"Hey Hill, have you read the paper yet?" Tony Stark called over the beeps and whirring machines in his still half destroyed lab.

Agent Hill gave a quiet eye roll at the question, setting his morning coffee down on the table in front of him. "No I have not."

"Ok so you haven't seen this," Tony said, pulling up what looked like a picture of the front page of the paper. She gave it a once over, not seeing anything that immediately caught her eye.

"Couldn't you just read the paper like a normal person?" Maria said with a raise of her brow as she looked over at Tony, who gave her a childish mimicking act.

"One, never. Two, look at the byline," Tony said, enlarging the photo to where the thing he was referring to was large enough to read finally. "Tell me, you're still involved with SHIELD, can you tell me why that name has been plastered all over the papers the past couple months?" he said quietly like he didn't want to be overheard.

Maria read the name and immediately it was like her brain started turning gears as an explanation. "Orthani Mynx. She's the one who helped with New York, basically turned into a God doing it," she said, not taking her eyes off the name.

"Yep. And she's supposed to be god knows where playing double agent with Thanos and reindeer games last I heard from Thor a few weeks ago, so why on earth is she reporting on some of the most controversial vigilantes around the globe? And the occasional house fire."

"It's probably just a name someone chose to be their writer's alias," Maria said, reading the words in the article as if that would help solidify things.

"Yeah right, and what are the chances of that," Tony scoffed. "Look, I don't care what protocols you're under with Fury back in play, but I have a hunch you know what's going on," he said, quickly closing the article on the screen to get her to pay attention to him. "Normally I wouldn't care, but last I checked, we're still in danger of some moron trying to destroy the universe, so if SHIELD had anything to do with this, I'd like to know. What is she doing, playing triple agent?"

"For once, Stark, I actually don't know," she said, annoyed he didn't let her finish reading.

"Well then how do you explain this, Hill. How do you explain the fact there's no trace of her anywhere on any system?" Tony rattled on, trying to get answers.

"We haven't had any contact with her since she was pulled into enemy lines, Stark-"

"So why is her name plastered in the papers. Is no one asking questions about someone who fought in the Battle of New York is suddenly sitting at a desk job in our back yard? Her name was in the papers alongside all the other Avengers, people can't just be that blind."

Maria exhaled loudly. She didn't know anything, and hell Fury thought she was long since dead after what little evidence they found on her, but she knew Stark wouldn't give it a rest until she fed him some sort of story.

"Fury believes something went wrong. We found her daggers a few month's back," Maria said quietly, folding her hands in front of her.

Tony gave her a long, hard stare. "Her daggers?"

She sighed, turning to Tony's supercomputer and started typing away.

"A while back we had a run in with a fugitive, one of Hydra's brutes almost like Bucky. Programmed to kill at all cost, used raw force to take down some of the best agents we had at the time. Well she used a pair of daggers," she stopped talking to start typing things into Tony's computer, bringing up some sort of SHIELD registered files and playing a video, "that looked exactly like the ones Agent Mynx used in the Battle of New York," she said, pausing and zooming in to get a clearer picture of the daggers in question. "We thought it was her for a while. She fought similarly, we just figured something went wrong and somehow Hydra got their hands on her and turned her into a puppet. She was good, though. She started taking out the remaining high level SHIELD agents that survived the Hydra attack and actually managed to take out a good chunk of them, however this happened two months ago," she said. She typed on the keyboard again, pulling up another video. This time, it wasn't of a fight between this unknown and SHIELD agents.

A shot rang out, and the assailant in the video fell to the ground.
"Shot in the head. We found out later that it wasn't her, just some random Hydra agent they decided to use to take advantage of the situation until she died," Maria explained. "Ever since then, Fury had everything on all of his special task force erased from anything he could get his hands on. Even though there was no threat, he didn't want to take another chance."

"So what, you feed me a story that has nothing to do with any of this," Tony looked at her confused.

