Chapter Text
“I just have to grab my wallet, and then…” I trailed off as I looked up from my phone. I had thought I was walking into my bedroom, but I didn’t see my messy bed, the slatted blinds, or my pile of stuffed animals in the corner. “What the fuck?”
“Who are you?” A man’s voice came from behind me. I shrieked and threw my hands up, dropping my phone on the concrete floor. I kept my hands up as I turned around, looking for who had spoken. There was a man with fancy facial hair, standing in front of a fancy hot-rod car. I kept blinking as my brain made the dial up sound.
“What the fuck?” I asked again as I stared at the achingly familiar face of Tony Fucking Stark. I could feel my mouth fall open in surprise but couldn’t engage my brain enough to consider closing it. The man in front of me sighed.
“Yes, it’s me, Tony Stark, in the flesh. How did you get in my house?”
“What the fuck?” I hissed as I dropped my hands. “What is happening to me? This isn’t even possible. Even-even-even if we were part of the same universe, which we’re not. I was just in Ohio. Ohio, my guy. This is… gotta be Malibu, but that doesn’t make sense either, can I sit down?”
“Hey, hey, over here? Yeah, me, hello. You broke into my house, why are you the one having a panic attack?” Tony Fucking Stark looked at me like I was crazy, and it was the weirdest thing.
“I didn’t break in!” I insisted, forcing my focus over to him. Maybe I was having a panic attack. That would certainly explain why my brain wasn’t working and I couldn’t understand what was happening. I was staring at a fictional character. I was staring at a fictional character that died. Tony Stark was a dead fictional character, and I was standing in his lab. Nope. Surely, I’d simply lost my mind, right? There was no way I’d just fallen through a hole in the multiverse and landed in some version of the MCU. That didn’t just happen, did it? “I was looking for my wallet to go to Kroger. I was in Ohio; I had the day off. I just wanted coffee creamer.”
I sat on the ground with my legs splayed out in front of me. Tony, to his credit, just kept staring at me. I picked up my phone; I’d cracked the screen. Mom was gonna kill me, I just got this phone.
“What kinda phone is that?” Tony asked, finally breaking the silence.
“Samsung S21, I just got it and already cracked the screen. I hope I agreed to the warranty,” I mused, tossing it like a frisbee over to Tony, who barely caught it.
“Bullshit, they just dropped the Galaxy S, this is way too advanced for that. This looks… this technology has gotta be ten years off,” Tony said, popping the phone out of the case. He looked at the stylus in the corner, and the charge port. “Where’s the headphone jack?”
“Wireless. Almost everything is nowadays,” I said with a shrug. “You believe me yet?”
“Starting to,” Tony mumbled. “Still confused though, who are you?”
“Fuck if I know, my guy,” I said shortly. “I’m stuck in a new universe with a superhero billionaire.”
“Superhero?” Tony snorted. I looked him over as he studied my phone. He was taller than he was in the movies, but not by much. He was young. None of that grey hair he had in Infinity War.
“What’s your view on prophecies?” I asked, shuffling so I could lean against the workstation. My leg was starting to throb, and I was trying to take the weight off my hip. Not that it would work.
“What like Harry Potter? Like fuckin’ Oedipus?” Tony asked. “I don’t believe in them. Even if someone could see the future, the theory of the multiverse makes that a moot point. You clearly believe in the multiverse, so why ask about prophecies?”
“What about clairvoyants? You think their visions are accurate?”
“I think they see what happens in the multiverse, it’s an option – something that might happen,” Tony explained. “Why ask about this?”
“In my universe, you’re a fictional character, I’ve seen all your movies, read some of your comics, Tony I think I can save your life,” I said, a small grin on my face as I thought about it.
“Is it in danger?” Tony asked, semi-sarcastically. I snorted, of course it was. “What’s your theory?”
I couldn’t tell if he believed me, was humoring me, or his scientific curiosity was getting the better of him.
“You die, October 23rd, 2023, in the movie Endgame. But that’s one of like, two dozen movies. That gives us… Where are we in the timeline? Is this after Afghanistan?”
“It’s April 24th, 2010, at one-thirty in the morning,” Jarvis said from the ceiling. I blinked. It was so early in the timeline. Tony wasn’t even established as Iron Man yet. I debated crying for a brief moment. It wouldn’t have done me any good, but the urge was there.
“So, Christine is upstairs asleep, and you’re scheduled to present the Jericho missile today, aren’t you?” I sighed. “Any chance we can skip that?”
“You want me to skip a meeting with the military’s top brass, because a crazy girl said so?” Tony asked. “Yeah, right.”
“I don’t want to be responsible for the possible torture the Ten Rings are going to inflict on you, Tony! And I’m fairly sure you don’t want to be on the receiving end of said torture!” I got up so I could pace, all this sitting still was starting to piss me off. “I’ve decided, you’re not going to Afghanistan. I’m not letting you go off to your doom, that’s absolutely not happening.”
I was one sentence away from a full-blown meltdown, I could feel it building under my skin. Everything was too much. The lights were too bright, and something in the room was making a low-pitched buzzing noise that was grating on my last nerve. And that was before I considered any long-term ramifications of my new life. Did I even want a new life? It didn’t look like I had a choice. I ran my fingers through my short hair and let the fading pink strands fall down into my face. No wonder Tony thought I was crazy, I looked like a punk off the streets.
“I don’t think you’re in any position to be giving me orders,” Tony said. I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what exactly he thought he could do to stop me. “You broke into, or fell into, my house in the middle of the night – you don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do in regard to my own company.”
“I really don’t think you have a choice here, Tony, because your Godfather, Obadiah Stane, is trying to kill you, and if you go to Afghanistan, they will very nearly succeed. And then you’ll end up creating a mini arc reactor in a cave and putting it physically in your body so you can live. And then you get Palladium poisoning and nearly die. And then! Because, oh yes, there is always more. You come home and beat up the man that sent you to be kidnapped and tortured. You create a new element, beat up a few more bad guys and become a superhero, the Iron Man. You team up with other superheroes and fight an alien invasion in New York, then a crazy killer robot in Sokovia, and then, your best friend beats you half to death and leaves you for dead in a Siberian bunker to take your parents’ killer to hide. Until yet another fuckin’ alien shows up in New York and kills half of all life in the universe. And then! And fucking then, you fucking die trying to bring everyone back. So, yes, Tony, I do break into your house and tell you what to do, because obviously somebody fucking should!” I shouted, losing my temper in the middle of my incredibly short summary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down, but it wasn’t working.
