There's A Spark

Part 29: Protecting can hurt sometimes

"Tony Stark" A gasp erupted as soon as they entered the room. The boy shot up to a sitting position, still as pale and eyes as bloodshot as before, but much more awake this time around. "And Captain America! oh god, did something happen?! Did I do something wrong?!" his eyes were wide, in surprise but also fear. He couldn't recall the last few days apart from darkness and blurs of people.

"Well we don't know yet, that's what we are here to find out." 
James swallowed with a gulp, ready to answer whatever question they wanted. The two men sat on the edge of the large metal bed, staring at him intently as if they were trying to figure him out.

"Do you know Y/N Carbonell?" Steve was the first to ask. James eyes widened again, not helping how sensitive they felt to even just air. "Yeah, she's a good friend of mine, why? Is she okay. Oh god. What did I do?" he started to mutter to himself but Tony literally snapped him out of it.

"Why don't you tell us? What did you do?" He tried to sound calm but he couldn't hide his anger completely. James nodded, looking down at his hand on top of the white sheets, trying to remember. 

"Her mom. She came up to me a while back, after she had seen us in the city together. She told me about her family. How she had a big fight with Y/N's dad and he didn't let her see her own daughter anymore. She just wanted to know how Y/N was doing. The woman looked so sick, I just wanted to help her. Y/N would have probably regretted not seeing her before she ..." He swallowed again, as if it was hard for him to speak those words from his dry mouth. Steve handed him the glass of water, urging him to continue. 

"I took Y/N to her mom's bookshop, as a surprise. So they could talk again, but" Again James hesitated. 

"well?" Tony urged.

"I'm sorry, I blacked out after we arrived."

Tony abruptly stood from the bed, cursing to himself, not having come much further than where they were before. Every clue seemed to end in a dead-end. He wasn't used to feeling so helpless. Even when he was locked in a dark cave surrounded by scrap he had more control than he did now.

"Please tell me she's okay." The boy's voice sounded pained and guilty. He had tried to spare Y/N from feeling the pain he had felt with his sister, and prevent her from getting herself hurt as well. But now he might have been the one that caused her pain. He just wanted to know what happened, what he had done to end up where he was. "We don't know" Steve cleared his throat, giving him an apologetic look before leaving the room with Tony.  

It was another sleepless night for Tony. No matter how battered and exhausted he was, he could not calm the thoughts running through his mind at an immense speed. Even if he managed to close his eyes, they shot back open after no more than 10 minutes. He got up with a sigh wandering through the halls, stopping at the room where is daughter lay as he usually would. 

Shuri's voice was the only difference this particular night "Up as usual." She gave him a small smile, her eyes nearly as small and tired as his.  "What if," tony started, raising a hand as he walked closer "we make a type of dialysis, to filter the organisms from her bloodstream." He had been making a blueprint already,  wanting to know if it would be possible before even suggesting it. But he had run into yet another dead-end.  

Shuri nodded "I've thought about it from the start, but the organisms, they are strange. It's as if they change configuration constantly." Shuri invited him to take a look at the results she had gathered over the days. "But, there's hope. This device that was on the small boys neck, the same organisms are inside of it.  I'm hoping this technology might help us in getting them out of Y/N's body as well.

To Tony's relief, he finally had a way to properly help. Shuri had been right, the organisms were in fact attracted to the device, yet only on a small scale, so they had to find a way to attract all of them at once. They worked for days, until they finally had a breakthrough. 

"Mister Stark, what if it goes wrong." Peter knew it definitely wasn't the right thing to say, they were both just as worried about something going wrong and losing her. "Don't say that kid. It will be okay, she will be okay. Okay?" Peter nodded trying to push down the knot of worry in his chest with Tony's words. The Avengers started to pile in, in front of the glass door, to support Tony and in hope Y/N would wake up soon. Nat put her hand on Tony's and Bruce's shoulder with a silent mutter of 'she will be okay'. All of their eyes fell on Shuri. She gave a nod to Tony, signaling she was ready and he hesitantly gave a nod of his own. 

Shuri activated the device, the large cylinders that surrounded Y/N inching closer to her body. If they didn't know any better it would look like she was about to get tortured. Little did they know it would actually feel like that. Her mouth and eyes shot open but her body petrified under the metal touch. Uncountable screams, as if millions of people at once, left her lips in agony. Tony shot forward but was caught by Steve and Bruce. They didn't like it any more than he did but if this could help his daughter, they had to keep going. 

They watched her hands clench, her fingernails digging into her palm so hard, drops of blood ran down onto the metal table. The ear-piercing screams died down slowly, until suddenly a deafening silence took over in its stead. Her body fell limp on the table once again, The Avengers not taking a step as all of their eyes were fixed on her lifeless body. Shuri stared at the screen that still stood beside the bed, displaying a flat line. 'come on, come on. come on Y/N, still gotta do our girl trip remember, can't leave us now.' Finally, the line formed a peek and Shuri nearly collapsed as a sudden wash of relief took her down. "Thank god." 

Peter ran over to Y/n's side as soon as he saw the opportunity to finally see her after days. The rest of the Avengers still frozen in disbelief. "Is she?" Was all he could muster to Shuri, she nodded with a smile "It's just her." 

"Y/N, Y/N, Y/N, come on Indi." his hands wrapped around her cheeks, lightly slapping them to wake her up. "Hey, it's Peter, come on, open your eyes for me, love." His eyes kept scanning her pale features, not stepping away from her until Tony laid a hand on his shoulder. "Why isn't she waking up?" He asked in desperation. Shuri didn't answer, neither did Tony or anyone else. 

"Let's let her rest." Tony sighed, attempting to pull him from her side, but instead Peter took one of the stools and sat by her side, not taking his eyes off of her, not letting go of her hand until she would wake up. Tony sighed, knowing the kid didn't even realize he was defying his silent order. Nat and Bruce both gave Tony a comforting pat until filing out of the room with the rest, leaving them in peace. "You should rest too, you can sleep on the couch here if you want." Shuri smiled at him and he nodded. He had barely laid himself down when he already drifted to sleep, while Peter kept a very close eye on her.