"Her daggers were found. They were confirmed hers months ago, so what I'm saying is that something must have gone wrong somewhere along the line," she said. "All we know is she's gone, unresponsive to any attempt to reach her, and we have her daggers. What other explanation is there?"

"So what, Fury decided to keep this hush until the big bad wolf showed up on our doorstep?" Tony said with a raised brow. "Our double agent plus one just vanished in thin air, and we have no line of defense anymore. Loki is in the wind and that doesn't scare you?"

Maria stayed silent, clenching her jaw as she didn't really have any sort of retort. "You know if you start looking into this, Fury will find out," she said.

Tony nodded. "Just don't be a tattle tail and we're all good. Friday?"

"Yes sir," his AI answered him and her voice echoed across the room.

"I need you to do some digging for me. Oh and run facial recognition, pull JARVIS' old files on Agent Mynx for me. If she's in the city I want her found."

"Of course, sir," Friday answered back.

"You won't find anything, Stark. We've been looking since the day they left Asgard," Maria said, heading for the exit.

"You know, for a bunch of spies, you guys are terrible at keeping secrets, let alone covering up the slip ups," Tony said, ignoring her little quip she made as she walked out the door.

It was later that night when Orthani got home after making a run around New York trying to find anything linking her to who she really was. It was like she was just forgotten, left on the side of the street to piece herself back together and it was unsettling just how she found absolutely nothing about herself except she was apparently mildly allergic to peanuts. Half way through her search she basically said to herself why bother and aimlessly wandered about New York until she grew tired.
When she finally stepped through her apartment doors, she changed out of her jeans into a silk robe, grabbed herself a glass of wine and sat down on the carpeted floor, trying to convince herself this wasn't her fault she was suddenly left without memory.

She broke down into silent tears, almost scared of what the future could possibly hold. She was in New York, jobless now with no memory of her entire life. No friends, no family, no nothing to help her pick up the pieces of her shattered mind. Why did this happen, what was she supposed to do about it, all these questions came rushing into her mind as her tears grew a little less silent than before. She grabbed her wine glass and downed the remains of the sparkling white liquid it held, learning one thing at least; apparently wine was her comfort.

She got through about a bottle and a half before she dozed off, crying so hard she made herself sleep. She didn't know for how long, but a knock at the door suddenly jolted her awake at god knows what it was in the morning. She sat up straight, almost knocking over the wine glass sitting by her in the process. After rubbing her eyes and readjusting the robe to her body, she stood up and walked slowly to the door as someone pounded on the door again.

"Who is it?!" Orthani hoarsely shouted, aggravated that someone would so rudely be pounding on her door this late at night. After getting no answer, she slung the door open with a bit more force than she intended, only to be greeted by no one.

She groaned and almost slammed the door shut when she saw a little wooden chest sitting at her doorstep. It was an old, dusty little chest, one that looked way older than she was. She looked around the hallway of the building, not quite trusting the mysterious little thing.

Home.

The word echoed in her mind, and while it didn't make her any less wary, she carefully grabbed the box and closed the door behind her.

She set the little box on her coffee table besides the cold cup of tea she forgot she made herself earlier that morning and crouched on her knees, staring at the Nordic knot design etched into the top of the box. She ran her fingers over it, removing the dust before she took a deep breath and opened the lid. She gasped at what she saw. Two silver daggers with crested jewels stared back at her, gleaming in the light of the lamp beside her couch.

At first she was in awe, then confused as to why these were given to her. Whose where they? And why was she suddenly given them now?

Alongside the daggers were a set of silver throwing stars, ones that when she ran her fingers over seemed familiar to the touch. She was enchanted, running her hands over them like they belonged between her fingertips.

Another knock at her door jolted her from her little trance.

"Who is it?" she called out, not taking her eyes away from the daggers in front of her.

"It's me, open up," an unfamiliar voice spoke through the door.

"I'm sorry, I don't know anyone really," she said, getting quieter with each word she spoke. She picked up one of the throwing stars to study it more closely.

