share. Now, not a few hours later, he seemed so free and friendly with them. Warming up at the first sign of goodwill they had shown him. Going so far as to share this dark terrible thing that had happened to him, even if it was in little detail. The redhead felt inclined to somewhat express a little gratitude for the gesture.

"I think you have a lot of strength to overcome what you did. Just… look at you." She looked him up and down as if exemplifying. Aithusa crooked his head a little to the side, smile still in place.

"I had help, a lot of it. I would not have made it otherwise."

"Ambrose?" She took a guess.

"Yes," he seemed very fond, "and… someone else who was very dear to me. A long time ago."

"I'm sorry," Natasha said, understanding what lay underneath his words.

"Hm," he hummed, sad eyes cast down. "Thank you," he said under his breath as they reached the penthouse and the other Avengers.

~.~.~.~

Clint stood up, extending his hand immediately and introducing himself.

"Clint Barton, man."

"Aithusa," the albino smiled, politely accepting the gesture.

"Just Aithusa?"

"M'afraid so, though I've gone with Smith sometimes if you'd rather go with that," he added cheekily. The archer raised an eyebrow, impressed by the bold implications of his statement.

"Alright then, Aithusa Smith."

They offered him food as everyone sat back down on the couches. Aithusa was in fact, terribly hungry. As a dragon, he could go on for long periods of time without eating, so long as he'd had his fill before. It did not translate quite the same when he was in his human form, but he could endure better than a normal person. Still though, it had been almost three days since Merlin had been taken, he'd only had a bit of water and some granola bars they had in the front seat of their truck. Aithusa was very hungry. He was so hungry in fact he didn't want to eat in front of the Avengers because he would either a) stuff himself like a starving man and seem terribly rude, or b) he would try to eat a normal amount and the others would see the strain of self restraint on his face and still be weirded out. Either way, he would end up making a fool of himself.

Sullenly, he thought about how much he missed Merlin and the normalcy of their day to day lives. It seemed almost a little ridiculous how much he was missing his dragonlord and it hadn't even been all that long. Merlin and he had spent more time separated on their own free will than these 3 days, and yet, here Aithusa was, miserably thinking of how everything would be if Merlin were here.

"I know we just met, and I don't want to seem rude, but man, eat for heaven's sake, you look like you could eat a whole horse," Clint told him. After a little more prodding his hunger won out and he accepted their offers to help himself. He kept his gaze down though, embarrassed by this rushed eating. If he was eating with Merlin, he would have not minded even if food had gotten stuck in his hair.

"I was thinking about what you said before. You know where we have to go, but you can't go there yourself," Tony said pensively.

"That's it in a nutshell," Aithusa stuffed himself, the taste of every single spec of seasoning was glorious.

"I was thinking…" He looked at the white haired and copied the tactic he'd seen the albino use earlier. "How would you like to go on a ride in my jet? You know, just laze in the sky a bit, do some sightseeing. Maybe you can even tell us what spots you like the most?"

Food forgotten, Aithusa's heart fluttered inside his chest as he looked up at Tony.

"Yes," his voice was a little stained but he cleared it. "Yes, that sounds lovely. I'd really like to go on a jet ride."

"Awesome, we can do that early in the morning," Tony clapped his hands, considering the topic closed and done.

"No, I want to go now!" Everyone looked at him in sudden silence. Aithusa looked down, face red with shame, "I'm sorry, I'd- I'd really like to go now, really."

"Let's wait until tomorrow, we need to prep some things and I think everyone needs a good night's rest so we don't miss anything," Natasha prompted quietly, trying to bring the nervous energy of the man down.

"I- I- I won't, I can-" the albino didn't seem to know how to come up with an answer that would not betray the things he was forbidden from saying. He hid his face in his hand.

"Don't worry big guy, we'll do it bright and early." Tony patted him on the back, moved to compassion. Aithusa nodded, brought down. He whipped a tear off his cheek, he'd cried so much these last few days.

"Every," his voice scratched, "every second that we don't go out there, every moment that passes, there's a man suffering, alone and in pain. Every second we waste-"

"You look about ready to pass out," Clint commented.

"Another night without sleep is not going to kill me," he lifted his gray blues at Tony, full of a quiet, white fire. "But it might kill Ambrose. Or something worse."

"Worse?" Tony frowned

"What is death but a respite from life?" Aithusa said out loud though not at anyone in particular, there was something dark in his words.

The archer sighed, laying back against the couch and pressing his palms against his eyes.

"So we're doing this," Clint huffed but no one fought him on it again, they knew he was right.

~.~.~.~

It was about midnight when everything was ready and the team, plus the stranger they were helping, boarded the jet.

"This would be awfully exciting if it were any other situation," Aithusa said as he stood on the ramp of the small jet." He passed the tips of his fingers over the structure, admiring the craft.

"What are you even talking about, sightseeing is the best situation to go on a jet ride." Tony slapped his back good naturedly as he walked in.

"Quite," the white haired smiled smally. "I've never been in a jet in my life," his eyes were wonder filled though still a little red from crying earlier.

"I don't think a lot of normal people have," Natasha reassured him. Aithusa, being long lived, did not comment on it but smiled a secretive smile. One would think Merlin and him would've done it all by this point, but the world still has such wonders to offer..

Tony huffed at a standstill, not knowing where to head.

"So, does anyone have any bright ideas?" He asked.

"Oh, we really should've done this in the morning," mumbled Clint but didn't complain further.

"Maybe we start with the scene of the crime, from there, we can see what our next step can be," Natasha suggested.

"I like that," the mechanic pointed at her and plopped down on the pilot's seat.

"I can't…" the three Avengers turned to look at Aithusa, he looked a little distressed and was backing away down the ramp.

"Are you okay man?" Clint approached him carefully.

"I- I- I- I can't go look for Ambrose." It dawned on them just how careful they needed to be with their words.

"But we're not going to look for him," Tony said helpfully light.

"But I know you are."

"Then how about we show you the city?" With Natasha's words, Aithusa's body seemed to untense slightly.

"I-" the albino swallowed, "I would like that, yes. Just… Just the city is fine."

They were quiet after that, lifting off the ground and doing exactly as they said they would. After a while, Aithusa suddenly stood very still. He walked away from the cockpit while everyone watched him and once he was a few steps away in the cargo hold, he lay down on the floor. He closed his eyes and breathed in softly.

"Aaaah, what are you doing?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Waiting for you to take me sightseeing, as you said," Aithusa stretched an arm to the side and closed all his fingers but the pointer.

Before the mechanic could come up with another snarky remark, Natasha nudged his side and gestured. Tony looked carefully at the man on the floor, then at his teammates, he seemed to catch on to the idea.

"Right, of course, silly me," he returned to the cockpit with a purpose.

And so, that's how they tested the silent theory, while Tony yammered about the places they were flying too, Aithusas's pointing hand kept subtly changing direction, Clint quietly telling Tony which direction to veer to next. They flew quite slowly for a long while, then Aithusa sat up.

"This place is lovely, it's- it's really great."

"You locked that in, Barton?" Tony asked.

"Yup," Clint confirmed on the copilot's seat, "maybe we can do a small reconnaissance?"

But that was a mistake. At that moment Aithusa curled up a little into himself, he looked almost pained.

"I can't go with you, please." They stopped, instantly aware of the other.

"It's okay Aithusa, we're going back to the tower now," Natasha side eyed them.

"Yeah. Yeah, sure we are," Tony said after a while, flipping the controls and turning around.

Now, without fear of losing the right direction they flew at the craft's normal, sound splitting velocity. Aithusa would've probably enjoyed himself, but he was sullen, and tired, and terribly sad. Meanwhile Clint and Tony talked quietly in the cockpit.

"I really, reeeeally hate this guy," the archer mumbled with spite.

"Yeah, you and me both," Tony huffed.

"Have we considered just… not doing anything about it?" Clint asked, looking at the other pensively.

"Yup, and… it really seems to be a no-go in this situation."

"Hm, pity."

Underknow to them, Aithusa, who was seated in the places at the very back of the jet, could perfectly hear every word the Avengers said. One of the advantages, or in this case, disadvantages of being a dragon turned human.

Aithusa closed his eyes, concentrating on the part of his soul that anchored him to Merlin, telling him his kin was alive. It… it wasn't all that comforting actually. Merlin would always be alive… eventually.

He whipped a tear off his cheek.

Soon. Soon everything would be fine again.

Chapter Text

"A cat?" Aithusa asked with a teeth-bared sneer that Merlin barely saw these days.

"Yes, a cat," the warlock said calmly, willing the conversation not to derail as soon as it had started.

"I'm already human, how much more hidden do you want me to be?"

"It would just be for emergencies, Thusa," Merlin pleaded, taking a step closer to the other, trying to reason with the dragon. "So you can get a quick out in situations where being a human might not be as helpful."

"I do not like it. You make me any smaller and I'll disappear completely," Aithusa insisted, a little distressed.

"You just say that because you are used to being so big. A cat is not all that small," Merlin pointed out.

"To you maybe," Aithusa bristled and then turned his face away, sighing loudly.

"Think about it this way, you used to carry me around everywhere, now I can be the one carrying you." Merlin smiled sunnily, trying to appeal to the part of Aithusa that enjoyed seeing him happy. But the white haired man side eyed him, not buying a word out of his mouth.

"Yeah, whatever. Go ahead," Aithusa mumbled after a while, knowing full well even if Merlin didn't insist on going through with this, that he would say yes in the end. There wasn't much Aithusa would deny his dragonlord after all. And he could agree if only a little. Merlin had been trapped as a human before, unable to utter a spell that would get him out of trouble and back when he had yet to learn to transform into other forms without words. If he'd been smaller, escaping would've definitely been easier. Great pain could've been avoided, of that the dragon was sure.

Merlin grinned, taking the other's white face in his hands, gently turning it so gray blue eyes would look at him.

"You won't regret this Aithusa, you'll see. Being a cat is so much fun!" He said with the enthusiasm his own experience had given him.

"Hm, if you say so," Aithusa conceded with little joy, letting the weight of his head fall into the other's hands. If he was going through with this he might as well make a problem of himself. Merlin huffed at the action but kept smiling. He patted softly at his kin's cheek before he let go.

"Anyway, dragons are already so much like cats."

"We are not!" Aithusa gasped, offended, though he had nothing to back this up with. He had only briefly gotten to know Kilgharrah, and in theory, Merlin had known dragons longer than him. But as a dragon he felt like he needed to push on this point.

"Yes you are, in personality if in nothing else. Had I been blind when I met Kilgahara, I would've thought him one too. A very big, mean, bossy one."

Aithusa growled at him, it came out a little pathetic without the capacity of his draconic body but the idea was still clear. He could smell a little smoke in the air too, coming from the small fire this human form allowed him to keep. Small blessings. Still not enough to actually breathe fire. At least Merlin had the decency of covering the smile that spread on his lips at the other's indignation.

"Let's get this over with." Aithusa rolled his eyes, long suffering.

"I'll make it so you can turn in and out of the form whenever you like too," the raven haired said as he prepared to cast the enchantment.

"You… you will?" The small, not really angry snarl but rather defensive, fell from his face, unsure for a moment. Merlin had not allowed him that after his last incident as a dragon. The last time he had been a dragon. He'd thought… he'd thought the warlock might just want to keep him in a smaller form from now on.

Merlin seemed to catch on to his train of thought and his smile fell as well, arms dropping to his sides.

"I don't… I don't actually want to take you from yourself, Aithusa. Or your freedom. I just…" Merlin swallowed, a dark, despairing glance coming over his eyes. "I just don't want to lose you," he croaked. "I want you to be safe wherever we go."

