An Imperfect Weapon (November 2005)

Isabella wasn't sure what to think of all of this. This woman was dangerous...extremely dangerous, but if Logan decided not to kill her or turn her over to SHIELD he had a reason. She knew that. Logan had seen something in her that made him believe he could help her. She wasn't sure if that was something that was possible, but she would let the entire team decide what they should do.

After getting her cleaned up she had to go finish getting dinner together. Tony had come home and Kate and Steve had finished their workout and got cleaned up. As they sat down they realized that Logan was back and everyone sat there quietly as they looked at Logan and waited for him to speak. Finally, Kate spoke up.

"So, what happened Logan?"

“With what?” Logan said and they all looked at him. “Oh C’mon Logan, you can’t ‘not’ tell us!” Serena said almost in a whine. “Logan sighed. “Oh alright!” He said with a sigh. “I..didn’t kill her. I...I brought her here,” He said and then waited for the onslought.

“Um...what?” Tony asked and then turned to face Isabella and narrowed his eyes. “Isabella picket up the plate of biscuits. “Anyone want another biscuit?” She asked sheepishly. “How could you bring her into our home?” Tony asked and then looked at Serena. “What happened Logan?” Serena asked. “We don’t need to know and we need to take her to SHIELD,” Tony said but Logan looked at him. “We’re not doing that,” He said as he took another bite of pork. “Why aren’t we doing that?” Steve asked. “Because she’s innocent of her crimes,” Logan said. Steve blinked. “You aren’t serious?” He said in disbelief. Tony just looked at Isabella as if this was all her fault.

Isabella looked over at Logan. "I don't know if I would say she's 'innocent of her crimes'. But Logan said he couldn't kill her. I don't want her here either Tony, but Logan believes she can be broken of whatever brainwashing the SSB has done to her." Isabella was clearly torn about this whole thing. She knew Natalya was extremely dangerous and didn't want the woman near her family. However, if they turned her over to SHIELD they would kill her. "She's heavily restrained and the reinforcements on the door have been activated. Jarvis is monitoring her and I've already threatened to kill her myself if she comes anywhere near Serena. I don't know what else we can do Tony."

For whatever reason, Isabella’s threats made Logan angry. This whole thing wasn’t right. The horror of it all made him want to hunt down every SSB agent and kill them...with pain. He lifted his plate of food and threw it against the refrigerator. “Its easy, isn’t it, to determine someone else's fate,” Logan said in an angry rasp. “She was raped and tortured and beaten as a child. As a child Isabella! A little girl who was conditioned to be what she is. Regardless if she wanted to be that or not,” Logan said. What was done to him was monstrous and his heart related exactly to this. The agony of having hot liquified metal injected into his body had nearly drove him mad. “No one’s doing anything Tony, you understand?” Logan said threateningly and Tony tossed down his napkin and stood up. “When it comes to my family Logan, I don't understand,” Tony said. “I don’t expect you to, your life, yours and Isabellas and Serenas has been an easy one compared to that,” Logan said as he pointed toward her door. “I’d rather kill her than let SHIELD get their hands on her,” Logan said truthfully.

Isabella had done a lot for Logan. She had stuck her neck out for him and had given him a place in her home and had argued with Tony, Steve, and Bruce to get him on the team. She had gone above and beyond for him. She cooked meals for him and washed his clothes and took care of him. She didn't appreciate being yelled at by him like she was. This was the safety of her family they were talking about. After the incident with Bruce she was a little shaken up and this woman was a confirmed killer. Perhaps Logan could help her, perhaps not. She was giving him a chance with her, but when it came to the protection of her family they came first. She tossed her napkin on the table and stood up. She walked out without a word and went to her room and shut the door.

Kate looked across the table at Logan. "Continue to bite the hand that literally feeds you Logan and see what happens."

Logan growled and stepped away from the table himself. “No one understands...no one,” Logan murmured but they all heard what he said as he headed toward his room.

Hours passed….

Steve sat on the edge of the bed. He had on white, boxer shorts and he had been thinking about what Logan has done. Kate had taken a shower and she had a light blue towel wrapped into her hair and a white towel over her body. “Logans gone too far this time Kate...I knew sending him out on his own was a mistake,” Steve said.

