Chapter Text
~1~
POV Hazel Potter
1st-2nd of June
Thirty minutes was barely enough time for Hazel to get herself ready, Teddy dropped off at Andromeda’s place and the house locked up. She had to summon her work outfit, forgoing the socks in her dragonhide boots, dust off her dragonhide cloak and swing her extended bag around her shoulder.
Teddy was a whole different story. He had already gotten tired from playing at the Malfoy Manor and instead of having a calm and relaxing afternoon, he now had to get back up again to go to his grandma. Hazel was internally happy that Teddy was an easy going child that loved his grandma to death but even Hazel could see that the little boy was exhausted. She had to follow Teddy through the floo to ask Andromeda if Teddy could spend the night with her.
With Teddy settled, she flooed back home, spelled the dirty dishes to clean themself and gave Kreacher clear instructions for the house before she flew out the door.
On the outskirts of London, in a dirty non-descript warehouse, stood Special Agent Brock Rumlow waiting for her. His arms were crossed over his bulletproof vest and his ever present scowl was firmly in place. He looked like an aggressive slab of granite.
“Thirty-two minutes, Potter” He growled his greeting.
“I had to find my phone” Hazel defended herself but she could see that Brock wasn’t interested in her excuse. He didn’t give time for other pleasantries before he dove in to explain their mission.
“The target is a decommissioned Soviet base on the outskirts of Tomsk. It was used for research primarily but we have had reason to believe that the research was on a more illegal base. Tier One retrieval is a crystalline device codenamed ‘The Chimaera Shard’. You’re here because the facility was manned by Soviet scientists and Magical researchers. We don’t know what traps the magicals have left behind” Rumlow informed her while they made their way towards the awaiting quinjet.
“So I’m your lock-picker” Hazel summarized flatly.
“Don’t oversell yourself” Rumlow grumbled as they made their way into the jet.
The flight toward Tomsk was long and tense, covering thousands of miles across Europe and Asia. Hazel tried to read an old Auror manual but got distracted every time by the oppressing presence of the Alpha steering the jet. She had tried small talk in the beginning of the flight but Rumlow shot it down every single time, saying he needed to focus on flying the plane. Hazel knew that he was lying because she had seen him activate the autopilot at the beginning of their flight.
When they finally dropped down into a snow dusted, isolated stretch of Siberian forest near Tomsk, the wind had picked up and was now a biting cruel thing. From the distance Hazel could see the most unassuming hangar that was surrounded by overgrown thick pine trees.
Rumlow didn’t wait long for her to exit the jet before he started explaining their plan. “I’m covering the approach, your job starts at the door. Use subtle magic, we don’t want to alert the locals.”
In all honesty, Hazel found that stupid advice. She had heard the sound of the quinjet during their flight and knew that there wasn’t a lot of magic that could be louder than the engine of the jet.
Reaching the door, Hazel went immediately to work. She discovered quickly that the door had been warded with subtle magic, meant to not be discovered until too late. To say that she was an expert in ward magic would be highly exaggerated. Hazel knew her way around the ward, yes, but to know exactly how subtle wards like these worked was not part of her knowledge.
It took Hazel a couple of near misses and almost exploding the door of its hinges before she finally found the weak spot in the ward network. Rumlow saw the door give a faint flicker before the wards fell.
“Stay behind me and don’t touch anything” Rumlow warned before he started moving inside.
“What exactly does ‘The Chimaera Shard’ do?” Hazel asked as she followed him inside. She had heard Rumlow’s warning about not touching anything, she hadn’t heard him say anything about being silent.
The inside of the hangar didn’t match the outside. Maze-like corridors greeted the two and Hazel would have been lost in seconds if not for Rumlow. The Alpha was keeping quiet, not answering Hazel’s question, his only focus was on the route that they were taking.
“Is it a piece of the tail? ‘Cause I know that the tail can be used in highly toxic potions?” Hazel refused to remain silent during their search through the base. She had been dragged into retrieving something magical for a muggle secret agency and she would like to know what they were going to use it for.
“No, it must be a piece of its mane. I know that the mane can be woven into clothes to grant the wearer extra protection against evil spirits” The two had walked into a large research room. “Legend has it that the hairs of the mane can also be used in a potion to ward of nightmares”
Rumlow had found an old Russian computer and had started the ancient machine back alive. He had been working hard on ignoring the questions from Hazel but she wasn’t giving up any time soon.
“I don’t think it's the heartstring. That can only be used as a wand core” Hazel continued to ask but Rumlow was still ignoring her. He had inserted an USB-stick and was now systematically downloading different files to it.
“Did you know that there have only been three people in history that had a wandcore made of Chimaera heartstring?” Hazel thought she had finally managed to get a reaction out of Rumlow when he turned towards her.
“Keep an eye on the download bar, I’m going into the room on the right. According to my data, that should be the room that holds the Chart” He instructed her before he turned around and fled away. This still didn’t stop Hazel from continuing to ask her questions.
