revivalproject | All creatures, no matter how small...

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All creatures, no matter how small...

WHO: Catra, Tony Stark
WHERE: The Forge
WHAT: A talk
WHEN: Beginning of the month
WARNINGS: tbd

Somehow, Catra still looked rather immaculate- that white outfit unmarred, short hair slicked back. It was really only the frown that still looked like her, brows creased as she found herself unable to enter the forge she'd previously been able to venture in and out of as she pleased. Honestly, she spent more time there than her factory, and Prime felt this action was surely an effort to keep him out.

Her claws briefly bit into her palms, and she considered simply slicing her way in, before the outward calm of Prime seemed to take over and she rapped her knuckles against the door with a stiff posture.

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Prime's instinct would be correct. The door had been installed for a myriad of reasons, but Catra's new demeanour was a strong one, tied directly to Tony's concern for what he kept in the forge anymore getting into the wrong hands. She was slicing Exos' arms off without the help of any heavy artillery. Tony would rather be around if she wanted to curl up by the fire, just in case. He considered the video of her stood tensely at his door, everything about her all wrong, and wrinkled his nose, thinking maybe he would rather not see her like this and maybe he would just not answer. Not until he knew he could have Catra back.

Eventually, the heavy metal between them shuddered, and went sliding to the side with a weighty grumble. Tony was approaching from behind it, still wiping sweat and soot from his wrapped hands, something steaming by the fire at his back, and left feeling like he would leave a stain on Catra in this pristine outfit if he got too close. Which would have been a delight, except he stopped short with his focus on her toes and complained, "Where are your boots?"

Catra looked up into the camera as though she could see Tony through it, that unerving expression unchanging. She stepped back slightly as the door rumbled open, and offered Tony an eerily calm smile. "...That's new," she noted.

"Mm?" she glanced down at her feet, exposed toes shifting a little. "The cold was not a concern on Prime's ship," she explained, and for a brief moment her expression betrayed her discomfort with the cold.

"Is the forge no longer open for whoever wants to use it?" she asked, nodding behind him.

Ship? For a beat, Tony looked as though he was going to ask, with a curious frown for what else the previously sheltered Catra had been given the chance to experience, and Tony hadn't been able to talk to her about because of this...third wheel. It was still distinctly a problem, though, so the frown hardened, more frustrated that Catra's toes wouldn't have even been an issue by now, if only because she could have been reliably curled by the fire.

He waved a dismissive hand and insisted, "The demand was getting too high, we had to switch to appointment only. And, honestly, I'm thinking of setting up a velvet rope and starting an exclusive membership, you know what scarcity does for business. Lucrative within the week." A gust of wind sent a shimmer of snow blowing across the dark forge floor, and he flicked a finger toward it to mutter, "Something of a concern."

Mm. Prime saw that longing. Even if it was just for a moment.

Her expression turned, and her voice took on a tone she'd never used with him before, a sort of sultry innocents as she asked, "Will I really need to worry about membership?" She took a step closer and nodded for Tony to step back and let her inside.

Oh, Tony did not like that. Maybe from Catra in particular, who should have been bullying her way in, but at best Tony would roll his eyes if Clint or Jan tried that tone with him. All three of them should have known they could have anything they wanted, without the performance. This time, it made Tony back away before Catra had to advance, hands up and lip raised to assure her, "You'll be charged double." While he did swing aside to let her in, it was with the rag he carried clutched against his heart, working it restlessly through his fingers as he watched her move like he was assessing a threat to his territory, searching keenly for that thing Cayde said he saw in her head.

It was hard to miss, glowing at back of her neck, uniform specifcally cut out to display it proudly.

She hummed in dry amusement, eyes scanning over Tony's work with a dangerous smile. "You could do such great things for Prime, Tony..." she started.

The implant, Tony assumed, wasn't anything that he recognized on sight, and he trailed impulsively after Catra to try to study it further, eyes narrowed and focused and only stopped short as he spoke. He glanced around then, rooted to the spot, trying to spy what exactly had her so intrigued between the array of armor parts, the surveillance systems, and the new coils for the diner's stove to make up for his attempt at cooking. Probably not that last one.

"He can't afford me," he replied lightly, sure now he could spot if anything in the room mysteriously moved during Catra's visit, and returned to slinking up closer to consider the glowing adversary between them. "Is that what you came over for, to flirt with me? That's new. I'm very flattered, of course."

"There is nothing Horde Prime can not possess," Catra assured, turning to face him again and hide the chip from view.

Her head tilted curiously then, "...if you're curious, Tony- we can show you how to make one. The things we could share with you..."

There was clearly a game there, but Tony still readily replied, "Yeah?," happy to play along if it really did get him any closer to the chip. "You could pop that one out and just let me take a look, I'm a fast learner, you could relax."

She tsked and shook her head. "I am afraid it's not so simple as that, Tony. The chip is connected to her nervous system, it's not something easily removed. I don't think you wish her life to end so soon, do you?"

The positioning of the implant certainly tracked, but Tony wasn't sure how ready he was to believe this information so freely offered and such a convenient excuse to keep Tony's hands off of it. Tony hadn't even pushed very hard. "And you?" he did push, searching Catra's face to map all of the signs that he was talking to this invader, all of the differences in her posture and cadence that he hadn't realized he had internalized so thoroughly to compare. "You let her walk around in the snow like that. It's not like you're giving up much."