The albino's heart softened, he understood too much what his kin meant. With every year that passed, it seemed there were less and less magical creatures and things in the world. Like the earth just couldn't sustain them anymore and they had all vanished. And it was not only that. He knew what people would do for discovery, and magic was such a discovery to be had. To possess. And their friends, other magical beings, all faded away like a forgotten dream. Merlin and him, they were the dregs of an old world that was dying and survival was equal to how well you could keep hidden.

"I know, I understand," Aithusa told him, squeezing his hand. "Come on, let's do this." He smiled, hoping to lift Merlin's mood again. The dark haired man seemed to lose his happy disposition but returned the gesture anyway.

He stepped back from his dragon and raised his arms again. Aithusa openly observed Merlin as the sorcerer's eyes turned golden. When he was like this, doing magic openly and without restraint, he always seemed so much more than his human body. Fuller somehow, more… real. Merlin chanted a complex spell, so well versed in the magical arts it seemed like a song now. At least to Aithusa. The albino let himself be taken by it, offering no resistance at all to the influence of magic and change.

On his next breath Aithusa was small, and round, and soft. When he'd turned into a human for the first time, he thought there was no way he could get any softer. Apparently, he'd been quite wrong. He lifted up his eyes to his dragonlord, the world was different. He opened his mouth to tell his rushing thoughts to Merlin, but instead, all that came out was a soft meow. 'Oh, dear,' he thought. The hairs on his back stood up at the strangeness of it all, like a full-body wave of goosebumps.

"Oh, look at you, you are so gorgeous my friend," Merlin said, passing a gentle hand over Aithusa's white fur. "Now, come here. Just like I promised."

Crouching down, Merlin took hold of the big white cat and lifted him up. Aithusa startled as the floor disappeared from underneath him, his claws digging into the soft of Merlin's shoulder on instinct.

"Ah," the warlock gasped, "careful there," he asked gently.

The dragon relaxed, trying his best to control his new body and get a feeling of himself. He brightened then, when he felt a tail swishing back and forth and back and forth. His tail. Merlin laughed when he began to purr.

"That's right, look who's got a tail again," he complimented and wrapped his arms more securely around the cat's round, large body.

Aithusa hesitated a moment, before snuggling his head against his kin's neck.

"Isn't this nice, Thusa, my little sun?" Merlin asked, the cat could hear the smile in his voice. And yes, it actually was very nice to be carried and held. He let the strange purring of his body do as it pleased and it became louder. It felt almost like something his dragon body would do, but he never would've called it purring before.

If he could cry as a cat, maybe, he would've done so. He felt more at home in this body than he had ever felt as a human before, despite feeling so small and vulnerable, the world was so big. He hid his face against the sorcerer's neck and avoided looking at the tall trees.

"Goddess, you're heavy," Merlin huffed a laugh but didn't put him down. "I hope I was never this heavy to either you or Gara," he mused.

The cat let the words wash over him, vibrating from Merlin's chest into his own. As close as they currently were, he could feel their souls almost mingling with one another. Merlin began walking down the autumn forest, humming a quiet tune for Aithusa until slowly the dragon turned cat gathered enough courage to look at things again. Merlin was si-

Aithusa startled awake in the dark of his borrowed room. The dream was still clear in his mind's eye. He shuddered though he wasn't cold as tears spilled down his face.

He searched for the place in his heart that tied him to his dragonlord and comforted himself in the feeling and the knowledge that he could tell the general direction where Merlin was. He'd always loved it, but now, he was monumentally thankful for it. It had helped the Avengers to get an approximation of where the warlock was being kept. The rest of the work they would have to do themselves, but it was a start. More than a start actually.

He prayed to the triple goddess that she would keep her most precious vessel safe. He lay his head down against the pillow and allowed a few more tears to spill. Sleep would not come to him again.

~.~.~.~

Merlin woke with a start. The dregs of a dream were fading from his mind. Vaguely he remembered Aithusa's sunny face and bright presence. Sound and safe in a random river they had found in a forest; one of the thousand interchangeable times they had done the same. Water over his skin. Grass under his feet. The dream had changed though, for a moment, he'd felt the cool touch of scales beneath his hand and seen a big gray blue eye peering at him, instead of freckled pink flesh. Aithusa's presence had been just as bright though.

With foggy awareness coming back to him, he felt a powerful wave of relief run through him despite the immense pain under his skin. Aithusa was not here. Aithusa was safe, somewhere out there, hopefully far away from here. Merlin would have rather died a hundred times than let anything happen to his kin. Again. Or maybe, this time, he would kill the people responsible for hurting his sun for a change. No more gentle, forgiving Merlin.

'Have you ever been?' Whispered his mind in a distinctly feminine voice.

It'd been a long time since he had wreaked mayhem in the world. If push came to shove, and Aithusa were in danger, perhaps he would…But he was here now, trapped by mere mortals. Helpless. Greatest sorcerer to ever walk the earth, sure thing.

He twitched again, a pulse of electricity cursing between the layers of his muscles. He spasmed for a moment, his back arching with the painful stiffening of his tendons. Once the currents stopped he flopped down against the metal, breathless.

It took a while to get his breathing under control and get a semblance of order to his addled mind under the influence of who knows what drugs. And then he prepared himself for the next wave.

What these men were doing, these strange void people, Merlin could not say. They knew he had a great measure of power but wasn't completely certain they understood who he was. At least not the people working on him. Perhaps, someone beyond, someone atop the ladder, knew and just kept that information to themselves. But he was frog to these scientists, a shiny, rare, and revolutionary kind of frog that needed to be carefully studied to the brink of death. And then after that some more of course. All for the greater good of science. Or more accurately, the science of getting the upper hand over other people. He knew whatever facade these people were telling themselves, it was nothing more than what men had been doing for millennia.

He dreaded to think what they would do when they discovered what happened to him after he died.

His body arched up, spine curling up while restraints pulled him down against the table. He gasped, as something within him shifted just a tad. Then he flopped down again after some seconds, or a minute, or an hour. He felt the shifting cells between the layers of his skin and muscles, buzzing with the leftovers of electricity. Buzzing with change.

He shuddered, nauseated, this time it was not because of the eclectic pulses.

Merlin closed his eyes. He thought of Aithusa, for sure to be beside himself now, and probably terribly angry and hurt. But it was for the best. So long as it was him on the slab and not his brother, everything would be alright. So long as it was him.

With Aithusa on his mind, he let the memory of rainy days hiding in a cave against a giant scaled body fill the dizzy space inside his head. If he tried hard enough, the shocks of electricity were nothing more than distant thunder through the night. And his body was warm, not because of exertion or being scorched, but because a great body that hid secret fire inside rested beside him.

~.~.~.~

"You look like shit," Tony commented as he entered the penthouse kitchen.

Aithusa was already awake and had been for some hours. The albino stared out at the sky through the huge windows. He sat on the floor before them. He longed to go out there and feel the breeze, but every time he thought of doing that his heart ached with the memory of Merlin, laughing with him at the edge of some big great building as they peered down recklessly.

"Well, the most important person in my life is either being experimented on or being inflicted a great amount of pain as we speak, probably both if I'm to be completely honest. I think looking like shit seems appropriate enough," the albino replied with a monotone voice.

Tony was quiet, for a moment at a loss of words before such raw honesty. He walked closer to the other and stood by him.

"Come on, there must be someone else out there that you care about. That cares about you," the mechanic prompted.

"There really isn't."

"Everyone has someone, even the people who think they're alone. There are always people who care about you." Passion bleed through Tony's words and that managed to break somewhat through Aithusa's dower mood. As the mechanic sat down beside the albino, Aithusa turned to look at him.

"You speak as if from experience," he said quietly, eyes curious.

"Yeah, well, I used to think only one person cared about me. Which turned out to be a lie and exactly the opposite. But… that helped me discover those who really were there for me; no strings attached." Tony let the silence between them be and extend as long as it needed to. After a long moment of Aithusa looking at the sky and the mechanic at his phone, the albino turned to his host.

"There was a third one of us… a long time ago. He was our older brother, of a sort... He died though," his words were quiet, almost reverent in their sadness. The pain there was not fresh, but it lingered inside his gray eyes. "There is no one in the world like us anymore. Stark… He's all I have left." His strangely accented voice cracked a little. "And I'm all he has left, and one day he won't even have me and he'll have to go on until the breaking of the world. Or if that never comes… I suppose he'll go on forever."

Tony really, really didn't like this guy. He'd rather Ambrose rot in whatever hell he was trapped in than help him. But listening to Aithusa talk with such rawness touched a fiver in him, a place inside his chest that, just like Natasha had said, wanted to help people to the best of his ability.

He wondered what it would be like to be so attached to one person. So devoted. It probably was super unhealthy, but it still gave him pause. He sighed mentally; Ambrose had this poor guy right under his thumb.

"We'll get him back, Aithusa, don't worry," he finally said and surprised himself when he realized he meant his words wholeheartedly.

"He's not a monster you know," the white haired said after a while. Tony didn't comment but his face said enough. "He's not. Really. He's as… He's as fairytales say: pure of heart."

"What he's doing to you… that doesn't sound like something a pure hearted person would do, much less a good one. And- life isn't a fairy tale man," Tony said frustrated, almost desperate to make the other see what was really going on.

Aithusa smiled ruefully to himself at the mechanic's words.

"If I told you the reasons, maybe you would understand," he told Tony with a sad, understanding smile. As if it was he who pitied Stark. The Avenge frowned.

"Sometimes, people aren't who we think they are, they can deceive us, kid. Some people can even lie to themsel-" They looked at each other, stilled. "I… don't know why I said that," Tony laughed awkwardly through the tension.

"Ambrose says it's my natural charm, don't worry. People just tell me things sometimes," the albino soothed him. "But I am older than you so I should be the one calling you kid."

"Now wait a second, that's a little too much of an exaggeration, don't you think? You're what? Thirty-ish? Late thirties if we're really pushing it. You're not older than me, no way."

"I am," he said with a cheeky, earnest smile.

"You're so full of crap. Come on, out with it, how old are you?" But Tony got no answer, he narrowed his eyes at the other.

"I couldn't say… but I am old." A strange shiver ran down the mechanics' back as he realized this was something Aithusa was forbidden from speaking about as well. Maybe, it wasn't so outlandish to think he was older than Tony himself.

Stark sighed and stood up.

"Come on, let's go get some breakfast."

~.~.~.~

Natasha observed Aithusa, the man was quietly and unenthusiastically nibbling at his spoonfuls of cereal. If she had to bet, she'd put her money on the albino not particularly liking cereal, despite Tony insisting he could have whatever he liked from the kitchen. She suspected it was because Clint and her had immediately gone for the cereal cupboard and Aithusa just didn't want to impose. That, and the situation, of course.

Natasha also strongly suspected the man was aware of her subtle inspection. It was in the nonchalant way he was behaving. Purposefully unaware.

Since yesterday's quarry she had been wondering about Aithusa, well, more than she already had anyway. She'd wondered if there was a way to tell, just from looking at him, if his otherness would become evident if she scrutinized him long enough. She wasn't sure, but… she did find something odd from her inspection. Aithusa's age. There was a definite youthness to him though he was most definitely a man. But the more she looked, if she tilted her head just a fraction, the more she thought he seemed older. Much, much older. Then she'd blink and he seemed like any regular young man again.

"I think I figured it out," Natasha said suddenly.

"What? Clint asked with a mouthful of cereal.