“I hope it’s not the blood” She shouted after him. “The blood of the Chimaera can only be used for permanent mutation. Depending on what potion you mix it with, you can even change the mind of someone”
The download bar briefly showed the completion of the download before it disappeared and went back to normal. With a small bit of hesitation, Hazel removed the stick from the computer, hoping she hadn’t removed it too soon.
The lights turned off immediately after Hazel had removed the USB-stick. A loud rumbling was heard from the room Rumlow had disappeared into. Not a moment later did the Alpha run out.
CRACK
The ceiling above them started to crumble around them. Fear filled Hazel’s body as she turned her big eyes toward the man running towards her.
“Rumlow, what was that?” She asked as he approached her, not stopping his running as he grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him.
“It’s a failsafe, this building is about to self-destruct. They didn’t want anyone to get the chart and get out of the building alive” He shouted as he continued to drag her away from the main research room. They ran towards the old elevator shaft that they had previously ignored. Hazel understood immediately what Rumlow’s plan was.
“Bombarda! Wingardium Leviosa!” Hazel shouted as she blew open the old elevator door before she levitated the two down the shaft.
The moment their feet hit the ground on the cold and dusty shaft, the floor above them sealed itself shut with the entire structure falling down on it. The agonizing sound of metal bending filled the air for a moment before the deafening sound of silence followed.
Hazel’s knees gave out from the adrenaline combined with the high magical spell combination of Bombarda followed with the levitation of two grown adults. Taking a deep breath, Hazel coughed from the dust around her before she could look around.
“You okay?” Hazel’s voice was raspy from the adrenaline and dust around her. Wild eyes were still taking stock around her. She had to quickly cast a ‘Lumos’ spell in order to see but nothing surprising was shown.
“You got the files downloaded?” Rumlow asked instead of answering. Hazel grabbed the USB-stick and handed it over to him. He quickly secured it inside his jacket before he slumped against the wall, trying to catch his breath. He didn’t get long before Hazel turned to him with fire in her green eyes.
“Did SHIELD know?” The fire wasn’t only in her eyes but her voice as well.
“Yes, SHIELD knew that this would be a set up. They send one of their best agents with their only magical consultant to a trap, hoping that it will kill them both” Rumlow’s voice held a sarcastic tone. That’s when Hazel finally turned to really look at the Alpha. The man that normally oozed with typical Alpha confidence and self assuredness was still leaning against the wall, exhausted with his mask off.
Silence befell the two while Hazel tried to look for a way out. Ever since Hermione had forced her to confront her past, she had trouble with small dark spaces. Ron had told her that she would associate it with her past spend in a cupboard under the stairs. Hazel would feel like the little powerless child again.
“Do you think someone will come to finish the job?” Hazel asked, scared. Every sound she heard put her on higher alert. Rumlow took a moment to look at her, seeing the fear in her eyes and the panic in her movement.
“Come here” The Alpha instructed her. Hazel wanted to argue against him, she didn’t want to be treated like a muggle Omega who was expected to follow every command from an Alpha. Still, her fear won out.
“I’m not some obedient little Omega that you can order around” Hazel grumbled while she still sat down beside him. Rumlow didn’t comment on it and only made more room for her beside himself.
“Hold this” He instructed her as he handed her a small device that he had grabbed out of his tactical vest.
“What is it?” Hazel asked, turning the device around but she couldn’t find any clues that would give away the purpose of the device.
“I know you probably have a spell for this but that device shows heat signatures. SHIELD has these special Thermal Imagers that can see heat through concrete walls. It can only show you the people from ten feet away but it’s better than none” Rumlow explained. Hazel immediately cradled the device closer to her chest while looking at the screen.
“Thank you” Hazel says with sincerity. They did indeed have similar spells for that but the fact that Rumlow gave her his device because he could see her struggling, meant the world to her.
With the device in her hands for comfort, Hazel finally managed to get her head back into escaping their entrapment. “How are we going to get out of here?”
“I send a distress signal back to base. They should be gathering an extraction team as we speak. Now, try to get some sleep before you start asking more questions that I will have to ignore” Rumlow instructed her. He turned his face away from her but he didn’t stop her from leaning against him.
It took the extraction team four hours to reach them, then it took them another thirty minutes to locate them. Finally, after six hours since they got stuck, the two managed to step outside of the base.
~2~
POV Wanda Maximoff
2th of June
The silence was the worst kind of scream. It was heavy, insulting and down right unnatural. The dust was slowly settling around them and they could slowly see the pure rackage that the bomb had left behind. The only proof that her twin brother had survived was the ragged breath that Pietro was taking.
They waited. For what, they didn’t really know. Maybe they were waiting for the second bomb to still go off or maybe they were waiting for their parents to miraculously crawl out of the rackage.
The unexploded bomb lay ominously in front of them. Lodged in the concrete like a cruel joke no one got the punch line of. Their tragedy was marked by the elegant yet heartless typeface STARK INDUSTRIES.