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Tony poured both himself and Isabella a drink. Heavy pours with a couple of whiskey stones in the glasses. “I had reservations from the beginning about Logan but I truly think he’s lost his mind,” Tony said as he handed his wife her glass. “I need you to help me understand babe...we all read her file. How could he bring her here?” He asked.

Everyone seemed on edge that night. Kate took a shower to try and relax, but as soon as she stepped out she could tell that Steve was still very upset over what Logan had done. She sighed and sat down next to him on the bed. She was quiet a moment before speaking gently. "What if Logan's right though? What if she can be helped? It's not like she was given a choice in any of this. The woman was brainwashed, tortured and raped. I'm not saying he was necessarily right in bringing her here, but clearly Logan saw something in her that made him rethink what he was doing. He risked a lot in bringing her to the Tower when he knew everyone would be against it."

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Isabella was still upset over the incident with Logan that had happened earlier that night. She and Logan had been friends for a very long time and he had never lashed out at her the way he had. She accepted the glass Tony handed her and took a big sip before answering. "He said he saw fear and desperation in her eyes. He told me that was not indicative of a cold-blooded killer."

Logan wanted to tear his room apart. He was in that place between right and wrong so precariously balanced as if he were on the edge of a blade. Memories of being in that tank. The fear, the horror of watching those plungers inject the metal. And the agony of burning from the inside tortured his very soul. For so long he had lost his memory, his self. A man out of time and out of his mind. He had no control over what was done to him and neither did Natalya. He was worried about what she might do so he decided to go to her room and sit down inside the door. He watched her sleep and saw the fitful dreams and nightmares she must have had as she tossed and turned while she slept.

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Tony scoffed. “Logan is out of his mind. I won’t take chances when it comes to you and Serena’s safety Isabella. I won’t. We got lucky once, I won’t rely on luck again...I can’t,” He said. Unfortunately that sounded as if he had taken steps that he hadn’t mentioned to anyone. In fact he had. He had energy fields that could be erected. He added the emitters when the tower had been damaged by the hulk. He never told anyone including Isabella which now that he saw the way she looked at him. Might not have been something to keep secret from her. ‘Oop!’ He thought as he took another sip of his drink.

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“Yes, he is risking alot. Us. He just doesn’t think sometimes. He’s impulsive,” He said but he saw how Kate looked at him just then. “Hey, I do feel bad about what’s been done to her but we can’t change that. And she’s committed alot of murders. Alot. Those memories will be inside of her head forever,” He said. “What happens if we get a mission? Whose going to watch her?” He said as he rubbed his temple. “God, we just didn’t need this right now,” Steve said obviously upset about what was happening.

Natalya muttered in her sleep as she dreamt. She spoke in Russian and her head tossed back and forth on the pillow. She was restrained on the bed and her body strained against the straps. Beads of sweat glistened on her forehead as her mutterings became louder and more pronounced. Suddenly, her eyes opened as she gasped for air. Her fists clenched and her whole body tensed up. She stared up at the ceiling before trying to move. She then realized she was restrained. She looked over and saw the man with the claws who had tried to kill her. "Where am I?"


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Isabella eyed her husband suspiciously. She put down her drink and crossed her arms over her chest. "What did you do Tony?"


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Kate sighed and looked at Steve. "Alright, then what do we do with her? If we turn her over to SHIELD they will kill her, without question. If we turn her loose then she's a potential danger to society...especially if the SSB gets their hands on her again."

Logan just sat there, in the dark. The past 24 hours had been the oddest 24 hours of his life. He was sent to kill a dangerous SSB agent. An ‘enhanced’ human not unlike Steve Rogers, and he ended up bringing her to the tower. ‘Now why on earth did I do that?’ He wondered. Bringing her here puts everyone at risk so why did he do it? He honestly could not say. Could it be for a pair of dark, haunted eyes?

