CHAPTER THREE
desperately seeking answers
　

EVERYONE HAD ASKED HIM questions about Edrick Karlov on the trip back to Avengers Tower, but Tony Stark never gave them any answers. Instead, he had distanced himself from the team, sitting by a window in the back of the quinjet and watching as the clouds went by in silence, his odd behaviour concerning everyone around him, as they wondered what could have happened that made him suddenly go mute.

Upon arriving at Avengers Tower, a med team was quick to rush out and greet them. While they immediately took Maeve inside so they could access her bullet wound and start patching her up, the others went to the lab so they could start examining the cargo that they had recovered in Paris.

They had turned on the lights and JARVIS was brought online for some assistance. Thor had carefully set the titanium case on a workstation in the center of the lab, and Bruce grabbed his lab coat and glasses so he could get to work analyzing the equipment and figuring out what it was meant to do.

While Bruce opened up the cargo and started laying out the equipment on a table to get a better look at it, Clint and Natasha crossed the room to sit down on some chairs, and Tony had once more distanced himself from the group, sitting down at his main work station in the lab and staring off into the distance, the events that occurred in Paris playing on an endless loop in his brian.

"Do we know what it is yet, Banner?" Steve asked, eyeing the scientist, who stood over the titanium case they had managed to get their hands on in Paris.

"Not yet," Bruce replied, lifting one of the devices from the table he had everything spread out on so that he could take a closer look at it. "But, I'm pretty sure it's something that they were going to use for the scepter."

Suddenly, Maria Hill entered the lab, carrying a tablet in her hands with a calm expression on her face. She looked at each of them before updating them on Maeve's condition. "The bullet went straight through and there doesn't appear to be any serious damage. She's going to be just fine."

"Do we have any news on Karlov?" Clint asked her.

"Nothing yet," Maria replied with a shake of her head.

"We wouldn't have to sit around and wait for news if he hadn't gotten away," Thor said, clearly bothered with the way their mission had played out. He was tired of the constant waiting, and just wanted to find Loki's scepter so he could return home. He stared across the room at the silent billionaire and said heatedly, "You said that you had him, Stark!"

Everyone looked at Tony at the same time, and when they saw that the man had the same faraway look in his eyes as before, they gave a collective sigh.

"What's wrong with him?" Maria asked.

"No idea," Clint replied.

"He hasn't spoken since Paris," Natasha explained. "Not even a single word."

"Tony, what happened out there?" Steve asked, staring across the lab at the rugged-looking man.

When they didn't get a response, Thor crossed the room and dropped his hammer down onto the workstation, dangerously close to crushing every bone in Tony's hand. But he did this on purpose, wanting to get the man to come back to Earth so they could get the answers they wanted. And it worked like a charm.

Tony was immediately brought out of his shocked state, head snapping up and dark eyes sweeping across the room, before looking down at the hammer that was inches away from his fingers.

"Tony," Steve called carefully, capturing his attention. "You have to tell us what happened. We need to know how Karlov got away so that way we know where to look."

"I couldn't do it," Tony said, finally speaking for the first time since he had told the team that he was going to get Karlov after the scientist got away on the motorcycle the first time.

"Couldn't do what?" Natasha asked, arms crossed over her chest.

"Attack her," Tony explained. "I couldn't hurt her."

"The woman on the motorcycle?" Steve questioned, receiving a nod in response.

"It was her." Tony looked up from the table, eyes sweeping across the room at each of them before landing on Steve Rogers. "She was there. She's alive." They held each other's stare for a moment, and it suddenly dawned on Steve who he was talking about, a look of realization crossing his features.

"Uh, who are we talking about?" Clint asked, eyes flickering between Steve and Tony in confusion.

"Yeah, I'm lost," Natasha said, brow furrowed.

"Are you sure it was her, Tony?" Steve asked, wanting to be sure. Because he knew that Tony was known to hallucinate the woman.

"Ophelia was there, Cap," Tony said. "I know that it sounds crazy, but she was there."

"Hold on," Natasha paused, looking around the room with a shocked expression. "Ophelia? As in . . ."

"I thought she died?" Clint asked. "It was a plane crash, wasn't it?"