"It isn't as though I have the resources here that I would to clothe her. This world is rather...lacking." She eyed her nails with a frown, "Has she not been here with you through a cold season before? And yet no boots in her possession. Strange. You should take care not to accuse me of neglect when you've left her in a worse state for far longer."

Neither of them needed to hear that said out loud for Tony to feel guilty enough about it, for never really giving himself enough time to figure out how to look out for Catra, and now for leaving her like this for so long, and Tony tried to give a nonchalant sniff as he tapped restlessly at his heart again. "This isn't about me," he insisted. "We don't have to evaluate how much I care, we're talking about how you don't so it shouldn't matter if I do this." His other hand was already in the air by then, glinting gold in the firelight as he twisted it, but it was something else entirely that slammed into Catra's back to knock her into Tony's chest where he could try for a grab at the implant. The D.A.T.A. unit went careening back from its brave assault and bounced a few times across the forge floor, a problem for later after Tony figured out if he could just yank this problem off, or at least find some kind of port to make a connection.

Catra wasn't prepared for an attack from behind, hair raising as Tony twisted his hand when the D.A.T.A. unit took her by surprise. Her attempts to violently push off from Tony stopped almost as soon as he made contact with the chip, a pained sound ripping through her, and a crushing grip trying to catch at his wrist.

The light faded from her eyes, revealing their true colour and holding Catra's full presence for the first time in a long while as Prime retreated.
"Don't-" she pleaded.

There wasn't a lot of reason for Tony to trust that look, except that he really wanted to, his own eyes widening at the shift and the colour returning to Catra's eyes, the awful sound she made making him hesitate with his fingers still dug in around the chip, tense under her painful grip. The other arm had swung around her to catch her, intending to hold her still but cradled around her back instead as Tony tried, "Catra, sweetheart?"

She gave a pained whine, breathing through grit teeth, and giving the smallest of nods.

"It hurts-" she choked out, but hesitantly loosened her grip on him.

It was difficult to focus on anything else while his heart was breaking, Catra and her pain pushing their way through every equation and leaving Tony muttering, "Sorry, hey, I'm sorry," and releasing the implant to try for a soothing touch to her cheek instead. "It's okay, I'm going to fix it, we're going to get it out," he continued, trying to convince that agony from her face, words out before he realized that he had resolved to get it out, no matter the potential connection or potential rescue.

Catra offered a weak smile, coloured with pain, turning to lean into that touch before Prime abruptly took over again.

Her lips curled in amusement. "Strange that she should be the weak point for so many creatures when she offers so little, isn't it?"

Tony had barely constructed a reassuring smile in return when it quickly fell back into a frustrated snarl. He wasn't sure what to do with his hands then, curling one into her shirt and folding the other around the back of her neck, covering the implant and trying to make sense of it again. "Should be easy to let her go then, shouldn't it?" he suggested.

"Mmm," she purred softly and shrugged a shoulder, "...I had decided to let the pitiful thing go, before she was whisked away to this place. I can't very well let there continue to be a space like this that's hidden from me. I had thought you wanted to help me find you, Tony...was I wrong?"

Prime didn't seem entirely averse to this negotiation, so Tony only narrowed his eyes dubiously for a moment, not sure if he should be terribly optimistic about results or just getting information. Grabbing Prime like this probably wasn't conducive to that negotiating, though, so Tony eased his grip enough to hold Catra by the shoulders instead, soot and grease staining her weird white clothes. "I'll help you," he said, "I am very motivated to help you. But Catra doesn't have to be involved. You let her go, we're on the same team."

Her eyes briefly flicked to the stain marring that perfect white, a downward turn to her lips.

"I'm afraid you seem to be under a misconception that you are in any position to bargain, little man. Once I have found you, you may of course have the girl, but until then she is my only connection to this world." She paused then, and smiled, "Unless, of course, you're volunteering to play host?"

"If anyone knows anything about this planet, how it works, and how you might find it, it's me," Tony corrected, all confidence despite being sure in that moment that he actually knew less every day that he spent here. He could pay for that bridge when they got to it, and until then he could very effectively pretend to have bargaining power. It was a familiar performance.

He dropped his hold entirely then, swinging back a step with his hands up, showing that he was willing and open as long as Prime was understanding what was being offered. "Absolutely. That will give you access to my tech, we can be working this from both ends," he pointed out, like giving anyone access to his technology and the destructive potential of his terrible brain was a perfectly comfortable offer for him.

Straightening herself up, Catra smoothed her hair back and grinned. "...You will help me build a new chip. And once we have installed it in you, you may have Catra back. I will have no use for her," Prime agreed.

"And you will be a most welcomed Brother."

That was not the exact sequence of the events that were going to happen, and Tony's reticence was clear in the tension of his jaw, and argument just behind his teeth, but it wasn't an argument that had to derail them now. They could at least agree on the basic structure, so he gave a tight nod, and gestured toward the workbench. "You can give me the details, here..." he instructed, searching for anything that could be written on and coming up with scraps of his Christmas cracker wrapping paper.

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All creatures, no matter how small...

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