Chapter Text

Chapter 1

“Run! I’ll find your mom and we’ll meet at the park!”

Eva couldn’t get in another word as she watched her father rush back into the alien-infested building. Somewhere deep inside, she knew it was the last time she would see him and she couldn’t rip her eyes away from his receding figure as he ran back into the smoke. 

“Eva!” Her eyes seemed to take a long time to focus on her sister. “Let’s go!”

Legs heavy, Eva let her sister drag her from the building and into the waves of people running from the destruction in Manhattan. Keeping her eyes on her older sister, she tried not to look at the man bleeding on the ground nearby or a woman screaming up above somewhere. Smoke burned in her lungs and something loudly whizzed by overhead. 

Her sister pulled her down an alleyway and Eva barely noticed. They came to a sudden halt, and Eva barrelled into her sister’s back. Vic fell to the ground with a cry. Eva bent down to help her up but Vic’s terrified expression made her stop short. Eva followed her gaze and her eyes fell upon two impossibly large figures on the other end of the alley: aliens. 

They were almost lizard-like with scales, tails, and no distinguishable nose. They made a guttural clicking sound as they began to approach, each holding a spear with unnaturally glowing ends. 

Eva felt something tugging at her arm. Vic was pulling as hard as she could to snap Eva out of her terror. Willing her legs to move, Eva followed her sister as they climbed up a fire escape toward the roof of the seven story apartment complex. 

They didn’t look back until they reached the top. Eva heard Vic sigh a momentary breath of relief when she looked down and saw the aliens remaining posted at the mouth of the alleyway below. One continued to look up at them but made no move to follow them. “They must be waiting for something,” Vic guessed. 

“Wha-… what are we going to do?” Eva asked between sobs, wide eyes looking between the two taller buildings surrounding them. Sounds of explosions, screams, alien noises, and machinery bounced off the sides of the building as the war raged through the city. “We have to get to the park!” She could hear how hysterical her voice was, but Eva couldn’t seem to control its volume.

Her sister bent down and held Eva in her arms. “Let’s just wait until the aliens move and then we’ll go back down and meet mom and dad at the park,” Vic told her with a calm voice. She peeked over the lip of the building. “Just stay there and I’ll watch those guys. You watch the sky.”

Eva took a shaky breath and turned her gaze upward. It helped to see the blue of the afternoon sky above her. It almost made her feel like she was on the rooftop of their apartment at home while mom was gardening in the raised flower beds. She could almost smell the rosemary. 

She was jolted out of her peaceful moment when she saw a strange vehicle fly through the sky and down toward the street. “What’s that?” Eva asked her sister as she cowered into Vic’s side. 

“That’s what the aliens were waiting for!” Vic exclaimed as she pointed at the aliens leaving their post and walking around the building and out of sight. “Let’s go.”

Eva hesitantly pulled herself over the lip of the building and back onto the fire escape. They only made it two steps down when Eva heard a zoom from above. Looking up, she saw the strange ship from before flying back into the sky. 

Suddenly, there was a different sound that echoed between the buildings, making Eva clutch her sister’s hand in fear. After a moment, she recognized the distinct roar of thrusters and Vic turned to look at her with excited eyes. “Iron Man!”

Vic ran back up to the top of the fire escape and leaned over the edge of the railing to get a better look. Sure enough a crimson and gold suit of armor was flying through the sky at the alien’s flying chariot. 

“It’s actually him!” her sister shouted over the noise. “He’s your favorite, Eva. Iron Man is going to save us!”

Eva actually cracked a hopeful smile on her tear-stained face as she watched Iron Man dive and point his arms toward the aliens. The repulsors on his hands charged and blasted through the side of the alien ship. The aliens lost control and careened off course. 

The smile slid off her face as she realized the alien ship was now heading right toward the roof of the building where Eva and her sister were perched. “Eva!” Vic pushed Eva down under the lip of the roof as the alien ship crashed into the top of the building and exploded. 

The next few seconds passed by in slow motion. Eva watched her sister attempt to duck underneath the fire that ballooned out from the building. Then everything was shaking. Eva was still clutching Vic’s hand, but she no longer knew which way was up or down until… bang! A metal pole in the railing hit her shoulder.

Eva tried to get her bearings, but her shoulder hurt and there was something heavy on her hand. “Eva!” Eva looked through the grate that her face was pressed up against to see her beloved sister dangling over the edge, hanging onto Eva’s hand. 

“Vic!” Eva screamed. She clawed at her sister’s hand, using every ounce of her strength to hold onto her, but it wasn’t enough. Eva’s hand was too slick with sweat and her sister fell through her fingers.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

Eva woke up sometime later still lying facedown on the fire escape grate. Her head was pounding like it never had before and her arm was hanging limply over the railing. At first she thought it was all a dream, but a glance toward the broken body on the ground told her otherwise. She couldn’t look at it for more than a second and forced herself to turn away, her own sobs and screams filling her ears. 

She didn’t know how long she lay on the grate crying, completely unaware of her surroundings, but at some point she noticed that it was getting dark and she could hear people instead of explosions and gunfire. Eva suddenly remembered why she and V–...  why she had been in this alleyway in the first place. 

Eva needed to get to the park. 

That was the only thought that crossed her mind as she gingerly made her way down the fire escape and back into the alleyway. She forced herself to look only at her feet as she left Vic behind and walked into the street. 

Looking back, Eva wouldn’t be able to say how she made it to the park. She can’t remember what she saw on her way there. Maybe she only looked at her feet the entire way like she promised herself, but the next thing she would be able to remember was seeing grass beneath her filthy blue sneakers. 

The park was small and inconsequential, but that’s what made it so special to her family. There was no playground equipment, fountains, or fancy flowers. It was the size of a quarter block surrounded by buildings on all sides but one, which instead held an intimidating wrought iron fence facing the street. Tall trees that had been growing for decades towered over unruly brush. There was a huge oak tree at the center with two simple wooden benches underneath, which were obscured by the other trees and brush unless you ventured far enough into the park. 

Her father suspected that most people thought it was poorly maintained private property, but it was just a poorly maintained park, and that is exactly why Eva and her family loved this park so much. It was a true escape from the city that even the center of Central Park couldn’t provide and no one ever entered because of its intimidating and wild appearance from the outside. Eva and Vic grew up exploring every inch of the park and finding some new creature or treasure each time. Her parents read stories to them on those benches and they climbed that huge oak tree countless times. 

Now Eva entered the dark park and walked slowly to a bench… alone. Eva wasn’t sure whether she should be relieved that she wouldn’t have to tell her parents about Vic yet or if she should be afraid that something may be wrong if they weren’t there yet.

Laying down on the bench and holding her injured arm, Eva closed her eyes, unable to muster any emotions about being alone in this park and fell asleep. 

Eva’s parents didn’t come in the morning. They didn’t come in the afternoon. They didn’t come the next night. Eva wandered the park, laid on the bench, and even attempted to climb the tree, but she did not leave the park. Even when her stomach rumbled and the water from the dilapidated water fountain couldn’t fill it enough, Eva stayed. She didn’t leave for two days until she decided to stand at the entrance of the park and look up and down the street for any sign of her parents.

People’s eyes were harrowed as they walked past. Debris from a nearby building that partially collapsed littered the street, and a handful of police officers were organizing the search and rescue through the rubble. 

She stood at the wrought iron gate peering at the people passing by for some time. Most passers-by didn’t notice her but some gave the dirty girl in the abandoned park a strange look back. After a while, an officer from the clean-up noticed her and approached.

“Hi dear,” the man said as he approached. “What are you doing in the park?”

Eva looked up at him and thought that she should probably smile at him but her face remained blank. “I’m waiting for my parents. They told me to meet them here.”

The officer had a strange expression that Eva’s sleep-deprived brain couldn’t quite comprehend. “When were they supposed to meet you?” he asked. 

“A few days ago, I guess.”

“The day when the aliens attacked?” he asked softly.

Eva only nodded. The officer bent down to her level to look her more carefully in the eye. She then finally realized what the soft expression on the officer’s face meant: he pitied her. He thought her parents were dead like… like Vic. “They’re coming. They’re just running late. Or maybe they know what happened to Vic, and they don’t want to see me again.” 

“I think they definitely want to see you, but maybe they weren’t able to get here,” the officer told her. “Can I help you find them?” He held out a hand. After a moment of thought, she took it. 

***

Eva had been through a few hospitals, group homes, and an orphanage in the past two weeks, switching places every couple days when something new opened up. But now she was finally in a permanent foster home. Her very tired social worker told her that it was a good match, but she had also said that the orphanage and group homes were nice and they were all full of rats and bugs. 

She was now on a mattress laid out on the ground under a drafty window. Her tired eyes unblinkingly stared out into the cloudy night sky. The borrowed t-shirt she wore was itchy and there was a chilly breeze coming through the window making Eva shiver under the thin quilt. 

Her new foster mom seemed sweet and gave her some clothes, a toothbrush, and a little cat plastic figurine that Eva was still holding in her hand. There wasn’t much food other than the microwavable meals in the freezer. Even those were a treat since it was the only thing she got, three times a day. They were at least better than what the hospitals had. 

During the week she’d been there, Eva kept to her corner of the living room in the one-bedroom apartment. Her foster mom would turn on cartoons during the day and give her some paper that she could draw on. There was talk about going back to school soon to start middle school. It was almost bearable, until he came home each night. 

Her foster dad was having a hard time after the alien attack and was using alcohol and something that smelled gross in the bathroom to deal with it. When he came out of the bathroom, her foster mom would bring her into the bedroom and they would read books together while he yelled at the tv and banged things around in the living room. Then he would come into the bedroom and fall asleep. That was Eva’s cue to go back into the trashed living room that now stank of beer and sweat and try to go to sleep. It had been scary the first few times, but she was starting to get used to it. She kept reminding herself that her foster mom cared about her and wanted to keep her safe, so she just kept quiet around her foster dad.

Now as she lay under the drafty window, she was unable to sleep because that routine had been broken tonight. Her foster dad had not come home. Her foster mom watched a movie in the living room with her, which was a nice change of pace, but Eva saw her watching the door warily from the corner of her eye. 

Sure enough, around midnight Eva heard a thud on the front door and the jingling of keys. She hid underneath the covers, hoping he wouldn’t notice her. 

When he finally came in the door, something was wrong. In the past, the alcohol had made him tired and he would just fall asleep, but there was anger in his eyes this time. His eyes locked onto Eva.

He stalked across the room and grabbed Eva by the collar of her shirt. “Get up, you disgusting kid.” He threw her to the floor and smacked her across the face. Eva’s head snapped to the right and she felt blood well up in her mouth, her cheek stinging fiercely as she cried out. “You’re leaving. I don’t have time to deal with you. I’m not going to work extra hours to feed your sorry ass!”

Eva scrambled back toward the wall, trying to get away from him. She heard her foster mother enter the room. “Tyler! What are you doing? Leave her alone!”

“Shut up!” Eva watched through watery eyes as he spun around to face her foster mom. “It’s not my fault you’re infertile and you brought this washed up kid into my house!”

“Your minimum wage job wouldn’t support a family even if I could have a kid!” her foster mom screeched, but that only made him more angry. He stormed over and began to hit Eva’s foster mother over the head with his keys that were still in his hand. Blood spattered across the ground and Eva heard someone screaming. She covered her ears to block out the loud noise but she could still hear the screaming. 

The sound stopped suddenly and there were two hands around her throat. “Shut up!” Tyler yelled at her. Eva clawed at the hands around her neck as she weakly realized that she had been the one screaming.  

Then, the world turned on its side. 

Her foster father was sent flying through the drafty window on the wall as she slipped out of his grasp and hit the floor. He crashed through the glass and started careening across the street. Something about the panicked look on his face made Eva reach out toward him in shock and desperation. Suddenly he started moving in a different direction. As he got bigger and bigger, she realized that he was barreling back toward her. She barely ducked out of the way as he passed over her head and collided with the wall behind her. 

At her feet, her foster father no longer moved and his leg lay at an unnatural angle. Looking up at her foster mother, Eva saw terror and hatred, not toward her foster father but directed at Eva herself. 

So she ran.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

Eva walked through a run-down convenience store aisle, peering at all the snacks. A family with a small child stood at the end of the aisle. The little boy was asking his mother what he could get. “Only pick one thing for our picnic and then we’re going to the park.”

The mother seemed to be running out of patience waiting for her child to pick a snack. Eva would give anything to be standing in this aisle with her mother, getting ready for a picnic in the park. She wanted to scream at the mother or just sit on the floor and cry. It seemed that the crying was about to win out of the two as the back of her eyes began to heat up. She scrubbed at her eyes, willing the tears back. It was surprising there were any tears left at this point. 

It had been two weeks since Eva ran away from the foster home. At first she had been terrified that people would come after her and ran to her family’s favorite park to hide. After a day and a half without anyone appearing to haul her away in handcuffs, Eva’s hunger won out and she ventured into the city. 

At first, Eva wandered around Manhattan stealing food off of people’s plates before the busboy could get to them on the patios of restaurants, and that worked for a few days until she tripped and the toe of one of her shoes blew out completely. As she sat on the sidewalk staring blankly at her ruined shoe, Eva recalled how her mother was talking about taking her shopping for new shoes before she grew out of them, just a few days before... Eva had complained that she didn’t want to go shopping and that she liked these shoes. It didn’t compute in Eva’s head that that had been her life just a little over a month ago. Now, for many reasons, she wished that she hadn’t argued with her mom. 

Eva had always been fast. She was never very strong and definitely smaller than her older sister, but when they raced, Eva always won. Her parents talked about how she should try track and field when she got to middle school, but Eva’s mother had put both her and Vic in gymnastics from a young age, and Eva loved it. She’d even won a few competitions, so when she started to consider how she would survive, being quick and stealthy was her best option. 

As she walked around Manhattan with half of her foot exposed, Eva had to think about doing things she knew would make her parents upset. To get new shoes, she would have to either buy them or steal them off of another kid’s feet. The latter seemed a bit far fetched no matter how fast she could move, so she would have to steal money instead.

Growing up in New York, Eva had heard everyone around her complain about oblivious tourists. Her mother complained the most and pointed them out whenever they were walking around the city. She told Eva and Vic to make sure they kept their bags closed and on the front of them whenever they could. Her mother also never put her purse on the back of her chair when they went to restaurants and kept it in her lap. 

This made it easy for Eva to spot good targets. It took her a full day to get the courage and in that time her shoe became nearly unusable, so when she was waiting around the corner at a popular restaurant with an easily accessible patio, she took the opportunity. Two women were leaving and left half a sandwich on one of the plates. When she snuck up and took the sandwich, Eva saw that one of them had left her purse on the back of the chair. She was ashamed at how easily she snatched it and the sandwich up. 

After sprinting around the corner, no one chased after her or seemed to notice her at all. With shaky fingers, Eva peeled open the bag to find a wallet that had three hundred dollars inside. Guilt weighed heavily on her shoulders as she fanned out the bills. The bag and wallet looked nice too. If she could sell both, she would be set for a while. 

Eva was only three steps down the street before stopping in her tracks. Only a moment passed before she pocketed one of the three hundred dollars and began to walk back toward the restaurant. She was happy to see that the woman hadn’t returned yet, so she strung up the purse on the gate leading into the patio and kept walking. 

From then on, it became Eva’s unspoken rule to only take half of what she found. If she couldn’t put the other half back, she would give it to a homeless person she came across. It didn’t make up for her wrong-doings, but she thought it might help ease her conscience. 

Stealing was pretty easy for Eva, as long as she took her time. At first she did it at a few familiar restaurants, but the waiters and hostesses began to notice the dirty kid hanging around and began to suspect her. After one of the waiters chased her for two blocks, Eva knew she needed to change her tactics. She started to frequent busy tourist traps where she could get close to people without raising any suspicions. Once she found her target, Eva waited a few steps away until they were distracted enough for her to take what she could and move past them. Then, she would fall back into the crowd and see if she could return half of it. Eva did her best but didn’t take too much of a risk before giving up and giving away the other half. 

After a week, Eva had new shoes, two outfits, a water bottle, a toothbrush, a sleeping bag, and a purse. She kept everything in the park in a hollow of the large oak tree while she was out and spent most of her time wandering around the city by foot. It was scary being alone in the city at first, but if she just pretended that it was an adventure like she used to play with her sister and she came home to the park before dark, Eva felt safe. Life was getting easier, which left more time to think. Instead of thinking about her family or the life that didn’t exist anymore, Eva instead started to try to plan for the future.

She didn’t trust her social worker now that she had run away and started stealing. She would never go back to the foster home. There was no other family she could go to, so Eva was officially on her own. She’d always heard that California was nice in the winter, so maybe she’d try to save up money for a train ride and a new life on the beach. That would be a lot of money and she only had a few months before it started to get cold. Eva knew she would have to work harder to get what she needed.

The little boy finally made his selection and his mother dragged him up to the register at the front of the store. Eva told herself that this mother was too impatient, so it was okay to take her wallet from her very open purse. After paying, the mother predictably didn’t close her purse and focused on pushing her son toward the door. Double checking that the mother was looking at her son and the clerk was checking the cash register, Eva passed behind them and snatched the wallet easily out of her bag. 

Rounding the corner into another aisle, Eva slipped the wallet into the front pocket of her sweatshirt and opened it inside as she pretended to be interested in the gum selection. Once she had half the bills out of the wallet and in her pocket, she closed the wallet and grabbed some pretzels before going to the counter. As she reached the front, Eva ducked down to the ground and pulled the wallet out. 

“Someone must have dropped this,” she said innocently as she slid it to the clerk. 

The tired middle-aged man didn’t seem to care. “Thanks.” 

Buying her pretzels and leaving the store, Eva pulled the cash out to find only two fives and two ones. With a sigh, she tried not to think about whether she took too little or too much from that mother as she walked down the street. 

“You know, you’re pretty smooth.”

Eva nearly jumped out of her skin at the voice coming from only a few feet behind her. Whirling around, an older girl in her late teens with purple hair, ripped jeans, and a septum ring was smiling down at Eva. Without another thought, Eva turned and ran as fast as she could away from the girl who had seen her stealing, ignoring the calls that followed her for a block.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

The next day, Eva scouted out one of her favorite bagel places for a potential breakfast. There was a popular bus stop in front of the shop and she could usually blend into the morning commute crowd to take a bagel off of someone. The eight-o-clock bus was set to arrive soon and she had her target locked. Just as the bus turned the corner, Eva joined the group of people who were just starting to gather around the bus stop. When the bus pulled up, Eva sidled up just behind a man who had eaten half of his bagel while waiting and the other half was now poking out of his jacket pocket. As he took a step toward the open doors of the bus, Eva liberated the half-bagel from his pocket and headed in the opposite direction. 

There was a distinct hiss of the bus doors closing as she turned down the street. Behind her, the bagel shop doors opened and someone shouted, “Hey! Hey, kid!” Eva glanced behind her, hoping that the person was not looking at her, but a woman wearing an apron had her eyes locked on Eva. “Hey!” the woman repeated. “You’ve been stealing bagels for a week!”

Eva turned and prepared to break into a run when someone stepped in front of her. “There you are!” The girl with purple hair was back and swung an arm around Eva’s shoulders. “I couldn’t find you before. What kind of trouble did you get into this time?” 

Eva nearly shook this girl’s arm off of her to sprint away, but the girl was strong and held onto Eva with a vice grip. Without missing a beat, the purple-haired girl looked over at the bagel lady and back down at the bagel clutched in Eva’s hand. “Were you hungry? I could have given you some money.”

“I–,” Eva began but was lost for words and only stared at the complete stranger.  

The girl addressed the lady without missing a beat. “I’m so sorry, miss. My sister is a troubled kid and I turned my back for just a second. Our dad isn’t the best, if you catch my drift, but he’s all the family we’ve got. If you call him, she’ll get beaten for sure. I promise to keep a better eye on her.”

The woman’s gaze softened. “I won’t call anyone,” she promised, and as she got closer, Eva noticed that she was holding a bag full of bagels. “I actually just wanted to give this to her.” She held out the bagels to Eva.

Eva didn’t know what to do and simply stared at the lady. The purple-hair girl reached out and took them instead. “Thank you. That’s very generous.”

The woman smiled at them. “I know it’s been hard for everyone since the Invasion, so please come back if you’re hungry again.”

“Wow! Thank you!” the purple haired girl exclaimed, waving as she pulled Eva down the street. “We will.”

Once they were out of sight, Eva tried to pull away again, but the girl didn’t let go. “Hey now.” She shook the bag of bagels in front of Eva’s face. “You want these right?” Eva tried to shoot a glare at the older girl, but it only made her laugh. “I mean, you earned them, so answer a few of my questions and they’re yours.”

Eva couldn’t get away without trying to hurt this girl, so she simply stood in silence. Apparently, that was enough for the girl to get started. “Did they put you in a foster home or orphanage?”

The question was so direct and accurate that it shook a response out of Eva. “Both.”

The girl frowned. “Which one are you in now?”

“Neither,” Eva growled and made a swipe for the bagels, but the girl just held them up higher.

“So you’re just… on the streets?” The girl looked Eva up and down. “You’re clearly doing pretty well on your own.” 

This girl was putting it together and Eva wasn’t going to stick around to see if she would call the police. Twisting in the girl’s grip, Eva managed to shake her and started running. She was surprised when she didn’t hear the girl call after her and took the first turn she could make. 

Eva only made it halfway down the next block before a purple blur crossed her path and Eva ran face first into it. Pain blossomed behind her eyes and she fell backward onto her butt. 

“Oops! I’m so sorry.”

Through her watery eyes, Eva saw the girl was crouching in front of her with a concerned expression. “You are really fast, but you need to know the secrets of the city.”

Eva couldn’t hold back anymore and burst into tears. “Woah, woah, kid. Calm down. You’re good now,” the older girl said. Helping her up, the girl led Eva toward an empty bench nearby and sat her down, placing the bagels in her lap. Eva took a couple shaky breaths and scrubbed at the tears on her face. “Have you been out here since the attack?” the girl asked and Eva shrugged. “Shit.” Eva blushed at the bad language. “What’s your name?” she asked gently.

“Eva.”

“I’m Chloe.” Chloe smiled at Eva, and Eva realized it was the first genuine smile she had seen from someone in weeks. “You won’t last out here long if you ran from your foster home. I’d know better than anyone.” A far off expression fluttered across Chloe’s face. “That settles it then,” she said cheerfully as she stood. “You can come with me.”

“Wh– what?” Eva stammered as Chloe pulled her up. 

“I live in this place that’s safe for people like you and me. Cole will take care of you. I think he’ll like you a lot.”

“Who are you talking about?” Eva said, stumbling after the girl who headed into the subway. 

“You’ll see,” she said brightly. 

Eva looked around, not sure what to do. Chloe had saved her, given her the bag of bagels, and now promised to take her somewhere safe. Maybe it was the kind smile or the dark reminder that Eva could easily get caught and taken back to that terrible foster home or thrown in jail for… hurting her foster dad. Even if what this girl had to offer was just as bad, this was her one chance to find out about it. She could easily run if she didn’t like it. 

When she caught up to Chloe, Eva watched her look around and hop the turnstile. Eva considered turning around before she got into more trouble, but no one came to take them away. The few morning passers-by didn’t even blink at the crime. Eva followed her through the turnstile, dutifully using her pre-paid pass to get through. 

They boarded a southbound train to head deeper into Manhattan. Chloe opened the bag of bagels that Eva was still holding onto and they munched on their breakfast for the short ride in silence. Leading her out of the train, Chloe didn’t go through the turnstile and back out onto the street, as expected. Instead she led Eva to the end of the station and around a corner. There was a wall covered in graffiti and Chloe gave it a series of knocks. A heavy metal door that Eva didn’t notice under all of the spray paint opened and she followed the purple-haired girl into a dimly lit hallway. 

Chloe gave a large unkempt man a nod. “Who you got, Chloe?” he asked with a suspicious look toward Eva. 

“New recruit for the boss,” she replied easily. “He here?”

The man nodded, keeping his eyes glued to Eva, who shrunk back behind Chloe. “Stop scaring her, Gary. We want her to stay.” 

Gary gave her one more apprehensive glance before shrugging and sitting in a worn, folding chair in the corner. The flimsy chair groaned under his weight as he picked up a tattered copy of Crime and Punishment. 

Eva turned back to Chloe and followed her through a long maintenance tunnel that looked like it hadn’t been used in a few decades. They walked for what seemed like a city block before the tunnel opened up into a much larger room. 

It was immediately recognizable as an abandoned subway station, covered in layers of graffiti and grime. She realized that they must be in the Worth Station that she had heard was overtaken by gangs and homeless people. Looking around the room, she saw that the rumor wasn’t too far from the truth. 

There were at least fifty people spread out across the platform. It was an eclectic gathering of people of all ages, races, and genders, but they all had the same haunted look on their faces. She could tell that there was quite a bit of organization in the layout of the room. People had equal spaces separated out by old pieces of cardboard, trash can lids, and wooden pallets. There were Christmas lights and lanterns strung throughout to keep every area lit. Eva noticed past the turnstiles there seemed to be a common area with dusty couches, broken tables, and some sort of makeshift kitchen with a gas burner and a large pot that a woman was adding things into. 

Chloe led her through a couple rows of people and down to the end of the station. They passed by an older man who was being helped into a broken cot by a much younger man. There were a few children who ran by to join another child who was drawing on the wall with chalk. A woman chased them while holding a baby, telling them to slow down. 

As they approached the end of the station, Eva noticed that there was a large gate boarded up with two-by-fours that stretched the length of the station. There was an open door in the middle of the makeshift wall with warm light pooling onto the floor from inside. Chloe ushered her through the door and into the inviting room.

The room was much different than the small partitioned ones that the people had claimed throughout the station. The walls and ceiling were covered in tapestries, towels, and sheets, creating the warm glow that she had seen from the outside. One single lantern hung from the top of the ceiling, but lit the small room easily. It was much smaller than she originally anticipated, judging on where the station should have ended, but on a closer look, the sheets and tapestries at the back of the room weren’t covering a wall but creating one instead. 

In the center of the room was a beat up wooden desk with a man bent over papers. He looked up as they entered and smiled warmly. He was a tall man wearing a threadbare brown suit and had sparkling eyes. Eva instantly relaxed when she saw him, realizing that he was the ‘boss’ Chloe had referenced earlier and he wasn’t a scary gang boss like she was thinking he might be. 

“Chloe,” he said in a curious tone, his voice low and soothing. “Who’s your friend?”

Chloe stepped forward and waved for Eva to follow. Eva followed suit, suddenly aware of the bag of bagels she was still clutching to her chest, but for some reason she didn’t want to put them away in front of this man. 

“This is Eva,” Chloe explained. “She’s the one I told you about. The one that’s really good at stealing.”

The man gave Chloe a look. “Now Chloe, we don’t promote stealing here.”

“I know, I know,” Chloe agreed flippantly. “But I thought she could help get what the Underground needs. We made friends with someone at the bagel shop on fourth street.”

The man’s eyebrows rose, seemingly impressed. “That is good.”

Eva shifted uncomfortably as he turned his gaze back to her. He said he didn’t like stealing, and that was exactly what she had been doing since running away. Chloe spoke up again. “Eva told me that she’s been on her own pretty much since the attack. Ran away from a foster home too.”

The man gave her a compassionate look and moved around the desk to hold out his hand for Eva. “Excuse me, I’ve forgotten my manners.” Eva took his hand and he shook it with a firm but warm grip. “Hello Eva. My name is Cole Graves.”

“Hello,” Eva replied weakly, looking down to her feet as she let go of his hand. 

Mr. Graves leaned on the desk and ducked his head to try to catch her gaze. “I’m sorry you’ve been alone for so long. A lot of people here are in the same situation.” 

He paused for a moment, and Eva felt the need to look up at him again. His eyes were still warm and inviting. A strong urge to defend herself bubbled to the surface and Eva spat out, “I give back half!”

Mr. Graves leaned back in surprise. “You give back half of what?” he asked, voice still gentle. 

“Whatever I steal, I give back half if I can or give it to someone who needs it more or I leave the wallet at a police station so they can get their ID back.” The words just tumbled out of her mouth and Eva had to scrunch up her face to avoid crying again. 

Mr. Graves crouched down in front of her and smiled warmly. “Why do you feel like you need to steal, Eva?” he asked her with a soft voice.

Suddenly the entire story came flooding out of her. She hadn’t been able to talk to anyone about all that had happened to her in the past month. Eva had been passed from overworked adult to overworked adult, and no one really wanted to know what had happened. 

“We were on our way home when it happened. My mom had to stop at work to get something, so we were waiting outside. Then those–those aliens started coming down from Stark Tower. Dad told us to run and we did–we did! But there were more aliens and we climbed up a fire escape to the roof, but Iron Man…” Eva swallowed hard, remembering what happened next. “He shot one of their ships, and it crashed, and my sister… my sister–.” 

Eva hadn’t been aware that she was crying again until she couldn’t speak anymore and she was pulled into an embrace. Sobs wracked her body and Mr. Graves had to hold her up from collapsing to the ground in grief. Eva had been in survival mode since the aliens had descended from Stark Tower all those weeks ago and hadn’t really had a chance to mourn the death of her family yet. 

Mr. Graves held her until the sobs gave way into sniffles. Eva pulled away, appalled that she had stained his shirt with her tears and snot. “I’m so sorry.”

He kept his hands on her shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “Don’t be sorry, Eva. I’m sorry you had to go through so much on your own. I’m especially sorry about your sister. Do you know what happened to your parents?” he asked tenderly.

Eva’s gaze grew dark, trying not to remember what she’d seen. “They made me make sure it was them when they found them in the rubble.” Their lifeless faces had haunted her dreams during her short stints of sleep she had gotten since then. “There was no– no one else to do it.”

She felt Mr. Graves pull her into another hug. “I’m sorry, Eva,” he lamented with her. “I had to do the same thing when they found my daughter and wife.” Eva looked up at him. He gazed blankly over her head. “Our apartment, our livelihood, and my family were destroyed during the Hulk’s rampage.” She saw him shake his head and look back down at her, his eyes devastated but determined. “I wasn’t there to save them then, but that’s why I’m here now, helping the people here in our community that have experienced the same as you and me. It’s not much now, but I’m determined to give all these people a better world than what the Avengers have promised.”

Eva’s forehead wrinkled with concern. She and her sister had loved the superheroes, especially Iron Man who had cool gadgets and promised to protect the world. They had thought that they were so cool and wanted to get superpowers or build an awesome suit like Tony Stark and save the world. They may have saved the world during the Invasion, but at what cost? The cost of her family, her childhood, Mr. Graves’ family, and all those people living in this underground station. That didn’t seem like the world Iron Man had promised. 

Eva matched Mr. Graves’ determined expression. “How can I help?”

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

For the next few months, Mr. Graves put her to work. Eva began by helping take care of some of the younger children and teach them basic math and reading with chalk on a wall. Then she helped with the cooking for dinners in the evenings. Next she was sent to welcome new members of the Underground when they decided to join and got them set up in a spot to call their own. After seeing the need for more food, hygiene products, and materials in the quickly growing community, Eva went back to the park and took the nearly five hundred dollars she saved from her time stealing where it was hidden in the oak tree. Mr. Graves hugged and thanked her when she handed it all over to him, promising that she was giving it to the best cause. 

Now that she had gained Mr. Graves’ trust, she was sent out on runs with Chloe to stake out different shops and see if anyone was sympathetic to their cause. Eva and Chloe used the sister act to get to know the shopkeepers and befriended a few that went on to make deals with Mr. Graves. There was even a man at a hardware store who agreed to give them propane for the stove once a week and donated a few used generators. They went back to the bagel shop every evening for the items that hadn’t sold that day, which was able to fill in the gaps between meals for many people in the Underground. Mr. Graves was so excited to get those deals that he gave Chloe and Eva a day off to have fun in the city as a reward. 

Eva had learned that she was now a part of the Underground Worthy. She wasn’t sure who had come up with the name, but being in the abandoned Worth Street station didn’t require a huge leap of logic. Mr. Graves always went around to the people and told them that they were worthy of the food, that they were worthy of the extra blanket, and that they were worthy of happiness. Eva could tell that he was exhausted, but she admired him so much for caring for each person in the Underground and finding ways to show everyone that they were worthy. He did so much more than any superhero ever could. 

Eva became close with Chloe quickly. She was a friend and was starting to feel maybe even like a sister. No one could replace Vic. Chloe was much more bold and crass, but she was brave and confident like Vic. Eva had never been that way and looked up to Chloe as she walked through New York and the Underground like she owned it. Eva’s confidence began to build by just being around Chloe, and she learned to glare at men who bothered them on the subway and joke with Gary at the front door. 

It turned out that Gary was a very important person in the Underground Worthy. He acted as Mr. Graves’ right-hand man. He spent his time guarding the door or accompanying Mr. Graves on outings into the city. Gary loved to read, and Eva would make sure to keep an eye out for novels, especially classic novels, to bring back for him when she and Chloe went dumpster diving. He was a quiet man that scared Eva at first, but he grinned at Chloe’s sassy comments and eventually began lending Eva books to read from his growing collection. Sometimes when Eva got bored, she would join Gary at the door and they would talk about the stories and characters in the novels he shared with her. 

They also shared a space in the area behind Mr. Graves' office. On the first day, Mr. Graves and Chloe set her up in what they called the Haven. There was an actual twin bed where Mr. Graves slept and there was a little area boarded off with two hammocks for Eva and Chloe. They had gathered trinkets, posters, and a few fake plants to decorate their makeshift room. Chloe had even found an Iron Man poster that they had drawn all over and used as a dart board, which turned out to be a favorite pastime for them. 

A few months after Eva moved in, another person joined the Underground Worthy that Mr. Graves brought in to live behind his office like Chloe and Eva. Mitchel was about the same age as Chloe and had dropped out of school after losing his parents in the Invasion and being forced to live with his grandmother. He joined part time at first, living with his grandmother some, but he fully joined the Underground after a few weeks. 

Mitchel had a knack for computers and programming. In his first week, he helped hook up the two used generators that were donated to the Underground so everyone had more light and electricity, and in his second week, he routed the internet from a coffee shop upstairs for him and Mr. Graves to use. Needless to say, he was an important addition to the team. However, Eva was pretty sure he didn’t like her at all. She was five or six years younger than him, so she thought she annoyed him most of the time. She tried to keep quiet when he was around, but he seemed to be around a lot and liked to talk to Chloe. 

Mitchel wasn’t the only new member of the Underground. There were plenty of people that needed a place to live after the Invasion and there seemed to be a few new people joining every week. Mr. Graves was having trouble keeping up and they needed more food and resources. It was well into autumn and heading quickly toward the holiday season, so food and warmth were high in demand and harder to find. Chloe and Eva went out into the city every day to make new connections and find Mr. Graves new deals, but the Underground was growing too fast for them to keep up. Eva could see it weigh on Mr. Graves daily.

Mr. Graves turned out to be as kind and strong as she originally thought. He was a great leader and so smart. She learned that he had taught philosophy at a college before the Invasion, and now he sometimes presented lectures for the people of the Underground. Eva hung onto every word he said. She found herself missing school and wanting to learn, and Mr. Graves’ talks were very informative. Sometimes he related the topic to their situation in the Underground, which Eva liked the most because it helped her understand why she was feeling so angry at the heroes when she had worshiped them so much before. As time went on, more and more people from the Underground attended his lectures. 

Mr. Graves would lead all of the people in the Underground during the day and then in the evenings he would join Eva, Chloe, Mitchel, and Gary in the Haven to tell stories, play darts, or read together. Eva felt special and privileged to get to spend time with Mr. Graves and her new friends. With how different they all were, Eva expected that there would be some fighting or conflict. Even when Eva somehow got on Mitchel’s nerves or Chloe got angry when she lost a game, Mr. Graves knew how to calm everyone down and they were having fun again in no time. 

Ever since the attack, Eva had nightmares nearly every night. She would see her parent’s lifeless bodies staring at her or her sister slipping through her hand, time and time again. Mr. Graves was always there to soothe her back to sleep. She could tell that he understood, and maybe that he even had dreams about his family too. 

She thought about her parents often, wondering what they would think of her new life. There was an ache in her chest for them that never seemed to leave. Only during the times she spent time with everyone in the Haven at night would she feel something like peace fill the emptiness. At first it scared her to have something to replace that ache. Maybe she was forgetting her real family and what they looked like, but then her nightmares would come and she was assured that she remembered exactly what they looked like. 

One day as they were attempting to reorganize the Underground to allow for more people, the electricity went out in the Worth Station. Eva worked with Chloe to distribute resources to people across the station, using flashlights and sneaking in extra blankets and food as the temperatures began to drop. Meanwhile Gary and Mr. Graves were talking to their connections above ground to find two new generators, but Mitchel was in Brooklyn, running an errand for Mr. Graves and they needed him back to help rewire things. 

When Mitchel finally returned, Chloe was out of patience. 

“Where the hell were you?” she snapped at him. “Everyone has been busting their asses trying to keep everyone from getting frostbite while you’ve been galivanting around Brooklyn.”

Eva was not surprised when Mitchel became immediately defensive. “I was doing something more important!”

As Chloe tore into him, Eva noticed a soft glow coming from Mitchel’s bag that he was cradling carefully. “What’s in there?” she asked, trying to peek in.

Chloe paused her rant for a moment to also approach Mitchel and get a look. “You were just getting some new video game or something while we were doing all this work?” she accused. 

“It’s obviously not a video game,” Mitchel retorted as he closed the bag with uncharacteristically delicate movements. “Where’s Cole?”

Eva and Chloe became wrapped up in taking care of the Underground Worthy residents again as Mitchel strode toward the Haven, but Eva wanted to know exactly what was so important in his bag. Chloe had even calmed down enough to speculate with Eva as they carried buckets of water down from the subway entrance. 

They didn’t have to speculate for long. The power went up again after another hour and everyone in the Underground cheered. Mr. Graves called them back into the kitchen area shortly after. He, Mitchel, and Gary were gathered around a purple glow. Eva and Chloe rushed over to see the old generator that had the top panel peeled away to reveal the source of the mysterious purple glow. 

“What is that?” Chloe whispered.

“A very powerful energy source.” Mitchel swallowed hard before continuing, “From those aliens.”

Eva and Chloe simultaneously jumped back. “Why would you bring that in here?” Chloe gasped. 

A heavy, calming hand landed on Eva’s shoulder. “There’s no danger to it now,” Mr. Graves assured them. “I have complete faith that Mitchel has it under control and none of us are in any danger.” Eva looked up at Mr. Graves and found him staring at the purple glowing alien tech with an expression unfamiliar to Eva. It was as if that little glowing purple rock was his savior. “If what Mitchel says is true, we can power ten Undergrounds with just that. We don’t have to worry about power again.” His attention finally landed on Eva and the rest of the group. “Perhaps we can do even more than I imagined, now that we have this.”

“Like what, Mr. Graves?” Eva asked curiously. 

He gave her a bright smile that made her smile in return. “Very great things, Eva.” He patted her on the shoulder and turned to Mitchel. “Now I need you to tell me where you got this. I think we’ll need more.”

As Mr. Graves and Mitchel walked toward the Haven with Chloe following closely behind, Eva caught Gary’s expression and she felt the smile falter on her own face. “Are you okay, Gary?” she asked with concern. 

Gary’s frown remained on his face as he responded, “I’m okay.” He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, feeling almost as comforting as Mr. Graves’, but his frown remained. “We’ll have to see what Cole has planned.”

The next day, Mr. Graves called a meeting in the Haven. “Mitchel has told me that there are more alien energy cores where he found the one that is now powering the Worthy.”

“That’s great!” Eva exclaimed. “We’ve been able to add ten more strands of Christmas lights to the kitchen and classroom areas today without any problems, and Beth was talking about finding some electric hot plates for cooking and maybe even a microwave if Mitchel thinks it can take it.”

“Ohhh,” Chloe sighed. “Can you imagine having fresh popcorn?”

Mr. Graves smiled at them. “Dream even bigger,” he told them. “Think of multiple refrigerators, an oven, even washing machines.”

There was excited chatter between Eva, Chloe, and even Mitchel about the possibilities for a few minutes before Mr. Graves put them back on track. “However,” he interrupted and patiently waited until they were quiet again, “It is going to be hard to get another core according to what Mitchel told me.”

Attention turned to Mitchel, who straightened up and started fidgeting with his nails under the sudden attention. “I got lucky,” he admitted. “I was going dumpster diving around the docks in Brooklyn where a lot of those tech companies get rid of their stuff when I found what I thought was a well secured construction site, but it was actually where they were dumping the debris from the Invasion.”

“Sounds pretty easy to get more if they’re just dumping it in Brooklyn,” Chloe pointed out with a heavy dose of sarcasm. 

“I could see the ferry dumping the stuff and people sifting through it from where I was in the alleyway, but it was surrounded by a big wall,” Mitchel continued, still fascinated with his nails. “And guards,” he added. 

“Then how did you get the one we have?” Eva questioned. 

Mitchel looked up with an annoyed look, which Eva got frequently whenever she spoke directly to him. “I just got lucky, like I’ve already said.” After a pointed look from both Mr. Graves and Gary, Mitchel softened his tone. “There was a drain in the wall and one had fallen through.”

“This is where you come in, Eva,” Mr. Graves interjected. 

“Me?” Eva gasped as Chloe simultaneously questioned “Eva?”

“Yes,” Mr. Graves said with a warm regard. “You are perfect for this job. Mitchel believes that he can get the drain open, but you are the only one small enough to fit into it.”

Eva swallowed, her heartbeat accelerating. “You want me to sneak in and steal it?” She looked up at Mr. Graves. “I thought you don’t like stealing?”

“Cole…” Gary started, breaking his silence so far in the conversation with an expression full of uncharacteristic uncertainty. 

Mr. Graves held up a hand to stave off Gary’s concern and bent down in front of Eva to see her eye-to-eye. “We aren’t stealing anything,” he promised quietly. “Those aliens invaded our world to kill our families because of the supers and left behind extraordinary technology. The supers are just claiming that it belongs to them when they don’t need it or have any right to it. But we need those cores.” He stroked a hand through her hair, just like he did to calm her when she woke in the night screaming. “I know I’m asking a lot of you, but just think about it. I promise to keep you safe, no matter what.”

Eva broke eye contact with Mr. Graves, looking down at the ground as thoughts swirled in her mind. It’s not like she hadn’t stolen before, but she was proud of herself for stopping and helping the people here in the Underground instead. 

“Eva, it wouldn’t be stealing,” Mr. Graves reassured her quietly, as if reading her mind. “Those cores were left behind by an alien species. The supers and the government do not have claim to them. Taking them is the right thing to do.”

Slowly she nodded her head in agreement. He was right. Eva wouldn’t be stealing if they didn’t really belong to anyone. And they did need them. The idea of having washing machines and a proper kitchen made her giddy with excitement. 

Mitchel spoke up. “She’s not going to be able to do it, Mr. Graves.”

Eva’s heart dropped. Even if she agreed that it was the right thing to do, she wasn’t sure just being small and fast was going to be enough to get past guards and a big wall of security. 

“Of course she can,” Mr. Graves said with a quiet confidence that made Eva return her gaze to his. He was smiling at her with complete trust. “Eva, you are courageous and strong.”

“And she’s the fastest person I know,” Chloe added encouragingly as she glared at Mitchel. “None of you have seen her in action like I have. She can take candy from a baby without it noticing. Plus, I almost lose her every time we run from the cops. If anyone can get in and out of a secret alien tech dumping ground, it’s her.”

Eva slowly nodded. She would do this for them. She wasn’t convinced she was the right one for the job, but she would try her best for the sake of the Underground and all her new friends. “I’ll do it.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 6

Later that night, Eva was coming back from the bathroom and passed by the hallway leading out to the normal subway station when she heard voices arguing. The door was closed, but as she approached, she could hear Gary’s voice. She was about to leave, not wanting to eavesdrop, until she heard her name.

“Eva is barely twelve years old,” Gary said with a tone that was starkly different from his usual quiet one. “I agreed to lend you my skills but I never agreed to send a kid to jail or worse her own death.”

There was a pause as Eva held her breath to see who would respond. Then she heard Mr. Graves speak. His voice was also different from the gentle tone he used with her. He wasn’t shouting, but there was a darkness and anger that made Eva take a step back. 

“Before I found you, you were doing things much worse than sending a kid to their death.” Eva slapped her hands over her mouth to keep from reacting. “I offered you an out and I have given you power and comfort. There is even more power and comfort on the horizon, but it will require your ongoing cooperation… in every aspect.”

“I know you care for these kids too, Cole,” Gary retaliated. “Why are you doing this? You know just how badly this could turn out for her.”

“It is my job to see the bigger picture and make the sacrifices necessary to get what we need.” His voice was getting deeper and sharper with every word, like a well-honed dagger. “It is your job to take care of the difficult things that I cannot. If you no longer wish to do this job, I can turn you over to the authorities as I had originally planned… or maybe I’ll notify your old boss of your location and identity that you’ve so carefully hidden from him.” There was another short silence before she heard Mr. Graves sigh and his voice returned to his usual gentle tone. “You know that we will put every precaution in place for Eva, and I have full confidence that she will pull it off without an issue. Everyone will be rewarded for helping our community grow to immeasurable heights after we get this alien tech. Now let’s–”

As the doorknob began to turn, Eva scurried away before they could see her. They both entered the Haven shortly after her and acted completely normal. Thoughts about the conversation and what Gary had been doing before swirled in her head as she tried to sleep that night.

“You don’t have to do this,” Gary told her quietly as they walked down a street in Brooklyn. 

It was nearing midnight as they passed into the waterfront district. Only a few people were on the streets in this area at night, which gave Eva a small sliver of hope as they closed in on the dumping ground. They had scoped it out earlier that afternoon and made their plan. Mitchel and Chloe were in a warehouse nearby, watching her mission through the security cameras that Mitchel had been able to hack into. Chloe would run in and do the usual sister act if Eva was caught. Gary would open the grate and be just on the other side of the wall the entire time, reporting to Mr. Graves at every step. Mr. Graves had stayed behind to take care of the Underground while they were gone. 

Eva shook her head stiffly. “I know that, but I need to do this. I want to do this,” she told Gary. 

He looked down at her as they turned a corner to walk down the last block. “Mr. Graves is asking a lot from you. This is a lot to ask anyone and you’re still very young, Eva. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but stealing something like this and trespassing on government property is a serious crime to have on your record. It’s not something that could just be wiped away or ignored.”

Eva considered bringing up what she had heard a few days ago. Gary’s face had been set in a permanent scowl ever since she had agreed to do this. Eva wasn’t sure why he was more concerned than Mr. Graves. He had gone along with everything else up until this. Gary kept his past and feelings very close to his chest, so she hadn’t wanted to pry until now. 

He sighed quietly and spoke before she could decide. “Kid, this is more serious than the other stuff we’ve done.” He ran a large hand down his face, pausing before continuing. “I’ve had some serious run-ins with the law before and I don’t want you to be put in the same situation before you even get to high school.” 

“I heard you and Mr. Graves talking the other night.” The words came tumbling out of her mouth, curiosity winning over politeness. “Did Mr. Graves save you from a bad job or something?”

Gary didn’t respond for an entire block, and Eva was mentally kicking herself for saying anything. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”

He stopped suddenly, forcing Eva to stop and look at him too. “I have done some bad things in the past for various reasons, Eva. I am trying to be better, which includes being right by you. It’s not fair that Cole even asked you to do this and I wish…” He stopped himself suddenly, seemingly choosing his next words carefully. “I care about you, kid, and I don’t want you to be put into these situations.”

Eva’s chest swelled. Gary, Mr. Graves, Chloe, and even Mitchel (in his own way) had shown her kindness, proving again and again that they care for her. But no one had told her that, not since… her parents were the last ones to explicitly express feelings of love for her. 

Eva threw her arms around Gary’s middle and buried her face into his chest. Gary froze but eventually gave her a hesitant pat on the head before she pulled away. “Thanks for caring about me Gary,” she told him quietly, embarrassed that she had hugged him. “I really want to do this. I want to help people. All those people in the Underground are people who lost things that day… like I did. I want to give them everything they need.”

Gary pulled her in for another hug. Though it was brief and ended with another pat on the head, Eva found herself smiling again. “You’ve got a big heart, kid.” They started walking again, nearly to the dump site. “I’ll make sure you don’t get caught or in any serious trouble.”

“I know you won't,” Eva said, now feeling much more confident as the drain came into view. 

It took Gary less than a minute to remove the grate. Eva ensured her empty backpack was strapped tightly to her back as she peered down the drain that was much smaller than she anticipated. It became very clear why she was the only one who could do this job. 

Before she ducked in, Gary stopped her. “If anything goes wrong, drop everything and come back here,” he told her. “Do not risk getting caught for this thing.”

“Okay,” she said absently as her mind began to focus on the task ahead. “I’ll see you back here when I’m done.” Without looking back she slipped through the small opening. 

There was a thick layer of grime on the walls of the drain, and she was sure that it smelled awful, but after living in an abandoned subway station and showering only twice a week, it didn’t affect her as it might have at one point. Instead, she was thankful for the sludge that helped her squeeze through the tightest part of the drain. Once she reached the end, Eva paused to observe her new surroundings. 

It was just as Mitchel described: a pile of junk. Eva knew from just walking around Midtown that the clean up plan involved a lot of people, scooping away the debris to rebuild what was lost. Now she was standing on the precipice of where they were doing the sorting. Eva could see that there was some organization to the chaos. They had separated the rubble into neat piles forming a grid with paths between each pile. Unfortunately for her, the debris that had already been organized was on the opposite side of the compound, past all of the neat piles and under a well-lit tent. She could see the enticing purple glow of the energy cores from where she lay in the safety of the drainage tunnel. 

Eva spotted cameras placed around the tops of the walls, but she trusted that Mitchel and Chloe had taken care of those for now. What she really needed to worry about was a group of men to the left that were unloading a new shipment from the dock. Luckily the new shipment was enough of a distraction that Eva didn’t see anyone else at her end of the compound. It was now or never. 

But she froze. How in the world did she get here? Only a few months ago, she was in elementary school, learning about world geography and reading Bridge to Terabithia, going to gymnastics and piano lessons after school, and spending time in her parents’ lab. Now she was about to steal alien technology? Under threat of getting arrested? What would her parents think of her now?

“Kid,” came a faint whisper from down the drain. “Take a breath.”

Eva did as Gary said and forced her breathing to slow. He waited patiently before telling her. “Come on back. No one will blame you for anything. We’ll find another way to power the Underground. Just come back.”

Now that she was getting oxygen to her brain, Eva could think clearly. Her parents would be proud of her for being courageous enough to get the people of the Underground what they need, no matter the cost. She was stealing from the people who took her family away from her, who took away the livelihood of all the people living in the Underground. Eva was simply taking back what belonged to them. 

“I’ve got this.” Eva wasn’t sure if she was reassuring herself or Gary. 

With one final breath, she forced herself out of the drain and into the wreckage. 

Yet again, she felt grateful to her parents for putting her through gymnastics since she was a toddler. Eva felt her muscles pushing her fast and nimbly through the debris without a sound. She was able to balance across a few beams and jump behind larger pieces of rubble without being seen. As she picked her way across the mess, Eva felt her confidence rising and she started to believe that she could actually make it to the other side. 

Keeping an eye on the group of people at the dock, Eva made it nearly three-fourths of the way across before looking back at her goal and stopped in her tracks at the top of a mountain of bricks. She could now clearly see the pile of cores, glowing softly despite being under the fluorescent lighting, but this time she could see that they were locked inside a large glass cage. With a dreaded sinking feeling in her stomach, she realized that the cage was high tech and well protected. Eva didn’t possess the skills to break into something of that caliber. 

A loud bang from the dock accompanied by a series of beeps made Eva jump and scurry down the hill of rubble less gracefully than before. Crouching behind the pile, Eva breathed heavily, carefully listening for any approaching footsteps or yells about an intruder. However, all she heard was the telltale grunts of men moving heavy objects and machinery alongside shouts of instructions. 

Eva slowed her breathing again and tried to focus on any other option. She had a limited amount of time and it was already running low. Soon the workers would spread out across the compound, and the longer she waited, the more likely Mitchel and Chloe would get caught manipulating the camera footage. But where else could she find what she needed? 

Letting her head fall in her hands, Eva tried to fight back the frustrated tears that were prickling behind her eyes. She knew she would fail. Mr. Graves shouldn’t have put his trust in her. Now he would never trust her again with anything. Maybe he would kick her out of the Underground and she’d be on the streets again. 

Scrubbing at her eyes to attempt to keep the tears from falling, Eva caught sight of a very faint glow emanating from the pile of rubble across from her. She hadn’t noticed it before because it was so faint, but now that she was looking at it in the shadow of the mountains of debris, it was clearly the signature purple glow of the alien tech she was tasked to find. Scrambling around the chunks of cement and behind a crushed car, Eva stumbled upon an alien glider. The last time she had seen one of these…

A memory of that day flashed through her mind so viciously that she found herself doubled over, retching. She could smell the smoke, see the plume of fire, and feel her sister’s hand slip through hers. 

Another loud bang and set of beeping accompanied by a series of shouts shocked Eva out of her despair. With a cursory glance, she could tell they were finishing up with the new shipment. Gritting her teeth and grabbing a metal pipe, Eva approached the small ship. No time for emotions. It was time to get to work.

With closer inspection, Eva counted at least twelve purple cores lining the side of the vehicle. The telltale glow reflecting off the rubble on the opposite side indicated they also lined the other side of the glider. She would need to move quickly to get them all. 

Wedging the end of the metal pole under the first core, she pulled with all her might and sent herself careening into the side of the glider when it slipped. Eva attempted three more times with similar results until she discarded the pole and searched for anything else that might work. Thankfully she spotted something sharp protruding from the end of the glider and managed to pull it out without too much effort. 

It was an alien weapon. Some kind of spear that had a sharpened end that could potentially unstuck the cores. After sliding the blade behind the core, it surprised Eva how easily it popped out. She continued quickly and finished freeing the rest before stooping down to shove them into her backpack. 

Eva could hear that the workers were starting to disperse. Without too much thought, she scurried to the other side and began to detach the rest of the cores. On the last one, Eva heard footsteps approaching. Ducking behind the glider, she collected as many as she could before diving behind the crushed car. 

“There was another vehicle over here,” a low voice sounded. “Needed to have the energy collected.” Eva held her breath as she carefully zipped up her backpack and slid into the backseat of the car as silently as possible. “There it is.”

“Looks like it’s been cleaned,” another voice came, this time a woman. “We need to clear section 48 before coming over to this one anyway.”

“I could have sworn…” the man muttered, only feet away from Eva’s hiding spot in the car. “Alright.”

Eva waited until she could no longer hear their footsteps before cautiously coming out of her hiding spot. Strapping her backpack onto her back securely, Eva began to creep through the debris as quickly and quietly as possible. Soon enough, the drain was in sight and she blew out a sigh of relief, but it was too soon. 

While cresting the top of one of the piles, a brick shifted underneath her foot and she lost her balance. Grabbing a pipe to catch herself just in time, Eva watched in horror as a cascade of rubble crashed down the side of the pile. There was a split second of silence and then shouts began to sound throughout the compound. She didn’t take the time to see who was yelling at her. Eva just ran. 