"What goes poorly with technology," she clarified.

The group turned to her in attention. Aithusa's stare seemed specifically poignant. Natasha was thinking of the albino's whispered word as he'd woken up the day before. Her guess seemed quite the long shot, but in some strange way, it also made sense.

"It's magic, isn't it? Magic and technology don't agree with each other." Gray blue eyes lifted at the corners as a big grin covered Aithusa's face. He said no words to her though, returning to his breakfast.

"That's a yes!" Tony pointed at him victoriously. But his face fell a second afterward. "That sounds like bullshit though. You have to be some sort of mutant."

Both spies groaned in unison.

"Not this again," Clint mumbled.

"Magic isn't real. That's just a fact. It's just a different sort of science that hasn't been completely figured out yet."

"Yeah, and I'm sure Thor calls down lightning with a hidden button in his harmer," the archer snickered.

"I am a man of science if nothing else," Tony then turned to Aithusa. "Not that I don't believe you, I just think we have very different views on the world.

The albino didn't seem angry or offended at the implications, instead, he looked at the Avenger with a kind smile, indulgent even. Like an adult letting a kid have the final say on a topic they knew nothing about. Tony frowned, but before he could protest, Aithusa's face froze.

"Hey, man, are you ok-"

A full body shudder ran through Aithusa then. His long limbs flayed for a moment and smacked against the counter, toppling his bowl of cerial and Clint's glass in the process.

"Wow, buddy, take it easy." The archer stood up quickly, thinking Aithusa was about to have an epileptic attack and ready to catch the albino if he fell. He was already planning to tell the others to move any furniture Aithusa might hit himself with but…

Nothing happened.

"Aithusa are you okay?" Natasha walked over to them, concern painting her serious voice.

Aithusa did not look okay. There was a contorted grimace on his face, held there for a moment, then gone. The man was pressing his hands against his chest, several emotions passed through his face, revulsion, confusion, and other things not so easily discernible.

Aithusa looked like he was going into shock.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. The albino's face contorted again, this time though, it was as if his face couldn't quite decide what it wanted to feel. Then… then Aithusa began sobbing.

"Shit," Tony shot from behind the counter and reached the white haired man just as he was letting himself down onto the floor. "Hey, come on, Garett, let us help you. What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Aithusa sobbed. "I fe- fe- I feel- I don't know- They are- They- They're doing something to Ambrose," he wailed.

Tony tried to hold him up but Aithusa just curled further toward the ground. The engineer looked up at his teammates, eyes screaming for help. He held his arms out unsurely, wanting to reach but too awkward to offer comfort himself.

Clint did not hesitate to act and kneeled beside the grieving man. Carefully, he placed a hand on the albino's shuddering shoulder, first checking if the man was receptive to physical contact and then proceeding when the only thing he got was more body shudders. Aithusa couldn't seem to stop crying. Clint lifted the white haired so he could lie on the archer's lap a little more comfortably.

"There we go, it's okay now," he said quietly, hoping sweet platitudes would calm the other down. He was banking on what he'd observed of Aithusa, he seemed like a sweet-natured man and not really like a person who would scoff at receiving comfort when he needed it, no macho man who would try to shrug it off.

"Aithusa, where does it hurt?" Natasha asked, kneeling beside them.

"My b-body. Doesn't. Hurt," he said through gritted teeth and between sobs. He cried harder, succumbing to the offered comfort and burning his face against Clint's stomach. "I don't know how they did it, they… they touched something they should not have," he said in a quiet whisper.

Natasha looked up just in time to see horror pass through Tony's face. She suspected he was thinking the same as her.

'Think of a nuclear bomb, it has a complicated working system that no one quite knows how it works… Now think of that same bomb, being poked and prodded by people who don't understand even a small fraction of its workings.'

She raised a hand towards Tony and gestured for him to breathe, mimicking the action. He nodded at her, shaken, trying to follow her silent instructions.

"What did they touch Aithusa," Clint asked, brushing his fingers through the long white hair.

Dizzyingly, almost like a separate thought from himself all together, Tony noted how Clint seemed quite proficient doing this 'comforting bit'.

"I don't understand how they did it," the albino muttered instead, still shaking.

"What did they do?" The archer pressed on kindly.

"They did something- They touched that… the place inside of me… That- that which connects me to him." Aithusa shook his head over and over. "It didn't hurt. It felt wrong."

What little he had managed to calm went away with that statement. He sobbed again. It… it sounded like he was in pain. And the way he'd said that. Wrong. Like it was a violent act. Not only that but something violating.

"It feels wrong. It's wrong. It's wrongwrongwrongworngwron-"

"It's going to be okay buddy," Clint tried. Above the grieving Aithusa, the Avengers shared a look. Worried, yes, in part for their guest, but more so for this dangerous power that people who did not understand it were tampering with.

~.~.~.~

"How is he?" Natasha asked once Clint came out of Aithusa's guest room.

"Tapped out for sure. Exhausted. And he's been stressed for days now so that doesn't help either." Natasha nodded at that as they began walking down the corridor. "Tough to be honest, I don't think he's going to sleep for very long, no matter how tired he is, his worry's not going to let his body shut down."

"I'm guessing we're moving the timeline up?" It was not really a question. Still, Clint nodded.

"What a fucking situation," he sighed just as they entered the common area of the penthouse. Tony was putting an empty tumbler down. "Great, just what we needed," the archer muttered and closed his eyes at the sight of their probably drunk teammate.

"Don't worry, I'll cut him off," Natasha told him self assuredly and he nodded.

Clint took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He was calm now. After all, he'd been trained for this. He could handle a stressful situation.

~.~.~.~

"Are you seeing this?" The blond doctor asked with transfixed excitement. "Are you seeing this?"

His partner couldn't answer, too stunned to reply, he was grinning like a lunatic though. Through the examination glass, they could see the body of subject "Gold" as he'd been so lovingly christened. The pale, flustered skin was rippling with tiny waves of scales of all things. Appearing and disappearing in rows up and down his body. His eyes had been stuck into blazing gold of his namesake for a couple of minutes now. They've had him for so little yet the possibilities he was presenting them with were already astounding. At the moment they had barely poked and prodded at the subject, just to see what would happen. But everything they did, when it got them a reaction, made something different happen.

The possibilities where endless.

"We'll… we'll never have enough time to study him in a lifetime. Generations will go on and still study him and never get their fill," the second doctor predicted, finally gathering himself, immeasurably in awe of this magnificent creature.

It was such a wonder to behold. And it was all theirs.

Chapter Text

Natasha sat by a chair beside the resting form of Aithusa. His body trembled ever so often, just slightly, as he still reeled from whatever had happened that morning. She could tell he wasn't really asleep.

Natasha had been thinking lately. Gathering little bits and moments of the time she'd spent with Aithusa, mulling them over in the privacy of her thoughts. She had a working theory now, not a very sane one mind you, but one she felt, given the current situation, could be just irrational enough to fit. She debated whether she should tell him about her theory; about who she thought he could be or who he was connected to. But perhaps she should be less forward or just not mention her theory at all. Natasha didn't know if it would comfort him or not, to be known by her if she turned out to be right.

She balanced the book in her hand over her leg, looking at it pensively. She would've gotten a tablet or a Kindle but she knew how handing technology to Aithusa would turn out. So she'd taken a few minutes of her day to go to a library close by.

Back when she'd guessed that magic was what made him and Ambrose different, she'd considered it quite the stretch of an assumption. It just seemed so ridiculous to think it was true, but Natasha knew what he'd heard Aithusa mumble in his sleep, and she did live in a ridiculous world after all. If giant, flying serpentine aliens and walking gods were possible, well… Why not this then?

She closed her eyes and sighed quietly making a decision. She would just imply things to Aithusa. If she was wrong, then no harm done; if she was right, she would learn something useful and the albino would not have to corroborate with her.

"We're leaving soon Aithusa," Natasha told him, not bothering to call him out on his pretense of sleep or going through the charade of 'waking him up'.

Tired eyes opened to look at her. They were not as excited as she felt they would be about the news otherwise. He nodded at her minutely.

"I-" The spy wet her lips. "Brought you a book. For while you wait. Maybe it'll distract you while we're gone." She put the book on the bed and pushed it toward him.

"Thank you but… I don't think I can concentrate enough to read," Aithusa apologized and it made her smile, amazed he could still muster up enough regretfulness about declining her offer.

"I don't know, I think this one might," she said with a small, secretive smile.

Aithusa blinked at her, a subtle shine of intrigue in his eyes breaking through his forlorn exhaustion. He grunted as he moved up to lean on his right elbow and took a look at the cover. He took a sudden, very quiet, intake of breath. It was enough of an answer for Natasha.

"You look like the kind of person who'd be into old tales like these."

"Do I?" He wondered half heartedly, voice faint. After a moment of silence, Aithusa composed himself enough to read the title out loud, "King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table" by Thomas Malory."

Natasha hummed in affirmation. Waiting. Either Aithusa would fold or he would pretend he didn't know what this was about.

"I actually…" he started with a little hesitation, "much more enjoy Geoffrey of Monmouth's version of the tales."

"So you are a connoisseur on the topic," Natasha said conversationally, a slight smile on her lips.

"You could say that," he conceded softly.

And there it was, Natasha's hope for admission if she was ever to get one. She took a moment to wonder if she should press her luck or let it be at that. She took a breath.

"I haven't read many Arthurian things myself, but I really like Morgana from what I've seen in movies," she continued casually. Aithusa's smile crooked a little and Natasha had to laugh at his expression. "What can I say? I like an evil lady."

"Indeed," he chuckled quietly. "She is… quite the foe." The man looked down, caressing the cover of the worn book.

"What about you? Who do you like the most?"

"Well… I'm right there with you, Morgana is wonderful, but… I've always liked Merlin the best," he answered, not looking at her, but the sincerity of his words was palpable.

"Yeah?"

"Oh, yes. He's…" Aithusa took a shaky breath and looked up at her. There was fear hidden in his eyes. "Dear to me."

Jackpot.

Natasha was about to thank him for his trust but stopped. If she compromised him by acknowledging the truth, or what seemed like the truth, she did not think it would go overly well for him. She wasn't sure how the rules he had to obey worked exactly, but she would not risk it. Natasha kept quiet.

"I have to go now. We're patching up some last details before we head out." She stood up.

"I will join you," Aithusa said quickly, already throwing his legs over the side of the bed.

"Aithusa." Natasha looked at him seriously and it stilled him, but it did not deter him.

"Don't." He shut down Natasha before she could say more. A strange shiver ran down the spy's back. Aithusas words were almost like a hiss, but… more. "Whatever you are about to say, just do not." He glared at her, gray blue eyes icy.

"I didn't take you for someone to get angry," Natasha raised an eyebrow, somewhat intrigued. The albino looked down, slightly ashamed.

"I'm not usually, not really." He looked up at her and stood up beside her. "But I was taught anger well. It still sticks to me sometimes."

Well, that was very cryptic of him. He did that sometimes, Natasha noted. Very odd indeed.

~.~.~.~

As Natasha had privately predicted it helped no one that Aithusa was there when they discussed the last details before infiltrating Hydra's base. It put the Avengers on edge and forced them to be careful with what they said in front of the albino. Aithusa with his mounting anxiety wasn't helping at all either, but to his credit, neither did listening in exacerbate it.

And so they left. They would be back late tonight or tomorrow, it was uncertain. Aithusa looked as the jet disappeared into the sky and felt his heart clenched inside his chest. There was nothing left for him to do but to wait.