“Wanda, are you hurt?” Pietro’s voice was thin and shaky. His whisper should have been quiet but had felt like a scream in the stillness.
Her brother’s speed had saved her. Not moments ago she had accused him of being only human, ‘you can’t outrun a bullet’ she had shouted in her fear. Maybe she had been wrong because if it hadn’t been for his speed, they would have surely died by now.
Wanda could only shake her head. Words were non existing in her dawning realisation of their new reality. The paralyzing fear was slowly being replaced by the cold and burning confusion. She had remembered the pressure building in front of her, she had even seen a faint red shimmer form around the second bomb. The pressure inside her had only faded away when the red shimmer stopped forming around the bomb. Has Pietro seen it too?
Suddenly, a sound broke the silence. Straining their ears they focussed on the noise. There wasn’t a high whistling sound of a bomb approaching. It sounded more like shovels digging through the rubble. Could it be? Wanda didn’t dare to hope, that was punished out of her months ago. Hope was worse than bravery in their country.
“Do you think?” Pietro asked, hope and terror in his voice. Like Wanda, her brother was thinking the same. Could it be their rescuers or were the people that had sent the bomb coming back to finish the job that the second bomb hadn’t done.
“Stay, please” She rasped, finding her voice for the first time.
The voices were growing louder. Soon a beam of light hit the twins through the plaster wall that had divided their apartment with their neighbours. The voices were becoming clearer, tinged with urgency and their local dialect.
“Novi Grad Rescue! Anyone alive?” a man yelled as his face came into view from the hole in the wall.
“We are here! My sister and I, we’re under the table” Pietro screamed back, coughing on the fine dust around them while he tried to get out from under the table.
The rescue started immediately but it was still slow going. It took them three hours of agonizingly shifting every debris out of the way, making sure that they didn’t collapse the building by accident. They were eventually dragged out of the building and into the cold morning. The sun was just starting to rise over the buildings showing the true destruction that the first bomb had brought with it.
Wanda could hear the Novi Grad Rescuers examine the second bomb. The uniformed fireman ran a skeptical hand over the perfectly intact metal casing before he slowly shifted it around to get a better look. Wanda thought this was stupid because the stupid bomb could still go off.
“It’s a miracle, dziecko” The fireman mumbled while he shook his head. “The primary fuse is completely melted. It looks like it misfired or had some kind of chemical reaction stopping the detonation. Weird, you wouldn’t expect that from a Stark Industries weapon.”
Another firemen stepped closer, also taking a better look at the logo on the bomb. “It should have leveled the entire city block. It’s a gift from God that we only have to deal with the top floor collapse”
They didn’t know about the red glow that had torn from Wanda and engulfed the bomb. They couldn’t know, Wanda decided. They would ask too many questions, questions that she didn’t have the answers to.
Wanda watched her brother look at the bomb. Had he connected the red glow to her? His eyes were firmly fixed on the name etched on the bomb, hatred filled his gaze as the same could be seen on the faces of the fireman. Pietro wasn’t seeing their survival in the red glow, he only saw the Stark name in connection to their ruins.
They spent the day drifting. The city was full of other survivors, drifting without any sense of direction. When the snipers started again, Pietro pulled his sister into an old abandoned community centre that had become a makeshift refuge-centre.
Inside the community centre, the people were drifting without any conscious thought. Entire families were huddled together under thin blankets. Wanda was assaulted by the smell of unwashed bodies, smoke and despair.
In a corner, Wanda found an unused chair to sit down on. Her brother, however, was filled with restless energy. The adrenaline was still running through his body causing him to wander aimlessly. When his restlessness became too much, he left his sister on the chair with a thin blanket before he wandered off.
He had promised to find clean water but was gone for over an hour. When he finally came back, he was joined by a group of four young adults but without the water. The group wore faces of mixed determination and desperate defiance. Wanda knew those expressions all too well from her brother.
“Wanda, this is Lyudmila, Thomas, Ivan and Aleksander." Pietro introduced them quickly, his voice high from excitement. Wanda gave a quick nod as a greeting, deciding to focus on her brother’s uncharacteristic enthusiasm. It hadn’t been a full day since they had lost their parents and home, something must have broken inside of him.
“Their building a resistance. Something that could actually make a difference” Pietro further explained. At once, Wanda understood. Pietro had turned his grief into hatred and anger, he wanted revenge.
The only girl in the group took a step forward, her dark eyes were accompanied by braids that had seen better days, and knelt down close to Wanda. “We heard what happened to your family, Maximoff. We are sorry. This war… it doesn’t leave anything unharmed.”
Wanda nodded dumbly. She was still cold, still reeling from the day's events. She made quick eye-contact with her brother. Pietro held an unfiltered pride in his eyes and Wanda knew immediately what the group wanted from her.