"Look, the dementia act isn't fooling anyone-"

It was like time slowed down when she heard the click of her door opening. Without a second's hesitation she grabbed the other throwing stars between her fingers and launched them towards whoever was coming through her door. As the door swung open, the four stars went sailing past the man's head, barely missing his face. With four soft thunks they embedded themselves into the hall behind him, making him freeze where he stood.

"Orthani, what the hell?!" the man said as she froze herself, staring at her hands in shock.

"I'm...I'm so sorry, I don't...I don't know what got into me," she stuttered and then trailed off, still staring at her hands like they were the devil. "Wait, who are you? And how do you know my name?" She finally snapped herself out of it. She quickly studied the man; short cut hair, pristine cut facial hair, a three piece suit with jeans as a replacement instead of slacks.

"Oh don't give me that, why are you back?" the man said, going back out into the hall to admire just how close he was to losing an eye.

"Back? What do you mean 'back'? I never even left?" She sounded just as confused as he did.

"Oh don't play dumb. Last we heard from you, Loki had swept you away to play double agents with the Big Baddy McBadderson half a universe away," he said, trying to pull one of the throwing stars out of the wall without cutting his finger open, but they were so deep into the drywall it wouldn't budge.

"Sorry, I did in a way wake up yesterday with no memories of my entire life so if I managed to do you wrong recently, you're going to have to enlighten me," she said, walking swiftly past him and plucking the stars out of the wall with ease.

"Woah woah woah wait. So you're saying you don't remember me?" he asked, slightly offended as he scratched at his goatee.

"Nope. So seriously, who are you and why did you so rudely storm into my apartment," she said, stalking back to the little chest on her coffee table and stuffing the throwing stars back in their place.

There was a moment of silence before the man spoke.

"I'm Tony Stark, and I'm going to need you to come with me," he said softly.

"Wait, you're Tony Stark? The man who created those senile robots over in Sokovia?" she spat out, ignoring the 'come with me' part of his statement.

"No memory huh," he said sarcastically, giving her a dry look.

"I apparently wrote a newspaper article about that; that's the only reason I know," she said quickly, almost immediately not trusting this man.

"Ok well if you knew the full story, you'd know it was an accident, so please forget that, grab your stuff and come on-"

"Why should I come with you. Do I know you?" she quickly backfired.

He gave a rough exhale. "You really don't remember anything do you?" he said quietly, shutting the apartment door behind him. "Look. I do know you. In fact, you helped me save a lot of people back in the day. And apparently it's time for you to cash in on a favor I owe you so I'm going to get you out of here-"

"Why are you talking so urgently?" she asked, cutting him off.

He clenched his jaw. He liked her better when she was a raging bitch monster from hell. "Look, there are some bad people around here who would love to know you're here," he said quietly, walking towards her couch and sitting down roughly. "What I do know is it isn't safe for you here and we need to go," he said, almost groaning. "So get your little daggers, get dressed in some real clothes, and let's get out of here. You know that little voice telling you not to go with strangers? Punch it in the face, and lets get moving," he said.

She watched him closely, trying to detect any hint of deception in his voice. She found none. She exhaled loudly. "I better not regret this," she said, going to change into a dress and some heels as quick as she could.

When she was ready, Tony grabbed the little wooden box and led her out to a burnt orange sports car of some brand she didn't recognize. He drove her to Avenger Tower in silence, almost like he didn't want to say too much. It was like he knew if she didn't even remember what had happened to her, it must have been bad. He didn't want to say anything to trigger her on accident, which if worse comes to worse would probably be catastrophic, so he just kept quiet. When they got to Avenger Tower, he led her up to the top floor where all his lab equipment was and set the wood box down on a glass table.

"Friday, look alive. We've got work to do," he said into the darkness of the room.

All the lights illuminated, all the computers flickered on and came to life, and a woman's voice echoed "Yes sir," as the room glowed.
Tony grabbed a rolling chair and pulled it towards Orthani. "Here, sit," he said as he started watching his computers running tests and other miscellaneous things.