"Would you like to keep me company for a while?" Pepper walked up to him and smiled at him kindly. She was just back from a business trip and had been updated on most of the weird events of the last few days. Her heart went for this young man and his lost brother despite how furious Tony seemed about the whole ordeal. She could tell he was projecting on Aithusa on some level, reminders of what he'd gone through with Obadia never failing to touch tender nerves in him.

"Thank you, Miss. Potts, but I'm afraid I would be very poor company right now. If- if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go lay down some more. I don't… I don't feel so well."

"That's alright. If you need anything though or if you change your mind, don't hesitate to ask J.A.R.V.I.S. for me, okay?"

He nodded stiffly, slightly guilty for declining. She seemed interesting and sweet and was being very kind to him. But he knew he would not be able to do anything in the state he was in, his nerves were eating at his insides like fire ants and his skin almost buzzed with his anxiety.

He returned to his borrowed room and lay down staring at the evening sun outside the window and the still bright day. He grabbed the book Natasha had brought him and pulled it to his chest, holding it there tightly, holding to words of a long lost time and places and people. Holding desperately to a fraction of Merlin as close as he could. He took in a shaky breath.

For hours Aithusa's eyes remained open. Looking at Nothing. Feeling at his soul and nauseated by the action at the same time. At how it had felt when someone, something that was not Merlin had touched it.

Soon now.

Merlin would be back with him soon. And everything would be alright again. Once he was with his dragonlord again, Aithusa could go back to being alive and not whatever he was experiencing at the moment. And he'd hear Merlin sing, and feel the gentle 'thum' of his magic close by, and his brother could take him to eat something nice just like he'd promised.

The dragon waited, feeling helpless and stupid and more vulnerable even than when he was a small, soft cat.

Soon now.

~.~.~.~

Many, many years ago.

Aithusa was scared, so terribly scared. All over his body shook so hard it was difficult to walk straight. He hadn't felt this frightened possibly since he'd been a hatchling at the bottom of a dark well and at the mercy of evil men. Oh, he had messed up bad. He had messed up so astonishingly bad. His neck hurt, his wings ached, and every stab and scratch over his scaled body burned, he wanted to cry and wail. But he had to stay hidden, dragon wailing was too loud, and he didn't have the strength to shift into a human. Dragons, of course, could not cry. He was deep enough in the forest that no one would hear him now, but his most recent skirmish had left more than a physical mark on him, and he dared not make a single sound.

He made himself as small as his large body would go and scurried deep into the forest in search of abundant foliage or a cave that would keep him out of sight. There he would wait for his kin to return, and so then, be comforted.

He yearned for that, the comfort of his dragonlord, his kin, but he dreaded to see the expression on his face. After all, Aithusa had promised he wouldn't turn into his dragon form until Merlin was without a doubt sure of the safety of the place they were in. Just like he had promised not to talk about magic to anyone. Just like he had promised not to reveal who they were to others.

And just like the times before this one. Aithusa hadn't been able to help himself.

He kept breaking his word, again and again, and again. He just wanted others to know. He wanted to talk about how he was so much more than his human body, about how wonderful the magic of the world felt, about all the good they could do if given a chance. He wanted to talk about the times of old, a time when myths roamed the earth and magic permeated every insect and leaf.

Of course, he could talk to Emrys about anything, especially these things. His kin had lived it all with him after all. He could always tell his dragonlord whatever was on his mind, always.

Aithusa wanted more though. He hungered for more.

Like he'd told that man he could heal his wife with magic. Like he'd told that girl he was a dragon. Like he'd tried to help by being a dragon. But all those times had ended up in disaster and he had no one to blame but himself.

In pain and weak, Aithusa borrowed himself into a hollow of the earth; it was too small for his large body but it was nicely covered by a group of trees. And anyway, the smallness of it gave him comfort, it was like being held like he had been when he was a hatchling and little enough for that. He swallowed back his sad, hurt filled wails and willed himself to sleep.

Aithusa just missed being seen, he was so sick of treading carefully.

~.~.~.~

When Emrys found he was flooded by relief, but also, a strange sense of shame. The dragonlord's face seemed equally mixed, the worry though, was greatly overshadowed by a severe emotionlessness. A quake ran through Aithusa's limbs, his shame was so much bigger than his relief so he shifted his gaze to the ground

Emrys walked to him, placing a careful, tender hand over one of his wounds. At first the dragon flinched, memories of the past days and other wretched, older hurts, bloomed to the surface.

"Oh, Thusa. It is okay, you are safe now." The soft touch of his kin made him relax; it meant safety and protection.

Softly, so very softly, Aithusa let himself cry.

Slowly, Emrys took care of his wounds, tending to them one by one, stab and laceration, tender flesh and chipped scale. He hummed softly to the dragon, Aithusa swimming in and out of dreams and memories, knowing he'd be protected under Emrys' hand.

When he woke up again, the morning sun was peeking through the leaves. He had slept through the rising of the star two days in a row, which was very unusual for him. He was just that exhausted. His sleep had not been restful though.

Blinking his big eyes at Emrys, he could see that the warlock had not rested at all himself. He was still carefully worrying over his injuries even though there wasn't much more he could do about them, both magical and botanical remedies exhausted. Aithusa did feel better, but he knew the dragonlord would not stop his ministrations if he told him this, so Aithusa remained quiet.

He thought of the past week as he looked with his far reaching gaze at the little insects that slowly walked over the earth and dry leaves, the faraway animals that scurried and hid within the trees and roots.

A sudden anger began burning in him. It was not fair that he should hide like an unworthy criminal. That he should be persecuted as if he'd done something wrong. It made him bristle with a quiet rage he'd learned from another set of soft hands, a long time ago.

In his mind's eye a curtain of dark hair and sharp green eyes appeared. A woman who had been kind to him, who he had made company to in their darkest moments. She had been as Emrys was to him sometimes, parental, even though she had not brought him into this world as his dragonlord had. His rage he had learned from her and right now he relished in it.

It bristled inside him, an angry fire. Her words of old resonated in his mind, her beliefs about how the world should be and the things their kind was owed. As fingers ghosted again over one of his injured wings he recoiled it from the Emrys' touch, glaring at the raven haired.

The sorcerer stepped back, looking at him questioningly, yet behind his carefully emotionless face concern peaked. Aithusa's anger flourished.

"I do not want to hide anymore," he declared icily. The dragonlord's face shifted in surprise.

"You know we cannot do that, Aithusa. Every day, more and more people are populating the world. These new machines-"

"Do not give me that speech again, Emrys!" The white dragon hissed with uncharacteristic venom. The warlock blinked, dumbfounded. Compassion filled the whole of his face then, taking a step closer to Aithusa's face to comfort him. But the dragon would not have it.

"Thusa-" His voice was soft.

"Morgana would not have kept me hidden away like an evil secret." Emrys stumbled back, startled. His vivid blue eyes wide as the words dawned on him.

"You know that's not what I am doing." The warlock frowned at him, a glimmer of his own anger flaming. 'Good,' Aithusa thought for some reason.

"Yes you do, you always have, and you always will. Not even you are spared from your own shame." Merlin gasped. Then his anger set in.

"Those are not your words," he said darkly.

"It doesn't matter if they are not, they are still true. She would have never stood for what you are doing now. She would not have wanted me to disappear into nothing. She would've stood for what was right. She-"

"Morgana would have died just the same in this time with how prideful she was!" Merlin shouted.

"You don't know that! You'll never know that because you made sure she would not live to see it." The dragon had by now stood as best as he could, towering over Merlin.

"It doesn't matter! Morgana would have died a long time ago either way. She was just human like the rest of them, Aithusa!"

"No! She would. She was a priestess, she-"

"It. Doesn't. Matter! Being a priestess would not have kept her alive that much longer. And certainly not after the decline of magic began happening!"

The dragon snarled, his sharp fangs displaying his burning rage. But the warlock did not fear his dragon's size or power as he shouted right back, any facade of control he'd been putting up long gone.

"I hate you," Aithusa hissed, feeling himself projecting Morgana as she has been in her last years of life. Willing his ire to bloom unrestrained. "I wish she would have run you through with the bloody sword I forged for her. Dying hunted with her would have been an honor. Better than this cursed existence you have forced us to live." Merlin stumbled back again as if the dragon's words had struck him. Aithusa pushed forward. "You are just as bad as she always said you were. So ashamed of yourself you have tainted me with your poison. I wish- I wish so dearly she would've run you through. I'd be alone but at least I would not have to suffer you-"

A sob broke from Merlin, anger extinguished, and heartbreak bleeding from his eyes. Aithusa drew his neck back, equally shocked by what he had just said. His words suddenly resonated inside his head.

"I… Em- Emrys-" he tried, but Merlin couldn't take to be in his presence anymore. His wounds had been opened by Aithusa's sharp words, who knew just which of them were the most raw and painful. Aithusa knew just where to strike, and once he had, he'd twisted the knife. Morgana would have been so proud.

Swiftly, Merlin's body turned feathered and small, just like his namesake, and he flew up into the sky and through the trees. Away from Aithusa.

"Emrys!" Aithusa called up with a roar. But he could not follow, his wings still hurt, his body still ached, and if he tried anything right now he was sure he would fall from the sky.

He had never in his life said such awful things to his dragonlord. Aithusa wailed, loud and uncaring now, hoping someone would find him and run him through once and for all.

~.~.~.~

Once Aithusa had enough strength to turn himself back into a human he began looking for his kin. He followed that place in his soul that, like a compass, told him just where to find his dragonlord.

He stumbled through the uneven ground forlorn. Why had he said that? Why would he say such horrible things? Why? Why? Why? He was sad and angry, yes, but- Aithusa covered his face and screamed into his hands. Why would he be so horrible to the most important person in his world? He knew Emrys was ashamed, he knew how much guilt he carried. Aithusa did not need to remind him of something his dragonlord could easily remind himself of every other day. He knew Merlin was afraid of how much he tried to keep Aithusa hidden. He knew already.

So why? Why had he wanted Emrys to hurt so bad?

He kept walking. Following the tug. Following the other part of his soul. Somewhere yonder.

When he found Merlin, Aithusa's heart dropped.

His body was encrusted inside the trunk of an old tree. The warlock seemed almost asleep; dried up tear streaks on his cheeks and bark creeping around his limbs little by little.

"No!" Aithusa shifted again, even though it hurt. It hurt so much. His body couldn't take the strain as beat up he was. He had wanted to please Merlin with his human body, as a sign of peace, 'See? Look? I don't want to fight! I didn't mean it! I believe as you do!' But being human, there was no way he could ever do anything against the tree that was slowly encapsulating his kin. So he turned again and swallowed the pain.

With his mighty claws he scratched at the wood, tearing pieces of it, biting and gnarling, the tree crunching under his powerful jaw. He worked desperately at it until he got close enough to Merlin's body. Then, he took his time, careful not to harm his dragonlord's fragile skin. He tore and clawed at it, again and again, and again. After careful and tireless work, the tree finally released the warlock enough for the dragon to dislodge him. His body flopped on the ground like a stringless puppet. Aithusa went quickly to his side and wrapped himself around Merlin's body with care.

"I am sorry, I am sorry, I did not mean what I said. I am sorry, please, Emrys. I do not want you dead, I do not want you gone, I do not want to be hunted like an animal, I swear. I was just hurt and angry. I was just so angry."

Aithusa kept muttering apologies like a prayer until soft fingers reached up to his snowy snout.

"Sssh, sssh. It's okay, my sun. Sssh." He seemed weak and his words slurred, but Merlin was conscious.