I had no idea what had happened to give me the opportunity to yell at Tony, but it was seriously starting to freak me out. And I usually didn’t show fear to people, instead reacting with anger. Those that knew me wouldn’t have been surprised by this, but unfortunately, Tony didn’t know me and was very surprised by me outright screaming at him.
“Okay,” Tony said, eyes a little wide, and his hands up in surrender.
“Okay?” None of this was okay. It was the end of the damn world for me. But if Tony would listen to me, maybe it could be okay. I could do it, play this part.
“Okay, kid. I’ll listen to what you have to say,” Tony said gently, crossing the room to stand in front of me. I sighed and held out my hand to shake.
“I’ll do my best not to lead us astray,” I said as he shook my hand. “I truly do want the best for you.”
“For some reason, I believe you. Now, what’s first?”
“We need a plan; we need to prepare, and we need to cancel your Jericho presentation. And I need a cup of coffee.” I tapped things off on my fingers, trying to think ahead for the first time in my life. “We need to discuss what to do with the company.”
“I have a cappuccino machine on the bar, milk in the fridge.” I nodded but made no effort to move. “I also can’t cancel the presentation. I can be late, can’t cancel. It would hurt the company.”
“Okay, we can either care about your life, or we can care about your company.” Right then, I only had the emotional capacity to consider the MCU, not the real-world implications of living with a superhero. Or a billionaire. Everything I knew about business was from scant Google searches for my Arrow fanfiction. I still wasn’t sure what the board of directors does.
“I neglected this company once, I won’t do it again,” Tony said firmly. I stared at him but didn’t recognize the man in front of me. There was something glittering in his eyes, but I was too socially inept to understand it. Anger, perhaps? Upset with the person who accidentally fell through dimensions and immediately started giving orders? Maybe it was irritation at the perceived assumption that he was as flaky as his press persona. Or maybe I was reading too much into nothing, and he was just as tired as I was.
I stood and walked toward the cappuccino machine. Something beeped at me, and when I looked over, it was DUM-E. I smiled at the bot and was reminded of every single Iron-Dad and Spiderson fic I’d ever read. I had a dozen new ideas and got a surprising boost of energy. Maybe we could do both – save the world and the company. I’d need a notebook, a computer with two screens, maybe three, and at least three more cappuccinos. I hoped he had sugar available.
“Okay, we save the company, your life, and the world. I need a pay raise and a fucking vacation,” I grouched, twisting around to crack my back while the espresso poured. I loaded up the milk with sugar and started steaming it. I wasn’t sure why a billionaire had packets of sugar instead of just a jar, but I wasn’t going to question it. “The good news is that I’ve read enough fanfiction to figure this out. Bad news, I’m literally on the verge of dropping out of my fourth college, so we’re gonna need some help. Who do you trust?”
“I thought you knew everything,” Tony said, pouring his own milk for his own drink. Just like I did, he added the sugar directly to the milk and steamed it. “You’re saying Obie is trying to kill me. If you’re right, he’s my only family.”
Two paper cups of caffeine later, Tony and I were facing each other over a holoscreen. Tony pulled up images of the people in his life, and I brought the ones I wanted over to my side – after Tony taught me how to use the holographic technology. I understood Phil and Ward’s confusion over the tech in season one. It was very difficult to use without guidance.
“I thought you said my best friend beats me up and leaves me for dead,” Tony asked when I dragged Jim over to my screen, claiming him as an acceptable ally.
“It wasn’t Jim,” I said, shaking my head. “I probably shouldn’t have used that phrase. It was Steve, but I’m planning on changing that.”
“I don’t think I’m following,” Tony admitted.
“I don’t think I’m doing this right,” I conceded. I flopped into a chair Tony had pushed over and ran my fingers through my hair. “We want Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and Jarvis on our team. With your permission and resources, we could definitely break Barnes out of Hydra’s control. With a healthy dose of luck, too.”
“I don’t think I know a Steve, or anyone named Barnes,” Tony said. He scrunched his nose, the same way I was known for doing when trying to puzzle something out. “Wait, do you mean...”
“Yes. They’re both still alive,” I said, shrugging when Tony looked over at me, incredulity clear in his eyes.
“You said Hydra,” Tony pointed out. I was wondering if he’d notice that.
“Yeah, they’re still kicking around too, but they’ll be exposed and run out of town in 2014, Steve takes care of that.”
“I need a stronger drink,” Tony said, looking at his own cappuccino. I laughed at him. Discovering Hydra was still around in Agents of SHIELD was the best written reveal I’d ever seen.
“Nope, we’ve got plenty of work to do, before you figure out a way to skip Afghanistan.” I glanced at my phone and had an idea. I had the timeline written down a dozen ways in a dozen fics. “How secure are your servers?”
“I’m offended you would ask,” Tony said, gesturing to himself with his drink. I snorted at his confidence.
“I would like everything on my Google Drive to be downloaded to a secure server. Don’t read them. Not a single file, Jay, I mean it. We have to walk a stupid fine line if we’re gonna fuck with the timeline.” Not that I knew what I was doing, not in the slightest. But I didn’t think it was the best plan letting everyone know everything. Like I said – I'd written this fic before.
“Can’t change things without risking losing the advantage,” Tony said, nodding his agreement. “Can’t kill the bad guys early in case something worse comes along.”
“Also, free will exists. And people can change. They might need a kick up the ass, but there’s not one person that can’t change their ways. Well...” I shook off the thoughts of people I considered irredeemable. Hitler, Odin, Trump. Thanos – couldn't forget the main villain of my new life, after all. I thought about the Framework, how Grant Ward had been a double agent for SHIELD in the Hydra controlled world. “There are lives that can be saved here, if we do this right. We might even end up saving the world twice.”
“You have high ambitions, don’t you?”
“Save your life, save the world, drag your company into the next century, yeah, sure sounds like it. Let’s hope I can live up to it,” I said dryly. I’d quit nearly everything I’d ever started. Violin was the only thing I ever actually committed to. And even then, I hadn’t practiced in nearly six years.
“I’ll give you a year,” Tony said. I glanced at him in surprise, my eyebrows rising almost up to my hairline. I hadn’t expected such easy acceptance. “If you can convince Pepper when she comes in this morning.”
“I expected you to think I’m insane,” I said lightly.
“I do think you’re insane. But in the three hours we’ve been working together, you’ve proven that my parents were murdered, and that Obie covered it up,” Tony said darkly. He hadn’t fallen apart, but I knew “We just need a way to explain you. So, what’s the plan boss?”