Now that she wasn’t being careful, remnants of the battle were avalanching down into the paths, destroying their carefully designed sections as she sprinted across the trash. Eva could now hear that there was someone following her on her right but falling behind. The drain was coming closer and closer. She could almost make out Gary’s panicked face at the other end as she crested the last pile, but then something occluded her path. 

A large man stood in front of the drain, unarmed, but much larger than her. He was pointing at her and yelling to someone on her right. Without much of a pause, Eva launched herself down one pile and toward the next. She had hoped that the man would leave his post to pursue her, but he stood firm and instead directed the woman who was just coming around the corner toward Eva. 

Eva clawed her way to the top of the next pile where she could see a metal support beam sticking out of the hill, pointing toward the top of the tall outer wall. Jumping off this beam to clear the wall was a dumb idea with very little chance of success, but she was determined not to fail Mr. Graves, Gary, and the Underground that night. She paused only a moment to take one deep breath before dashing up the beam. As she leapt off the end and flung herself toward the wall, Eva felt the beam give underneath her, getting nowhere near enough height to reach the top. Grasping for the wall that she knew wouldn’t get any closer, Eva cried out. 

Then, she suddenly found her hands wrapped around the top edge of the wall, her stomach colliding with the corner. There was no time to question how she possibly made it there. Eva scrambled up and over the wall. Gary was already there, ready to catch her, and she jumped to him without hesitation, leaving behind the screaming workers. Not wasting any time, Gary threw her onto his back and set off at a sprint toward the meeting location.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7

They had two lightly used washing machines, a dryer, a refrigerator, and a full stove and oven up and running within the week. Eva helped “remodel” the Underground’s kitchen area, and by the time everything was done, it looked like a real kitchen (if you squinted at it). She had barely seen Mitchel since he was so busy setting up the alien energy cores and then locking himself away to continue experimentation, updating only Mr. Graves with his discoveries. 

Mr. Graves was proud of Eva. At first he was shocked at how many alien cores she was able to smuggle out, but he quickly became excited about how many things they could do with twenty-one alien cores. Eva had never seen him so excited, and it was contagious. Not only was Mitchel nice to her for a few weeks and Chloe doted on her as they did their excursions, but the people of the Underground were extra kind to her as well, giving her extra helpings of food or an extra shower token they didn’t need. Everyone was happy and it made Eva’s heart glow. Gary was the only one that didn’t fully embrace their newfound joy, but Eva knew that he was the only one who had seen how close she came to getting caught and helped take care of all her scrapes and bruises. She knew he would be just as excited after she fully recovered.

After the new kitchen and laundry area were up and running, Mr. Graves brought up something new in the Haven one night. Gary was apparently well trained in a few types of martial arts and had quite a bit of professional and maybe non-professional fighting experience. Mr. Graves wanted them to learn how to fight. 

“Why would we need to know that?” Chloe asked first. “Self-defense? The people in the Underground aren’t going to hurt us and we know which parts of the city to stick to.” Eva nodded in agreement.

“I’m not so much worried about the people in the Underground,” Mr. Graves explained. “But as everything grows, and especially now that we have alien tech, we might attract attention.” He looked at each of the kids with a pointed look. “The wrong kind of attention.”

“You think that the heroes will come after us?” Eva asked, shocked he thought that that might happen.

“Of course he’s not talking about supers,” Mitchel told her snarkily. “There are other gangs that want our resources, idiot.”

“Oh,” Eva said, feeling stupid, but Mr. Graves put a hand on her knee and she looked up again. 

“You’re both right,” he told them and Mitchel’s snide expression disappeared. “I think the gangs are a more immediate threat, but I have big plans for the Underground and my Underground Worthy. You all know how I feel about the supers and how they are affecting the world, so when we get to a certain point, we may be up against supers or even the Avengers one day. So the sooner we start training, the better.”

It seemed a little overkill to Eva, and she wasn’t the only one. Chloe and Mitchel grumbled behind Mr. Graves’ back that there was no way they would ever be up against the Avengers one day. Despite this, they started training with Gary. 

They used a small platform Chloe and Eva had found behind the Haven to train. They had found it once while exploring the abandoned subway tunnels near the Underground for more space, but it was too dangerous for most of the residents to get to. It was perfect for their training though. The gym that allowed the Underground residents to shower after hours donated some old mats and a sand bag that they dragged onto the platform to complete the makeshift training room. When they started, Eva was amazed by Gary’s skill. Gary was a very large and strong man, but he moved quickly and precisely. He trained them for a few hours each day at first. Mitchel was pretty scrawny and weak and began to argue with Mr. Graves about wasting his time fighting instead of working on the alien tech. Mr. Graves agreed he didn’t need to go everyday and had him focus on doing some side projects with him instead. 

Chloe was a natural and really enjoyed learning how to fight. She was strong and tall and caught on quickly. Soon enough she was sparring with Gary who was clearly still holding back, but Chloe kept up well. Eva, on the other hand, did not do well with her training. She wasn’t even twelve yet, so she was still smaller than everyone and it was hard to spar with someone that was one foot taller and fifty or a hundred pounds heavier. 

After one particularly hard day, Eva sat down heavily on the edge of the platform as Chloe practiced a routine on the sandbag. Gary came up next to her and offered her some water. “You’re just a kid,” he told her and she could tell he was trying to be gentle. “You shouldn’t be able to take a grown man down.”

“I know that,” she sighed. “But I just want to be able to help. What else am I able to do? I’m not smart like Mitchel or strong like Chloe. I’m just small and annoying.”

Gary put a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve already done enough, kid. Cole wouldn’t be anywhere without those energy sources.” 

Eva groaned. “That was just a one time thing. I want to do more.”

“Maybe fighting isn’t what you should be doing to help,” Gary suggested. Eva sighed sadly again, unconvinced. Gary slid slightly closer and placed his arm around her shoulder briefly to give her a shake until she met his eyes. He smiled at her. “Most importantly, you have a good heart. That is a big strength and more important than you know.” 

She rolled her eyes, enacting that Chloe-like sarcasm on him. “I’ll just help rebuild the city with my good heart then. That’ll work.”

“I, for one, appreciate your heart and I know the people of the Underground do too,” he told her, but then his hand slipped off her shoulder. She looked over to him and he had a thoughtful expression on his face. “If you really want to be involved in all of this, there is something we can do about your size.”

After that, Gary started teaching her fighting techniques that were different from the traditional boxing that Chloe was learning. He taught her different ways to use her small size and quick feet to dodge around an opponent and get in unexpected shots. With a little practice she fell back into a routine of strengthening and speed that she had been used to during her time training in gymnastics. Soon enough, Eva was feeling far more confident.

“Any punches you do aren’t going to be strong enough to actually deter anyone, so I’ll talk to Mitchel about how we can make you some weapons that work for you,” Mr. Graves told her one day as he watched their practice. Gary clearly didn’t like this idea and followed Mr. Graves toward the Haven as she and Chloe cleaned up. However, it was clear at dinner that Mr. Graves had won that argument as he began to discuss ideas with Mitchel, and Gary simply stared at his food.

If she was being honest with herself, Eva did not like the idea of weapons. Even though she understood that this training was strictly for self-defense, she didn’t actually want to hurt anyone. It seemed like things were moving fast after getting the alien tech and she wasn’t sure she could keep up. When she brought this up to Mr. Graves, Mitchel made fun of her for being weak, but Mr. Graves took her up to street-level to talk with her alone. 

They walked for a while through the streets of Manhattan before ending up at a large gothic church. Eva hesitated. She had been in a church once before for Christmas because her mother wanted to go but not since. Mr. Graves walked in without hesitation, and she scrambled to follow. 

A choir was practicing at the front and a few people were lighting candles at the back near where they entered. Mr. Graves ignored them and led Eva to a pew a few rows into the cathedral. Eva sat patiently next to him as they listened to the choir until Mr. Graves finally spoke up. 

“I never thought I’d be considering some of the things I’m considering,” he told her quietly, trying not to disturb the others in the cathedral. “But the supers just keep proving my point time and time again. Apparently, Tony Stark has been causing trouble all across the country again. This time in California, Tennessee, and Miami.” He shook his head. “People are exploding and his suits are attacking on their own accord. People continue to die and lose their families just like we did. Nothing has changed.” 

Eva noticed her hands were balled into fists, her knuckles turning white. She didn’t have much time to pay attention to the news and didn’t know that there had been more going on. She couldn’t believe that Iron Man was back at it after what had happened six months ago, what had caused the death of her entire family and the reason she was now living in a subway station. 

Mr. Graves put a hand over hers and she found herself able to relax. She looked up at him as he continued. “I know how infuriating it is that this just keeps happening, history repeating itself again and again, but that’s what I want to change. That change isn’t going to come easily though. You fully understand just how strong the supers are, and there seem to be more and more of them popping up every day.” He shook his head. “The faster we go, the more chances we have of catching all these supers that are coming out of the woodwork. It seems like no matter their ability, these supers find a way to bring destruction to the world.” He turned away from the choir at the front of the cathedral to look at her. “I haven’t told anyone this yet, but I think the best way to do this is to take all the supers out of the picture. Maybe that means locking them up or curing them, I don’t know. But things are going to start moving quickly, Eva.”

“I know you understand this more than anyone else in the Underground. Everyone lost something in the Invasion, but you and I, we lost everything. I want to make sure to get you a life that you can be proud of, a life that honors your family and mine, but it might involve some hard decisions on the way. We may need to take from the fortunate to give to the less fortunate.” 

“Like Robin Hood,” Eva clarified with a smile. 

“Exactly like Robin Hood,” Mr. Graves agreed. He paused and squeezed her hand. “Can I count on you to help me make those hard decisions so we can build this new world together?”

Eva didn’t need any time to think about it. “The world is better off without supers,” she agreed. “I told you when we first met that I want to help and I still want to help, in whatever way I can.” It was time to step up and make the world a better place.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

A few months later, it was time to enact that promise. Mr. Graves explained that a neighboring gang in Brooklyn had also stolen alien tech from cleanup sites and were not cooperating with him. He explained that getting more alien tech and working with the local gangs was probably the best way they could go up against the supers, so he needed the team to go in with him to help convince them to change their minds about striking a deal. 

She and Chloe had done some recon to stake out the warehouse where they were keeping their tech. They found that the group had one man in charge with a few lackeys and about half a dozen thugs for hire. When they told Mr. Graves and Gary, they seemed hopeful that it wouldn’t need to come to a fight. Mr. Graves had tried to make a deal with the man in charge, a man named Adrian apparently, but they couldn’t come to an agreement.

As Eva strapped the new bo staff to her back that Gary had gifted her earlier this week, she wondered if her parents would be proud of her. She was the kind of person to move a bug outside instead of killing it or rescue an animal from the street and take it into a shelter. Hitting people with a big stick wasn’t explicitly forbidden in her household, but she couldn’t imagine that her parents would condone violence. 

“This is for them. For a better world,” she reminded herself in a whisper. 

Chloe, who had her hands wrapped and wore a helmet, squeezed her shoulder. “You’ve got this.”

Eva nodded as she split from Chloe and Gary to follow Mitchel around the side of the building. She climbed on top of a crate that she and Chloe had pushed under a window when they had staked out the building a few days ago. She peered inside to see Mr. Graves shaking another man’s hand while a few more men stood around tinkering with various technology, some glowing with a familiar purple glow. It was clear this group had gotten farther along with the alien tech than Mitchel had been able to do so far. As Mr. Graves went into a small office with the man she assumed was Adrian, Eva began to work a coat hanger under the window frame, just like they practiced. 

Eva had gotten pretty good at opening windows quietly and was able to break in silently. She climbed in and ducked behind a shelf, motioning for Mitchel to do the same. Once they were both in and still undetected, they began to skirt the side of the building toward a door where Mitchel expected their servers to be. 

Mitchel got into the server room without difficulty. The men working for this Adrian man did not really seem to be trained in fighting or looking out for someone breaking in. As she lurked in the shadows waiting for Mitchel to get on with it, Eva clocked where each of the men were located. There were two trying to look busy near the door where Mr. Graves and Adrian had disappeared. Then there were another two looking over some blueprints and the strange glowing materials on the large table near the front of the building. Finally, there was one man at the front entrance, she assumed to guard. She froze, counting them up in her head. That was only five and there were supposed to be six. 

That’s when she heard someone shuffling to her right. Caught off guard, she attempted to scramble back behind the nearest shelf, but her foot smashed into the corner, and she fell to the ground with a thud. 

“Hey!” she heard the man bark as she tried to get to her feet. Large hands were grasping her by the shoulders just as she got her bo staff into her hands. Pivoting on her feet, she landed a solid strike to his abdomen. Eva grinned when she heard an “oof”, but it was short lived as she found herself being shoved into a wall. “What the hell? You’re just a kid.” He easily pulled the bo staff out of her hands and dragged her off toward the other men standing near the office door. 

Before she knew it, she was thrown to the ground in front of Mr. Graves and Adrian. “Found this kid wandering the warehouse with this.” The thug who had found her, tossed her bo staff onto the desk in between the two men. 

“Thank you, Jeremy. Please do a sweep of the perimeter,” Adrian told him and Jeremy left. 

Eva sat on the cold cement floor, glaring at the ground. She couldn’t believe she had messed this one up so badly. Mr. Graves would surely kick her out of the Underground for this. Eva fought back tears. 

“So, who do we have here?” Adrian asked. 

“Please, sir,” Eva spoke up quickly, tears glistening in her eyes, which helped with the ruse. “I saw something glowing in here and I need the money. Please don’t call the cops.”

She thought it had worked for a moment before Adrian turned to Mr. Graves. “What kind of operation are you running here, Graves? Is this supposed to convince me to go into business with you?”

Eva couldn’t look up at Mr. Graves as he leaned back in his seat. “This is Eva,” he admitted. “I told you that I had lost my wife and daughter in the Invasion. Well, Eva lost her entire family too. The operation I’m running is for the people who have been screwed over by these so-called heroes that are supposed to be protecting us, not taking everything away.”

“How is me giving you a portion of my money ‘helping people hurt by superheroes’? Tony Stark took away my business and now I’m here,” Adrian returned. 

Eva heard Mr. Graves’ chair creak as he leaned forward toward Adrian. “I’ve given you a fair chance to join the cause, Adrian. I thought that with your history with Stark you’d be more amiable. I see I need to present another perspective.”

“I’m not interested in your perspective, Graves,” Adrian said as he stood. “Take the kid and leave before things get worse.”

Eva drooped farther into the floor at his refusal, but Mr. Graves spoke up again. This time his voice had a dark tone that she’d never heard from him before. “You have a daughter too, about Eva’s age. It would be terrible for her to grow up without a father or on the streets like Eva here.” Eva looked up at Mr. Graves. His usual calmness and quiet demeanor gone. In place, his face was covered with cool anger. 

“What are you suggesting, Graves?” Adrian asked, darkly. 

“I have another friend. He’s good with computers, and right now he’s sifting through your information.” Eva watched as he scrolled through his phone. “These are some interesting records you have,” he told him steadily. “There’s a couple things I could do with these.”

“Pfft,” Adrian laughed, but Eva could hear that it was half-hearted. “There’s no way you have that.” Mr. Graves put his phone face up on the table. Adrian sucked in a breath when he saw what was on the screen. “No.”

“Yes, Adrian,” he told him. “I think I could give these to the authorities and you’d never see your family again, or I could kill you and take it all for myself.” Mr. Graves looked toward the door. “I think if you look outside, you’ll see all your men are preoccupied.” Adrian glanced at the door, but didn’t make a move, apparently believing what Mr. Graves had said. “Both of those options wouldn’t end well for your daughter.”

Adrian stared at Eva, not really seeing her. Eva gawked right back at him, unsure if she was really hearing Mr. Graves correctly. Had he just threatened to kill him or make sure his daughter would end up homeless? Did he really mean it? Was she about to watch Mr. Graves kill this man? This wasn’t part of the plan. 

“There is one more option,” Mr. Graves told him. “Why don’t you sit down and we can make a deal?”

Adrian nodded slowly and sat down. “I think we can sign that paperwork now.”

“I’m afraid my original deal is off the table,” Mr. Graves told him. Eva searched his face, but came up with nothing. This was not the man who helped an old man get into bed or brushed her hair after a nightmare. This was someone scary. Someone willing to do anything to get what he wants.

Mr. Graves pulled out a set of papers. “This is my new deal.”

Adrian looked over the paperwork with an incredulous expression. “Seven percent?” he asked. 

“I’ll be paying for any men or equipment you need. You will get a livable wage for your family for our dealing. The more you make and sell, the more money in your pocket. I’ll also make sure you are fully protected, which you obviously aren’t now.” Mr. Graves looked pointedly toward the door.

Eva watched Adrian swallow hard. After a silent moment of consideration and another look at the screen with the hacked information and records, he picked up a pen and signed. “Very good choice,” Mr. Graves said, standing and holding out a hand. Adrian took it weakly. “I look forward to our continued business together.”

As Mr. Graves stood and walked toward the door, he turned to Eva and helped her stand. His warm demeanor back as he whispered, “You did well Eva. Things will get easier now.”

She stood and followed him to the door still shaking. As they exited, Eva saw Chloe with a busted lip and Gary standing over the six men who were knocked out or tied up. Mitchel stood nearby, his gaze flitting uncomfortably to the unconscious men. Mr. Graves strode out of the room without a glance at the injured men or distraught Adrian. 

As she watched him leave, Eva began to realize exactly what Mr. Graves had asked of her. He was ready to do whatever it took to end the superheroes and save the people who were caught in the crossfire. Blackmailing and violence were part of that agenda. Eva looked between the people she called her family: Gary with a blank face, Chloe with a determined look, Mitchel with an annoyed glance, and Mr. Graves, more confident than she’d ever seen before. Eva decided it was time to step it up and earn her place in this family.

Chapter Text

Chapter 9

Over a year later

Eva’s breathing was shallow. She felt like her chest was squeezing her lungs and her hands were shaking. This was not at all how it was supposed to go.

Everything had been going to plan. They had split up like usual: Mitchel and Eva went around back and snuck in to get Mitchel to the computer system while Gary and Chloe went in with guns blazing. Mr. Graves would follow once everyone was incapacitated and make a deal or take over, while Mitchel finished hacking the system. This time when Mr. Graves was about to make his entrance, alarms started going off. Mitchel thought that he had killed all alarms, but he told Eva in a slew of expletives that there was another hidden deeper in their system.

It had been too late. Mr. Graves told them to abandon the mission over the comms once the alarms went off. Someone was on their way to apprehend them and Mr. Graves had to get out quickly so his various identities wouldn’t be compromised. Eva had watched from the catwalk above the main storage unit of the warehouse as Gary and Chloe exited the back of the building swiftly to escort Mr. Graves to safety. Gary threw a quick wave her way to indicate that they should follow.

Now running across the catwalk, Eva was nearly hyperventilating. This had never happened before and there was no way she was going to get caught. Popping her head back into the small room that housed the servers, Eva called out to Mitchel, “Time to leave!”

“Hold on!” came a response as she found him still hunched over the computers. “I almost have their latest shipment lists.”

“Leave it,” she insisted. “It’s time to get out.”

His head shot up and he fixed her with an annoyed glare. “I can do this!”

She couldn’t believe that he was arguing about this. “I know you feel bad that you fucked up, but this isn’t how to repay Mr. Graves. Stop risking everything for–,” but she didn’t finish.

Her eyes shot upwards as she heard an eerily familiar sound that she hadn’t heard in over a year and a half. The revving of repulsors was getting louder. “No,” she gasped before an unmistakable metal suit crashed through the ceiling. She turned to Mitchel and screeched, “Get out now!”

Spinning around, ready to run for it, she had only a moment to look down to the ground twenty feet below to see Iron Man straightening up. “There’s one!” someone shouted to her left.

Eva turned toward the first guard that had shouted and saw another entering behind him. Glancing back, she saw Mitchel finally turning away from the computer to follow. Eva would have to fight their way out and quickly. 

“Run out the front,” she told him, as he turned the other way without a word of thanks to her. She pressed a button on her now improved bo staff that lit up with crackling purple electricity. Eva hadn’t fought many people before, but she had to trust that Gary’s training would kick in. Trying to shake off her fear, she headed toward the first one with her glowing staff raised. 

Thankful he didn’t pull out a gun, Eva took a running start at the first man. He seemed a bit surprised that a thirteen year old girl was about to hit him, which Eva took full advantage of. He went to grab her and she easily dodged his slow, large hands, landing a thrust to his stomach. He doubled over from the strong electric shock, and she brought an overhead strike down onto his back. Purple electricity crackled across his body and he didn’t get up. 

The next thug carried a baton, and after watching his friend go down, didn’t seem as hesitant. He whirled the baton toward her side, and she held up her staff to block it. She felt a dull ache in her arm and side from the impact but she knew it would barely bruise under the reinforced armor. Eva threw a strike of her staff toward his ribs, but he jumped back and the electricity just grazed his shirt. He swung the baton at her legs, and she was too slow to block it. Eva fell to her knees and the pain blinded her as he landed another hit to her side. A crack reverberated through her body.  

Gritting her teeth together to try to overcome the pain, she heard the sound of repulsors again and a thud on the catwalk. Eva had to end this quickly if she wanted a chance of getting out, so she played dirty. Swinging swiftly upward, she landed the end of her bo staff to the man’s crotch. He crumpled to the ground in front of her and she hit him once more in the back to ensure he stayed down. 

When she looked up she saw none other than Iron Man watching from the end of the catwalk, arms raised with glowing repulsors pointed toward her. Eva jumped to her feet again, wincing in pain and desperately searching for any way out and coming up empty. 

“Impressive for a twelve year old,” she heard a slightly altered voice of Tony Stark say through his mask. 

“I’m thirteen,” she corrected him, happy that she sounded much more confident than she actually felt. 

“Less impressive then,” he said snarkily, but his arms did not lower. 

Without hesitation, Eva pulled an orb off of her belt and slammed it into the catwalk. A photon shield surrounded her. Through the purple glow of the shield, Eva watched as Iron Man took a few more steps toward her. “Well, you’ve got someone with a brain working with you.” Eva backed up to the opposite side of her dome of safety. Iron Man stopped a few feet away.  “Why are you part of this, kid? Shouldn’t you at least be on another kid’s shoulders in a trench coat?”

She sent him a glare, her fury toward the man who had killed her sister slowly boiling up over the panic in her chest. “None of your business.”

“It is my business, when it has to do with people stealing alien technology from the Damage Control Team I created.” This time he corrected her. “Especially when whoever is behind this is hiring kids. Seems like a bigger problem now.” He rapped his iron knuckles on the side of the photon dome, as if testing its strength. “Didn’t look like the kid you helped get away was too much older than you.” He continued when she didn’t add anything. “Why don’t you come with me and I’ll get you back to whoever you belong to?”

“I don’t have anyone. I belong with my team,” she told him. 

He studied her for a moment and she could tell that he now understood her situation. “Alright, enough hiding behind your cute shield.” Something suddenly whizzed out of the side of his suit and underneath the catwalk. Before Eva could comprehend what was happening, the sphere projecting the shield flickered off. 

With one glance at Iron Man’s approaching silhouette, Eva broke into a sprint toward the other side of the catwalk where Mitchel had gone, praying that Iron Man would let her go in peace. But of course he didn’t, and she fell face first into the metal mesh ground of the catwalk when something tangled up in her legs. Her bo staff rolled out of reach, and pain blossomed up her side causing her to cry out.

His footsteps, metal on metal, echoed around the large open warehouse as he approached. She turned over to sit up as he kicked her weapon further out of reach. “It doesn’t take a genius to know a kid doesn’t belong with a bunch of criminals,” he told her as he bent down to look at her. 

Eva didn’t meet his eyes as she felt panic start to rise in her chest, overtaking her hatred for the armored man. She couldn’t get out of this one. There was no running from Iron Man and he would haul her to the police where they would send her back to the foster home or a terrible orphanage or to a juvenile detention facility, and she had heard enough about those places on the streets to know that she did not want to end up there. 

“What’s your name, kid?” he asked as he reached out and held onto her shoulder. 

She opened her mouth to tell him to fuck off, but nothing came out. Panic bubbled up into her throat and constricted it. She couldn’t breathe. Eva clasped onto his armored forearms, eyes wide. 

Then, he was gone. Eva was staring into a blank space. Her head turned to her left when she heard a powerful crunch far into the warehouse. There on the other side of the cavernous room was a large bend in a metal beam holding up the building, and inside the dent was Iron Man, sprawled out as if he had fallen. 

Eva didn’t need anyone to tell her to leave. After untangling her legs, she scrambled for her bo staff and ran out of the building. All that she could think as she rounded the corner into an alley was that it had happened again. 

She had tried not to think about what had happened to her foster father. That night was one of the worst of her life. But the way he had crashed out the window and then back through it was strange – like supernatural strange. Over the last year and a half, Eva had done her best to ignore it, reassure herself that it was something her brain had made up, and move on, but now it had happened twice. Someone threatening her had flown sideways… fallen sideways. That meant it wasn’t a mistake, it wasn’t a dream, and it wasn’t a crazy fluke of physics. Eva had done that… twice.

Tony groaned. “What the hell?” He was confused. He was just talking to that girl, right? Now he was lying down in something. He turned his head and saw a metal beam. “JARVIS, what happened?” he asked. 

His AI didn’t have a chance to respond as he suddenly lurched forward and fell twenty feet onto the ground. Tony groaned loudly again. “What the hell?!” he repeated with more force. 

“Sir, it appears you have fallen,” JARVIS helpfully chimed in. 

“You don’t say,” Tony replied sardonically as he slowly got to his feet and looked toward the catwalk on the other side of the building. The girl was gone, of course. 

“No, sir. You appear to have fallen twice,” JARVIS clarified. 

Tony’s eyebrows knit together in confusion under his helmet. “Twice? What do you mean twice?”

“You fell into that metal support beam from the platform, and then you fell from the beam to the floor.”

Tony looked from the catwalk to the beam. It was a straight shot from where he had been talking to the girl to where there was a significant bend in the beam, but that would mean he had fallen sideways. “That’s not how gravity works, JARVIS. Generally stuff tends to go down . I thought I had at least programmed you to understand that much.”

“I fully understand the fundamentals of physics, sir,” JARVIS replied dryly. “However, there was no lateral force against you and there was no malfunction in the suit. You fell sideways, which must have interfered with the suit’s automated soft landing protocol.”

“Huh, well that’s new,” Tony muttered. “We’re going to have to find that girl again.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 10

Eva barely remembered the trip home. As she slid through her usual window into the warehouse they now called home, Eva was finally able to take a few deep breaths. Mike was on guard tonight and looked at her with wide eyes when she gave him a terse nod and headed into the door where the new and improved Haven was. She heard yelling before she entered. 

“We can’t just leave her!” came Chloe’s voice. 

“We can’t risk going back, Chloe,” Eva heard Mitchel say in a shockingly shaky voice. “Iron Man was there!”

“Because of you! Why did the alarms go off?” Chloe screamed. 

“I told you it was weird. They usually aren’t smart enough to put on more than one set of alarms,” Mitchel tried. 

“We’ll get her back. We just need to be careful if the supers are involved,” Mr. Graves said as she entered the common room. Everyone was standing, still in their gear. Mr. Graves was facing her, and she saw his face filled with worry and fury, turn to surprise when she appeared in the doorway. “Eva,” he breathed. 

After that, there was a rush of relief from the group and Chloe was crushing Eva into her side. Everyone took a turn giving her a hug, even Mitchel gave her a pat on the back before he disappeared into the room he shared with Gary. Eva was a little surprised that she felt a tremor in Mr. Graves’ hands as he held her. 

“I can’t believe they almost took another one of my family away,” he whispered into her hair. “We’ll get them back, Eva.” His voice turned dark. “We’ll get every one of them.”

After pulling away, the questions came at Eva one after another. She found herself lying easily: “There was a loud crash that distracted him” and “I just managed to slip away”. There was no way any of them would understand if she told them. She didn’t even understand. It’s not like she asked for this to happen. She hated the supers as much as the rest of them, if not more. Eva was just thankful that she was able to get away and that’s about as much as she could think about it at the moment. 

They accepted her lie easily, but she could tell Gary might have been less convinced. She had to admit that it wasn’t a great cover up story. Luckily, Gary didn’t press too much and instead went to talk to Mitchel, who had apparently been pretty distressed when he had met up with the others after their escape. It was surprising that he cared at all. He’d never really shown her anything except annoyance and occasionally tolerance. 

After the questions had faded, she, Mr. Graves and Chloe spent the night eating leftover pasta and playing a tournament of war with an old deck of cards with Eva. They even convinced Gary and Mitchel to join in on the second round. It was enough to take Eva’s mind off of the events of the evening and she was able to enjoy the night with her family. 

That was until she laid in the bed. Chloe was softly snoring a few feet away in their shared room. Eva couldn’t sleep and instead stared at the ceiling in the dark. Too restless to keep the ceiling interesting enough, she snuck out of the apartment, through the warehouse and climbed a ladder in the far corner that led onto the roof. There were two lawn chairs bolted to the top and a little garden of potted herbs and spices that she and Gary had learned how to grow over the last year. 

Looking up at the two stars shining through the New York City light pollution, Eva sucked in a deep breath of crisp, spring air. Though she missed the Underground, Eva was thankful for the fresh air. They had moved a few months after her first mission, where Mr. Graves had secured that important deal with the Adrian man. She hadn’t seen Adrian or any of his men since then, but after that deal they had more resources, money, and weapons. 

Mr. Graves had been frustrated with her for being caught during that first mission, but he had told her that it was for the best. No one had gotten hurt and Adrian had agreed quickly when his daughter had been brought up. Eva had not forgiven herself and worked hard to prove herself worthy again. 

They had gotten the first pick of weapon design and parts after the deal. Gary had helped them choose weapons and armor to compliment their fighting styles and to protect them from getting hurt, as well as a few helpful gadgets like the photon shield she’d used that afternoon. Though she had gotten more used to the idea of needing to hurt some people to help Mr. Graves’ cause, she still didn’t want to kill or seriously maim someone with knives or guns, so she had stuck to bo staff that now had a little extra electric alien punch. 

She had also become much more proficient in fighting thanks to the practice, new weapons, and the new space. Mr. Graves had acquired the warehouse and built them a three-bedroom apartment, a large gym, and a tinkering area for Mitchel inside of it. It looked like a normal warehouse on the edge of Brooklyn near the Upper Bay of the Hudson River: worn down, grimy, and a little creepy. It was very unassuming from the outside but very useful and livable on the inside. 

Their living space and training area only took up half of the warehouse. The other half was used for business. Eva didn’t go over there very often, but it was mostly alien technology and weaponry. Mr. Graves didn’t really want them to worry about the boring business aspects of the operation, and Eva never felt the need to know more. Mitchel on the other hand snuck in on a weekly basis. One of Adrian’s men was really good with the technology and developing weapons. Mitchel was not happy about that development and it was a frequent point of contention, even if he still had plenty to do. She knew that Gary was more privy to the information, and sometimes she could tell that he would disagree with Mr. Graves, but it never lasted long. Otherwise, she, Chloe, and Mitchel didn’t know much about the business. Eva trusted Mr. Graves. She didn’t need to know anything else.  

Eva loved their new living quarters. She shared an entire room with Chloe. It wasn’t very big, but they painted it purple and covered the walls with newspaper clippings, posters of their favorite movies, their own graffiti, and of course the mangled Iron Man poster that they used as a dart board. The room was a bit of an eyesore to anyone else. Mitchel said he wanted to throw up whenever he looked at the walls and Gary said it was “a bit overwhelming”, but Mr. Graves said he thought it was a piece of art. 

They also had a common room with a tv, two new couches, and a table where they spent most of their time. Sometimes Eva missed the intimacy of their Haven in the Underground, but it was nice to have space and some privacy and a bathroom to share between five people instead of the 100+ people that shared the two bathrooms in the upper part of the subway. She especially missed the people of the Underground and the community they shared. Chloe and Eva helped make some bigger deliveries to the Underground on a weekly basis, so she did get to see them and check in. Mr. Graves had left a couple, who had lost their child in the Battle of New York, in charge of everything and they seemed to be holding it together well. 

She and Chloe also deemed every Sunday, Sundays on the Street. Chloe said that they were getting too comfortable in their cushy lives and needed to be grounded weekly. They mostly walked around their old stomping grounds, talking to the nice shopkeepers and playing pranks on the mean ones. Sometimes they were able to recruit more people to the Underground and spread the word. There was never a shortage of homeless people who needed somewhere safe to go. 

Chloe had quickly become her best friend and something close to a sister. Sharing a room, spending almost every waking moment together, and going on adventures around the city had brought them close together. Chloe was nineteen, but Eva had grown a lot in the last year and she felt more of an equal to her now.

Mitchel sometimes hung around them when he wasn’t tinkering with tech or trying to sneak into the other side of the warehouse. He never spent time with Eva alone, but he would do anything that Chloe was doing, while tolerating Eva’s presence. As she got a little older, he didn’t make fun of her as much, but he didn’t necessarily like her any more. She didn’t mind him. She liked his sarcastic humor and enjoyed hearing about his adventures with the tech, but he always sent her a glare if she ever showed him too much interest. Eva was pretty sure he had a crush on Chloe, but Chloe wasn’t interested. Chloe was two years older and about a million times cooler. And though Chloe never said anything explicitly, Eva suspected she wasn’t really into guys. He never had a chance. 

Whenever he was free, Eva would spend her time with Gary. Now that she had effective weapons and armor, she loved to train with him. She had gotten even faster and better at evading attacks in the last year or so, thanks to all the training. He never got annoyed with her when she messed up. Actually, Eva was pretty sure she had never seen him angry or raise his voice for as long as she’d known him. Gary was the most level-headed and strong person she knew, but looking at him, people wouldn’t know how much he enjoyed the domestic side of life. 

They had continued their book club, working through classic literature, popular modern novels, as well as many non-fiction books. Eva spent most mornings and evenings reading with Gary on the rooftop or in the common room, sometimes in a park. It had been her replacement for school, since she obviously hadn’t been back to finish the sixth grade or go on to seventh after the Invasion. Eva thought that the book club more than made up for it. Gary turned out to be very knowledgeable and made sure that they alternated between fiction and non-fiction in all subjects that would be in school. Eva found herself drawn to the sciences though, and ended up reading some non-fiction about physics and astrophysics on her own. Though she didn’t understand everything and it took a long time to read, studying those subjects made her feel more connected to her parents.

When they weren’t reading, she and Gary would work on their rooftop garden. Eva was initially uncertain about doing something that she had watched her mother do for her entire childhood, but Gary was so calm and patient with her, that she found herself liking the smell of soil and building shades for certain plants to protect them from the sun. They celebrated their first harvest by sharing the smallest salad known to man. Eva enjoyed the time she spent with Gary and found herself seeking out his company often, especially since Mr. Graves was often absent. 

Mr. Graves had become more and more busy over the last year. He was gone for weeks at a time sometimes and would bring little trinkets back from places around the country and sometimes from around the world. Eva had never really been outside of New York except for one time when her parents took the family on a vacation to Disney World when she was six, so she hung onto every word he shared about his travels and lined up her trinkets next to her bed. 

Eva missed spending time with him, but he would make it up to her when he was around. They often went on walks around the city to talk about memories of their families or the occasional trip out to eat at a restaurant. Eva enjoyed hearing about his wife, Jennifer, and his daughter, Sara. It really seemed like Eva would have gotten along very well with Sara if they had known each other before the Invasion. It helped Eva understand why Mr. Graves was working so hard for a new world.

Eva was jolted out of her thoughts when she heard someone climbing the ladder behind her. Mr. Graves popped his head through the hatch in the roof. “Can I join?” he asked. She nodded and he climbed the rest of the way onto the metal roof, sitting heavily in the chair next to her. For a while they looked out over the bay toward the Statue of Liberty glowing in the distance, listening to the sounds of the city around them. Finally, he spoke. “Are you sure that you’re okay? He didn’t touch you?”

Pushing down the guilt of lying again, she shook her head. “I was already near the door and I managed to get away when he was distracted. I got lucky.”

Mr. Graves nodded, seemingly buying her story. “It was lucky, but none of that was supposed to happen,” he told her. “I spoke with Mitchel. He won’t be holding you up again.”

Eva grimaced, knowing that it probably hadn’t been a pleasant conversation for either of them. “I know he feels guilty and I know he just wanted to make up for missing the alarms. There was no way he could have known that Iron Man was seconds away. I don’t blame him.”

“I am the only one to blame,” he told her solemnly. “We should have had a better plan for if the supers showed up. I just didn’t expect them to show up so soon.” He scrubbed his face tiredly with a hand. “I guess it’s a good sign that we’re starting to get their attention. We’re just not ready for it yet.” Eva didn’t know how to respond. She really didn’t understand his big plan. She didn’t even know what the big plan was except for getting rid of the supers somehow. 

“He saw your face then?” Mr. Graves asked and she only nodded in response. His expression soured and she suddenly realized why he was asking. 

“Do you think he’ll try to find me?” She whispered in terror. 

Mr. Graves nodded, confirming her fears. “Tomorrow I’ll take you to the Underground,” he explained. “You’ll need to lay low for a few weeks. At least until he loses interest.”

Eva’s heart stopped. He was asking her to leave them, her family, for a few weeks ? She hadn’t spent any time without being with at least one of them since she had been saved by Chloe the day she had stolen that bagel. Now she would spend a few weeks away?

“Please, Mr. Graves,” she begged. “I can just stay inside the warehouse. I won’t leave. I’ll just stay inside for a few weeks, months if I have to. I promise!”

He studied her desperation for a moment with a pained look on his face but then shook his head. “I want nothing more than to have you by my side at all times. You know how much I care for you, how I love you as my own.” 

He paused, and tears welled up in Eva’s eyes. Mr. Graves had never said that he loved her like his own daughter before. She hoped of course, but she hadn’t known for sure until this moment. 

“But being together right now is dangerous for you and for the whole team,” he finished while she looked back to the sky, trying to blink away her tears. Eva’s eyes found his again when he grasped her hand firmly. He didn’t try to hide the sorrow in his eyes this time. “I need to think about the team instead of what I want for you, and I need you to do the same. Can you do that?”

She nodded her head slowly. The tears finally overflowed and ran down her cheeks. He reached out and wiped them away, gently cupping her face in his hand once it was dry. “I’ll come visit every chance I get,” he promised her. “I’ll send one of the team when I can’t make it. It’ll be over before you know it.”

Eva took a shaky breath. “Okay,” she whispered. 

“I’m so proud of you,” his hand fell to his lap. “You helped get Mitchel out and then you managed to take on Iron Man all on your own.” He smirked at her, but she only returned it halfheartedly. 

After another few minutes of silence, Mr. Graves rose to his feet and held out his hand. She accepted it and he pulled her into a hug. “I’m so happy you’re okay,” he said as he stroked her hair. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you either,” she said into his shirt.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11

The next day, Mr. Graves escorted her down into the Underground and helped her get set up in a corner. Gary had given her five books - “Just in case you get bored”. Chloe had given her the Iron Man poster to borrow and she put it up in a prominent place. Mitchel had given her an awkward little side hug, which was more than he’d ever given her, so she returned it with a smile. 

Eva spent the first few days helping out around the community: distributing food, entertaining the children, and settling disputes between neighbors. However, she quickly got restless. It was only the third day, after she had done everything she could think of to help out without going up to the street level, she wandered further into the unused subway tunnels alone. 

Walking the tunnels wasn’t anything new to her. She and Chloe had explored the nearby tunnels extensively and she knew exactly where the abandoned tunnels ended and the active ones began. While she meandered through, Eva began to think about what had happened with Iron Man last week and her foster father more than a year ago. She couldn’t avoid it any longer. It wasn’t a coincidence or an accident or just a trick of her mind in a moment of panic. It was something she had done. 

There was a coin laying near the track and she picked it up, flipping it in her hand as she thought about each instance and what they had in common. Both times she felt threatened, panicked and grabbed onto the person who had… fallen. Did she need to be scared to make it work? 

She looked at the quarter in her hand and focused on it. The other times they had fallen to the side. Maybe she could make it fall to the– 

The coin fell to the left and hit the side of the tunnel with a tink, tink, tiiiink , as it spun around and settled on the wall. Jaw open in disbelief, Eva approached the wall and picked up the coin. She let it slip through her fingers, and again it fell to the left, spinning and clinking onto the wall. 

It was exactly what had happened to her foster dad and Iron Man. They had actually fallen to the side, like she had changed their gravity, but no one else’s. She suddenly recalled that her foster dad had fallen out of the window and then back inside. Picking up the coin off the wall, she held it in her open palm, which was facing toward the opposite wall. Focusing on the coin, she thought about it falling to the right. Barely a second passed before the quarter was chiming against the opposite wall. 

Eva rushed over and did the same to make it fall upward. The quarter fell to the ceiling. Fully overwhelmed, her legs gave way and she fell with a thud into a sitting position in the grime on the floor of the tunnel, gazing up at the glinting quarter as it settled on the ceiling, mouth open in awe. 

This was happening. This was real. This wasn’t a dream. 

She and Vic had discussed at great length about what kind of superpowers they wanted and how they would use them and what their superhero names would be. Eva spent many nights of her early childhood dreaming of being a superhero. Pretending to be superheroes had been their favorite game in the park. They would pretend to fly around their parents, taking care of bad guys. Now she could do just that. She could use this…

Then it hit her all at once. Her mouth snapped shut and hands squeezed painfully together. The coin fell to the actual ground with a final clink. Eva wasn’t that kid anymore. Her parents were gone. Vic was gone. Her love for superheroes was gone because they were responsible for taking her family away. Being a superhero in real life meant hurting people and getting away with it, which is something she never wanted to do. 

Her new family was what mattered, and if they ever knew, if Mr. Graves ever knew, he would kick her out. Right? Or maybe he could help cure her? Did she want that? 

Eva’s mind was running too fast. Soon her feet were running just as fast, back to her little corner. Throwing herself under the comforter, she held onto her head and tried to get a hold of her thoughts until she fell into fitful sleep. 

Eva hadn’t come to a conclusion about what to do that night, or the next day, or within the next week. She decided to try and ignore it, but that had only lasted the first day. The day after that, the gnawing curiosity at the back of her mind had gotten the best of her, and she had picked up a couple objects of different sizes and taken them into the tunnels. 

In the first week, Eva had controlled the gravity of a coin, a plastic bowl, an old basketball, a small trash can, a worn suitcase, and a large crate. It was only items that she touched that she could manipulate. No matter how hard she concentrated on something, she couldn’t make it fall unless she made some kind of contact with it. She also learned early on that the longer she used this ability or the bigger the item she was making fall, the more energy it took from her. The first night after she had only worked with the coin, she had fallen asleep instantly and slept for almost twelve hours. Eva had even felt lightheaded after attempting to make the crate fall for the first time, but it was apparent that with practice she could keep going for longer. By the end of the first week, she could work with the coin for half an hour, when she only was able to work it for about five minutes on the first day. 

So she kept practicing and experimenting, but Eva found herself crying each night about the conflict in her heart. Was she just one of the enemies now? An enhanced person who would end up hurting thousands? Would the team, her newfound family, hate her for what she was? Each night she would promise herself to never try to manipulate gravity again, and then the next day she found herself walking into the tunnels with a new idea in mind. 

Eva decided by the end of the week that she would never let anyone know. She would keep practicing while she was in hiding and when no one else was around, but she would never use it otherwise. Practice was the only way she could control it and make sure it wouldn’t come out suddenly in front of the public, or worse, her family. It had happened twice by accident and she had gotten away with it. If it happened again, it would ruin everything.

So, she had to keep it under control and secret. 

Tony was in the back of the car, heading away from a meeting about the latest iteration of the arc reactor when he received a message from JARVIS. “Sir, I have a hit on the search for strange gravitational occurrences.”

“Show me,” Tony replied immediately. JARVIS began to play a video that had been posted to social media on the screen of his phone. Whoever was filming was clearly stuck on a rather empty subway train that was not moving. Tony could tell that it was probably a late night train because there were only a few teenagers, a homeless man, and a tired woman in scrubs visible in the car. The person filming was talking about being annoyed that this line was always late into the camera. Then something bashed into the side of the car, jostling the train, its occupants, and the person filming. By the time they had turned the camera back around, all that was seen through the window were some splintered pieces of wood. 

Tony replayed the clip another three times, slowing it down as the object hit the train. It was a wooden crate. “JARVIS, how do we know this wasn’t just thrown or catapulted at the train?”

“The crate’s trajectory does not form a typical arc as it would if thrown. It falls straight into the subway car,” came JARVIS’ reply. 

Tony rewound once more and saw that JARVIS was correct. Though the crate came out of the darkness, it was clear that it flew in a straight line, as if it were falling sideways. 

Looking up through the tinted window of the car, Tony called out to his driver. “Happy, change of plans. Drop me off at the nearest subway tunnel.”

“I didn’t realize my driving was that terrible,” Happy muttered

Chapter Text

Chapter 12

By the end of two weeks, Eva was able to work with items as large as her or larger. She hadn’t gotten a chance to experiment with something much bigger than that, because she couldn’t sneak bigger and bigger items into the abandoned tunnels past the people of the Underground. She had told those who asked that it was part of a project for Mr. Graves, which kept curious eyes away, but she wasn’t about to bring an entire dumpster or something down there without some major questions or difficulty on her end. 

Then at one point she lost control of a large crate and it went careening down the tunnel too far away from her. She heard it crash and shatter somewhere deep inside the tunnel system. Eva didn’t dare go to check, but the thought of someone getting hurt kept her up for a few nights. 

After three weeks, she had started to carefully attempt to manipulate her own gravitational pull. The first day had been harrowing. She brought an old mattress into the tunnel and made it fall against the ceiling. Then she closed her fists tight and focused on changing her own gravity. It was the strangest feeling for gravity to suddenly flip. She was happy that she had thought about bringing the mattress first because she hadn’t considered just how fast she would fall. During the first fall, she hurt her wrist trying to catch herself after falling ten feet onto the ceiling. Luckily it wasn’t broken, but it hurt for a few days. After that, she made sure to angle her body better to fall onto her back. 

Chloe had been checking in on her, but she couldn’t spend much time in the Underground. Mr. Graves, Gary, Mitchel, and Chloe had been working hard to see if Iron Man was still looking for Eva or trying to break into their operation. Chloe let her know that they were having a hard time figuring out if he was still keeping an eye out. Turns out Tony Stark lives up to his reputation, so she needed to stay low for a few more weeks before she could come back. Eva was surprised by how she didn’t feel too upset by that prospect. 

Of course she missed her family and the warehouse and Sundays on the Streets with Chloe and gardening and book club with Gary, but she couldn’t lie to herself. Pushing her mind to the limit and feeling herself fall toward the ceiling was one of the most thrilling experiences of her life. There was something that just kept her returning to that tunnel to try the next thing. 

One day about a month into her time hiding in the Underground, Eva was trying to walk from the ground up to the ceiling. It involved a lot of tripping forward onto her face or backward onto her butt because she had to turn gravity very slowly and the timing was tricky. 

After what felt like a thousand attempts, she finally reached the top of the ceiling, letting out a whoop in celebration but froze when she heard something move with a thunk behind her. Spinning around and peering into the dark, Eva couldn’t see anything. But wait… there was something there. Two blue pinpricks of light and they were getting larger. It took a second for her upside down mind to put two and two together. They were eyes. Not just anyone’s eyes, but glowing eyes on the mask of Iron Man. 

She yelped as he stepped into the light of her battery-powered lantern and with a surprisingly small amount of hesitation, Eva flipped gravity to pull her back and she let herself fall backwards into the tunnel. 

Eva turned her eyes toward the darkness of the tunnel, trying not to panic as she let herself fall into what looked like a long tube of darkness from her perspective. It was useless because her heartbeat increased even more, nearly pumping out of her chest, as she began to rapidly speed up. It was only then she realized that gravity had a fixed rate of acceleration, not speed. She’d never had anything fall more than a few feet, and now that her body was hurtling down a dark tunnel at an ever increasing speed, Eva wished she had done more practice. How was she going to stop without hurting herself or getting caught? 

Iron Man’s thrusters whirred behind her, making her spiral into a full-blown panic debating whether to try to slow down and get caught or keep going and hope the world’s biggest mattress was at the end of the tunnel. The distinct sound of a screeching train from ahead made the choice for her. 

Up ahead she could see the lights of the train coming from an intersecting tunnel running perpendicular to the tunnel she was falling through. The train wasn't in her path yet, but it would be soon and she was heading right toward the intersection. She couldn’t help a scream from ripping out of her throat as she willed gravity to reverse, her body arcing in the air, but she was going too fast and the light from the train was growing brighter.

Barely registering something hard wrap around her feet, Eva’s body was yanked backward, pulling her away from the train's path. Looking down briefly, she saw a metal brace, trapping her legs together. Eva was brought to a stop as the train ripped by her just a few feet ahead. 

Iron Man threw his hands out to come to a stop just in time to avoid the train and landed on the ground of the tunnel next to her. After the train had passed, screeches echoing as it turned a corner down the line, Iron Man turned toward her. Eva’s brain had only just registered that she was safe for the train, and now she started to pull her body in every direction to escape the next threat. Her head swung backward and she let out a yelp as the sudden change in direction tweaked her ankles that were locked in the brace. It wasn’t budging. 

“Holy shit, kid,” came Iron Man’s somewhat robotic voice from somewhere above her. “I thought I came prepared, but I didn’t think you’d try to kill me with a heart attack.” Eva uselessly pulled at the brace with all her might, but it remained in a vice grip around her ankles. She tried to change the gravity of the brace, but it didn’t move. She’d used too much energy changing the gravity of her own body for so long, and her head was pounding. Eva had never pushed herself this far and the edges of her vision were starting to get blurry. “Kid, stop. You’re going to hurt yourself, or worse, me.”

Eva tried to pull her body in every direction again, desperate to escape. As Iron Man reached out to her, she felt the last bit of energy fade and she began to lose consciousness. He pressed something on the brace and it snapped to his wrist with a definitive click. She weakly flinched away as he eased her into his arms. “I’m not going to hurt you, kid. I just want to talk.”

She so badly wanted to cuss him out for trapping her like this among a multitude of other reasons, but as he was adjusting the brace to carry her easier, Eva lost consciousness and everything went black.

“Sir, your heart rate and breath rate are still alarmingly high,” JARVIS told him uselessly. Tony didn’t need anyone to tell him that. He had legitimately thought that the arc reactor may give out based on how hard his heart was beating when he witnessed the girl start freefalling through active subway tunnels. Then she nearly went careening into an actual train. Tony’s electromagnetic brace was the only thing that saved the kid from a particularly gruesome death. She didn’t have a very good grasp of this power of hers.

Then there was the way that she nearly tore her feet off to get out of the brace, which he had created to keep her still for a second to talk. Was he really that scary or was she in so deep with whatever the alien tech underground trading thing was? Tony was used to people being uncomfortable around him, but it was usually because they felt awestruck or intimidated. 

This was different. The look in her eyes was much more prey-captured-by-predator instead of meeting-your-hero kind of look. Tony didn’t like it. 

“My vitals are fine, JARVIS. Why did she pass out?” He asked his AI. 

“It seems to be from overexertion. Her heartbeat is returning to a normal rate after losing consciousness.” 

“Let me know the second anything changes.” He tightened his grip on her as he started to carefully navigate his suit through the tunnels to the closest exit and into the sky.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13

“You don’t have a plan, do you?”

Eva wasn’t sure who was talking, but she was laying on something soft, which was a step up from a mat on the subway floor that she was getting used to. Maybe she was back home.

“When has that ever stopped me?” came a second voice, but this was a voice Eva recognized. 

“This is different, Tony.”

Her memories began to flood back and Eva peeled open her eyes. She was in a bright room that looked similar to a hospital, but there were large, floor to ceiling windows on one side of the room that gave her a view of the city – the kind she had only seen when her family had visited the top of the Empire State Building. The voices were coming from behind her. One definitely belonged to Tony Stark, but she wasn’t sure about the other. 

“We’ve dealt with terrorists and a psychopathic god, Doc. I even got Thor mostly potty trained.” Eva could hear him walking closer. “I think I can handle a little girl.”

Little girl?

Looking to her left, Eva saw a plate of food, soup, and a cup of fruit. Then she saw it. They had been stupid enough to give her a metal fork. 

Eva reached out quietly to grab the fork. Her fingertips just brushed it before something tugged painfully on the back of her hand, and the fork fell off the tray. Eva tried to pull the fork upward before it hit the ground, but her brain was still not cooperating fast enough and a clang rang through the large room. 

“Shit,” she muttered as she tried to pull out the IV. Someone’s hands stopped her before she could. Eva sent a pointed glare at Tony Stark, but he kept his firm grasp on her hands. 

“Let me help you,” he told her in a surprisingly gentle voice. He let go of her, and she watched as he stepped back to move around her bed. Eva reached out with her mind and felt the gravitational pull of the fork holding it to the ground. With effort, she turned the gravity upward and put out her hand to catch it in her tethered hand. Lifting it up to eye level as Tony Stark rounded the corner of the right side of her bed, Eva let it go and watched it fall toward his face. 

With a curse he ducked as it flew over his head and hit the large windows. Eva felt a sharp jolt of pain behind her eyes and her hands automatically flew up to her face. “We’ve confirmed she wants to kill me then, Big Man. You owe me ten bucks.” Tony Stark said sarcastically, but she couldn’t pull her hands away from the pain in her head. 

“Hey,” came a new voice. Eva jumped at how close it was. Peeking through her fingers, she saw another man. He had a kind smile and graying wavy hair. “You’re safe here,” he told her. “You don’t need to be afraid.”

But Eva knew she really did need to be afraid. Judging by the incredible view of the city, she was in the Avengers Tower, the most secure building in the city, maybe in the country, or the world. There was no way she was escaping without a fight, and considering the debilitating pain in her head, she wasn’t up for a fight. She felt her breath quicken under her hands that were pressing into her face. She pushed harder into her eyes to keep the tears away. 

“Woah, woah. It’s okay,” the man said again, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Are you in pain?”

Eva didn’t move and tried to cover up the tears falling. She couldn’t believe the little self-control she was displaying, not only in front of this stranger, but also her biggest enemy. After the last year and a half of living on the streets, learning to fight, and dealing with shady criminals, Eva thought she had more control of herself. Now when it was most important to keep it together, she was losing it. 

“Like I told you, kid,” came Tony Stark’s voice, next to her now. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk, and it looks like you need help.”

“I’m fine.” Eva mentally cringed at how warbly her voice sounded. 

“You nearly got hit by a train, passed out, and, frankly, you smell like you’ve been living in that subway tunnel since I last saw you,” Tony Stark told her in a matter-of-fact tone that made her want to slap him. “Really seems like you need some help and some strong soap.”

Eva took a deep, shaky breath and slowly peeled her hands away from her still throbbing head. “Fuck you,” she managed, squinting against the afternoon light, streaming through the windows. 

Tony Stark sighed and sat down at the edge of her bed. “I don’t mean to brag.” There was a snort of derision from the other man who turned back to whatever he was doing behind her bed. Tony Stark sent a dirty look in his direction. “But most twelve year old kids get pretty excited to see me and usually don’t cuss me out. ”

“I’m thirteen,” Eva hissed. 

He merely waved a hand at her correction, disregarding it. “I don’t know what your friends told you, but I really don’t make it a goal of mine to hurt kids.”

“No one needed to tell me to hate you,” she told him. “I made that decision on my own.”

