Can't See the Truth

Hetalia was more than willing to let the men in the hazmat suits take her away in a portable quarantine chamber. Everyone watched in either shock or relief to see her go, except for Pamplemousse who had managed to sneak past Bruce while he tried to keep her out of the crossfire.

“Where are they taking Hetalia?” the ten year old asked. “Why are they taking her away? Somebody stop them!”

“Pamplemousse,” Clint said quietly. “It’s okay. Tony said he would explain in a little bit.”

“But they can’t take her away! She’s my Auntie ‘talia!” Pamplemousse shouted with tears in her eyes.

“It’ll be okay,” a tired Tony told her. “I promise.”

It was then that Bruce staggered down the hallway, looking worse than ever before. “Sorry, I fell asleep,” he slurred. “Pamplemousse, honey, what are you doing out here?”

“You lied to me!” she shouted at her father. “You said everything was okay! Why are they taking Auntie ‘talia?”

Bruce just pulled his daughter into a hug, holding her as close as he possibly could as she cried into his chest.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Fury said from across the hall. “You may be infected, since you had a close encounter with both of them.”

Bruce quickly stepped away from Pamplemousse who promptly fell the the floor with a thud. Clint was there in an instant to comfort the hurting child.

“Did I do something wrong, daddy?” she asked through her sobs. “Am I a bad daughter?”

Bruce could feel tears stinging his eyes. “No, sweetheart,” he managed to say. “No, you’re the best daughter I could ask for.”

“Then why are you taking Hetalia away? Why don’t you love me anymore?”

Clint quietly shushed her, rocking her back and forth slightly. “It’s okay Pamplemousse. He does love you. It’s just that Auntie Hetalia is very sick and daddy might be sick too. He just doesn’t want to give it to you.”

“But why is she going away?”

“Because Fury is going to make her all better,” Steve added as he knelt down next to Clint and Pamplemousse. “Or at least, he’s going to try.”

Fury gave a solemn nod before following the rest of the group out of the Tower into an inconspicuous van, inviting Tony, Bruce, and Loki to come with an get tested.

****

Schaefer sat everyone down in the living room with the intent of passing on the information that Tony and Bruce had given him. “Now I know zis isn’t easy for all of you, but you need to listen to vat I say.”

When nobody broke the silence, Schaefer cleared his throat and continued. “Apparently Hetalia is very sick with some kind of virus zat is very dangerous und very catchy. Antoinette caught it upon her arrival here after she vas adopted. She is currently in a stasis, waiting to be cured. Hetalia is going to SHIELD to be, hopefully, cured as vell. Ze three of zem were trying to find a way to help ze both of them, vith no avail.”

“So Tony wasn’t cheating on me?” Steve asked quietly.

“Nien.”

Steve gave a solemn nod, feeling the guilt sink in. “I should’ve figured that when Toni disappeared. It just...didn’t occur to me.”

“So where is Toni? You said a stasis chamber, but you didn’t say where,” Brooke asked suddenly as she toyed with her black and red hair.

“She is down in ze lab here in ze Tower.”

“My brother did not speak of this. I cannot fathom why.”

“They didn’t want us to worry,” Clint replied. “I mean, let’s face it, with Hetalia here and sick, we all would’ve started freaking out about who was infected or not.”

****

Toni was wandering down the city’s streets attempting to find the source of the music. She kept throwing backwards glances over her shoulder in fear to see Dr. Bradstone standing directly behind her.

When Toni turned back around, she nearly ran into a man of the bean-pole variety. “Oi! Watch where you’re going!” he shouted, accent dripping through his words.

“Sorry,” Toni mumbled as she continued down the road.

The music was finally loud enough to make out the distinctive sounds of different basses and electronic sounds. She looked up at saw a neon sign. She nodded, knowing this must be the place and walked into the club.

****

It was a week since they took Hetalia from Avengers Tower. Bruce, Tony, and Loki were all clean of the sickness, for various reasons. Both Bruce and Loki lacked the basic human make-up to support the sickness which promptly died after entering their system. Tony, for lack of a better diagnosis, was just really lucky.

The Russian had been confined to a single quarantine room to testing and curing. She had been strapped to a chair when the rest of the Avengers and company walked in.

“Daddy,” Pamplemousse asked as she grabbed his hand. “Why is she in that chair?”

“To make sure she doesn’t run away or doesn’t hurt herself.”

“Why would she run away?”

Bruce shared a nervous look with Clint, who returned his gaze. “Well, sometimes, people are afraid of shots so they try to run away.”

“Is Auntie ‘talia afraid of shots, daddy?”

“You know, sweetheart, I don’t know,” Bruce admitted. “But they just want to make sure.”

Pamplemousse nodded before nuzzling her dad until she was almost completely hidden from view by his arm. If Hetalia wasn’t scared, Pamplemousse would be scared for her. Those leather straps in the dark, damp concrete room were really scary.

“Now, we’re going to do this by proper SHIELD procedure,” Fury said to the group. “The prototype cure will be injected into Hetalia and the aerosol form will be sprayed into the air to disinfect the room. Then, we pray.”

“A prototype and a prayer?” Tony accused. “That doesn’t sound very scientific, Fury. Prototypes kill people, and Hetalia is our family.”

“Would you rather we test it on your daughter, Stark?”

“It’s okay!” Hetalia shouted up to the observation room. “If I die, they know it won’t work on Toni. They will keep testing until they get it right.”

“You’re not a lab rat, Hetalia. You’re a human being.”

“Look at that thing in your chest, Stark,” she retorted. “You’re not a lab rat either, yet you did that.”

“To spare my life.”

Hetalia gave him a look as if to say “Duh.”

One of the men in a hazmat suit walked over to Hetalia and put a very intimidating needle into her arm, injecting the unusually colored liquid into her bloodstream.

“Fury, how did this happen? How accurate is that prototype?” Bruce asked as Pamplemousse cowered further behind him.

“You don’t have the authorization to know that,” Fury replied as he gathered his things. “In fact, none of you do.”

“Don’t we have a right to know?” Steve demanded. “I mean, you’re only threatening the lives of our greatest asset and Iron Man’s daughter.”

“As much as I would like to give you that information, it is severely classified.”

Fury stormed out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

Then, as if on cue, Tony’s cell phone started to ring in his pocket. The number was blocked, but he was used to calls like that.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Stark,” a male British accent nearly sang. “It’s a pleasure to finally speak with you in person. I would like to meet with you, talk with you, about the little ordeal that’s going on.”

“Who is this and how did you know about that?”

“My name is Roman Christos. I’m a family-friend of Hetalia’s. I was the one to treat her the first time. I want to meet and tell you what SHIELD won’t.”

“Where and when?”

“You’ll know. I’ll find you when the time comes.”

And with that, Roman hung up the phone, leaving Tony standing there listening to nothing but a dial tone.

“Tony?” Steve asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, hun,” Tony said a little too quickly. “Just a wrong number call.”

“Tony, that didn’t sound like nothing. Please don’t lie to me again.”

“I’m not lying, Steve,” Tony said as he pulled a fake smile on his face. “I promise that there’s nothing going on.”

Notes