"Oh, thank the goddess," Aithusa cried, almost dizzy with relief.

Never had he switched bodies so quickly so many times in a row, he had not known how painful it could be. But one more time, the dragon shifted until he was soft all around and scaleless. He felt need for his arms and fingers and small stature to hold Merlin as close as he could. To hold him securely against his chest.

This had happened before. A couple of times in fact. It was completely baffling but it was something that just happened from time to time. Once, he had almost lost Merlin to another ancient tree, it had almost been too late. It always happened when Emrys was in great distress and grief. And it always made Aithusa feel like he was dying inside.

It was like the triple goddess was trying to take back his son.

If there was one thing he could not bear in this world that treated them so cruelly, it was to lose his only kin. His moon. His father. His brother. His other half. So Aithusa held him close, and finally, as this body allowed, tears began streaming down his face.

~.~.~.~

They returned to their modest cottage in the woods after the high of their misfortunes had mellowed down. It was set close enough to a town from where they could get what supplies they lacked, but far enough away that they wouldn't be bothered or noticed by anyone walking by.

Aithusa sat on a chair on their porch under the dark sky. He was bundled up in a thick blanket an old woman descendant from druids had once gifted them. He was falling asleep already to no one's surprise, but with the added stress and damage of the last days he was left weary to the bone. He was so exhausted.

The door creaked to his left as it opened, and suddenly, he was not sleepy at all. He waited for Merlin to approach him with eyes wide and alert. The albino could feel the tension in the space between them like a string. He'd thought it would dissipate, this tension between them, but it had not, even after they'd cried together for hours on the forest floor, tangled against one another and sharing in their mutual grief.

He'd hoped so badly for it to go away. He just wanted Emrys and himself to be okay.

"Aithusa, we have to talk," Merlin said after a while with a tired sigh. He walked to the railing of the porch closer to Aithusa and leaned against it. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the space between them. "What happened at the village… it can never happen again." Emrys seemed to have a hard time looking at his dragon.

"I know, I am sorry." Aithusa rubbed at his face, frustrated with himself and so, so very tired.

"I know you are, but you were sorry for the other times too." Aithusa crossed his gray blue eyes with the other's blue, his face was stern, but above all, he seemed sad. Aithusa lowered his head in shame, white locks falling over his face.

"I… I cannot trust you with this Aithusa. Not again," Merlin said tentatively.

Aithusa jumped to a stand; the blanket falling to the floor. He winced in pain, but he ignored the aches of his body for sake of the conversation at hand.

"It won't happen again Emrys! I swear it." He grabbed onto Merlin's hands and pressed them to his chest. "I- Please do not leave me. I swear I will not let it happen again." He could not take it, the idea of being alone tore at his insides. Life after Morgana's death had been torture in of itself until Merlin had found him again. He would not be able to suffer it a second time though. The uncertainty. Wondering if one day when he came back to the house there would be no one there. The utter loneliness. The piercing grief of being left behind on this earth all by himself. Either by his companion's will or fate.

Once, Merlin had told him about how dragons were naturally solitary creatures. Aithusa didn't think they were ever meant to be this solitary though. He didn't mind being alone of course, but that kind of loneliness was different. If Merlin left him, it would be forever. There would be no one.

"What? Aithusa, no. That's not what I'm talking about." Merlin's face constricted in distress. He turned his hands so he was now holding his dragon's own, pale ones. "My little sun, I would never leave you behind. Not- not unless you wanted me to."

"I don't!" The albino said quickly. "I will never want you to go. I don't want you to die. Ever." He reiterated, needing for Emrys to know how much that was not his desire. Perhaps Merlin could never die, but he could be taken away; the years the warlock had spent trapped in the tree had taught them that.

Merlin grimaced for a moment, immortality always a sore spot to him. He huffed softly, a sad smile on his face as he brushed back Aithusa's long white hair.

"My little light, my little sun," he whispered melancholy.

"I am no hatchling anymore Emrys," Aithusa said quietly, the old, much used words, comforting.

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Merlin retorted like he always did. He took a step back from the dragon turned human and let go, his face was serious.

"I have an idea…" It sounded like it took some effort for Merlin to say the words.

"It does not sound like a good idea," the albino joked halfheartedly, though nervous at the serious demeanor of the other.

"Hm, perhaps, but it could solve our current problems at any rate." Cerulean blue eyes looked away for a moment.

"I have a feeling I am not going to like it." The warlock had no answer for that, but his silence was telling enough.

"Aithusa, we can no longer afford to be seen or found out like this, not… not anymore. I know you're tired of hearing this but…" Merlin's eyes revealed his desperation as he looked at the other. "Every day the world gets more dangerous for us. People are advancing at a, frankly, frightening pace, and unless I start killing everyone who would do us a wrong turn, I don't see another option."

Aithusa sighed quietly, bone weary and exhausted. He wondered, as he often did, if his prolonged existence was a product of spending most of his waking hours with Merlin; by this point in life Kilgahara had already been an old dragon. He did not feel it in his body, but goddess did he feel it in his soul

"Whatever it is you have in mind, I will do it," he submitted, closing his eyes and offering a short bow.

"You will not feel the same after you know." The warlock pushed, as if he hoped for the albino to fight him on it.

"I will do it, Emrys," Aithusa insisted. Willing for anything to make this better. For a moment Merlin was quiet, then he took a deep breath.

"If I… If I command you never to transform back into a dragon again… you will not be able to deny me," he said with careful deliverance.

A lightning of shock coursed through Aithusa at the dragonlord's words, but it lasted him little, it was quickly overwhelmed by the coming of tears.

"It would not matter if you were tempted to transform or driven by pity or care for someone else, it would just not be possible for you to disobey," Merlin said quietly, but this time he did not look away from Aithusa's anguished face. There was something like somber resolve to him.

The albino hid a sob behind the palm of his hand, but he did not fight against the idea.

"The same would go for say, speaking about magic with others who do not possess it, and about who we are." The warlock continued.

Aithusa had to sit down then, hiding his face behind his hands. Tentatively, Merlin approached him, not knowing if his proximity would be welcome. But once he was close enough to the albino, Aithusa pulled him into his arms in a desperate hug. The warlock breathed out shakily against the other's shoulder.

"I think you might hate me forever now, after this," he said, his voice wet as well. Merlin felt Aithusa tighten his hold of him, pressing his head against the other's.

"I would never," he assured with devotion.

"I think you would after this, if you say yes," Merlin said with depressing certainty. "You will hate me forever."

"I won't," Aithusa cried harder.

"Not now perhaps, but… eventually."

"Never," the dragon snarled, so full of conviction and love and grief.

And for a while they stayed like that, tangled together, souls touching. Then the dragon took a steadying breath and spoke.

"Do it," he said.

"Aith-"

"Do it," he ordered. "Do it now, Emrys. Do not ask me again, I do not want to hear it," he said, face pressed against the dragonlord's chest.

Merlin dislodged himself somewhat from the embrace, changing their positions so Aithusa's head was under his chin.

"I love you," the sorcerer said, voice wet. "It feels horrid to say right now, but I do."

"I love you too and nothing will ever change that. Just do it already, please," the albino muttered full of emotion. He felt a soft kiss being pressed to his temple and then the arms of Merlin untangled from his own. Aithusa made a soft sound of complaint but the warlock kept walking back until his back pressed against the wood railing.

"I am sorry, my little sun," Merlin choked out through the tears in his words. But when he spoke next his voice held the power of their kind. The power of the earth and the sky and the sea.

And nothing could stop the vessel of magic itself when he spoke as he did in that moment.

"O dràkon, nýn de keleúo se eks' anagkis. Keleúo se, Aithusa, min eis éggeni ópsin epanithi poté." Burning gold swallowed up the blue of Emrys' eyes. And he spoke calmly and softly, he did not need to shout his commands to be obeyed, and he would not, not now, not for this moment.

Aithusa felt the command resonate through him, his body locking up as it was like a key in a box. It was not only as if Merlin was speaking as a dragonlord, but as if a spell of deep power was also being cast. He gasped at the feeling, it was not painful, but it made him feel off kilter. Trapped.

"Keleúo se, Aithusa, min omologison poté tinés esmén ois ouk eks imón. Keleúo se, Aithusa mi lékson poté peri mageias ois oú gignóskousi, oú katéxousi."

And then Aithusa cried. He cried for himself. He cried for what he just lost and for what time had taken from them. He cried for Merlin, who had seldom been allowed to be his true self.

Aithusa cried and cried while his brother, his kin, his dragonlord commanded him. Cried until arms circled him again and his other half cried with him.

~.~.~.~

Now.

It had not taken them much to infiltrate Hydra's base. The place, as cared for as it appeared to be, seemed to be falling slowly into disrepair. Probably not enough manpower, not enough resources anymore. Just the leftovers of a grander era. And of course, they were the Avengers, this was just another Thursday for them.

The base went down. Down and down where no sun would ever reach. Tony always felt that places like these should look more… evil. Like the facility in Sokovia had. But more often than not, where the evil guys lay, was nothing more than a place where things took place; operations and plans and experiments. Nothing evil about that really, just the people who ran the places.

And just like finding the base had been no trouble at all, finding their damsel in distress was just as easy. Honestly, it was almost a little boring how little effort they had put into this so far. Together, the three Avengers reached the testing rooms.

When they opened the double doors Tony was startled at the sight of, who he assumed, was Ambrose. He had not expected this terribly powerful person (and piece of trash) to look, well… to look so young. The guy was strapped to a table with a lot of little wires going in under his skin. Iron Man could tell most were not the kind that kept track of vitals.

Ambrose looked sickly. Aithusa had told them he tended to look like that, but Tony didn't think he meant it to this extreme. His skin seemed translucently pale and glistening with sweat. His cheeks were sunken and he looked- well he looked really sick. The guy was gazing around deliriously, muttering to himself, and doing, what seemed to be, a halfhearted struggle against his restraints.

Clint acted before any of them, quickly walking to the young man's side and working carefully on the straps. His wrists were rubbed raw where the restraint met his flesh.

"Clint," Natasha hissed, "we don't know if he's stable, he could be dangerous in this state."

"Hey, hey man, we got you, don't worry," he said quietly, trying to soothe him when Ambrose whimpered at his touch. "It's okay, Aithusa sent us, you know Aithusa right?"

"Ah- Ah… Thusa?" He asked weekly.

"Yes, Thusa," Clint chucked at the nickname. "Hey, ssh, it's fine, man. It's okay. You're going to be okay," Clint tried to calm the other down when he began shaking and looking more distressed than before.

Natasha rolled her eyes at being ignored and kept a vigilant watch on the hallway outside the room and the viewing room adobe.

"Y-you have Ai-thusa-ah?" Ambrose's voice cracked.

"Well-" The archer could quickly see where the other's train of thought was going, but before he could try to do damage control a powerful, freed hand, grabbed onto his arm. A set of terrifying, luminous golden eyes were looking at him with vitriol.

"Where is he? What have you done with him?" His voice carried weight, like it was larger than the man who spoke it, like it was bigger.

Clint's heart skipped a beat, for a moment, gripped by the fear of this thing that was not wholly human. It was different hearing Aithusa say they were different than actually experiencing it. Ambrose's eyes bore into his, it was like staring at molten gold. Clint began feeling faint, almost like he could feel the heat of those eyes seeping through.

"What have you done with Aithusa?" That was not a human voice.

Ambrose grasped, his eyes flickering, and let go of the archer's arm as a wave of pain coursed through his body. He curled into himself now that he could, all but one of his limbs free. Clint snapped out of it and took a quick step back. He turned to Natasha, who had randomly clicked at one of the command boards that were hooked to the young man.

