The Truth

By Ammie Hawk

Disclaimer: I do not own Avengers or Gundam Wing.

Summary: After the events of the Avengers, Nick Fury asks some of the former Gundam Pilots for help. However, a secret lies within Avengers Tower that could throw all of them for a loop.

AN: Okay, I'm going to try and do my Twelve days of Christmas again this year, my work load has severely depleted and I have a bit of extra time on my hands. However, I'm still suffering from writer's block, so I'm asking my fans to help motivate me in this journey. If you want to see something, I'm now on facebook, just look for Ammie Hawk and send me a friend request stating that you're from fanfiction and I'll add you. Anyway, I hope ya'll enjoy my latest venture into uncharted territory.

Prologue: The Call

Quatre Raberba Winner sat at his desk in the main branch of WEI, located on the L4 colony, going through the mountain of paperwork he had been neglecting for the past few days or so. In his defense though, he had been distracted by the wedding of his good friends Heero Yuy and Wufei Chang. It was about time though, those two had been dancing around each other for years before they finally admitted that they might actually like each other and eventually got together, then there had been the years of them just dating before Duo, his other half, had convinced them to make it official and tie the knot already.

No, no, not letting that distract him again. He shook his head and turned his thoughts back to the task at hand, namely paperwork. He had just started in on the pile once again when his office phone started ringing. With a sigh, he put his pen down and reached over and connected the call.

"Quatre Raberba Winner," he answered automatically.

"Mr. Winner," the voice on the other end hand him frowning slightly. "I assume you know who this is. As such, I seem to be in need of a bit of help dealing with a few things in New York City."

"I heard about that," the blond rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. "But I fail to see how you need my help."

"The city needs rebuilt," the other stated plainly. "I know that you know, the city does not have the resources to hire you to help in the rebuilding, however, it would be in your best interest to do so."

"I see," the strategist in him was working overtime. "And you didn't ask Stark to do this, because…? Perhaps it's because he was involved in the destruction, or perhaps you just don't want to be in his debt. You would rather be in mine, because apparently I'm not as unreasonable."

"So, I can count on your assistance?"

"Yes, of course, we will be there within the week," Quatre couldn't help but smile mischievously. "Till then, Director Fury."

"Till then," Fury replied before cutting the call.

Once the call was ended, the former Sandrock pilot sat back in his chair and placed his hands together in front of himself, lightly drumming his fingers together. Well, it looked like his paperwork was just going to have to be put on hold again, or he could get Rashid to do it, which is more than likely what he would do. However, in the meantime, he had some phone calls to make, one to his husband and the other to a good friend of his that he hadn't contacted in quite awhile.

8888888

Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries and the legendary Iron Man, was going over the specs for Stark tower, which had received extensive damage from the attack on New York when Loki gained possession of the Tesseract. The entire city was undergoing major construction, but he was more concerned with his own building at the moment. People said he was selfish, but he saw himself more as… okay who are we kidding, he saw himself as selfish too. He was interrupted from his tinkering as his phone began ringing.

"Jarvis," he called irritably to his AI system, "I thought I told you to hold all calls."

"I'm sorry, sir," Jarvis said evenly, "but the caller insisted that you would want to talk with him, especially since he overrode my systems to place the call to your direct line."

With a few muttered curses about incompetent computers, he clicked a button on the bottom right hand corner of one of his many screens which would connect him to his caller.

"Stark speaking," he snapped, not looking at the screen, even though it was a video call. "I'm a busy man. And start with how you hacked into my system."

"It's really not that hard to bypass a security system when you know the person who built it," the person on the other end laughed. "I told you that back in college when I erased the record you earned with the Preventers. You never did figure out how I did that, did you Tony?"

Tony's head whipped around so fast the other winced in sympathy for the man's neck, "Quatre!? Quatre Raberba Winner? To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"

"Can't I just want to call an old friend?" the blond on the screen gave him an innocent look.

"Right," he crossed his arms and leaned his hip against the counter he was working at. "Cause you've called how many times in the past several years? I think maybe once or twice a year isn't it? Christmas and birthdays, oh and there was that one time after I came back. So, I haven't disappeared recently, well, not completely, and I'm pretty sure it's not my birthday, so that leaves Christmas, right? So what'd you get me?"

"Oh god, Tony," Quatre laughed, "you're worse than Duo."