He studied her seriously for a moment. “And how did you come to that decision, then? You haven’t talked to Cheryl, have you? Because I swear that was an imposter. Not every man named Tony with a goatee and a handsome yet tasteful jawline is me.” Eva only scowled at him in return. He threw his hands up. “Okay, we’ll keep that a fun mystery then. I’m guessing your accomplices are also not a topic for discussion.” Eva confirmed with her silence. “No family?” Her continued non compliance clearly made him frustrated and Eva felt a sense of accomplishment. “How about let’s start with your name?” Eva knew that he couldn’t find anything out about Mr. Graves from looking up her name, but he could find out about what happened to her before Mr. Graves, about her social worker and the foster home. She kept her mouth shut. 

“I didn’t think so,” he said, shaking his head. “So what do you want to talk about then? What do kids like these days? Steam engines? Voltaire?”

“What are you going to do to me?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady, but there was a distinctive shake to it that made Eva sound like a child.

“Nothing,” the other man returned and gave her an ice pack. She hesitantly accepted it and pressed it to her forehead, thankfully feeling a little relief from the terrible headache. “You need to rest right now. No one is going to hurt you or turn you into any authorities.” Eva noticed for the first time that he was wearing a white coat. Maybe he was the doctor for the Avengers. 

The doctor sent a pointed look toward Tony Stark, who put up his hands in surrender. “I’m all for avoiding the authorities. I just want to make sure you’re safe, kid.”

“I was safe and then you chased me through the subway tunnels,” she spat at him. 

“Hanging out in active subway tunnels upside down on the ceiling is not what I would call a safe and loving environment for a kid,” he told her flippantly. The doctor raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. 

“I was fine,” she told him again.

“What about when you were fighting two grown men on your own?” he added, voice more forceful this time. “When your little team left you there to fend for yourself and let you get hit with a baton?”

Eva’s anger flared at his insinuation about her family. “They thought I was out!” She shut her mouth quickly before she said anything more about the team. “I think you saw that I could handle myself against those men,” she added.

“And what if they had guns? How would you have handled yourself then?”

She shrugged, pressing the cold pack into her head as the pain flared at his rising voice. “I’m prepared for that too.”

“You shouldn’t have to be!” Tony Stark shouted as he rose from the bed, throwing his hands up and turning away from her in frustration. “You’re a kid. Facing armed men and running around in the subway tunnels isn’t where you belong! No matter how powerful you are.”

Eva suppressed a smile at the word powerful, but then she realized it might not be a good thing after all. Did he think she was powerful? Is that why he was chasing her around then?

“You should be… playing with dolls or picking up a vaping habit or something.”

Eyebrows raised, Eva couldn’t help but poke the bear after that comment. “You’re really out of touch for a genius.”

“Tony,” the doctor said firmly, interrupting the incoming angry report. “Calm down. This isn’t helping.”

Watching as Tony Stark took a few deep breaths, Eva couldn’t help but ask a few of her own questions. “If you don’t want the authorities involved, did you bring me here to experiment on me?”

They both looked at her in shock. “Why the fuck would you say that?” Tony Stark asked.

“Tony!” the doctor protested on deaf ears.

“You’ve seen some of what I can do. You have me in this hospital place. What’s in this IV? Do you want me for your team or do you want to take my power for yourself? If you do, will you let me go?” she asked, genuinely interested now. 

Tony Stark turned away sharply to look out the window. “Who put these ideas in your head?”

“No one,” she replied. “I’m just putting two and two together. You saw what I can do and you tracked me down.”

He didn’t turn back around, but the doctor took his spot on the edge of the bed again, his face filled with what seemed to be genuine concern. “That never even crossed anyone’s mind. Tony is just worried that you’re young, don’t seem to have a family, and hanging around… some potentially dangerous people.”

“So the powers have nothing to do with it then?” she asked incredulously.

The doctor sighed. “It just adds to the potential of danger for you. Tony said you almost ran into a subway train,” he pointed out. 

“That wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t been chasing me,” she told him. 

“We just want to help,” he reiterated, before Stark could snap back. “The powers are on the end of the long list of concerns.” He picked up the tray of soup and fruit and presented it to her, sans fork. “Whatever your powers are, it runs on the energy of your body. You need to eat and rest to regain that.” He placed the tray on her lap. 

Eva regarded the tray and then him. If he was telling the truth, she could regain her strength sooner if she ate and then get out of here faster. She carefully picked up a grape and popped it into her mouth. 

“Thank you,” the doctor said. After a moment, he held out his hand. “I’m Bruce Banner.”  Eva looked at his hand and took it but didn’t give him her name in return. He gently shook her hand, not asking for anything further. 

Dr. Banner turned to Stark as Eva started to eat the fruit with a little more vigor. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until the grape had hit her stomach. Dr. Banner was muttering something to Stark that she couldn’t hear. After a short reply from Stark, Dr. Banner turned back to Eva. “I’ll be back in a little to check on you. Eat up.”

After he left, Stark returned to the seat on her left, sitting down heavily. Eva ate the fruit in silence as he stared out the window, considering what to do. When she finished, she pushed the rest away and turned her attention back to Iron Man. “So he said he’s not going to call the authorities. Are you?” she questioned sharply. 

Stark turned back to her and studied her again, like he was trying to put the pieces together but not quite getting there. “I should call CPS.” Eva couldn’t hide the panic that crossed her face in time and he smiled at a piece falling into place. “So something happened with CPS then.” It wasn’t a question so she just shut her mouth. “Okay, so if CPS is a bad option, I’m guessing the police aren't a better alternative.” Again, it wasn’t a question and Eva didn’t respond. “No family and the only people you trust are criminals. Hmm,” he hummed in contemplation as he studied her face. She kept it as blank as she could, but his expression told her that he could read her like a book. Eva was terrified and totally in his control, and he knew it. “I could just let you go and follow you until you meet up with your friends and arrest them.” 

“You won’t find me again, Stark,” she told him, crossing her arms and trying to put on a strong, confident front over the terror building inside of her. 

He breathed out a chuckle. “Yeah, do you know who I am? I have access to any computer system including security cameras, public and private records, and every database you could name and a lot you’ve never heard of. I’ll just use face recognition to find you on my own and learn everything I can. It won’t take long.” 

Eva felt her chest tighten as she considered what he would find. Everything about her family dying, all the shelters she had stayed in initially, her short stint in foster care. If he could go through security cameras, he would inevitably find the Underground and then the warehouse where she lived. Mr. Graves was pretty careful about security around the warehouse, but she could guess that it really wouldn’t take him very long to find them. 

“Calm down, kid,” he tried. “Hear me out. There’s another option.” Eva looked up at him through the panicked fog. “Stay here for a few nights while I try to figure out a better place for you to go. If you do that, I won’t go looking for your delinquent friends. I can’t promise that I won’t find them through my other connections, since they’re stealing government property, but I won’t use you to find them.”

“So you’re just going to keep me captive then? Blackmail me into sticking around to keep you company or something? And you’re still going to arrest my team?” she growled.

“You’ve put me in a hard place, kid. I can’t just let you go and watch you get killed or sent to juvie for the rest of your life, and I can’t just let a bunch of criminals take dangerous weapons, especially if other kids are involved.” Tony Stark leaned forward. “Look, this is me warning you that whatever you’re involved in is coming to an end very soon. You can either let me help you find a better alternative or go down the delinquent route and I’m not just talking about vaping.”

Eva’s anger flared, burning in her chest. Through the blurriness of angry tears, she felt her hands clench into fists painfully. She couldn’t believe she had just been having a calm conversation with the man who killed her sister. Now he was going to take away her new family. “Are you threatening me?” she seethed. 

“I’m not trying to threaten you,” he told her. Eva could hear the shake in his voice. He was starting to lose his calm too. “I’m trying to warn you about how the rest of this is going to play out. I’m trying to help you… against my better judgment,” he added under his breath, but plenty loud enough for her to hear.

“By taking away the only family I have left? That’s how you want to help?”

“I’m not trying to take anyone away from you–”

“It’s too late for that isn’t it?” The words burst out from her chest, as if they had been building pressure for years.

He shook his head, clearly confused. “I haven’t caught anyone yet. Listen kid, you’re getting angry and we’re not going to get anywhere with–”

“Evangeline Moore!” she spat through her fury. She grasped onto the sheets, trying to keep her hands from tearing him apart. “Why don’t you look up what happened to my family and tell me if you haven’t already taken everything from me?!”

Stark considered her, his blasé attitude finally gone for the first time while she breathed heavily. “Go ahead! Look it up on your fancy shit and tell me what you find!” she yelled. 

Dr. Banner rushed back into the room, clearly concerned about the shouting, but Stark held up his hand and reached for his phone. After a worried glance at Eva’s angry posture, the doctor stepped inside, shutting the door quietly and busying himself on the other side of the room but clearly still listening in. 

“JARVIS, please pull up everything on the Evangeline Moore that matches this girl’s face,” he said to nothing. Even through her cloudy anger, Eva felt her face morph into a confused state, but then a projection popped up from his phone with Eva’s face plastered all over it. 

While she fumed next to him, trying to push down her desire to marvel over the technology, Stark scrolled through the available documents. He had not been lying when he said he could find everything, and he found it all in a matter of seconds after apparently speaking to his phone. There was her Kindergarten picture, a picture of her from a gymnastics competition, and of course pictures of her family – her real family. 

It was as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water over her spine, as the reality of the situation set in. Tony Stark had caught her and she was going to lead him straight to the team. If he found everything about her that easily, all it took was an inkling of where to look and he would find them. Her brain started to churn for any alternative, but she was distracted by his sudden change in demeanor.

He found it. She had never witnessed Tony Stark have anything other than an arrogant smile or annoyed smirk on his face since she had been there and even in the television footage she had seen of him. Now, she watched as his face finally betrayed some pain, and she could hardly believe it, but there was empathy there as well. 

There were her parents’ pictures and death certificates with their date of death and who identified the bodies. Eva looked away from their pictures and instead stared down at her hands, remembering how they looked before and how they looked after. 

He was silent for a long time. When he finally spoke again, he didn’t sound like the Tony Stark from TV or even the one who dragged her up to his tower. He sounded… small, defeated. 

“You blame me then? Because they died that day?” he clarified. 

“What is there on my sister?” she asked, ignoring his comment, still not raising her gaze to him. 

After a moment, he responded. “There’s a missing persons report for Victoria Moore… from the same day.”

“She’s dead,” Eva heard herself say. It was almost like she was watching herself from above now, like she wasn’t even in that room anymore. “Dad sent us running while he went back to get mom from their work building. I never saw them alive after that. Then Vic and I ran into two of those…things in an alleyway and climbed seven stories on a fire escape to get away. The aliens were getting on one of those gliders and you flew by and shot them into the building we were on. Vic… she fell.” The wet tears falling onto her fists were enough to bring her back into her body when the story ended. She scrubbed at them furiously and looked up at him again. 

Even through her tears, she still noticed how broken he looked. Instead of backing down, she decided to fully lean in. This was her chance, presented to her on a silver platter. Tony Stark needed to know exactly what his actions had cost her because clearly no one had told him before. “I know that it’s hard for you to understand how your actions have consequences since you have endless money to build fancy suits and buy expensive lawyers and people’s love, but no one else has those luxuries. Next time you and your superhero friends decide to go blowing through New York or LA or London or wherever you’re going next, think about the men you’re leaving as widowers, the women as widows, the people you’re leaving homeless, and the children you’re leaving as– as orphans.”

Eva was breathing heavily after her rant. It was a speech she had practiced countless times when she was trying to fall asleep after a nightmare or when throwing darts at his poster with Chloe. Now, as she stared at the crushed look on Tony Stark’s face, she was alarmed that she didn’t feel satisfied like she dreamed she would. It didn’t bring back her parents or Vic. It didn’t change anything except make a man feel broken. She couldn’t stand looking at him for another second and looked the other way. 

Suddenly, his chair screeched on the ground as he rushed from the room. Eva let her head fall into her hands and let the sobs wrack through her body, slouching into the bed. How did that not make her feel any better? How did yelling at the man who had killed off her family not take away that hole in her chest that had been there since she had watched her father run back into that building? Somehow it felt bigger, sucking in everything and leaving her completely empty.

Eva jumped when she felt a hand on her back but didn’t turn around when she recalled Dr. Banner was still in the room. She couldn’t find the strength to shy away from his comforting hand and just continued to cry until she couldn’t physically cry anymore. 

“You know,” Dr. Banner finally said as the light from outside was turning golden, the sun setting on a truly terrible day. “I haven’t known Tony for very long, but I do know he uses sarcasm and showmanship to deflect from who he really is. Tony would never admit this, but he’s had the most trouble out of everyone after the Invasion. He thinks about that day more than any of us. He thinks about the effect it’s had on the world and what he can do about it constantly. Don’t doubt that he hasn’t felt an enormous responsibility for what happened that day and what so many people lost.”

Eva couldn’t respond. All she could do was stare out the window at the light of the setting sun. “I’m not trying to make any excuses for what happened that day and I’m certainly not asking you to forgive him. But I do know from experience that pent up rage can only lead to destruction. If the people you’re hanging out with are the kind of people with this pent up anger, maybe think about where you’re heading.” He shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “Stick around for a bit. Maybe you haven’t heard, but Tony has a lot of money. Take advantage of a nice place to stay for the night and we’ll figure it all out tomorrow,” he added with a nudge. “You’re always welcome here and not just because of your powers.”

“Even after what I just said to him.” Her voice sounded so small. 

“Absolutely, and if you don’t want to see him, you can always come hang out with me, though I’m not nearly as interesting,” he told her awkwardly with a final pat on her back. She felt his weight lift off the bed. “Why don’t you just eat the rest of this food and think about what you want to do next. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Eva laid on her side motionless for a few more minutes after Dr. Banner left the room. Finally, she sat up and unconsciously ate the rest of the food as she watched the sky turn from orange to pink to purple, silhouetted by the New York City skyline. By the time all the lights in the city had come on below, Eva realized that there was no choice. She needed to stay here a few days, or at least until she came up with an escape plan or some way to tell Mr. Graves to pack up and leave. Then maybe she could meet them somewhere. Right now, she needed to scope it out before making her escape.

Dr. Banner returned with Stark once the sky had turned indigo. Stark seemed much more composed now and back to his haughty demeanor. Dr. Banner stood back as Stark approached and sat on the chair next to the bed again. “Glad to see you’re not picky about food,” he said, gesturing to the empty plate. She merely shrugged in response. He leaned forward. “So, what have you decided, kid?” he asked.

“You won’t search for my friends if I stay?” she asked. 

“I promise,” he confirmed. 

“How can I trust that you haven’t already sent out the NYPD to find them?” she questioned doubtfully. 

Stark leaned back again and considered her. “I think it’s pretty clear that I owe you. There’s no way I can… undo what happened, but I can give you a safe place to stay and promise to not look for your friends while you’re here.” She narrowed her eyes, still unsure, but from the way he reacted to what happened to her sister, Eva thought that it was safe to rely on his guilt protecting them for now. 

“I’ll stay,” she agreed.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14

After a short ride up a buttonless elevator, Eva found herself following Tony Stark into his personal penthouse at the top of the Avengers Tower. Underneath the anger and dread, Eva couldn’t help but feel in complete awe and shock that this was actually happening.

Stark led her into a large living room with the same floor to ceiling windows that she had seen in the medical room, or the Med Bay as they called it. These ones looked out southward with an incredible view of the Empire State Building and downtown Manhattan. There was a giant balcony and what must have been part of the landing pad protruding out of the side of the building that everyone in the city could see. The room she had stepped into was wide open with a sitting area in the middle of it, the biggest TV she had ever seen, and a huge u-shaped couch sunken into the ground to the left. To her right was a giant dining table and an open kitchen with the windows looking down onto the Chrysler Building. 

“So this is my place,” Stark began, gesturing to the incredible penthouse. “Well, part of it. This floor is my penthouse. There is the guest floor below that I’m very graciously letting the team use when they’re passing through.”

“Yeah, you don’t have any room to spare,” Eva muttered as she continued to peek at the lavish furniture and high tech features in the living space around her.

He ignored her and continued on. “Then the two floors below that have the gym and training rooms and the Med Bay which you’ve already seen, and below that is mostly the Stark Industries side of things, but let’s just stick to where you’ll be staying for now.”

Stark began to lead her around the floor. Behind the elevator was a hallway that led to another sitting area where three additional hallways met the one they were standing in. He pointed down the right side first. “Down there is my lab and… an extra room. Boring stuff.” Eva noticed his tone change and his expression became pained for a split second. She wondered what could be in that ‘extra room’ that made him act that way, but of course she didn’t say anything. He then pointed to the hallway on the left. “There’s some storage and a gym and sauna that way. Boring again.” Then he started walking down the last hallway that pointed northward and Eva scrambled to follow.

There were two doors on the left and right, but Stark pointed toward a larger door at the end of the hallway. “That’s my bedroom. It’s nice and looks out toward Central Park, but also pretty boring. Honestly, I’m not in there much,” Stark told her as he instead turned toward one of the other doors in the hallway.

“You can stay in here tonight.” Stark opened the door on the right. They stepped into another beautifully decorated room with a large bed, TV, desk, en suite bathroom, and of course a breathtaking view of the Chrysler building. “It’s not much, but I would bet a lot of money that this is better than the subway tunnels.”

Eva stepped wordlessly into the room, trying and failing to not look in complete awe. She hadn’t ever had her own room. She hadn’t slept on a bed in weeks and even the one she had in the warehouse was a third of the size and didn’t look nearly as comfortable as this one. 

“Why don’t you wash off that lovely subway smell and I’ll order some Chinese or whatever you eat? What do you eat? You do eat, right?” he asked her as if she were an alien on Earth for the first time. 

“I’ve eaten Chinese food before,” she scoffed. 

“Fascinating,” Stark commented and moved on, motioning to some cabinets on the other side of the room. “There’s some clothes in there. Ask JARVIS for anything you need,” he added. Eva looked around for a man named Jarvis, but no one else was in the room. “Oh, JARVIS is my AI. He’s hooked up to the entire building. Say hi JARVIS.”

Eva jumped when the disembodied voice from before spoke up again. “Hello, Ms. Moore,” came a male voice with a posh British accent. 

“Hello?” she responded, confused but also completely fascinated. What did he mean it was connected to the entire building? Was it also connected to cameras or the internet or the tvs and electricity? This alone might be worth sticking around: figuring out exactly what Tony Stark’s AI could do. 

“Please don’t hesitate to ask for anything that you need while you are here,” JARVIS told her.

“Wow,” she breathed. 

Stark smiled as he backed out of the room. “There’s that shock and awe I deserve.” Eva turned her face back into a scowl. “Don’t be too long. My delivery guy is fast.”

Eva probably took too long. It was the most satisfying shower of her life. She was so used to rushing through her showers because she only had two quarters to use per week while she was in the Underground, which was only three minutes worth of lukewarm water in the summer and freezing water in the winter. Then, in the warehouse the water pressure was terrible because the warehouse apartment wasn’t exactly up to city code. This waterfall shower with a steamer and an additional hose, filled with expensive-smelling soaps, lotions, and sprays, was the most incredible experience she'd ever had. She stood in the shower for who knows how long watching the water turn from gray to clear. 

After drying off with a towel that felt like it was made out of clouds, Eva tip-toed back into the bedroom. Rummaging through the cabinets, she found a pair of sweats and a t-shirt with the Stark Industries Logo plastered across the front. Eva wasn’t excited to be sporting the logo, but it was better than the plain blue t-shirt she had been wearing that was probably a couple shades closer to gray than it should have been after a month in the Underground.

“If you are ready,” came JARVIS’ voice suddenly, making Eva jump again. How did anyone get used to this thing talking out of nowhere? “Dr. Banner and the Boss are waiting for you in the living area, Ms. Moore.”

“Does Stark make you call him ‘Boss’?” Eva asked, curious what the AI would say.

“Mr. Stark has four preset names for different occasions including Mr. Stark, Boss, Iron Man, and Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist,” JARVIS responded and Eva was surprised to hear a slight tone of annoyance at the last name. 

Eva scoffed. “What occasion would call for Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist?”

“There hasn’t been an opportunity I’ve found appropriate so far,” JARVIS assured her, making her smile. This AI was definitely more advanced than she’d originally thought if it had a sense of humor. It would also make things more bearable if she could just talk to the AI while she was trapped in this tower. “If you exit the room and turn left, you will find yourself back in the living room where Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark are waiting.”

 Eva followed the AI’s instructions and found everyone in the kitchen just like JARVIS had said. The table was piled high with take out containers and Dr. Banner kindly pointed out the different options to her. She watched as Stark poked through some Chow Mein with chopsticks, leaning back in his chair. Eva on the other hand enjoyed the meal and was surprised by how hungry she was even after she had eaten everything on the tray in the Med Bay. 

Dr. Banner was very polite and asked her carefully worded questions about herself that weren’t too invasive, that is until he asked about school. 

“So Evangeline-” Dr. Banner started but Eva interrupted him. 

“Please, call me Eva,” she told him. 

“Thank god,” Stark complained. “That name is such a mouthful.”

“What grade are you in, Eva?” Dr. Banner questioned, quickly changing the subject.

Eva’s chopsticks paused halfway to her mouth. “Um… I’m not in school,” she said awkwardly. “But I guess I’m supposed to be finishing seventh grade.”

Though she was staring at her takeout box that was nearly empty now, Eva could feel the look being shared across the table. She just continued to focus on grabbing the last few kernels of rice with the ends of her chopsticks one at a time. 

Eva knew that it was bad that she wasn’t in school. Her parents were always very invested in her and her sister’s education. She had been going to a nice school when they were alive. Then she came home and learned about the research her parents were doing at work. Compared to other kids her age, she had probably been ahead and on track to do great things, but now she was a middle school drop out. 

“You haven’t been in school for two years?” Stark asked, unable to cover up the frustration in his voice.

Her eyebrows furrowed and she met his eyes, matching his frustration. “Did you think I had time to go to school and help steal alien tech out from under your nose?” 

“I guess I was hoping it was a fun after-school extracurricular,” Stark joked, but his tone betrayed his anger. “Do you even know how to read?”

“I missed sixth and seventh grade, you idiot. I can probably read better than you,” Eva rebuked. 

“Alright, alright.” Dr. Banner waved his hands, trying to deescalate the situation. “Tony, there’s no reason to get angry about this.”

“Sometimes there are good reasons to get angry, Greenie, and I’d say this kid missing two years of school is a good reason,” Stark scoffed. 

“Tony,” Dr. Banner said quietly. “This isn’t helping.”

Stark was still fuming, but managed to shut his mouth. Dr. Banner turned to Eva with a gentle look of concern. “Eva, I’m sure that you can read and I can tell you’re a very bright kid, but I think we are a little worried that you’ve missed so much school. It’s going to be hard to catch up.”

Her frustration dissipated at Dr. Banner’s calm voice and she let her gaze fall to her box again. “I know it’s bad that I haven’t gone to school,” she admitted sheepishly. “One of my friends and I have a book club going to keep me up to date with my learning. We’ve read a lot: the classics, non-fiction history, old science magazines, and he’s even found a few math textbooks so I can practice math problems. There’s also this physics textbook that he brought back once. It’s pretty dirty, but I’ve gone through it a couple times.” She added the last part sheepishly at the end, suddenly aware that she was telling this to a doctor and one of the smartest men on the planet. 

Eva felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up to see Dr. Banner smiling at her. “That sounds pretty advanced for your age. I’ve got quite a few books you might be interested in if you’d like to take a look.”

“Yes!” she said, probably too eager. “I mean… sure.”

Dr. Banned chuckled and Eva noticed Stark’s eyebrows lift slightly. “I’ll go grab some for you.” He rose from the table. 

“Wow, quite the reaction compared to what you gave me, a living superhero, genius, and billionaire,” Stark muttered into his Lo Mein.

“Your AI told me that you programmed him to call you that,” Eva turned on him. “Is it only when your friends outshine you?”

Dr. Banner hesitated a few steps away from the table, clearly worried that Stark would retaliate. For a second, Eva thought that he would, but instead Stark chuckled and stood from his chair. “JARVIS only uses it when people need the reminder.”

As he started closing up more boxes and moving them into the bag, Dr. Banner apparently thought it was safe enough to leave and disappeared into the elevator. Eva tried to distract herself from the fact that she was left alone with Stark again by looking around the penthouse to try to figure out what she could steal and sell to get the Underground a new stove, but it wasn’t working. After years of having to help out with all the chores and being taught to keep everything clean or else you’ll wake up to rats in your bed, Eva found herself helping him pack away the absurd amounts of food. It only took him about thirty seconds before he opened his mouth again. 

“So physics?” he asked simply. 

Eva shrugged as she passed him a closed box. “It comes in handy.”

“I’m sure it does with your specialty ,” he agreed with an eyebrow wiggle. 

She gave him an annoyed look. “You mean the whole gravity thing?”

“Yeah kid.” They continued to clean in silence again for one beautiful minute until he decided to speak up again. “You like building things? Tech? Physics comes in handy there too.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Stark was attempting to connect with her, and he was the last person in the world that she wanted to befriend, but she needed to keep him happy so that he might let his guard down enough to let her send a message to Mr. Graves or even escape. At least she could appease him and make him feel wildly guilty at the same time.  

“I used to,” she admitted, making her voice a little more quiet and sad than she really felt, “With my mom. She was an engineer and my dad was an astrophysicist, so it kind of runs in the family. I haven’t really been able to do those things lately.”

He fell silent again after that and Eva felt that black hole in her chest grow a little more. Why did making him feel bad make her feel so much worse? 

She thought back to those times when she would meet her parents at their work with Vic after school. She would watch her mother build incredible machines that would in turn help her father research the wonders of space. Mostly they would have a puzzle or Legos or some kind of small machine that Eva and Vic could mess with while they finished their work in the evenings. They were both so good at making her excited to learn and build, and on very special occasions Eva helped her mom put the last piece into place or connect a wire. Her mother would pick her up and spin her around like she had just saved the entire project, making Eva feel like part of the team even though she never really knew what was going on. 

“Maybe you can check out some stuff I’ve been working on sometime,” Stark spoke up, breaking her reminiscing as he took the last box from her hands. 

Eva stood there gaping at him, as he crossed the room to put the food in the unnecessarily large refrigerator. “Seriously?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “I mean nothing explosive or top secret, but I’m sure I could find something a twelve year old couldn’t mess up too bad.”

“I’m thirteen,” she repeated wearily, but there wasn’t much power behind her rebuttal as he flashed her a smile. 

“In that case, let’s break out the explosives.”

Eva turned back to the sink, unsure of what to think of that offer, and rinsed her hands, drying them off just as Dr. Banner returned with piles of books. 

They spent the next hour looking through all the books that he had brought for her. Stark was surprisingly quiet, only adding a few pithy comments here and there, while Dr. Banner spoke animatedly about some of the biology books he was explaining to her.  

Eventually Dr. Banner caught her yawn and insisted, as her doctor, she go to bed. They helped her carry the books down the hallway and into the beautiful room that she was going to be staying in. 

Once they said goodnight, Eva walked around the empty room, peering out the window to see the city so far below that it didn’t even feel like she was part of it. It had been a crazy set of circumstances that had brought her to this moment: talking to Tony Stark, eating a meal with him and his friend, and now sleeping in one of his guest rooms. And on top of all of that, Tony Stark said that he would show her one of his projects?

She sunk onto the bed, eyes staring out of the window but no longer actually seeing anything. Tony Stark wasn’t what she thought he was going to be. After what he had done, Eva had built up this rich, entitled, bully in her head. Yes, he definitely was rich and entitled but he was more down to earth than she had anticipated. He ordered takeout for dinner and sat down for a meal with his friend and cleaned up afterward. He was an actual person, which was very hard to comprehend after sticking darts into a picture of his face for so long. 

But he was still the reason she didn’t have a family. Eva squeezed her hands into her eyes. She didn’t want to cry anymore but this war going on inside of her kept building up. 

Eva flopped back onto the bed and let out a guttural groan of frustration. It didn’t actually matter if the man responsible for her sister’s death was a person. All that mattered was saving the family she had waiting in that city below. 

“Ms. Moore,” JARVIS said. 

Eva startled for the third time that night. “Jeez, how does anyone get used to this?”

“I apologize,” the AI said. “You seem frustrated. Would you like me to get Mr. Stark to help you?”

“No!” Eva exclaimed, waving her hands as if that would stop the bodiless voice. “I’m fine. Just… a lot on my mind.”

“Very well,” JARVIS said before going quiet again. 

Eva sat up again and looked toward the ceiling. “Um, JARVIS?”

“Yes, Ms. Moore?” he responded immediately. 

“Can I ask you some questions?” She asked. 

“Of course.”

It didn’t take long after the kid had gone to bed for Tony to retreat into his lab. He definitely couldn’t focus on any of his work though. After only half an hour of trying to do anything else, he found himself asking JARVIS to pull up the footage of that day.

Going through the footage was enough to get his heart rate up and JARVIS warned him not to continue, but he had to know for sure. Then he saw the moment he was flying down the street toward the rest of the team and he had run into two of the Chitauri trying to get away. He didn’t even remember this moment, but he watched as Iron Man in the video quickly took out the Chitauri ship and it went careening into a building, resulting in a ball of fire. Rewinding the footage and slowing it down, he caught a glimpse of two figures on the side of the building. Then as he was about to fly off, a shadow began to plummet toward the ground. 

Tony’s fist hit the metal table with a painful crunch, while his heart rate continued to rise. He sunk onto the floor as a panic attack grasped onto his heart with an iron fist for the second time that day. His panic attacks usually centered around anything that reminded him that aliens could return to Earth without warning. Now he opened an entire new vault of problems to worry about. How could he have messed up so badly and not even noticed? How many other kids were out there without a family because of him? 

He wasn’t sure how long it lasted, but when Tony gained control of his body again, he felt exhausted. Unable to stand up yet, Tony spoke to JARVIS. “What’s she been doing?”

“Ms. Moore has spent the last hour and thirty-six minutes talking to me,” JARVIS reported. “She has asked a variety of questions about the Tower, Stark Industries, music, movies, and news from the last two years. She has also asked about my design. I have provided answers available to her within the security grade you granted.”

Tony nodded absentmindedly. “Is she asleep?” 

“Not yet, though her declining breathing rate indicates that she will most likely fall asleep in the next fifteen minutes.”

Leaning his head back against the side of his workbench, he realized his hand was throbbing from when he punched the surface of the table. He cradled it in his hand. “Show me the footage from the last hour.”

Tony watched as the kid spouted question after question at the AI, treating JARVIS like a friend with a lot of knowledge instead of a robot like most people did. She initially asked a lot of carefully worded questions about if she was allowed on the balcony or if any windows opened. Then she asked if she could send any texts or emails or make any calls. Tony knew that she wouldn’t want to stick around without trying to get away or send a message to her friends, so he had taken the appropriate precautions with JARVIS. 

He watched as she went through question after question about the rest of the topics JARVIS had listed. In the end, he wasn’t really listening. Instead he was thinking about what was best for her. He wanted to keep her locked up in the Tower until he could help her get a handle on these powers and then handpick a nice family to take her in, but that seemed a bit far-fetched, even for him.

Getting up slowly from the floor, he realized that keeping a powerful kid trapped here with the man that was responsible for her sister’s death was probably not a good idea. He’d need to figure out something else fast or let her go.

Chapter Text

Chapter 15

Eva woke to sunlight on her face. At first she thought that she was back in her room at home with her parents and sister, but then she remembered that that wasn’t possible. Then she was confused because there was no sunlight in the Underground or the warehouse apartment. Peeling her crusty eyes open, she saw the sparkling Chrysler Building greeting her and it all came flooding back. 

Sitting straight up in the bed, she tried to figure out the time from where the sun was in the sky. Before she could land on a good estimate, JARVIS spoke up. “Good afternoon Ms. Moore. It is currently twelve fourteen PM and the Boss has asked for your presence in the living room when you are ready.”

“Okay…?” Eva grumbled, still rubbing her eyes and slightly confused from apparently sleeping for thirteen hours. 

Eva padded down the hallway and into the living room where Stark was sitting on the gigantic couch and doing something on his phone. He didn’t look surprised to see her, so JARVIS must have given him a heads up. “Sleep well then?” he asked with a grin. Eva’s hands went to her hair and tried to smooth it out. She probably should have cleaned up in the bathroom first. 

“I guess,” she said sheepishly, shifting awkwardly on her feet. “Did you need something?”

He sighed and put his phone down on a coffee table. “Getting right to the point then?” he asked. “Come take a seat. I think we need to have a frank conversation.”

Eva didn’t like the sound of that. She moved across the room and sat on the edge of the couch across from him, ready to bolt back to the guest room if needed. “Don’t freak out,” he told her, probably noting her hesitancy. “This conversation is almost definitely going to go in your favor.”

“Okay,” Eva said slowly, thoroughly confused. 

“It’s no secret that you don’t like me,” Stark stated. 

“I don’t,” Eva agreed without hesitation. 

“And that you don’t want to be here.”

“Not really,” she agreed again. 

“And that you will take your first chance at escaping or sending a message to your friends.” Eva froze, eyes wide, and raised herself halfway off the couch. Stark continued quickly “I figured you wouldn’t just willingly stay here while your friends are in danger, but JARVIS does report to me any of your attempts or questions about leaving.”

Eva’s heart sank. Why didn’t she think of that? It’s not like the AI developed by Stark wouldn’t be designed to tell its creator about things he needed to know. It had been easy for her to forget and just talk to him like a person.

“What are you going to do?” she asked carefully, still not fully seated on the cushion. 

“I’m going to let you go,” he told her simply. 

Eva’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Was this some kind of test? “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I know that I can’t keep you here,” he tried to explain, “or at least not without taking some drastic measures.” Eva still wasn’t understanding him. He sighed. “Listen, I can’t be some guy locking a teenage girl in my penthouse against her will no matter who I am. And I know that even if I find you the nicest family in the world today through all my rich superhero connections, you’ll run away at the first chance you get. So I’m going to let you make your decisions with some parameters.”

Sitting down fully on the couch again, Eva decided to listen to his proposition. “What kind of parameters?”

“First of all, you can leave whenever you want,” Stark began. 

“So you’re letting me go?” she asked, starting to get more excited.

“With some parameters ,” Stark repeated, emphasizing that last word with a frustrated tone. “Just let me finish. You can leave whenever you want and you can come back whenever you need somewhere safe to stay or if you need my help with something. No one else is allowed to come with you and no illegal activity here.”

Eva nodded her understanding. She highly doubted that she would take him up on any of that. Once she was out of here, she was never coming back or seeing him again. 

“Next, I need you to understand that I am going to find your friends and they will go to jail. If you’re with them, then there will be nothing I can do to help you, so you need to find some new friends or a different situation and fast because my teams are starting to zero in on them.”

Eva’s anger flared at that comment. How could he suggest something like that? “Can’t you just leave us alone?”

Stark matched her passion. “I can’t just stop doing my job, especially since it concerns aliens that I seem to be in charge of dealing with now.” He forced a deep breath and leaned forward. “Look, you really seem like a good kid stuck in a bad situation, so you should know that what you and your friends are doing is wrong and making the world a more dangerous place. It’s my job to stop that kind of stuff from happening.”

“There’s a bigger picture to all of this and you of all people wouldn’t understand. It would be better off if you just left us alone!” she yelled. 

This time Stark didn’t retaliate, but instead studied her face for a moment before responding calmly. “You’re right. I don’t understand, but nothing you say is going to stop me from figuring out what’s going on. All I’m trying to tell you to do is find another situation or get into serious trouble and kiss any normal life goodbye.”

“I don’t have any other ‘situations’ to lean back on,” Eva sneered. 

“That’s why I’m telling you that you can come back here if you need to and you can stay in the incredible luxurious penthouse suite that brings you oh-so much misery,” Stark explained, exasperated. Obviously, that wasn’t a viable option for her, but Eva decided not to say that as he continued. “There’s one more thing.” Stark reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver circle on a silver chain. He held it out to her. “If you leave, you need to keep this with you.”

Eva didn’t take it. “What is it?”

“It’s a panic button,” he explained. Holding it up, he showed her that there was a discrete button on the disc. “If you press this, I’ll be there or send help as fast as possible.”

“How do I know you’re not going to track me with this?” Eva asked. “Is this how you’re going to find my team?”

Stark shrugged. “I guess there’s no way to prove that I won’t, but I’ve already told you that I’m confident that we’ll find your team soon. I don’t need to track you to find them. And the only way you’re getting out of here is if you have this with you.”

Eva considered the small piece of metal and after a moment, she reached out and took it. “I’ll go change then,” she told him. 

He looked into her eyes carefully, and Eva thought he was going to try to convince her to stay again. Instead he shrugged and leaned back on the couch. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” Eva said firmly as she rose from the seat and retreated to the guest room. 

After a final glorious shower and a longing look at all the books Dr. Banner had collected, Eva walked back into the living area to find Stark waiting for her. 

“You ready to go then?” he asked. 

She merely nodded and he led her to the elevator. He spoke to JARVIS and the elevator began to move down to the basement garage. The ride was otherwise silent as they dropped down through the building. Eva felt that empty feeling creeping up again now that she was free to go. The same feeling she had when she’d told him how her sister died: numb and completely empty.

When they reached the garage, Eva barely registered the rows of fancy, custom cars and she followed Stark blindly toward the exit. Stark stopped her before she walked back onto the street, but she couldn’t meet his eyes as he spoke to her. “This has been a weird twenty-four hours.”

“Yeah,” she agreed quietly. 

“I was serious about everything I said. Find somewhere else to go or come back here. Bruce will be sad to hear that you left. If anything, come back to see him.” He held out a paper bag for her that she hadn’t noticed he had been carrying. “The leftovers from last night.” He pointed to the panic button that was hanging around her neck. “Keep this with you. Think of it as a way to repay your parents by keeping you safe if things get really bad.”

Eva finally looked up at him. His face was hard. “Thanks, I guess.”

The hardness on his face dropped for a moment as a sad smile grew in its place. “I don’t think I deserve your thanks. After what I… I should be–” He cut himself off, rubbing a hand down his face. “Look, just take solace in the fact that you rendered the great Tony Stark speechless.”

She tried to smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace. “I guess you don’t deserve anything from me… but I just– I don’t know what to think anymore,” she admitted quietly, letting her gaze fall to her hands clutching the handles of the paper bag. 

Eva looked up again when she felt a strong hand on her shoulder. Part of her wanted to pull away, but she didn’t. “You and me both, kid.” He squeezed her shoulder and let his hand fall back next to his side. 

She was slightly amazed when she walked out of the building without setting off any alarms or falling straight into a horde of NYPD waiting to arrest her. Nothing had changed in the city, but somehow everything had changed for Eva. She stood on the sidewalk, looking back and forth blankly, unsure of how to proceed after what had just happened.

The weight of what was probably hundreds of dollars of Chinese food in her hand helped her shake herself partially out of the daze. Her feet took her to an alleyway that she had visited many times with Chloe. There was a group of homeless people who were battling addictions that stayed there. Mr. Graves had a strict policy against drugs, so they weren’t welcome in the Underground, but she and Chloe still stopped by with extra supplies or food on Sundays. Eva didn’t say much as she handed over the bag of food. The man was gracious and insisted she take a box with her.

Eva wandered through Manhattan in a daze after that, loosely holding a box of orange chicken in her hands. The sun was starting to dip behind the buildings by the time she reached the park. She hadn’t been back to this park since that week when everything fell apart. Even though sometimes she and Chloe had come within a few blocks on their explorations of the city and Eva had wanted to visit, she couldn’t bring herself to invite someone else to this sacred place. This was something just for her and her family. In the last year and a half, she hadn’t really been alone in the city and had a chance to come by. 

It was just as she remembered: overgrown, wild, and perfect. She sat on the bench for a long time just looking at the leaves of the oak tree and watching a racoon rummage through the brush. That empty feeling was still eating her up inside. Eva was unnerved that she had actually met Iron Man, yelled at him, seemingly successfully putting him in his place, and felt absolutely nothing. She had done the thing she had been dreaming of for so long and… now what? Did she really want to take away everything he had like Mr. Graves wanted? 

Eva hadn’t eaten yet and found her stomach growling. Before she knew it, she had eaten the entire box of chicken and rice without a kernel left inside. With her mind cleared, she considered the day once more. Her night in the Avengers’ Tower had revealed that Tony Stark was actually a person and not an evil villain like she had been building up in her head. He had clearly been remorseful over his actions and went out of his way to help her. Then there was Dr. Banner, who knew him better than maybe anyone else, and he seemed to like Stark despite all of this. It seemed like maybe he didn’t deserve all that Mr. Graves had planned. 

Right now, none of that mattered. She could figure out how she felt about the superheroes later. First, she needed to protect the Underground Worthy. Iron Man was going to swoop in any day now to arrest them all. She had to get back to them and warn them as fast as possible.

Standing up from the bench, Eva took the empty container and shoved it into a nearby trash can. She paused and her hand found the small metal disk resting on her shirt. Pulling it over her head, she held it over the trash can but faltered. It had to have some kind of tracking element if it was a panic button. Then she remembered how fast Stark had found everything about her and his comments about his access to security cameras. The night before, JARVIS had explained how fast his processing speed was and how many different searches and programs he could be running at the same time to help Stark plan events or track people or follow news reports or really whatever he needed. Stark was right. It really was only a matter of time before he found them now that he knew who to look for. Tracking her would make it easier, but he didn’t have to. The smart thing to do would be to throw it away right then. 

Eva placed the necklace over her head again and tucked it securely into her shirt. Something about it made her feel safer. He was coming one way or another and having it wouldn’t affect that. Now she needed to test if he was going to keep that promise.  

Eva took her time getting back to the warehouse in Brooklyn. She took a few different subways to confuse him and stopped in multiple buildings to see if he would burst in. When she was finally only a couple blocks away, she ducked into a different warehouse that she knew was abandoned. Squatting in the filth of the abandoned building, she waited for Iron Man to come busting through the door for over an hour, but he never came. He either wasn’t tracking her or knew this wasn’t the place. Maybe he was being true to his word. 

After another half hour, Eva decided that she needed to risk it so she could tell the team what she knew. She gave the sky another glance as she slipped into the window, no flying tin man in sight. 

When she walked into the apartment, her heart squeezed, realizing how much she had missed this. It had been an entire month and seeing Mitchel messing with a phone, Chloe splayed out across the couch, Gary with a book in the corner and his reading glasses on, and Mr. Graves in the kitchen made that dark emptiness shrink a little. 

That didn’t last very long as their faces turned to shock when they caught sight of her in the doorway. There was a rush as they came to greet her and Mr. Graves ushered her to the table. “What are you doing here?” he asked, voice full of concern instead of reproach like she anticipated, for going directly against his instructions. 

“He found me,” she told them. “Iron Man found me again.” Eva had thought about what to tell them while squatting in that abandoned warehouse down the street. She didn’t want to lie, but she needed to omit some parts about her powers, which was unfortunately a big part of the story. They wouldn’t understand and she didn’t need to use it again. It just kept getting her in trouble. “I had gotten bored and I ventured farther into the subway systems, like Chloe and I used to. Then suddenly he was there.” She couldn’t keep the shiver from falling down her spine, remembering seeing his eyes appearing in the dark.

“How did he find you again?” Chloe whispered. 

“I’m not entirely sure, but… I’ve been walking through the tunnels for a few days,” she told them guiltily. “I didn’t think it would be a problem since I never went onto any platforms, but he must have had a search for my face to pop up on security cameras or something. I’m so sorry. I thought I was being safe.”

Gary squeezed her shoulder comfortingly and Eva flinched, reminded of when she had let Tony Stark do the same thing just a few hours before. If he felt her flinch, he didn’t say anything. “How did you get away?” Chloe breathed. 

Eva looked down at her hands. Now it was time to lie to her family… again. She couldn’t possibly tell them the truth. First of all, the truth itself sounded like a lie. She was taken to the Avengers Tower, given medical care, yelled at Tony Stark, handed a nice meal, met his friend/doctor, talked to an AI, slept in a luxurious bed, and was let go. There was no way around this now. 

“I ran into the sewers where he couldn’t follow,” she told them. “I must have gone a few blocks and sat in there for an hour or so before I came out. Then I went to Mr. Lee’s gym to get a shower and I sat in a couple different spots to make sure he wasn’t following me.”

Mr. Graves suddenly turned away, hand on his face. Gary’s held onto her shoulder tighter. Mitchel was the first to speak up. “Why the fuck did you come back here?” he exclaimed, scrambling for his laptop on the couch and opening it.

“He told me as I was getting away that he was already onto us and it was only a matter of time before he found us. He said he wanted to find me first because I’m only a kid and he wanted to help me before he busted us,” Eva said, staring at Mr. Graves’ back, desperate for him to understand. “We need to figure something else out. I don’t think he followed me.”

“He might not have physically followed you, Eva, but he might have planted something on you or watched you come back here through the security cameras or something,” Mitchel proclaimed, now typing furiously into his laptop. 

Mr. Graves crossed over to him. “Have there been any hits on us, Mitchel?” 

Mitchel’s eyes scanned the screen. “Yes, one on Eva. He’s got everything about her.”

“What does that mean?” Chloe asked desperately. She reached out to grip Eva’s hand in hers.

Mr. Graves looked over Mitchel’s shoulder at the screen. “Nothing right now,” he reassured them. “It’s just stuff about her family and past life.”

“What about the rest of us?” Gary asked, his voice deep and calming through the panic in the air.

“Nothing on the rest of us and nothing on the security cameras in the immediate vicinity,” Mitchel reported after a moment.

“I’m sorry,” Eva said with a shaky voice. “I didn’t want to go back to the Underground and lead him to the people there. I tried to make sure he wasn’t following me and I needed to tell you that he’s coming.”

Mr. Graves turned back to her with a serious look. “It was reckless, Eva, but I understand why you did it. We did need to know.” He sat down at the table next to her and put his forehead in his hands. “I knew it would come to this. I had hoped it was the police instead of Iron Man.” Raising his face out of his hands, he continued with a serious expression. “I was preparing for us to move somewhere else soon anyway and pull back on the missions. Looks like we need to move ahead with that now.”

“What do you mean pull back on missions,” Chloe asked. It was no secret that she loved going on missions. She was good at fighting and thrived while punching people in the face. 

“We’re getting a name for ourselves, especially all of you. We’ve done a great job building up an arsenal and a network of allies, but it’s time for you guys to step back, enjoy the spoils, and let me move onto the next phase.”

“The next phase?” Eva questioned. 

“Yes,” he clarified, looking around at each of them as Mitchel moved to the table, listening intently like the rest of them. Gary seemed less confused, but he had always known more about the behind the scenes work Mr. Graves was in charge of. “It’s time for me to go to the media and turn the people against superheroes.”

“The media?” Chloe clarified. 

Eva had known that Mr. Graves wanted to make sure most people were on the same page as them. There were definitely critics of superheroes, but the public worshiped them overall. “I’ve found out that a major news station lead anchor has done something… unsavory. He has some pull at the station and if I can get my hands on the recording of him doing this bad thing, I think I can make a pretty good deal and we can get out of here before things get worse. I had hoped to do this in about a month when we have more information to get the recording without breaking into the news station, but my sources tell me that he is the only one with a copy and it is on his computer.”

“How much time do we have?” Gary spoke up.

“From what Eva is telling us, not long.” Mr. Graves studied Eva for a moment and she felt like she was about to break under the weight of his speculative gaze. “I think we can figure it out by tomorrow night and we can leave for LA right after the mission.”

“LA?” Eva wasn’t the only one who had blurted out in shock. They weren’t going to stay in New York?

“It’s the best place for me to keep working with the media to turn public opinion and it’ll get you away from the rumors that have built up about the team,” he explained. 

Eva watched Chloe and Mitchel process this information with her. Their home was here. All of them had been born and raised here. She had never considered leaving. She wasn’t sure that she could.

“Okay,” Mr. Graves said. The tone of his voice was lighter now. “We’ve got a plan. I’ll set things up for the move. Gary, I’ll give you the information about the mission and you can get the details ironed out. Kids, pack up your things. Mitchel, when you’re done, come check in with me.”

Eva and Chloe retreated to their room. Chloe paced the length of their small area while Eva sat on her bed in a daze. “Los Angeles? Tomorrow?” Chloe asked, exasperated. “I mean, I bet LA is cool and all, but New York is New York. We know everything here. I hear you have to drive everywhere there. Do I need to get a license? And we’re not fighting anymore? What are we going to do then? Hang out on the beach? Do you think Mr. Graves is planning on dropping us? Mitchel seems to think he’s getting more pull with richer people abroad. Then with this media thing that we’re going to do tomorrow, he’s going to get more powerful. Did he only need us up until now and he’ll drop us off in like Kansas or something?” She flopped onto her bed. “What the fuck is going on Eva?”

Eva was staring at the destroyed poster of Iron Man. “I’m not entirely convinced that this isn’t all just a weird dream,” she whispered. Shaking her head, she looked over to Chloe, rattled by the lack of usual confidence in her face. “But I do know that Mr. Graves loves us and there is no way he’s dropping us off in Kansas. He’ll find something important for us to do in LA. Maybe the sun will be good for us. We won’t have to bring our coats.”

Chloe’s expression turned hopeful. “Maybe we should get some swimsuits.”

Eva chuckled. “I guess we should. Should we learn how to surf while we’re at it?”

“And we’ll get beautifully tanned and we can get a little Chihuahua and dress it up in dumb little outfits.” Chloe waved a hand through the air like she was trying to paint a picture for them of their new California lives. 

“I don’t think I could ever picture you with a dog that could fit in a purse,” Eva told her. 

“We could dress up a Boxer just as easily.”

Eva laid back onto her bed to mirror Chloe. Chloe reached out her hand and Eva took it. “I guess it doesn’t matter where we end up. You and I can make the best of any situation.”

Looking over to her with a smile, Eva responded with renewed hope. “If we can survive Mitchel’s snoring, we can survive anything.”

Chloe laughed and squeezed her hand before jumping to her feet again. “So we aren’t packing coats?”

They spent the rest of the night carefully peeling their meticulously curated decorations from the walls and packing them away. Packing their clothing and other belongings only took about twenty minutes after the many hours to un-decorate their room. After they were packed, they laid awake in their beds they had pushed together, reminiscing about all the adventures they had in New York and dreamed up a couple for LA. 

Well after Chloe had begun snoring softly beside her, Eva stared into the darkness, unable to sleep. If they left New York, there was no chance she would return to the Avengers Tower and take Tony Stark up on his offers of safety and help with her powers. The last month of experimentation with manipulating gravity had been addicting. She loved seeing what else she could do and how she could get creative to make things fall and float in different orientations. Even just yesterday, she had been able to walk up the wall and onto the ceiling. What else could she do?

It didn’t matter now. She knew that. The last month had been fun, but it was over now. Last night was enlightening, and when Mr. Graves revealed that he wanted to turn the public against the supers, a part of Eva was conflicted. That didn’t matter either. Now that she was back, it was all clear to her. Eva would choose her family over anything, including her power and definitely over Tony Stark, and she knew they would do the same for her. That’s why they were moving. Mr. Graves had to choose their safety over the ultimate mission. It was time to swallow that need to use her powers and her sympathy for Tony Stark and focus on them.

Chapter Text

Chapter 16

When Eva emerged from her room, there was almost nothing left in their apartment and even less in the warehouse beyond the apartment. She wasn’t sure where all the equipment had gone, but their personal things from the apartment were in an unlabeled moving truck in front of the warehouse. Eva and Chloe added their things to it before meeting up with the team in the warehouse. 

The plan was a bit different than their usual mission. Instead, Eva would have to stay in the truck the entire time, coming inside only if completely necessary, since Iron Man was still after her. Mr. Graves would go in the front, pretending to be picking up something for the morning news anchor, whose phone Mitchel had hacked the night before. Mr. Graves would impersonate the news anchor’s husband, get through security with a fake phone call, and let Mitchel in through the back while Chloe and Gary kept guard. Mitchel would get the video off of the computer and they would leave from where they entered, hop in the van, and head to the west coast.

Their last day in New York City passed by too quickly. About an hour before they were supposed to head out, Eva sat on the roof, taking in the skyline one more time. She turned when she heard someone heading up the ladder. Gary popped up a moment afterward, book in hand. 

“I see I’m not the only one hoping to get one more look at the city,” he said as he pulled himself onto the metal roofing with ease. 

Eva let her gaze return to the skyline. “I’ll miss it.”

“I think we all will.”

They both stared at the famous string of buildings in Manhattan before Eva spoke up again. “Have you been to LA?”

“I have,” Gary confirmed. “It’s different, but I think you’ll like it. Things grow much easier there, so I’m sure we can have a much more extensive garden.” They both looked around at the plants the two of them had taken care of so diligently. There wasn’t enough room to bring them. They would have to start fresh in LA, just like with everything else. 

“That does sound good,” she told Gary with a genuine smile. 

“There’s also a great bookstore downtown,” he continued. “It’s like a maze and has lots of different hidden nooks to read in. We’ll go there first.”

“Even before the beach?” she asked. 

“The beach is overrated.” He made a disgruntled face. “Sand everywhere.”

Eva chuckled quietly and continued to study the skyline, trying to memorize every aspect. She thought Gary had started to read until he spoke up again. 

“So you’ve escaped Iron Man twice now.” 

It wasn’t a question. Eva turned to look at him, his face concerned rather than impressed or angry if he suspected her lies. “I guess so,” she agreed carefully. “I’ve been lucky.”

He watched her for what seemed like an eternity before he turned toward the city again. “I know Cole can be a little intense about the supers, but you can tell me if he hurt you or did something else.”

Eva’s eyebrows dipped downward in confusion. “What do you mean? He didn’t hurt me. I got away. I’m not sure what he would have done if he had caught me.”

She didn’t look at him again, but she could feel his gaze on her as he spoke again. “I agree the superheroes need to have some parameters, but maybe they aren’t as evil as Cole believes.” Eva looked over at his sincere expression and she nearly told him that she was starting to agree. “I know it’s no secret that Cole and I don’t always see eye to eye on everything, but one thing we always agree on is keeping you, Chloe, and Mitchel safe. So you can tell us if anything strange happened.”

He must know she was lying. Did he know about her powers? Did he know that she went to the Avengers Tower? How could he possibly know? Would it be the worst if he knew?

Eva swallowed. “It’s just like I said. I got into the sewers before he could get to me and he told me that he’d find us soon.”

“And he wanted you to distance yourself?” he clarified. 

Eva looked back at the skyline, studying the largest building with an A on the side of it. “I guess he didn’t want to have to arrest me.”

“I guess he wouldn’t,” Gary agreed softly before opening up his book. 

They spent the rest of the hour sitting in silence until Chloe called them down for the last sweep of the building before they left. Then Eva was climbing into the truck and watching her home disappear behind the corner as they drove off toward the news station in Midtown. 

Right as they were pulling into an alley a few blocks away from the news station, Mr. Graves turned around to face the back of the truck where Chloe, Mitchel, and Eva were sitting. Mitchel had his laptop ready with a pre-recorded message from Mr. Graves’ “wife” to help him get in. Chloe was examining her alien tech gloves for any problems, and Eva was pouting in the corner. 

