Can't See the Truth

“Patty,” Hetalia said quietly. “Who’s here?”

The teen shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone come in.”

The sound of glass breaking in the distance made everyone jump. Faint curses were heard over the sounds of clunking and banging and clanging.

Patty and Hetalia advanced forward a few steps, knowing their colleagues wouldn’t be able to suit up in time.

“Damn!” a man’s voice boomed, sounding obviously closer than before. “Where the hell is she?! Hetalia! Where are you?!”

The Russian froze. “Roman? Is that you?”

The middle-aged man came storming around the corner from the kitchen, looking frustrated. “Hetalia, where is CHERI?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked. “I thought she left to go back to you weeks ago.”

“Wait, so CHERI isn’t here?”

The Russian shook her head.

Roman’s eyes widened as his heart stopped dead in his chest.

“Roman, what’s wrong? What’s going on?”

His knees buckled and Steve was the first one there to catch him. “Mr. Christos, what’s wrong? What’s happening?”

“I...I wasn’t recieving any signals from CHERI, I-” he froze and took a shaky breath. “I...thought she was...ignoring me...”

“What could’ve happened?” Bruce said calmly as he sat down next to Roman.

Roman laid his gaze on Schaefer. “Is there any chance she was taken in by SHIELD?”

“Not zat I know of. But zer are a lot of sings zat are not talked about.”

****

Roman stormed into SHIELD HQ with Schaefer, Steve, both Starks, and Hetalia close behind.

“Ze tech department iz zat vey.”

Roman threw open the doors and stormed up to the head agent’s desk. “Where is my AI?”

The man behind the desk looked up at Roman and instantly became starstruck. “You’re Roman Christos!” he said excitedly. “I’ve heard so much about you and your accomplishments!”

“Swell,” Roman spat. “Now, where’s my AI?!”

“I’m sorry sir!” he said, throwing his hands up. “I haven’t seen your AI. I mean, I just disassembled a troublesome AI with no owner a few weeks ago, but other than that, I haven’t had any dealings with any AIs.”

Roman sighed and looked down at the desk, feeling hopeless. Then, a glimmer of light caught his eye. He reached forward and grabbed the light reflector. “What an interesting looking circuitboard. Who designed it? Where did you get it?”

“Oh, well the circuit boards of all AIs are kept on file, but this one meant something to me. It was...important to me. I don’t quite know who made it, but whoever they were, they must’ve been pretty intelligent.”

“Agreed,” Roman said. “Considering this is CHERI’s circuitboard. You’ve disassembled her!”

Before the lying agent could come up with a reasonable excuse, Roman’s fist made contact with his face.

“Don’t you lie to me! I designed that circuitboard with my own two hands to be special for my creation! You tell me where her parts are!”

“I’m sorry sir!” the agent stuttered. “Her parts weren’t compatible with any of our models, so we disposed of them.”

Roman’s eyes darkened and his shoulders slumped forward. “Where?”

****

Tony let Roman use his lab and his tools to make an attempt at repairing CHERI. He had managed to find a good chunk of the parts that he needed, but she would still be one hell of a project.

The whole family watched with saddened expressions as Roman scurried around, rolling up his sleeves and cursing at the the difficulties of repairing poor CHERI.

“Look at how he works,” Brooke mumbled. “He’s so broken up about this whole thing.”

"CHERI was his first big success and the only one left to keep him company. He loves her."