"Speaking of which, how is my favorite manic twin doing?" Tony grinned at the mention of the braided man. "I miss him. You know, you two should come out for a visit soon. Probably not right now, cause of how things are currently, but soon."

"Actually, that's why I called," the former terrorist shook his head. "I'm coming planetside to New York. I'm going to be aided in the reconstruction. I figured if I gave you the heads up, we could meet up at some point. I know how busy you've been recently, so I thought I'd give you time to clear your schedule or something."

"No, no, no," the billionaire superhero shook his head emphatically, "if you're coming anyway, you can stay here, it's not like I don't have the room, even with all the unwanted guests I currently have staying here. You and Duo are more than welcome here at any time, I believe I've told you that before, I think it was at your wedding. Though I think at the time, I told you each separately, just in case marital bliss wasn't all it was cracked out to be. Anyway, I'll have Jarvis prepare for your stay, and I'll see you in the next few days."

"Alright, alright," the blond put his hands up, knowing it was pointless to argue. "We'll be there in a few days."

"Till then," he grinned again before the call was disconnected.

He turned back to his screens but couldn't concentrate on his work. There was just too much to do, and firewall, and make indestructible, if he was going to have two of his second favorite people in the universe at his house within the week. But first…

"Jarvis! Scrap those plans," he pointed needlessly at the holoscreens. "I need better ones. Put together some ideas that would Hulk proof this place. No, no, no, scratch that. I want this place Gundam proof. Shinigami's coming to visit."

"Of course, sir," the AI system replied.

With that being said, he headed out of the door to his lab, a small bounce to his steps and went in search of his current housemates. He found them all gathered in the living room. Bruce Banner was seated in an armchair off to the side reading a large book of some sort that Tony couldn't be bothered to figure out what was at the moment. And to some surprise, Thor and Steve Rogers were sitting on the couch, each with a game controller in their hands, battling it out on the big screen television while Clint Barton and Loki looked on in some anticipation. The only one currently missing was Natasha Romanoff, but he could fill her in later, or one of the others could, he didn't really care. He cleared his throat and immediately gained their attention.

"So, guys," he looked around at the weird assembly of people currently residing in his house, "figured I'd let you guys know, we're gonna have company coming in the next few days."

"And who might that be?" Bruce asked, looking back down at the book in his hand. "One of your little girlfriends who you won't remember in the morning?"

"No," Tony rolled his eyes at his fellow scientist. "If you must know, he's one of the nicest guys in the entire universe, and a really good friend of mine from back in college. He's going to be in town working on the reconstruction, and I invited him and his husband to stay here while that's going on. Now, he's normal, like normal people, well his husband's not really, but anyway, so try and keep things normal around them. He's one of my oldest and dearest friends, so play nice and try not to scare him away."

"You have friends, Tony?" Natasha sniped, coming back into the room in time for the end of his speech. "I don't believe it. You don't play well with others, it's in your file."

"Quatre and I go way back," he scoffed. "He helped me out of a few tight spots with the Preventers back in college, and we've been close ever since. Anyway, Quatre and Duo will be here in the next couple days and you're all gonna play nice, or to hell with what Fury says, you can get out of my tower."

"Speaking of Fury," the only female of the group interrupted, "I just got off the phone with him. Apparently, he thinks that you need more looking after than what Clint and I can provide, so he's sending in one of the top brass of S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep an eye on things. He said they should be here in about two weeks."

"Great," Tony threw up his hands in irritation, "more unwanted people in my home."

While he went on, no one seemed to notice as one person slipped soundlessly from the room.

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Clint Barton made his way down the hall to his room inside Stark tower. He was sure no one had seen him leave, for which he was grateful, he didn't need to deal with anyone right now. This couldn't be happening, not now. He had worked too hard and for too long to put everything behind him.

He flopped back onto his bed, he couldn't think about that now. He wouldn't let himself dwell on it, he just couldn't go through that pain again. With that thought firmly in his head, he got off the bed and quickly located his duffle bag. A slight smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth as he looked inside and found all his essentials, it was a good thing some habits die hard after all.

The archer was gathering a few more things from around his room that he might need, namely his bow and quiver, when a knock sounded on his door. He scowled at the closed portal, debating for a moment whether or not he should just ignore whoever was on the other side. He had just decided to ignore the unwanted interruption, hoping the other person would just leave him be. However, this just didn't seem to be his day.

