The shadow Hunter

chapter 56

"Mulana?" Tony called as he walked past the lake beside their house to a small tent on the grass. A small child, the age of 5, exited it, a metal blue and silver mask on her face and a red glove with a round light on her hand. "Tell me what you want or be exterminated." The small child giggled as she held out the gloved hand. "Hey, you shouldn't be wearing that, that's an anniversary gift for your mom." Tony told her, lifting her into his lap and taking off the mask. "Where did you find that?" He asked. "The garage." Morgan told him. "Oh, Daddy likes the garage too." He said as he stood up, holding her on his hip. "It doesn't matter anyway, your mom never wears anything i get her." 

They started to walk back up to the house and as they reached the bottom step of the deck, a car door slammed behind them. He turned around to see three familiar faces that he hadn't seen in a while. He stopped for a long time, his brain whirring. He regarded them before turning around and walking into the house.

                                                                                        * * * * * * 

"It's not going to work." Tony told them. He poured glasses of water for Natasha, Steve and Scott. "But we don't know that until we try." Scott countered. Tony placed down the jug of water and sat down in the seat. "It messes with the Planck scale which then triggers the Deutsch proposition." He stated. The three furrowed his brows. "It means, your not coming home." 

"But if we follow the rules of time travel it could work." Scott spoke. "No talking to our past selves, no betting on sports events." Tony holds up his hands and interrupts. "Are you telling me your plan to save the universe is based on back to the future?" Scott looked away embarrassed. "No." He muttered. "Ok good because i was starting to think you were just an idiot." Tony said Natasha sighed. "We have to take a stand Tony." She told him. He looked over at her. "We did stand and here we are." There was a horrible heavy silence that filled the room.

"Look, i know you have a lot on the line. A wife, daughters." Scott spoke. "But i lost someone important to me. A lot of people did and now we have a chance to bring them back." Tony didn't reply. "Speaking of daughters. Where is Clara?" Steve asked, peering his head around Tony like she was hiding somewhere. Tony snapped his head up and his face took on a stone look as he stared at Steve. "Clara left two years ago." He said blankly.

 Steve furrowed his brows with confusion but Nat looked like she already knew. "What? Didn't you ever go after her? She could be dead." Steve asked, feeling annoyed at Tony, he had thought he had become a better father. Tony looked at Steve with anger crossing his eyes. "Don't you think I tried, I looked everywhere for her, I watched every single news channel known to man, dreading a report that her body had been found." He sighed and stood up, walking around the room. "Unfortunately, Clara is much like her mother, if she doesn't want to be found, she won't be." Tony looked visibly upset although he tried to hide it and Steve felt a pang of guilt in his doubts of him. "Besides, she said she was safe." He added. "You spoke to her?" Nat asked, clearly not knowing this detail. Her and Yelena had kept in contact over the past 2 years and had been updated on Clara, she knew she wasn't doing well.

Tony reached into his pocket and brought out a pager. "She left me this." He uttered. "A pager?" Steve questioned. "Yes and she left me a message , saying she was fine." Steve sighed, "When have you ever believed her before when she said that." Tony looked away quickly. 

"So you have seen the murders then?" Natasha asked suddenly, stepping forward with folded arms. Tony narrowed his eyes, "What?" Natasha crossed over to the tv, grabbing the remote and turning it on. "You said you've been watching the news for the past two years, you must have seen the murders." Tony was walking into the kitchen now, bored of the pointlessness. "What, the murders committed by bow and arrow? Ye, it's pretty obvious it's Barton." He said. Natasha shook her head as she pressed some buttons on the remote, trying to find previous news announcements. "No, not those ones, although we probably should talk about those." She smiled triumphantly. She clicked on a channel and a news announcement started to fill the room. Steve, Scott and Tony, slowly, stepped closer to the tv as they watched with curiosity. "The body of an ex-hydra scientist has been found in a house in Russia. His name was Constantin Strucker and he was head of the Winter Soldier program and the enhanced program at Hydra." 

"These programs were top secret until Hydra collapsed after Ultron's attack of the Sokovian base. However he was believed to have escaped the attack." Everyone in the room could see where this was going. "He was found with a bullet wound in his head however there are no current leads linked to the murder." Tony leant on the back of the sofa and Steve stood with his arms crossed. "Strucker was the scientist who experimented on Clara and the twins." Nat explained. "And it isn't the only one, there have been reports of murders, especially men who used to work for Dreykov." The four people glanced at each other. 

"Are you sure it's her? Couldn't it be a coincidence?" Steve asked. "It's not a coincidence. They have no leads and there is only one type of person i know who can kill that many people and not get caught." A widow. The revelation left the room silent. "Ok, but how do we find her?" Steve asked urgently, trying to form a plan in his head. Tony, surprisingly, shook his head. "No, no one is going to find her." He declared. Steve's eyebrows knitted together. "Don't you want to see her, make sure she is ok?" He asked. "Of course i do." Tony quickly retorted. "But she was miserable here and that's why she went away. If we bring her back, she's just going to be miserable again." Tony looked down at the ground. "And I can't see her like that." His voice broke slightly and he cleared his throat trying to play it off.

Natasha switched off the tv and stood up. "We need her and i know who she will be with." She said looking out the window in a sort of dream like state. "Who?" Steve questioned.