She knew that Pietro’s Alpha inside him was demanding retribution. He had always been a typical Alpha, protecting what he thought should be protected. Wanda’s Beta side was always trying to mellow him down, reel him back before he broke something not mendable.
“Your brother is fast, Wanda. Faster than the military vehicles that they use. We need runners, eyes on the streets, people who aren’t afraid to hit back. We need to expose the one that is funding all this, the one who is earning all the money from this war. Pietro is already joining us” Thomas spoke, his eyes darting around the room nervously as if he was waiting for someone to jump in and arrest them.
Wanda could hear the question in his monologue. The group wanted her to join as well, something that she would have been firmly against if it had been a day earlier. She wasn’t a fighter, nor was she a runner.
“They killed our parents, Wanda. They came with their bombs and foreign names and killed them. I can’t sit here, I can’t wait for the next whistle to destroy our lives” Pietro didn’t look at his sister but his furious scent told her enough.
He gripped her shoulder as his hands were shaking. “I’ll make them pay. I’ll let the world know who is really behind this, sestra”
Wanda looked from her brother’s face towards the direction that the ruins of their old home lay. Her fingers twitched, remembering the painful surge of power, the silent force that she had felt leave her body. She still didn’t know what she had done or how she had stopped the bomb but the memory of that power was becoming a small and dangerous spark in the overwhelming darkness around them.
“I’m no fighter or runner” Wanda warned the small group. “I won’t be of much use”
This time it was Ivan that spoke. He shook his head before he stepped closer to her chair. “Aleksander and I aren’t runners or fighters but we can still help them. No one is useless in the resistance. I see the power in your eyes, we can help you use that”
With a tiny nod, Wanda joined the resistance. She hoped from the bottom of her heart that she wasn’t going to regret it.
~3~
POV Bruce Banner
15th of June
It’s been a month. A month since an unknown woman in sharp robes, named Hermione Granger, marched into his life and saved it. Ever since then, Bruce has stayed in contact with her, even when her work got too busy or his sessions became too intense.
Her theory had opened his eyes. For the first time, Bruce didn’t see a monster living inside of him but an oversized newborn scared of the world around him.
She had been the one that had given him an umbrella with the instruction to hold tight and not let go. Bruce had learned rather quickly that those instructions didn’t count for the landing. When the spinning had started Bruce had held on for dear life, then came the landing. A harsh crash into solid British ground had Bruce keened over and emptying his meager stomach.
"Marvelous, absolutely marvelous! I wasn’t sure how a muggle like yourself would react. Then again, you do have a magical beast living inside of you” A voice shouted from the distance. Bruce had tried to look up but the dizziness made him see little black spots.
“Daddy, we mustn’t overwhelm him. What if the Wrackspurts refuse to leave this man?” A soft small woman’s voice filled his ears. The sound was immediately followed by the scent of an Omega.
It had taken Bruce a few more breaths before he could finally lift his head up and see where the umbrella had taken him too. The house in front of him looked like a giant castle chesspiece, defying every law of physics. A soft hand touched his shoulder and Bruce got his first look of the woman that had talked last.
“Where am I?” He had mumbled. The woman had only given a small laugh before she turned to look around.
“Well, England of course” She had said in her soft melodious voice.
That had been one month ago. Since then, he had slowly gotten used to living with Mr. Lovegood, ‘call me Xeno’. If Bruce thought his daughter had a funny way of talking, the man would take the icing on the cake.
During the first week of staying at the Rookery, Bruce had woken up multiple times at night to the mad rambling of the man. At first he had been alarmed but when he had woken up a fifth time, he had decided to investigate.
He had found Xenophilius in his little home office talking to himself about squibs, whatever that was. The man had barely glanced at him before he went back to work mumbling something about finding more test subjects.
When Bruce had asked Luna about it the next day, she had simply laughed and told him that he shouldn’t worry. “Daddy finds inspiration for the Quibbler at the most inopportune times”.
He was currently sitting at the breakfast table that appeared to be decorated entirely with mismatched bottlecaps glued together. A bowl of something, that Bruce still hadn’t identified, stood in front of him. Xenophilius had attempted to make breakfast but the man couldn’t tell him what he had put in. Bruce could taste plums, grass and something that could only be described as optimisme.
He had managed to convince himself into taking another spoonful of his breakfast when the fireplace roared to life and with a flash of green spit out Luna.
The first time Bruce had been introduced to the Floo-network, he had stumbled back and nearly fainted. Luna hadn’t blinked an eye when he had turned a million and two questions to her, all but demanding that she explain to him how it worked.
“The ministry says that the Floo works on a rune, you have to activate it with Floo-powder but Daddy and I know that it really are the Heliopaths that do all the work” Luna had explained with a soft smile that made Bruce wonder, for the …mth time, if she was making these things up or if she knew more than people believed.
“Good morning mister Banner” Luna greeted as she skipped into the kitchen.