“Well... First things first, Jarvis, can you also download my Spotify? I appreciate you! Now, you know my feelings on Afghanistan, but as far as I’m concerned, do you think I could pass as your sister?”
“No. Mom wouldn’t have been able to have you, twenty-four years ago. And I don’t think you could pass as older, even if we could explain how we kept you hidden for however many years,” Tony said, staring at me with scrutiny. “But you could pass for eighteen.”
“You want me to be younger?”
“You could pass as my daughter, if you dyed your hair brown,” Tony said. Jarvis pulled up a photo of a twenty-year-old Tony. I could see it. Easily enough anyway.
“Alright, I’ll work out a name and a backstory later today,” I promised. “So, what do you know about synthesizing a brand-new element?”
>Line Break<
“You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now,” Pepper said as she walked into the lab, busy on her phone. She looked up and froze. I looked up and grinned.
Pepper had always been my favorite character in the fanfictions I read. She was a powerhouse of a woman, ready to fight the world and take no prisoners. She was a badass in red bottom heels, and I couldn’t wait to see what she would do in this timeline.
“Pepper! Meet Grey, you’ll love her,” Tony said, throwing his arm around my shoulders. “She’s got some secrets, and a plan, so I’m hopeful you’ll help her out.”
“How many women came home with you last night?” Pepper demanded, looking at me with scrutiny.
“Oh, ew!” Tony and I shouted, leaping apart. After a second, I laughed, which set Tony off, which pissed Pepper off. I held up my hands again, trying to calm down, but I was overly tired and ready to crash. I felt manic. Hopefully it was a productive episode.
“I’m sorry, here. Nice to meet you, Miss Potts, I’m Grey, and for the next, rest of my life, apparently, I’m this one’s daughter.” Pepper laughed in my face. Which, I definitely deserved, but it still hurt my feelings for some inexplicable reason. Just another thing I’d never understand in this new life of mine.
“Not biologically, Peps, don’t worry. Wrong blood type, Jarvis said.” Tony’s help didn’t help. Maybe us seeming related wouldn’t be as much of a stretch as I thought.
“Take a seat and we’ll explain,” I assured. Pepper didn’t budge. So, I started explaining anyway.
I took my summary that I’d half-shouted at Tony and modified it, giving a little more detail, talking about the suits, and the Avengers to come in the future. I brought up SHIELD, and my suspicion that Stark Industries was actually funding them. I ended it with the date of Tony’s death, October 23rd, 2023. That was when she sat down.
“And if I don’t believe you?” I could tell that even if she didn’t completely believe me, she was worried about the possibility of me being right. Which, unfortunately, I was. As long as this remained close enough to the sacred timeline, I could semi-accurately guess what was going to happen. For the most part, anyway. I wasn’t going to claim to be a genius or anything.
“About the fact that six hours ago you were a fictional character? I know you didn’t have any mace in your purse when you confronted Tony about an accounting error,” I said. Tony looked offended. Pepper blushed slightly at being called out. “I know you’re allergic to strawberries, which you’ve always found ironic due to your strawberry blonde hair. And that you hate being called Virginia, so you went by Ginny until someone called you a Weasley.”
I didn’t actually know that last part, Tony had told me, but I sure as shit wasn’t gonna tell Pepper that.
“Tony I don’t like this,” Pepper said.
“You don’t have to like it, Potts, you just have to do it,” I snapped. “For fuck’s sake, I just told you he’s got thirteen years left to live if we don’t get out collective heads out of our own asses!”
I needed something to eat. I had already skipped eating most of the day in my timeline, not to mention the six hours – and three cappuccinos – I'd spent here. I was lightheaded and shaky at the knees. Therefore, I had a very loose grip on my temper. I’d apologize later, I hoped.
“Pepper, Grey is going to help not only save my life, but redirect the company away from weapons, I expect you to help her with that,” Tony said seriously, looking between me and her. “She’s proven to me that she can be trusted.”
“If you fuck up, even once, I’ll kill you myself,” Pepper swore, then stuck her hand out to shake. I did and was pleasantly surprised by her grip. She seemed just as impressed with mine.
“I cannot wait to introduce you to Slytherin politics,” I said brightly. “So, let’s get Tony on his jet so Jim can try and talk him out of getting kidnapped by terrorists.”
“He’s what?” Pepper demanded, immediately whirling on me, a glare in place. She looked like the only thing keeping me alive was Tony’s hand on her arm. I had no decency and therefore didn’t even bother to look sheepish. I didn’t like this plan any more than she did.
“We’ll explain in the car, Peps,” Tony said, ushering us forward. “We’ll have to walk Happy through it anyway. I gotta change, kid, go get something to eat, you’re gonna pass out.”
I wasn’t gonna argue, so I slid past Pepper and walked upstairs, leaving them to have a very quick, not as quiet as they expected, argument. I found my way to the kitchen and started digging through cabinets and the fridge, trying to find something to eat. I settled on an egg sandwich, making one for Tony too.
Tony jogged past the kitchen after only a few minutes, a wry grin on his face. Pepper came up a bit later; I was halfway through my sandwich when she finally entered the kitchen.
“I get it, you know,” I said, hiding behind my hand, since there was food in my mouth. Pepper looked at me. She looked like she was either going to rip into me or slap me. “How crazy this is? My head is fucking spinning trying to figure out what happened.”
“You didn’t come here on purpose?” That gave her pause. Did she really think I was trying to con Tony Stark? The smartest man alive? I couldn’t even get away with lying to my mom, and she expects me to be lying to them?
“Ha! The people on TikTok only wish it was that easy. No. I was walking in my apartment, intent on grabbing my wallet and heading to Kroger, but I’d barely made it three steps before I was in the lab with Tony staring at me like I was insane. I’m still not entirely convinced I’m not hallucinating,” I said. There was a scrolling banner in my mind, screaming that something was wrong, and I was trying to tune it out. “Or, maybe, I’ve had a psychotic break and I’m lying in the looney bin somewhere. Could be a very vivid dream, but I feel like if that were the case, it wouldn’t be so detailed. Or coherent. But who knows? Maybe I’ve died and this is hell.”
Wouldn’t that be appropriate?
“So, Tony’s not sending you home?” Pepper asked. I sucked in a breath. Nowhere in our discussions about what to do had sending me home come up. Nearly seven hours working with Tony and neither of us mentioned it. It hadn’t even occurred to me that Tony could figure out Quantum travel so I could go home. But that was just like me, diving deeper into fanfiction with no care to reality.