He had listened to her toss and turn and talk in her sleep. He didn’t quite get what she said but it was obvious something very wrong was going on inside her head. But was that a good thing or a bad thing? He wouldn’t know that until she did something either good or bad he supposed. When she asked where she was though any chance for him to change his mind was gone. “You’re at Stark Tower, in the Penthouse. You are in the home of Tony,Isabella and Serena Stark. Steve Rogers and Kate Blackwell. My home to I suppose. My name is Logan but some people know me as, The Wolverine. I can remove those restraints if you intend on remaining nice. If not let me remind you, you’re never batter down this door I’m sitting against. And secondly, you’re in a room with an Ill tempered Wolverine,” he said. And he let her mull that over for a moment as he stood up. He moved up toward her, extended one of his claws and easily sliced through the bindings that held her wrists. Her legs were not bound and he casually moved back toward the door and turned around to face her. It was very dark in here but his eyes had already adjusted to the lack of light.

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“We are not the cause of what happened to her but society, innocent people have already paid the price of it. With so much at risk, what is one life against the damage she could do?” Steve said. “This is insane Kate, in every sense of the word,” he said.

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“I’ve added energy field emitters in the floor and ceiling. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think it was important for you to know. Now though I think I need you and Serena to learn how to use them,” Tony said. He knew Isabella would take offense at not being told. Lately he had been doing this alot to her and Serena and he knew Isabella hated it when he did that.

Natalya eyed Logan suspiciously. She clearly didn't know if she could trust him or not. However, she knew he could have killed her back at the construction site if he had wanted to. He was the only person she had ever met who had gotten the upper hand over her. But, perhaps he brought her back here because he planned on using her like everyone else had her entire life. She waited for him to back away after he sliced through her bindings and then slowly sat up. It was then that she realized her clothes had been changed. For a brief moment, Logan would see the fear return to her eyes and he might suspect that she wondered if he had taken advantage of her while she was unconscious. What had been done to her her entire life had severely messed with her mind and her ability to trust in people. She slowly looked over at him. "How do I know I can trust you?"

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Kate looked at Steve again. "So, are you saying you think we should kill her?"

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Isabella blinked when Tony casually told her that he had added energy field emitters in the floor and ceiling and then had the audacity to say he didn't think it was important for her to know. "You didn't think it was important for me to know? Tony, I am your wife! We're partners in life and in business. You used to respect me enough to discuss things like this with me so we could make a plan together. How can I properly run this Tower if I don't know what the hell is going on?!"

Logan felt a sharp rise in his temper. ‘Calm!’ He needed to keep his head. It was crucial right now. He ignored her question. “Isabella and I cleaned and clothed you, she loaned you some of her clothes since you have none. We’ll need to remedy that. There is food and drinks in the refrigerator and the microwave can heat up anything you want heated up. Right now I would...appreciate it,” God that was more difficult to say than he thought it would be. “If you could keep a low profile and be...respectful to the Starks,” he said. “I doubt I need to remind you that the majority of the world would rather see you dead than alive right now. We need to figure out how to change that consensus,” he said.

Isabella had given him that little tidbit of advice. ‘When you want to gain someone’s trust, always use the word ‘we’ in place of ‘you’. “Today you are my guest and my responsibility. This door behind me is reinforced as well as the walls, floors and ceilings. All of our rooms are,” he said then turned around and put his hand on the door handle. He half turned to face her. “Today there is no trust between us. That is something we will both need to earn,” Logan said and then stepped out and closed the door behind him. She heard a mechanical ‘click’ as Logan slid the long, deadbolt into place. There are electronic deadbolts as well but Tony was a crafty sort and had used components from the tv and microwave to disable the electronics in the lock mechanism to escape. Thus he built into each door a mechanical failsafe. Since the door frame overlapped with the gap in the door, there would be no crafty way to pry the door gap to get at the deadbolt. She was not leaving that room unless someone let her leave. He would have to take care though whenever he entered. Lest she tried to harm him to escape.

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Steve looked at Kate for quite the long time. This wasn’t an argument about what she ‘might’ do, this was about paying for what she ‘had’ already done. “Yes,” Steve said coldly. "As tragic as her life has been, the world would be a better place without her in it,” Steve said. His voice was so cold right then. He had judged and sentenced her to death in his mind.

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“I just told you didn’t I? Now your all up to speed,” Tony said quickly. “I’ve already added the commands to Jarvis for everyone,” He said. “I’ll show everyone how do use them and then we’ll all be on the same page,” Tony said trying to sidestep the dark cloud that was roiling over Isabella right then.