“Call me Bruce, Luna” He said automatically, still trying to hype himself up enough to finish the bowl of questionable decisions. Luna only gave him one of her signature soft smiles before she joined him at the table with her own bowl.
“I think today would be a good day to show Hulk the woods around the house” Luna casually told him while she took a spoonful without hesitation. Bruce put down his own spoon, knowing he wouldn’t pick it back up.
“Luna, I don’t think that would be a good idea” He started to say but she wasn’t waiting for his explanation.
“I think he would love the massive trees that we have there, maybe he can even help daddy move some of them closer to the house for firewood” The man in question had just walked into the kitchen and was now nodding his head enthusiastically.
“I think that would be brilliant. Do you think Hulk would be happy to answer some of my questions” He gushed. The two soon forgot that Bruce was still in the kitchen silently trying to come up with good excuses to not transform.
“Absolutely not! I can’t just turn him loose. That would be a high stress, unpredictable situation. That’s a recipe for property damage, if not more” Bruce finally managed to break through their conversation about the prospect of pine trees with Niffler needs.
Xenophilius stroked his long blond hair, seemingly not bothered with Bruce’s outburst. “It’s a good thing then that the runes around the forest are designed specifically to calm explosive outburst, Bruce. They channel that energy into the ley-lines. It’s a bit like a magical surge protector. Completely safe for the surrounding area, mostly”
“Mostly?” Bruce’s voice was high pitched with disbelief.
The sound of clapping hands distracted Bruce from finding a good excuse to really not go through with this reckless idea. Luna was jumping up and down, clapping her hands in excitement. She stopped when she saw the horror on Bruce’s face.
“Bruce, we can’t teach him anything if you keep him locked inside. Every creature, young or old, needs to be outside and make mistakes. We can’t teach him how to behave if we never see him. You can’t keep him permanently under your skin until danger arrives and the choice is taken away from you. He has to learn how to live in the real world” Luna told him, channeling her inner Hermione.
A sigh escaped his mouth while he dragged his hand over his face. “Fine, but we do it my way! That means no shouting, Xeno. No sudden movements and definitely no questions for the Hulk about Nifflers or Wrackspurts. You have to talk to him just like we practiced, Luna”
The smile Luna gave him could have lighted up the whole chaotic kitchen for months. “Of course, Bruce. We will keep it calm, give Hulk time to adjust. We’ll be prepared for what he might do. We will teach him how to channel his energy in a safe environment”
Xenophilius beamed from the doorway, clapping his hands like his daughter did not moments ago. “Brilliant! I shall observe quietly for the Quibbler… Strictly academically of course. Might even find out what Gamma radiation and magical ley-line proximity will do”
The man was giddy with excitement at the prospect of learning something new. Bruce felt his heart further sink. These two people had been nothing but kind and welcoming from the moment he arrived. He deeply hoped that they weren’t going to regret letting the Hulk out and subsequently destroy their house.
~4~
POV Tony Stark
1st of July
The view from Stark tower was undeniably magnificent. From the top floors you could see over Manhattan and beyond. He had truly found a location worth every penny. The walls were mostly made out of reinforced glass, giving everyone an unlimited view of the beauty that was ‘the concrete jungle’.
It was a far cry from the comforting smell and atmosphere that surrounded the Malibu mansion. This tower stood in the middle of Manhattan, surrounded by steel and noise. Tony didn’t necessarily have a problem with that, his mind was always busy and he even found the noise of New York comforting.
Clint, however, was starting to look like a caged bird.The restlessness had begun as a subtle pacing, but last week he had finally confided his dream to Tony: a remote farm, far from the grid, surrounded by nothing but nature, pack and silence.
Guilt had been a heavy, acidic weight in Tony’s chest ever since. He felt like he had dragged his pack from a sanctuary into a fishbowl. Even though the Beta had stayed up late into the night reassuring him that he was okay, that finding their missing pack members was the only priority, Tony couldn’t shake the feeling that he was failing as an Alpha. He wasn't just building a headquarters; he was trying to build a home, and the foundation felt shaky.
On top of his internal guilt, Natasha had been voicing her critique non-stop, dissecting his masterpiece with the cold precision of a surgeon.
At first, she had opposed the external landing pad for his suits, calling it a ‘giant bullseye for surface-to-air missiles.’ After Tony had spent forty-eight hours straight rewriting the encrypted security protocols to satisfy her, she had pivoted to the elevators. To stop her from pointedly staring at the ceiling every time they rode up, Tony had been forced to designate one elevator as a high-security private line. This, unfortunately, created a logistical nightmare, as the construction crews now had one less lift to move heavy materials, slowing the entire project to a crawl.
Today, Natasha had found a new vulnerability. The windows. According to her, the very thing Tony loved most for the transparency and the light, was their greatest weakness. She claimed any low-class criminal with a glass cutter or a heavy enough rock could breach their inner sanctuary.
Tony felt like he was slowly losing his mind over Natasha’s paranoia.