“Eva,” Mr. Graves leaned over toward her, reaching up and tugging the hood of her sweatshirt over her head. “I know it’s hard to sit on the sidelines, but your safety is more important and–”

“I know,” she interrupted, not in the mood for another lecture about needing to be on the sidelines for the team. “I’ll stay here unless everyone is dying.”

“And if everyone is dying, you run. Don’t come in,” he clarified, making a disapproving face at her. “Plus no one is going to die. This will be an in and out job. You’re not missing out on much.”

“Okay,” she pouted. 

He pulled her into a hug. “We’ll be on the road to a new home where you’ll be free to do anything you want before you know it.”

“Okay,” she repeated more genuinely. 

Mr. Graves placed a kiss on her cheek and pulled away. After reviewing the plan with the others, he said his goodbyes and set off for the news station alone. Gary closed up the back of the truck and Chloe joined him up front as he drove into the alleyway behind the station. 

It didn’t take long for Mr. Graves to call Mitchel. Eva sat silently as Mitchel played the preplanned messages that sounded like the female news anchor. It went off without a hitch and Chloe opened the back of the truck to let them out. Eva slid over to the passenger seat and the rest of the team moved to the door. 

Ducking underneath the window of the truck, she peeked out to see Mr. Graves open the back door for Mitchel to slip through. Gary and Chloe took their posts on either side of the door. It was quiet after that. Eva laid back in the seat, still positioned so she was unseen from the outside. She listened to the sounds of people passing by on each side of the alleyway and dogs barking from a nearby apartment complex. 

Just a few minutes after Mitchel had snuck into the back of the building, Eva heard a grunt and a soft thud. It was so quiet it almost didn’t register to her. Peeking over the lip of the window, Eva had to slap a hand to her mouth to keep from making a sound. Chloe and Gary were unconscious, slumped on the ground, and a woman with sleek black hair stood over them wearing a suit and holding a phone up to her ear. 

For a moment, Eva considered Mr. Graves’ words, “Even if everyone is dying, run.” She knew that wasn’t an option at this point. If this woman took out Gary and Chloe without a sound, Mr. Graves and Mitchel were in trouble, and Eva would be in trouble if that woman came her way. Eva slowly and silently eased the keys out of the ignition of the truck as she heard the woman speak quietly into the phone. She barely made out a few phrases: “After the same file”, “Purple hair”, and “Big guy at the back door”. Eva very carefully climbed over the center console to the other side of the truck. Easing the door open, she slipped out the side and crouched on the ground. 

She could hear the woman better now that she was out of the truck. “I’m sure this is that group that you were telling me about. The one that was selling alien equipment on the black market… I’m not here on Avengers’ business. I’m here on SHIELD business so I can’t officially help you. This is a courtesy call out of the goodness of my heart… Very funny. Wait, let me check to make sure the girl isn’t hiding nearby before I go in.”

Eva kept her hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her loud breathing. She heard footsteps in the gravel approaching. Panicking, Eva searched for anywhere to hide, but the truck was smooth on this side and this woman would probably look in the passenger seat she had just left. Glancing up, Eva saw that the truck had a rack on the top of it. Out of time to think about it further, Eva switched the pull of gravity on her body and she was falling upward. She barely stifled a hiss of panic as she barely grasped onto the metal rack, her feet dangling into the sky. 

Eva grimaced, straining to hear if the woman was moving around the side of the truck, but there was only a sound of her shifting her weight and returning to the phone call. “Nope, she’s either not here or inside. Speaking of which, I’m going in. How far away are you?... That’s two minutes too long. I’ll head in the back and get what I came for. You can take the front… Yeah, yeah I’ll keep an eye out for your precious kid, Tony.”

Eva hadn’t blinked. She hadn’t breathed and her lungs were burning for air. Her eyes were about to pop out of her head. How had he found her so fast? Though she had no idea who this woman was, she had obviously been on the phone with Iron Man who was now two minutes away. They all had to get out right now! 

Her fingers started to slip as she hung on for dear life. She could hear the woman starting to cross the alleyway to enter the back of the building. Eva swung her legs toward the rack and managed to find purchase with one of her feet. Finally letting in a deep breath, Eva returned her gravity to normal and relaxed onto the roof of the truck just as the woman slipped into the building. Eva hopped clumsily to the ground, rushing over to Gary and Chloe. 

“Gary!” she hissed, as she shook him fiercely. “Gary! Wake up!”

He moaned as his eyes flickered open and she covered his mouth to keep him from yelling. His eyes widened when he realized he was on the ground. “Listen,” she made him look at her. “The Avengers are on their way! Take the keys and drive Chloe to the spot where you dropped Mr. Graves off. I’ll go inside and get them!”

She took her hand away from his mouth and helped him stand as much as she could for a man of his size. “You can’t go in there alone,” Gary told her groggily. “I’ll go.”

“I can’t drive,” Eva argued as she took the keys out of her pocket. “Plus you need to get Chloe and get out of here now! The lady who knocked you out said that Iron Man would be here in a minute and a half.” 

He took a moment to look between the keys in her hand and the open back door. Eva breathed an inward sigh of relief when he took the keys. “Just tell them and get out.” He bent down and easily picked up Chloe. “Don’t stay.” Eva gave a terse nod as she headed inside.

It was dark and Eva felt pressured to move quickly because of the time limit but was overly aware of the chance that that woman, who could knock out Gary without him realizing, was behind any corner. She moved quietly down a long dark hallway and heard someone typing in a room on the right. Eva hoped that it would be Mitchel in that room, but she needed to be extra cautious. With a quiet deep breath, Eva pivoted to face the wall. Eyebrows furrowed in concentration, Eva slowly but surely walked up the wall and onto the ceiling silently. The world was upside down again and Eva crawled along the ceiling on her belly until she could peek into the room. 

Her dread was not unfounded. It was that woman again, hunched over the computer in a plush office. Mitchel’s body collapsed at her feet, unmoving. Eva held in a gasp as she looked at the woman’s face more carefully this time. She recognized Black Widow in the glowing blue light of the computer monitor, wearing a black wig that covered her signature red hair. There was definitely nothing she could do for Mitchel right now, so she crawled carefully down the hallway. 

However, before she could make it too far, she froze. Heart in her chest, Eva heard the soft clicks of the Black Widow’s shoes as she came out of the office, looked both ways, and headed out the back again. If she noticed that the two people that were supposed to be passed out at the door were gone, she must not have cared, because Eva didn’t hear her again as she remained huddled on the ceiling. 

Falling back down to the ground with a thud, Eva scrambled into the room to Mitchel. Needing more force to shake him awake than Gary, Mitchel’s eyes finally opened. “Mitchel, Iron Man is on his way. Leave out the back and meet Gary and Chloe at the spot where we dropped off Mr. Graves.”

“Wha–?” He muttered as she practically threw him toward the door. 

“Go now!” she hissed. 

Finally, he got his feet under himself, giving her an unsettled glance before he rushed toward the door. Eva watched as he turned into the alleyway before she bolted farther into the station to find Mr. Graves. 

He was at the end of the hallway inside a newsroom Eva vaguely recognized from TV. There were three different sets with large tables: a brighter one near the windows for the morning show, a smaller one for only two people to read the nightly news, and a larger one for a panel show. There were large cameras, projectors, and monitors littering the rest of the room. Wires covered the floor and on the opposite side was a wall of windows, looking out onto the street. 

Mr. Graves was standing at the end of the hallway, but partially into the room to keep an eye to the right, where Eva suspected security guards were posted. His eyes grew wide as she ran up to him. “Why are you–”

“Iron Man is on his way. Black Widow came in the back just now but left. We have to get out n–” She didn’t get to finish her thought either, as the doors that Mr. Graves had been watching busted open, revealing Iron Man and two large security guards rushing inside. 

Pushing Mr. Graves toward the hallway, she shouted “Run!” Swerving around him, she ran the opposite direction, further into the newsroom reaching out to touch two hefty cameras on her way. She switched their gravity so they were suddenly tumbling into the three men at the door. One security guard fell flat on his back and the other was pushed out of the doors. Iron Man on the other hand hadn’t moved. Eva ducked under the desk for the nightly news. 

“Wait!” Mr. Graves slid in behind her. She could only stare at him in terror as she heard the clonk clonk clonk of Iron Man’s heavy footsteps approach the desk slowly. 

“Eva,” came Tony Stark’s metallic voice filtered through the suit. “I thought we had an understanding yesterday. I didn’t want you to be here for this.”

Eva saw the hurt and betrayal flash through Mr. Graves' eyes as they crouched behind the desk and she felt the anger grow in her chest, overtaking the fear. Her hand grasping the edge of the desk tightened. “Then I won’t be!” she shouted and the large desk began to fall forward into Iron Man. 

Grabbing Mr. Graves’ hand she ran for the hallway and out into the alleyway. Once they were outside, she took a deep breath, feeling her energy waning, but willing it to be enough for them to get out. Remembering the look in his eyes, Eva couldn’t find it in herself to look at Mr. Graves. Instead she squeezed his hand and said, “Hold on.”

Turning her gaze upward, Eva and Mr. Graves flew into the sky. In any other circumstance, Eva would be whooping into the wind, reveling in the rush of falling upward toward the clouds that blanketed the sky, but she had to focus. She felt a headache setting in.  Manipulating both Mr. Graves and her was the most she had ever accomplished, and the last time she had fallen more than a few feet, Iron Man had to save her.

Focusing more than she maybe she ever had before, Eva turned their gravity sideways as they had crested the nearby buildings. The momentum of falling upward had them turn in a large arc, which actually worked in their favor to slow them down slightly. That gave her an idea as she saw the alleyway come into view. Switching gravity in the opposite direction, Eva slowed their sideways fall just as they reached the alleyway. The headache was pounding behind her eyes and her vision was starting to blur, but she concentrated as she let go of the control momentarily and let them fall toward the ground. Eva tried to pull them upward again to slow their fall and it did work, but they still landed on the ground with too much force and Eva fell to her knees on the asphalt in front of the moving truck.

Gary rushed out of the driver’s side, gaping openly at the pair that had just fallen from the sky. Eva didn’t attempt to get off the ground, holding her pounding head. She felt Gary’s strong hands help her up and into the back of the van with Chloe and Mitchel. Eva was starting to lose consciousness and vaguely heard them question what was wrong, before everything faded to black.

Chapter Text

Chapter 17

Eva heard yelling. Everyone was yelling. Chloe was screaming at someone, which wasn’t anything too new. Mitchel was also joining in now, which was a little more strange. But then she heard Gary yelling as well. She’s not sure if she’d ever heard him yell. 

Honestly, Eva didn’t really care too much. She just wanted to keep sleeping and wished that they would just figure it out. There was a dull pain building in her head that was probably related to all the shouting. She tried to lift her hands to pull her pillow over her head to dampen the sounds, but her hands wouldn’t move. 

Opening her eyes little by little against the light, she noticed that they were back in the warehouse, but it was completely empty, save the four people arguing on the other side of the large open space. Eva was on the concrete floor, her back to a pillar, and hands bound with what felt like a zip tie behind her. 

Then the events of the night came rushing back to her: dodging Black Widow, sneaking along the ceiling, confronting Iron Man for the third time, and flying Mr. Graves back to the truck. Then Mr. Graves’ face flashed in front of her again. Iron Man had opened his big mouth and made it clear that they had talked way more than she had insinuated to the team because he knew her nickname. She kicked herself for telling him that. It was just a compulsion at this point since she hated her full name so much. 

Now Mr. Graves’ back was to her as the other three directed their anger at him. “Untie her, right now !” Chloe screeched.

“You didn’t see what she did. She’s dangerous. She’s one of them,” Mr. Graves responded in a low voice. 

“I saw her,” Gary growled. “And it sure looked like she was saving you.”

“Iron Man called her by name!” Mr. Graves told them, voice rising. 

“He looked her up! I told you that. He knows everything about her,” Mitchel reasoned. “It doesn’t mean that she was colluding with them.”

“He knew her nickname,” Mr. Graves shot back. “That wasn’t in her papers.”

Mitchel looked unsure. “It might have been.”

“This is insane! She’s hurt. She’s unconscious, and you’ve tied her up in a cold warehouse. Untie her and let’s just ask her about what happened when she wakes up,” Chloe interjected. 

“I’m awake now,” Eva tried, her voice weak but it carried enough through the empty building for everyone to look at her. 

Chloe rushed forward first with Gary and Mitchel close behind. Mr. Graves, however, stayed back. “Eva, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Chloe asked, sliding to her knees and holding her by the shoulders. 

“Just a headache,” Eva reassured her. “I’m okay.”

“Eva, explain what happened. I’ll get you out of there in a second,” Gary told her, sending a glare toward Mr. Graves. 

Eva let her head fall to her chest, tears clouding her vision. “I’m sorry I lied. I just didn’t know what to think about all of this. I didn’t want to be… this . I just wanted to make sure I could protect all of you.”

Gary got down next to her, gently nudging Chloe to the side so that he could hold her face and force her to look up at him. “I am with you no matter what. Just tell me what really happened with Iron Man.”

She gazed into his eyes. He had been the one that had questioned her lies only a few hours before, but he didn’t look angry at her. He looked as if he really wanted to know and help. “I did manage to escape him the first time, but yesterday I didn’t escape. He took me to the Avengers Tower.” Chloe gasped next to her and Mitchel’s eyes widened behind Gary. Gary still stared at her expectantly, steady as a rock, like always. Eva continued, “His doctor friend looked me over and gave me some food. I didn’t tell him anything! I only gave him my name because I wanted him to know what he did to me!”

“You led him right to us,” Mitchel said, quietly. 

“I didn’t! I heard Black Widow on the phone with him at the news station after she knocked out Gary and Chloe. I think she was after the same file that we were and then she called Iron Man because she recognized Chloe and Gary as part of the group.” Eva needed them to understand that she didn’t sell them out. Tears started falling more freely as she watched the looks of doubt on their face, the look of betrayal on Mr. Graves’. “Please, I never would have done anything that risked your lives! I tried to save you!”

“You did save us, Eva,” Gary told her, squeezing her shoulders gently, forcing her to look back at his face that completely believed every word she said. 

“And how exactly did you save me back there?” came Mr. Graves’ voice. 

Eva swallowed hard. “I think I have… powers,” she whispered.

There was a moment of silence before Chloe spoke up. “Like a superhero?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know where it came from. I can just make gravity switch directions.” 

“Like manipulating gravity?” Mitchel breathed. Eva shrugged.

“How long have you known?” Chloe asked.

Gary looked at her expectantly, so she answered. “When my foster dad hit me, he fell out the window and then back in, but I didn’t really think anything of it. I don’t know why… I guess I was scared and convinced myself it was a freak accident. Then when Iron Man caught me the first time a month ago, he grabbed me, ready to bring me into the police. I was freaking out, and then he was falling sideways. After that, in the Underground, I started experimenting with what I can do. Whatever I touch I can make gravity turn different ways.”

“Shit,” Mitchel breathed. 

“But I’ll never use it again!” Eva added. “I wasn’t going to use it anymore, but I just needed to get you out of there before Iron Man got to you!”

“Gary.” Mr. Graves finally spoke up but he was not looking at her anymore. “Take Mitchel and Chloe to the truck.”

Gary didn’t take his eyes off of her. “I’m not leaving her.”

“Neither am I,” Chloe agreed. 

“I’m staying,” Mitchel chimed in to Eva’s surprise. 

“I just want to talk to her alone,” Mr. Graves told them. “I will have her untied by the time you get back and we’ll leave for LA.” Gary’s eyes didn’t leave Eva. “You owe me.”

Gary tore his eyes away from Eva at that. “Now?” Mr. Graves met his eyes and nodded. After a tense moment, Gary turned back to Eva and squeezed her hand. “Two minutes and I’ll be back,” he said but she could tell it was meant for Mr. Graves to hear.

Chloe and Mitchel argued but had to comply once Gary took their arms and began to drag them through the doors. Once they were gone and the door closed behind them, Eva could hear her heart beating loudly in her chest through the silence of the room. Mr. Graves was turned away from her, his posture hunched and defeated like Eva had never seen from the usual strong and caring man. 

“Mr. Graves,” Eva couldn’t stand the silence between them. She had to make him understand that she didn’t want to hurt anyone. “I’m so sorry. I tried to get away from him, I really did, but I was too weak. I was so angry when I saw him and I just wanted him to hurt like he hurt me, so I told him my name so he would have to see what happened to my family. You should have seen him! He did feel the pain. He really did feel sorry…” Her words trailed off for a moment. She remembered how she felt last night after seeing Tony Stark suffer. “But it really didn’t make me feel better. I’m not sure why.” Mr. Graves still hadn’t turned around, so she just continued on. “I really decided that I wouldn’t use my powers again, but when he came into the news station with you there… I had to get you out of there. I couldn’t let you get caught. Please Mr. Graves. Please understand.”

When he finally spoke, his voice was low and dark, like she had never heard before. “I don’t understand, Eva.” He took something out of his front pocket and gazed at it in his hands. Eva couldn’t see what it was. “I loved you like my own. I gave you everything.”

Fresh tears began to fall down her face. “I love you, Mr. Graves. I know how much you’ve done for me. I just wanted to do the same for you!”

He didn’t seem to hear her. “I took you in. I gave you a home. I protected you from all sorts of evil. You understood more than anyone else could.”

“I do understand!”

“Now you’re one of them. You’ve been one of them this entire time!”

“Please, Mr. Graves! I didn’t know. I didn’t know!” she begged through her sobs. 

“I’ve wondered in the past if I’ve gone too far to give our families the vengeance they deserve. Maybe Gary was right about taking the money and starting a new life for all of us. But I thought that all of it was worth it – for you.” Eva couldn’t retaliate anymore. The sobs had closed her throat and she couldn’t get any words out. 

Then Mr. Graves slowly turned toward her, revealing the gun in his hand. That’s what he had been staring at this entire time. “Now you’ve forced me to do something unthinkable… unforgivable.”

Her sobs died instantly at his words. She felt a cold sense of dread fall down her spine and she began to pull at the restraints behind her back. “What… what are you doing?” she croaked. 

Mr. Graves finally met her eyes. The man standing in front of her was no longer the man who made her favorite spaghetti, who caved at her pouty face when she lost a card game, or who held her after her nightmares. There was a darkness in his eyes that she had never seen before, even when he was blackmailing people on their missions. It was a deeper darkness inside of him, one that would lead him to killing. 

“You’re one of them. You’re a freak , just like them,” he spat, now holding up the gun, leveling it at her face. “You’ve done this to yourself. I wash my hands of your death.”

“Mr. Graves,” she pleaded, barely registering the warm blood running down her fingertips from the zip tie cutting into her wrists as she continued to pull helplessly on the restraints. 

A tear trickled down his cheek. “Goodbye.”

“NO!” A bellow sounded throughout the empty warehouse at the same time as a gunshot reverberated through Eva’s ears. 

When Eva opened her eyes, unaware that she had squeezed them shut, there was a form in front of her. Gary’s face was twisted in pain, gazing up at her from the ground. “What…?” Eva’s brain couldn’t put together what she was seeing in front of her. “Gary?”

“Eva,” he gasped, his voice hollow and raspy. “Listen to me. None of this is your fault. I love you, kid.”

“Gary!” Eva cried. Crimson blood poured from his chest and onto the floor, seeping across the floor toward Eva’s knees

“Eva,” he whispered to her, his voice barely audible now. He reached out a trembling hand and placed it on her knee. “You’re a hero. Make sure you do it better than the rest of them.”

Eva watched as Gary’s eyes slowly unfocused off of hers and his hand fell limply off her knee. She couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. “Gary,” she muttered, still pulling uselessly on the zip ties. “Gary? Wake up.” She was desperate to hold him, to shake him awake like she had when he was knocked out earlier, but his eyes weren’t open and unfocused last time like they were now. How could she get him to stop bleeding? He needed to wake up. “Wake up!”

Another shot rang through the room. Eva still couldn’t understand what was happening. Why did her arm feel so warm all of a sudden? Her gaze traveled upward until she saw Mr. Graves, his eyes wide, shakily holding the gun up at her. “He jumped in front of you. It’s not my fault. It’s… He didn’t agree… he pitied you.”

Eva’s arm was really hot now. She looked down at it and there was a lot of blood on it, running down to her wrists. Newly slick with her own blood, she was able to slip both hands out of the zip ties with a final tug. Her hands went immediately to Gary. Shaking him, she cried, “Gary! Wake up!” He still didn’t move. Whose blood was on his chest? Why wasn’t he getting up? “Gary! We need to leave! GARY!” He needed an ambulance. She suddenly remembered the panic button Stark had given her and she pulled it out of her shirt, pressing it hastily. Nothing happened.

“I have to finish this,” came Mr. Graves' voice again. Eva looked up at him, gun still pointed at her, shaking considerably more. 

Eva focused on her own gravity, pulling up toward the ceiling. She fell fast upward as Mr. Graves shot again. Gary didn’t flinch or move at all at the deafening gun shot. Eva didn’t have much control and she hit the ceiling hard. She got up and began to stumble across the ceiling toward the hatch up to the roof. 

A glance at Mr. Graves told her she wasn’t moving fast enough and she changed her gravity toward the corner of the room where the hatch was. A second after, she heard another bullet pierce through the ceiling where she had just been. 

Eva fell ungracefully the last few feet into the wall, her hands reaching out for the ladder leading up to the roof, but she slipped off, her hands wet with blood, and she fell onto the nearby wall. “Eva!” Mr. Graves shouted as he ran toward her spot on the wall. Eva scrambled to her feet and jumped to grasp onto the ladder at last. Releasing her gravity back toward earth, she began to climb, but Mr. Graves was pointing the gun right at her again. With a split second decision, Eva let go of the ladder, covering her head with her arms. She flipped gravity and began to fall toward the hatch. 

Busting through the unlocked hatch, Eva flew into the night air. She had already been tapped out before she had woken tied to that pillar. Now it felt like her brain was about to burst through her ears. At first she thought the growing darkness was just her flying through the nighttime sky, but next thing she knew, she was falling down toward the roof that was coming in fast. Too fast. And the last thing she thought was that maybe she should slow down.

Chapter Text

Chapter 18

Eva could hear sirens in the distance, a dog barking from the street below, and a car honking down the block. It was cold and her back felt wet. The throbbing in her head kept her eyes from opening, and she couldn’t remember what had happened to get her here, but she had a feeling deep in her gut that she needed to wake up and get somewhere… or do something… or find someone. But her body was so heavy that she couldn’t move. 

A familiar sound of thrusters zoomed nearby and Eva peeled her eyes open to see a crimson and gold metal man swoop over her head. A thud indicated he landed no more than two feet away and Eva sighed aloud. There was no way out of it this time. 

Tony Stark’s face hovered above hers with an unusual look of concern and… fear? She didn’t really care what he was thinking. All she knew was that he was the last person she wanted to see right now.

“Kid, you awake?” His voice was raspy. 

Eva attempted to turn away from him but only moaned loudly as a sharp pang in her left arm sent vibrations of pain through her whole body. “No,” she managed to respond through her teeth. 

“Hold still, kid. This isn’t a time for jokes. You look like shit.” He attempted to lift her up but quickly put her down when she let out a yelp. 

“What’s your excuse?” Eva hissed. 

Stark’s face came back into view with that scared and concerned look on it again. “What do you mean?”

“What’s your excuse for looking like shit?” Eva explained with annoyance. 

There was a brief moment of satisfaction seeing a frustrated expression cross his face. “Very funny, now tell me where you’re hurt,” he said as he looked her over. 

“Everywhere,” Eva responded, looking back up to the sky where the clouds had finally cleared and a crescent moon was now hanging high above her head. “My left arm…” She trailed off, trying to remember. Then it all came flooding back to her, hitting her like a brick wall. “Gary!” she gasped, trying to sit up, the need to annoy Iron Man disappearing in a fog of panic “You have to go check on him inside.”

She heard Stark speak to his AI inside his helmet. “I need an ambulance and paramedics at my location now.”

Eva attempted to get up again but didn’t even make it to her elbows before falling back onto the dusty roof, moaning at the pain that shot through her arm and head. “Please go check on him. He tried to save me, I think. There was a shot and then he was on the ground. He said… he said–.”

He reached out and laid a firm hand on her good shoulder. “I’ll go check on him, but I need you to stay here. Is the rest of your team in there too?”

She shook her head. “Mr. Graves was chasing me, and Mitchel and Chloe were supposed to be outside, maybe in the truck?”

He squeezed her right shoulder before standing again. “I’ll be gone for maybe a minute, no more. Do not move.”

After his thrusters faded as he flew through the front of the building, Eva started to lose focus again. She had used her powers too much in the last forty-eight hours. Eva wanted so desperately to know what had happened to Gary, but she faded into darkness once again.

Tony paced up and down a bright, sterile hallway in a Brooklyn-based hospital. When JARVIS informed him that Eva had pressed the panic button, the fear of finding the kid dead became too real. He had been searching the streets of Manhattan and Midtown for her and her stupid little group, cursing himself for giving her a panic button that only revealed her location when pressed. It was a dangerous way to earn the trust of an erratic homeless kid. 

The journey to that rooftop was a complete blur, but he may never forget seeing a figure falling into the sky to only go limp and start falling toward the ground again. Tony had shot out a rescue net gadget that he was thankful he had come up with after watching Pepper fall during their fight with Killian. The net had stretched out beneath her and caught her before she hit the roof, lowering her down slowly. His heartbeat had only slowed minimally when he landed. Her eyes were open and she was breathing, but she was covered in blood. Tony had only left for a minute to make sure there were no other dying kids, but she had been unconscious when he returned and hadn’t woken since.

The mess in the warehouse had been gruesome. The man she called Gary was dead on the floor in a pool of blood. Then he found blood-covered zip ties on a metal support beam next to the dead body. He could only imagine what that kid had gone through and it made his blood boil. There was no sign of that Graves man though, but he had to assume he had fired those shots, one of which was in the girl’s arm.

Now Tony was sitting in this hospital and no one would tell him anything because he wasn’t her family. Apparently the girl had no family left, not even a distant aunt or uncle to speak of, so the hospital staff called CPS. He now understood exactly why the kid had looked so terrified when he had brought up that option just the day before. Eva’s useless social worker had arrived and he had nearly bitten her head off when she said, “The girl is very troubled and I know she will just end up back on the streets again.” The woman was obviously overworked, judging by her unkempt hair and dark bags under her eyes, but Tony couldn’t manage to muster any empathy for the broken system that Eva continued to pay for.

A few nurses rushed by him as he glanced down at his phone, pushing his tinted glasses more securely into place, and considering the options. He owed her a family and a normal life, but he wasn’t sure he could do that. Then there was the problem with just how powerful she is. Pair that with a burning hatred for him and he’s got a huge, painful problem waiting to explode on him down the line. He had to do something. 

The social worker had revealed something, probably illegally, that had been helpful to him. He had known from her file that the kid had spent a few weeks in a foster home that didn’t work out, but the woman had said something about the foster dad having been hurt. The woman had shut up, suddenly aware of her mistake, when Tony had probed for more about how he had been hurt. Just by the phrasing on the social worker’s part where she even admitted it had been a strange circumstance, and it wasn’t hard for him to guess that Eva’s special abilities had played a part, whether the social worker knew that or not. 

Another foster home was not an option. Scrolling through the halfway homes, group homes, and orphanages, it was clear that wouldn’t be good for her either. There wasn’t some special home out there for orphaned and enhanced pre-teens. It was his fault that she didn’t have any family and his fault that she was out tonight instead of safe in the Tower where he should have forced her to stay, so he really only saw one option left. 

Tony blew out a deep breath and let his head fall into his hands. He couldn’t do this. Though his lifestyle had been much more… reserved since becoming Iron Man, and more so after the Avengers went their separate ways, Tony wasn’t fit to have a kid around. He didn’t really even know how to take care of a kid. 

This was not ideal for him, but mostly it wasn’t ideal for the kid. He was the last person on the planet who should be doing this after what he had done to her. There were about a dozen people he could name that would be better for the job, but this was his problem. She had made that crystal clear to him in the Tower the other night. Dumping her off onto someone else would only prove to her that he wasn’t willing to face his mistakes, and probably result in her hating him and the idea of superheroes even more. He could at least get her a home and safety. Tony would find her the rest after that, as fast as possible.

Sitting upright again, Tony gazed down at his phone and was not that surprised to see his thumb hovering over the button to call Pepper. What he wouldn’t give to hear her opinion or to have her support. He missed her voice and her level head and the emotional intelligence he so desperately needed if he wanted to take care of a teenage girl. But Pepper was just another casualty of his lack of emotional intelligence and uncontrollable ego. He couldn’t rely on her for this.

Forcing himself to close that tab, Tony instead opened up his head lawyer’s contact and pressed call. He knew he would have to pay them double for getting them to write up and push through temporary guardianship papers so quickly, but he needed to talk to the doctors as soon as possible. 

 Once the lawyers had gotten started and promised to be at the hospital within the hour, Tony leaned back again and tried not to think about how much easier this would be with Pepper. Instead he called Happy and told him the situation, asking him to start making the private gym/spa at the Tower into a room for the kid. Happy was thoroughly confused, but Tony was thankful that he didn’t try to convince him otherwise or ask too many questions. Happy was just that kind of friend.

“Mr. Stark.” A police officer stepped out of a nearby room, waving him over. 

“Keep me updated, Happy.”

He ended the call and walked into the room where another police officer and two more teenagers sat on the edge of a bed. The one with purple hair put on a furious face, but her tears were betraying her hard-shell exterior. The boy was shell shocked, wide-eyed, and scared. 

“Mr. Stark,” the police officer gained his attention again. “Their medical examinations are done. Would you like us to take them into the precinct?”

“On what grounds?” Tony asked them sharply.

“They were found on a murder scene, sir,” the officer tried, looking less confident by the second. 

“Locked in a vehicle,” Tony countered. “My lawyers are currently on their way here. Should we see what they have to say about taking two kids to jail tonight?” He glanced at his phone as if confirming their location. 

“No, sir,” the officer said quickly, throwing up his hands in surrender. “We just thought you may want to press charges with the rumors about them.”

“Those are just rumors and these are just kids. Do you really think they could have stolen from me?” Tony raised his eyebrows. 

“Of course not, sir!” 

“Just two kids in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he reassured them. “I’d like to talk to them about what they saw and then you can make sure they get back to their families safely.”

After the officers left the room, he turned on the kids. “What have you done with Eva?” the girl asked accusingly before he could get a word in. The boy elbowed her but she shook him off. “Is she hurt?”

Tony took a look at her over the top of his tinted glasses. “She is hurt,” he told her seriously. “But I didn’t have anything to do with it. Your friend is the one to blame for that.”

The girl quieted down at that. “Mr. Graves hurt her?” 

“I can’t say for sure, but it really looked like he tried to kill her in there,” Tony confirmed.

“How do we know we can trust you?” the boy spoke up. “You’ve chased Eva around for a month now.”

“That’s one reason you can trust me. I’ve been trying to do right by her since the moment I laid eyes on a thirteen-year old kid taking on grown men for some alien tech.” 

“Your rich ass wouldn’t understand the first thing about why we needed to do that,” the girl spat. 

“I do understand how many people are going to be hurt because of the weapons you’ve helped circulate.”

“You’d know about hurting a lot of people,” she said without dropping a beat. 

“What kind of brainwashing did this guy do to you kids?” Tony drawled.

“It doesn’t take brainwashing to figure that out. Do you know what happened to Eva’s family?” she said pointedly. Though it hurt, Tony simply changed the topic.

“I’m sorry. Do you really want to be talking like that to the guy who just got you out of going to jail? Now that I’m getting a good look at you, maybe you both are over eighteen and should be treated like adults. Should I call the police back in and tell them I want to press charges?”

“No, sir!” the boy interjected. “We are so grateful for what you’ve done for us.”

“I’m not! Put me in jail!”

“Chloe, what the hell?” the boy said under his breath to her.

Tony sighed heavily. “Listen, I’m far too important to be arguing with the worst two members of the breakfast club. I’m just here to tell you that I’m making it up to her starting now by giving her what she needs.”

A look of understanding passed over the boy’s face. “You’re adopting her?”

The girl looked like she was about to blow. Tony jumped in before she could say anything. “Just a temporary guardianship until I can find the best place for her.”

“You are NOT what’s best for her!” the girl shrieked. “The murderer of her sister? You think she’ll just happily follow you back to your obscene skyscraper?”

“Her other choice is being carted to an orphanage or a foster home, and that did not work out last time, did it?”

“I’ll take her! I’m an adult!”

“Look Scary Spice–”

“Chloe.”

“Look Scary Spice ,” he continued. “You might be an adult legally, but you’ve been living on the streets for how long?” She didn’t fill him in this time. “How will you give her a place to live? Food? School? Did you think about any of that?” 

“We’ll figure it out. We always figure it out. You might be able to give her those things, but do you really think you can deal with a kid?” Chloe accused him. 

Tony regarded the girl in front of him a little more thoroughly. This kid with her shaggy purple hair and nose ring was a major part of what little Eva had left. He knew her type: passionate, rebellious, and impulsive. Someone who pretends not to care about the world, but actually cares deeply. It’s probably how she ended up where she is now, and he knew she was dead serious about trying to adopt Eva. Tony realized Eva would trust these kids more than she would trust him anytime soon. If he had these kids on his side, maybe it would be easier to get Eva to trust him. 

After a deep breath, Tony started again in a calmer tone. “Listen, kid. I can tell that you care for her and that you want to help her, but you need to realize that you can’t help her like I can right now. I know better than anyone that I’m not going to be Father of the Year any time soon, but as sad as it is, I’m the best she’s got right now.”

“You’re really going to do this? Is it because of whatever powers she has?”

“That’s just another reason I’m the right person to take her in. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but I have some experience dealing with enhanced people. I’ll help her control it or suppress it – whatever she chooses to do. There are definitely bad people out there that would use her for those powers, and my ‘obscene skyscraper’ is the safest place for her. I’m the best option for her while we figure out the best place for her.” 

“We?” Chloe asked cautiously.

“I’m not pretending to know her as well as you do, and I know she’ll be just as unhappy about the situation as I am. So as her only quirky little family she has left, I’d like your support.”

Chloe scrutinized him for a long moment and Tony did his best not to look too bored. “Fine, but I don’t like it and I’ll be checking in.”

“I expect nothing less,” Tony said and pulled out his work phone. “Now do either of you have someone you can call? It’ll be good if you give them a heads up before you call them from the precinct.”

Tony sat in the corner as they made their calls, texting Happy about getting some food for the fridge in the Tower and some stuff for her bathroom. He started to look up some school options too. It was April. The school year would be ending then, right? Maybe homeschooling would be a better option. He could hire a tutor. Then she wouldn’t have to leave the Tower and risk using those gravity powers on accident. Just as he had started considering where to buy clothes for a teenager (does Armani have a kids section?), the teens finished their phone calls and the boy held out his phone to him. 

“All figured out then?” he asked. They both nodded their heads solemnly. “You both have somewhere safe to go?”

“My grandmother will take me back,” the boy said quietly, his eyes not coming off the floor.

“I’ve got an aunt in Hell’s Kitchen,” Chloe confirmed. 

“Good.” Tony nodded. “Now, which one of you was the one watching my search history?” The boy looked up at him with wide, guilty eyes. “You then? I mean it was pretty easy for me to get around, but still impressive. You need a job?” The boy only gaped at him, open-mouthed. “I’ll take that as a yes, but you’ll have to close your mouth. Give me your name so I can tell the Stark Industries recruiter.”

“Mitchel Ramirez,” he squeaked. 

Tony sent a quick email. “Get a resume together and visit the Tower on Monday. We’ve got a paid internship program that can turn into a permanent job. Get back in school and use those skills for good now.”

“Yes sir!” 

“Calm it down.” Tony turned to the girl. “Alright, Scary Spice. You got any skills?”

“I don’t need your charity,” she grumbled. 

“Are you sure? Because this is a one time offer,” Tony said with his eyebrows raised.

“She’s a good fighter. Boxing. She’s a boxer,” Mitchel chimed in. 

Scary Spice sent him a glare, but Tony considered it. “Well you’re in luck. I’ve got a world class boxing champion as my bodyguard who’s been a little bored in recent years. If he trains you up, you could be professional.”

Chloe looked a little less angry at that. “That may be cool.”

“I’ll assume that’s an enthusiastic yes,” Tony said, sending an apology text to Happy to get ahead of his annoyance. “I’ll give you his number. You two can box and sulk together to your heart’s content.”

“I still don’t like you,” Chloe clarified but she still took the number. 

“I expect you to keep that up.”

Someone knocked on the door. “Mr. Stark, your lawyers are here with some paperwork.”

“Alright,” he called back before turning back to the kids once more. “You good?” They both nodded. “You’ll be taken to the precinct. Call your families and go home.” Tony resisted shifting uncomfortably before continuing. “One of you should come back first thing tomorrow, so I’m not the first thing she wakes up to.”

“I’ll be here,” Chloe said without hesitation.

Mitchel thanked Tony profusely and Chloe only huffed in his general direction. Tony considered that a vast improvement. They left with the officers and he let his lawyers into the room next. They presented the paperwork to have temporary guardianship for a year. He read through it briefly before signing where they indicated. 

After it was signed, the doctors finally filled him in on Eva’s condition. Thankfully the bullet had only grazed her left upper arm. She had severe lacerations at her wrists from the zip ties and the bullet grazing her arm would leave a sizable scar. The doctors were confused as to why Eva was not waking up yet since they could not find any brain damage in the MRIs and CT scans. A quick call to Bruce confirmed that this was most likely related to an overuse of her abilities. Deciding he couldn’t risk telling these random doctors in Brooklyn about the kid’s abilities, all Tony could do is hope she woke up soon.

Chapter Text

Chapter 19

Eva found herself waking up confused again. She was getting annoyed with this new habit. This time she could hear machines beeping and smell rubbing alcohol. At first she thought that she must be back in the Avengers Tower, but there hadn’t been beeping machines there. When she peeled open her eyes, Chloe was sitting next to her in a chair, flipping through channels on a TV that hung on the other side of the dingy hospital room. 

When Eva turned to look at her closer, Chloe noticed her movement and leaned toward her immediately. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

Eva didn’t care how she felt right now. “What happened to Gary?”

Chloe’s face contorted in anguish, and Eva knew what she would say before she did. “Well, um… he… he didn’t make it.”

Eva’s hands flew to her face, the IV pulling painfully in the crook of her elbow, but she didn’t care. Gary was gone. He died trying to save her. “Why did he do that?” she asked. “Why would he run in to save me?”

“He loved you,” Chloe told her quietly, tears falling down her face now too. “I think he was doing a lot for us that we didn’t know about.” She reached out and took Eva’s hand, squeezing it comfortingly and pulling it away from her face so the IV wasn’t pulled out. “After you saved us and you were out, Mr. Graves lost it and Gary was trying to calm him down. He was actually yelling at him right before you woke up. I feel like he knew what Mr. Graves was… was capable of doing.” Chloe paused, clearly uncomfortable with what she was about to ask, but too curious to hold back. “What happened in there, Eva?”

Eva turned her gaze away from Chloe and looked up at the dreary ceiling tiles. “You, Mitchel, and Gary left and he was turned away from me. I tried to apologize, to explain what happened, that I tried to save everyone. That it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t mean to–” Eva’s tears became more intense and she wasn’t able to get another word out. 

Chloe slowly and carefully got up from her chair and laid down next to Eva, gently moving the wires and tubes to the side. She gingerly wrapped her arms around Eva as Eva cried into her shoulder. After a few minutes, Eva was able to continue. “He wasn’t listening. It was almost like he couldn’t hear me, and then when he turned around he was holding a gun. And, Chloe, the look in his eyes… I’d never seen anything like it.” Eva shivered remembering it. “It’s like the lights went out behind his eyes, and it was because he was so angry at me. He blamed me.”

 “You both lost so much during the Invasion. You two had a special connection. He loved you the most,” Chloe said into Eva’s hair. “He knew you would never betray us on purpose.”

“He didn’t!” Eva exclaimed. “He… tried to shoot me! He said that I forced him to do it because I was one of them the entire time. And… and Gary...”

Chloe stilled next to Eva. “So he really killed Gary? He really tried to kill you too?” Her voice was small. The opposite of how it usually was. 

Fresh tears trailed down Eva’s face. “It was an accident, I guess. Gary jumped in front of me when he first tried to… It’s my fault.” Chloe remained silent next to her, and Eva felt the guilt starting to eat at her. “I’ll never forgive myself for breaking up our family and neither should you.”

Chloe pulled away so she could look into Eva’s eyes. Eva shied away from her serious glare at first, but Chloe pulled her face back, forcing eye contact. “Listen to me, Eva. You are the last one to blame here. You are lying in a hospital bed after saving every single one of us and then getting shot at! It’s Mr. Graves’ fault for trying to shoot you – for killing Gary !”

“He was angry,” Eva tried weakly. “Maybe he didn’t mean it. No, I know he didn’t actually mean it.” Her brain was trying to make sense of what happened. Mr. Graves didn’t actually want to kill her. 

“He didn’t mean to point a gun at you? Or fire the four shots I heard from the truck?” Chloe asked incredulously and Eva couldn’t respond. “Eva, I know. I know how hard this is to wrap your head around. We lived with him for years, ate meals together, played games together, cried together. We even fought and stole for him. But this is unforgivable. He killed Gary and tried to kill you while you were tied to a pole!”

Eva buried her face into Chloe’s shoulder again. “I should have just kept it all a secret. I should have just pretended not to be a freak.”

“And what? Let us all go to jail?” 

Eva didn’t respond. She didn’t really want to talk about it anymore. She didn’t know what to think anymore. She was tired, her arm hurt, her head was still sore, and her heart ached. 

“You know,” Chloe spoke up again after a few minutes. “I think it’s pretty badass, your powers. I would have picked super strength if I were you, but the gravity thing is cool.”

Eva cracked a small smile into Chloe’s shoulder. “I didn’t really get a choice. Plus, you kinda already have super strength.”

“No, I want to lift cars over my head. Do you think your friend Iron Man can make that happen?” she joked, but the smile disappeared from Eva’s face.

“He’s not my friend,” she said sharply. 

Chloe shifted away from Eva again, but this time sat up and regarded Eva carefully. “I know you hate him,” she said. “But he’s going to help you out.”

Eva scrunched her face in confusion. “I don’t want his help.”

“I know you don’t and I didn’t either… at first,” Chloe averted her eyes, suddenly interested in her fingernails. 

“You talked to him? How? Wouldn’t you be in jail?” Eva asked quickly, trying to sit up and look around for any sign of the man. Like he would pop out and arrest them right then and there. She suddenly remembered that she had pressed the button during the commotion and talked to him when she was on the roof. “Wait, did he catch us? Did he bring me here?”

Chloe still didn’t look up. “Yeah, he did,” she confirmed. “And he helped Mitchel and I get out of going to jail. I think he got his lawyers to help the police back off too.”

Eva shook her head in disbelief. “Why would he do that?”

“Not sure.” Chloe looked up briefly. “He seems to have taken a liking to you. He wants to help you.”

“I don’t want his help,” Eva repeated, more forcefully this time. “I have you. We can figure out anything together.” Eva remembered how not that long ago they had said the same thing while planning their adventures in LA. 

“I know . I know we can and we will, but…” Chloe trailed off, her fingers stilling in her lap. “I don’t have any money. I’m going to live with my aunt and it’s already kind of tense there. I don’t have anywhere for you to go, but you still have a chance to graduate high school and try to be a normal kid.” She looked up at Eva, finally holding her gaze. 

“I don’t care about that. I want to be with you and Mitchel.”

Chloe shook her head. “I want to be with you too. I want that more than anything, but we both know that it would be a long process for me to try to adopt you and it probably won’t even work, with my history with the law and stuff. Even if in the slim chance that it worked out, that’s not what’s best for you.”

“Then what is, exactly?” Eva challenged.

Chloe looked back down at her hands. “Tony Stark got temporary custody of you,” she mumbled.

Eva’s eyes widened. “WHAT? Him? He’s going to… What?”

“I know! I yelled at him and screamed at him, but he’s right. I can’t take care of you, but he can help. He can help with the housing and the money and the school, but also with your powers,” Chloe tried to reason. “I think it’s only for a year while we try to find something else.”

“Something else? Like an orphanage or a foster home?” 

“No, not at all. That’s what we’re all trying to avoid,” Chloe told her earnestly. “I think that’s where CPS wanted to take you and that’s why he stepped in. He wants to find something better. Something permanent.”

Eva felt like she had been hit in the face with the information. Tony Stark had custody of her. Why would he do that? He and Dr. Banner had been shocked at the idea of using her for her powers or trying to experiment on her the other day. Then why else would a billionaire superhero want to take in a homeless kid?

“He just feels guilty then,” Eva processed aloud. “He just wants to clear his conscience for what he did to my sister.”

“Probably,” Chloe agreed. “But that just gives you permission to take whatever you want from him in the next year. Buy whatever you want. Treat him like shit. Throw darts at his actual face like we’ve been dreaming of for years. He’ll just have to take it.”

Eva knew she was trying to lighten the mood, but she remembered his face and how empty she felt after telling him what he did to her a few days ago. Taking more from him wasn’t going to make her feel better. She knew that much. But that didn’t mean she hated him any less.

“I’d just rather never see his face again,” Eva admitted. “I’d rather go back to the warehouse with you, Mitchel, and Gary.” 

They fell into silence again, neither of them willing to say out loud why that was no longer possible. After a few moments of thinking about what they’d lost in such a short amount of time, Chloe spoke up again. “He gave us jobs.”

Eva looked up at her. Chloe wore an astounded look on her face, almost like she didn’t believe what she had just said. “What do you mean?”

“He gave Mitchel a job at his company doing whatever techie thing they do,” Chloe explained. “And I met his bodyguard who’s like a super famous boxer. He’s going to help me become a professional and like, pay for my gear and stuff until I get sponsors .”

“Really?” Eva asked in disbelief.

“Really,” Chloe responded. She looked back up at Eva, continuing with a completely genuine expression of excitement. “I know he sucks. He’s rich and entitled and he’s done horrible things. But maybe… maybe he isn’t the worst guy on the face of the planet like we thought.”

Eva couldn’t respond. If what Chloe was saying was true, then Stark was going even farther than she thought to make it up to her, to gain her forgiveness, or at least just to clear his guilt. He also just let her go the other day and apparently saved her from that roof and brought her here. The conflict rose in her mind again about what she really thought of this man.

“Speaking of which, I should probably let him know that you’re awake,” Chloe said, rising from the bed and picking up her phone from the side table. “He didn’t want to be the first one you woke up to, but I think you’ll get to leave pretty soon now that you’re up.”

Chloe sent a text and set Eva up in her bed with a tray of food. Shortly after she had started eating, there was a knock at the door. The doctor followed by a few nurses entered. Stark came through the door after them, coming over to the corner of the bed and watching the doctor carefully, but avoided any eye contact with her. The doctor and nurses checked her vitals and asked her some questions about her pain levels, running through a few screenings for brain damage. A nurse unwrapped her arm and informed her that the bullet had only grazed her upper arm, but that it would leave a scar. There was a large dark bruise around a wide cut that traveled across her upper arm when she took off the bandage, and Eva was surprised that it didn’t hurt more. 

Chloe kissed her on the head and found an excuse to escape when the doctor and nurses exited, leaving her alone with Tony Stark. Eva watched him as he came and sat heavily in the chair that Chloe had previously occupied. His expensive suit was wrinkled and he was carrying a mostly empty paper cup stained with coffee on the rim. She couldn’t see his eyes well behind his tinted glasses, but she didn’t remember seeing dark circles showing through when she saw him in the Avengers Tower. Then she recalled the look of genuine concern when he had found her on the roof. 

Catching sight of the clock behind him, she realized that it was four in the afternoon. “How long was I out?” she asked. 

Stark glanced at his watch. “About eighteen hours.”

She tilted her head in confusion. “You’ve been here this whole time?”

He only shrugged in response. His phone buzzed and he looked at it briefly. “Bruce wants to know how you feel.”

Eva raised her eyebrows. “Why?”

“I couldn’t exactly tell the doctors why you weren’t waking up,” he explained. “I’ve been filling Bruce in, and he thinks that since you used your ability so much in a short amount of time, you may stay unconscious longer.”

“I’ve got a headache and I’m sore, but I’m not feeling too bad otherwise. Eating helps,” she informed him and he nodded in response, typing out a quick text. She let her gaze fall away from him and tucked into her food, trying not to look too ravenous in front of him. He remained quiet as she ate, and she became more and more uncomfortable. 

“Do you want me to call you dad then?” She almost flinched at how her voice dripped with malice. 

He only rolled his eyes. “I don’t think either of us want that.”

“Really?” she asked incredulously. “Then why are you doing this?”

“I don’t see any other options for you, kid,” he told her, visibly trying to keep his cool. 

“You could just let them cart me away to juvie or an orphanage. That’s where I belong.”

He shook his head. “That’s definitely not where you belong.”

“So this is about my powers then?”

“It’s not about that either.”

“Then I’m your charity case? Or a publicity stunt? Or just a way to clear your conscience?” she pressed. 

He leveled his gaze at her. “No one will know that you are in my care outside of the Tower – the press least of all.” His gaze faltered as he added, “And I think we both know that nothing will ever clear my conscience.”

She heard it loud and clear. He didn’t want to do this but felt some kind of obligation out of guilt. But he was right. What other option did she have? He said it was only a year.

Eva continued to shovel food into her mouth until it was gone. Once she finished everything, he finally spoke up again. “Are you feeling okay enough to come to the Tower tomorrow morning if they let you go?”

“I guess,” she admitted.

“Then I’ll go set everything up.” He stood from the chair and walked toward the door. “Bruce will pick you up in the morning,” he told her, about to walk out, but he paused with his hand on the doorknob. “I know I am the last person in the world you want to see or spend time with, so I’ll keep my distance.” Then he was gone.

Chapter Text

Chapter 20

The next morning was a blur. Chloe and Mitchel were there as soon as visiting hours started. Then Dr. Banner showed up and hung around after asking her how she was doing. Finally around noon, doctors came in and gave her some stuff to keep treating her arm and wrists and signed off her discharge from the hospital. Everyone was smiling at her, as if this should be the most exciting day of her life, but she couldn’t seem to muster up a reaction for them. 

When she asked Dr. Banner why Stark wasn’t there, he became visibly uncomfortable. He tried to give some excuse about how Stark was getting everything ready at the Avengers Tower for her, but Eva knew the truth that Stark was already keeping his promise. He was going to try to distance himself from her. Eva was surprised by the mixed feelings that came with that realization.  

Chloe and Mitchel bid her goodbye when they reached the lobby, promising to come by the Tower soon. Chloe assured her she would be in the Tower regularly to start training, but she needed to find a job that made money so her aunt wouldn’t kick her out. She would see Mitchel on Monday when he gave his resume to the recruiter. Even though it wouldn’t be long before she saw them again, it wasn’t easy to say goodbye. They had spent nearly every moment together for the last year and a half, and now, who knows how often she’ll get to see them. 

After a tearful goodbye, Dr. Banner led her to the basement of the hospital where an expensive dark car with a driver was waiting for them. Dr. Banner climbed in the back with her and they left the hospital. He tried to make some awkward small talk as they drove to the Tower. Usually, Eva would have tried harder to engage in conversation, but it was just too hard at the moment to figure out what to say. She’d rather stare out at the city passing by. 

When they finally reached the Avengers Tower, the driver took them down an unmarked alleyway and through a gated tunnel that led into a basement garage. He pulled up right outside of an elevator door that Dr. Banner led her into. The doors opened into a now familiar penthouse that was bathed in early afternoon light. It felt weird that she was only here a few days ago. So much had changed since then. 

Eva followed Dr. Banner toward the kitchen where she saw Stark fixing himself a cup of coffee while wearing jeans and a Van Halen t-shirt. “There you are,” he said as he emptied the coffee grounds into a discretely hidden trash can that slid out of lower cabinets. “I thought they were going to keep you there forever.”

Eva didn’t know what to say so she quietly stared at her feet. Dr. Banner spoke up for her. “They wanted to do a final check up. I think they were still expecting her to have brain damage after being unconscious for so long.” Eva saw Stark just nod out of the corner of her eye as she continued to stare at the floor. 

“Well thanks for picking her up, big guy. I’ll take it from here,” Stark told him as he rounded the marble-topped bar with his coffee in hand. 

Bruce nodded at Tony and turned to Eva. She looked up to see his concerned face. “I have a lab downstairs so you can come by anytime you want.” She mumbled a thanks, and he disappeared into the elevator. 

“Welcome back, kid,” Stark began. “Do you want an official tour now?”

“Didn’t I already get one?” she asked. 

“That was the tour for party guests, foreign dignitaries, and captive delinquent teenagers,” he told her matter-of-factly as he led her toward the hallways. “This one is the real one for permanent residents.”

They started down the familiar hallway, but this time instead of pointing to the rooms in the left and right hallways, he actually brought her down the right hallway. “That’s still my lab,” he told her, pointing to the door on the right side, but he didn’t open it. 

Eva looked at the other door in the hallway. “And that one?”

She was surprised when she saw something flash across his face – something other than the casual arrogance that was usually there. He reset it easily. “Library.”

Eva raised her eyebrows. “You read?” she asked. She had expected a scoff and another quippy comment, but he just shrugged. 

“Yeah, I guess it needs a remodel.” Stark turned toward the left hallway and she noticed that he fell back into the annoying smugness again. “I do need a new private gym now.”

He moved into the hallway with the guestrooms and his room. Eva thought that he would just take her back into the guestroom where she stayed a few nights ago, but instead he went up to the large door at the end of the hall. “This is my bedroom.” He opened the door but didn’t step in, so Eva remained in the hallway with him. It was a huge suite with a large bed at the center and another entire living area and doors going off to the left and right that Eva assumed were bathrooms or closets. The windows looked out toward Central Park. “Just the boring stuff. Let’s go to your room,” Stark told her as he closed the door and led her back toward the final hallway.

Eva turned and stopped at the guestroom, but Stark kept walking. With furrowed eyebrows, she scurried after him. They walked down the last hallway on the west side of the building. Tony pointed to a few doors on the right. “There’s storage over there.” Then he opened the single door on the left.  

Eva stepped into her new bedroom. It was big. Not as big as the master suite she had just seen, but bigger than any room she had ever had before. Probably bigger than most New York City apartments. She stepped onto a platform as she came into the room with a bookshelf and a desk on the left, already stocked with some text books, notebooks, and pencils. She also noticed four boxes that Eva recognized as the books she and Gary had packed a few nights ago. 

Two steps down led to the main part of the room where a king-sized bed covered in a luxurious indigo-blue comforter and an absurd amount of decorative floral pillows sat against the right-side wall. A flat-screen TV hung opposite from the bed. There was a door on each side of the bed. On the right was a walk-in closet that looked laughably empty with her few outfits hung up inside. The other door led to a nice bathroom with a bath and the same glorious shower that was in the guestroom. Finally, there were the windows looking out to the west across the city with a couch and a hanging egg shaped macramé hammock chair with a velvet cushion and crocheted blanket artfully draped inside. 

It was perfect, like it was straight out of a magazine, and yet she felt completely heartbroken. There were so many people she wanted to share this moment with that she couldn’t. Her father would have loved the view of the city. Her mother would have given anything for that closet. Her sister would have immediately stretched out on that huge bed. Gary would have filled the room with plants and books.  