"Well that was rude," Clint breathed in shakily.

"I could say, 'I told you,' so and you could say, 'thank you Nat, for saving my sorry ass,'" she commented with an unimpressed frown.

"I would, but seeing as you've so kindly done it for me already." Clint grinned.

"Hey!" Tony's shout brought them back to the problem at hand. Ambrose had slid off the table and was hanging by the last strap on his left wrist, twisting it painfully.

"Careful," Iron Man said, the young man's face contorting painfully as the wires inside his skin pulled. With a small laser, Tony severed the last leather holding him in place.

Ambrose dropped like a puppet, some of the wires tearing away and others pulling at the machinery and his flesh painfully. He cried out and moaned.

"Ahm, guys, I need some help here," Iron Man said, hovering over the young man uncertainly.

Ambrose though gave them no time to decide for he began ripping the cables away despite how clear it was that the action was causing him a great deal of pain. Every time a new wire was moved or dislodged it seemed to trigger a reaction in him. His eyes would flash gold and a violent shake would wreck through his body.

"Hey! Stop it!" Tony shouted at Ambrose, distressed by the self inflicted pain, but unwilling to get closer to the guy.

"Stark, go keep watch," Natasha ordered simply and took her teammate's place beside Aithusa's brother. Iron Man did not complain as he moved to the entrance of the room. He did not feel in his element whatsoever and keeping an eye out sounded way more pleasant than this.

The spy crouched down at a healthy distance so she could have better eye contact with the young man.

"Ambrose," she said with gentle severity. But the guy flinched away from her as if he'd been struck.

"Hey. Hey, it's okay," Clint came closer again, almost disregarding what happened to him a moment ago in lieu of comforting who he so clearly viewed as a victim despite the information he knew about Ambrose. "We're not going to hurt you. And you're not getting hurt anymore, okay?"

A ripple of something ran down the man's exposed back.

"Fuck!" Clint jumped back up in surprise. Natasha inching back somewhat as well. "Did you see that?" The archer whisper-shouted to his companion. Tony peered from his place by the watch.

But Ambrose was still too trapped in agonized delirium to take note of their surprise. Instead of subjecting himself to new strangers, he tried getting away from them, barely strong enough to crawl but doing so anyway. Then the last wire tore from under his skin, leaving another trail of red behind, something unbelievable happened.

A heavy golden-like mist, or strange water-like substance, began oozing from Ambrose. It fell to the ground as he tried putting as much distance between them and where the gold and blue touched, or Ambrose's body passed, flowers and greenery began sprouting from the concrete ground.

"What the fuck," Clint drawled out in disbelief. A quiet 'shit,' was also heard from the door by an equally flabbergasted Tony.

The young man was leaving a trail of wild flowers, and even small insects and a blue butterfly began crawling from the growing nature.

Soft crying, as if it was trying to be held in, took their astonished eyes from the miracle happening before them to the sad sight in the corner of the room. Wedged between a cabinet and a wall Ambrose pressed himself. It was easy to see he was confused but mostly terrified.

Natasha stood up carefully and shared a look with her teammates. Clint took an unsteady breath in and slowly began approaching Ambrose again. The plants growing at an alarming rate brushed against his legs as he moved forward. Soon, it seemed this whole place would look like a little jungle or a forest.

"Hey," he said again, gently. And his heart broke as quiet pleading reached his ears.

"Please, please stop. Please no more," Ambrose begged waveringly. "Gestillan, besécan," He began muttering in a language none of them understood though it sounded akin to German.

Clint glanced up when he felt the large form of Tony's suit approach behind him. After a hesitant moment, he walked out of it and kneeled beside Clint, just like Natasha had before, at a prudent distance.

"Aithusa's fine," Stark said, in what seemed like a stroke of genuine empathy and understanding for the current situation. His voice was controlled though, conflicted by his emotions for the man on the floor. "He is fine and he is not hurt and he's nowhere near this place."

Hitching breaths began calming down as Ambrose uncurled slightly from his position, a pair of intense blue eyes peering from behind a dark curtain.

"He's… okay?" The young man asked, a small amount of clarity touching his eyes.

"Right as rain," Tony nodded, "you can speak with him if you like."

Ambrose's eyes brightened and his breathing quivered with hope.

Stark took out his phone and dialed. Beneath the soles of his shoes he could feel the slow growth of the plants. It was a strange and uncomfortable sensation and it made him paranoid, like the things were going to snap up and snatch him if he didn't move away quickly enough. But he stayed still, reassured by the pressure of Clin's arm beside his own and the knowledge that Natasha was somewhere behind them and she would have their backs. As someone picked up on the other end, Tony too could hear the singing of the crickets hidden somewhere in the green.

"Hello Pepper, can you do me a favor, but like, I need it right now, asap. Could you go find Aithusa and hold up your phone to him? Yeah," he nodded to no one. "Yeah, just don't let him touch your phone. Hold it up for him," he repeated.

There was a tense waiting between them until a hesitant voice came through the speaker.

"Hello?" It said.

"Thusa," Ambrose cried in relief.

"M-Ambrose," Aithusa answered, equally relieved.

"Are you okay?" The beaten up man asked, half dressed and bruised everywhere.

"Am I oh-?" Through the phone Aithusa could be heard fighting back a laugh and a cry at once. "Yeah, of course I'm okay. I am more than okay now."

"Good," Merlin croaked. "Good, I'm glad you're okay, fáos iliou."

"Listen, Ambrose. You have to let these people help you, alright?" Aithusa asked unsteadily. "I know you don't know them, and you have no reason to believe this, but they mean you no harm. They'll help. They'll bring you to me. You need to trust me with this," he pleaded.

"I trust you," Ambrose said quietly, barely holding himself up. He was quiet then, for a moment. He didn't seem fully there again. "Thusa?"

"Yes?" Asked the man through the phone, voice wet with tears.

"Are you okay?" Ambrose asked again, weakly. But before Aithusa could answer, the young man closed his eyes and lost sense of the world around him.

Chapter Text

Merlin opened his eyes to blurred vision. His skin buzzed like there was subtle electricity running over it. Running through the tender layers of fine muscle and cells over and over and over again. He felt almost… alien in his own body, like someone had tried to kick him out and now he didn’t fit quite right. 

As his sight began clearing, blue eyes took stock of the space around him. Medical machinery and white walls, the quiet sound of his vitals being tracked. A shudder wrecked Merlin’s body. It was a dream. He’d dreamt some damned heroes had rescued him. What a fantasy . His eyes blurred again as tears pricked at the edges of his eyes.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” A soft hand cradled his cheek and he flinched away. “My lord, it’s me,” came a whispered voice. Familiar.

“Aithusa? ” Merlin startled weakly, holding onto the palm on his face with fear. If Aithusa was here, that meant–

“Be still, you’re safe now, I swear. You’re safe, you’re safe,” the albino told him pleadingly. “Look around, take a moment. You’re not trapped anymore.”

And so Merlin did. He waited for the mad beating of his heart to slow down and looked at the room again. Aithusa was right, it was different. But not only that, this room was not rudimentary useful, this one had comfort in mind behind the cold sterility of medical facilities. The surface touching his back was not cold metal but soft bedding. The sheets were fresh and smelled clean with a fake flowery note to them. But more importantly and above all, Merlin could feel Aithusa beside him, content and alive and unhurt. He could feel his dragon as only Merlin could feel others of his kind, dragonkind . And he hadn't been able to do that before, his senses had been skewed by unknown drugs and substances. By an addled brain too turned upside down from electric shocks and perseverant testing.

The sorcerer shuddered out a half-relieved breath and gathered his senses as close to himself as he could. They were all over the place like errant children, uncontrolled; sensing things Merlin didn’t want to and escaping his grip. He was on the roof and in the levels below and through the walls. He did his best to reign them in so he could concentrate on what was in the room. Who was in the room.

“Aithusa,” he breathed out, finally, really looking at his dragon. His pink, pale face was lovely to behold, so light it almost blended with the white of his hair and eyebrows. It was marked by lines of worry and fatigue, his little sun, how worried he must've been. "My sun," Merlin muttered weakly.

"Emrys," Aithisa mouthed with a smile.

The sorcerer tried to shift but halted with a pained whimper.

"Don't move," the albino shushed him. "You are very hurt." His voice wavered with a different kind of hurt than his dragonlord's.

Merlin shuddered as if the very words triggered something in his body, it made him gasp. Sharp, white stabs of pain pulsed within him. He breathed harshly, trying to appease his agonizing everything . Still, a tear rolled down his cheek.

"It's going to be okay," Aithusa shushed him gently, leaning into Merlin as if going for a hug but only pressing their foreheads together. "It's going to be fine."

They interlaced their fingers, holding on tightly and desperately.

"I'm... not so sure about that," Merlin said with effort. "But I am okay now," he said, words heavy with meaning as he looked at Aithusa.

The albino breathed out, equally shaky. He nodded in understanding.

"Ambrose…" he prompted but stopped as soon as the sorcerer's eyes were on him. Aithusa shook his head. "I'm just glad you're okay."

Merlin smiled with effort, trying for something reassuring.

Aithusa cleared his throat and straightened.

"Are you in a lot of pain?" The albino asked, laying a careful hand on Merlin's arm.

"Yeah, a bit," he rasped, "but that's okay." His eyes crossed with Aithusa, seemingly knowing what the actual question was.

The dragon needed no more prompting than that. He took off his boots and carefully climbed up the hospital bed, nestling beside Merlin and having great care not to justle anything nor give his brother any extra pain.

Aithusa kept his limbs to himself, even though he desperately wanted to wrap himself all around Merlin. His size was perfect for the occasion, but the occasion was not perfect at all. Still, both men settled, the albino gently resting his head atop raven curls; Merlin's face pressed against the other's neck. He breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Where are we?” the raven haired asked in a sigh. His body was begging him to go back under and never wake up again. At least not for a couple of decades. 

“New York,” Aithusa answered quietly,  playing with Merlin’s hair as he did. “We’re at the base of those American heroes.”

Merlin looked up at the other, his body tensing up slightly in alertness.

“It’s okay, do not worry,” the dragoon soothed, pushing his forehead against the other. “They helped me save you.”

The sorcerer nodded, settling down again, and sighed. 

“I feel like I'm missing a lot,” he muttered.

“You are,” Aithusa laughed lightly. “But there’s nothing you have to worry about at this moment. Your only concern should be getting better. Yeah?”

Merlin hummed, passively agreeing. “But are you okay?” he asked.

When Aithusa shifted his incredulous eyes at his dragonlord, the man was already back asleep. The albino sighed.

“I am now,” he said quietly and kissed the crown of his brother’s head.

He knew he'd have to explain everything later, which he was not looking forward to at all, but it would happen eventually. For now, though, this was enough, just having his soul brother in his arms, sleeping safe and secure, was more than enough.

~.~.~.~

The Avengers didn’t quite know what to make of Ambrose. From the words Aithusa was allowed to tell them, he’d not endeared his ‘brother’ to them at all. Even though the albino could swear up and down on the purity of Ambrose's soul, well… actions spoke louder than words.

For his part Aithusa could barely stand to be parted from the man’s side, and even more now. That evening, three days after they had managed to rescue Ambrose from Hydra’s clutches, he’d finally woken up.

“How do you think he could do it?” Tony asked out loud. 

Natasha and Clint,- who had stayed at the tower to see how things would develop, or to interfere if something were to happen,- lifted up their eyes to Tony. They had all been somewhat pensive since they had rescued Ambrose.

