(Note: Dialogue in this chapter switches between Russian, French, Latin, and German. All foreign language exchanges are presented in English with the language noted where relevant.)
In the donut shop, the tension could be felt increasing with each passing second.
Fury glared angrily at the masked man who had made him waste a huge portion of his budget without producing a single useful result.
What had annoyed him before irritated him even more now that the man was sitting right across from him, nearly reaching the same level as Red Hood on his list of headaches, especially since ambassadors from different countries had effectively put a leash around his neck, demanding that he locate that particular individual.
Natasha stared at the masked man with a neutral expression, but internally she was still annoyed at being taken down so easily.
She could not wrap her head around the fact that she, someone who had been trained since childhood, could be neutralized that quickly.
According to the reports, he had only fought a few superhuman individuals, and none of them had training comparable to hers.
The only conclusion she could reach was that someone with superior training had taught him, someone capable of defeating her own techniques.
Tony, unlike the other two, was not particularly bothered by the masked man's arrival.
He was, however, incredibly interested in the suit because of the amount of technology it contained.
Thanks to his trained eye, he could immediately recognize the incredible craftsmanship of the fabric.
He glanced at the belt, and a small voice in the back of his mind warned him that it was the most dangerous component of the entire suit. He was tempted to use his helmet to scan it but refrained.
"Why are you here?" Fury asked.
"For the same reason as you. To reprimand Stark for letting an idiot get hold of a highly advanced prosthetic capable of sowing greed and chaos."
When Tony was about to protest, Spider-Man cut him off.
"The chaos comes from those trying to replicate it. The number of deaths caused by those attempts is alarming, currently totaling 383."
Tony fell silent at the number.
"Ignore me. Carry on with what you were doing."
He shifted his gaze from Fury to the red-haired agent.
Romanoff raised an eyebrow, noticing that she was now the one receiving his attention. Fury frowned, having been completely ignored. Tony watched the exchange with mild amusement.
"Pleasure, Agent. I admire your work and the creative ways you bring demons into your home." (spoken in Russian)
Natasha briefly raised both eyebrows in astonishment before hiding the reaction just as quickly.
She knew several people who spoke the language, and even after so much time, most had never mastered it properly. This man spoke it flawlessly.
"I did not think someone like you would admire my work," she replied, with a hint of sensuality in her voice. (Russian)
"I do, but I am a little disappointed by the wasted potential I see. Tell me, Agent, are you not interested in exploring other things or different methods? I am very good at both." (Russian)
He watched as her expression remained perfectly neutral, though her eyes briefly gleamed.
"I doubt you can teach me anything. And would you even listen to a suggestion to switch sides? I did not think you were that bold, especially with my boss present." (Russian)
"Trust me, Agent. I can teach you more than S.H.I.E.L.D. ever could. If you come with me, you will have complete freedom of operation, new methods, and better weapons.
I can even teach you how to eliminate a threat with a pencil or a toothpick. I will even teach you how to knock someone unconscious with a coin from ten meters away." (Russian)
Natasha found herself briefly intrigued by the proposal. She did not dismiss it outright, mentally filing it away as a possible contingency.
The comment about the pencil and coin genuinely surprised her.
Just as she was about to answer, Fury interrupted.
"Is that possible?" Fury asked, looking at Romanoff.
"According to Lord Stark's security database, there are multiple redundancies that prevent unauthorized use."
Fury stopped looking at Romanoff and turned toward Stark.
"If you are looking for an answer about how I got the suit, I know it."
Everyone turned to look at Spider-Man.
Before giving the answer, he took a white pill from one of his pockets and handed it to Stark.
"Swallow it."
"And what is this?" Tony asked, holding the pill.
"A pill that will get rid of your hangover, along with the aches and pains you are feeling right now."
Tony shrugged and swallowed it.
"The pill contains lithium dioxide. It will help calm you down."
He handed Tony a bottle of water as well.
Fury frowned in annoyance, realizing he had just lost his chance to make Stark owe him a favor.
"Did you have something to help me all this time?"
"Yes. I was hoping to give it to you at a better moment. And no, it is not a cure. It will only relieve the symptoms. You still need to find a real solution."