“No. I’m going to stay and help him stay alive,” I said. I thought briefly about all the times I’d turned to Marvel for comfort, Agents of SHIELD was still my go-to TV show. They’d been my rock through depression and ADHD struggles, and everything in between.
“How old are you?” Pepper asked. I wondered if she could see the struggle in my eyes.
“Twenty-four,” I said, grinning a bit. “Although Tony and I have decided to pretend I’m eighteen, to slot me in as his daughter that he’d kept hidden. Neither of us want me to be his wife, and sister wasn’t feasible, unfortunately.”
“Why not?” Pepper asked.
“Why not be his wife? First of all, ew, gross, that’s my dad. Second, everyone knew that Howard was expecting a son. If a daughter pops up out of nowhere, no one will believe it. But if Tony had a daughter, one that would’ve been born in his MIT days, everyone will believe it. Especially if she’s backed up by Pepper Potts and Jim Rhodes.”
“You’re banking on our support,” Pepper said, surprised.
“Well of course I am. I don’t have anything left,” I said, and then I burst into tears. Chest aching, gut wrenching sobs that found me sinking to the floor on my knees. Pepper dropped down with me, pulling my sandwich out of my hands and placing it on the counter. Then she pulled me into her arms and held me until I could stop crying.
“Oh, jeez, kid,” Tony said as he walked in, crouching down next to us as I gulped down air, trying to sort myself to rights. The scrolling banner in my mind was accompanied by air raid sirens, screaming that everything was wrong, and that I was never getting to go back home. I would never see my mom again.
“I want my mom,” I sobbed, reaching out to nothing. I could barely see Tony over Pepper’s shoulder. “I want my mommy!”
I didn’t care that I sounded like a child, screaming for her mommy, my universe was gone, lost to me forever. Even if Tony figured out Quantum travel, there was no reason to believe I’d be able to get to the correct universe at the correct time.
“We’ve got you, kiddo, we’ve got you,” Tony murmured, putting his hand on my shoulder.
“It’s going to be okay, Grey, you’ve got us,” Pepper said, holding me tight. I nodded against her neck, unable to choke down the next sob.
Piece by piece I pulled myself together, filling the mold in Pepper’s arms until I could stop crying. Slowly, we stood back up, and I turned to the sink to splash water on my face, even gulping some down like I was going to dehydrate if I didn’t. Tony started on the sandwich I made him, waiting for me to pull myself together.
“So, what are we doing first?” Pepper asked decisively, putting her hands on her hips. “After we see Tony off, and hope he doesn’t get kidnapped, that is.”
“We’re going to DC to get Bucky Barnes out of Hydra’s custody,” I said dryly, wiping the last of the water off my face. “Shove him straight into therapy to deal with everything and get him rehabilitated.”
“Bucky Barnes, like Captain America? Did you say Hydra?” Pepper demanded, pulling out travel mugs for the three of us plus Happy. She smacked them onto the counter, giving me a fierce look. Taking a breath, she filled them up with coffee and set out the creamer and the sugar. Tony took the sugar and his cup, pouring at least a quarter cup of sugar into his coffee. I reached for the creamer, caramel flavored, and dosed my own coffee. Pepper took it after me, doctoring her own cup, leaving Happy’s black.
“Yeah, he’s the Winter Soldier, assassinated plenty of people on Hydra’s orders, including JFK,” I said, sipping my coffee to make sure it was properly creamed. It would do. I stifled a hiccup, still recovering from my impromptu breakdown. “And Howard and Maria Stark.”
“And you want to bring him here?” Pepper nearly shrieked. I winced at the volume. “Absolutely not! You will take your information to the feds, and they will handle him.”
“No,” Tony said. Pepper spun to look at him in surprise, but we had discussed it already. “He’s a brainwashed prisoner of war. Get him out of Hydra’s hands, bring him somewhere safe to recover and get his mind right. We’ll protect him.”
“Tony, you can’t be serious,” Pepper pleaded. Part of me agreed with her – Tony should not have been that amicable to the suggestion of bringing Barnes into his home. Except, Tony had spent most of the night surprising me, believing me. Accepting me. “He killed your parents.”
“Hydra killed his parents, going after super serum that Howard had created, trying to replicate Captain America,” I said, interjecting myself.
“How did Hydra know the serum was in the car?” Tony asked, knowing where I was heading with this line of argument.
“Obadiah Stane told them,” I said softly. Pepper gasped and covered her face with her hands. Tony nodded, as if he was expecting the answer. There was pain in his eyes, and I could tell that he was still processing everything I’d said about Iron Monger
“If Barnes was truly brainwashed, and really did have no choice, then we can’t blame him for the things he did while in Hydra’s hands,” Tony said diplomatically. “I don’t like it, but like Grey said, we don’t have to, we just have to do it. So, do it.”
“Yes, boss!” I said, smiling a little. Tony nodded and gestured for me to grab Happy’s coffee. “Ready to go?”
“Are you?” I shot back.
I followed them out the front door, where Happy was waiting with the car. Happy immediately locked onto me and frowned.
“Yeah, I know, the pink in my hair is too faded,” I said, intentionally throwing him off balance as we walked up. “But I brought you coffee!”
“Who are you?”
“She’s with us,” Tony said. “We’ll explain in the car. Ready to go?”
“You’re letting me drive?” Happy asked, surprised.
“Well, I’m not letting her drive,” Tony said, pointing at me. I nodded, that was entirely fair. “She has to explain, and she talks with her hands, she’d drive us off the road.”
“Okay, I smacked U one time on accident. I’m not used to having the Adora-bots around me and didn’t realize she was so close. I’ve already apologized.” I handed out the coffee and climbed in the back seat, sliding all the way over to sit behind Happy. Tony climbed into the back next to me, and Pepper took the passenger seat, pulling out a tablet to take notes. Tony was working off another tablet, doing who-knew-what.
“Alright, kid, it’s forty-five minutes to the airfield. You have until we arrive to explain what you know and what we’re going to do about it,” Tony said. I took a sip of my coffee, and moved my vape out of my front pocket, where it was pressing uncomfortably into my leg. I tucked it in my hoodie pocket and sighed heavily. I wished I’d taken a hit before climbing in the car.