"And just where do you think you're going, Archer?"

Green eyes narrowed slightly at the intrusion, "It doesn't matter, Loki. I'm leaving and that's that."

"Why?" the Trickster cocked an eyebrow. "Don't you want to meet Stark's friends?"

"Not really," he shrugged, going for nonchalant. "I have no real reason to see them."

Loki's eyes narrowed slightly, something wasn't right, "What don't you want the others to know, Barton?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he turned and started gathering his bags. "Now I have to go, I need to be as far from here as possible. Maybe I'll go to the colonies, with two of them here I'm sure I can avoid the others."

"Wait," dark brows drew together in a frown. "You already know Stark's friends that are coming, don't you?"

Silence greeted this question, and the archer made his way to the door, trying to bypass the Asgardian.

The god of mischief stepped into his path, "You're going to answer me, Barton. Either that or I can go get my brother to pound it out of you."

"Just let me pass," he ran his hand through his hair. "I don't have to answer you. I answer only to myself."

"I can always make it very difficult for you to leave this facility. Or, you could always take me with you so that I don't have to deal with any more of these self righteous do gooders."

Clint paused for a moment, considering his options, "If I tell you will you let me leave in peace?"

"Perhaps," Loki waved for the other man to continue.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent sighed, dropping his bags on the floor and plopped down on the bed, "Fine. But this is going to take some time."

"I have all the time in the world," the Asgardian said as he sat down cross-legged on the floor.

Clint put his head in his hands and stared at the floor, unable to even look at the other, "Well, I guess it all started years ago, when I was fifteen. I was a soldier, I was sent to Earth to take out the organization called OZ. Along the way I met up with four others who all had the exact same mission that I did. We ended up fighting, and winning, the war. Afterward, we all went our separate ways. I ended up with a circus troop I had joined during the war as a cover.

"I lived there for several years in peace, until someone from the organization that had originally planned to send the five of us to Earth found out where I was. They attacked the circus, killing everyone, trying to find me. Obviously, I managed to escape, but I couldn't save any of them, not even the girl I considered a sister.

"After that, I disappeared, leaving that life behind me," he shook his head, clearing it of the images that were dancing through it. "I changed my name and became a master assassin, fighting was all I knew how to do. Eventually, Fury found me and I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. But as for the other four, we were really close until that incident, but after that I couldn't face them. They were all living their lives normally, nothing bad happened to them. So I cut all communication from them and disappeared from their radar as well. Stark's friends are two of the four: Quatre Raberba Winner and Duo Maxwell, at least I'm pretty sure they are, I've never heard of another couple by that name anyway."

"So is it your old friends that you're running from, your new friends, or yourself?" the dark haired man asked.

"All of them," he snarled. "I can't bring anyone into my problems, and I don't want to deal with the pain they'll bring with them."

"Pain is an essential part of life, Barton," the Asgardian scoffed. "Without it, how do you really know you're alive?"

"I know that pain is a part of life, but that much pain is too much for one person to bear," the archer gave a wry chuckle. "Though the only person who could possibly understand what I'm going through is unfortunately one of those I cut out of my life forever."

"How old were you the last time you saw them, Barton?"

"I don't really know," he shrugged. "I've never actually known how old I am, but I'd say around nineteen or twenty."

"And how long ago was that?" Loki questioned patiently.

"About ten years or so," he frowned.

"You'd honestly be surprised how much people tend to change in that length of time, Barton, especially you mortals. I'd be willing to bet that they won't even recognize you. Stay. See them again. I'll help you through the pain, if you let me. Just stay."

"I don't know if I can," broad shoulders trembled slightly with his suppressed emotions.

Loki shifted onto the bed beside the other man and put his arm around his shoulders, "You don't have to be alone, Barton. I'll help you, if you just let me in."

The archer scoffed, "Cause letting you in always ends pretty."

"Fury took the scepter and my brother took the Tesseract back to Asgard," the trickster shrugged. "I have no other way of controlling you, Barton. This is just me, trying to be a friend."

"I don't do friends," he shook his head. "But why not, you know everything now anyway."

Ammie: Okay, so there it is, the first chapter of a new fic, and my first day of Christmas Present. Hope to hear what you think.