“You know, that whole, power of an atomic bomb thing, from a guy that, what? Can grow plants and vomit light?” He tossed the ball he'd been fiddling with at Clint who caught it smoothly.

“I’m not sure,” Natasha muttered. “Maybe it’s more than meets the eye. We’ve hardly seen him awake after all.

“Plants?” Clint said after a while. “Try life . That wasn’t just plants he was making grow Tony, there were insects there. Breathing, moving things.” He quieted for a moment. “That’s a lot of power if you ask me.”

“Yeah, but it’s not exactly screaming, apocalyptic aftermath now, is it?” The engineer rolled his eyes as Clint threw the ball back at him.

“Well Bruce doesn’t precisely scream giant green man who’ll bring down a building now, does he?” The archer said mockingly. 

Tony hummed and turned to look at Natasha, who was sitting close to Clint, not looking at the as she thought.

“What about you? You’re been quiet on this,” Tony prompted her, passing her the toy.

“Well.” Natasha looked down at the ball as she pondered. “I think we’ve not seen all that we need to.”

“Cryptic much,” Tony cracked.

“Hm. Doesn’t mean it’s not true,” she said and left it at that.

~.~.~.~

In the early hours of the morning, Merlin seized.

Startled from his dreaming vigil, Aithusa fell from the bed with a ruckus. When he scrambled up the dragonlord had his back arched as his skin was violently rippling. It was as if his body couldn't decide what it wanted to be. There was a silent scream stuck in Merlin's throat; the heart monitors shrieked with the dangerous speed of his beating heart.

Horrified, Aithusa could do nothing more than look. His eyes shifted around the room when an electric hum rose around them as several devices overcharged.

Then, several machines popped with a flare of light just as Merlin collapsed right back down. His body flopping like a puppet cut off its strings.

"Ambrose !" Pulled from his stupor, Aithusa sprinted up to the dragonlord's side but hesitated to lay hands on him.

“What's going on?” Tony came rushing into the medical room, an arm up and at the ready with his suit’s repulsor powered on. He was half dressed and half awake. Natasha followed close behind, alert but with her gun pointed to the ground.

“Jarvis was going crazy with-” 

But Aithusa had no mind to pay any attention to whatever the engineer was saying. He could vaguely tell that Natasha was shushing him, but his mind belonged only to one.

The albino’s gray blue eyes were trained on Merlin, on his scrunched-up brow and pained features. Aithusa’s heart broke then as he heard Merlin's quiet sobbing, face smushed against the pillow. Aithusa’s breath shuddered.

"It's-" The albino swallowed hard. "It's going to be fine. It's going to be fine," he said, making his words as soft and comforting as he could. 

He placed a gentle hand on the sorcerer's shoulder and Merlin's skin rippled outwards in a wave of scales which disappeared once the wave had passed. Merlin gasped, his eyes tightly closed as a small cry escaped his lips. Aithusa yanked his hand back and held it mortified against his chest.

The dragon knelt on the floor when new tears pooled in Merlin's eyes. The sorcerer held himself tightly and Aithusa knew, by the long years they had shared and the soul-linking bond that connected them, that Merlin was in agony.

“Aithusa, what’s happening? What can we do to help?” Natasha’s quiet voice appeared beside him, startling the blond. 

He turned back to his lord, who was so lost in his pain he probably didn’t know there were others in the room. Aithusa saw his skin ripple again and Merlin be wrecked with a violent shudder.

“I don’t know,” Aithusa croaked. “I- I don’t know what to do.” His pale eyes filled with tears and his voice seemed frail now when he spoke, “I’ve never seen this before.”

A warm hand landed on his shoulder. Natasha.

“Should I call the medic back up again?” Tony asked, having walked to his side, way more awake than he’d been a couple of moments ago.

It was then that Aithusa noticed Clint waiting patiently by the door.

“I don’t know if it’ll be any help,” the albino muttered.

Carefully,  he moved his white hand towards Merlin’s flushed skin. He could feel magic coming off of it, spilling outwards like a leaking faucet. But the magic felt wrong , like something diseased or poisonous was mingled within, nothing like how Aithusa normally perceived it. 

Aithusa’s face scrunched up as a wave of unease ran up his stomach. He threw himself to his side and barfed up the last meal he’d eaten.

“Shit!” He heard Tony cry, vomit flying quite close to his shoeless feet.

“Aithusa?” Natasha asked with an edge of concern. 

“There’s-” He threw up again a little bit, his long hair dangling over the mess on the floor. The spy gathered up his hair, keeping it away from the vomit as she braided it loosely.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, swallowing with effort.

“There’s nothing you can do to help,” Aithusa said with certainty. 

He felt Natasha and Tony share a look over him.

“Here,” Clint crouched beside him and offered a glass of water. The albino nodded in thanks.

“We should still call the medic, just in case they can do something about it,” Tony piped in, looking rather disconcertedly at the ill man. Merlin looked normal, just like any other person would, but the sight of his rippling skin and the flash of gold from beneath his closed lids was off-putting.

Aithusa stood up on shaky legs, leaning beside the medical bed, and looked with tender pain at the raven haired man.

“Believe me, it won't be of help.” He lifted a hand but did not touch Merlin, he let it hover over the other’s exposed flesh, the wrongness of it invading Aithusa's senses. He turned to them and said quietly, “I can tell.”

“Is there anything at all we can do to make him more comfortable?” Natasha pressed

Aithusa shook his white head of hair, shiny in the low light.

“Leave me with him. We need to be alone,” he studied Merlin for a moment, eyes pensive.

The Avengers shared one last meaningful look between them.

“If you need us we’ll be close,” Natasha said, squeezing his shoulder comfortingly.

~.~.~.~

“I feel like a castle wall fell on me,” was the first thing Merlin muttered when he woke up.

Aithusa chuckled halfheartedly.

“What happened?” the sorcerer asked weakly, opening his eyes to find Aithusa’s pale face close to his.

“M’not sure. Your gift was… doing something to your body.”

Merlin hummed, as if things were clearer to him now.

“Yeah, I think they triggered something when they were experimenting.”

He said it so lightly but the words made Aithusa's stomach churn. There had been a thought in his mind, a somewhat unpleasant one, he did not have any hopes for it. But after last night he was not willing to keep his words to himself anymore.

“Ambrose…” Aithusa bit the inside of his lip slightly, bracing himself and still pondering, but he let the thought go with an exhale. “I think I can help you.”

Merlin shifted slightly, turning his body as best as he could towards Aithusa, who sat on the chair by the bed.

“What do you mean?” Merlin asked.

“I think I can help, with what’s happening with your gift. I dunno… realign it. I was sensing it last night, it…” ‘ It feels wrong, ’ he didn’t say, ‘ it makes my skin crawl. It makes me feel disgusted. ’ But he said none of these things, instead he raised his hand to brush Merlin’s wavy hair softly. “It does not feel normal.”

Merlin nodded understandingly. “I suspected… How bad is it?” He asked quite calmly.

“It’s… it’s not good,” Aithusa said, not willing to express how truly terrible he actually thought it was.

Merlin sighed, a little less composed than he had been, but he still seemed unsurprised.

“Alright. We can try out whatever you want once we get out of here,” Merlin conceded as he closed his eyes. He already looked exhausted from the short amount of time he’d been up.

Aithusa straightened, his dragon lord’s words raising him into a state of alert. Already that statement provided two very present problems. None of which were going to help Aithusa with the following conversation.

“Ambrose, I don't think you’re well enough to move. I… I think it could get really bad if we did.”

Merlin frowned at his dragon, puzzling.

“Merlin,” he mouthed, the words trapped in his throat from the commands for the knowledge of cameras and recording devices he knew were probably around. But the sorcerer was looking right at him. “You need help now. ”

Merlin looked thoughtful now, but Aithusa could not give him time to think of a solution before he raised the other problem.

“And I don’t think I can help in this form,” Aithusa finally said, serene once the words left him. 

Merlin’s blue eyes sharpened onto him.

“I know what you’re going to say, I know what you feel, but… you can’t deny me this.”

Already Merlin was shaking his head.

“Listen to me.” Without meaning to his fingers tightened around his dragonlord’s hair, getting a wince out of Merlin. Aithusa muttered a heartfelt apology before continuing. “You need this Merlin. You need help and you need it now and I cannot do it like this,” he gestured at himself sharply.

“No, Aithusa, we can’t do that, we’ll figure something else out.”

“What? What could we possibly figure out? To find some random helpful artifact? A unicorn? A kind soul out there who just so happens to be able to contend with your gifts?” It hurt to say, but it was true. “I think any king could rise from a lake before that happened on time.”

Merlin winced at the comment, knowing perfectly well what his dragon meant. The albino pressed his lips but didn’t take it back.

“No,” Merlin shook his head, eyes resolute.

“ Ambrose please , let me help you,” he begged. “I don’t… I think you’re going to get worse if we don’t do anything soon. What’s happening to you, it’s… it’s not natural. ”

“Aithusa I’m not willing to put us at risk just so you can maybe help with what’s going on with me.”

“I can, I know I can.”

“Even if you're right, it won’t change my decision.”

“Please, please Ambrose,” AIthusa stressed, finding his lord's hands and squeezing hard. “Please let me heal you. Please, please, I’m begging you,” Aithusa’s voice was wet with sudden tears as he brought up Merlin's hand to the side of his face. 

A thought crept into his mind then, dreadful and awful tasting. But Merlin's face had gone soft, ready to comfort his dragon and the albino could not let him go on knowing what the next words out of his mouth would be.

“We could do it here,” he ventured, “out from the sight of anyone else.”

“Here?” Merlin laughed lightly, genuinely surprised by the suggestion. “What are you even saying?” he asked with good humor.

“This could be a good place for me to heal you.”

Merlin frowned, confused. “That’s not even funny. What, you want these heroes to come barreling in when their machines start going crazy? You want to be a dragon inside a skyscraper?” He asked with incredulity, voice painted with irony.

Aithusa swallowed.

“Aithusa, there’s literally no place you can turn to a dragon without-”

“They already know,” Aithusa cut him off. “They already know we’re different.” 

They looked at each other in the sudden silence of the room. Merlin tugged his hand away from Aithusa’s grip.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, not yet fully realizing the meaning of Aithusa’s words.

“I- I was desperate. I needed to find you. I couldn’t leave you alone while I knew you-”

“Aithusa, what did you do?” Merlin whispered with hash desperation.

“N-nothing much!” he tried going for his dragonlord’s hand again but Merlin didn’t let him. Instead, the sorcerer forced himself into a sitting position. The movement dragged a slight pained grunt from him.

“No,” Merlin said with rising anger, trapping him beneath his flaming gaze. “You said they already know.”

“Yes, but-”

“ What did you do? ” his brother said pointedly and cold .

Aithusa wet his lips. “I needed to save you.”

“Tell me.”

“Ambr-”

“ Tell me now, ” he hissed. 

“They know we have magic,” Aithusa confessed. 

Merlin sucked in a breath.

“That’s it,” the dragon lied.

“I can’t believe you,” Merlin said dumbfounded. “After everything- Why would you do something like that? ” The sorcerer’s voice broke with quiet anger.

“Why-” The albino looked at him with incredulity. Then, long dormant anger rose within him as well. “Why would I do something like that?” His voice broke with ire. “Are you serious? Are you for real now, Ambrose? Are you really asking that of me?” He lost his breath for a moment. And then he hissed, more dragon than he had been in a long while. “ How dare you ask such a thing? You above all know why. Especially after what you’ve commanded me!”