“Okay, so here’s what we’re looking at.” I explained Iron Man as Stane’s bullying ways, and Iron Man 2 as Hammer’s incompetence. I told them all about the movies, when they came out in my world so they would understand where my knowledge was coming from. Avengers was explained away as a possibly brainwashed Loki leading an invasion in someone else’s name. Ultron was described as an alien AI possessing a robot, and Winter Soldier as a shitshow. I called Civil War a misunderstanding that was made worse by Thaddeus Ross, and Infinity War was a problem. Then I explained my goals for things to change.
“Can you combine the first two movies like that?” Happy asked, taking everything in stride. “How would that work?”
“Technically, it won’t,” Grey conceded. “We’ll still end up attacked by Vanko at the Grand Prix in Monaco, but since I know how Tony discovered the new element-“
“Badassium,” Tony declared immediately.
“Starkanium,” I corrected, if only for my own sake. I couldn’t go around treating this world like I was living a fanfiction. I needed this to be real life, because for the most part, real life was boring. Fanfiction was traumatizing if you did it right. “We will call it Starkanium, and you will likely win a Nobel Prize or something like that for its discovery. No more of this casual attitude for shit, Tony, you and I are taking over this timeline. You will be king in all but name, and you will shut up and take it.”
“Yes dear,” Tony said, looking at me with a small smile on his face. I just rolled my eyes and shoved him away.
“Anyway, because I know how Tony discovered the Starkanium, I have plans to get that synthesized and ready for him the moment he gets home.”
“Involuntary vacation, woo,” Tony said sarcastically. Happy and Pepper were still pissed that I was “letting him” go get kidnapped, but it wasn’t what I wanted either. I didn’t care about the plot, I cared about Tony. I wasn’t letting this son-of-a-bitch do anything. He was insisting. For some stupid fucking reason, I was sure.
“And having the Starkanium will negate most of the bullshit in the second movie, like almost dying of heavy metal poisoning,” I said, whacking Tony on the shoulder. “Maybe we should’ve gone ahead with the subdermal trackers.”
“But we’re letting him get kidnapped,” Happy stated. I glared at him through the rearview mirror.
“I ain’t letting him do shit, Hogan,” I snapped. “He’s choosing this shit because I don’t know where that cache of Stark weapons is located.”
I’d tried talking Tony out of getting himself kidnapped. Talked about other ways we could find the cache, but I think part of Tony didn’t believe me. I thought he was using this as a way to prove me wrong, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was secretly messaging with Pepper to come up with a way to keep me contained until he got back.
“There’s a cache of Stark Industries weapons in terrorist hands?” Pepper demanded, turning in her seat to look at me. I tilted my head and mentally flicked back through all my conversations with the woman since I met her.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. I’m so used to it being later in the timeline. Uh, Stane’s dealing weapons under the table to terrorists like Al Qaeda, the Ten Rings, and Hydra,” I said. Pepper’s face turned slightly green as she looked at me in horror. “He dies at the end of the first movie, so he’s only a problem for like six more months. If even that long.”
“I want him to face a jury,” Tony said. I looked at him, slightly surprised. “You said we were going to preach transparency in what we do, so the people trust us, right? Putting my Godfather on trial for his crimes does that, and legitimizes what we’re doing.”
“Except he’s the one person that could probably disprove that I’m your daughter,” I pointed out. “But I have like fifteen ideas for that, I’ll run through them with Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey while you’re… gone.”
“You want to kill him?” Pepper asked, aghast. I didn’t blame her; I was sitting there contemplating murder. Cold blooded murder. In my mind, I was writing a layout to a fancy fanfiction and needed a character out of the way. I really hoped that mentality went away soon, it wasn’t healthy. They weren’t just characters anymore, they were people, my people.
“We can kick off an investigation the moment you’re declared missing. And if Stane happens to get offed by his own terroristic connections, that’s his fault,” I said, wobbling my head side to side as I thought it through. “If we have Barnes by then, he could do it, if he agrees. And then we technically wouldn’t be lying when we say the bullet was fired by a terrorist. I hate to ask him to kill, knowing he doesn’t really like violence, but it could work. But that’s a later problem. We have bigger problems right now.”
“Like what?” Pepper demanded, looking at me like I was out of my mind. She was still turned around in her seat facing me. I snorted and pointed out the windshield. Jim Rhodes was waiting next to the jet, looking pissed off. “Oh, shit.”
“That about sums it up,” I said cheerfully as Happy parked the car. “Welcome to the worst decade of our lives!”
“Great,” Happy moaned as he got out of the car. I watched Jim’s face as Pepper climbed out of the passenger seat, and opened the back door for Tony. Happy opened the door for me. Rhodey was impassive, if confused when Tony and I climbed out of the backseat.
“Are you sure I can’t talk you out of this? You truly don’t have to do this,” I said, meeting Tony in front of the car.
“I have some responsibilities that I can’t ignore. And if my weapons are in the hands of terrorists, I have to do my duty and fix it. I’ll get my Rhodey-bear on board, you get him and get started.” Tony grabbed my shoulders, before changing his grip to cup my face. “Starks are made of iron, kid. It’s something my father used to say. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I think I do now.”
“He also said that you were the greatest thing he ever created,” I said, remembering the film reel from Iron Man 2.
“Then I guess it’s time for me to create something great,” Tony said. “Ready to work for a living?”
I leaned my cheek against his calloused hand and nodded. He was reassuring me. Wasn’t I supposed to be the one reassuring him? I wasn’t about to get kidnapped by terrorists.
“Let’s get to work, Dad,” I said. I sniffed, suddenly drowning in the urge to cry again. He smiled at me, then turned to Pepper. He pulled her into a hug and pressed a fast kiss to her cheek. Happy got a handshake-hug combination, before he walked up the jet ramp, squaring his shoulders like he was facing the firing squad. “Good luck. Godspeed.”
“He’ll be okay,” Pepper said quietly, joining me at the hood of the car, watching as Rhodey and Tony bickered. Rhodey gave me one last suspicious glare before following Tony into the jet. The door closed and I winced like I’d been hit. “Right?”
“He’d better be, else I’ll kill him myself.” I grumbled as I leaned against the car. None of us were willing to move until after the jet taxied and took off. After a few minutes, I groaned, rubbing my face with my hands as I walked around to climb back into the car. Pepper climbed in the back with me, and Happy pulled us out of the airfield. I grabbed my notebook and started writing down every idea I could think of, every event I’d lived through, or anything that had ever happened to me. I thought back to the different fanfictions I’d read, wondering if I could steal their ideas. It wasn’t plagiarism if the fics didn’t exist yet, right? “Oh, my God. I’m fucking Deke Shaw.”