“It was kind of thrown together quickly,” Stark explained. “It may surprise you that I don’t know anything about what twelve year old girls like.” Eva didn’t have the energy to correct him anymore as she stepped further into the room. “Happy and I just went off of the first picture that comes up when you Google ‘teenage girl room’. You can buy whatever you want through JARVIS.” Eva just stood in the middle of the room, trying to comprehend that this was where she was going to live now. It made sense that it was based on some picture from a Google search, instead of something Stark and his friend actually pieced together on their own. “I did happen to come across something interesting in some of your things.”

Eva turned to him in time to see him pull out the nearly ruined Iron Man poster. She rushed up to him and snatched it out of his hands, cradling it to her chest as if to protect it. Stark held up his hands in surrender. “I wasn’t going to get rid of it. I just didn’t realize you were such a die-hard fan,” he said with a smirk. She didn’t return his smile though and continued to hold the poster gingerly in her hands. He continued on anyway. “It looked pretty beat up, so I got you these.” 

Stark walked over to the desk and took out what appeared to be a pile of papers and a package on top. He handed them to her as she put the tattered poster gently on the bed. “A welcoming gift.”

Wary of a possible cruel joke, Eva peeled back the plain brown paper covering the package. Inside were a set of very nice darts and permanent markers. She looked up at him confused as he gestured toward the pile of papers. As she picked them up, she realized that they were not papers but instead five neatly rolled posters. Two were of Iron Man in powerful poses, one was of Tony Stark without the armor and wearing his signature expensive clothing and tinted glasses, arms crossed. The last two were of the Avengers posed together. 

“I know you hate me the most, but I thought we should spread the hate a little to some of the other team members,” he explained. 

Eva honestly didn’t know how to react. It was a kind gift in a twisted way. An acknowledgement of her disdain toward him and a blessing to take out her anger as she had been with Chloe for a year and a half. “Thanks,” she whispered. 

“Yeah, well don’t be too cruel to the real ones when you meet them,” he told her. “But for now get settled in and I’ll order some takeout for dinner. Have a preference?” She was only able to shrug. “Think about it and I’ll have JARVIS ask when we order. I’ll be in my lab but ask JARVIS for whatever you need. I feel like you know him better than I do . ” She stood with the box of darts held loosely in her hands when he suddenly turned back to her.

“I almost forgot.” He pulled a StarkPhone out of his pocket and handed it to her. “This is yours. I’ve got my number and Bruce’s number in it.” Eva took the expensive phone into her hand. 

“Now, I do need to set a few rules. I don’t think you want to be thrust into the spotlight like I regularly am.” Eva’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “Right, so let’s do what we can to avoid that. Here they are: If you want to go out of the Tower you need to let me know, you need to either be with me or take a car when you leave, and no powers outside of this penthouse. Do those rules sound fair to you?”

Eva considered the rules for a moment. She wanted nothing to do with Stark publicly, and the idea of her face being plastered all over the internet next to his terrified her. What if people thought she was his illegitimate child, or worse, the charity case that she actually was. Then, even thinking of using her powers again made her feel queasy. That’s how this all started in the first place. Her powers are the reason why Gary was dead and Mr. Graves hated her. “Yes,” she agreed. 

“Good. Outside of those rules, feel free to spend all my money and hate me to your heart’s content. We’ll get you caught up in school once you get more settled in. In a year when you’re caught up, I’ll find you a more permanent family.” She nodded silently in agreement and he seemed pleased enough with her response. Stark stepped toward the door. “I’ll get out of your way then.”

Eva stood stupidly in the same spot after he left. She had no idea what to do with herself. There was so much she could do: snoop around and explore every nook and cranny of this place, or check out the balcony, or even just see what was on any of the huge TVs that littered the place. But nothing seemed fun. Nothing sounded worth the energy. Instead she slumped onto the bed and stared out the window, trying not to feel anything.

Tony fiddled with Mark XLIV’s thrusters that were giving him trouble, but his heart wasn’t in it. He dropped his wrench and looked up at the ceiling. “Any change yet JARVIS?”

“She has not moved since you last checked in twenty minutes ago,” the AI responded.

“And she’s not asleep?” he asked, ignoring the AI’s snark.

“No, sir. She is awake.”

“How long has she been like that now?”

“Four hours and thirty-seven minutes, sir.”

Tony didn’t understand. He figured she would have at least tried to go look around more on her own or even escape, but just sitting for nearly five hours? That was the worst possible thing she could be doing. He had no idea what to do with that. 

“Ask her what she wants for dinner, JARVIS.”

Tony moved away from his work bench and fell back into the couch, waiting for JARVIS’ response. It came quickly. “She says she’s not hungry, sir.”

Tony groaned. He probably should have seen that one coming. “Tell her that dinner will be in an hour and order a cheese and a pepperoni pizza to get here in an hour.”

“Right away, sir.”

An hour later, Tony was pulling plates out of the cabinets when she finally emerged from her room. She looked disheveled and so utterly sad. “I can’t eat all of this pizza by myself,” he told her, holding out a plate. He kept back a sigh of relief when she took the plate from his hand and put a piece from each pizza on it. 

He grabbed a few pieces for himself and started heading toward the table, intent on keeping his promise to give her some space. He peered at Eva out of the corner of his eye, but she was just standing in the kitchen staring at her pizza. Tony hesitated and turned back to face her. There was no way he could just let her do this until she starved herself to death. Her friends weren’t able to come by for at least a week. Bruce was busy with his own problems and research. Maybe he could call Rhodey to see if he could come by to spend time with her, but that wouldn’t happen for at least a few days. She was still just standing there. “Don’t just stand there, kid.” He raised his voice a little to rouse her out of whatever trance she was in. “This couch is expensive but it definitely already has some pizza sauce stains on it. Come on over. Let’s watch a movie.”

Eva merely shrugged and walked slowly over to join him, sitting gingerly on the edge of the couch. Tony took it as a win and turned toward the TV. JARVIS scrolled through some options but she didn’t react to anything. “Any of those look good?”

“I don’t know,” she told him, poking at her pizza. 

“How about a comedy then? Something fun?”

“Sure.”

JARVIS put on some comedy that came out recently and Tony tried to listen and laugh at the appropriate times, but he was watching the kid out of the corner of his eye the entire time. She didn’t crack a smile and ate half a piece of pizza. He was at a complete loss. He was way out of his depth on this one. There was no way he could do this. What the hell had he gotten himself into?

Chapter Text

Chapter 21

Eva retreated back to her room after the movie was done and instead of laying in her bed, she sat in the hammock chair near the window and stared blankly outside into the city. 

Eventually, the sun rose, the light reflecting off the sides of the buildings. When the sky was bright, JARVIS informed her that breakfast was ready. Eva was greeted by Stark, Dr. Banner, and the smell of breakfast foods in take out containers. She listened vaguely to them talking about something they were working on together while she poked around at some pancakes. It was pretty obvious that they were concerned about her, since they kept sending her worried glances, but Eva couldn’t seem to care too much. 

That’s how the first two weeks went in Eva’s new home: she stayed in her room staring out the window from various locations, poked at her meals with Stark and occasionally Dr. Banner, and went back to her room. Stark would make sure they watched a movie together every night, but he didn’t push her to do much else. Her arm started to heal and only a few days in, she was able to take off the sling. Soon enough it didn’t hurt much anymore, but she almost wished that it would keep hurting, so she could feel something. 

Eva eventually did fall asleep while staring out of the window and the dreams came as she expected. Waking up in a cold sweat, breathing hard, and shaking. Next, were the uncontrollable sobs. She cried for her family, for Gary, and then for Mr. Graves who wasn’t there to keep her dreams away anymore. The days bled together. She lost count of the sunrises and sunsets she watched out of the enormous window, the dreams that haunted her, and the amount of uncontrollable sobbing. 

Chloe texted and called, but she was busy trying to get a job so her aunt wouldn’t kick her out. Eva met Mitchel in the lobby of the Tower when he dropped off his resume and had an interview with Stark Industries. She did her best to smile when he excitedly told her about the job and all the opportunities it would bring him. She could tell that he was worried about her, but he had never been one to deal with other people’s emotions, so he left without saying much else. 

Stark’s friend, Colonel Rhodes, showed up a few days after she moved in. Eva could tell immediately that Stark had called him in for help, but all they did through dinner was tell her stories of their escapades from their days in college and beyond. She attempted to listen and react, but she just felt too numb to actually care. The Colonel pulled her aside when Stark wasn’t in the room to tell her that she was in good hands and to call him if she needed anything. Eva thanked him as he put his number in her new phone, but she knew she wouldn’t be taking him up on his offer.

Happy was also different than she expected. He was quiet, serious, and reserved, which she initially thought would lead to a tense relationship between him and Stark, who didn’t know the definition of reserved. But she could tell that Happy liked Stark’s nonsense and helped keep him in line. Eva could imagine that he and Chloe would get along well. 

Two weeks into living with Stark, which mostly consisted of Eva staring out the window and Stark being helpless, Chloe was more secure in her new job at a restaurant and she was ready to start training with Happy. Eva had barely seen her since she had moved in and so she took a shower and attempted to put on a smile as she met Chloe in the living room. 

Stark and Happy were already there, and Chloe was trying her best not to look too impressed by the penthouse. After a long hug from Chloe paired with a worried expression, Stark actually spoke up. “Why don’t you show Scary Spice your room?” he suggested. “She can see what an incredible interior designer I am.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m the one who put it together,” Happy muttered. 

Eva shrugged and looked at Chloe. “Wanna take a look?”

Chloe nodded and followed her through the hallways and to her room. “Holy shit,” she heard Chloe mutter under her breath as they walked in. 

“I know,” Eva said, as she crossed the room and sat heavily on the bed that wasn’t made. “It’s absurd.” 

“Maybe, but it’s also pretty… amazing,” Chloe admitted, moving to look out the window. “You can see all the way to Jersey from your room! Is that a walk in closet? It’s twice as big as our room was.”

“I know,” Eva repeated. “It’s too much.”

Chloe looked around the room again. “I thought I put the Iron Man poster in your stuff. Did that asshole throw it out? I’ll kill him if he–”

“No,” Eva interrupted, retrieving the old poster along with the gift from Stark. “It’s over here.”

“What are those?” Chloe asked, pointing to the other posters and box.

Eva sighed. “The reason I haven’t put them up yet.” She gently laid each poster out on the bed and opened the box so Chloe could see. “He actually gave me more posters to ruin and nice darts and markers.”

“Huh,” Chloe said simply. They stared at the posters in silence for a minute. “That’s weirdly… selfless of him.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “I’m sure it’s still self-absorbed in some twisted way.”

“It’s still a thoughtful gift,” Chloe pointed out. She turned to Eva with a serious look on her face, and Eva braced herself for the conversation she saw coming from a mile away. “How is it here, really? Because we can find a way out of this if it’s really bad.”

Eva let her gaze fall to her feet. “It’s not bad here. I mean I can eat whatever I want. Everything is beautiful and expensive. Look at this room!” she exclaimed, falling back onto the bed again. Chloe sat next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “I should be so happy to be here. Stark is right. I should be trying to spend all of his money, but all I’ve done is stare out the window for the past two weeks. All I can think about are all the people who aren’t able to have this; all the people that aren’t here anymore because of him or because of me.”

Chloe didn’t respond at first and merely pulled her in closer. Eva felt like crying into her shoulder, but she was tired of crying, so she just leaned in and breathed deeply. “You’re too good for your own good,” Chloe said. “Sitting here in this incredible place and all you’re thinking about is how you can’t share it.” She chuckled. “If anyone deserves all of this, it is absolutely you.” Chloe pulled back and looked her in the eye with a fixed stern gaze as Eva tried to argue. “Sometimes bad things happen and it’s no one’s fault and a lot of bad things have happened to you. Not a single one of them is your fault. It’s okay to be sad because this all sucks so hard. But don’t think for a second that you don’t deserve every happiness in the world.”

“But what about all the people in the Underground? I’m literally living high up in a tower while they live in poverty underground. How can I live like this after they were our family for a year? I still consider myself part of them. And now they don’t have Mr. Graves or Gary or us!”

Chloe considered for a minute. “Maybe you should bring that up to Stark. You could ask him for some money and give it to the Underground. I bet it would help them get some new cooking equipment or beds for the elderly.”

Eva perked up at that. “I don’t want to use his money.”

Chloe shrugged. “Don’t think of it as his money. Like you said before, he feels guilty for what he did to you, so ask for a hundred dollars and when he gives it to you, spend it on the Underground. Easy.”

“Easier said than done,” Eva argued. “He told me I can buy anything through his AI and his AI tells him about everything.”

Eva glanced at the ceiling where she imagined JARVIS was always watching and Chloe glanced up too. “Would he care if you bought a new gas camping stove and some first aid kits or a cot?” she asked. 

“He’d probably be curious why I need that while I’m living in his fancy penthouse.”

“Eva, have you told him about anything yet?” Chloe asked more gently after a pause. “Like how we’ve been living for the past few years or what we got dragged into?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “I’m pretty sure he thought I was just hanging out in the subway tunnels when he found me a few weeks ago.”

“If you’ve just been staring out a window for two weeks, I don’t think anyone would come in and ask about where you’ve been living since the Invasion,” Chloe pointed out. “I can’t imagine that they won’t bring it up though. He’s part of the Avengers. He’ll want to know about Mr. Graves and the operation at some point.”

Eva paused to think. “Should I tell him?” she whispered. 

Chloe visibly tensed. They had kept everything a secret for so long, fearing that the police or worse, the supers, would find out about them. Now they were sitting in Iron Man’s penthouse, considering telling him everything. It had all changed so quickly, too quickly for Eva to keep up with what was wrong or right anymore. 

Leaning forward with her elbows resting on her knees, Chloe’s expression darkened. “If you don’t, I will.” Eva couldn’t stifle her gasp in time, but Chloe didn’t look up. “I will never forgive Mr. Graves for what he did.” Eva was staring at her with wide eyes when Chloe focused on her intensely. “He shot you, Eva. He murdered Gary and he meant it. You need to accept that he wasn’t the father-like figure we knew in the end. He was ready to hurt us to get what he wanted, to get his revenge for his family.”

“We were his family,” Eva breathed. “He loves us.”

“I thought so too, but someone who loves you doesn’t try to kill you, Eva.”

“I know that,” Eva said, shaking her head. “It’s just hard to think he could do that.”

“I get that it’s hard to wrap your head around this, but you need to understand that we can never trust him again. I don’t want you to be defending him anymore.”

Eva nodded slowly. “I’ll try.”

Chloe pulled her in again. “Maybe try by telling someone about the Underground and go from there. It doesn’t have to be Stark, but someone who you think would understand.”

“Okay.”

They joined Stark, Happy, and Dr. Banner for lunch and Chloe made herself comfortable in the presence of their impressive company much easier than Eva. Chloe’s confidence never failed her. She was sending snarky comments as fast as Stark was throwing them out, and Eva could tell that everyone liked her. 

After lunch, Eva was invited to join Chloe for her first training session. Happy took them two levels down to an expansive gym that took up the entire floor of the tower. It looked like it was a typical gym that normal people spent money monthly for with weight machines, cardio machines, and even an Olympic-sized pool off to the side. But then there was a wide open floor covered in mats similar to what Eva remembered from when she was in gymnastics. There was a boxing ring and multiple sandbags at the back, and the other half of the floor was obviously used by the Avengers with target practice, a tactical set up with a few fake buildings and weapons on the wall.

Eva and Chloe followed Happy through the gym, gazing around in awe. He led them to the boxing area at the back. He wanted to see how she sparred first to see what he was dealing with, so Chloe turned to Eva. Eva had expected to watch from the sidelines, but Happy agreed that he would like to see how she does with her usual sparring partner. 

This finally felt like something familiar as they wrapped their hands, donned the sparring gear, and stretched, though all the gear was so much nicer than the used things Gary got from various gym dumpsters around the city. As she squared up with Chloe, Eva felt a smile spread across her face for the first time in what felt like forever. 

They spared for a few rounds, Eva losing each one as expected. She had gotten better, but Chloe had always been miles ahead. Usually when Eva sparred with Chloe, it was for her own training. Nevertheless, Eva enjoyed every second.

Once Chloe landed a solid hook to Eva’s head, Happy ended it. “Alright,” Happy called, and Eva and Chloe dropped their hands. Eva shook her head to try to clear her vision. “Tony would kill me if you give Eva a concussion.”

“I’m fine,” Eva assured him as her vision finally returned fully. She gave a nod to reassure Chloe who was checking to make sure she was okay. 

“Good work,” Happy complimented Chloe. “But you won’t be fighting people smaller than you if you want to go pro.” He began to wrap his own hands. “Let’s see how you hold up against me.”

Eva stood back and watched. Chloe did hold up well against Happy for the first thirty seconds, but it was clear why he was a champion. Once he landed a punch, he landed about five more. He was fast but powerful. When he called it, Chloe was thoroughly beaten.

Chloe sulked off to the side. “You have good instincts and pretty good form,” he told her. “You’ll need to go through some intense training every day and be on a strict diet if you want to go pro.”

Eva watched as Chloe turned to him with a hopeful look on her face. “You’ll take me on?” she asked. 

“Yeah,” he stated simply. 

“I’m in!” she exclaimed. 

“You’ll have to work really hard and give up other things that you might want to do sometimes. You need to really want it.”

“I really want it!” Eva had maybe never seen Chloe so excited. 

“Chloe is the most resilient person I know,” Eva told Happy, using that fake confidence that Chloe had naturally. Eva wanted this for Chloe too. “She’ll do it.”

“Alright,” Happy agreed. “Let’s get to work.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 22

Eva joined some of Chloe’s training but couldn’t really keep up, so toward the end she watched from a bench nearby. After cleaning up in the incredibly expansive locker room that included a full sauna and spa, Chloe had left to go have dinner with her aunt and tell her the good news. Eva had a feeling that it would make living with her aunt easier now that Chloe had a plan and a job. Chloe would be coming to the Tower more regularly in the mornings to work with Happy. Eva was happy she would get to see her friend more regularly, but she also knew Chloe would be busier. 

After Chloe left, there was some time before dinner and Eva returned to her room. She found the posters still laying on the bed and decided that it was time to put them up. Picking out one of the Avengers posters and a new Iron Man poster, she placed them on the wall with the original tattered poster proudly on display in between the new ones. She put them on a wall where she could take shots from the bed or the hammock chair. She carefully packed up the remaining posters and put them safely in her desk so that she could pull them out when those in use got too ruined. 

Satisfied with her work, Eva’s mind wandered back to the conversation with Chloe earlier that day. After everything that happened, could Eva trust that all she had done for Mr. Graves had been right? Eva hadn’t always been proud of what they did, but she usually didn’t really see the end product. She mostly helped Mitchel get to the computers and back out without people noticing. She had never seriously injured anyone, just incapacitated them with her bo staff, and that was only on the rare occasions when they were spotted. However, she wasn’t stupid. Eva had been in the room when Mr. Graves had blackmailed that man on one of their first missions. She knew that that was one of Mr. Graves’ main tactics to get what they needed. But didn’t it help them get to their end goal which would save a lot of people? Did that make it okay?

The more she thought about opening up about the last year and a half, she couldn’t imagine how Stark would react. How could he possibly understand how she lived in an underground homeless encampment when he had been a millionaire at birth? Would he try to clear out the Underground? Would he throw her out when he learned about what she helped Mr. Graves do and just how much she had supported him? Did she still want to end the supers after all of this? Did anything they do for the last year and a half actually help anyone like Mr. Graves had promised?

Then again, the people in the Underground were still down there while she was up here. They needed a new stove, a few of the elderly needed new cots and blankets, everyone needed toiletries, and it would be really nice to get a few more books for the kids. Eva realized she would need to swallow her pride and just ask for the money. 

“Um… JARVIS,” Eva awkwardly shouted toward the ceiling. 

“Yes, Ms. Moore. How can I help you?” the AI answered immediately. 

“Do you know where Stark is?” Eva asked.

“Mr. Stark is currently in his lab. Would you like me to tell him that you need him?” he asked helpfully 

“Oh.” Eva hadn’t realized she could ask where everyone was and relay messages. That could come in handy. “Could you ask him if there’s a good time for me to come talk to him?”

There was a pause and Eva thought that maybe her request had been denied, but then JARVIS responded. “Mr. Stark says that you can come talk to him in the lab whenever you’re ready.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you.” She stood from the bed and couldn’t seem to move forward. He was letting her in his lab? Was this a trick or something? Was she even sure she really wanted to do this? For far too long, Eva stood frozen in place before the thought of the people who needed her drove her forward and across the hallway into Iron Man’s lab.

Inside was a large room that was at least twice as big as her room, but this one wasn’t calm and relaxing. It was bright, loud, and busy. The first thing Eva noticed was an Iron Man suit standing in a glass case at the back of the room. She noticed some parts of a different suit strewn around the room on tables and chairs and even one arm was on the floor. Counters lined one wall with tools and machines and the other wall had windows looking out at the city, but these windows were clearly tinted and she could really only see the lights from the buildings. Stark was standing at an expansive workbench, a holographic screen open in front of him with some kind of blueprints or schematics projected on it. 

Eva stepped down the three steps to the ground floor and cautiously approached the table, aware of the wires and some tools covering the ground. She nearly jumped when a robotic arm moved next to her.

“Don’t worry about DUM-E. He lives up to his name,” Stark told her from across the room. “Come on over, kid.”

The robot arm made a slow whining sound that Eva could have sworn seemed like he was offended by Stark’s comment. She crossed the room, carefully stepping over wires and tools until she was standing on the other side of the workbench where he was seated. 

“Got something to say?” he asked her, apparently ready to get to the point.

Awkwardly shifting her weight back and forth, Eva found herself unable to speak up. Seeing him in this room with the Iron Man suit behind him and all the incredible tools and parts, made her fully realize who was standing in front of her. Just a few years ago, Eva would have died walking into this room. She wanted to be just like him, or more of a mixture of her parents and him, by using science to help people and make cool things. Now she was standing there with awe and anger and sadness swirling around in her chest. Eva wasn’t sure what to feel. 

“Kid.” Stark prompted her to look up. “What do you need?”

“Um, I…” she started, and had to look down again when she saw his annoyed expression. Eva blurted it out quickly to just get it over with. “I need some money.”

“Just buy whatever you need from JARVIS.” Stark waved off her request and returned to looking at his screen. 

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Eva tried. 

“JARVIS can find anything you need,” Stark repeated. 

Anger bubbled up in Eva’s chest at his dismissal. “Nevermind!” She huffed and marched out of the room. Right before the sliding door whooshed shut behind her, Eva heard Stark say something else, but she didn’t turn around or even slow down. She couldn’t believe that she had thought that he would be understanding enough to actually help her or the people of the Underground. She couldn’t believe she had even considered telling him about everything. She would just have to find another way to make some money for the Underground.

Tony threw a screwdriver across the room. “Fuck!”

“That could have gone better,” JARVIS told him unhelpfully. 

“No shit,” Tony muttered angrily. Glancing down at his screen, he caught a glimpse of what had pissed him off in the first place and waved his hand forcefully to close the tab. He stood from the workbench and crossed the room to throw himself on the couch instead. 

Pepper hadn’t talked to him in over three months. She hadn’t stopped by, called, texted, anything; not since she had walked in on him making a new Iron Man suit. After he had blown up all his suits and promised her that he wasn’t going to put himself in danger again, she told him it was over and just left. 

Of course, now, the one time that the kid came to him for something, that was the time she decided to talk to him. The most infuriating part was that she emailed him… email ? It was so impersonal, only about work and his thoughts on the progress of the next StarkPhone. Tony had ignored all the updates from the R&D team over the last few weeks, for obvious reasons, and he could imagine that they were annoyed with him and thought that he might respond to her.

He leaned back and groaned. He couldn’t believe how much a simple email with just a few sentences and signed off with ‘Regards, Pepper Potts’ would send him into such a spiral. Being without her for the first time in a decade was nearly unbearable. Not only did he finally realize just how much she had done for him, but he just missed being around her. She was one of the few people in his life that actually made him feel like a person. Pepper understood his humor and then dished it out just as easily. She was always fearless and unintimidated by people who thought they were better than her. She always knew what to do and how to deal with difficult situations, always keeping a level head. Tony was certain that she would know exactly how to make Eva feel welcomed and comfortable and probably would have been the person that Eva could have gone to with whatever problem she tried to ask him to help with. 

“JARVIS,” Tony said quietly, “Let me know what the kid ends up buying.”

“Of course, sir.”

How could he do this without Pepper? He was not even a month into the year of trying to do right by this kid and Tony was on a downward slope.

Chapter Text

Chapter 23

Over the next week, Eva was able to take two of the posters Stark had gifted her, forge his signature from studying some of the signed memorabilia lying around the penthouse, and sneak them out of the Tower. Stark had shown her the two self-driving cars that she could use to get around the city a few days into living with him. She had to tell him where she was going, but Eva only told half-truths as she ran her secret errands. She took the newly signed posters to a gaming shop nearby, where she expected they would be appreciated and got enough money to use for the Underground. The man at the shop told her that he couldn’t give her full price since there was no way to authenticate the signatures, but it was enough to buy a new stove, two cots, and toothpaste and toothbrushes in bulk. 

Eva was careful to leave the fancy car around a corner and go to shops that she was already familiar with, whose owners were sympathizers with the Underground and often gave Mr. Graves deals on the things they needed. One of the shopkeepers that Eva knew well agreed to keep what she had bought in the back of his shop until someone else from the Underground could pick it up. 

The next day Eva explained what she had done to Chloe. She tried to argue that Eva should still go to Stark about everything but eventually agreed to keep it from him for a little longer. In the end, Chloe agreed to take the supplies to the Underground. 

Eva’s conscious felt light for about a week, but eventually she fell back into a restlessly guilty state. Before she knew it, Eva was sneaking around the Tower and searching for more items that might earn her some money, but it was difficult for her to decipher what would actually be worth anything. If she could prove that any of it was directly from Tony Stark’s penthouse, of course she would be getting a small fortune; however, there was no way to prove that. Then there were some things that she found that she knew she shouldn’t sell, like some roughly drawn schematics of suits or weapons. Instead she stuck to dumb little trinkets that she knew wouldn’t be missed but were worth more than she could possibly guess. When she sold them, she just had to accept that she was probably getting swindled, but she didn’t need too much money. Just enough to keep the Underground afloat now that Mr. Graves was gone. 

Chloe kept delivering the items, sometimes with the help of Mitchel. She told Eva about the next request from the new leaders and Eva would snoop around the penthouse, sell what she found, and buy what the Underground needed. This went on for a couple weeks and at that point, Eva started to get concerned that Stark would notice things missing. She knew that it was a temporary solution and she needed to find something else or swallow her pride enough to talk to Stark about it, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Every time she approached his lab door where he spent all of his time outside of dinnertime, Eva ended up just standing there trying to decide what to do until JARVIS asked if she needed anything. 

About a month into this ruse, Chloe reported that the Underground needed a new washing machine. Mitchel had gone down to rewire some things, but there wasn’t much that he could do without buying a bunch of new parts. They had been using an industrial washing machine and those were very expensive, even if she could find a deal from one of the shops. Eva knew she would have to find something big to sell or go to Stark himself. 

That’s why she found herself standing outside of his lab again, her thoughts swirling with pros and cons and debating if he would notice if one of his stupid fancy cars disappeared. Eva jumped when JARVIS suddenly spoke from somewhere above. 

“Ms. Moore, can I deliver a message to Mr. Stark for you?” 

Eva clenched her fists. It was time to put away her hatred for him for just a minute so that she could help hundreds of people. Maybe he was an asshole and responsible for what happened to her sister…

JARVIS interrupted her thoughts again. “The Boss would like you to know to stop loitering and meet him in the lab.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Eva responded through grinding teeth. “No.”

She needed to find another way. Turning around, she realized there was another door in this hallway. Recalling Stark hadn’t really explained what was there, Eva decided to try to open the door. She was surprised when it opened and let her in.

“She has gone into the office,” JARVIS informed him. 

Tony sighed and put down his latest project that was really only meant to distract him. There was no distracting him from this. The last month had somehow been worse than the depressing weeks before. Not only was Pepper now sending him emails on a weekly basis trying to get him to engage with the company again, but the kid wasn’t even looking at him anymore. Whatever she had come to him for, she had figured a way to solve the problem on her own. 

Unfortunately that meant that she was stealing stuff out of the Tower and selling it. JARVIS had told him about it immediately, but Tony had decided he would just see how far she would take it. So far she had only taken insignificant things, but that could only last for so long. Frustratingly, JARVIS couldn’t quite place what she was buying with the money she was getting from his stuff. She would apparently go into a store and come back out with nothing. The stores where she was supposedly buying things were just bodegas or small hardware stores in Manhattan. JARVIS scanned her whenever she came back into the Tower for any change in her basic body functions to see if she might be doing some kind of drugs in the back of these stores, but JARVIS didn’t find anything alarming and the kid acted pretty normal.

JARVIS would tell him when she would stand in front of the lab door, and Tony would wait with bated breath to see if she would come in, while he debated going out and demanding she tell him what was happening. Instead he did nothing and she eventually walked away. Finally, today he told JARVIS to send her a message, but apparently that wasn’t the right move and now she was in a room he had been hoping he wouldn’t need to explain. 

He crossed the lab and hallway slowly. She was already well into the room, gazing around slowly. Tony understood why she was probably shocked. This room didn’t look like anything else in the penthouse. He liked things to look clean, with sharp angles and expensive accents. This room was the exact opposite. Warm wooden bookshelves lined every wall. Soft chairs and chaise lounges were nestled into the corners. Books and art and plants were scattered around the surfaces. And near the window was a beautifully intricate wooden desk that looked out at the city. 

The kid was touching a few of the books on a shelf, reading the titles on the spine. “Nice room, huh?” She jumped and spun around as he finally spoke up. “See anything worthwhile?”

He watched as she tried to figure out if he was talking about what they both knew he was talking about. Her eyes narrowed as she responded, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Tony shrugged noncommittally. “Alright then.” He stepped in the room and immediately regretted it. It smelled like Pepper: earthy, floral, and light. Forcing himself to stay in the room instead of running away like he wanted to, Tony crossed his arms and clenched his fists, digging his fingernails into his palms in hopes that the pain would distract him. “I’ve been meaning to redecorate this room, so take whatever you want.”

Her narrowed gaze turned into a full glare. “I don’t want to take anything.”

Apparently, trying to get her to admit what was going on by calling out her illegal behavior wasn’t going to work. “Okay.” Tony threw his hands up in the air in defeat. “I guess it’s not as fun if you get permission. I get it.” He stepped over to the closest shelf and took a long ceramic sculpture off the shelf. “I don’t even know what this is,” he admitted, holding it out to her. “The person who decorated this room has good taste, so I’m sure it’s worth plenty. Take it.”

She took a step back, glare intensifying. “No.”

Tony found himself getting frustrated now. “Why not? I get it. You need money. You don’t want to tell me about it. I don’t know what else to do other than help you decide what to sell. Take it!” 

The kid responded to his anger in kind. “No!” she cried. “I don’t want anything from you! You’re just an asshole who would never understand what I’ve been through. Why would I ask a billionaire about money?”

“I don’t know, why would you go to the ocean for water? Why would you go to a bee for honey? Because I have it and I’m offering it to you!” Tony argued. 

“I don’t want your money!”

She rushed past him and into the hallway. He turned and followed. “You obviously need it!”

The kid marched to her room and spun around to face him again as he approached. “I’ll just find another way then!” The door slid closed in his face with a swish. After a moment, it opened again to his surprise. “Get better doors that I can actually slam in your face like you deserve!” she exclaimed before the door closed again, silently. 

Tony turned away from her room and stormed back toward the lab. He wasn’t sure why he even tried. There was no way that he could take care of this kid, much less get her to like him enough to tell him anything. He wasn’t going to earn her trust, especially if he lost his temper so easily. 

Just as he was about to enter the lab, he realized he was still holding the sculpture from Pepper’s office. He stood there staring down at it for a moment before crossing the hallway and placing it back on the shelf where it belonged. Tony rushed out of the room and the door closed shut behind him. The emails nearly sent him over the edge, but now going back in that office that she had so carefully put together and everything that the kid said was sending him fully spiraling.

Eva was furious after the fight with Stark, but the next morning, Chloe told her that some people from the Underground had gone to a nearby laundromat the night before and were kicked out and nearly arrested for trying to wash so many clothes. Chloe and Mitchel were trying to put together some money to pay for two smaller washing machines, but they had just started new jobs and were trying to get back on their feet, so it wasn’t enough. 

Swallowing the small amount of pride she had left, Eva snuck back into the office. She snatched up the dumb sculpture that Stark had offered her the day before and she almost didn’t notice the note underneath it. 

Just take it. Or this. Or both.

Underneath the note was eight hundred dollars in cash. It was what she needed from the beginning. That kind of money could pay for the washing machine and a week’s worth of food. Everything in her was screaming to leave it or throw it in his face, but her body acted instead. She took the money and put the sculpture back. 

After the Underground had what they needed, Eva promised herself that that was going to be the last time she would need to steal anything or ask Stark for money. She would find a job or some way to earn money and she would pay him back for it all one day. It was a loan, nothing more. 

Once she returned to the Tower after buying everything and setting up a way for it to be delivered, Eva went straight to her room, but her door was gone. In the place of the fancy automatic door that she had complained about, there was a large wooden door painted black to better blend in with the décor. 

“Ms. Moore,” JARVIS spoke up suddenly. “Mr. Stark would like you to know that you are welcome to slam this door anytime.”

Eva stood in front of the nice door in shock. There it was again. Another thoughtful gift from Stark that was completely selfless. Something that she wanted but would cause him pain or frustration. Then there was that feeling again. The sadness and regret of trying to enact revenge on him and finding that it wasn’t worth it. She had yelled at him and stolen his things, and he had returned with cash and a thoughtful gift. 

Turning the knob, she entered her room and closed it silently behind her.

Chapter Text

Chapter 24

Later that week, Eva started her schooling. There was a tutor that she met over video chat once a week to give her assignments and go over the assignments from the last week. Eva welcomed this change. Finally she had something to do during the day and something else to focus on instead of moping around or stealing from the Tower. Her tutor found out within the first week that she needed more assignments when Eva read ahead in every textbook and completed an extra project. 

The problem was that the Tower was so quiet all the time outside of dinnertime and even that was a pretty tame affair. Stark had become increasingly quieter and seemingly sadder. He spent all of his time in the lab. During dinner, he would often stare off into the distance for a minute before shaking it off and trying to talk about something again. If Dr. Banner was there, he would do it less, but Eva could tell that Dr. Banner was concerned about him too. It was becoming increasingly more difficult for Eva to be the saddest one in the Tower. 

Because it was so quiet, Eva found herself taking Dr. Banner up on his offer for her to spend time in his lab. It was equally quiet in there as he typed away on a computer or looked at slides in a microscope, but when she took breaks from her homework he would talk to her about her studies and his research. One day she decided to ask him the question that had been on her mind for a while. 

“What’s up with Stark? Why is he so mopey?”

Dr. Banner raised his eyebrows and leaned back into his chair. Eva was thankful he didn’t make any comments about her suddenly caring about Stark’s feelings and just got straight to the point. “I don’t know how much you’ve followed the news in the last few years.”

“Not much at all,” she admitted. 

Dr. Banner studied her for a moment and then continued without asking follow-up questions. “Do you know who Pepper Potts is?” 

Eva had heard this much during her time in the Underground. “She’s the new CEO of Stark Industries who used to be Stark’s personal assistant. It was hard not to hear about that.” Eva recalled just how mean people had been when that news broke; accusing her of sleeping her way to the top or manipulating Stark to get the position. Everyone was expecting the company to fail, but it obviously hadn’t. Eva found herself sympathizing with the woman who took on a whole company and all the terrible people, and she did it without using any enhanced abilities or fancy mechanical suits or being a genius. 

“Yes, and she and Tony dated for a while,” Dr. Banner told her. “They have known each other for a long time and they started seeing each other romantically about three years ago. They broke up a few months ago.” Dr. Banner paused to let her take in the information, and Eva only felt more confused. Why would someone who was forced to spend so much time with Stark date him? Was it actually her ploy to get to the top of the company? Was she just an asshole like he was?

Dr. Banner continued when she didn’t say anything. “I thought they were a good match. Pepper really understands Tony unlike anyone else and she doesn’t take any of his sarcasm too seriously. Tony would never admit this, but I think he’s really lost without her around. They’d seen each other almost every day for over a decade, I think.”

Eva recalled what it was like to separate from Mr. Graves, Gary, Chloe, and Mitchel to hide from Iron Man after spending every day with them for a year and a half. “What did he do to mess it up?” she asked.

Dr. Banner let out a dry chuckle. “From what I know, which isn’t much, she didn’t like Iron Man and they couldn’t reconcile that.”

Now it made much more sense to Eva. Stark couldn’t put his ego aside for anyone and had to be a superhero, even for the woman he supposedly loved and trusted enough to run his company. “No wonder she left him,” Eva muttered. 

“You should talk to him,” Dr. Banner suggested. “There’s a lot more at play and I really shouldn’t say anything more, but I’m sure Tony would tell you more if you asked.”

“Really?” she asked incredulously. “He’d tell me, a thirteen year old kid, about his love life?”

Dr. Banner shrugged. “He sure tells me a lot of stuff that I don’t want to hear about.”

Eva definitely didn’t take Dr. Banner’s advice and instead left Stark alone to wallow in his poor choices. She fell into a nice routine of working out with Chloe in the mornings, doing her schoolwork in her room or Dr. Banner’s lab during the day, eating dinner with Stark, watching their obligatory show together, and then parting ways afterward. In her free time she was able to read some new books that Dr. Banner had given her, and she had even snuck back into that beautiful office to browse through the collection and borrow a few novels she found. 

It didn’t take long to figure out that the office had belonged to Ms. Potts when she had lived in the penthouse. There were a few pictures that she had found turned around and a few books were signed by the author with a note to her or Stark in them. Eva decided that despite not knowing her, she liked Ms. Potts’ taste in decoration and books and found herself sometimes sneaking in to read a book in one of the comfy chairs at night.

One night she was reading one of these books in the office in a comfy chair near the window. The book was getting really good, and she hadn’t realized how late it had gotten until the door slid open and Stark entered. He didn’t see her at first and she watched from the other side of the room as he stepped over to the infamous sculpture and picked it up to look underneath it. Taking something out of his pocket, he placed it on the shelf and put the sculpture carefully back on top. 

“I’m not stealing from you anymore,” she told him. 

Stark jumped, spilling his coffee down his shirt and spinning around with wide eyes. Eva couldn’t help herself and burst out laughing. He relaxed quickly and attempted to regain his pride by reassuming his aloof attitude. 

“Jesus,” he muttered. “If I knew that spilling coffee was what would cheer you up, I would have done it sooner.”

Eva swallowed a few times before telling him between the final giggles, “Please do so anytime.”

As she was taking a deep breath, Eva realized that laughing felt strange because she hadn’t laughed in over a month, but it felt good. Stark crossed the room after unsuccessfully wiping the coffee off of his shirt. “Why are you in here if not to sort through the stuff?” he asked. “I was kinda hoping you’d clear it out.”

She sent him a glare, but the laughter helped her not spiral from his comment about her robbery streak. “This is the nicest room in this place with some pretty good books, so I come in here sometimes.”

“This late?” he asked. 

Glancing down at the time, she shrugged. “I don’t sleep too well.”

Stark didn’t comment on her insomnia and looked around the room. “So you like this kind of stuff?” he asked with a heavy hint of derision. 

“Oh, and your white and gray blank walls are good?” she countered. 

“Yes,” Stark confirmed with certainty. “Clean design is the secret to my success.”

“I don’t think your allergy to any color is what made you a billionaire.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but my suit is red and gold.”

“Right,” she said, feigning an epiphany. “That makes more sense. You decorate everything in grayscale so that everyone notices you more.”

“Wow, didn’t know I was getting insulted and a therapy session tonight,” he quipped. “Do whatever you want with this room. I won’t come back.”

He turned to leave and Eva noticed that he had cash in his hand that he was ready to place under the sculpture. Something about laughing and having a normal conversation with him made her speak up again. “Stark.” Turning back around, he gave her a quizzical look. “Um…”

Eva’s eyes darted unwillingly to his pocket again, and Stark noticed. “Need more for whatever fun little escapades you’re sneaking away to during the day?” he asked with a smirk, holding out the cash to her. 

The light feeling in her chest from the laughter suddenly disappeared and turned ice cold. “You think I’m just going and spending that on fun little snacks or drugs or something? Or maybe you think I’m just a kleptomaniac and get off on stealing your shit?” she asked, rising from her chair. Eva could tell that Stark was surprised by her response, but she wasn’t stopping now. “You’re so disconnected from people and the real world that you couldn’t possibly imagine that people need that money to survive. If I had your money, I wouldn’t just be sitting on it. I would be trying to help the people who get hurt during your ‘fun little escapades’ with your dumb friends.”

“Woah, kid,” Stark tried to backpedal. “What do you think I’ve been doing?”

At that Eva fully lost it and spiraled into a full rage, now not caring what came falling out of her mouth. “Apparently nothing, because I know about a hundred people living in the subways right now because of you! They are the ones that need that money, not me and definitely not you!”

She was breathing heavily after screaming at him. His eyes were wide again, this time not because she scared him, but because of what she had just shared. It hit her what this reveal might mean. Would he call the police and have the Underground raided? Would he call his Avenger friends up and raid it with them? Would he chide her for giving his money away to homeless people? No matter what, this was not good. She had lost control and now potentially hundreds of people may pay for it.

“What do you mean by that, kid?” Stark asked carefully, taking a step back toward her. 

“Nothing,” she said quietly, as she picked up the book and got ready to leave before she could say anything else she would regret. “Pretend I never said anything.”

“No.” Eva looked up at him and saw that his expression was completely serious now. His voice was firm. “Tell me, kid. I want to help, especially if you’re saying that hundreds of people are living without homes because of something that I did.”

She studied his expression and determined that he really wanted to know, but she just couldn’t trust that he would actually help or if he would just send everyone to jail. “I don’t know…”

Stark took another step toward her, as if she were a wild animal he was approaching. “You don’t know what?”

“If I can trust you,” she admitted slowly.

Eva watched as Stark actively took a deep breath. “I won’t do anything that you don’t approve of. Just tell me what happened and how you want me to help.”

“You promise not to do anything that’s going to put people in jail?” she asked. 

“Unless they deserve it,” he said. 

“And do you think being homeless and doing the best with what you have is deserving of jail?”

“Of course not, kid,” Stark promised with more than a hint of annoyance at her suggestion. 

Eva slowly sat back down on the chair and watched as Stark did the same. She wasn’t sure if she could actually trust Stark, but if she could play on his guilt and get the people of the Underground some more stable support now that Mr. Graves was gone, then it might be worth it. 

“Just start from the beginning and tell me what you need,” Stark told her, gently.

With a big breath, Eva looked away from his anticipatory face and down at her hands gripping the book. “After the Invasion, and I was on my own, I met Chloe and Mitchel and – and the rest of them in this place that we call the Underground. It’s an abandoned subway station where a lot of people who lost their homes during the attacks live. It’s actually a really good place. Everyone takes care of everyone else and for the most part everyone gets what they need.” She didn’t realize how hard it would be to think back to those times with Mr. Graves and Gary and how things were so much better even just a few months ago. She powered on so she wouldn’t cry in front of him again. “Mr. Graves ran it for a while, and now that he’s gone, I’ve been trying to get some of the supplies that they don’t have money for anymore,” she finished, still staring at her hands.

Eva didn’t look up at Stark, terrified of seeing an angry expression that would turn into him storming off to find the Underground and take it all down. However, Stark didn’t seem angry when he spoke next. “You were homeless?”

Eva shrugged in response. “I didn’t really think of it as being homeless. The Underground was my home. It was hard sometimes and it took some getting used to, but I liked helping everyone get what they needed. There’s been some others in charge since we moved, but I think Mr. Graves was still helping a lot with the money stuff and Chloe and I were still finding resources for them when we could.” 

Stark didn’t respond for a while. Eva held her breath, waiting for his response until she couldn’t wait any longer. “Please don’t do anything to put them in jail. They just want to live like anyone else, but it was hard for a lot of people after the Invasion. It really worked out for people to pool their resources, and Mr. Graves was good at getting people to donate to the cause and follow the rules of the community. I’m just worried that it’s falling apart without him and that’s why I needed the money.”

“How many people?” Stark asked, his voice low and dangerous, making Eva’s head snap up to see his furious expression.

“You promised not to do anything to put them in jail!” she exclaimed, moving to the front of her seat, getting ready to jump up and hold him down if she had to. 

“The only people going to jail are the people who hid hundreds of people from me who needed help,” he growled. When he met her eyes, his expression softened and his tone changed to become more level, but the fierceness in his eyes did not dissipate. “I want to help, kid. I’ll help you get them what they need and maybe something even better.”

“Oh.” Eva didn’t know what to say or what to think.

Stark continued. “After the Invasion, I set up the Stark Relief Foundation to help people who lost things in any Avengers’ business. We’ve done a lot of rebuilding through the foundation, but I can’t believe that no one caught hundreds of people living in a subway station in New York in the last two years.”

“You’ll help?”

“Yeah, kid,” he reinforced. He approached her cautiously and asked the next question in a calmer tone. “Do you think you could take me there and let me meet whoever is in charge so we can figure out what to do?”

Eva studied his face thoroughly, but he truly seemed earnestly intent on helping and it didn’t seem like a trap. “Okay.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 25

Tony had a fury simmering deep in his chest ever since Eva had shared her story. He couldn’t believe after everything they had set up to help people who needed it after the attack, after all the trained professionals they had hired and all the organizations they had partnered with, there were hundreds of people living in a subway tunnel right under his nose. 

Then there was the fact that the kid had been homeless since losing her family. He had figured that she wasn’t well off by just looking at her, but he at least assumed she had somewhere to live, some rundown apartment or something. Honestly with as much money as this Graves guy had stolen, they should have been living in a brownstone on the upper east side. After she told him, Tony spent the rest of the night looking into what had gone wrong. From what he could find, this Graves guy had blocked any government or charity aid that had come their way for years. It didn’t take a large leap of understanding to see that the guy had done some shady things to build a homeless and crime network without being detected. Now that Tony had a full grasp of the situation, he wasn’t going to hesitate to take this guy down when he saw him next.

Now he was walking through the streets in dark sunglasses, inconspicuous clothing, and a baseball cap, hoping to blend in while following a teenage girl to a homeless encampment. Part of him was itching to have part of his suit on, just in case Graves was there hiding out or if this was all just an elaborate trap that the kid set up, but he had to settle for having JARVIS keeping an eye out through his glasses. 

“Don’t be rude to these people,” Eva told him as they descended the stairs into the subway system. “I don’t think it’s going to be super… pleasant for you. Just try to remember that they’re trying their best with what they’ve got.”

“I’m pretty sure the tabloids have been claiming that I’m the epitome of empathy and selflessness for decades,” Tony claimed. “I’m surprised my reputation doesn’t precede me.”

Eva sent him a glare as they approached the turnstile. “That’s exactly why I’m telling you this.” She pulled out a card and scanned it twice.

Tony was surprised when he made it through behind her. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be able to double scan those things.”

“You aren’t,” she said as she led him through the platform. “Mitchel found a way to cheat the system after Chloe spent the night in jail for hopping the turnstile. Everyone who is a resident of the Underground gets one. It used to be a pain when Mr. Graves had to find a way to pay for them and we had to take shifts to go up to get some sun.”

Tony suppressed a shiver. He remembered what it was like spending a month in a cave. Seeing the sun after all that time felt like breathing again. He couldn’t imagine having to take turns to see the sun, especially as a kid. 

Eva led him to the end of the platform and turned a corner, suddenly out of his sight. He rushed around it and almost ran into her. She briefly glanced behind them to make sure no one was following before rapping a series of specific knocks on the door. The door silently swung open to reveal a scrawny man with graying hair and yellowing teeth. Eva greeted him kindly and asked about a family member as they entered into a dark hallway that led deeper into the tunnel system. Tony let Eva do the talking as she explained she was bringing him to talk to the people in charge about a deal, but staying quiet didn’t come naturally to Tony and he threw a couple quips in, earning a glare from the kid. The man let them pass and they silently traveled down the long hallway. 

Just before Tony was about to make a joke about how they were going to pop out in Jersey soon, Eva reached a door and pushed it open. Inside was another train platform, almost mirroring the one that had just been full of men in suits and tourists, but this one was covered in graffiti and people… a lot of people. There were so many more people than he had imagined shoved into this small area. The smell was almost overwhelming and it took everything in Tony not to put a hand up to his nose to block it out. 

Trying to focus on anything else, he noticed that though it initially seemed like a chaotic mess of people and trash, there was definitely a lot of thought and organization that went into the community planning. They had been creative with the materials used to make smaller sections of the space. 

“How many people are here, JARVIS?” he muttered under his breath. 

“There are 62 people here currently, not including you and Ms. Moore,” JARVIS responded in his earpiece, and the lenses of his glasses lit up each section that JARVIS counted. “However, I count 107 partitioned rooms and bedding.” Tony’s frown deepened. 

He picked his way through after the kid, trying to be considerate as she had asked. Most of the people that were there called out to Eva by name. A few came over to give her a hug. Tony’s eyes widened under his glasses when a group of school-aged children ran up and talked excitedly over a string of lights they were going to put up. He was ready to rip into Graves for keeping kids even younger than Eva in this place for years.

Eva brought his attention back to the present when she changed the tone of her voice to talk to the children. Her face was excited and bright for the first time that Tony had seen. It was incredible how quickly her entire demeanor had changed in the presence of these people. Suddenly she wasn’t some sad kid. She was a leader, cheerfully encouraging everyone she came in contact with. She even gave someone some advice about how to settle a dispute between neighbors. Tony now saw why she wanted to do something for these people, and he couldn’t help but be impressed. He had been almost ready to go to MIT at thirteen, but there was no way that he would have been capable of something like this.

There was a structure at the end of the platform. It may have been used to store electrical equipment at some point, but this wrought iron cage was now boarded up into a make-do room for who he assumed was the leader. Eva greeted the man and woman who were inside, seated at a large desk. They began by thanking Eva for getting them some things they needed, including an industrial washing machine. The kid seemed bashful and surprised about the comments, but her demeanor changed when they asked about Graves. Eva’s confidence faltered for the first time since they had walked into this place and Tony stepped up to explain.

The following conversation went much better than he had anticipated. He was afraid that they would refuse his charity. They were wary of his offer at first, but Eva had quelled their fears. Though Eva hadn’t been willing to share the specifics of what had happened with Graves, Tony didn’t have any problem sharing what he knew and Eva morosely confirmed for them. He watched them carefully with JARVIS scanning their faces for signs of lying, but they seemed genuine in their shock and following disdain for Graves when he told them about what he witnessed in the warehouse, confirming that he was most likely not hiding out in this place.

In the end, the couple had agreed to their plan to move every citizen of the Underground at Worth Street Station into a large apartment complex the Stark Relief Foundation had bought in upper Manhattan. Tony had spent the early morning hours on the phone with the committee members of his foundation to set it up. It would be about a month before they could start moving people in because the building needed some repairs and they had redesigned the common areas to have a library, medical clinic, and social worker offices to help everyone get back on their feet. 

On their way out, Eva stopped at an elderly man’s cot. He was clearly not doing well. His breathing came in rasps and his clothing was covered in filth. Eva offered to help him out of bed for a sponge bath. Tony reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. He could tell when she spun her head around, she was ready to fight him about staying back to help, but he shook his head to stop her before she began to retaliate. “It doesn’t need to be like this anymore. Let’s take him somewhere to get help, today,” Tony told her. “How many other elderly are here? And children?” he added. 

Tony spent the rest of the day calling nearby hotels to take in the families with young children and highly rated nursing homes to take in the elderly while they waited for the complex to finish construction. With a little convincing, everyone was moved safely by the end of the evening. 

When Tony finally crawled into bed, he was exhausted. He scrolled through a few emails to see if there was any more news from the Foundation that he needed to deal with, but instead he saw three emails from Pepper that he had been ignoring. With a sigh, he closed his phone and fell back into the bed. He knew that was going to blow up in his face soon, but he had enough to worry about. 

The kid had been actually happy when they came back to the Tower late that night. He had been surprised by how happy it made him to see her smiling. It felt like he was doing something right for the first time in a while. The kid was a much better kid than he had assumed initially, and he now regretted his hasty assumptions. Tony understood wanting to do something when other people were in trouble, but it took him decades to figure it out. The kid had to grow up very fast to survive. Tony supposed that it was now his job to make sure she learned how to have some fun too.

Chapter Text

Chapter 26

The next few weeks were better for Eva. She helped get the new building up and running by painting walls, moving furniture, and cleaning, while the construction finished. Stark and his Stark Relief Foundation executives came by frequently to make sure the process was expedited as much as possible and to finalize hardware choices and the layout of the building. In the Tower, Stark asked Eva during dinner one night for her opinion about the layout of the communal space, which she was excited to help with. Chloe stopped by to help when she could, and Mitchel even came to oversee the installation of the internet and computers in the library.

On move in day, Eva, Mitchel, and Chloe were there to greet everyone and show them to their apartments and give tours. Eva had to hold back tears on multiple occasions to see some of the people she loved get the things they needed most. She wasn’t the only one. Everyone was in tears as they entered their beautiful apartments and saw the fully stocked common areas. 

When each family was settling into their new homes, Eva led Chloe and Mitchel to the courtyard. There was a line of raised garden beds in the middle of the courtyard with small sprouts of various fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Pots with more plants lined the walls. Eva stopped in front of a plaque on the wall and read the engraving along with Mitchel and Chloe. Chloe reached out and clasped Eva’s hand as they stared at it together. 

In loving memory of Gary Sanders, who built this community and will always be at its heart.

Eva continued to visit the building, which they had deemed the Worthy Apartments, nearly every day to spend time with the residents in the common areas and help them with anything they needed. Chloe and Mitchel joined her when they could. Eva found that she liked gardening, trying to carry on Gary’s memory by using some of what he had taught her. She even started a gardening club with some of the residents, which really seemed to cement Gary’s memory in the community. 

Living in the Tower had gotten more bearable once the building for the residents of the Underground had opened. Not only did it give her more to do, but she didn’t feel so guilty living there or the need to steal Stark’s stuff. Of course, things weren’t solved immediately and she still mourned for Gary and thought about her family, but she wasn’t just staring at a wall anymore. 

She was also leaning fully into her schoolwork to try to catch up as quickly as possible so that she could attend a real high school in a year. Apparently, all of the reading she had done with Gary really paid off. Eva was excelling in English, History, and Writing, and she was even doing well in most sciences since she loved reading books about physics and biology. She was, however, sorely behind in mathematics and learning a foreign language, so she had to do extra work and projects in those areas. 

Stark kept his promise and maintained his distance from her outside of meals, but he did continue the tradition of watching something after dinner each night. They started watching an episode of a sitcom instead of a movie most nights as they all got busier. Eva didn’t complain. Her relationship with Stark had settled for the most part. Even though she still disliked him, Eva wasn’t yelling at him any more. In fact, she found that she could tolerate him much better after telling him about the Underground. Stark apparently felt the same. He attempted to strike up conversation with her more at meals and make playful digs at her. It was strange to her at first, but after his reaction to the Underground where he had immediately jumped into action, Eva couldn’t help but respect him a little more. 