“Explain to me again, Nat. In detail. How would anyone be able to climb a thousand feet of sheer glass, break through reinforced panes and enter without anyone, including the most advanced AI on the planet, noticing?” Tony’s voice rang out over the living room, echoing off the exposed steel beams and rolls of uninstalled carpeting.
“I can think of five... no, wait, six different ways to do it right now. And three of them involve using your own maintenance drones against you,” Natasha bit back, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked entirely too comfortable in the chaos of the construction site.
Clint was perched on the edge of the recently finished marble bar, rotating an arrow in his fingers and watching the argument like a high-stakes tennis match. He looked exhausted, but his presence was the only thing keeping the room’s temperature below a boiling point.
“How!” Tony shouted, gesturing wildly at the panoramic view. “I have cameras watching every square inch of this building. J.A.R.V.I.S. is monitoring the thermal signatures of the air itself! There is no blind spot, Nat! I know that for a fact because I personally coded the visual recognition software!”
Tony took a deep breath, ready to launch into a technical lecture on structural integrity, but before he could exhale, the world went black.
Every light in the building flickered and died. The hum of the air conditioning cut out, replaced by a sudden, eerie silence. From the floors below, the frustrated shouts of construction workers drifted up as their power tools whined to a halt.
Tony stood frozen in the dark. The only light came from the city outside, casting long, mocking shadows across the room. He slowly turned his head toward Natasha. In the dim glow of a passing helicopter, he could see the smug, razor-sharp curve of her smile.
“You were saying?” She challenged him.
Tony opened his mouth, his mind racing to find a technical excuse, maybe a grid failure, a blown transformer but the words died in his throat. He realized with a sinking feeling that she hadn't just made a point, no, she had illustrated a total system failure.
Before Tony could find his wits or his temper, Clint hopped down from the bar. The Beta moved between them, his scent of woodsmoke and a calming breeze acting like a fire suppressant.
“Okay, I think the point has been made. Loud and clear,” Clint mediated, placing a grounding hand on Tony’s shoulder while giving Natasha a warning look. “Tony, breathe. This doesn’t mean Nat doesn’t trust your work. She just knows that when the world ends, it usually starts with the lights going out. And Nat, you don’t have to bruise his ego and then sledgehammer it just to prove a point. We’re on the same team.”
Tony slumped slightly under Clint’s touch. The anger was still there, but it was being rapidly replaced by a frantic, obsessive need to solve the problem. If his Delta didn't feel safe behind his glass, then he would simply have to invent a new kind of glass.
“J.A.R.V.I.S.” Tony muttered to the darkness.
“Running on emergency battery backup, Sir,” the AI responded smoothly. “I believe Ms. Romanoff bypassed the main breaker via the service crawlspace in the pantry.”
Tony looked at Natasha, who just winked.
“Of course she did” Tony whispered, his Alpha instincts shifting from defensive to productive. “If you want a fortress, I’ll give you a fortress. Clint, tell the crews to take the rest of the day off. I'm going down to the workshop, and I'm not coming up until these windows can stop a tank.”
The workshop quickly became the only place for Tony where his brain wasn’t losing a civil war with itself. Down there, surrounded by blueprints and the comforting sound of the machines humming, Tony wasn’t the failing Alpha that couldn’t protect its pack.
Eighteen hours had flown by in the blink of an eye. The workbench was littered with schematics and seemingly random burglary tools. The ground had quickly become a maze of broken glass. The latest sample, marked ‘Stark-Glass Mark II’ had spiderwebbed under the simple assault of an emergency window breaker for cars.
“It’s too brittle, J. I’m focussing on stopping a tank. It needs to be concrete” Tony mumbled, eyes bloodshot red while he swiped away the last holographic display.
“Sir, Mr. Barton has been standing in the doorway for precisely six minutes” The AI interrupted his string of thoughts. Tony didn’t look up, not even surprised by the announcement of his Beta.
“Tell him I’m busy unless he has the solution” Tony spoke while he opened another hologram.
“I heard that” Clint spoke from the doorway, slowly walking inside with a plate full of sandwiches and a protein shake. Bending forward, he gave a quick kiss to Tony’s cheek before he placed the sandwiches in front of his Alpha.
Tony finally turned, wiping a tired hand over his face. “Natasha is leaving, isn’t she?”
Nodding grimly, Clint gestured towards the roof. “She left a moment ago. Didn’t want to interrupt you because of the ‘Do Not Enter or Face Retribution’ sign. She did text you”
A fresh wave of Alpha guilt crept up in Tony. She was finally pulled back into active duty after her assignment with him and SI but his pride had stopped him from saying a proper goodbye. Now he was too late, Nat was heading into danger and he hadn’t said goodbye.
“She said that I can’t protect our future pack” Tony mumbled as he surveyed the room. Broken glass littered the floor but it felt more like broken trust. Natasha had made her stand very clear, Tony couldn’t protect the pack.