“Who?” Pepper asked, looking at me as we turned onto the highway.
“Agents of SHIELD was a TV show in the same universe as the movies, it followed a group of agents that cleaned up things too small, or too covert for the Avengers to handle. There’s an arc where they travel to the future where the earth cracked like an egg. Don’t worry, they fix it,” I assured as the color drained out of Pepper’s face. “Deke is the grandson of FitzSimmons, and they accidentally drag him back to the present day with him. He gets dragged further into the past in season seven – which isn’t truly considered canon, so we don’t have to worry. And Deke gets stranded in the eighties with Mack. He, uh, creates a band and ‘writes’ songs that came out in the later eighties. I feel like I’m doing that with fic ideas.”
“And that’s bad?” Pepper asked, wondering where I was going with this. I wondered if she’d even understood what I said about the TV show.
“I was always so annoyed by Deke, and I’m starting to realize it’s because we might just be the same person.” I rubbed my eyes, trying to push it out of my head.
“Are you planning on writing songs that haven’t come out yet?”
“Not for anything more than karaoke,” I said. “Or personal usage. But I did have Jarvis download my entire Spotify, just in case. Didn’t wanna lose my tunes.”
“You’re doing surprisingly well for someone who was just kidnapped from her own timeline and thrown into ours,” Happy said gently as he pulled us off the highway. I sighed and sank lower into my seat. Pepper reached over and tentatively took my hand. I tried to give her a smile.
“Well, I’ve already had a breakdown. And I’m not convinced I’m not going to wake up in my own bed tomorrow morning. If I don’t, I might be putting in PTO for three days to drink myself into a stupor. And cry.” I didn’t want to think about the implications of being stuck in a different timeline. I wanted my mom. I took a deep breath and pushed the remaining breakdown into a box. “But for now, I’m here, and I’ve got questions for you two.”
“Questions for us?” Pepper asked, slightly surprised. “I thought you already knew everything.”
“Sure. But I know how things could be. I’m giving you the chance to change your future. So, here’s the question; how far are you willing to go to protect Tony Stark?” I looked at Pepper, who may have shown up for the final battle, pissed and ready to fight, but had also walked away from Tony when he was trying to be a better person. If she walked away here, I wasn’t going to let her back in. They were getting one chance, just like I was.
“Shouldn’t we be the ones asking you that question?” Happy asked, glancing at me through the rearview. I scoffed and looked back at my writing, absently correcting the spelling of a word.
“Should I plan to do more, I’d be forced to worship him as my God,” I said firmly without a glance up. When I did look up in the silence, Happy and Pepper were looking at me like they’d never seen me before. “You forget. You’ve known me for a few hours. I’ve known you for thirteen years. I’ve seen Tony save the world and end it. I’ve watched him fight against terrorists, genocidal aliens, and people who think being snubbed gives them a villain origin story. I’ve seen Tony tell the world to go hang, and I’ve seen him set the world on fire.”
“Tony would never!” Pepper protested. But there was doubt in her voice. Tony was one to give into his whims. If his mind talked him into something, there was truly little they could do to get him to stop. Ultron was half-proof of that.
“Tony would never seek revenge against those that hid his parents murder from him? And then sat around and hid the answers he needed to save his life?” I asked, glancing up at Pepper. I wasn’t mad at her, or her questions. I knew she loved Tony, and I could already tell, in this life, she’d pick up the mantle of Rescue with ease and joy. “Tony fucking Stark would never let his team walk all over him, while he shells out millions for them? Tony Stark deserves better than the shit he’s going to go through if we stand around with our thumbs up our asses! Anthony Edward Stark deserves more than to sacrifice his life for a world that doesn’t appreciate him!”
I took a deep breath, fighting the rising emotions in my chest. I wanted to rage and scream and throw things, but that wouldn’t help me, not in the short term or the long term.
“He sacrifices himself?” Pepper asked faintly. She’d gone pale again. I was starting to worry about her blood pressure.
“It was the price to save the world. But I have a few ideas for that.” I wasn’t going to admit that at the moment, my plans were Hulk, She-Hulk, or myself doing the snap. The Hulks could survive it, and if I was stuck here without my family, it wouldn’t really matter if I died. I shook away the morbid thoughts – they’d do me no good this early.
“You didn’t tell Tony that he sacrifices himself, you just said that he dies,” Happy pointed out. I grinned at him through the rearview, but there were too many teeth visible for it to be kind.
“Do you really want me to tell Tony that if I change this, someone else might have to die in his place? You really want me to tell him that just as he’s finally starting to gain a conscience?” I asked Happy through the mirror. He grumbled under his breath but gave me a petulant “no” as he turned into a Starbucks. “I didn’t think so. Give me time to find a way around the whole sacrificial lamb bit, I have two and a half ideas, but not enough information.”
I wondered if Wanda could wield the infinity stones. That could prevent a lot of trouble. I shook the thoughts of the future out of my head as Happy pulled up to the order screen. I rolled down my window and waited for the barista.
“Welcome to Starbucks, what can we get started for you?”
“Morning, love! Can we get a hot, Grande, French Vanilla latte with soy milk and whip with a caramel drizzle, an iced, tall, white chocolate mocha with almond milk, and a venti cold brew?” I made sure to pause in between specifications. I knew that I had the tendency to talk at a million miles an hour, but I didn’t want to inconvenience the barista. Or have to repeat myself.
“Okay, anything else today?” I glanced at Pepper and Happy, who both shook their heads.
“And a, um, chocolate croissant, warm if you could?” I said, practically beaming at the screen. Free Starbucks was always a win for me.
“Absolutely! That’ll be sixteen fifty at the first window,” the associate said.
“Thanks, Sunshine!” Happy pulled us forward and waited for the barista to open the window. “Shit I forgot how cheap shit was in 2010.”
“That different?”
“My latte is usually eight bucks by itself,” I said dryly as Happy paid for our drinks. “Inflation got bad in 2017 and then 2020 made everything astronomically worse. I forgot; y’all are just off the housing market crash.”
“Are you able to give us a rundown of what the economy is going to do?” Pepper asked, leaning closer to me in her excitement. “Do you know what that could mean for S.I.?”
“I know there’s an energy crisis coming. Global warming is off the charts. In 2011 we’re gonna wanna be pumping out green energy like that’s what we were founded to do. I can write something up for you, I’ve got a few ideas to throw to SI anyway.”
“I’m assuming the fancy one is for you, Grey?” Happy asked, holding the drink carrier. He’d already moved his cold brew to the console in the car.