Guilt came into Merlin’s eyes, washing away the anger but Aithusa did not stop.

“You know better than anyone what it is to harbor this fear. What did you want me to do!?” His voice wavered with renewed tears. “ Just leave you? ”

“Yes! That’s exactly what I wanted,” Merlin shouted.

“How stupid are you? How self-absorbed do you have to be? You do this out of- out of fear of losing me. Do you not think I would do exactly the same for the exact same reasons?”

Merlin opened his mouth but Aithusa did not let him speak.

“I would do that. I would do that and so much more. I would do anything to keep you safe.” Aithusa sobbed and looked down for a moment. “If you die… it’s just me. Me alone. Forever . And I can’t lose you. I can’t, it would break me. If you die, I’ll die for sure.”

“Don’t say that,” Merlin’s eyes burned as they bore into him. “Never say that again.”

“Then let me heal you,” he raised his glassy eyes. “Ambrose-”

“I’m not letting you heal me,” Merlin crooked.

“Why does it matter anyway?” Aithusa half whined “They know we’re different. Just- just let me do this. We can trust them Ambrose, I know it. ”

“I can’t-” Merlin shook his head. “Them knowing something is different still leaves ample room for other things. All of them are different. But not like us.” In his eyes was a warning. ‘ Not like you, ’ they said. ‘ Not able to forge Indestructible swords, deft deadly poison, or heal almost any ailment.’

“My lord,” Aithusa wailed softly. He bowed his head on the bed, tears spilling boundless. “My lord please.”

Weak arms gathered around his shoulders and pulled him up. Aithusa went willingly, helping along with his weight until his face rested over his lord's chest.

“Please, please I’m begging you.  Let me heal you.”

“I’m sorry my sun. I’ll not allow it.”

And with that last statement Merlin buried his head in his dragon's white locks.

~.~.~.~

When Tony had first seen Ambrose in the flesh he had felt a rush of empathy for him. He looked quite young. He was thin as a rail and seemed not much stronger. It also didn’t help that he was tied to a bed and delirious with pain. 

Tony had felt sorry and his heart fill with pity as Ambrose crawled across the floor of the experimentation lab, scared and desperate to get away. A heavy-looking half-stone, half-mechanical collar encircling his neck like a common dog. A helpless creature that couldn’t recognize anymore when it was being helped.

He didn’t feel like that anymore.

Tony could observe through live footage what was happening in the small but well-equipped medical room they had in the upper levels of the Avengers Tower. That is, so long as Aithusa wasn’t in the same room as Ambrose. Which was 95% of the time. And that was estimating toward the lower numbers.

So he stood outside the somewhat frosted glass walls of the medical room. The pattern design made it possible to look inside through a couple of clear looking lines in the glass.

Tony could see Aithusa begging to the man. What about? He didn’t know. Whatever it was, it made his blood boil with a vengeance. It was clear that, whatever was going on, Ambrose was denying something to Aithusa. And poor Aithusa he… he was literally crying to the son of a bitch, begging on his chest like he was some sort of king. 

When they had rescued Ambrose, Natasha had ever so smartly suggested not taking the collar off the man, to which both Tony and Clint had argued about.

‘He may be hurt now but if he’s as dangerous as Aithusa said it wouldn’t be smart,’ she’d said, and she was right, of course she was. But the men had been tempted to keep on arguing the point, taken by their emotions as they were. But as soon as Aithusa had seen Ambrose his eyes had filled with tears instead of relief. He’d tried to rip the collar with his bare hands but couldn’t no matter how much he pulled and scratched.

‘We’ll take it off. It’s okay Aithusa, you can’t do it on your own.’ It was Natasha who had finally spoken, driven to pity just as them.

‘I can, I can,’ Aithusa had cried with desolate certainty until they had finally managed to take the chunky thing off.

And now Aithusa cried again while Ambrose acted just as hurt as the other and buried his face into the albino’s white locks.

Tony couldn’t bear it anymore. He turned away.

~.~.~.~ 

They wore each other out until Merlin fell asleep again. He looked miserable and wretched. Aithusa was torn between worry and anger. But the worry ate up at the anger whenever it rose. And rise it did. Over and over like an all consuming wave.  

The medical bed was barely big enough for the both of them but Aithusa didn’t care as he forced himself into the space and made some for himself. He was extremely careful at all times about how he moved his body around Merlin’s. Every move he made was smooth and graceful until he was curled as best as he could around his dragonlord’s limp frame.

He wanted to be a cat, so he could wrap himself beneath Merlin’s neck or rest over his chest. He wanted his body, the one he was born with, big and strong so he could protect his dragon lord and never again let anything happen to Merlin. 

He felt useless and pathetic. The memory of being small and unable to move sparked inside his mind like a flare, robbing him of breath. He mushed his face against Merlin’s neck, seeking comfort from the dark moment. 

He could do nothing. Right then there was nothing he could do, nothing but warm Merlin’s body and imagine himself capable of protecting him if push came to shove.

Bodies flushed together as they were, Aithusa could feel more than ever how wrong Merlin was. Now that he had captured the feeling, he could tell it was draining him. A fountain spilling water outwards on and on but not getting any of it back.

And the water, Aithusa could tell, was poisoned.

~.~.~.~

The rain tickled out the window in a constant pitter-patter while the heart monitor ticked by, marking the passage of time as both dragon and sorcerer rested in the small bed. They did not sleep though, but coexisted in the silence and the air between them as they had done for centuries.

Tony had offered to get them a bigger bed, if rather uncomfortably. Aithusa was sure the man imagined something unsavory was going on between them, but it couldn’t be helped. Kindly, the albino had refused, quickly letting the avenger out of his misery. The small space was fine. They were used to it. It was not the first time they’d had to share such a small sleeping space, and it wouldn’t be the last. And anyway, even if there was space, they would probably end up as they were, in times like these space between them was the last thing either of them wanted.

Aithusa sat up, arranging himself so he was sitting crisscrossed on the bed, facing his dragonlord.

“Ambrose,” he said quietly, seriously. 

The dragon lord's eyes were sharp on him, but soft with affection. A subtle look in his eyes that prompted the dragon to go on.

“Ambrose you're ill,” Aithusa said seriously. “You're not… you're not well . I can feel it. You must feel it too.”

Merlin pressed his lips together at the coming topic. They’d been fighting about this for a couple of days now, he should’ve expected it would come up again throughout the day.

Merlin sighed tiredly, “I know Aithusa. I can feel it. But it changes nothing.”

“It does! It does change things.” The dragon took the sorcerer’s hand and looked at him pleadingly. “I don't want you to be in pain. You don't have to suffer needlessly!”

“It doesn't matter,” Merlin insisted, giving a gentle squeeze to the white hand.

“It does you infuriating bastard. It does when what you’re going through is agonizing .” 

For a moment that stopped the discussion. They looked at each other, knowingly. There was so much more to their bond than just a closeness to them. It was a deep feeling of connection, of being more than your own self.

“I’m sorry Aithusa. I can’t let you do that,” Merlin said hoarsely. Before the albino could retort though, he went on. “It doesn’t matter how much you trust these people, Aithusa. Or how good they’ve been to us so far. The hearts of men fall so easily. How are you to know they won't come into temptation once they know more about what you can do?”

It was their age-old argument and Aithusa had it very present in his mind. The things they could do were beyond belief and the human mind opened once they actually knew. The dragon wasn’t naive, he had experienced it time and time again, either fear or greed. Perfect health. Terrible destruction. And that was just Aithusa, what Merlin could do? What Merlin could do could destroy kingdoms in a night.

Aithusa swallowed. The Avengers already knew that. And despite the fact they hadn’t acted yet on that knowledge, he didn’t trust that fact alone to reveal it to his dragonlord. If Merlin was angry now, he would be beyond furious if he knew what Aithusa had to reveal to get the hero's help.

“Fine then! Let’s just go! Let’s go far away under a deep dark cave. I’ll find some way to get you there safely. Let me change for five minutes, I’ll heal you as fast as I can and everything can go back to normal.”

Merlin shook his head, not even bothering to reply then.

“Why do you have to be so stubborn in this?” the dragon asked pained.

Aithusa was sure, as sure as he knew the sun rose every morning, that if it were his life in the line and changing into his true form was the only way of saving him, Merlin would not hesitate a second before turning him draconic.

“If it matters that much to you we can leave. I could just finish the job those bloody bastards started,” Merlin said with quiet softness.

Aithusa did not know if he had a soul like the humans talked about, but in that moment, he swore something of the like left his body. 

“What are you talking about?” He asked breathlessly, sure he had misunderstood.

“I’ll just reset, and it’ll be a blank sleight. It’s downright easy to be in good health again. It doesn’t have to be a big deal.”

“Don’t say that,” Aithusa struggled to swallow. 

“I’m- You’re right,” Merlin conceded seriously. “I’m not well at all. And at this rate… I think it’ll be to die now or die later.” He looked seriously into his dragon’s eyes. 

“You can get better, ” Aithusa growled, grabbing painfully at Merlin's arm, digging in his nails into the soft flesh.

“It’s not going to make a difference, Thusa,” Merlin said in his soft voice, the one he used when he wanted to comfort the albino.

Aithusa shook his head vehemently, wordless but so full of feeling he could not express.

“It’d be easier.” Merlin looked away. “I can just die and it doesn’t have to be a big deal. What would be the difference anyhow?”

Aithusa's breath left him. His eyes filled with tears.

"You don't mean that," he said hoarsely. "You- you don't mean that."

Merlin did not turn to him, instead, his eyes, cold and void of any discernible emotion, kept away from the albino.

"Ambrose?" Aithusa's voice cracked.

But Merlin said nothing.

"Take it back. Please take your words back, please."

Merlin's eyes shifted back towards the wretched face of his dragon. 

"Take it back. Take it back right now! Why would you say something so horrid? As if you didn’t care for your own life. As if you don't know what you mean to me."

"Does it make any difference if it happens sooner than later, my sun?"

"Yes! It makes all the difference in the world to me to see you die again one more time when I can stop it."

"It's not permanent."

A sob escaped Aithusa.

"Don’t say that,” the albino whispered. “Your life is not a- a set of trading cards you can just exchange on a whim . When I see you die… when I feel you vanish from your mortal form, even when it's just for a moment… I feel the world die with you. My heart breaks. And when it’s weeks and still you don't return? It always feels like it'll be the last time."

"It won't."

"I hurt when you die, Merlin. My heart shatters. I care too much about you. And you should care about yourself as well. I know how it hurts you when it happens. Why would you let it willingly happen? Why would you want to break your heart and my heart along with you?"

Aithusa was torn between anger and hurt and desperation. Lifting his nails off Merlin’s skin only to sink them back down again in indecision.

“Don’t you care for your life?” he asked hoarsely. 

Something tawed in Merlin’s eyes, allowing shame to trickle softly back in.

"I'm sorry Aithusa," he looked down ashamed.

"Don't be sorry. Just take it back."

Merlin looked up, eyes sorry and sad.

"It won't change my decision," he said.

"I know," Aithusa sobbed, "just take it back. Tell me you don't mean it. Tell me you don't want to die."

"I'm sorry Aithusa." Merlin hugged the man against his chest. "I'm sorry for what I said. I take it back."

Aithusa crushed his dragonlord despairingly, because he knew, he knew Merlin had chosen not to use the words 'I don't want to die,' because given the chance Merlin would choose to do so in a heartbeat.

Still, for now, it would have to be enough for him that his kin had taken back his words. He would push the subject no further for now.