She caught it and sat down while eyeing all the tech around her. She had to admit, even though the place was a bit of a mess, it was still pretty nice. "What exactly are you?" she asked, watching as the computers started running commands without the need of human interaction.

"Genius by day, superhero also by day," he said, opening the century year old chest and freezing when he saw the contents. Inside were the daggers that Maria said SHIELD had in their possession. "How did you get these?" he asked, taking one of the daggers out of the box with wide eyes.

"They were just at my doorstep just before you showed up," she said, still staring around the room. "Why?" She watched as he took the pair out of the box and placed them on a glass table.

"Friday, scan these. Tell me what they're made of," he said to the AI. "So they were just dropped out of the sky? I don't by that," he said under his breath as he walked over to a rolling set of drawers, opened the top one, and started taking out supplies. "Put your arm out. I'm gonna test your blood, see if you're human or not," he said, snapping a rubber tie in his hands.

She winced, suddenly having a fear of needles. "Wait, see if I'm human?"
Tony grabbed another rolling chair and sat down, slowly using his feet to roll over to her.

"Hold up, no no, I'll give you my blood only if you tell me what's going on," she said, quickly withdrawing her arm away from him.

"Look, I'll tell you everything once I figured out why you pulled a Sleeping Beauty on us, ok?" he said, putting a pen in between his teeth as he put his hand out for her arm.

"Substance in the daggers is mostly unknown," the female AI spoke again. "What is known is home to this planet, the rest seems to be from unknown parts of the galaxy."

"Thank you Friday," Tony said, muffled by the pen clamped in his teeth. He snapped the rubber tie around Orthani's upper arm just above her elbow, flicked the vein in her arm a couple times, and then stuck a needle into it. He grabbed a glass vial he set on the table beside her and attached it to the needle in her arm and pressed it until it clicked. Blood started quickly filling the glass.

"What does she mean 'unknown,'" she asked quietly.

Tony took the pen from his mouth and put it behind his ear. "She means it comes from another planet, duh," he said in a smart ass tone. "Like I suspect you still do," he said under his breath.

"Excuse me?"

"You aren't exactly from around here-well not anymore. You used to be," he said, cutting himself off as he switched out vials, gathering another one full of blood. "It's actually a long story. One I'm hoping I don't have to tell," he said, watching as blood filled up the second vial before taking a third. Once he was done, Orthani untied the rubber around her arm and gave him a quizzical look.

He gave her a scoff. "Look, I know I sound crazy, but I'm not. Well I am, but just trust me," he said, taking a series of turns to look at her as he walked off to some machine at another desk.

She gave him a look, and while she didn't exactly trust him, especially since he recently made a murder bot that almost destroyed the world, but he did seem to know more about her than she knew about herself. All she wanted to know was who she was and what her past was.

Maybe he could help her find out.

"How did you find me?" she asked through the silence that had fallen.

Tony gave a quick exhale. "I've been running a facial recognition algorithm on most of the camera's in the city. I figured if you were writing for the papers, you must be around here somewhere," he said, popping one of the blood samples into a machine and turning it on. "Turns out I was right."

"Is that even legal?" she laughed softly.

He gave a shrug. "Probably not," he said, focusing on the work he was doing.

Author's Note: I cannot thank you enough for the two people who took the time out to review and send me messages. It's so great seeing I have some sort of fan base still, as little as it may be.

I didn't mean to worry you guys. That's the last thing I meant to do.

I know the story is still a little confusing and a bit scatter brained. It'll come together soon, and everything will be explained in that little gap of time that everyone seemingly forgot what happened. All in due time my loverlies.

In the meanwhile, please feel free to review, message me, lurk if you want. All of it is amazing support and I appreciate it and it gives me the motivation to keep writing. I'm on the way to finishing this, all thanks to you guys! Thank you so much.

I'm still trying to get to a regular posting schedule, but my hours at work are about to pick up, so expect at least one chapter a week.

Love you guys! Thanks for reading, and if you've gotten this far through my absolute shit storm, then thanks for sticking around.