“Yes, thanks, Happy,” I said, taking the carrier and passing the white mocha over to Pepper. I accepted the croissant and happily bit into it.
“You think Jim is okay?” Happy asked Pepper as he pulled out of the parking lot. I chased the bite with a drink of coffee and gave a happy wiggle.
“I’m betting he’s going to hit Tony,” Pepper said, sipping at her drink. She made a surprised noise, looked at it again, then took another drink. I just grinned at her; glad she enjoyed the drink. Her tablet pinged once, twice, then a third time. She and I both looked at it in surprise. “Speaking of Tony, he changed the fatality clause to make sure you inherit the company if he’s missing for more than a month. I’m not sure I like that decision. He also said to focus on the first two movies until he gets back, with the exception of Barnes. Jarvis has made you a fairly fool-proof identity as his daughter. You just need to give him details for it.”
“I’ll do that first thing today. I’m going to warn you now, it was four pm in my timeline, and then it was one am in this one; I’m absolutely wrecked. When we get home, I’m happy to do any admin work necessary, but I will be going to bed at five pm.”
“No, that’s fair,” Happy said. “At least one of the Starks knows how to take care of themselves.”
“Ha, that’s hilarious. Self-care? What’s that?” I asked, grinning as I looked at Pepper. I received a flat look in reply. “Look, inflation is a bitch, health insurance is expensive, and rent was due. What do you expect from me?”
“Regular doctors’ and dentist’s visits,” Pepper said dryly.
“Yeah right,” I snarked, taking another sip of my drink. I was a young person with chronic pain. My doctor just said it was anxiety and prescribed me a medication that made me so nauseous it wasn’t worth the forty bucks a month it cost. And it didn’t do anything about the pain in my left leg. “Look, it’s fine, I’m fine.”
“That is not fine! Grey, you have to take care of yourself,” Pepper exclaimed, reaching over to swat me on the shoulder. I gave her a mock-affronted look before bursting into giggles.
“There’s two of them. Shit,” Happy said, pretending to be upset. Pepper still looked scandalized.
“I’m afraid to ask, honestly.”
“Whatever the question, the answer is probably as bad as you’re expecting. The good news is that I’m fully vaccinated. Got my flu shot at work last month and a covid booster last week.”
“What’s covid?” Happy asked, looking wary. I glared at the top of my coffee cup.
“Pray we don’t find out,” I practically growled. “Like, actually, get down on your knees and pray to every God that you believe in that we don’t find out. If I have to live through that shit again, I’ll lose my mind. I have six years to prevent the end of the world.”
“I thought you said we had until 2023 for the bad guy?” Pepper asked, alarmed.
“Oh, no. Avengers Endgame is in 2023. But 2016 is a nightmare. Hopefully you’ll never have to know.” We fell into silence as Happy drove us along the coast. I occasionally glanced out Pepper’s window at the ocean but tried to keep writing. My hand was shaking so much my handwriting was mostly unreadable. We pulled into the driveway when Pepper spoke again.
“You never did actually answer our question about your health.”
“Pepper, I’m fine,” I assured. “I’ll order a knee brace this week, and I’ll be alright.”
I’d learned that if I wanted to do any kind of long-term standing or walking, I needed support on my left leg. Back home, I’d use a cane to walk, taking the weight off my leg as much as possible, but I didn’t want to do that here. Here I needed to be some shade of perfect and didn’t think I could afford to show such a weakness.
“One orthopedic physician coming up,” Pepper mumbled under her breath. I just shook my head. Happy pulled up in front of the house and parked the car.
“I’ll drop you two off here, I’m going to the office to grab the list of things Tony wanted brought out of the labs there.”
“Will you also arrange dinner for us, Happy?” Pepper asked. “I don’t think we should go out anywhere.”
“Sure, I’ll do take out for us, and I’ll get together a grocery order. Grey, make sure you let me know what things you want for yourself and the kitchen. Do that first thing so I know what to get.” Happy turned to look at me before I got out of the car. “I mean it, kid, anything you want from the grocery store. Pepper will probably take you shopping tomorrow so you have stuff.”
“Tony’s arranged for a personal stylist to meet us next week to get you kitted out as a Stark; tomorrow we’ll hit up the mall and wherever else you want to go.” Pepper’s face softened for a moment. “Look. We have no idea how you’re doing with this severe adjustment. We’ll help you, you help us, and maybe, just maybe, we get out of this unscathed.”
I could tell she was trying, and that meant the world to me. I had no idea what was going on in their heads, I barely knew what was going on in mine. But I did know that I just flipped their lives upside down. I had plans to turn three people into superheroes, ready to save the world. The world wasn’t going to know what hit it – as long as I didn’t fuck this up.
“Boy, someone’s an optimist,” I teased. “Happy, drive safe, we’ll see you soon.”
I climbed out of the car, then leaned against Happy’s door until he rolled down the window.
“Go on, choose your shit. I’m going to the store after the office, so you have an hour to let me know what you want, or you get nothing.”
“You know, if you relax, you’ll feel better,” I said, smiling as he frowned.
“You’re a punk, Stark, you know that?” Happy put the car in reverse and slowly rolled the car backwards. I let the car spin me around until I was facing the house and made my way to the door.
“It’s really nice to come in the front door this time,” I said as I walked over the threshold into my new house. Pepper laughed from where she was settling on the couch.
“It’s nice to see you come through the front door, Miss Stark,” Jarvis said, already calling me by my new name. “Sir has several delivery services on standby to furnish your bedroom and a workspace for you in the second-floor sub-basement. He also includes this recording for you.”
“Rhodey, give me just a moment to finish this, then you can ask your questions. Hey, kiddo, DUM-E has some technology for you, a phone, computer, things like that. Make sure you order whatever you want for your room, and feel free to make yourself at home in the garage. I’ll call you tomorrow after the Jericho presentation. Get some sleep, kiddo.”
“Thanks, Jay,” I said, touched that Tony thought to fabricate me some Stark level technology. I could finally start keeping neater notes. I also really needed to get used to calling him dad, or else I was going to screw up in front of the press. “Has Tony picked a room for me? Or is that my choice?”
“Sir has selected a room with an ensuite for you across the hall from him. It has one way glass as windows, the same as his.”
“I’d wondered,” I mused. “Alright, lab first, then Happy’s chores, then background, maybe a nap. Need anything from me, Pep?”
“Want me to find you when dinner is here?” she offered.