Despite her newfound laughter, her nightmares unfortunately had not changed. She had found ways to sleep for at least a few hours per night, but there was no way to keep from dreaming of losing Gary or Mr. Graves trying to kill her. She would either sit on the hammock chair or try to watch something on the TV or read some of her homework until she fell asleep again, but nothing would keep the dreams away. She found that she could function fine on a few hours of sleep, and so that’s what she did.

One night in the early summer was particularly bad, and she woke in a sweat. The image of Mr. Graves' gun pointed at her and Gary’s motionless body slumped in front of her still burned into her mind. 

Eva threw the sheets aside and got out of bed, suddenly sick of being in that room. She wandered out into the hallways and found herself pacing throughout the penthouse to try to stay awake and away from those dreams. As she was heading down the hallway for the eighth time, JARVIS spoke up. 

“Ms. Moore, Mr. Stark would like you to come into his lab.”

Eva raised her eyebrows. Not only was she surprised that he was awake, but she hadn’t been back to his lab since the day she tried to ask for money. Eva didn’t really know where else to go, so she crossed the hall and opened the door. 

The room was just as messy as the last time she had been inside, but this time the full Iron Man suit was out of its case, lying across a workbench, and opened so she could see the inside. The gauntlets were missing and she saw one on the floor near Stark’s feet, where he was standing behind a different workbench, tinkering with the other gauntlet. 

Eva cautiously entered the room and saw the robot that had nudged her the last time perched nearby, holding a tool in its claw-like grasp. Another robot was in the kitchen attempting to make coffee.

“I need your help,” Stark called to her, not looking up from his work. “Come over here.” She wordlessly picked through the messy room and stepped up to the table, looking down at the gauntlet. It was bigger than his usual gauntlets, much bigger. He nodded toward the wrench in his right hand. “I need you to hold that steady.”

“Me?” she asked. “Shouldn’t I go get Dr. Banner for this or you can use that robotic arm over there?”

“It’s two in the morning. Too late for Bruce. And DUM-E is named that for a reason. You’ve got to do it, kid,” he told her, finally looking up. Her eyes widened as her body acted on its own accord and she took the wrench, trying to hold it steady. “Good, now keep that there while I crank up the repulsors on these.”

“Repulsors?” she squeaked. “Isn’t that what shoots out the energy beams?”

“Didn’t know you were such a big fan of my work,” he teased, not answering her question. 

He grabbed another smaller wrench and started cranking something inside of the gauntlet. It started to hum. He cranked it more and the humming got louder. “Um, what’s that noise?” she asked, trying to hold the wrench steady as he kept rotating his. 

“It’s a good noise,” Stark told her. “Means it’s working.”

The humming continued to get louder and louder. Stark continued to twist his wrench around and around until he finally stopped. She looked up at him and he had a thoughtful expression on his face. Just as she was loosening her grip on her wrench, he cranked his once more. 

A blast echoed across the room and Eva instinctually covered her ears and ducked under the workbench. Something on the other side of the room exploded and tools flew into the air. It was eerily quiet as she straightened up, ears still covered. Stark was mirroring her on the other side of the table, but he had a wide grin on his face. 

“Ha!” he barked out a laugh. 

Eva’s hands flew to her mouth as she saw the destruction on the other side of the room. There was a smoking hole in the wall and tools and wires were scattered across the floor. “I’m so sorry! I let go of the wrench. I didn’t know that would happen!” she cried. 

Stark was still laughing. “Neither did I,” he told her. “Well, I guess I knew it could happen. Just pushed it too far. JARVIS, make a note in the blueprints of the exact spot it fired.”

“Yes, sir,” came the voice from the ceiling. 

“But, your wall,” Eva gasped, pointing toward the smoking wall. 

A second robot arm rolled up to the spot and sprayed the smoking wall in white fire extinguisher foam. “DUM-U did you see a fire?” The robot looked guilty, if that was possible for a robot arm. 

“I’m so sorry,” Eva said, backing up toward the exit. 

Stark turned around, his expression turning to concern. “Hey, I’ve done much worse to this room. Actually, I’ve completely destroyed a couple labs at this point and I don’t know if you saw but I got my mansion blown up pretty spectacularly a little while ago, so a burn on the wall is not a big deal.”

Eva still shifted uneasily toward the door. “I loosened my grip on the wrench.”

“And I cranked mine too far.” Stark came around to the other side of his work bench and leaned on it, studying her. “What’s up? What happened to that bold kid I found fighting two grown men? Or the one that flew through an active subway tunnel?”

“I haven’t felt like that for a while,” Eva whispered, letting her gaze fall to the floor.

“I’m pretty sure I saw it when you took me to meet your friends in the subway,” he pointed out.

Eva shrugged. “That’s different.”

“Does it need to be?” Stark asked. “You can be that way around here too.” She was surprised that he wanted her to be that way and figured he was happy that she was staying out of his way. He turned away from her and took a look around the room. “First, I need help getting this place organized before we can give that a try again.”

For the next hour, Stark showed her the variety of tools and equipment in the lab and where they belonged. She recognized some of it from when she spent time at her parents’ work and then the room started to feel more comfortable and familiar. Eva found that her mind wasn’t able to wander to her dreams when she was focused on sorting through cool tools and organizing them into a more containable mess. 

After he made her stop from getting things “too organized”, they tried calibrating the large gauntlet again. Eva tried to dig up some of that confidence and held the wrench steadily. Stark turned his wrench slower and paused to ask JARVIS how far to go. Just as Eva was getting nervous about the humming getting too loud, Stark stopped and took his wrench off. “Okay,” he sighed. “I think we got it.”

She looked up at him. “I can take mine off?” she asked. 

“Go ahead.”

Eva gingerly lifted the wrench off as slowly as possible, keenly aware of whether or not the humming was getting louder. Once there was a sufficient amount of space between the wrench and the gauntlet, she breathed a sigh of relief. “No need for the dramatics,” Stark murmured. 

She shot him a glare as she took the two wrenches to their places in a nearby drawer. “We almost blew a hole through the side of your Tower. I think there was plenty of justification for dramatics.” When she turned back to him, he had a smug look on his face. “What, Stark?” 

He breathed a laugh. “I think it’s time to go back to bed.”

Eva’s brief moment of feeling something disappeared and she felt empty again thinking of returning to sleep where she would have to see those terrible things again. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had nightmares before, but she was tired of dealing with them alone. Stark threw an arm over her shoulder and started leading her down the hallway. 

“You better come back next time you can’t sleep,” he told her once they’d reached her room. “I always need help and you saw how well those robots do.”

“Okay,” she said, but she knew she would try to avoid coming back again. 

Tony closed the kid’s door behind her and smiled to himself. He knew that she probably wasn’t sleeping through the night. He has plenty of those nights, including this one. Tony was proud of himself for finally getting her back in the lab and seeing her come out of her shell a little bit at a time. Getting an extra wrench that didn’t do anything and having her hold it was one of his more creative ideas. The look on her face when she had successfully taken the wrench off the gauntlet was worth all the vitriol she’d spat at him for the past few months. Tony needed to find more things that she could help with in the lab. 

“Sir, you have an incoming call from Captain Rodgers.” JARVIS interrupted his thoughts as he entered his lab again. 

Tony glanced at his watch. What could he possibly want at nearly five in the morning. “Put him through.”

“Tony? Did I wake you?” came the captain’s voice through the room’s speakers. 

“Not doing much sleeping lately,” Tony said. “To what do I owe the great pleasure of speaking to you this early in the morning?”

There was a pause and Tony found himself impatient. “Look Cap, I’ve got some things going on. I really–”

“Fury is dead.”

Tony froze in the middle of picking up the gauntlet he had been working on. “He’s a mysterious guy and works hard to stay that way. I wouldn’t put it past him to fake his own death.”

“It’s not that, Tony. His heart stopped in the middle of surgery. I was there.”

Tony put the gauntlet down. “Where does that put SHIELD?”

“Not sure, but Fury came to me before he died and there’s some bad stuff going on over here. We could use the team’s help.”

Tony sighed heavily. “I’m not sure that there’s much of a team right now.”

“I’m talking to you. You’re part of the team.”

“I’ve put the whole Iron Man thing down for a while. Blew up my suits, made a good show of it and everything. I’m definitely not looking to get into SHIELD business,” Tony told him. 

“I know it’s been hard for you since the Invasion, but I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t need your help, Tony.”

Tony’s hand raised to his temples and tried to squeeze back an oncoming headache. “Listen, Cap. I’d like to help you, really, but this couldn’t be worse timing. I’ve got some serious stuff going on over here that I can’t just leave behind.”

“More serious than this?”

“For me, yes,” Tony admitted. 

There was a pause on the other end of the call. “Everything alright, Tony?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing I can’t handle. Plus, it seems like you can’t really help me out right now anyway.” Tony pushed away from the table and picked up the gauntlet again to place it in a sealed case with the rest of the parts for the new suits. 

“It looks like we both need to deal with these things on our own, then?” Cap asked. 

“Let me see what I can do to help you on my end and maybe you can help me when you’ve fixed SHIELD.”

“Good luck, Tony.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Once the call was disconnected, Tony requested one more thing from JARVIS before going to bed. “Send a secure text to Romanoff.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 27

Eva was enjoying her new routine working out with Chloe and Happy, doing her school assignments, volunteering at the Worthy Apartments, and ending the day watching a sitcom with Stark. But something about spending so much time with the Underground residents made her nightmares worse. Throughout the week, Eva read for as long as she could before her body betrayed her and fell asleep. She woke up yelling for Gary or Vic or Mr. Graves. She tried to occupy her mind with other things throughout her room. By the end of the week, the usual distractions weren’t working and she was falling asleep for only a few minutes at a time. 

After waking up for the fifth night in a row, Eva decided to brave the penthouse outside of her room again. For a second time, JARVIS called her into the lab. This time was after she had only made it a few steps down the hallway. Before she knew it, she was walking through the door again. 

“Are you always in here at this hour?” she asked as she entered. Eva hoped that Stark didn’t notice her puffy eyes, though she was beginning to suspect that JARVIS was keeping tabs on her sleeping habits.

“You’re not the only one here who can’t sleep,” he told her, confirming her suspicions and moving on quickly. “Now that you’re finally here, I need your help again.”

“You should get an intern or something. I shouldn’t work for you for free,” she complained, but walked up to see what he was tinkering with this time. 

“What intern is awake at this hour?” he asked. 

“Apparently me,” she muttered, looking down at the inside of a piece of what she assumed was another version of the Iron Man armor. 

Stark had her do more menial tasks this time like handing him tools and Eva reorganized another section of his lab. “Now I’m really going to need you to come in here and help me,” Stark said when he finally looked away from his project. “I have no idea where anything is anymore.”

“And you knew when everything was on the floor?” she asked incredulously. 

“Absolutely,” he said without missing a beat. “Come over here and hold this piece in place while I solder it on.” 

Eva found herself wandering into the lab each night earlier and earlier after that. Something about working with her hands helped her sleep better when she finally slipped back into bed before sunrise. 

One night Eva walked into the lab and Stark wasn’t at his workbench. He was instead at the back of the room, standing next to the full Iron Man suit that was out of the glass case and opened like a shell. Stark didn’t look up when she stepped behind him to peer into the suit. “I’m glad you’re here. Tonight, you are the only one that can help me,” he told her, tapping in some coding into a StarkTab. 

“What do you mean,” she asked cautiously.

“I need to see what’s going to happen to this thing at zero gravity,” Stark told her. 

“I can’t make it go to zero gravity,” Eva told him. 

Stark looked up at her in surprise. “Have you tried?”

“No,” she admitted. 

“You can change the direction of the gravitational pull on something, right?” he asked, and she nodded in confirmation. “The force of gravity is just that, a force. It’s the force of attraction between two objects, right?”

“Right.”

“Then just turn down the force of attraction between the suit and Earth.” He motioned to the suit as it closed up into the Iron Man silhouette she recognized. “Give it a try.”

Eva considered this. “I’m probably not going to get it the first try, if it’s even possible,” she confessed, worriedly looking at what was arguably the most valuable piece of technology in the world. “I’ll probably just make it fall into the ceiling.”

“I know for a fact that this suit can take a little fall,” Stark bragged, but Eva wasn’t convinced, taking a step back. With a sigh, Stark picked something off the nearby workbench and tossed it to her. Eva scrambled to catch it and opened her hands to find an apple. “Alright then Sir Isaac Newton, if we’re experimenting with gravity, might as well do it right.”

Sending him a half-hearted glare, Eva asked, “Have you been keeping an apple around to make that joke?”

“I’ve been trying to get some fruits in. Some people have been complaining about too much take out,” he defended, but Eva suspected she was right about him having an apple just for the joke. “Go ahead then.”

Focusing on the apple, Eva tried to change the gravity of the apple upward but only slightly. It fell at full force to the ceiling with a thunk. She sighed. “I think I can only change the directions.”

“You can’t just give it one try and give it up,” Stark argued. “What do you do to change directions?”

Eva shrugged. “I just think of gravity pulling it in a different direction and it does.”

“There’s more to gravity than the direction of its force.” Stark rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Okay, so instead of thinking of a different direction, think of it in a different way. You want to turn down the force in which gravity is pulling the apple.”

“So maybe think of it like a dial instead of a switch?” Eva asked, finding herself excited again to experiment with her powers like she was in the subway.

Stark grinned at her. “Exactly.” 

Turning back to the now bruised apple in her hand, Eva focused on it again but this time she visualized a dial and turned it down. For a moment she felt the weight of the apple lessen in her hand before it fell toward the ceiling and smashed against the tiles overhead.

“I think it worked for a second!” Eva exclaimed and grabbed a wrench this time to try again. 

“That’s the spirit, Newton.” 

After a few more tries, Eva was able to make the wrench float between them like how she saw in videos of astronauts living in space. “Alright, got enough juice to try it on the suit now?” Stark asked once she placed the wrench back on the table.

“Now it comes out why you signed those guardianship papers,” she posited. 

“Ah, yes, that’s been my evil plan this entire time. Take in the homeless enhanced teenage girl so I can run experiments on my suits,” he said sardonically.

“Just tell me what to do,” she said, trying to evade his annoying sarcasm.

“How long do you think you can hold it in zero gravity?” he asked. 

Eva considered it for a moment. “Probably no more than a few minutes,” she told him honestly. 

“Then this may be a multiple night experiment. Let’s get started.”

With a deep breath, Eva touched the suit and imagined turning the gravity down like a knob again and it successfully floated to eye level when she nudged it upward. “Nice work Newton,” Stark complimented, and Eva tried not to feel proud of herself. 

While Stark fiddled with some of the controls and tested some of the basic features, Eva focused on keeping the suit at zero gravity as long as possible. She closed her eyes and let her brain rest while she only focused on the suit, until he stopped her a few minutes later.

“Okay, go ahead and let it down,” Stark said as he turned and walked back toward his main workbench. “Let’s go over what we’ve found with that experiment. I could use that gravitational knowledge, Newton.”

“Please don’t tell me that you’re going to call me that all the time.”

“Galileo is too much of a mouthful, and I didn’t have any cannonballs or feathers handy for the joke,” he told her, as he waved a hand and projected images onto the workbench. “I’m sure I’ll come up with a couple other versions of Sir Isaac Newton.” 

Eva walked over ready to join him, but she suddenly stopped in her tracks. Her eyes froze on the pictures projected on Stark’s workbench. The first was one of the aliens that had invaded New York. One that looked just like those that trapped Eva and her sister in that alleyway. The next was the gliders they rode on. The last pictured something she had never seen before: it almost looked like an enormous ship in outer space with something flying at the ship. There was a fuzzy circle, framing the scene and she realized that that was what Stark saw through the wormhole, looking deep into space.

Stark noticed that she was frozen and quickly closed the pictures. Eva barely registered that he had come over in front of her. Her eyes were still glued to the workbench where the pictures had just been. Suddenly, Stark’s face was in the way and she was forced to refocus. Eva didn’t realize he was trying to talk to her. Her chest felt weird and there was a buzzing in her ears that didn’t make sense. She couldn’t hear what Stark was saying. His lips were moving but she could only hear the buzzing. Was she losing her hearing? Was she dying? What was happening?

Eva felt her hand tugged away from where it was clutching at her shirt. Stark placed it on his own chest and she could feel his heart beating. It was a fast beat, but it was steady. She felt his chest rising up and down slowly, his heartbeat slowing with it. Finally, she heard something outside of the buzzing. “Good, kid.” It was Stark’s face. “Can you hear me?” Eva looked up at him. His eyes were wide, but his voice remained calm. “Can you hear me?” he repeated, and Eva nodded. “Good, now tell me five things you can see.”

“What?” Eva croaked. When had her throat gotten so dry?

“Just tell me about five things you can see.”

Eva looked around. “You, the suit, the table, the robot, that ratchet wrench on the ground.”

“Good,” he praised gently. “Now tell me about four things you can feel.”

“The ground, your heartbeat, your breathing, my breathing.”

“That’s right. Now three things you can hear.”

Eva shook her head a little to clear the rest of the buzzing in her ears and tried to listen for anything in the room. “The robot moving, the air conditioning, my heartbeat.”

“Okay,” he continued, relaxing his grip on her hand that was still placed on his chest over his heart. “Two things you can smell.”

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, it was clear almost immediately. “Coffee and oil.”

“Now, tell me how the Chinese food from dinner tasted?”

“Sweet and salty,” Eva said, quickly recalling the orange chicken she had.

“How do you feel?” he asked, placing her hand in her lap and letting go.

“Tired,” Eva admitted, slumping back onto the leg of the secondary workbench behind her. “What happened?”

“You had a panic attack. Have you had one before?”

Eva shook her head slowly. “I don’t think so, not like that.” She’d had plenty of hysterical moments in the months after losing her family, usually after her nightmares, but she had been so busy during the days in the Underground or in the warehouse that she had never felt this sad or scared before. It was terrifying to be that vulnerable and have no control over her mind. 

“DUM-E, stop hovering and go get a cup of water,” Stark told the robot that had been whirring nearby. It returned a moment later with a half-filled cup of water that Stark took from it and handed it to Eva. As Stark scolded the bot for spilling the other half of the water all over the floor, Eva took a few more deep breaths and let the cool water cascade down her throat. 

Stark returned and joined her again on the floor. “How did you know what to do?” Eva asked him. 

“I work with superheroes. Panic attacks aren’t rare around here,” he told her simply and she didn’t push. “Wanna talk about it? That usually helps too.”

“Talk about that day with the guy who made it so terrible?” she snapped. 

Stark opened his mouth and it looked like he would return the quip, but when he met her eyes, Eva watched his mouth close. His eyes fell away from hers and he squeezed his hands into fists and set his face to a neutral expression. “Fair enough,” Stark said simply. 

Eva instantly felt regretful for lashing out. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. 

“Please, please don’t apologize to me,” came Stark’s voice, with an edge, but Eva didn’t look up at him. 

They sat in silence. Eva looked at her hands as the silence started to suffocate her. Before she knew it, she was talking to fill it. “I guess I haven’t really seen those things for a while and it freaked me out. I haven’t even had a dream about them for a year or so. I’m kinda surprised that I reacted like that after so long. Maybe the stuff from the last few months made it hit me worse…?” Stark didn’t say anything in response, and she kept staring at her hands, not really seeing them. “Why were you looking at them?”

“Research,” he said. “I need to know as much as I can about them to try to stop them if they come again.”

Eva turned her head up with a terrified expression. “Come again?” she repeated.

Stark broke out of his stare and gave her a confident grin that she noticed didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You don’t have to worry about that. I’ve been working on a few plans. That’s what your hated Avengers are for anyway.”

“You’re going to try to stop them?” she whispered. 

“Not try,” he told her, his face hardened. “I will.” As Eva considered what it must feel like to try to protect the entire planet from intergalactic threats, Stark rose from the floor and offered her a hand. She accepted it. “I think that’s enough serious talk for tonight. It’s probably well past time to head to bed.” 

He started to move her toward the door, but Eva stopped. “Could I maybe stay for a while?” she asked, unable to meet his eye. “I don’t really want to go back yet.”

Stark squeezed her shoulder and agreed without a pause. “Of course, Newton. Let’s get this place cleaned up and then you can help me with these calculations.”

A few hours later, Eva crawled into bed and slept without dreams for a few hours before breakfast.

Chapter Text

Chapter 28

That week Eva helped Stark continue to run tests on the Iron Man armor in zero gravity, getting more used to using her new power as they did. Dr. Banner even joined in during some of the earlier parts of the night. Eva was proud that she could keep up somewhat with some of the discussions about physics in a vacuum. Dr. Banner said he was impressed with her knowledge and gave her a few new books to read, which she excitedly began to read in her downtime. Stark didn’t say anything, but his now frequent use of the “Newton” nickname was strangely encouraging to her. 

One night after Dr. Banner had left and Eva had used up all of her energy to continue their gravity experiments, Eva was helping Stark assemble a large boot for this new mysterious suit. Her mind kept wandering back to what had happened in the lab when she experienced a panic attack for the first time. She had some questions, but she didn’t want to ask him. Maybe she could break into his computer when he wasn’t looking, or maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing to actually ask him about it. Eva felt conflicted about bringing it up to the one man who would know the answer and also the one man who had caused her so much pain, and Stark noticed. 

“Newt.” He waved a screwdriver in front of her face, jolting her out of her deep thoughts. “Delicate stuff going on here. A couple million dollars sitting on the table.”

“What?” Eva said, instinctively taking a step away from the table. 

“There she is.” He pointed at the piece that she was supposed to be holding still. “Just need a few more seconds.”

Eva stepped back up to the workbench and held the piece in place while he screwed it on and soldered along the edge. When he finished, Stark looked up at her curiously. “What’s got you staring off into space?”

“Is this thing really worth that much?” Eva asked, trying to change the subject. 

“This part?” Stark considered it. “Probably not. Maybe worth a couple pizzas,” he joked, turning to throw the tools on the workbench. 

Eva picked up the tools and walked over to a drawer to return them to their proper places. “And how much do you think a pizza is?”

He shrugged. “They’re going for a couple hundred now, right?” Eva genuinely couldn’t tell if he was being serious. “You’re not getting out of this,” he added, walking over to the kitchenette on the other side of the room and pressed a button to make a cup of coffee. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, feigning ignorance, while putting away the last of the tools and then sinking down onto the couch.

“I can tell you’ve got something you want to ask me, so get it over with,” he said as he sat next to her and handed her a cold soda while he sipped on a steaming cup of coffee.

Eva took a gulp of the soda and a deep breath before she let the words spill out of her mouth. “What did the aliens actually want and why are they coming back?”

Stark let out a breathy chuckle. “Alright, I see why you didn’t want to bring that up.” He leaned back against the couch and gazed up at the ceiling. “The short answer is that Thor’s brother wanted to get a very powerful item from Earth and brought along an army of aliens in the process to try to take over the world.”

Eva sat with that for a moment before asking, “And the long answer?”

Stark glanced her way briefly. “You don’t need to know the long answer, kid. Leave that to me.”

Eva’s anger flared unexpectedly. “I’m not a kid and I think I deserve answers since they are the reason I’m here in the first place.”

Sitting back up to look at her fully, Stark’s eyebrows angled downward, matching her frustration. “First, you may have graduated from child, but you definitely still are a kid, even if you don’t feel like it. I’ll gladly admit you’ve been through some shit that no one at your age should, but that doesn’t magically make you an adult that needs to deal with adult problems.” Eva opened her mouth to retaliate, but he continued. “But, you’re right that you do deserve a little more explanation.

“Thor’s brother, Loki, came to New York to use the arc reactor that powers this Tower. It was the only thing on Earth that had enough energy to open the wormhole where the Chitari came through. We tried to stop him, but we were too late by the time we got here.”

That’s why it happened in Manhattan then. Eva hadn’t known why, and the explanation was still somehow Stark’s fault. “Did the government really fire a nuke at New York after that?” she asked quietly. 

He sighed heavily and leaned back again with a pained look on his face. “Yes, they did.”

“And you took it through the wormhole?” she asked. 

He took longer to respond this time and his voice was a little shaky when he did. “Yes.”

“So we all would have been dead if…”

Stark turned his head toward her. “Trust me kid, I’ve played through just about every way that day could have gone in my head. Many of which were not great for the entire city or the entire world, but I learned the hard way that you shouldn’t dwell on the ‘what ifs’.”

She had never seen his expression so dark and haunted. “Do you think about it a lot?”

He gestured to the projects they had been working on in the lab. “Of course,” he admitted. “How could I not?”

“And you really think they’re coming back?” Eva’s voice came out more hesitant than she would have liked. 

Stark reached out and squeezed her hand briefly before standing up. “I shouldn’t have told you that.”

“But you did,” Eva pointed out. “And I want to know.”

He turned and considered her for a moment. “Honestly, there’s a lot we don’t know about why they invaded Earth and why Loki was after what he was after, so I really can’t say for sure if they’ll be back. But I know we need to be ready if they do come again.”

“What’s your plan?” she asked as she stood up and followed him to his workbench.

“Started with making a ton of suits, but that didn’t work out,” he told her as he placed his cup on the table and waved his hands. A blue glow lit his tired face as he pulled up some ideas projected in front of them. “I’ve been considering a few more options.”

Eva stood next to him and leveled her gaze, determined. “How can I help?”

As Eva returned to her room that night, she found herself playing over that conversation in her head. She had known that the aliens were a huge threat to the Earth and she had considered what might have happened if the Avengers hadn’t succeeded, but she didn’t really realize just how much they had done to ensure everyone’s safety – just how much Stark himself had sacrificed to save New York City and the world. Losing her family that day had made her pretty blind to reason, and Mr. Graves had said a lot of things that made sense at the time but not anymore. Maybe she had been a little too harsh on Stark.

The next week moved by similarly to the last few months, but Eva entered the lab earlier and earlier each night, and by the end of the week she was walking there with Stark after dinner. The air in the lab was warmer too, not physically, but there were more jokes and laughter and a general easiness in the air. Eva was shocked that it was so easy to spend time with the man who she had ardently hated for so long. Somehow she was slowly starting to actually forgive him and maybe even like him. 

Stark was reaching out more and more too. At the end of the week he even joined her at the Worthy Apartments and did a sort of meet and greet with some of the residents. Eva found herself annoyed with his general aloof and unbothered attitude around everyone there, but she was able to look past that when she saw how excited the community was to meet him and talk to him. She had originally worried that they would berate him like she had, but everyone was so grateful that it seemed like she wasn’t the only one willing to start changing their mindset about him and the Avengers. Once the kids started asking questions, Stark lightened up and seemed a little more open to the residents. At the end, he admitted that it had been a fun outing. 

“A few more minutes, Newt,” Tony told the kid as he and Bruce finished their last calculations for the repulsors against zero gravity. 

“Gotcha,” Newton responded quietly, sitting in her usual place at the workbench with her eyes closed. Tony watched her carefully out of the corner of his eye. He had noticed that if they went too long, she started furrowing her brow and pushing against her temples. Bruce told him that it was likely she got headaches or experienced some kind of uncomfortable feelings as she attempted to manipulate gravity for longer periods of time. She never complained or stopped until he said to stop, so he had to watch out for any signs and end the experiment once he saw them. The kid was building endurance though, and they were going longer and longer each session. This time they had been going for nearly half an hour and there were no signs of pain. He took a mental note to ask her more about the pain associated with her powers in the future when she was ready to talk about it. 

Tony turned back to the suit that was now easily propelling itself around the room. With a few taps on the StarkTab in his hand, the suit slowly made its way back to the workbench between him and Bruce. “You got everything you need?” Tony asked him. 

Bruce didn’t get to respond before JARVIS interrupted. “Sir, Ms. Potts is about to enter the lab.” Tony only had a moment to look up at Bruce’s expression of shock that he was sure was mirrored on his own before the lab door slid open. 

Pepper strode through the door, and Tony felt the breath knocked out of his lungs instantly. Her hair was down today instead of in its usual ponytail. She was wearing one of those skirts that accentuated the curve of her hips. Telltale clicks of her stilettos echoed through the room as she approached. The anger on her beautiful face only made his heart rate increase more. 

“Tony.” Her voice was clipped. It was clear that all of those ignored emails had sent her over the edge. He wasn’t sure if his heart was racing in his chest from fear of her anger or just from seeing her again. “You can’t ignore your company any-”

A loud clang made all of them jump in surprise as the Iron Man suit fell to the workbench. Newt swiveled around on her stool with eyes wide in shock and awe. Tony couldn’t blame her. Pepper was radiant as always. 

The anger from Pepper’s face melted slightly when she saw Newt, a thirteen year old girl, in his private lab. Then he saw her confusion intensify as she found Bruce standing across from him. Tony had never let anyone into his lab other than her and occasionally Rhodey. Pepper’s gaze returned to Newt, and Tony could see her brain whirring to try to understand what was happening.

“Ah, Pepper,” Tony said, trying to feel the nonchalance that he was forcing into his tone of voice. “So nice of you to drop by unannounced. I’ll get you an answer to those emails as soon as I can. I’ll even tell JARVIS to make them sound professional.” Tony couldn’t help a bit of malicious sarcasm slip through. He felt anger flair in his chest, knowing that Pepper was probably assuming the worst about the teenager in his home. 

Pepper shot him a glare, but didn’t retaliate yet as she turned to Newt. Tony decided to beat her to the punch. “Newt, this is Pepper Potts,” he introduced quickly as he turned away to shut down the suit and his equipment. Bruce was hastily busying himself as well. “Pepper, this is Newt.”

Tony heard Pepper’s voice take on a kind tone for Newt, and he couldn’t keep his heart from swelling a little. He could trust that Pepper would put aside any hatred she had for him to be welcoming to Newt. “Hi, I’m guessing that ‘Newt’ isn’t your real name?” she asked. 

“It’s not.” Tony turned around to catch the kid smiling at Pepper as she shook her hand. “My name is Eva. It’s an honor to meet you Ms. Potts.”

“Honored?” Tony retorted. “She gets an ‘honored’?”

“She deserves it,” Eva told him matter-of-factly. “You don’t.” 

Tony saw Pepper’s eyebrows shoot up and he felt a surge of pride for having built something of a relationship with Newt in front of Pepper. 

“Let’s go set up dinner, Eva,” Bruce interjected as he glanced between Tony and Pepper.  “Nice to see you Pepper.” 

“Glad to see you’re doing well, Bruce,” Pepper told him earnestly. Bruce nodded and crossed the room toward the kid. Newt caught the hint and left with him after telling Pepper goodbye. 

As soon as the door swished shut, Pepper turned on him. “Tony, what is going on?”

Tony didn’t turn from his StarkTab, entering the final numbers from their experiment even though it was cut short. “Listen, why don’t you just release the newest StarkPhones without me? I’m sure the R&D team did fine. I’ve got a lot on my plate right now.”

He heard her let out a frustrated sigh as she came around to the other side of the workbench to face him. “Why is there a kid in your lab, Tony?” she demanded. 

“Just for fun, Pepper,” Tony told her, his tone heavy with sarcasm. “You know how much I adore kids.” He didn’t have to see her face to know that he was dancing too close to the edge. “Listen, Pepper, we agreed to keep our personal lives to ourselves and to only talk about business. The kid is personal.” Finally he lifted his gaze to hers, almost immediately regretting it when he saw the hurt there. “Do you have some business to discuss?”

The hurt turned to anger in a flash. “I’d say you having a secret kid in your lab is a risk to the company if the press even gets a whiff of it, so I think it’s well within my rights to ask about her.”

“I’ve got that under control,” Tony told her, having difficulty keeping his own anger at bay. 

“Tony, you’ve always had trouble keeping your personal life away from the press,” Pepper pointed out, none too kindly. “Usually, I don’t care too much about your… escapades getting to the public, but a kid is very different.” There was a pause while Tony attempted to take a few deep breaths and Pepper hesitated. “Is she your kid?”

“No!” Tony exclaimed, putting down the StarkTab with a little too much force. “Of course she’s not mine. Did you see her?”

“I don’t know, Tony,” Pepper returned, exasperated. “She’s around the right age for that kind of thing and she’s in your lab!” Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. “You never let anyone into your lab, so she has to be someone important.”

“She is important and she’s going to be living in the Tower for a while, and that’s all you need to know,” Tony told her firmly, hoping that would end the conversation, but of course Pepper had more to say. 

“Living in the Tower? You have a kid living in this Tower? The same one that was destroyed by a space lunatic and an army of aliens a year and a half ago?”

“If I had any other choice, I would have taken it, but this is the safest place for that kid!” Tony was losing his composure completely now that she had brought up the Invasion. 

“Tony, there are so many other options-”

“Pepper!” Tony shouted. “You left! You walked out, so you don’t get a say in this. If she interferes with the company, you can come yell at me then.” Tony pointed forcefully in the direction Newt left the room for emphasis. “Right now, that kid is none of your business. Talk to me about the company or get out!”

Breathing heavily, he watched as Pepper crumpled for such a brief moment that he was sure he’d imagined it. Then she straightened and the strong façade was back in place, stronger than before. “I did walk out and I’ll do it again because it’s clear to me every time I see you that you’re not ready to take your life seriously, and there’s nothing I can do about it.” 

With that, Pepper turned on her heel and marched out of the room. When the door closed behind her, Tony crossed the room and pulled the decanter of scotch that he had hidden in the cabinet above the refrigerator. Instead of pouring a glass, he tossed the crystal cork aside forcefully and took a swig from the decanter directly. If he wasn’t taking his life seriously, then he’d lean into it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 29

Stark didn’t come out for dinner. Bruce went to go check on him but came back shaking his head. “I think he needs some time alone tonight.”

Ms. Potts had exited the penthouse a few minutes after Eva and Bruce had left the lab. Eva thought she seemed upset, but she kindly said her goodbyes and made an excuse when Bruce invited her to stay for dinner. It didn’t take much to figure out that things hadn’t gone well after they had left them alone. 

Eva ate with Bruce and he even stayed and watched a movie with her. After the movie, Eva could tell that he was conflicted about leaving her alone, but she reassured him that she was okay and that she was planning on going to bed soon anyway. He was sufficiently convinced and left shortly after. 

Trying not to think about Stark, Eva grabbed a book and sat out on the balcony to enjoy the summer night. She managed to distract herself for a few hours before reluctantly heading to her bedroom. Eva was surprised that she felt so disappointed there wasn’t going to be time in the lab tonight. Pacing the length of her room, she couldn’t bring herself to try to go to sleep, scared of what terrors her brain would conjure up without being exhausted by the work in the lab.

Without realizing, she found herself standing in front of the Stark’s lab. As she turned to leave for her bedroom, Eva heard the distinct sound of the Iron Man repulsors firing. She returned to the door, but it did not open as it usually did for her. 

“I apologize, Ms. Moore,” came JARVIS’ voice. “I believe Mr. Stark would not like you seeing him in his current state.”

Eva felt her stomach drop. What was he doing in there? Using the repulsors while drunk or high on whatever drug rich people do would not end well. “Let me in, JARVIS.”

“I cannot,” JARVIS replied. 

Crossing her arms and glaring at the ceiling where she imagined JARVIS watched from, she dug in. “He told you not to let me in?”

There was a pause. “There were no explicit instructions, but I am designed to anticipate Mr. Stark’s needs and desires-”

“So you are technically allowed to let me in,” Eva argued. 

“Technically, there are no rules against it,” JARVIS agreed. 

“Stark obviously needs help sobering up. There’s no one else here. So let me in.” There was another long pause. Eva was preparing her next argument when the door slid open.

Carefully crossing the lab, Eva watched as Stark took a swig of amber liquid from a crystal bottle while holding up his other hand to aim the repulsor at one of the Iron Man helmets. His shot hit the surface of the workbench and tools went flying. Stark cursed profusely as he shook off the gauntlet and took another deep gulp from the bottle. 

Eva approached carefully, not making a sound until she was able to grab the gauntlet and yank it off his hand. “Hey!” Stark protested with a slight slur to his speech. 

Though she was only thirteen, Eva was no stranger to drunk people. She was overly grateful that he hadn’t taken anything stronger. There had been a rule in the Underground of no alcohol or drugs, but sometimes people would return from the city in a state. The community would take care of them for the night and then they would have a strike against them. Mr. Graves would kick them out after the third strike. Eva had understood the importance of the rules, but still felt bad for those that depended on the alcohol. It really seemed like they wanted to stop but couldn’t. Looking back it was pretty cruel to send them out into the street without any help. 

Though Stark was probably drinking something that was worth a thousand dollars, the effects were the same. “Stark, time to go to bed,” she said with a forceful voice. “Give me the bottle.”

“It’s a decanter,” he countered pettily. 

Eva rolled her eyes. “Whatever, give it to me.”

“Sorry kid, you’re too young to join in.”

“I’m not going to drink it, idiot. I’m taking it away from you because you’re acting more like a child than I have in years.” 

Stark looked her straight in the eyes and took another long swallow in defiance. In exasperation, Eva went to grab it, but Stark pulled it away. He wasn’t quick enough and her fingers brushed the crystal before he got it away from her. Eva smirked and the bottle slipped from his hands and fell toward the ceiling. However, Eva hadn’t taken into consideration that the bottle was bottom heavy and turned over in the air, spraying both of them with the alcohol. After they were thoroughly soaked, the bottle fell back into Stark’s lap.

“That was a 20-year-old single… single, malt Macallan,” Stark sputtered. 

Eva definitely felt guilty, because knowing Stark, she just spilled a few thousand dollars on the floor. “Well, you should have handed it over if you liked it so much,” she told him, pulling him off the couch. 

Stark was mumbling about the scotch as Eva heaved him out of the lab. She had to lighten the pull of gravity on him to get him up the steps. As they were walking down the hallway, he fell quiet. Eva thanked JARVIS as they reached Stark’s room that already had the doors open and lights on. 

Eva unceremoniously dumped Stark onto his bed and yanked off his shoes, throwing them to the side. “Lie on your side, idiot,” she commanded, but he only continued to stare at the ceiling blankly. Cursing under her breath, Eva crossed to the side of the bed and tugged him into a side lying position. “There, now go to sleep.”

She turned to leave, but stopped when she heard his quiet voice. “She doesn’t think I take my life seriously,” he muttered. “But she has no idea how much I do to make it seem like I don’t take it seriously.” 

Seeing him in this state after meeting Ms. Potts made her feel sorry for him. Though he had all the money and fame in the world, Stark only had his coworker and a thirteen-year-old kid to keep him company. Maybe getting in a fight with his beautiful and successful ex-girlfriend was not easy on him. 

With a deep sigh, Eva returned to his bedside and bent down next to him. “I’m only going to tell you this because you won’t remember in the morning, but…” She rolled her eyes and steeled herself to say something nice to him. “You’ve got a little bit of my respect.” His eyes met hers and she prayed that he really wouldn’t remember this. “Not a lot of it, but some,” she clarified quickly. “And definitely not my forgiveness, but I can see that you’re doing your best with everything you’ve got to deal with and… you’re doing a good job.”

Stark’s gaze bore into hers with a strange intensity that didn’t match the unfocused look that was there moments before after she finished. Eva was about to pull away when he finally responded. “I don’t believe you.”

She snorted at how childish he sounded. “I’m only saying this because you’re wasted. I would never admit this to you otherwise.” Eva stood to leave. “Go to sleep and you better forget about this in the morning.” He was snoring by the time she reached the door. Before she left, she made sure to leave a cup of water and two aspirin next to his bed and pull the blankets over him haphazardly. 

Eva couldn’t sleep still and after trying to read and wandering the penthouse a few times, she ended back in the lab. She spent the next three hours cleaning and organizing everything until she fully exhausted herself and fell into bed.

Tony was surprised when he woke from a dreamless sleep the next day, but it became clear when his head throbbed painfully and his stomach turned. “Good afternoon, Mr. Stark,” came JARVIS’ voice. He was thankful that he had previously programmed the AI to lower his volume when Tony woke in this state, but somehow it was still too loud. 

Groaning, Tony opened his eyes and took time to adjust to the darkness in the room. “What time is it, JARVIS?” he croaked, his mouth and throat dry. 

“It is currently one sixteen in the afternoon.”

Tony turned over and saw a glass of water and two pills on his nightstand. In his fog, he couldn’t figure out who would have left it for him, but he popped the pills and sucked down the water without another thought. As he lay on his back staring at the ceiling waiting for the meds to kick in, he started to recall some of what he had done the night before. “What’s the damage, JARVIS?” 

“No significant monetary damage, unless you count a few burn marks on the wall of the lab, damage,” JARVIS replied. “It seems to be your preferred décor in the lab, so it will only blend in to the others.”

Tony was relieved that there wasn’t too much damage, so that he wouldn’t have to explain anything to the kid, but that relief was short-lived as JARVIS continued. “Ms. Moore cleaned up the rest of the mess.”

Sitting up in the bed too quickly, Tony cursed and held onto his head. “Why was she in there?”

“She requested to enter and she has clearance,” JARVIS replied like it was no problem. 

Tony continued to curse as shame washed over him and settled deep in his stomach. “What exactly did she see, JARVIS?” Tony let his head fall into his hands. 

“I believe that it would be beneficial if I showed you the footage, sir,” JARVIS suggested. 

With a sigh, Tony agreed. A video of the lab popped onto the screen, and Tony had to rub his eyes to be able to see the bright screen clearly. He watched as the kid swiftly disarmed him and they fought over the decanter of scotch. He groaned as Newt supported him all the way to the bedroom and dumped him onto his bed. What was said next left him feeling numb. 

You’re doing a good job.

He didn’t know how to feel. He was so ashamed of his own behavior but so overwhelmingly happy to know that despite his drunkenness, she didn’t disrespect him and actually appreciated what he was doing. Though she wasn’t actively trying to kill him or steal his stuff, Tony thought that she at least still hated his guts. 

Fully overpowered by emotions, Tony did what he did best and pushed them aside. After a shower and two more cups of water, he was feeling more like himself. One thing he promised himself after seeing that footage is that he owed the kid better. He would never drink in front of her again, no matter what Pepper said or did to him. No matter how empty he felt after seeing her, Tony could never do that to the kid again. 

Feeling determined, Tony was ready to face Newt until JARVIS had to go and ruin his mood before he left his room. 

“Ms. Potts has left you three messages today, sir. Would you like to hear them now?”

Tony just waved it off. “No. Remind me later tonight.”

Newt treated him as she had for the last few weeks, aloof and slightly annoyed but with the occasional joke and laugh. She did not bring up anything that happened last night and Tony appreciated it. They went about their day as usual, ending up in the lab after dinner to finish up their experiment on the suit with Bruce. 

Once Bruce left, Tony took a deep breath and decided to try to talk to the kid. “Newt, I’m sorry about last night.”

“No problem,” she replied without looking up from her work he had given her to put together a few easy pieces and she was taking it very seriously. 

“It won’t happen again,” he promised. 

At that, she met his gaze and assessed him for a moment. “Okay,” was her simple reply. With that they moved on, but Tony knew it was enough. 

About an hour later, JARVIS interrupted them. “Sir, Ms. Potts has left you two more messages and I recommend you listen to the most recent one.”

Newt met his eyes with a questioning and hesitant expression. He smirked, hoping to reassure her that he was keen on keeping his promise. “I’ll take the message in my room.” He began to cross the lab. “There’s no twenty thousand dollar scotch for you to spill in there, Newt, don’t worry.”

He heard the kid spluttering as he left, which made him chuckle until he got to his room. JARVIS played the latest voicemail from Pepper. “Tony, I don’t know if you’ve gotten any of these. You’ve probably put them off like the emails. JARVIS, please just play him this next part.” Tony could hear her stop to take a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Tony. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about the girl. Of course I know that you’re doing the right thing and I shouldn’t have doubted you. I was just angry at you and I still am, but I want to help. Please call me and tell me what’s going on.”

The voicemail ended and Tony sat heavily on the side of the bed. This was almost definitely going to muddy his relationship with Pepper, but he did need help with the kid. From the beginning, Tony knew Pepper was the one who could help the most. 

“Tony?” came Pepper’s voice a few minutes later when he finally pressed call. “You got my message?”

“You were smart to appeal to my AI’s emotional side.” She laughed lightly on the other end and Tony’s heart squeezed. “So, you’ve got me on the phone, late at night, while I’m laying in bed. Are you in bed too?” 

“Tony,” Pepper said with warning. 

“What are you wearing?” he asked suggestively. “That silky number?”

“I’m wearing my stained Stark Industries t-shirt and shorts,” Pepper said easily. 

“You're still wearing my name on your pajamas? Well now you’ve got my full attention.” Tony said it in a joking tone, but truthfully he missed seeing her in shorts with no shoes on, more than seeing her in any lingerie, though he wouldn’t mind the lingerie either. 

“That’s enough, Tony,” she scolded him, but Tony could hear the smile in her voice. Then, her tone turned serious. “Tell me about Eva.”

Tony sighed. “You just love getting to the point.” He dove into the story, finding it easy and comforting to share with Pepper. She always asked the right questions whenever he spoke to her and listened to every word, even interpreting the words that he didn’t say. It wasn't any different as he conveyed the events that led to meeting the kid. She was equally shocked and infuriated when she heard how the maniac tried to kill her and about the people living in the abandoned subway system. When he finished, she was quiet. 

“Still think the Tower is a bad place for her?” he asked, trying not to sound too condescending. 

Pepper, ever-patient with him, blew out a breath before responding. “No, you’re right. God, Tony,” she exhaled. “This is such a mess. An enhanced teen, who blames you for killing her family, is living with you?”

“I think we both know that she was destined to cause me a lot of problems in a few years. I couldn’t just let her go out in the world with that sort of resentment and that much raw power.”

“I know, Tony. I know more than anyone.” They both sat in silence, unwillingly recalling the terrifying situations that were caused by people with less power and animosity for Tony. “Is that the only reason you took her in?” Pepper asked him quietly. 

“No,” Tony admitted. “I wanted to repay her for what I’d done. I thought it was the least I could do.”

“Tony, her family’s death is Loki’s fault, not yours, even the sister.”

Tony changed the topic. “She’s a good kid. Once she’s caught up with school, I’m sure we can find a family we can trust to take her in.”

“How long do you think that will take?”

“Ten more months or so,” Tony guessed. “She likes learning and doing her homework and does extra work, so she might be even faster.” 

“I can’t believe I thought she was related to you,” Pepper joked. 

“No kid of mine will ever go above and beyond.” 

There was a few minutes of silence before Pepper asked the question that hung in the air. “How can I help her, Tony?”

He couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face. “I hate to admit any faults, but I don’t know much about teenage girl clothing or fashion.”

“And thank God for that.” Tony’s smile grew when he heard her laugh again. “I think I can help with that. Maybe I’ll come make dinner a few days a week too. I can’t imagine you’re feeding her anything other than take out.”

“Bruce makes us eat Mediterranean take out once a week.”

Pepper sighed. “Yeah, I’ll start coming by a couple times. I’m going to Japan for a week to solidify that deal but I’ll take her shopping when I get back.”

“You’re doing a deal in Japan without running it by me first? You should really send me an email next time. Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing her in something other than a stained t-shirt and ripped jeans.”

“Tony.” Pepper’s tone turned serious. “This all needs to stay strictly platonic between us. I’m coming to help Eva and that’s it.”

Squeezing his eyes shut. “So you’re not going to tell me about your silk lingerie?”

“No Tony.”

“I mean, it could be beneficial for me to learn about fashion for the kid.”

“Goodnight Tony.”

“Goodnight Pepper.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 30

A few days later, Eva was walking up Park Avenue, heading back to the Tower after spending the afternoon at the Worthy Apartments. Usually, Stark insisted on having one of his drivers pick her up and bring her back, but she was able to convince him to let her walk back because it was a beautiful day. Stark had caved pretty easily, stating he had some important stuff going on and he would be busy until the afternoon. It had worked out well, because she was now heading back earlier than expected. The residents were having a building meeting and she didn’t need to be there. 

It was nice to walk through the city alone again. Eva agreed to Stark’s rules, but she didn’t realize how much she missed the city itself. She and Chloe had spent so much time wandering the streets of Manhattan and the surrounding neighborhoods, and now she was driven around without ever having to walk the streets. 

She was gazing up at the Tower, standing on a corner of an intersection just a few blocks away when she heard a bicycle bell ring to her immediate left. Automatically, she stepped out of the way, but she saw a car ready to turn, right where the cyclist was heading. Eva didn’t have time to think and reached out her hand and grabbed onto the cyclist’s arm. 

Switching the gravity backward, Eva and the cyclist fell backward as the bicycle went gliding into the intersection. Eva barely had time to register a squeal and crunch of the bike before she crashed into a wrought iron fence. 

Eva shook her head and scrambled away from the fence to see if the cyclist was okay. She didn’t need to take a closer look because the cyclist jumped up immediately and ran toward his smashed bike, now wedged halfway under the car. Eva attempted to get to her feet as the cyclist began to yell at the driver, but she gasped, her hands flying to her right side. Her hands came away wet with blood and her pulse quickened. A pedestrian was approaching. “Are you okay? Were you hit by the car? It almost looked like you flew!” 

Eva’s head snapped up at the comment and her pain suddenly seemed unimportant. “I’m fine,” she said, trying to sound confident, but her voice came out shaky. “You should check on the cyclist. They were hit, I think.”

When the pedestrian turned to look at the cyclist who was still in a confrontation with the driver, Eva took the opportunity to run down the street and duck into an alleyway. Breathing heavily, she forced her tears down. That wouldn’t help right now. It was a stupid, stupid thing to do. That person had seen her use her powers in broad daylight. She hadn’t even stuck around long enough to see if anyone else had seen. “What an idiot!” Eva berated, but she didn’t get to wallow long when pain shot through her side.

She peeked under her shirt to see a growing bruise and a large gash. Eva had hit the wrought iron fence hard with the cyclist squashing her into it. On a more careful inspection, the gash wasn’t that deep and she wasn’t bleeding too badly. Chloe was working by now and she was all the way in Hell’s Kitchen. She wouldn’t make it there without someone seeing the blood and what could Chloe do to help while she was working? She couldn’t risk her job. Things were going so well for her. 

Taking an unsteady breath, Eva straightened and strode back out into the sidewalk. Using side streets, Eva slowly made her way back to the Tower. Stark said he was busy and she was going to get back earlier than he expected, so she should be able to head up to the penthouse and find a first aid kit without seeing him. She would just have to be careful when she was around anyone and make sure they didn’t see her wince or anything. 

Eva was surprised at how painstakingly long it took for her to delicately walk the last few blocks. Entering through the garage, she finally slumped to the ground when she made it into the elevator. As the elevator shot up toward the top of the Tower, Eva prayed to whatever deity might be out there that she could take care of this without stitches or needing a doctor. 

When the elevator doors opened, Eva groaned as she pulled herself upright but froze midway out of the open doors. Stark was sitting on the couch and he wasn’t alone. Dr. Banner sat on the other end of the couch and two other figures sat on nearby chairs facing away from her. 

“This was bound to happen at some point,” Stark said with a sigh as he rose off the couch. “Newton, I thought you weren’t going to be back for a few hours or I would have given you a heads up.”

“There was a meeting so I came back early,” she explained, intent on getting out of there as quickly as possible. “I’ll just go clean up really quick.” Eva tried to hold her hands at her side casually, while her elbow squeezed into her side to keep anyone from seeing any blood. She sidled over toward the hallway.

“Tony, why is there a kid in your penthouse,” came a familiar voice from behind Stark. Eva glanced up at the guests Stark was entertaining and froze on the spot. Captain America and Black Widow were wearing casual clothing, lounging on plush armchairs, and looking at Eva curiously. Eva cursed in her head. This situation was getting more difficult to get out of by the second. 

Stark swung an arm around Eva’s shoulders and she stifled a gasp of pain. “Come on, Newt. They won’t bite,” he said as he led her over to the couch where he was sitting before. He then reconsidered his statement. “Well, at least Cap won’t bite. Can’t promise anything for the spider.”

The Black Widow gave Stark a deathly glare that would have struck fear into anyone’s heart, but Stark simply ignored it and plopped Eva down on the couch next to Bruce who gave her a sympathetic smile. Eva hoped her grimace of pain was well disguised as her not wanting to be in this situation, which was true, injury or not. 

“Tony, you still haven’t explained.” Captain America’s voice was concerned, but Black Widow seemed to be putting things together. 

“This is the girl you were looking for a few months ago,” she stated. 

“Yeah,” Stark admitted. “Things went south shortly after you were involved and now she’s staying here until we find something more permanent.”

The Black Widow nodded her head slowly, but the Captain still looked desperately lost. “Natasha, you knew about this?”

“I was retrieving a file from a local news station that had information about one of my identities a few months ago and Tony was searching for a group that was stealing alien tech from him. I ran into that group at the news station.” She turned her attention back to Eva and studied her and Eva had to focus on not squirming under her gaze. “I didn’t see her though.”

“Why was a kid stealing alien tech from you?” Captain America asked. 

Stark waved him off as he headed toward the kitchen. “It’s a long story and I’ll explain it later. For now just say hi because she’ll be around while you’re here.”

Captain America turned toward her and gave her a kind smile. Eva tried to return it, but she could tell it was not convincing. “Hi, I’m Steve.”

“Eva,” she managed. 

“Hi Eva, it’s wonderful to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

“Natasha,” the Black Widow said simply, and Eva nodded in response. 

Stark returned with a glass of water for Eva. “Aren’t you a talkative one this afternoon?” he quipped as he held out the glass. “Are you harboring a hatred for these two like you do me?”

Eva rolled her eyes. “Not particularly.” She reached across her body with her left arm to take the glass from Stark while keeping her right arm pressed into her side. As she twisted to reach the cup, her torso pinched and pain shot through her side. Eva loudly gasped and collapsed to hold her side.

Stark was next to her in an instant. “Are you hurt? Where are you hurt?” 

Eva took a few deep breaths through her teeth, waiting for the pain to subside before answering. “I’m fine.”

“Your face says otherwise, kid,” Stark countered. He then called up to the ceiling. “JARVIS, do a body scan on Newt.”

A moment later, the AI responded, “She seems to have multiple contusions forming around the right side of her torso, a hairline fracture in her rib, and an approximately three-inch laceration in the same area, sir.”

She winced as Stark’s eyes widened. “See, I’m fine,” she tried. “I’ll just go clean up, while you entertain your important guests.”

Eva barely shifted to get up before Stark gently nudged her back and bent down to look at her straight on. “Nuh uh,” Stark tsked. “Tell me what happened.” 

“Just a little accident with a cyclist on Park Avenue. Nothing a seasoned New Yorker can’t handle.”

Stark narrowed his eyes. “Did this accident involve gravity?”

Eva rolled her eyes, trying desperately to be casual so she could get away. “Yes it did, since the incident occurred on Earth.”

Stark didn’t loosen his grip on her wrist. “Did it involve left gravity?”

Eva’s eyes widened as she tried to catch a glance at Captain America and Black Widow. “I don’t know what that means,” she said pointedly. “I just wanted to help out a guy on a bike that would have been severely injured otherwise.”

“Tony,” Dr. Banner interrupted with a hand on Stark’s shoulder. “You can discuss this later. Let me take Eva to the med wing and fix her up.”

Stark gave a terse nod after a moment. “I’ll be in there in a few minutes,” he told them as Dr. Banner helped Eva up from the couch and back toward the elevator. Eva easily complied, happy to go with Dr. Banner and away from the two new Avengers in the room watching her with even more curiosity. She figured that they would find out about her powers before long, and she wasn’t exactly sure what that would mean for her. 