"Her body was never recovered," Tony explained, memories flashing behind his eyes of the plane wreckage. He had spent weeks searching every crack and crevice to no avail. Now he understood why he wasn't able to find her.

"How the hell did HYDRA get their hands on her?" Maria voiced everyone's thoughts.

"It's possible that they had orchestrated the entire thing," Bruce said. "I mean, they knew Tony was a threat with his advancing technology at the time, so maybe they wanted to get their hands on it and figured that she was the only way."

"She didn't even recognize me," Tony further explained his interaction with Ophelia. "And she just looked confused when I said her name."

"So, what, they hijacked her flight, faked her death, and then decided to brainwash her into becoming a soldier?" Clint asked.

Steve nodded along with what everyone was saying, quietly piecing everything together in his head. "If they thought that she was the only way that they could get to Tony, yeah. And it wouldn't be their first time brainwashing and weaponizing someone."

Everyone knew what he meant by that, because it wasn't that long ago when Steve had discovered that his childhood best friend was alive after all these years. Apparently, James Buchanan Barnes had been tortured, brainwashed, and weaponized into becoming HYDRA's famed assassin, the Winter Soldier. The man had forgotten everything about himself, and it was safe to say that the same thing had happened to Ophelia Southerns.

"We have to get her," Tony said, almost pleadingly. "We can fix her, right? Get her to remember her old life again?"

"It's not that simple, Tony," Steve sighed. "I mean, we don't even know where to start looking for her or Karlov, not to mention how deep the brainwashing has gone. But we won't give up until we do."

Tony wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the right words, so he nodded instead. He was just glad that they were going to help him find Ophelia and bring her home. Because that's all that mattered to him now.

　
━━━━━━
　

A COUPLE HOURS HAD come and gone with nothing new being discussed about Ophelia Southerns and Edrick Karlov's whereabouts or what the HYDRA equipment that had recovered from Paris was meant to do. In the meantime, everyone went their own way until the time came when they would get some good news.

Steve and Thor were eating in the kitchen, Clint and Natasha had disappeared to the training room to pass the time, Maeve was out of the infirmary and had settled herself in the lab so she could help Bruce analyze the cargo, and Tony found himself sitting on the balcony with a glass of bourbon.

The sky was full of stars, and he couldn't help but think of Ophelia Southerns again. He remembered how much she loved to stand outside on a balcony at night and gaze up at the endless blanket of stars. It was one of her favourite things to do, and he truly missed hearing her talk about the galaxy whenever she laid in his arms at night.

Tony pulled out his cell phone after a while, dialing Rhodey's number. The three of them had been best friends in college, and he wanted to tell him that Ophelia was alive. That he was going to bring her home and make her remember them all.

Rhodey answered after the second ring, and he sounded exhausted. "Hello?"

"It's me, pal."

"Tony? Hey, man, look, it's not really a good time right now⎯⎯"

"I found her," Tony said, cutting him off mid-sentence.

"Found who, Tony?" Rhodey asked.

"Ophelia," he said. "She's alive, Rhodey. And I know how that sounds, believe me, I do, but she was in Paris with HYDRA."

"Hold on," Rhodey paused, needing a moment to process everything. "How is that even possible? There's no way she could have survived the crash. I saw it for myself and nobody could have made it out of that alive."

"I don't know," Tony replied. "The team has their theories about that, and about how HYDRA got their hands on her, but I don't care about any of them. All that matters is that she is alive."

"Jesus, Tony," Rhodey sighed. "I . . ."

"I know," Tony said, completely understanding the shock his best friend was feeling right now.

"Was she okay?"

"No," Tony replied. "They did something to her. Messed with her head or something. She didn't recognize me or her own name."

"So, what, they brainwashed her?"

"Looks like it."

"Oh, man. Tony, I am so sorry."

"We're going to find her and we're going to bring her memories back." Tony pushed down the tears building up in his eyes and took another swig of bourbon. "And I'm not going to stop until I have her back."

"Call me when you hear anything," Rhodey said. "I'll help in any way that I can."

"Will do."

a/n: i know this chapter was shorter than the other ones have been, but it was really just a quick filler that allowed for tony to explain what happened to the team and also to rhodey as well. but anyway, the next chapter is over halfway done already so hopefully it'll be up soon!