"Damn."
Tony just smiles and nods at Natasha's succinct response to what she's witnessing. Then, he waves his hand and the video disappears.
"I want you to take this dose today Nat, I really do. But those caveats from before… we should probably go over them first. For starters, you'll be healed today. Stronger than ever before. Capable of regenerating from life-threatening wounds… and most importantly, you'll be capable of becoming a mother. However, I have to ask you to put off actually going out and getting pregnant just yet."
Natasha glances at Tony sharply. The way he said that … 'going out'… did he really not know already? Still, she keeps her mouth shut about that and focuses on the other part.
"Why?"
Here, Tony smiles crookedly.
"That leads into the other caveat. You're going to have to die, Natasha."
She twitches at his choice of words, but understands immediately all the same. She's not an idiot after all.
"I see."
Raising an eyebrow, Tony turns to face her entirely.
"Do you, Natasha? Please spell it out for me. I want to make sure we're on the same page." Huffing, Natasha crosses her arms over her chest.
"You want me to fake my own death because SHIELD would never accept me suddenly being pregnant. They might not even let me carry the child to term, or they might let me give birth only to use her against me. Especially since… SHIELD is HYDRA."
Tony inclines his head in silent agreement. It wasn't like Natasha hadn't thought about it before of course. Her nostrils flare though in frustration, especially when she looks at the injector.
"… How long?"
Humming, Tony considers the question for a long moment.
"Sooner rather than later, I should think. We just need to wait for the right opportunity to come along. Having you die in a cushy position like this wouldn't make much sense. It'd draw too much attention. But Thor's visit and Loki's attack… I doubt those were one offs. They felt like a prelude to something greater, like Earth is just getting started with the overt alien visits."
Crooked smile returning, Tony nods to Natasha.
"Those are the caveats. You take the ES3 now but wait to get pregnant. And you let me arrange your death so we can set you up with a new identity that SHIELD and HYDRA can't find you under."
As far as caveats went, they weren 't anything too bad. Besides, given who Natasha had already deemed the most acceptable 'sperm donor', she basically had to wait in this case. He wouldn't say yes until she and her potential child or children were safe, after all. Nodding, Natasha picks up the injector and pulls down the zipper of her catsuit, exposing ample amounts of her upper chest. Though, she does pause for a moment and look at Tony.
"HYDRA is still out there. In fact, they're stronger than ever. I'm not… are you sure you don't need me to help deal with them in the long term?"
Tony laughs.
"How selfless of you, Nat. As for dealing with HYDRA…"
Without him even moving a muscle, another holographic display shows up next to them. Natasha looks over at it and her eyes widen the more she takes it in. It's Tony's plans for HYDRA in exacting detail and she finds her breath hitching at both the beauty of it… and the sheer depths he's going.
"This is…" "Yep."
Looking into Tony's eyes, Natasha sees a man of conviction. She sees a man who will stop at nothing to get things done. And while she's met many men like that in the past, both good and bad… Tony is the first who she knows for a fact won't be stopped. Not by anyone.
Bringing the injector to her chest, Natasha presses the release button, maintaining eye contact with Tony all while the ES3 fills her veins. She feels it going to work, feels herself growing hotter and hotter to the point that she begins to pant. Tony catches her as she almost collapses, holding her as she shakes and spasms. Deep inside of her loins, Natasha feels it… her body regenerating. Old scars being erased. The Red Room's most heinous crime… reversed.
Emotion wells up inside of her. Natasha couldn't remember the last time she'd cried without it being on purpose for a mission. Not since she was a child, she thinks. But the tears fall all the same, with Tony holding her to him and rubbing soothing circles into her back.
"Welcome back to the land of the living Natasha. The Red Room did everything they could to turn you into a ghost that would only ever do their bidding. No more. Never again."
Never again. The old Natasha might have taken the Extremis Super Soldier Serum and ran. After all, she had everything she wanted from Tony, ostensibly. But… no. She was in it for the long haul now. Tony Stark would have her loyalty until the day she died.
-x-X-x-
"Closing in on the target, Sir."
"Excellent J. Nobody in the area yet?"
"No Sir. We are secluded and the satellites in the region have been spoofed. Nobody is going to detect what happens here."
Hovering above the water near the frozen shores of Greenland, Tony stares down into what would, to anyone else, be fathomless depths. However, Tony Stark was now a Technopath … and that meant he saw what JARVIS saw through the sensors in the Vibranium-Nanotech Armor he now wore.
There, down below, the remains of the Valkyrie have finally been located. A month from now, a Russian Oil Team would have found the plane and ultimately SHIELD would have been alerted, with agents arriving to find Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, frozen in the ice. Not this time however. This time the oil team was still weeks away. This time, as soon as JARVIS was able to locate the Valkyrie based on Tony ' s foreknowledge, he'd come out here to get it first.
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