“Jesus,” Tony hissed once the elevator doors closed with Bruce and Eva inside. “Just as things were starting to get better.”

“Tony, what’s actually going on?” Steve asked, rising from his seat to meet Tony in the middle of the room. “I’m guessing this is what you were talking about when you told me you were busy.”

“No shit, Cap. This has not been easy and you don’t even know the half of it. I knew I should have insisted on her taking a car,” he muttered as he crossed the room to the bar. 

Steve followed closely behind and Tony could feel Nat’s eyes burning a hole into his back. “Then help me understand why you of all people have a teenage girl living in your home and coming home injured.”

Tony shot him a glare as he pulled out a glass and a bottle of scotch automatically. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

Steve’s hand appeared over the top of his glass as he uncorked the bottle. “Do you really think a drink is such a good idea right now?”

Tony felt indignation flare in his chest, despite feeling remorse for almost breaking his promise to himself to not drink while the kid was under his roof. The All-American Hero pressed his buttons like no one else. “Sorry Cap, did you want one too?” He grabbed another glass to hide his scowl momentarily. 

“Tony.” Nat silently stalked over to the bar. “Just tell us what’s happening so we can help.”

He turned back to them and set the glass down but didn’t reach for the bottle. “This is something I need to do on my own. I’m the reason she’s been through what she’s been through and I’m the one who agreed to take her on.”

“Okay, then we won’t help, but at least explain why she was stealing from you a few months ago and now she’s living with us. I think we deserve that much of an explanation,” Nat said as she crossed her arms and leaned on the bar. 

Tony sighed. He did realize he would have to explain some of it to them, but Eva coming in trying to hide an injury from him was not exactly showing them that he had everything under control. He had hoped to prep her at dinner tonight before introducing them tomorrow, but then she had come home early and walked right in as they were asking Tony to help them get the team back together to track down the rest of HYDRA. Why didn’t she tell him that she was hurt? He had thought that they had at least become friendly enough for her to come to him for help if she was hurt. 

“Her family died on the day of the Invasion,” he told them, leaning onto the bar to mirror Nat’s stance. Steve continued to stand tall with his arms crossed. “She ran away from a foster home and then I recently found out that she lived in the subways with this group of people who had been displaced from the battle. I haven’t gotten too much out of her about what happened, but the guy in charge of the homeless encampment used her, two other kids, and a hitman previously employed by the mob to blackmail low level criminals into stealing and using Chitauri tech. I first met her when she was up against two full grown men.” Tony shook his head remembering seeing that kid getting hit in the back with a baton. “Then the night you called me about the team in the news station, the guy turned against her, tried to kill her, killed the hitman, and got away. She had nowhere else to go. It was either here or an orphanage, so she’s living here until she gets her grades up and shows some good behaviors to get adopted.”

Tony watched Steve’s thoughtful frown and Nat’s expressionless face while they processed. “She’s a really good kid, she’s just been through some bad stuff. I know I’m the last person in the world who should have a kid, but there really wasn’t another option.”

“Wow, Tony,” Steve said after a moment. “When you said you had some stuff going on, I didn’t think you meant this.”

“Why did the guy turn on her?” Nat asked, of course getting to the point. “The one in charge of the criminal network.”

“She’s enhanced or something,” Tony explained. “She can control gravity. She has the potential to be very powerful.”

It was at this point that Steve broke his composure and rested his elbows on the bar with his face in his hands. “Oh Tony,” he groaned. “An enhanced teenage girl?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic.”

“I think it’s okay to be dramatic in this situation,” he argued. “That complicates things so much more than it already was.”

“I’m fully aware, but I think it was another very good reason to bring her here instead of letting her out into the world to exact her vengeance on us for killing her family.”

“You don’t know that would happen,” Steve tried.

Tony gave him a skeptical look. “I’ve had people try to ruin me for much less.”

“And that’s why you brought her here?” Nat spoke up.

Tony turned to her. “That was one of the reasons,” he admitted.

“It sounds like she needs love, not a superhero trying to groom her into compliance,” Steve accused. 

Tony’s expression grew dark. “Of course you would think the absolute worst of me.”

“It sure sounds like that’s what your goal is.”

“What about the part where I took in a homeless kid that didn’t have anywhere else to go?” Tony snarled. 

“Tony,” Nat interjected. “I don’t think Steve or I would have done anything different in your situation and with your… resources. You are probably more equipped than anyone to do this.” She gave Steve a questioning look. “Isn’t that right, Steve?” He hesitantly nodded. “It seems like we should all help her out as much as we can while she’s here. Help her with these abilities and give her as much of a family and a home as we can.”

Steve shook his head. “Thank you, Nat. You’re right. I’ll do what I can to help, Tony.”

Tony gave him a terse nod. “I’ll go check on her.” He headed to the elevator without looking back. Things were just getting easier with Eva, but having the team reconvening at the Tower regularly was going to make it more complicated for the both of them.

Stark hadn’t come down to the med bay even after Dr. Banner had finished cleaning her wound and treating it, instructing her to keep a cold pack on it while he tried to make small talk. She could tell he was trying to distract her while they waited for Stark. 

There was no way around it. She was in trouble. Stark had explicitly said not to use her powers outside of the Tower. Eva knew it was a good rule. She didn’t want people to know she had this power. If the word got out, Mr. Graves could find her again and she didn’t want to have to see him ever again if she could help it. Stark had every right to be angry and that was the worst part. 

Finally, Stark stalked through the doors of the elevator and over to Eva and Dr. Banner. Eva swallowed hard. He did not look happy. “Give me the rundown, big guy,” he said to Dr. Banner. Eva sunk into her chair and didn’t look back up. 

“Like JARVIS said: bruises, a very small fracture in a rib, and a cut,” Dr. Banner reported. “I patched her up and she’ll be just fine. Just nothing crazy for the next two weeks. Watch Chloe from the sidelines, okay?”

“Okay,” Eva muttered, still slumped and looking at her hands. 

“I’ll meet you back upstairs for dinner.” Dr. Banner left them alone in the med bay and Stark sat on the edge of the bed next to her seat. 

“How do you feel?” he asked. 

“I’m fine,” she responded quietly. The silence that filled the room afterward was heavy and Eva shifted under its weight. She spoke again to alleviate her discomfort. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. I mean, I didn’t want to see someone get hurt in front of me, but it all happened so fast, and then I hit a fence and the cyclist fell into me.”

Stark stared at her and she had to break his gaze to look back at her hands again. “Why didn’t you call me? I know you don’t like me but I could have at least helped you get back without you bleeding in the streets.”

“I wasn’t really bleeding in the streets,” she muttered. “I’m just sorry I broke a rule.”

“I’m not worried about that right now, kid. I just need to know you at least trust me enough to come to me when you’re hurt. That’s the basic level of what I need from you.”

“What if someone saw me?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll keep an eye out and take care of it if anything pops up,” he said, waving off her concerns. “But I’m making a new rule. You have to tell me when you’re hurt. You won’t be in trouble or anything. I just want to help you.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “I do trust that you would help me,” she added. “I just… I don’t know. I guess it didn’t cross my mind that I could get help from you.”

“That’s what my job is, kid,” he told her, his expression surprisingly earnest. “That’s what I signed on for when I became your guardian, even if it’s temporary. So come straight to me next time, alright?”

“I will,” she promised. 

“Good,” he nodded. “Now that wasn’t the best first meeting with the rest of the team, so why don’t you rest up and join everyone for dinner.”

“Okay,” she agreed, still trying to process everything. “You’re not mad at me?”

Stark paused in the middle of rising from the edge of the bed. “No, I’m not mad at you, Newt. I didn’t think you would care if I was angry at you anyway. Be careful before you start to care about what I think,” he teased as he rose to his feet. “Let’s get you to your room.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 31

Stark ordered a bunch of Chinese take out for dinner that night and the affair was much louder than the dinners Eva had gotten used to. They met a floor below the penthouse in a similar living room and kitchen set up with more seating and less pretentious art work. When Eva walked in carrying bags of food with Stark and Dr. Banner, Captain America and Black Widow were already there. There was another man that Eva recognized from her Avengers poster on the wall. Hawkeye came up and introduced himself as Clint and she shook his hand. She wished that she could have shared this moment with her sister. Back in the day, they would have probably passed out from the sheer excitement. Eva almost felt some excitement when she sat down at the table with the Avengers minus the Hulk and Thor. 

Everyone was so nice and asked Eva a lot about herself. At first she didn’t have much to say since she didn’t really go to school and didn’t really have many hobbies, but when Stark brought up the Worthy Apartments, she started talking, probably too much. Captain America in particular was interested in the charity. 

“Maybe we should go help out for an afternoon,” he suggested. “As a team building exercise.”

“How would that help build the team?” Stark asked skeptically with lo mein sticking out of his mouth. 

“Don’t let him fool you,” Eva told Captain America who was about to make a retort. She was feeling more confident to speak up among the heroes after talking about the Underground. “He did a meet and greet last week and liked it.”

“I never said I liked it,” he grumbled. 

“You did, in your own way,” she countered. “Plus they loved it, so I think it’s a great idea.”

“Just set up a time for us, Eva, and we’ll be there,” Captain America declared. 

“You’ve really got it bad, Tony,” Hawkeye said. 

“Got what?” Stark asked cautiously. 

“Dad syndrome,” Hawkeye told him, but when all he received were blank stares, he continued. “You’re already giving into anything she wants.”

“He lets her in the lab,” Dr. Banner added quietly with a smile. 

Even Black Widow raised an eyebrow at that. “Really?” 

Captain America also looked impressed. “That’s quite the vote of confidence.”

“Dad Syndrome, Tony,” Hawkeye teased. “There’s no way out.”

“What do you know about being a dad?” Tony asked.

“What do you do in the lab with Tony,” Captain America asked Eva, while Stark and Hawkeye got into it on the other side of the table. 

“Just with little things. Nothing too important.”

“She’s helped with testing suits in zero gravity and something Tony and I have been working on to keep the big guy in check,” Dr. Banner explained, making it sound like Eva had actually contributed to something. 

Captain America raised his eyebrows. “Why are you working on something like that?”

Tony jumped in again. “Just in case, Capsicle. Banner’s doing great.” He poked him with a chopstick. “See?”

Dr. Banner only sighed in response. Eva didn’t understand. Weren’t they building that suit for the Hulk? They were talking like Dr. Banner was sick or something. Hawkeye added, “I still think it’s not a good idea to keep all of that bottled up, Brucey. Let’s take you into a forest and let you Hulk out for a bit.”

Eva dropped her chopsticks, eyes wide. “You’re the Hulk?” she squeaked. 

Everyone turned to look at her. “Huh, I guess I just assumed you figured it out,” Stark said thoughtfully. 

“Yeah, I am,” Dr. Banner revealed. 

“But you’re… you’re,” she started. 

“Not green? Or raging?” Hawkeye supplied.

“So nice,” Eva finished. “And the calmest person I’ve ever met.”

Dr. Banner’s expression turned from sadness to something unreadable. “Thanks, Eva. That means a lot,” he told her. 

She was taken aback by the emotion in his voice. “I mean it. I never would have guessed.”

“Thanks,” he replied. “And I meant it when I said you are helpful in the lab when I’m in there. She’s also been reading some of the books I’ve given her about biology for fun.”

“You got yourself a nerd kid with powers, Tony?” Hawkeye asked incredulously. “And you just found her somewhere? Are you sure she’s not related in some way?”

“Of course not,” Tony scolded. “But she is able to keep up alright in the lab and the zero gravity helps run experiments.”

“What exactly can you do with gravity, Eva?” Captain America asked. 

Eva gulped and looked to Stark, who shrugged. “You’re in the Tower, Newt. And if you can’t trust some of the only other enhanced people on the planet, who are you going to trust?”

Taking a deep breath, Eva explained, “I can manipulate the gravity of anything I touch. Make gravity switch directions and I just learned how to do zero gravity.”

“To people too?” Hawkeye asked in disbelief. “Like making people fall the wrong way?”

“More than that, birdbrain,” Stark interjected. “She can basically fly because of it. Gave me a run for my money a few times.”

“Really?” Captain America asked, seemingly impressed. 

“I guess,” Eva admitted. “But there are definitely limits, and it seems to get me into more trouble than it’s worth.”

“You were there that night then?” Black Widow finally spoke up. “Did you see me at the news station?”

Eva winced and nodded. “Yeah, you didn’t look up.”

Black Widow didn’t seem mad, but instead thoughtful. “I was wondering why the two I knocked out at the door were already gone. Impressive. Not many people have gotten past me in situations like that.”

“It wasn’t easy,” Eva admitted. “I was having a heart attack on the ceiling.”

Hawkeye shoved one of his chopsticks into her hand. “Show us.”

She looked to Stark again, who merely shrugged. Taking that as permission, Eva switched the gravity on the chopstick and it clattered to the ceiling. Encouraged by Hawkeye’s gasp, she had the piece of wood fall backward onto the wall over the cabinets. Then it fell back toward her and landed in her hand. Thinking of the dial again, she let go of it and it started to hover above the table. Eva flicked it toward Stark who was trying to look disinterested. He used one of his chopsticks to parry it away until it hit Hawkeye in the face, and Eva released it so it fell back into Hawkeye’s lap. 

“This is going to make things more interesting,” Black Widow commented. 

“You should come down for training in the morning,” Captain America told her. 

“She’s got a broken rib,” Tony protested at the same time Hawkeye cried, “We literally just got here!”

“Right,” Captain America pondered. “At least come and watch and then I can make breakfast afterward, Clint.”

“Pancakes?” Hawkeye asked, his scowl suddenly turned into a hopeful glance. 

“I was going to sit and watch Chloe’s training tomorrow anyway. Not participating,” she added when Stark opened his mouth to argue. 

“You sure you want to?” Stark asked instead. 

Eva couldn’t help herself. After such a nice dinner and meeting everyone, she felt some of what she had felt when she and Vic pretended to have powers and fly around like Iron Man and Thor. How could she pass up a chance to see it up close and personal. “Yeah.”

“Just watching though,” Stark chided. 

“Alright, alright,” she agreed. 

Later that night, Eva walked into the lab where Stark was already working on part of the Hulk-busting suit. “So, you were a hit,” he said as she started organizing another table. 

“You’ve got nice friends, Stark,” she told him. “I’m not sure why they hang out with you.”

“I’m the rich party boy,” he told her. “Why wouldn’t they want to hang out with me?”

“I haven’t seen any parties. I’ve only seen a boring, tired man in a lab since I’ve moved in.”

Stark looked up and rolled his eyes. “I need to get Rhodey in here again to tell you some of our more crazy party stories. Plus, I can’t exactly have parties here with a twelve-year-old hanging around the place.”

“I’m thirteen,” she sighed as she put the last tool away and crossed over the bench. 

They worked on the piece of armor for a few hours, mostly in a comfortable silence. As they were taking a break on the couch, Stark spoke up again. “Why do you still call me Stark?” he asked. 

Eva looked up at him in surprise. “I don’t know. It just seemed like Mr. Stark was too nice at the time, but Tony was too informal.”

“I think we’ve made it to Tony,” he told her. “I’ve already given you a great nickname.”

Eva considered it for a moment. She definitely didn’t feel the same about him as she did when she first met him or when she moved in. After their late night talks in the lab, she understood that he was really trying to do right by the world and he didn’t really mean to hurt her on that day. Even though she didn’t really forgive him for what happened, she didn’t really hate him anymore either. 

“Alright, Tony,” she agreed, and Tony smiled back. “But are you sure about Newt?”

Early in the morning, Eva thought that maybe she could at least be part of Chloe and Happy’s usual warm up, but when they arrived at the gym they weren’t alone like they usually were. Captain America and Black Widow were already warming up. Captain America was running full force on a treadmill and Black Widow was stretching on a mat nearby. They merely looked up briefly when she walked into the gym, but Captain America gave Eva a wave that she timidly returned. 

“The fuck?” Chloe breathed when she joined Eva by the punching bags a few minutes later. Chloe was completely in awe when Eva caught a glimpse of her face. 

Eva smirked. “Starstruck?” Chloe shook it off and smirked back.

Happy groaned. “It has been so nice and quiet here lately.” He turned to Chloe. “Don’t let these assholes make you lose focus. Let’s get to work.”

Eva heaved a big sigh and trudged over to her usual bench early with a new book from Dr. Banner. Just as she started the second page, someone plopped down on the bench next to her. 

“You really get up this early every morning?” Tony asked as he cradled a cup of coffee in his hands. “Maybe I should be more concerned about your sleep schedule.”

“And your’s is so perfect?” she pointed out. 

He shrugged. “At least I usually sleep in later than this, but I guess that’s over now that Red, White, and Bland is here and determined to make a team again.”

Captain America was now off of the treadmill and stretching with Black Widow. “Are they here for a while then?” she asked. 

“Looks like it,” Tony said. 

“Aren’t you happy about that?” she asked. She had thought they were all close friends, but Tony didn’t look entirely pleased as he watched Hawkeye sleepily enter the room and approach them. 

Turning his gaze to her instead, he raised an eyebrow. “You care about my feelings now, Newt?” She rolled her eyes in response. “How sweet.”

“Who’s the chick?” Hawkeye asked as he sank onto the bench on Eva’s other side. 

“Chloe,” Eva said proudly, as they watched Happy bark at Chloe while she jumped rope near the punching bags. “She’s… she’s like my sister, I guess. She’s going to be a professional fighter.”

“Cool,” Hawkeye said with a yawn. “Oh no,” he moaned, looking over at Captain America and Black Widow who were striding over to them now. “They look way too chipper for five in the morning.”

“It’s seven,” Eva told him. 

“Sure feels like five,” Tony agreed. 

“I need you two to do a quick warm up and join us over in the tactical training in fifteen,” he told Tony and Hawkeye. “Good morning, Eva.”

“Good morning, Mr. uh— Rogers,” she stuttered awkwardly. 

“You can call me Steve,” he told her with a smile. 

“Oh, okay,” she agreed hesitantly.

“I’ll meet you two over there,” Steve said as he and Black Widow moved over to the large area with fake buildings and an open mat. 

Hawkeye got up and looked at Tony who still hadn’t moved. “I was planning on keeping the kid company. She’ll be too lonely.”

“I won’t.” Eva’s complaint fell on deaf ears.

Tony swung an arm around her shoulders. “She’s clearly sad to sit out on the workout and I could never leave her alone. I’m her guardian.”

“I doubt Cap is going to fall for that,” Hawkeye pointed out loudly, but he leaned in with a hopeful look. “If it does, can I use that excuse too?” 

“Actually, I came down to keep Eva company,” came a voice behind them. All three turned to see Dr. Banner approaching with a book in hand. “Since I’m the one that had to bench her in the first place.”

Eva nudged Tony. “Yeah, you two can’t use me as an excuse. Aren’t you supposed to be training to save the world?”

“You just have to go and make me feel guilty about it,” Tony groaned, standing up to join Hawkeye as they trudged off toward the practice area.

“Have fun!” Eva said cheerily. 

After Tony and Hawkeye stalked away, Dr. Banner joined her on the bench. “Are you not going to join them?” she asked. 

“No,” he told her with a chuckle. “There’s no need.”

“You’re part of the team, right? Why wouldn’t you train even if you’re… not Hulk?” 

“I can’t really control him. To me it’s as if I black out and come to once he’s gone. It’s not a great feeling,” he told her honestly. 

Mr. Graves had complained of Hulk more than the others. He suspected that some of the destruction he caused was what killed his family, though he could never prove it. Hulk hadn’t been seen since then. Eva never would have guessed that such a nice, somewhat nervous, and mild-mannered man could turn into the monster that caused so much destruction.

“Is that scary?” she asked timidly. 

He didn’t look at her but seemed to be staring off into the distance. “It’s terrifying. I lived off the grid for a while – to keep from hurting people. I was a doctor in Kolkata to try to help my conscience. That’s where Nat found me. I was just coming in to look at the gamma radiation on the alien technology and then I got wrapped up in all of this instead.”

Eva was sad that someone as kind as Dr. Banner had to deal with something so terrible. “Is it getting easier to deal with?” 

“I suppose in some ways. Even though most people are scared of me when they find out who I am, Tony never was, and now he’s helping to put something together to help if… that guy comes back out in a bad time,” he told her thoughtfully. 

Eva thought about what he said while they both watched as Captain America laid out a plan on a whiteboard, Tony argued over what would be the best approach, and Hawkeye tried to flick the whiteboard marker cap at Black Widow who snatched it out of the air. “Does helping with this Avengers stuff make you feel better about your other side?”

It took a moment for him to respond and Eva was worried that she had been too blunt, but then he responded, “I’m not sure anything will make up for the things I’ve done. I think everyone on the team has done something horrible, on purpose or not. It feels like this whole thing might make up for the past in some way or at least make us feel better about the mark we’re leaving on the world. If there are aliens out there trying to take over humanity, we’ve got to do everything possible to stop it.” He finally turned to look at her and she met his eyes. “Why did you save that cyclist yesterday?” he asked. 

Eva was taken aback by the sudden question, but she answered truthfully. “I’m not sure. It happened kind of automatically, but if I didn’t help when I knew that I could have, I think I would have been upset with myself.”

“Was it worth getting hurt and maybe messing up a fence in the process?” he asked. 

“I doubt I messed up that fence, but yes,” she agreed. 

“I noticed you were worried that Tony would be mad yesterday, but I knew there was no way, because we all get it. That’s exactly why we jumped into the fight on the day of the Invasion and why we’ll do it again.”

Eva nodded slowly. “Thanks, Dr. Banner. I’ve never thought about it that way.”

After that they sat in an amiable silence, alternating between reading their respective books and watching the Avengers on one side and Chloe and Happy on the other side of the gym. After everyone finished, she and Dr. Banner headed upstairs to the common room on the Avengers’ floor and everyone else, except Chloe who had to go to work, joined them after cleaning up.

Steve went straight to the kitchen while everyone else piled onto the couch and argued about what to put on the TV. Eva did a double take as Black Widow pulled yarn and a crochet hook out of the couch and began to work on what looked like a scarf. 

Eva didn’t want to sit still anymore and decided to wander into the kitchen to see what Steve was doing. He had a variety of ingredients on the counter and was looking through the fridge. 

“Need help?” she asked as he straightened and placed a carton of eggs next to the flour. 

“I’d love some,” he told her with a magazine cover-worthy smile. “Have you ever made pancakes before?”

“I helped my dad sometimes when he made them, but I wasn’t really old enough to do much on my own,” she told him honestly. 

“Okay, you can be sous-chef then.”

They got to work. Steve showed her what ingredients to add and how much to measure out. Before she knew it, they had two large bowls full of pancake batter. Steve got out the toppings, while Eva took everyone’s orders. When she came back to the kitchen, Steve had two pans heating on the stove. “This one is yours.” He gestured to the one on the left. “Don’t worry,” he added when she gave him an apprehensive look. “I’ll help you out. Plus the first ones are always bad,” he whispered as she approached the stove. 

He was right. The first one was terrible, but then it became more fun. She actually got to teach him something in the end. It was a trick that her dad had taught her when they made pancakes: poking the blueberries or chocolate chips into the pancakes while they were cooking so they didn’t burn on the pan when they flipped the pancake. She felt a surge of pride when Steve started to do the same. Twenty minutes later, Steve was passing out steaming plates with stacks of pancakes. 

It was a really nice meal again and Eva felt even more confident to speak up during the conversation since she helped make the food. She decided that she really liked having more people around. Maybe things would get a little more fun.

Chapter Text

Chapter 32

That night when Eva entered the lab, Tony didn’t have any projects out but was sitting at his workbench with about ten different schematics. Eva moved toward the workbench and saw the blueprints for a jet, the Hulk-Busting suit, which had the name “Veronica” on top, and a robot that looked similar to his Iron Man suits. 

“Hey, Newt,” he said with a brief glance in her direction. 

“That’s a lot of plans,” she said as she sidled around the table to stand next to him. 

“Got a lot of things to build,” he said, somewhat absentmindedly. 

“Does it have something to do with what happened in Washington DC?” she asked. 

He looked up at that. “You heard then?”

She shrugged. “Kinda hard not to.”

“Capsicle isn’t back for family bonding,” he told her. “The team is going to see some more action and I’m the one to make sure we’re well equipped.”

“Are the aliens back?” Eva asked, her voice less confident than she had wanted to sound. 

“I’m afraid we still have human problems to deal with too,” he told her. 

“So you guys are going after the HYDRA guys that they exposed on the internet?” she asked, trying to sound nonchalant, but she couldn’t help but feel nervous that he wouldn’t be home as much. She would have to find another way to deal with the dreams.

“Looks like it.” Tony leaned forward onto his elbows. “You’re going to be around for a lot of this, and I need you to know that finding you a home is my first priority, but that this Avengers problem is going to take up a lot of my time.” 

She nodded slowly, not sure what to think about the fact that he was trying to make sure she had a permanent home before dealing with an evil, secret organization. “That’s okay,” Eva said as she gazed at the projects between them. “I know you’ve got a lot to do.”

“If you’d like, I can show you how to do some more stuff around the lab to help,” Tony said as he flipped through some blueprints on the screen between them. “I’m going to need all the help I can get.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” she said, distracted by all the projects sitting between them.

After a moment, Tony broke the silence. “By the way, Pepper is coming back into town and wants to take you out shopping.” He gave her sweatpants and t-shirt with holes a once over. “You’re in desperate need, so I’m going to insist you go.”

Eva’s eyes grew. “Shopping with Pepper Potts?”

“I would have sent you out with Nat, but I’m afraid she would just buy you a bunch of weapons.”

“Are you sure?” Eva asked incredulously. “I mean… Last time she was here, it didn’t go too well.”

For a moment, Eva thought she had crossed a line, but Tony smiled at her. “You’re right, that didn’t go well, but we figured it out. She’s going to be around to help you out with some stuff while I’m busy.”

“Are you back together?” she asked carefully. 

“No,” Tony said with finality. “I don’t think there’s any chance of that, especially now that the team is back.”

Unable to help herself, Eva asked more questions. “Does she not like them?”

“She likes the team fine. She’s not a fan of Iron Man, though. Doesn’t like that I’m so careless with my life.” Tony hadn’t looked up at her ever since bringing up Pepper. If the drunken night wasn’t enough of a clue, Eva could tell that Tony was still very much in love with her.

The weight of responsibilities Tony and the rest of the Avengers had on their plate was immeasurable to Eva. Alien invasions, secret evil organizations, and now an enhanced orphan. After the talk with Dr. Banner earlier that morning and Tony’s clear concern for the fate of the world, Eva was starting to understand just how much they had to care to do this job, and what they gave up for it too. It took way more than just wanting attention and power like she had thought before.

Eva leaned on the workbench and looked at her hands, interlocked tightly. After the last few months, she had seen exactly how wrong she had been about Tony and after meeting the rest of the Avengers, she knew they were just trying their best in an impossible situation. It was still hard to reconcile what happened to her sister and her new living situation. Her heart couldn’t conceive that the man in front of her was the same person who sent her sister plummeting to her death. But she also couldn’t hate him anymore after everything he’d done for her.

“What’s going through your mind Newt?” Tony interrupted her thoughts. “It looks like you’re trying to decode the meaning of the universe.”

Eva looked up at Tony’s face that was etched with concern under the usual smirk he wore. Something about his expression reminded her of when Mr. Graves would ask her how she felt after a mission or a particularly bad dream. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought, but it brought a moment of clarity.  

It suddenly hit her that she trusted Tony Stark more than she could ever trust Mr. Graves again. Mr. Graves had tried to kill her. He had killed Gary. There was no way she could keep ignoring that fact. If he found her again, Mr. Graves would try to kill her, especially now that she had completely sided with the Avengers.

Mr. Graves had used her, all of them, to try to ruin the man in front of her, the man who had actually saved her. At that moment, she realized that she never wanted to see Graves again. 

She still hadn’t told Tony about what happened that night or what Graves was planning to do. Eva needed Tony to know what Graves was capable of, so he could protect himself and the rest of the Avengers from any more of Graves’ plans. 

Tony was still looking at her expectantly, smirk faltering now. “I was thinking…” she started. 

“I could tell,” he joked halfheartedly. 

Eva squeezed her hands together and swallowed hard, trying to overcome the leftover need to protect Graves. “I guess… I should tell you about what happened,” she finally said. 

“What do you mean?” he asked. 

“About Graves,” Eva tried to clarify. 

Tony shifted to face her and pulled up a stool. She gladly sat down, but didn’t look up at him. “About what happened that night?”

“That… and the rest of it.”

“I’m all ears for whatever you want to tell me,” he told her. 

Taking a deep breath, she told him everything: what happened after her sister died, how she stole from people off the streets, when she met Chloe and the rest of the team, what Mr. Graves thought about the Avengers and supers in general, what she did during the raids, and about anything she could remember that might relate to Graves’ ultimate plans. 

Tony sat quietly and listened intently. She probably talked for thirty minutes straight and he didn’t say a word. Eva honestly didn’t think it was possible for him to be conscious and quiet for that long, but she had to admit that he was a perfect listener throughout the entire story. 

 Eva hadn’t had a chance to talk to anyone about everything that had happened with Graves, so when she got to the night that had ended it all, she couldn’t look at him anymore and her gaze fell to her lap. As she finished, a few tears fell onto her sweatpants and the room fell silent again.

“And I guess that’s when you showed up,” she finished awkwardly. They sat in contemplative silence for a few minutes, as Eva rubbed the tears from her eyes and continued to look at the now drying teardrops on her pants. 

“Is that what you dream about,” Tony asked suddenly, his voice gentler than usual, “when you wake up at night?”

Eva’s eyes snapped up to meet his. He held her gaze carefully. “Yeah,” she told him. “Among other things.”

Tony nodded slowly. “I have to admit, I did know some of what was going on with this Graves guy. Scary Spice and the nervous kid also came and told me what they knew after you got hurt.” 

“They told you everything?” Eva asked. She knew that Chloe was thinking about it, but she didn’t know that she had gone to Tony yet and she especially didn’t know about Mitchel doing the same. 

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “They both came to me separately, not long after that night. They were both pretty upset about what he did to you.”

Eva shifted uncomfortably again, unsure if it was a good idea to ask the next question, but the idea of Chloe and Mitchel telling Tony spurred her on. “Have you found anything?”

“Frustratingly not enough. Most of his old contacts haven’t seen him, including your friends in the Underground,” he told her. “He's either dead, very good at covering his tracks and laying low, or on the other side of the world, never planning to come back.”

Eva shook her head slowly, dread dripping down her spine. “He’ll come back. The way he… the way he looked at me at the end… the way he talked about you and the Avengers, there’s no way he’ll give up.” She looked Tony square in the eyes. “He’ll come back to finish what he started. If he’s willing to kill me and Gary to ruin you, there’s no way he’ll stop.”

Tony reached out and squeezed her shoulder briefly. “That may be true, but you’ve met JARVIS right? You know me and now you know the team. There’s no way he’s ever going to get to you, ever again. Okay?”

“There’s no way for you to promise something like that,” she said, gazing down at her clenched fists. “Maybe I should be training with you guys, so I’m ready for when he comes back.”

“No.” There was a definiteness in Tony’s voice that made her look back up at him. “You are supposed to be trying to build a normal life. Leave him to me.” The fierceness in his expression grew. “I promise you will never have to talk to him again, if you don’t want to.”

Eva’s breath hitched and she felt a prickle behind her eyes. She knew, deep down, that he couldn’t actually guarantee that, but she could at least tell that he would do everything in his power to keep that promise, and she felt safe for the first time in a long time. “Okay,” she croaked and squeezed her fists once more before relaxing them. “Thanks.”

Eva looked down at her lap again, trying to focus on anything else so she wouldn’t cry again, but then Tony started to speak. 

“Not many people know this, but I wasn’t alone in that cave,” Tony told her, his voice low and reserved. Eva’s eyes found him again, and this time it was his gaze that was averted to the other side of the room. Of course Eva knew what he was talking about. Everyone knew how Iron Man was born, but the story was that he built the suit by himself in a cave. “There was another man there, Yinsen. You would have liked him. He was the opposite of me: brilliant, quiet, kind. He helped me put the first suit together and told me that I was an egotistical idiot, which I really needed to hear at the time.”

Tony laughed, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Eva knew that it was a perfect moment to add a dig at his selfish nature, but she was awestruck to hear him talking about his time being held captive. “What happened to him?” she breathed.

“He died making sure that I could get away and live a better life,” Tony told her. He had a far off look while he was clearly replaying memories in his head. “The last thing he told me was to not to waste the rest of my life.”

Through the fog of all the violent memories she had of that night, Eva suddenly recalled Gary’s final words. “Gary told me to be a better hero than the rest of them.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but Tony’s eyes met hers and Eva felt like he actually understood what she had gone through. 

“Then let’s live up to their expectations.” He turned back to the screen. “What do you know about reading blueprints?”

Chapter Text

Chapter 33

The next day, Eva found herself in an upscale clothing store with Pepper Potts. The CEO had the store cleared out that morning so no one was staring or taking pictures, but Eva was overwhelmed by the choices and having people waiting on her every need. She also had no idea what she liked or what her style was. Ms. Potts was very helpful in her suggestions, but Eva had been wearing hand-me-downs from Chloe for the past two years, which usually included band t-shirts and ripped jeans. Before that, she used to like to wear a lot of color and her family used to call her the sunshine child, but that didn’t feel right anymore either. 

Then there was the problem of the prices. It was absurd how much these things cost. No matter how many times Eva brought it up, Ms. Potts would just assure her that the price didn’t matter and not to look at the cost. Eva had lived in a homeless community for nearly a year, and it was hard to forget that $400 could get a lot more for someone than one pair of pants. Still, she played along because Tony was probably right that she needed some new clothes.

After the first hour in the store, Ms. Potts knocked on Eva’s dressing room door. Eva was wearing an expensive pair of jeans and a t-shirt that would have paid for the entire Underground to eat for a month. “Can I come in to talk, Eva?” Ms. Potts asked. 

Eva opened the door in response. The dressing room was the size of a small bedroom with a couch and coffee table and warm lighting. Ms. Potts sat on the couch and patted the spot next to her. Eva complied and sat shyly next to her. 

“I need to apologize to you, Eva,” Ms. Potts said gently. 

Eva looked up at that, waving her hands. “No, Ms. Potts. This is very generous of you. I’m sorry that I haven’t been more grateful for what you’re doing for me. I’ve just never been in a situation like this.”

“That’s exactly why I need to apologize,” Ms. Potts told her. “I planned this without really thinking about what would make you comfortable. You weren’t living this kind of lifestyle before, right?”

Eva snorted. “Definitely not.”

“Well,” Ms. Potts continued, with a lighter tone. “Let’s change our tactics then. I’ll buy that outfit with a hat and sunglasses and you call up your friend. Chloe, right? The one Tony told me you’ve known for a while?” Eva nodded. “And we’ll go to whatever store you girls want.”

“You don’t need to do that, Ms. Potts,” Eva said quickly. “I am very thankful for bringing me here.”

“I know you are,” Ms. Potts told her gently. “But I would like to get you the things that make you feel comfortable, and this,” she gestured toward the expensive store, “isn’t working. So why don’t you text Chloe and pick out the next store while I go buy something a little less CEO-esque,” she said, jokingly gesturing toward her suit. 

Before she knew it, Eva was walking into a popular three-story clothing store that was filled with other teenage girls and their mothers. Ms. Potts somehow looked just as incredible in her jeans and t-shirt ensemble as she did a suit, but it was definitely different enough that no one gave her a second glance. 

The store was definitely not Chloe’s style, but Eva could tell that she was holding back from making fun of the clothing or the customers more than she usually would. Eva had picked the store only because she had seen a lot of girls her age holding bags with the logo on it walking around the city. She figured that that’s where she should go to act like a normal teenager, which is what everyone kept saying she should be doing. They walked through some aisles of clothing, dodging giggling girls and mothers complaining about prices. It definitely made Eva feel more normal than she had in that elaborate dressing room. 

Chloe pointed out some ripped jeans and Ms. Potts pulled out some floral shirts and sweaters. Eva took them all and picked out a few things herself. She had never been shopping on her own and she had no idea what would look good, so most of her picks went back to the shelves. In the end, they walked out of the store with quite a few full bags of a mix of Pepper and Chloe’s recommendations, and they decided to call it and head back to the Tower. Ms. Potts made sure to tell her that they could go shopping anytime or that she could order anything for her room with JARVIS. Eva doubted she would actually take her up on the offer, but she thanked her profusely nevertheless. 

When they reached the Tower, Tony, Dr. Banner, and Happy were in the kitchen with lunch. “How was the shopping trip?” Dr. Banner asked kindly. 

“Very successful,” Ms. Potts reported with a bright smile aimed at Eva. 

“Thank god we were there,” Chloe piped in, swinging one of the full bags onto the couch. “I didn’t realize how off Eva’s fashion sense is.”

Tony raised his eyebrows and shot Chloe a questioning look. “And you never miss, then?”

“I have a very specific style,” Chloe told him, indignantly. “Eva wouldn’t know style if it bit her in the ass.”

“She’s right,” Eva admitted happily. “I would have been lost without either of you. Thank you for helping me.”

Chloe’s defiance melted away as she pulled Eva into a tight hug, twisting her back and forth. “Oh, you’re so cute!”

Ms. Potts peeked at Eva through Chloe’s arms. “I’m happy to help you anytime you need it, Eva.” With a little shove, Chloe let her go, and Eva straightened up to look at Ms. Potts fully. “I’ll put my number in your phone and you can call me whenever you want, okay?”

Eva fished her phone out of her pocket and handed it to Ms. Potts. “Okay,” she agreed. Maybe it would be nice to have Ms. Potts around more often.

In the next few weeks, Eva found herself actually relaxing and having fun for the first time since losing her family. There had definitely been good times in the Underground, but she hadn’t realized how often she was in survival mode. With the Avengers in the Tower and Tony assuring her that Graves couldn’t get to her, she felt safe and it felt nice. 

Tony had been right. Their nighttime projects started to move more quickly and Tony started to work throughout the day and even through meals sometimes in his lab. Eva found herself convincing Tony to come eat with the team and stay to watch an episode of whatever sitcom they were on. When Ms. Potts came to the penthouse for dinners, she forced Tony out of his lab very effectively, for which Eva was thankful.

When she was in the lab, Eva was learning more and more about engineering. She was learning how to read Tony’s holographic blueprints and schematics, what tools were called and what they were used for, and about all the incredible machinery in the lab. As she understood more and more, Eva was able to predict what Tony would need for different projects and bring it to him. Even though she didn’t usually understand the science behind most of the projects, her technical skills were getting good enough to help out more often. 

But what she was interested in the most was welding. Something about the tools and bright lights made her giddy with excitement. It started with Eva helping hold pieces in place for Tony with her gravity powers, and then she started asking questions about the process and types of welding. After a long lecture on safety, materials, and the fundamentals, Tony even let her give it a try on something unimportant, and she didn’t do too bad. He had to redo it, but she loved it. There was a look Tony gave her when she beamed at him with a weld that looked more like a wiggling worm than a straight weld that made her think he understood the rush she was feeling. After that, he set her up with a few scrap pieces, and she was able to practice with JARVIS watching with a very close eye.

Tony was also right about things changing quickly. They gutted about ten floors of the Tower below the penthouse, Avengers housing, and gym to make the Avengers headquarters. There was a more extensive med bay, more labs, tactical planning rooms, and equipment storage for the Avengers’ needs. Eva was amazed how quickly it all came together, and before she knew it, it was finished and she was heading down to those labs after her schooling was done to help out. However, at night, they kept to his personal labs. She wasn’t sure if it was out of habit or if Tony could tell that it was more comforting to her, but she was thankful for the consistency either way. 

With the new facilities, came new people. Maria Hill, former SHIELD agent, started to take over some of what SHIELD had done for them. She was a pretty serious person, but Eva admired her for being so level headed despite having to handle so much behind the scenes. There were also many new scientists that were wandering in and out, giving their expert opinions to Tony and Dr. Banner throughout the day. When people asked why there was a kid wandering around the labs in the afternoons, Eva immediately froze up, but Tony easily deflected any questions by saying she was Rhodey’s godchild that worked as a Stark Industries intern and sometimes helped out with some of the dirty work. They had used the excuse of Eva being Rhodey’s godchild or distant relative a few times whenever someone asked questions and she was surprised when people actually believed it. Tony kept his distance from her more when there were people around who didn’t actually know who she was. Eva tried her best to blend in as much as possible when she was helping out in the facilities. 

Eva also enjoyed getting to know the Avengers more. Saturday and Sunday morning breakfasts continued after the successful pancake brunch on that first day, and she and Steve were almost always the only ones in the kitchen. Steve turned out to be a pretty good cook and was very patient with Eva as she tried to help him out. Despite his serious demeanor when it came to any Avengers business, Steve was actually very easy to get along with and Eva found herself joking and even dancing with him in the kitchen as they cooked. Steve would ask for JARVIS to play some of his favorite songs from the 30s and 40s while Eva showed him some more current music and 80s and 90s hits that her parents had shared with her. 

Then about a week after everyone else arrived, Thor came bursting onto the scene in a brightly colored rainbow beam that appeared one afternoon on the landing platform. His entrance was just as loud as his personality. He was effervescent and boisterous and didn’t seem to fade even for a moment. 

It took him some time to understand that Eva was not in fact related to Tony, and even after everyone tried to explain it to him, he called her Kin of Stark or Starkin for short or even worse, Daughter of Stark, instead of her name every time. Otherwise, he was polite and funny and kind to her. He often disappeared for a few days, going to see his girlfriend or go back to Asgard to deal with something there, but there was never a dull moment when he was around. 

Black Widow on the other hand was someone that was more difficult to get to know. It wasn’t as if she was rude, she was just the most reserved out of the bunch. She occasionally cracked jokes and let a smile cross her face when one of the others did something particularly stupid, but she kept to herself outside of team meals and training. Eva noticed that she seemed to effectively mediate conflicts between the men easily, especially with Tony and Steve who got into the most arguments. Eva began to realize how essential she was to the team in those moments. 

After a month or so, Eva finally built up the courage to ask Black Widow to teach her how to crochet. She was surprisingly willing to teach her and incredibly patient as Eva worked her way through a simple scarf pattern. It turned out lumpy, but Eva wore it proudly anyway. After a few weeks of crocheting with Black Widow while they watched tv every night, Eva had gotten much better, and Black Widow told her that she could call her by her first name, Natasha or Nat, like the rest of the team did. She taught Eva how to make some plant hangers using crochet techniques after she saw the garden at the Worthy Apartments. Then Eva started gifting everyone plants with hangers, and her crafts began to appear all around the Tower. 

Then there was Hawkeye, or Clint as he asked her to call him after she fumbled with his name early on. He seemed to go through serious moments where he wanted to be left alone, and Eva respected that as she often felt that way, but then there were times where he would turn around and go head-to-head in a battle of wits with Tony. He also liked to plan pranks on the other team members. He came to Eva for some gravity-related help shortly after they had met to hold a bucket of glitter over Nat after she came out of the shower. Eva had vehemently refused, knowing that the Black Widow was not someone she could mess with, especially after just meeting her. So Clint agreed to prank Tony instead. 

Before an important public appearance on national news as a newly reunited team, Clint and Eva concocted their plan. Clint originally wanted to do something to whatever fancy suit he was going to wear or his tinted glasses, but Eva knew he would catch that or someone would tell him before he went in front of the camera. Instead, Eva suggested that they do something to the Iron Man suit since he had it rigged to be called to him piece by piece and he wouldn’t notice if they did something to it on the outside. Usually, no one had access to his suit, but Eva did, so she was put in charge of messing with the suit, while Clint was in charge of making sure Tony put on the Iron Man suit in front of the camera. 

Eva snuck into the lab with a large permanent marker after the team had left to meet the press outside of the Tower. With years of poster-destroying practice under her belt, Eva artfully added a large handlebar mustache to the Iron Man helmet. Just as she finished her final touches, the suit came to life and Eva ducked with a yelp as it zoomed over her head and out a hatch in the window. 

After asking JARVIS to pull up the live feed of the national news station, Eva nearly fell onto the floor with laughter watching as Tony showed off some of the new features of the Iron Man suit to the camera, completely oblivious to the mustache on his helmet. The poor news anchor finally asked Tony if the new facial hair held a purpose, and Eva actually doubled over with laughter as she watched Tony look off camera at a monitor and turn on Clint who was also doubled over in the background. Thor commented on how the “magnificent addition to the Man of Iron” made him seem like a more “formidable foe”, which made everyone else laugh and eased Tony back from strangling Clint on national television. 

Steve had to step in for the rest of the interview, but Eva didn’t hear the rest of it. She scrambled back into the living room and curled up casually with a book, but didn’t actually read any of it. Eva tried her very best to look innocent when Tony burst through the elevator doors, but a quick look at the video feed from JARVIS had her made. She and Clint were put on dish duty for a month after that, but that didn’t stop them from putting mustaches on every depiction of Iron Man around the Tower for months to come.

Chapter Text

Chapter 34

Ms. Potts started coming to the Tower a few nights a week to make more nutritious meals for Eva and Tony. Apparently, she had heard that they were strictly living off of take out and she did not approve. Eva was nervous to have such an intimidating person around at first, but that feeling started to fade as she got to know Ms. Potts. 

Because Eva was getting practice cooking breakfast with Steve after their workouts, Eva was able to feel comfortable enough to help Pepper in the kitchen. Cooking with Pepper was very different from cooking with Steve. Eva mostly made heaps of basic breakfast foods with Steve, but Pepper liked to make fancier dinners with ingredients she had never heard of. Though Eva had no idea what she was doing, Pepper taught her the basics and talked with Eva about her schoolwork as they cooked. Eva asked Pepper about what it was like to run the company and learned a lot about what was going on in the lower levels of the Tower. After learning about what Pepper did during the day, Eva was surprised that the CEO could even stop by for dinner a few times a week but she came consistently. 

The air between Tony and Pepper was tense at first. Pepper barely talked to Tony and Tony acted like a child to gain her attention. Eva would try to put herself between them as much as possible because she noticed that when she was around they would control themselves better. She would ask questions that they both had to answer like what it was like to live in California or what the company was working on. Slowly, Pepper began including Tony in conversations and Tony implemented some self-control. 

 Eva noticed that Tony would sneak glances at Pepper frequently though he tried to play it cool whenever she caught him. She didn’t want to pry too much, but it was clear to her that they both still had feelings for each other. Thankfully, Tony never had another drunken night after Pepper visited, even when they had disagreements over dinner. 

As she got to know Pepper, it became clear why they had been a good couple. Pepper was obviously beautiful and strong-willed and clever and level-headed, but she knew exactly how to joke with Tony and bring him out of his now frequent obsessive states when he became too wrapped up in a project in the lab. When she slowed down as they sat down to eat together, Eva saw her shift from the productive CEO to a funny and quick-witted woman who was clearly Tony’s equal in every way. 

A few weeks into these dinners, Eva was actively trying to nudge them together. She would initiate a conversation and then slowly fade into the background so they were talking to each other. Eva even started to find excuses to leave the room for a few minutes so they could be alone. Tony clearly knew what she was doing, but he didn’t say anything to stop her, so she kept it up. It would be nice if Pepper was around more often. 

Newt was quite the wingwoman. Pepper wouldn’t refuse the kid anything and Newt used that to her advantage, or to his advantage. Tony was on his best behavior when Newt got Pepper to talk to him and even started to respond to company emails. Pepper began to start conversations with him, and once after Tony joked about their business rival, Oscorp, Pepper actually laughed and smiled at him when she left for the night. 

Tony very carefully avoided talking about Avengers business when she was around and Newt picked up on that quickly. The less she knew the better. This tactic definitely kept any arguments at bay and kept Pepper laughing and smiling more. 

One day, Tony received five separate emails from Pepper. There had been an error from the R&D team in the new StarkPhone processing system that was set to launch the next day, and Tony could tell that she was getting upset with the team for not finding it sooner. She only reached out to Tony because they claimed it might not be ready in time and that they should push back the launch. It was an easy fix for Tony to do and only took him about five minutes with JARVIS’ help. In Pepper’s response, she was very grateful, but Tony could tell that the day had been taxing for her. He knew she wouldn’t try to cancel their usual dinner that evening for the kid’s sake, but he anticipated that she would be exhausted. 

“What are you doing?”

Tony glanced over his shoulder at Newt, who had just walked into the kitchen. “Making dinner, obviously.”

The kid stepped up to the pot and made a face. “And what exactly were you trying to make?”

“Chicken piccata,” he responded. 

“Is it supposed to be this color?” she asked, holding her nose against the burnt smell. Then she turned around and saw the lumpy floury mess on the counter. “Were you trying to make pasta from scratch?”

“I blame these instructions,” Tony complained. “Why can’t cooking have more explicit instructions instead of vague descriptors like ‘mix until smooth’ or ‘knead until stretchy but structural’ or ‘stop cooking before it sets on fire’? What does that even mean?”

“Tony.” Newt effectively cut off his rant with her urgent tone. “When is Pepper supposed to be here?”

“Ms. Potts has finished her last meeting of the day,” JARVIS supplied. “Based on her previous trips to the penthouse for dinners, she will arrive in seven minutes.”

Tony watched as Newt’s eyes grew wide. “Maybe we can fix it.”

They spent the next seven minutes with Newt instructing him to add different things to the sauce as she attempted to make pasta out of the lump on the counter. Unfortunately, the sauce was only getting worse as he followed her instructions and Tony tried to improvise. 

“Tony, you can’t just add cream to this!” Newt exclaimed. 

“The picture looks creamy to me,” he replied, grabbing the cream from the counter. 

Newt grabbed it back. “That doesn’t mean there’s cream in it!” Tony was pulling the cream toward him again when Newt grabbed it in an attempt to get it back, the top blew off, spraying her with the contents of the bottle. 

“What’s going on in here?” came a familiar voice from the elevator across the room. 

Tony spun around simultaneously with Newt, effectively spreading the cream around the entire kitchen. He could only imagine what the scene looked like from Pepper’s perspective: Newt’s hair dripping with milk and covered with flour, half-formed pasta strewn across the counter, and a horrific mixture bubbling in the pan. However, Tony only noticed how tired Pepper looked. 

With a defeated sigh, Tony turned to the kid. “Go wash up, Newt. I’ll order something for dinner.” She nodded, and trudged down the hallway, giving Pepper a laugh and a wave as she passed. 

“JARVIS, order our usual from Pepper’s favorite restaurant, plus the chocolate cake,” Tony told the AI as Pepper dropped her bag on the table and crossed to the kitchen. 

“Tony.” He looked up, surprised to see her smiling. “Did you try to cook dinner on your own because you knew I had a bad day?”

He shrugged, trying to be nonchalant, though his heart was soaring after seeing her smile. “It’s my only fault. I can’t cook.” 

She didn’t say anything else as they cleaned the kitchen in companionable silence. Once they had everything to a manageable level of cleanliness, Pepper turned back to him, as he wiped his hands on a towel. “What were you trying to make?”

“Wasn’t it obvious?” he asked. 

Pepper looked back at the trashcan that was full of raw pieces of mystery dough and a blackened sauce. “Dumplings?”

“Sure, let’s go with that.”

He turned to put the towel away, but she caught his hand. Gently taking the towel, she stepped close enough for him to smell her floral perfume. With the softest movements, Pepper leaned toward him and wiped his brow. Tony couldn’t care less what he had stuck to his face. He could only stare into her eyes and try to memorize every movement. After she had left him, he regretted not paying attention more to the little things so that he could remember them when she was gone. Like the warmth of her hand on his wrist and the little specks of green in her eyes. 

“There,” she declared quietly, but she didn’t pull back. Instead her eyes met his and her gaze softened. “Thank you, for… failing to make me dinner.”

“I’ll take a thank you for failing anytime.” Tony responded, unable to help himself as his eyes flicked toward her lips. They drifted closer together. “I think I’ll keep to ordering in the future.”

Tony’s heartbeat accelerated as her eyes floated to his lips. “Maybe that’s for the best.”

His hand came up to cradle the side of her face as she moved closer to him. Right as he felt her breath on his lips, a yelp came from the hallway, followed quickly by a curse. Pepper flew away from him as they both turned to see Newt, freshly showered, attempting to run away. One look at Pepper, and Tony knew that she regretted coming that close, so he decided to step farther away. 

“Newt, come back,” he called to her and she returned with a guilty look. “My turn to get cleaned up.” Tony started crossing the room without looking back at Pepper. “Why don’t you help Pepper set up dinner and a movie night? I just ordered something that will be here soon.”

“I’m so sorry,” Newt whispered to him as he passed her. “I just got excited.”

Tony took a deep breath. “I know. Just don’t get your hopes up, kid.”

After a cold shower, Tony returned to find Newt on the ceiling with a variety of sheets and blankets while Pepper was arranging a mountain of pillows and cushions on the floor in front of the tv. 

“That’s where all my bedding went,” Tony commented. 

“We’re making a pillow fort for movie night,” Newt announced as she placed the final tack in the ceiling and fell back into a pile of pillows. With Newt’s abilities to get to the high ceiling and Pepper’s talent for making anything comfortable yet classy, they made a very effective tent with blankets and pillows. 

The food arrived and they ate at the table. Newt did a good job asking about the company and focusing on how Tony had saved the launch. By the end of dinner, Pepper was smiling at him again. When they settled in the blanket tent, Newt made sure that Pepper was sitting next to Tony, claiming there was a glare on the screen from her angle. Tony thought she was probably laying it on a little thick when she picked out a romantic comedy but Pepper was agreeable. 

Near the end of the film when the couple inevitably had a miscommunication and broke up, Tony was amazed to see the kid curled up in the pillows, asleep. Gently he pulled a nearby blanket over her and carefully plucked her phone out of her loose grip to place it on the couch above her head. 

“She doesn’t sleep well, does she,” came a whisper next to him. 

Tony turned to see Pepper watching Newt with soft eyes. He considered lying for a moment, since it wasn’t a great reflection of his caregiving abilities, but Pepper had surely noticed how they planned to be in the lab at night for more than just an hour or two. 

“No,” he admitted. “I guess we need to make this pillow fort permanent if this is the only way she’ll fall asleep before three.”

Pepper opened her mouth to say something, but apparently thought the better of it and said instead, “Let’s let her sleep then.”

Tony wondered what else she was about to say, but knew he shouldn’t push Pepper. He slowly got up from the pillow fort and Pepper followed him to the kitchen where they silently cleaned up after the dinner. In the background, sad music swelled as the couple in the movie continued to fight and sadly pine for each other. 

As Tony finished wiping up the counter, he turned to see Pepper watching the movie from behind the couch. Tony came up behind her and watched as the couple saw each other at a party after some time had passed. They of course met in the middle of the dancefloor and started to dance. 

Tony opened his mouth to make a snide comment about how these movies always pick the most dramatic way to get the couple back together after the most contrived argument, but he shut his mouth quickly as Pepper said quietly, “I know it’s stupid but I’ve always loved this scene.”

“Didn’t know you had a soft spot for 80s ballads and misunderstandings.”

Pepper watched the scene with sadness in her gaze. “I know it’s just a fantasy, but it’s nice to pretend that a dance and a kiss can overcome any disagreement.”