“You know, for a genius you can be really stupid” Clint said firmly, putting the protein shake beside the sandwiches. “It’s a Delta’s job to protect the pack. Your job is to look after the pack. You have been doing a beautiful job, Tones. Don’t forget Tasha’s place in the pack”
For the first time since they had moved in, Tony felt his shoulders drop. Clint was right. While his job was to provide for the pack, Nat’s job was indeed to protect it. Her biology would force her to find any and all weaknesses especially with her history as a spy. That was why they desperately wanted to find their Omega’s, their job was to nurture the pack. At this moment, the pack only existed out of the Alpha Tony (who provides for the pack), the Delta Natasha (who protects the pack) and the Beta Clint (who mediates in the pack).
It took Tony three days to construct a new form of glass. One that wouldn’t try to stop an attack but glass that would absorb it. The Alpha had been working around the clock, not even coming out of the workshop for sleep. Every night around three O’Clock he would crash on the sofa only to wake up wrapped in a blanket with a steaming cup of coffee on the table.
The disappointed looks hadn’t come from Clint alone, Pepper had sent him multiple reminders to be a human and act like one over the course of those days. Tony had ignored each and every single one of them.
The ding of the elevator signaled the arrival of Natasha. The scent of jet fuel and gunpowder filled the air and Tony saw Clint’s shoulders drop in relief. It seemed that the Beta had been more worried about their Delta then he had let on.
“I see you didn’t let the construction crew finish laying the carpet” Natasha noted while she dropped her bag to the ground. Clint was beside her in an instance, dropping a kiss to her cheek.
“Forget the carpets, I’ve got something for you” The triumphant grin on Tony’s face did little to hide the pure exhaustion of his body. Natasha raised one perfect eyebrow in his direction but stayed silent.
“You had some concerns about the window. I believe I promised you that it would stop a tank?” Tony had been sitting on the ground with a tablet in hand but he was now quickly rising to his feet, joining his two mates close to the window.
“Tony, if you’ve been up for more than seventy-two hours just to decide to make the windows out of diamonds, I’m going to be very disappointed in you” Natasha warned, knowing that the billionaire often lost sense of reality.
“You of little faith. Go on, give it your worst” Tony challenged, crossing his arms.
From deep inside her bag Natasha pulled out a small disk. The outside gave nothing away of what lay inside. It was only due to Tony’s extensive experience in the weapons industry that he could identify the disk.
The small anti-tank disk was mounted on the glass. With the detonator in hand, the three took multiple steps backward. Tony could feel his heart beat against his arc-reactor while he held his breath. He didn’t want to admit but he was not entirely sure if the glass would hold.
“3..2..1..” Natasha counted down.
What followed could only be described as a masterpiece of defensive reabsorbing protection.
A muffled THUMPH sounded followed closely by a bright flash of light. The window seemed to shutter and fibrate as if it wasn’t sure if it should break into a million pieces. A dark spiderweb pattern rippled out from the point of impact, spreading around the rest of the glass. Tony felt pride surge through his body when the blast didn’t break glass. The impact got absorbed, channeled into the frame and then dissipated into the foundation.
When the vibration stopped, the glass returned to its perfect clear state without a single scratch.
“J.A.R.V.I.S.?” Tony prompted, not daring to set a foot closer.
“Impact absorbed. Pressure sensors detached a force of 4,000 PSI. The reactive suspension redistributed the kinetic energy into the building's emergency battery. We just gained five minutes of backup power from Ms. Romanoff’s attempt to blow us up” Reported the AI.
A smug grin forced its way on Tony’s face but he held it to himself as he saw Natasha slowly stride over to the glass. She touched the spot where the disk had been, feeling the surface. The glass was cool to her touch, nothing indicated the deathly attack it had just been under.
When she turned around to face Tony, her eyes were soft into genuine respect for the first time in weeks. Clint could see the silent respect hidden in the debts of her eyes.
“It’s not a giant bulls-eye anymore” She conceded.
Tony felt the heavy weight in his chest lift. His pack was safe and for the first time since moving he could smile. The foundation didn’t feel so shaky anymore.
~5~
POV Peter Parker
6th of July
Summer break was supposed to start long ago for Peter. That didn’t mean he was free and could do whatever he wanted before the new fall semester started. Ned had convinced him to take a summer course in robotics design.
“We don’t have classes together anymore. This could be like highschool again” Ned had pleaded with him. Peter had immediately agreed with his friend after he had turned on his failing puppydog eyes.
That was how he found himself back on college campus while everyone else was enjoying their summer break.
Like every other day since, Peter found himself sitting in a subway talking emically with his best friend about the robot that they had just created. The two of them had taken inspiration from their biggest hero ‘Tony Stark’ and had chosen to give their robot a small internal AI.
Their robot, which they had named ‘Chopper’ after C1-10P from Star Wars, had started communicating with them in its own language. Ned was practically vibrating out of his seat with enthusiasm.