“Oh, yes please.” And with that, I headed down to the lab where DUM-E was in fact waiting with a basket in his claw. I had a tablet, a new laptop, and a cell phone. “Thanks, love. Do you mind if I work here while Tony’s gone?”
I got a bunch of beeps in response. I would have to learn how to speak robot it seemed. Guess I’d make it up for now.
“If I set anything on fire, you can definitely put it out. But I don’t have any immediate plans for pyrotechnics. I’ll leave that to T-Dad.” I tucked my prizes under my arm and patted the bot on the side before heading back upstairs. Jarvis helpfully flashed a light so I could find my bedroom, and lit it up as I walked in. It was very empty, but I could tell it was nearly the same size as my entire apartment had been. And that wasn’t including the bathroom I could see through the door.
I settled on the floor and pulled out the tablet. Pepper had helpfully sent me an email with a link to the grocery store Happy frequented. I actually took my time, selecting my favorite brands of things, weighing pros and cons on different brands of shampoo – for once not limited to the one that was on sale at the time.
Once I chose everything from tampons to toothpaste, chips to coffee creamer, I furnished the room. I selected same day delivery, putting in the information for the delivery services Tony prepped. I almost ordered a canopy bed, but it didn’t come in a California King like I wanted. Finally, I pulled up the email from Jarvis, where he was helping me generate my backstory.
“I need you to see if a person exists for me,” I said to the room at large. “I need you to check for an Emma Frost. She’d be a sex therapist, or a night club owner. Blonde, mutant.”
“Mutant, Miss Stark?” Jarvis asked.
“Oh. There’s a genetic mutation called the x-gene. Charles Xavier sets up school for them in New York, though I don’t know if it exists in this universe. Can you search for him, too?” I needed to know, was this my MCU that I knew and loved? Was this the wider Marvel Universe, with six Spider-Man and mutants running around? Was I going to have to deal with Deadpool? What if Charles read my mind and saw that I was a fake? What if Wanda read my mind and saw that I was a fake?
“And you would want a mutant for your mother?”
“Jarvis, I’m dumb as shit and tend to say whatever comes out of my mouth, regardless of whether it’s appropriate. I need to preemptively plan for that, by laying a careful backstory to give me a reason to know the future.”
“By giving yourself the X-gene.”
“It’s either that or cosmic radiation. Or gamma radiation. Or standing next to an exploding tesseract fueled engine. Saying it’s a genetic quirk might raise some eyebrows now, but if we’re not planning to announce it… After 2014 it won’t matter much anyway.” I stopped and thought, glancing down at the blank birth certificate open on my laptop. I needed a name that mattered. One that was storied.
“Let’s have me be born on Tony’s birthday, he’s a Gemini, we can play that up big time. Father and daughter that act more like twins, I need to be at least eighteen but can’t be too much older or we get too close to Tony being assaulted as a child, so put me in 1991.” It would make me eighteen going on nineteen. I doubted I could pass for younger. I was just glad that Tony and I had the foresight to run through his already established timeline. I might know more about him than I ever wanted to, but some part of me knew it would be necessary at some point. “Have me having skipped a grade in middle school, sixth straight to eighth, mostly because I don’t remember a single thing from seventh grade. Well, anything other than Brody pulling his dick out in class and rubbing his spunk on the back of my neck. Yuck.”
“He did what?” Pepper demanded from the doorway. I glanced up in surprise – usually I was better at listening for footsteps. She was holding a container of Chinese takeout. “Grey, are you saying you were assaulted?”
“I mean, sorta? More like I was just flashed and made hella uncomfortable. Told my mom, she nearly destroyed the school for me. He got suspended for two weeks, I think.” I shrugged. “I’d honestly forgotten about it.”
“Include that in her backstory. Have it happening in sixth grade, and that’s why Tony changed her schools when she skipped a grade.” Pepper frowned, but settled opposite me on the floor. She handed me the food and the chopsticks. “Anything I can help with?”
“If I was born in ’91, that has me turning nineteen next month. I need to have been in college under an assumed name – put me somewhere as Maria Carter, but withdraw me after it’s announced Tony is missing. I’ve got enough gen ed credits in my timeline that I’d only need a class or two before I have an Associates.” I looked at Pepper and thought while I shoved several pieces of General Tso’s chicken in my mouth. I nodded and said, “I need a name. Like a legal name. But it would depend on whether Tony was there for my birth or not. Has he raised me the entire time?”
“Kill your mom during childbirth. If she had Tony down as the father before she passed, the hospital would be duty bound to reach out to him. When people question how he could’ve raised you while being the same person they knew, we can have things in your background to explain his behavior.” Pepper handed me a napkin and pulled my tablet to her lap to continue the work while I ate. Happy came in with two workmen who shooed us out to start assembling furniture for me. We resettled in the living room, Pepper perched on the arm of the couch I sat down on. “Like, see here, in 2002, you’d have been in sixth grade, he was publicly crucified in the press for skipping this giant Stark Industries shareholders meeting. If that lines up with you being assaulted in class, of course he would’ve skipped the meeting, his daughter needed him.”
“That could work. I broke my right arm in first grade, and my ankle between eighth and ninth grade. Had to have surgery and everything. We can add those in. Um, I took violin since I was seven. Add a recital or three in there, as well as high school orchestra and drama performances. I tend to bring those up sometimes. Oh, and marching band.” I watched as Jarvis added them onto the timeline we constricted of mine and Tony’s lives. “Every time he skives off, we can explain it away with my existence.”
“So, what’s your legal name, kid?” Happy asked, leaning against the wall. “Who do you want to be?”
I thought of every OC I’d created. Tala Merlyn, the super assassin love of Cisco Ramon’s life. I thought of Casey from Leverage, and Peggy from the Librarians. Carina from Harry Potter. I thought of the dozen or so I’d created for the MCU. I thought of my family, and my life before, silently mourning them as I created a new life to live in. I knew that if I was going to play a character for the rest of my life, she would need to be a powerhouse. Someone so big, so important, no one would question her when I fucked something up. If Tony Fucking Stark was the media personality of Tony, I needed someone who could be that for me.
“Margaret Maria Stark, called Grey by close friends and family,” I said finally. “Named after the two best women in Tony’s life – at the time.”
I winked at Pepper, who smiled. It was time for me to take my first steps into this new world, and the new character I had to play perfectly. I really hoped I didn’t fuck this up like I did everything else. The MCU had to stay my hyperfocus for the rest of my life. I couldn’t afford anything else.