"And when did you plan on giving it to me? Right when I was dying after doing something stupid so that I would owe you—YOU!"
Now that he was completely sober, he thought clearly and knew exactly why Fury was here.
"Putting that aside, Fury's true motive was that he had planned to give you the temporary cure at a more private moment. And the reason Stark let them steal his suit is simple to explain. JARVIS is connected to all of your armors, correct?" Stark nodded.
"After several seconds of analyzing the video, I came to a conclusion." Both Natasha and Fury were surprised to hear it only took seconds.
"You already knew what was going to happen that night. You knew there would be a fight, and yet you did not prevent it. You decided to have that fight with Rhodes."
The philanthropist just sighed, nodding as confirmation that he had already known the final result that would happen that night.
"The fight had several contributors, but the one that stood out the most was the resentment of being asked to give up your armor. And I have to assume that Rhodes was there at someone's request, not just to stop you from doing something stupid, but to reaffirm your opinion about not surrendering the armor." Stark nodded because that was the conclusion he had reached himself. Rhodes had every right not to attend that party and let Tony sort things out, but he went anyway.
"Yeah. I did not think clearly enough. The stress, the fear, the depression over what would be my inevitable death. Funny, what saved me that day is the same thing that is killing me. I doubt you understand my pain."
"I suppose you spent days without rest and nights working until you passed out trying to find a cure, and you thought there was no better person to have your suits than your best friend, who you believed was worthy to wear them. Well, how worthy was he when he betrayed you behind your back."
Tony just sighed in resignation.
Suddenly Spider-Man hit Tony on the head, hard enough to make him also hit the table. Natasha's expression showed the microscopic hint of a smile.
"Do not talk about not understanding pain, Stark. The three of us are experts at that, and I am telling you this as someone who was dead." The two agents' eyes widened slightly but they hid it.
Stark did not.
"What?"
"In a moment of existential crisis, I decided to end it all, but after being in limbo, a completely desolate and silent place, I started to think things through properly and realized I had done something stupid.
It made me use every ounce of willpower I had, and I came back. I do not know how long I was there, but I know that after that, there was a change. You could say that even death does not want Spider-Man."
The table went completely silent.
It is not every day you hear that a person died and returned through sheer willpower. All three thought it was a lie at first, but they detected the genuine, hollow regret loaded with feeling that the masked man filtered into his explanation.
"Death changes everything. If I told you the exact moment you would die, your whole world would collapse. In a second, your world would shatter. You see things differently, you smell things differently, you taste everything from a glass of water to a walk in the park. The irony is that you cannot enjoy life. You take that glass of water, but you do not taste it."
All three detected in his voice how the experience filtered through, making them increasingly certain that what he said was true.
"With every patrol I do, I see things you would never see. Once, I found a woman abandoning her child in a garbage dump."
Upon hearing this, Natasha closed her eyes and her jaw tensed. "If it were not for me, that baby would be dead. I have saved people from the brink of death, freed those held captive against their will, solved cases the police could not, finally bringing peace to many. These hands," he said, looking down at his gloved hands, "have been present at births in places they should never have had to happen. If it were not for the medical kit I always carry, many would be dead."
Stark shuddered at the human cruelty he had witnessed on more than one occasion through his own career.
"I know human cruelty firsthand. I experience it every day, and every day I am constantly amazed by how twisted human beings can be when it comes to inflicting pain. I remember once, three individuals being held captive, along with six others, knelt before me and asked me, no, begged me, to end their suffering."
"What happened?" Natasha asked quietly.
"There was carnage." Through the visor of the mask, two red dots could be clearly seen glowing. Fury stopped looking at his headache and returned his attention to Stark.
"Well, you do not need to keep racking your brain looking for a cure, which means you can stop being a problem for me to solve. I have bigger problems than you."
Upon hearing Fury, Tony tilted his head to the side with an expression that communicated clearly that he was not interested in the director's feelings.
Natasha, on the other hand, had a glint of something dangerous in her eyes. Apparently, she did not like Fury's comment at all after everything that had just been said.
"You make it sound like the cure is much easier than it seems. I have news for you, baldy: it is not. I have looked for something to replace palladium. I have tried every combination, every permutation of the elements."
"Well. I came to tell you that you have not tried them all."