“Dude, we should totally send an e-mail to Mr. Stark about Chopper” Ned gushed, already imagining ‘The’ Tony Stark learning about their robot.
Peter laughed while his hand instinctively went to his forearm, rubbing the spot beneath the hoodie. Ever since he had found out who one of his mates was, Peter had begun to feel a small soft warmth coming from the mark. It had given him comfort during finals or helped him calm down after catching a criminal.
“I don’t think Mr. Stark checks his own fan mail, Ned” Peter said, trying to sound grounded. “Besides, don’t you think he would be a bit too busy. You remember the news, right. Mr. Stark officially moved into the tower. The media’s been gushing about it for days”
His best friend leaned in closer, dropping his voice to a conspiracy whisper. “It’s not just a move, Pete. My cousin works in security and he said that he moved with his two mates to New York. He said that Stark felt one of his soulmates at the EXPO.”
Peter felt his breath hitch. His phone was open on a gossip site, widely displaying a photo of Mr. Stark leaving the tower followed by a gorgeous woman with red hair and a blond haired man with a military posture but the kindest eyes.
“They’re looking” Peter whispered, more to himself but his best friend heard him.
“Exactly” Ned bumped his shoulder in excitement. “The world's been waiting for Stark to find his mates for years. If we send him the specs for Chopper’s heuristic processing unit now, while he’s still looking…”
As Ned continued to ramble about algorithms and global recognition, Peter felt a sharp desire to brush his marks again. ‘Could it be’.
Unconsciously, Peter lifted his sleeve. His marks were peeking out from under his sleeve. The ominous mark of Tony Stark was staring back at him. Peter thought that he had come to terms with the fact that his hero was one of his Alpha’s but there was still doubt in his mind.
“Dude! Is that?” Ned’s voice broke through his musing, startling Peter out of his thoughts. Big eyes were staring at the marks on his arm. Peter hastily pulled down his sleeve but he knew that the damage was done, Ned had seen his soulmarks.
“No, it isn’t” Peter denied, hoping that his best friend didn’t hear the high pitch in his voice. Of course Ned spotted the lie immediately, they might both be shit in lying but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t spot a lie from a mile away.
“Yes, it was. Let me see” Grabby hands reached for his sleeve again but Peter stopped him. Pleading eyes turned to Ned.
“Please, not here. I promise I’ll show you but not here” Peter pleaded.
“My place?” Ned suggested.
“Your place” Peter confirmed, his voice barely above a whisper.
Peter felt like he was walking towards the gallows as the two friends made their way towards Ned’s apartment. Their soulmates had never been part of any of their conversations but that was now going to change.
With the door safely closed on Ned’s bedroom, surrounded by the half-finished LEGO’s and Star Wars posters, Peter finally let go of his breath that he had been holding since the subway.
Ned didn’t even wait for Peter to sit down. “Okay. Sleeve up. Now”
Slowly Peter pulled the fabric of his sweater up on his arm. For the first time in his life he showed all of his marks. Ned gasped as he came face to face with the eleven soulmarks on Peter's arm. His eyes darted around the dark and silent charcoal sketches, silently counting them.
“Peter this is… this is unheard” Ned breathed, staring at the sheer abnormality of the 3-3-3-2 pack. “Dude, you not only have 3 Alpha’s and 3 Beta’s but you have 3 Delta’s as well. You’re pack looks like a literal army”
Fingers slowly brushed over the diamond shaped mark that Peter knew belonged to Tony Stark. The movement caught Ned’s attention as his eyes turned impossibly bigger. Peter’s fingers unconsciously moved to the red hourglass.
“It wasn’t just Mr. Starks mark that I felt at the EXPO, Ned. When we walked into the main building I felt the slow warmth of this mark as well. I know that this is one of the two mates from Mr. Stark but I haven’t figured out which one it is” Peter explained while he continued to stroke the mark slowly.
“Okay… Okay, totally cool” Ned’s brain seemed to be malfunctioning as he stumbled through his words. His mumbling stopped dead when Ned’s eyes found another mark. “And this one? The spider? Everyone is talking about this guy in Queens. If this is another soulmate mark, then your other mate is…”
“Ned stop!” Peter tried desperately to stop his best friend but he clearly wasn’t able to listen.
“You're bonded to Spiderman AND Iron Man!” Ned concluded, the level of his excitement was clearly heard in his volume. Peter stumbled forward and slammed his hand in front of Ned’s mouth before he shouted louder.
“I’m not mated to Spiderman” Peter rushed to explain. The look Ned gave him was one of pure disbelief. Taking a deep breath, Peter grounded himself enough for the next revelation.
“I am Spiderman”
“...”
Ned suddenly slammed his laptop open, fingers flying over the keyboard. “Okay, new plan. We aren’t just sending a fan-mail about Chopper. We’re hacking Stark Industries. If Mr. Stark is looking for his Omega, we’re going to make sure that he finds his Omega”