Dark Avenger: A Tale of Mischief

Chapter Eleven: Interrogation

  Raising her head from the pillow, she pulled and fought with the straps holding her down to the bed she was lying in, but to no avail.  She was trapped.  Groaning in frustration, she flopped her head back down on the pillow, exhaling sharply.  Trying to conjure her magic, she became doubly frustrated to find that it was somehow being suppressed.  She was trapped.  At the sound of someone approaching, the woman snapped her head in the direction of the sound, once again yanking at the straps binding her.

         "Hey there, " said the man before her.  He was what she assumed to be medium build, if not a little short.  His well maintained dark hair and goatee were peppered with streaks of silver, indicating middle age.  She noted the Black Sabbath tee and long sleeved thermal he wore underneath it, but what really caught her attention was the glowing light showing through his shirts, in the middle of his chest.  Yanking a bit harder, she glared at the man approaching the bed.  He, seeing she was in distress raised his hands in a placating gesture.

         "I mean no harm, " said the man, gesturing to himself, "I only want to talk. "

  Watching him stop a few feet from the bed, she glared at him coldly.

         "Who are you? " she spat, "Why have you brought me here? "

  Lowering his hands to his sides, he looked at the woman.  She appeared young, considering.  He guessed her age to be roughly mid-twenties, maybe a bit younger.  He watched as her eyes appeared to go all black as she continued to stare at him and pull against the restraints.  Motioning to himself, he opened his mouth to answer,

         "I'm Tony Stark.. Iron Man... I'm pretty well known in a lot of places, but I must say I don't recall seeing you around anywhere before.  Anyway, I brought you here because a friend of mine is lying in the next room, and he's in pretty bad shape...now I was hoping you might be able to tell me a little something about how that happened, and maybe even tell me who you are. "

  She stopped struggling against the restraints for a moment to look directly at him.

         "What do you want from me? " she asked.

         "I only want to talk, " replied Tony, waving his hands.  

  Keeping her gaze on him, she seemed to visibly relax a bit, but Tony could see she was keeping her guard up.  This would be a tough nut to crack, he thought.  He would need to tread very carefully with his line of questioning, if he were to gain any answers from her.  She watched him warily as he approached the side of the bed, startled at the sudden jerking motion of the upper part of the bed raising her to a more comfortable seated position.  Looking back at him, she watched as he slowly backed away, raising his hands, before stopping close to the same spot he was but a moment before.

         "Then talk, " she said.

         "What's your name? " asked Stark.

  She looked at him for a moment, then looked down toward her hands.  Tony watched as she seemed to struggle with the question, and waited patiently for an answer.  Her reaction to his question was odd, which he found troubling.  Looking back at him, she opened and closed her mouth, then dropped her gaze back to her lap.

          "I don't know..." she answered, quietly.

  Tony looked at her, puzzled.

           "You don't know? " he asked, "as in, you don't remember your name, or.."

  Jerking her head back to glare at him, she shouted, pulling at the restraints holding her wrists to the bed rails,

           "I mean I don't know! I don't know my name! I don't know who I am, or what I'm doing here! Why are you keeping me here?!? "

           "Okay! Okay! I won't push it, though... you're here, because I do have to ask,.. because I need to know.." he paused for a moment, watching her visibly relax once again.  Seeing her direct her gaze at him once again, he continued,  "how did you happen to come across Loki?  Have you two met before? I have to admit, what you managed to do to his brother, I didn't think was possible either..."

          "I do not know him.  All I knew of him was that he was trespassing on my land, " she replied.

          "So you two fought? " asked Stark, shoving his hands into his pockets as he looked at the woman across from him.

           "I felt I had no choice, " she answered, a look of remorse washing across her face, "your friend...is he..? "

            "He's alive, barely, " replied Tony.

             "I'm sorry,...I..." she stammered.

             "What you did, what you're able to do, I would've thought impossible, " he began, "but here we are.  You don't remember your name, so I imagine it would be a challenge for you to recall where you learned your abilities..." pausing for a moment, he noted the visible change in her demeanor.  There was no longer the defiance of someone being caged.  She seemed defeated, a bit despondent.  Tony started again,

             "The man in the next room, my friend, is a demigod...pretty much invincible.  You wouldn't know that looking at him lying in that bed. "

               "I'm sorry..." was the soft reply.

                "Sorry isn't helping him right now, " was his response, "Look.  I can see you're pretty broken up about it, and right now the big mystery for all of us is finding out who you are and where exactly you came from.  You said Loki was trespassing on your land, how did you come about owning that land?"

                "I'm not sure.  I've always lived on that land, as far as I can recall, " she said, looking back up at him.

                "How long is always? " he asked.

  She paused for a moment, seemingly unsure of how to answer.

                 "Don't worry, I'm used to what could be considered out of the ordinary, " he said, "what I'm hoping, is that you will trust me. "

   Eyeing him momentarily, she seemed to be mulling over a response, she opened her mouth to speak.

                 "Two hundred years, " was her reply.

   Stark could barely contain the shock he felt at her response.  In the other room, behind the barrier, the rest of the Avengers felt the same level of shock ripple through them.

This was definitely getting more complicated.