Tony’s heart twisted. She didn’t pretend to disguise the true context to her words, and he wasn’t sure if he should feel devastated or hopeful. Leaning into the latter, he held out his hand to her and she turned to him unsure. “Should we give it a try?”

“Tony, that’s not what I meant.”

He shrugged, exuding as much confidence as possible. “It’s working for them.”

“It’s a movie,” she argued, but after a moment she took his hand. 

Tony pulled her in close, determined to not let this moment go to waste. As he wrapped his arm around her waist and squeezed her hand lightly, he closed his eyes to memorize the feeling. Slowly leading them in a circle behind the couch, Tony smiled as Pepper leaned her head into his shoulder. 

The moment was over too quickly and a peppy pop song began to play as the credits rolled. Pepper began to pull away, but he stopped her, holding onto her waist to see if he could push his luck a little farther. “I’m pretty sure we’re missing the second half of this experiment.”

Pepper gazed up into his eyes and gave him a reproachful look, though Tony could tell that it was in jest. “Tony.”

“Just saying that as the resident scientist, it’s good practice to complete the experiment before determining it a failure.” He pulled her in closer and she let him. 

“Even if it’s impossible?” she whispered, their faces only inches away. 

“Nothing is impossible to me,” he replied and their lips met. 

It was just as wonderful as Tony remembered. He had kissed many women, and done much more with almost all of them in his days of debauchery, but kissing Pepper was always different. It was something about her and wanting to be the best version of himself for her that made the intimacy better. He hadn’t been with any women since her, and he hadn’t had any desire. Something about Pepper was so irresistible that it ruined him for anyone else. He would do anything to make her happy, including letting her go. 

He was the one to pull away and put space between the two of them before they could take it any further. Tony felt that warmth that had filled his chest during the kiss, wither away into a cold void as he watched Pepper’s face fall. “You’re still not willing to give it up?” she asked quietly, her eyes flickering to where he knew Newt was still sleeping. “Even for her?”

Tony squeezed his eyes shut. She still didn’t understand, and that was why a dance and a kiss wasn’t going to bridge the gap between them. “She is just another reason I have to keep going. I have to make things right. I have to do everything I can to keep her safe and show her how to use the gifts she has and not make the same mistakes I made.”

“Even if she has to watch you die in the process?” Pepper asked. 

Flashes of the Chitauri, the nuke, and their mothership crossed his vision. Tony swallowed hard. “I don’t plan on dying. I plan on showing her that she doesn’t need to use her powers to put herself or others in danger. I plan to find a family to give her a normal life so she doesn’t feel the need to use her powers and get into this like I have. I want her to find a different route, so she doesn’t end up like me.”

Tony took a deep breath, finding himself more determined than before to keep his resolve and see this to the end, even if it means giving up any future with Pepper. 

Pepper was studying him silently, taking in what he had said. She looked once more at Newt before turning away from him to gather her things and put on her shoes. Reluctantly, Tony led her to the door. 

The elevator doors swished open, but Pepper turned back to him before stepping in. “You’re doing a good job with her, Tony, and I know you will do anything to make it up to her and her family.” She looked down at her shoes, as if unsure if she wanted to continue, but her gaze returned to him once more. “I’ll be here for her as long as she’s here, but I can’t be here for you if you’re going to continue to be Iron Man. I still can’t watch you fly away to your death every time something in the world goes wrong.”

Tony let out a long breath. “I know.”

She regarded him for a moment before stepping into the elevator. The doors closed and she was gone.

Chapter Text

Chapter 35

Late in the summer was the second anniversary of the Invasion. Eva felt a bit of a change in everyone’s attitude as the day approached. One night Tony suddenly asked what she would like to do that day. After some thought, Eva decided that she would like to visit the park more than anything. She didn’t tell him about it though and just asked if she could visit the general location of the park. Of course, she couldn’t go by herself, but Tony agreed that Pepper could go with her. 

Pepper was very sweet and helped her buy some flowers and stayed in the car around the corner while Eva went to the park. It was the same as always: empty, overgrown, and quiet. Eva spent a long time sitting quietly on the bench clutching the flowers in her hand. She didn’t cry this time, but as she sat there thinking of her family, she realized that it was harder and harder to picture their faces and hear their voices. Even in her dreams, their faces weren’t completely clear, almost like they couldn’t come into focus through a camera lens. She was starting to forget them and it was terrifying. 

On the other hand, her life had gotten so much better in the last few months. She felt safe and happy, and she was around a lot of good people. Chloe and Mitchel were happy too. Everyone from the Underground was getting homes and jobs now. She couldn’t help but think about how it was all going to change again soon when Tony found someone to officially adopt her. Knowing Tony wouldn’t leave a stone unturned before she left to live with the new family, Eva should feel excited about truly starting a normal life, but recently when she thought about it she felt uneasy and scared. Nothing would ever replace her family, but things had changed so much now. How was she supposed to return to a normal life?

Looking around her sacred park, Eva considered what her parents would want for her. She liked to think that they were watching over her somewhere. She wanted to believe that somehow her parents helped her get to the Underground right as she was about to get arrested and sent Tony to save her from Mr. Graves. In the end, Eva just wanted to make them proud.

“Mom,” she whispered aloud. “Dad, Vic. I’m okay now. Things are okay now. Even though it was really hard for a while, I think it will all work out.” Leaning back to gaze into the branches of the oak tree, she thought of all that had happened. “I would give anything in the world to be back with you, and I still don’t know how to feel about befriending all the people that unintentionally caused so much pain for us. But I like them and I like my life right now. I think you’d be happy that I can even say that.” She stood after a moment and found a crevice in the trunk of the tree to place her flowers. “Thanks for watching over me. I hope I make you proud.”

When she returned to the Tower, Steve was in the kitchen making dinner. He was going all out: rolling fresh pizza dough, cooking his amazing spaghetti sauce, and shredding about five different cheeses. Eva immediately went over to help. He merely nodded his appreciation and they got to work in silence. 

While they were waiting for the pasta water to boil and the pizzas to cook, he finally spoke up as they leaned on the counter. “Today isn’t an easy day for any of us,” he told her. “It’s not a good day for you either.” It wasn’t a question, so Eva didn’t respond. “Tony only told me that your family died, but I can imagine that you blame us to an extent for not being able to save them or for bringing those monsters to your doorstep in the first place and leaving you to pick up the pieces. I’m sorry for any part I played in that.”

Eva shifted uncomfortably. “I did blame all of you, and especially Tony for a long time, but I think I’m starting to understand just how hard it was from your perspective. Nothing will bring them back, but all that hatred I held inside made me do some stupid things and hurt people.” She added more quietly, “I just don’t want to be angry anymore.”

Steve nodded slowly. “Every one of us has done some stupid things that hurt people when we were angry. With this group, our actions hold a little more weight.” He turned and smiled at her. “I think letting that anger go is a very mature thing to do, Eva.”

Eva didn’t get a chance to respond. At that moment, Tony and Clint burst through the elevator door with Thor closely in tow and Natasha slowly bringing up the rear. Thor and Clint had their arms weighed down by take out bags. The group stopped when they saw Eva and Steve in the kitchen surrounded by ingredients and pots. 

“Cap! It’s shawarma day,” Tony cried. 

“I didn’t think we’d want to go out this year,” Steve rebuked with a not so subtle look at Eva. 

“That’s why we got take-out.” Tony exasperatedly approached the counter.

“Tony–” Steve started, but Eva interrupted now that it was obvious that this was about to turn into an argument. 

“Perfect! It’s just a big party now! Should I call Pepper and Bruce, and maybe even Rhodey too?” she asked with a glance at the mounds of food around the room.  

“Ah yes!” Thor boomed, dumping the bags of food from his arms onto the table. “It is a feast in celebration for our glorious battle.”

“I don’t know about the glorious part, but I always do look forward to having shawarma this time of year,” Clint agreed as he put his bags on the table as well. 

Steve walked over to the table and started picking through the bags with the rest, while Tony sauntered over to the kitchen next to her. “How was this afternoon, Newt?” he asked quietly enough for only Eva to hear. 

“It was good,” she told him as she turned back to the boiling water and started to dump in pasta. “Thanks for letting me have some time.”

“Of course,” he told her simply. “Were you serious about inviting Rhodey?”

“Why not?” she shrugged. “We have plenty of food.”

“I’ll go call him then. You’re lucky he’s so boring and never has plans.” Tony ruffled her hair before walking into the living room and pulling out his phone. 

The rest of the night was full of shouting and eating and laughter. Rhodey showed up a few hours later and it did feel like a party. Eva found herself joking with everyone and eating more than her fill and when she crawled into bed, she didn’t feel very sad. It only took two years, but she was happy and proud of where her life had taken her.

Chapter Text

Chapter 36

Over the next few months, things stayed just as busy in the Tower for everyone. The Avengers were either training or working on tracking HYDRA bases during the day, but they would all still reconvene for dinner in the evenings. She and Steve had a lot of fun making dinners together and got really into baking special treats when they had a chance. Pepper sometimes teamed up with them and used her more refined tastes to help them develop new recipes. None of their taste testers (the rest of the Avengers) complained of their new hobby, but Tony let more than a few jealous comments slip, especially when Pepper was involved.

Eva had been sure that Tony and Pepper were right on the cusp of getting back together the night that Tony had attempted to make dinner, but something had happened and they were more distant than ever. Tony even skipped some meals when Pepper was around and Pepper didn’t even attempt to get him to come out. When Eva asked, all that Tony would tell her is that they couldn’t resolve their differences. Eva tried to let it go, but she was sad to see them forcing themselves apart when they obviously were meant to be together.

In the end, Eva couldn’t focus too much on Tony’s love life. The Avengers were starting to get more serious in their training as they started to finalize deals with various governments and prepare to invade the bases. Eva continued to work out with Chloe but once she was dismissed from the warmup, she would sit on the sidelines with Bruce as they ran through different scenarios that Tony and Steve invented for the team. Tony developed a holographic system to project various HYDRA agents and vehicles and terrains to simulate what they were going to face. She could tell that they were all impatient to get going, but Tony let her know that Maria Hill and the American government were advising otherwise. 

One morning, tensions were high when Nat almost got hit by Steve’s shield, and Clint set off one of his putty arrows in the middle of the course where Tony had been standing, the sticky material seeping into Tony’s suit. Thor’s loud guffaws of laughter were not helping Tony’s frustration. 

“Should we do something?” Eva asked Bruce.

“I probably wouldn’t help,” Bruce admitted. “But maybe you can go in there and do a few tricks for them. Clint and Steve have been asking for a while.”

It was true that Clint and Steve had been trying to coax her into practicing a couple of maneuvers with them for a few weeks now. Tony agreed that it was a good time and place for her to practice if she wanted to, but something was holding her back from using her powers still. She did things in the lab to help move big items or float things around her to free up surface area on the workstation, and she noticed that she was getting better. There was still a dread deep in her stomach about using her powers after what had happened with Mr. Graves. 

As she watched Tony step out of his suit to inspect it while throwing threats barely veiled in sarcasm at Clint, Eva remembered how it felt when she was experimenting with her powers all those months ago in the subway tunnels. The rush of exhilaration when she accomplished something she never had before. The excitement when she thought of a new way to use her powers. 

“Can I try that maneuver you were talking about before?” Eva asked quietly as she rose from the bench and approached Steve who was already halfway to the elevator. 

He and Nat turned in surprise. “Really?”

Eva shrugged, stepping into the practice arena. “Is the young Stark finally going to demonstrate her immense power?” Thor bellowed as he noticed her. 

Tony looked up and met her eye. “I just want to try out a maneuver or two. Nothing more,” she clarified.

Crossing the room before anyone else, Tony met her halfway. “You sure, Newt?” he questioned and she nodded her consent. “Don’t push yourself and stick to Steve’s instructions.”

“Alright,” she agreed. “I want to keep it in control as much as you do.”

“I know, kid,” he said as he slapped her back and turned her toward the team. “But if you don’t practice how to control it with us, who else would help? You could throw a building at Uncle Sam over there and he would just punch his way out.”

“Wouldn’t even make a dent,” Steve agreed with a reassuring smile. “But maybe we should start with something smaller than a building.”

It had come up a few weeks ago when they were going through a new formation where Steve was trying to simulate a situation where they were stuck behind a barrier and targeted by heavy firepower. After Tony’s smug explanations of how he would use various missiles or traps to get them out and Thor’s assurance that he would bust through them easily, Steve managed to convince them to take it seriously. Tony joked that if they had Eva to drop boulders on the tanks or push the entire barrier on them, it would be easy, and the entire team turned to her. That led to a discussion of all the different maneuvers they could accomplish with her powers. She had emphatically refused to get involved, and they left it alone.

As she joined the group, Steve instructed the room to make the same scenario as that day. They all grouped up behind the stone wall as the holographic tanks rained fire on the other side. The explosions were loud but they didn’t hold any heat as they would have if it had been real, so she was able to calm her breathing. 

“Okay Eva,” Steve started once everyone was in place, except Tony who had moved off to the side to assess the damage to the Iron Man suit from the last maneuver. “The plan is to make an opening for me and Thor to get over the wall and attack, so we need to either distract or surprise the tanks for at least five seconds.” Eva nodded, focusing her mind as much as possible on the task at hand. “Tony suggested that you could throw something big at the tanks.” 

“I could,” she agreed, looking around for something. 

Thor turned and suddenly ripped a piece of the wall that was being their barrier away as if he were simply tearing a piece of paper off and easily handed it to her. She was careful to lighten its gravity before taking it from him, awkwardly trying to wrap her arms around such a large object. “I guess this works.”

“On my signal, send it over and Thor and I will follow,” Steve told the team. “Nat and Clint will follow over the wall once the tanks are disabled.”

Eva took a deep breath and planned the path for the chunk of the wall. Everyone assumed their positions and Steve raised his fist. Eva turned the gravity completely off for the boulder and gently pushed it upward. Once it crested the top of the wall, she sent it flying in the direction of the tank. She couldn’t suppress a smile when she heard a crunch and Steve and Thor launched themselves over the wall. 

The smile left her face as Thor came crashing back and she heard a grunt from Steve. Steve called off the attack and everything froze. Turning down her own gravity, Eva leapt to the top of the wall and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Steve was only brushing off the dust from his shoulders. Thor was even less affected as he jumped back up. 

“Good work!” Steve praised them with a bit more positivity than usual for her sake. “You got one of them to stall for long enough, but the other two got us.” Eva could now see that there were three tanks on the other side of their wall and she had successfully put a dent into the middle one but the other two had stopped Thor and Steve. 

“What if I make it swing across,” she suggested, sweeping her hand from the left side to the right, “So it hits all three before you and Thor jump over?” 

“Can you do that?” Clint asked. 

Eva shrugged. “I can try.”

As they reset, Eva noticed Tony had sent his suit away, presumably to the lab, and he was now standing off to the side talking with Pepper. Eva carefully regarded their expressions, they were talking about something serious, but she didn’t think they were fighting. Tony caught her eye and sent her a wink. She relaxed a little and refocused on the boulder. 

This time when Steve gave the signal, Eva carefully carried the boulder to the left side of the wall. Keeping it in zero gravity, Eva pushed it out toward the side of the leftmost tank, and when it lined up, she changed the direction of its gravity sideways suddenly. She watched it fall in a slight arc backward, still carrying the momentum of her zero gravity push, but it managed to hit all three. 

The fire ceased long enough for Steve and Thor to vault over the wall and take out the tanks. However, Eva wasn’t focused on their attack and instead was trying to slow down the boulder. She had been so proud of herself for managing to make an object go in two different directions in one go, that she hadn’t considered how she would stop it, and now it was careening out of the practice arena. Eva watched in horror as it fell out of the boundary where there were usually protective shields and plummeting right toward Bruce. 

Before anyone could react, Hulk was in the room with them. There was a deafening roar and her boulder was flung away into the opposite wall. Over the commotion, Eva heard Tony shout, “Newt, get to the ceiling!”

She didn’t need to be told twice. Eva sprinted at full speed to the nearest wall, switched her own gravity and fell forward onto it ungracefully. Gaining her footing again, she ran up to the vaulted ceilings and remained in the corner, trying to suck in a few deep breaths. When she looked down, she saw Steve and Thor tossed away by the Hulk like dolls. Clint shot a putty arrow at the Hulk’s feet, which slowed him down, but he was still able to swing his arms into a nearby wall. Tony had pushed Pepper to safety and was speaking into his watch. A moment later, four robots that looked like smaller Iron Man suits flew into the room: one went to guard Pepper, one hovered in the air in front of Eva in her ceiling corner, and the last two dove toward the Hulk.

As the Hulk approached Clint, the two robots dropped a red object. Hulk was distracted enough by the two robots that Clint was able to get away, but the robots were swiftly crushed in enormous green fists. Eva had almost lost hope in Tony’s plan until she saw the red object fly up and attach itself to the Hulk’s face. A purple tinted smoke enveloped his head and the Hulk began to sway. 

Eva thought it was over, until an enormous green hand ripped the mask off his face. Tony was not in the Iron Man suit yet, Steve and Thor were only just getting back onto their feet, and Clint was clearly hesitant about what other arrows to use with so many people around. Eva was somehow still frozen in her corner, unable to move. 

The Hulk was dazed and Eva saw Nat approaching cautiously, with her hands up like she was trying to tame a wild animal. Eva nearly yelled out for her to back up, but she noticed that Nat was talking to the Hulk in a quiet voice. He was clearly still dazed, but he was focused on Nat’s face. From her spot high above, Eva began to hear Nat singing. His face began to relax, and slowly the Hulk began to shrink, until it was finally Bruce again. 

In the aftermath, Tony made Eva stay on the ceiling until Bruce was taken to the med bay. Once he deemed it safe, Tony waited just below her until she was safely back on the ground. 

“I’m so sorry,” was all she could get out before bursting into tears. It was all because of these stupid powers that she had almost hurt Bruce and then caused a disaster. “It’s all my fault.”

She felt a strong arm come around her shoulders. “It’s not all your fault,” Tony told her as he pulled her into his side. “I didn’t make sure the shields were back up. Steve should have told you to move the boulder going the other way. Bruce shouldn’t have been standing so close.” He led her over to her usual bench on the sidelines. “We shouldn’t have pushed you to jump into something if you weren’t ready yet.”

“You didn’t push me,” she reminded him through her tears. “I did it because I thought I could do it.”

“And you can do it,” Tony told her firmly. “This is part of the job, Newt. We all make mistakes and those mistakes have consequences. You know that better than anyone else. That’s why we do things as a team. That’s why we spend so much time in the lab making things that can help. And that’s why it’s so important to have you around: to remind us that we need backup plans and things in place to check us when things go wrong.” 

Someone handed her a cup of water, and she took it, drinking a few sips and finally controlling her breathing. Tony continued. “No one is hurt and you helped us learn some really valuable stuff today. We’ve been talking about how to control the Hulk and now we have some safer ways to do it.”

“I didn’t have to put everyone in danger to do it,” she whimpered. 

“Anytime the Hulk is out, everyone is in danger. That’s his whole thing.” Tony chuckled. “I’ve been poking Bruce for months to try to get him to come out. I guess I’ll throw a boulder at him next time.”

Eva glared up at him through wet eyelashes, but it only made his smirk stronger. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Newt. In fact, I’m glad you made me debut my newest and greatest idea, the Iron Legion.” He gestured to the two mangled robots that were strewn across the floor. 

“I don’t know about the greatest,” Eva said, taking another sip of water. 

“I didn’t say they were complete, but I bet with a little Newton construction, they will be stronger than ever.” Tony gave her a genuine smile. “Then we can have an army of Iron Men so I don’t have to be everywhere at once.”

“Because having more of you is exactly what we need,” Eva said, but her sarcasm wasn’t as thick as she intended. It was a good idea, and she would prefer it was a robot between Nat and Hulk next time instead of Tony himself. 

“You’ll warm up to the idea,” he promised. “Why don’t you let Pepper make you something for lunch and I’ll meet you upstairs once I check in on the Green Giant.”

Eva noticed Pepper for the first time, watching them with a worried smile from a few feet away. She came up and offered her hand to Eva, which she took thankfully. “That sounds good,” Eva admitted, following Pepper to the elevator.

Chapter Text

Chapter 37

Tony stepped into the penthouse a few hours later. He was feeling that familiar deep exhaustion settling into his chest that always happened after a fight. It was strange though that it was happening when the incident didn’t last for more than a minute. Something was different about having Newt in the mix. The panic he had felt seeing her only a hundred feet away from a raging Hulk was going to haunt his dreams for some time. 

Then there was Pepper. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been in danger before, but he hated that yet again, she proved her point that he was the only one to blame for putting her in life or death situations. That was why dread was pouring into him as he crossed to the couch where Pepper was sitting with her shoes off and feet tucked underneath. He reminded himself that he deserved whatever was coming his way as he sat on the other side of the conversation pit. 

“How’s Bruce?” she asked. 

“Fine, just ashamed about what happened,” Tony told her. “How’s Newt?”

“She ate and then went to clean up about an hour ago.”

Tony frowned and addressed the ceiling. “JARVIS, what’s the kid doing?”

“Ms. Moore is still in the shower, sir,” JARVIS reported. 

Tony let out a sigh of relief. “Let me know if she assumes the moping position by the window.”

“Of course, sir.”

Pepper gave him a questioning look. “When she first came to live here, she just sat by the window for weeks.”

Pepper continued to study him, so Tony pulled out his phone to get his usual crew to start repairs for the gym to avoid the oncoming lecture. When Pepper finally sighed, Tony was surprised to look up and see her scooting closer to him with a sad expression instead of furious or disappointed. He couldn’t stop himself from saying, “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” she asked as she stopped halfway to him. 

“Why aren’t you letting me have it for putting not only myself in danger but also you and the kid? For being an idiot to let the kid be anywhere near Bruce, much less let her try a maneuver with Cap and friends, especially when I wasn’t able to get in there to help her. It was reckless and idiotic and I have no right being a guardian to a kid, enhanced or not. We both know I’ve never been a fatherly type and this only proved it.”

“Tony,” came Pepper’s quiet voice. Tony was breathing heavily and that exhaustion in his chest had turned into an angry regret, but Pepper didn’t start yelling at him and instead took his face in her hands. “Tony.” His gaze met hers. “I’m so sorry if I ever made you think that you couldn’t be a father.”

“I said ‘fatherly’, I would never-”

“I’ll say it then,” she interrupted. “After seeing you give that girl everything she needs and guiding her through so many impossible situations, there is no doubt in my mind that you would be a wonderful father, if that’s something you want. You are infinitely better than your father.”

“That doesn’t mean much.”

“And I wouldn’t have said any of this ten years ago,” Pepper continued. 

“You mean when I was sleeping with models-”

“Everything that moved,” Pepper interjected at the same time.

“And enjoyed the finer things in life.”

“Tony, what I’m trying to tell you if you listen-”

“I’ll always listen if you’re giving me compliments.”

She pulled back from him and rolled her eyes. “Now I’m starting to think I should start yelling like you want me to.”

“Never said I want you to yell.”

“I just wanted to say,” she started and Tony fell silent as she reached up to take his face again. “I can see that you’re still working hard to change. That you want to be around for the future, and you are capable of caring for others and taking care of a family.”

Tony felt that sadness and regret turn into a spark of hope. “And does that change anything for you?” he asked quietly.

Pepper began to lean in toward him and he reached out to pull her in, but she suddenly let go of him and backed away. “I’m thinking about it, and I don’t want to confuse Eva.” Pepper glanced toward the hallway. “It wouldn’t be fair to her if I became a part of her life only to leave again. If we get back together, I’m going to be here for all of it.”

“Even if I’m still Iron Man?” he asked. 

Pepper sighed and leaned back on the couch. “Even if you’re still Iron Man, but as long as you’re trying your best to keep our family safe, which includes making sure you come home every time.”

Tony’s brow furrowed at the word family. “You do know that Newt isn’t sticking around. She’s almost caught up with school and I’ve already started looking into some families that could be a good fit.”

Pepper met his eyes, surprise painted across her face. “That’s still your plan? I didn’t think you would want her to leave after all of this. I had my doubts at first, but I can now see that this is a good place for her.”

Shaking his head, Tony continued, “After today? After she was next to a raging Hulk? After she cried and blamed herself for causing the problem? I like her, more than I thought I would a few months ago. She’s practical and independent and keeps up with the famous Stark humor, but this is not where she belongs. She needs a family and a normal life and when she’s older, maybe we can set up a program for enhanced teens or college students or something, but I don’t think after all I’ve done to her… She would never want to be permanently associated with me.”

This time when Pepper moved closer, she simply reached out and took his hand. “I think you’re underestimating how much you love her and how much she loves you.” Tony simply snorted and shook his head as Pepper continued, “Just think about what you want and ask her what she wants. You might be surprised by her answer.”

“It’s not about what we want,” Tony said, his resolve setting in. “It’s about what will keep her safe.”

Pepper rose to her feet and put on her shoes. “I guess we both have a lot to think about.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 38

After the incident, everyone came to Eva separately, apologizing for their mistakes leading up to Bruce Hulking out during training. Eva nodded and apologized for her own mistakes, knowing that they were only saying any of it because they felt bad for her. 

The discussion with Bruce was particularly brutal. He looked a little haggard the next day but promised Eva that he felt fine. He was so guilty for losing control and not being more careful, and Eva felt equally guilty for even using her abilities in the first place. It was just a circle of apologies and reassurances until Tony finally interrupted and finished it by telling them to leave their guilt at the door when they came into his lab. 

Tony helped distract her from her guilt in his usual way: building and inventing. He let her and Bruce in on his Iron Legion plan. Eva had been getting better with welding. She had started off with scraps, and once she got better at making straight lines, Tony gave her bigger pieces to do. That didn’t take too long to master because she could float and angle pieces easily by changing their gravity. When Tony was happy with that progress, he showed her how to put together a few pieces of the Iron Legion robots. It was mostly screwing things together and snapping pieces into place, but Tony showed her some wiring and let her weld a couple pieces on their feet. Because the building process was so repetitive, she got better faster and there seemed to be no limit in how many robots Tony wanted to make, so she got included on more and more of the building, which thankfully kept her busy for weeks.

There were plenty of other projects though. A few weeks later, she and Tony went on a trip to Virginia to meet Rhodey at an Air Force base to get a jet for the team. Tony and Rhodey shared stories of their crazier party days with Eva, and she was able to laugh and join in the jokes more this time. The last time she had spent with just the two of them was shortly after she had arrived at the Tower. It was nice to know that she had healed enough since then to actually have fun. 

Tony gave her a few lectures and shared schematics about how he wanted to upgrade the jet into a quinjet that would be much faster and stealthier than anything the military had. Eva didn’t retain everything that he shared, but she learned what she could about alternative fuels, acceleration, and his more efficient engine design. In the end, she had a lot of fun dismantling the original jet they received from the military while Tony built the engines, navigation systems, and other tech they would install. When it was all placed in the new quinjet, Eva did some of the reassembly with Tony, since he trusted her with some of the bigger pieces that would have been hard to hold steadily in place. Rhodey was impressed, but perhaps a little upset, when he came to visit one month after handing over his jet to see a quinjet in its place.

After the quinjet was complete, Tony turned his attention toward other things. Eva was privy to most of the projects, but she could tell that he was working on some more secretive stuff. He was stressed to get these unknown projects done as soon as possible, so one night he finally filled Eva in. 

Tony’s worries of aliens returning to Earth apparently hadn’t gone away because he was coming up with idea after idea to try to protect the entire planet. At first he thought of a satellite-based photon shield, but Bruce quickly pointed out that it would take agreement from every country around the world to set up something like that. Then Tony revealed that Iron Legion was his next focus. He proposed that they could evacuate and protect civilians during fights. Eva liked this idea better than the shield and spent a little more time looking over the plans for them as she was building. Then there were some other talks that she occasionally heard Tony and Bruce whispering about in the labs about an advanced AI, but she didn’t really catch much of those conversations. 

Not long after the quinjet was complete, they started to find HYDRA bases and went on missions to bust them. Eva was surprised that she felt a pang of fear and sadness when she watched them fly away on their first mission. Pepper had been there to watch some movies and make dinner to distract her, but Eva didn’t like the feeling of possibly losing everything again. 

This started to happen on a weekly basis. They would get a confirmed location for a HYDRA base and run off into action. Sometimes they were only gone for a few hours, sometimes for a few days, but no matter how easy or safe Tony told her it was going to be, that dread in Eva’s chest didn’t fade. Pepper’s movie nights helped, alone time in the lab helped, and even Rhodey coming out to join movie night a few times helped too, but it never went away. 

It didn’t help that during this time Chloe began getting booked in professional fights and started traveling around the country. She was scheduled to have a break around the holidays and then get right back into it, so Eva started to work out on her own in the mornings and try to call whenever she could. Eva would gather any of the Avengers that she could to sit with her during the fights to watch and cheer on Chloe. Thor got especially into the “sport of fighting” and bought every piece of her merchandise. 

After a few of their missions, it became clear that the Iron Legion she had helped Tony build was not the answer they had been hoping for. From the videos she saw of them in action, the Legion was clumsy and seemed to get in the way more than help. Eva argued with Tony about it on multiple occasions and tried to make other suggestions, but it was clear that he was determined that they would be the answer to his problems. Part of Eva understood that Tony was scared that if the Iron Legion didn’t work, he wouldn’t have a good plan to keep the world safe, but she kept finding videos of the Iron Legion in different places trying to keep people out of the fight and destroying property or blocking traffic unnecessarily in the process. The public opinion started to turn against the Avengers in some areas of the world, and Eva was worried that maybe Graves would take this opportunity for his plans, wherever he was.

Eva had asked a few more times if Tony had any clues to Graves’ whereabouts, but each time he assured her that he hadn’t found anything and would let her know when he did. Somehow Eva didn’t completely believe him. She felt like he was hiding something from her and was trying to protect her from something. Maybe it was for the best because she really did feel safe at the Tower and started to think that she might not have to worry about him any more. 

That is until she had a conversation with Tony after the new year. One night in the lab, he told her that there were a couple of potential adopters in line for her, and that he was running extensive background checks before he showed her the options. Eva felt completely blindsided by the reveal even though that had been the plan all along. Apparently, sometime in the last ten months Eva had settled into life in the Tower and life with Tony, Pepper, and the rest of the Avengers and thought that maybe it would be that way forever. She quickly talked herself back into reality. Tony couldn’t take on a kid while trying to save the world on a weekly basis. Eva wanted a normal life anyway… right?

One night in the lab, Tony suddenly brought up her potential adopters. “Is that what you want still?” he asked, not looking up from his work, “To be with a normal family?”

She looked up from her work, but he continued to avoid her gaze. “Is there a better option?”

He finally met her gaze and studied her for a moment before returning to his work. “It’s definitely the safest option.”

That wasn’t a full answer to her question, but she was confused why he was bringing it up now. There was no way for her to stay in the Tower, especially now that it was the Avengers headquarters. She had no interest in using her powers or being a publicly recognized enhanced person, so there really weren’t any other options. 

“I guess it’s what I want then,” she said, and he didn’t bring it up again.

They went through her potential new families together about a week later and landed on a nice middle-aged couple who couldn’t have children of their own. They lived upstate and had a big house in the suburbs. She would go to one of the best high schools in the state and would even have her own car once she was old enough to drive. Every time they talked about it, Eva just felt numb. She couldn’t wrap her head around needing to make a change again. 

At the beginning of February, Eva met Alison and Andrew Chan in a room near the bottom of the Tower with her social worker and Tony. Though they were a little starstruck by Tony at first, they were very kind to everyone, and Andrew cracked a few dad jokes that Eva appreciated. It was something her dad would have done if put in the same situation to break the tension. They asked a lot of questions about Eva’s hobbies and interests and told her about their quiet neighborhood and house. Afterward, everyone agreed that it was a good match and the next day the paperwork to finalize the adoption was in process. Before she knew it, Eva had two weeks left in the Tower.

Chapter Text

Chapter 39

Everyone made sure to spend a little extra time with her in those last two weeks. They had all agreed that Eva would need to limit her contact with the Avengers after she left so she could focus on her new life, but she would visit the Tower once a year. Eva was devastated but kept it to herself because she knew that it would be for the best in the long run. Tony clearly made some kind of announcement to everyone that this would need to be a clean break because suddenly everyone was being extra nice and going out of their way to spend time with her. 

Thor bought them matching shirts and took her to one of Chloe’s fights in a private box that Eva was sure Tony set up, which Thor loved as much as Eva did. Chloe gave her the boxing gloves that won her that match and promised to visit as soon as she could. She and Clint pulled as many pranks as possible. Natasha gave her a nice set of crocheting materials and gave her a hat and gloves that she made for Eva to wear during the cold winters upstate. Steve pulled her into the kitchen at every opportunity to try new recipes and gifted her a book of all the recipes they had tried so far. Bruce just sat and read next to her and gave her a large box of books to add to her collection. Pepper took her shopping multiple times for new clothes to wear to her new school. And Tony was exceptionally annoying about the projects in the lab. 

He just worked harder and harder in the days leading up to her departure and dragged her away from the others, claiming that he needed her in the lab. Up until her last night, he hadn’t brought up the adoption or her leaving and solely stuck to talking science with her.

Finally, on her last night in the lab with him, she broke. “Why aren’t you talking to me?” she demanded. 

Tony turned with a clearly fake expression of shock. “What do you mean? I’ve been talking to you this whole time.”

“You’re only talking to me about the projects,” she pointed out, getting more frustrated. “You’re barely looking me in the eye, and tomorrow I’ll be gone.”

Tony sighed heavily and turned away from her, hunching over his project. “I was trying not to think about that, Newt.”

“So you’re just going to avoid it until it’s over?” she asked, exasperated. 

“That’s usually how I do it,” he told her as if explaining the simplest idea to her. 

“That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard!” she exclaimed. “You better say goodbye to me at some point before I leave or I’ll never talk to you again.”

Eva put down her tools and started to clean up her borrowed section of Tony’s workbench for the last time with tears in her eyes. “That’s kind of the point, Newt.” She barely heard Tony’s voice as he continued tinkering with something. 

“Are you trying to Air Bud me?” she accused. 

“What? Put you in a basketball game?” Tony finally turned around in confusion. 

“No, the part where he yells at the dog to leave and throws the baseball for him to fetch and when the dog comes back he isn’t there anymore,” she explained tiredly. Tony only continued to look at her in confusion. “You’re trying to push me away to make this easier on yourself.”

“Not just on myself,” Tony told her pointedly. “Do you really want a tear-filled goodbye tomorrow morning?”

“Not really,” Eva admitted, “But I want to at least get some kind of closure after the last ten months. Everyone else did something to say goodbye.”

“I’m not exactly the emotionally available parental figure you’re looking for. That’s why we’re doing this whole adoption thing.”

“Maybe not, but you’ve been the closest thing I’ve had in a while.”

They were quiet after she said that, and Eva decided that if she was going to say that much, then she could say the rest. “You know, a year ago I would have never imagined saying this, but you’re not as bad as I thought you were. You’re actually… a good person and I now know that you were just trying to do the best you could for the world in a terrible situation.” Eva shifted on her feet and her gaze fell onto the floor. “I guess what I’m saying is that I’m not mad anymore, and I… I forgive you for everything that happened that day.”

She braved a glance at him and his back was still turned toward her, so she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “Can’t you just drop the cool, indifferent guy façade for tonight?” she asked, getting frustrated again. “You can pretend like you don’t care again tomorrow.”

He turned around slowly and Eva’s frustration dissipated at the genuine sadness on his face. “I do care, Newt. That’s why it’s so hard to let you go.”

Next thing she knew, Eva was across the room and hugging him, unable to hold back the tears anymore. He didn’t return the embrace at first, but slowly she felt him hug her back. She let the tears fall silently down her face as they stood there. Finally, Tony broke the hug and looked down at her. “You really think I’m cool?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“That’s what you got out of what I said?” she asked, unable to hold back a laugh.

He ruffled her hair. “It wasn’t the only thing. Thanks for what you said, Newton. I definitely don’t deserve it, but thank you.”

“I’ve thought about it a lot recently, and I mean it,” she admitted. 

Tony studied her for a moment before turning back to his workbench and pulling something out of a drawer. “I was going to sneak this into your luggage tomorrow, but I guess I’ll give it to you now if you’re demanding an emotional goodbye.” 

He handed her a box with a sticky note on top that had “For Newton” on it. She pulled open the hatch of the sturdy box and found a set of beautiful tools and a few small laser welders inside. On closer inspection, the end of each handle had a little lizard impression on the leather. 

“Newt?” she asked, making the connection. 

He nodded. “You better keep making stuff. I expect to have Newt Inc. to compete with in a decade.”

“There’s no way I would call my company after myself like some egotistical maniac would,” Eva joked. “Thanks, Tony.”

“Yeah, Newt.” Eva closed the box. “It’s probably time to go to bed. Big day tomorrow.”

“Alright,” she relented. 

“Back to stoic sarcasm in the morning, right?” he confirmed, guiding her out of the lab. 

“Of course.”

The next day was emotional, despite Eva’s intentions. Everyone hugged her one by one after she packed her last bag into the car. When Tony came up to her at the end, he merely ruffled her hair and said, “You’re a good kid.”

“What happened to stoic sarcasm,” she asked, holding back tears. 

“Who said I wasn’t being sarcastic?” he asked. She couldn’t take it anymore and wrapped her arms around him one more time. “What happened to your stoic sarcasm?”

“You’re an egotistical maniac,” she whispered, earning a chuckle. 

Before she knew it, Eva was alone in the car watching as they disappeared around the corner. Tears continued to fall down her face as she watched the city turn into countryside. She had to keep reminding herself that this was a good thing. Going to live in the suburbs with a normal family was going to set her life back on track and the last few years will just be a memory. Though it felt like her heart was breaking again to lose another family and end another chapter of her life, Tony was right. A clean break from them would make the transition easier. It might suck for a few months like it had when she had moved into the Tower, but she would adapt and learn and thrive again. 

By the time the car pulled up to her new house, she felt much better already. Eva knew she could do this, so she got out of the car and greeted Alison and Andrew as they helped her get all of her things into the house. They showed her to her room, helped her unpack, fixed dinner, and let her get settled in for the night. 

Something about being in a normal house felt strange. She had always lived in an apartment before her parents died and then she lived in a homeless encampment and then she lived in a billionaire’s penthouse. A normal suburban house felt like something that only kids in movies did. 

Her new room had flowery wallpaper and outdated wooden furniture, so she spent some time putting up her posters, organizing her books, and placing plants carefully for most of the night. Tony’s gift was prominently displayed on her new desk, and she hoped she could find something to tinker with tomorrow to test out her new tools. When she finally crawled into the creaky bed, she texted Tony that she had arrived and settled in. He simply sent a thumbs up and a lizard, which she assumed meant Newt. Eva fell asleep hoping that she wouldn’t dream and wake up her new parents with her screams. 

Instead she woke up to someone else’s screams. 

Eva was disoriented when she woke. Who was screaming? Whose bed was she in? Where was Tony?

It didn’t matter. She didn’t have time to solve any of these mysteries because men in black uniforms, holding heavy guns and with masks up to their eyes burst into her room. Before she could react, the man in front shot her in the chest. 

Eva looked down at her shirt in shock, prepared to see blood, but instead there was a dart sticking straight up. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She couldn’t control her body anymore and she slumped to the side. 

“We have the target,” she heard a deep voice report before everything went black.

Chapter Text

Chapter 40

There were fuzzy voices breaking through the darkness, but the words didn’t make any sense. Eva couldn’t remember falling asleep. She couldn’t remember much at all. Did she use her powers too much again? That wouldn’t make any sense. Tony was saying goodbye and she was leaving to live with her new family. 

“How am I supposed to trust you?” came a voice with a thick accent that she couldn’t place. There was a pause like he was listening to someone Eva couldn’t hear. “I hope so, Graves, or I’ll be coming for you.”

Why did Graves sound so familiar? Her brain had sirens going off at that name, but she couldn’t place it. Her head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton. She moaned with effort of trying to remember that name and why it felt so important to know what this guy was talking about. 

The voice was suddenly closer. “She’s coming to. Put her back under.” Eva felt a sting in her arm and she went back into the dark. 

The next time her eyes opened, Eva’s mind felt much clearer, but it didn’t help her understand what was happening. She was in a blank concrete room with only a cot and a toilet. The heavy door at the other end of the room had a small window that was closed with a steel partition. Eva moved to sit up but she fell back to the hard cot with a thud. Heavy metallic clamps restrained her arms, legs, and torso to the bed. 

Beginning to panic, she assessed how she felt. She was clearly not wearing her sweatpants and t-shirt she remembered wearing to bed. She could feel that she was wearing a smock-like shirt and itchy woolen pants. Her shoulders and wrists hurt like she’d had multiple shots. 

Panic set into her chest as she recalled what happened when she woke up in the middle of the night. Who would want to take her? Did they want Tony to pay some kind of ransom? How would someone know about her relationship with him? She’d barely talked to anyone outside of the Tower in the last year. Maybe someone in the Underground? But none of them actually knew that she was living with him or even knew him that well. They just thought she had gotten his charity to intervene. 

In the end, it didn’t matter how she’d gotten there. She was there now and who knows what they were going to do with her next. If they needed ransom, then they wouldn’t hurt her. Eva took a deep, shaky breath. 

“It’s okay,” she whispered to herself. “I know the Avengers. They’ll come save me.”

At that moment, the steel partition in the door opened and a silhouette of a head peered through. She heard someone shout something in a different language – German maybe? Then three men entered the room and the little confidence she had built up in her head with the pep talk was gone. Two wore the same black uniform that the men who had burst into her new house had worn and the man in the middle had on a white coat like scientists she had seen in cartoons. The man with the white coat seemed to be in charge as he stepped in front of the other two, peering down at Eva with an expression that made her feel less-than human. 

“You are awake?” he said in English, but it didn’t really seem like a question. His voice was heavily accented. “This is good. It is time for you to prove your worth.”

Eva didn’t respond. She couldn’t respond. Her throat instantly dried up at his words. This was not a ransom. The way the two other men carefully avoided touching her as they double checked that her arms and legs were tightly strapped down told her everything she needed to know. One of the men then pressed something on the bed and it folded upward with a jolt so that she was sitting up. She heard another loud clank and a hum. “There’s no point in trying to escape,” the man in the coat told her as they opened the door. “The chair you are strapped to will be magnetically connected to the floor whenever you leave this room.” Her chair-bed began to move as the men wheeled her through the door. “You will remain strapped to this contraption until I find you worthy of my trust,” the scientist finished. 

Eva’s eyes widened. They knew about her powers and that is why she was there. 

The trip down the maze of hallways that seemed to be hastily carved out of stone was a blur. Her body didn’t feel like her own anymore. Maybe this was a crazy dream and she would wake up in the Tower and go to Tony’s lab in a few minutes. But the cool damp air on her face and the sharp metal bars restraining her wrists and ankles felt very real. Eva’s head swiveled around in every direction, peering into the dark corridors to try to catch a glimpse of an exit or a window, but there was nothing, only roughly carved stone hallways with identical steel doors in every direction. 

Before she could see anything else, they pushed her into an empty room with windows on the opposite side. But these windows weren’t to the outside to give her an idea of where she was. Instead the large windows displayed more men standing and watching her. The scientist that had talked to her before was now standing in front of her again. “My name is Dr. List. No need to introduce yourself, Evangeline.” The two men who had pushed her into the room reentered with a table, laden with different sized metal cubes. “And a rather untrustworthy source gave us some very interesting information about you and… your abilities.” He said the last word like it was a delectable treat he was ready to devour. 

The men left and stood near the open door, pulling out guns and making Eva jump in surprise. Dr. List looked at them and then back at Eva, who was unable to hide her terror. “You see it’s time you prove that you are enhanced or we will have no need for you. If you try anything other than what I ask, I will make sure you don’t wake up for a few days. I can always continue the experiments without your consciousness.”

Eva nodded numbly and Dr. List pressed a button on a remote that appeared from his pocket. Suddenly the metal restraints on her right arm released. Everyone kept carefully outside her arm’s length. Her other arm, her legs, and torso remained tightly bound by the other metal restraints. They rolled her up to the table and left her alone in the middle of the room. Eva stared blankly at the strange cubes on the table until Dr. List captured her attention again when he began to speak through a microphone while standing on the other side of the glass. “Begin with the smallest.”

Eva looked around at all of the men staring at her through the windows. For a moment, she considered using this freedom of her arm to try and get out of the restraints on the chair and fly out of wherever she was, but she had no idea which way to go. Last time she had a gun pointed at her, bad things happened. Eva did not know who these people were, but if they were willing to kidnap a thirteen year old girl from under Tony Stark’s nose, then they were probably willing to kill her. 

Feeling completely trapped and numb, she lifted her one free hand and touched the smallest cube with a fingertip. Switching the gravitational pull upside down, the cube dropped to the ceiling and landed with a thud. She barely registered the approving nods and whispers behind the glass. 

Dr. List instructed her to continue manipulating the gravity for each cube. After only about five minutes, it became harder to ignore the throbbing pain as he asked for more and more from her. She made each cube fall in all directions and put each one in zero gravity. Before she knew it she was managing more than she ever had before by making more than one do things at the same time. When she started to move two cubes in opposite directions, the headache became nearly unbearable. 

“I can’t,” she moaned as all the cubes fell to the floor with loud clangs that only made her head pound more. 

“You will,” Dr. List said sharply, making Eva jump. “Now, three cubes.”

Eva complied, groaning through the pain. She had pushed herself to the limit before, but not while doing menial tasks like making cubes fall around the room. Maybe it was the stress of the situation or the degrading nature of the task, but forcing herself to the edge of her abilities until she lost consciousness was near torture. When four of the five cubes were falling in four different directions, everything went blissfully black. 

Unfortunately when she woke again, Dr. List dragged her back into that room and continued to have her try different things with her powers until she pushed herself into unconsciousness again… and again… and again. Her existence began to consist of experimenting, passing out, and constant headaches. Her fear began to fade each time she was dragged into that room, but it was only replaced with an emptiness – no fear or anger or determination, and definitely no happiness. There wasn’t a chance to think about what was happening to her or about the implications of these experiments or the effect on her health or even about how scared she should feel because she spent all of her time asleep or doing Dr. List’s bidding. She just felt like she was floating through whatever life she now found herself in. 

Eva was pretty sure that when she was unconscious they did more experiments on her. Her arms and legs were sore, and once or twice she felt pangs in her spine. They were extracting blood or tissue samples, but it was possible that they were injecting things into her too. A few times she felt different when she woke up, more energetic or more lethargic or unable to think straight. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to enhance her abilities and maybe even made them worse, so they seemed to stop drugging her after that. 

Eva lost any sense of time. She never saw any windows to gauge the time of day. She was getting her meals through an IV when she was unconscious, and she could tell that she was losing dangerous amounts of weight. After a few cycles of waking, experimenting, and falling unconscious again, they began to allow her to be free in her room so that she could go to the bathroom, wash off in the sink, and eat bland meals on her own. She would really only have time to do that when she first woke up because they would come to her room right after she was done to drag her off for more experiments, which made it clear that they were watching her at all times. It scared her how much she didn’t care that they were watching her bathe or go to the bathroom. She just wasn’t thinking much at all. 

When Eva was able to think, she found her mind wandering to Tony and the Avengers. Eva let herself get lost in those happy moments in the Tower. Not long into this routine of conscious work and forced sleep, she began to dream that she was back at the Tower: a look of approval and a snide comment from Tony while working in the lab, laughing with Steve in the kitchen, plotting the next prank on Tony with Clint in the living room, shopping with Pepper, and so on. These were her only happy moments and she started to find herself working harder and harder during those times in the room with Dr. List, so that she would fall unconscious sooner and see them again. But it turned out that the harder she worked, the stronger she became.

With no idea of how long she had been there, Eva could only keep a sense of time with how her powers were progressing. Each time she woke, Dr. List had something different for her to try: moving larger and larger objects: furniture, military equipment, vehicles, or anything else they could find around the place. It seemed to never end, but each time she could manipulate gravity around larger size or quantity of objects and last longer before losing consciousness. She was getting stronger and stronger. 

Eva could tell that Dr. List was impressed and… excited. It took Eva too long to figure out that it was HYDRA that had kidnapped her after seeing the not-so-subtle hydra head on some of the uniforms or maybe it was the constant “Hail, HYDRA!” that everyone kept shouting. The realization sent a shock of fear through her knowing that they were trying to use her powers for something most definitely evil and probably painful. However, it also made the hope in her chest grow. Tony and the rest of the Avengers had been taking out HYDRA bases for months. She tried to remember any relevant information she could have picked up while talking to them or being in the Avengers side of the Tower, but she couldn’t recall anything. It didn’t matter though. They would find her soon enough. She just needed to hang on until they did. 

In the meantime, Eva complied with whatever Dr. List wanted from her to keep him happy and to keep herself alive. She just prayed that Tony would find her before they made her do something too horrific. Unfortunately, they didn’t come soon enough.

Chapter Text

Chapter 41

After a while, Eva’s powers stopped growing. She was able to go full out for over an hour and manipulate gravity around something as large as a car. She was even able to manipulate gravity around up to five different objects at a time, but after she had achieved all of that, she couldn’t seem to make herself do more, no matter what Dr. List threatened. 

The main problem was that she couldn’t slow things down after they began to fall. Because gravity was a force that pulled something toward another thing, the object would accelerate as it fell. She needed to change the direction backward quickly to slow down the object, but that required a lot of space. The only times she had somewhat accomplished this successfully was when she was in the subway tunnel and when she was flying Graves back to the moving truck, but she’d had plenty of space in both of those scenarios. In the small experiment room that Dr. List brought her to every day, she had only about twenty feet of space to work with in each direction. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t accomplish it. Eva watched as he grew annoyed and she became more scared that he would decide he didn’t need her after all. 

One day after another frustrating test, Eva was dragged back into her cell more forcefully than usual. Dr. List had sent her away this time before she lost consciousness. Once they slammed the door behind her, Eva swallowed hard, trying to ignore her headache. This was the first time that she had been in her room without the pressure of the guards barging in or being chained to that bed. They were obviously still watching her, but she couldn’t waste this precious moment. She began to look around the room, searching for anything that might be helpful. All she found was that damned chair that she was strapped to in transit, her cot, toilet, sink, and walls of concrete. Nothing that would help her escape or send out a message. Rising from the bed, Eva paced around the room and ran her hand against the wall, but all she found was concrete.

Eva fell onto her cot with a sigh. There wasn’t anything she could use to escape or fight her way out in here. She would need to think of something else. As she was lying there, staring up at the ceiling, Eva tried to think of something, anything she could do to escape or alert Tony. Did he even know she had been taken? He had made it clear that he was going to keep his distance so she could start over and have a new life. Was he keeping that promise? 

“Tony, you big idiot,” she whispered aloud. This had been her first time being awake for long enough to actually think about what was going on away from the watching eyes of HYDRA. Tears began to silently flow down her cheeks and into her ears as she lay on her back. “Why did you have to act the hero and try to find me a normal family?”

The tears continued to roll down her cheeks. Suddenly, she had to stifle a gasp when she noticed two vents on the walls close to the ceiling. Glancing over toward the door and the two cameras that were watching her, she continued to let the tears run down her face. With her mind racing, she got up abruptly and let out an angry grunt. 

Eva began to march across the room, then up the wall, then onto the ceiling and down the opposite wall. She stomped angrily in circles around the room, but she snuck a glance at the vents each time she passed by. They weren’t the usual metal vents but instead ones carved out of the cement walls, probably to make it impossible for anyone to escape. 

On her next lap around the room, Eva slumped onto the ceiling and put her head in her hands, pretending to cry. She then slapped the nearby wall in frustration and dropped down onto her cot. Looking up, she was able to see as the vent shifted when she pulled its gravity toward the opposite wall. Eva smiled as she covered her face with her hands. Now all she had to do was wait for the right time. 

Tony pulled out his phone and his fingers automatically opened the latest email from Newt. In the last month, the emails had been getting shorter and less detailed. They weren’t very detailed to begin with, but it still made him uneasy. He had made it clear that he wanted her to really try to start a normal life, and having a billionaire superhero pen-pal wasn’t exactly normal. She was just following what he told her to do and it was working. He should be happy for her. Right?

“Are you going in, Tony?” 

Tony looked up to see Cap strolling down the hall, heading toward the conference room where the team was meeting for an apparently “emergency-level” meeting with Hill. “Just making sure the old man made it up the stairs. You really can’t afford a fall at your age.”

Steve gave him an annoyed look as he glanced down at Tony’s phone in his hand. “Any news from Eva?” he asked. 

Tony shrugged. “She seems to be doing well. Doesn’t need her cool team of superheroes anymore.”

Steve laid a hand on his shoulder. “That’s a good thing, Tony.”

Tony waved him off. “Of course it is. That’s exactly why I did all of this.”

Tony took a step toward the door of the conference room. “Doesn’t make it easy to say goodbye though,” Steve said quietly behind him. 

Pausing with his hand on the door, Tony gave an almost imperceptible nod. He pushed through the door, and he and Cap took the remaining two seats at the table. 

“Thanks for joining us,” Hill said as she stepped away from Nat who was sitting near the front. “I’ve got a mission that needs our immediate attention.” The agent stepped up to the window that turned into a screen as the lights dimmed in the room. A picture of the Tesseract filled the screen. Hill turned back to the team and Tony was taken aback by her nervous demeanor, which was usually so unbreakable and serious. He could tell that he wasn’t the only one who noticed. 

Thor spoke up first. “Why are we talking about the Tesseract?” he asked. “I checked in with my people last week, and it is still safe in Asgard.”

Maria Hill took a visible gulp and Tony leaned forward in his seat. “It is in Asgard, isn’t it Hill?” he questioned. 

“It is not,” she said, her paper-white face betraying her seemingly strong voice. 

Thor’s fist cracked the table in half, and suddenly everyone was on their feet, scrambling away from the shattered mahogany. “What do you mean it is not?” Thor bellowed, approaching Hill. 

“Thor, maybe it’s best to calm down,” Bruce tried, but Thor continued to stomp toward Hill who was trying her best to stare him down. 

“I will not calm down! I entrusted the scepter to you Midguardians, which you lost, and now you are telling me that you have been lying to me about the other magical object that belongs on my planet?”

It was Steve who got to Thor first with Bruce not far behind. Steve stepped in between Thor and Hill before he could grab her. “Thor,” Steve said in a low and carefully diplomatic voice. “Let’s hear what Agent Hill has to say about it, and we’ll do anything it takes to get it back and to your planet where it belongs.”

“Yeah, I’d really like to hear what Agent Hill has to say about deceiving all of us after we risked our lives to save the world from the Tesseract under SHIELD’s Avengers project,” Tony said as he too approached Hill with his anger rising. 

“You better speak fast, Maria,” Clint growled. “I don’t like being double-crossed by the very agency that I’ve given everything for.”

Tony didn’t feel an ounce of sympathy for the director of whatever was left of SHIELD as she held up her hands in surrender. “I know this is bad. I know we betrayed you and I know it won’t mean much to you right now when I tell you that I tried to convince Fury otherwise. I guarantee that when we get it back I will make sure you all personally see it off-planet, but right now I am begging for you to help right the wrong that SHIELD did in 2012.”

Thor continued to seethe at her and let out a booming roar, turning away in an attempt at controlling his fury. After that, everyone slowly pulled up seats around the shattered remains of the table and turned to the screen. Tony leaned back in his seat and observed how there was almost a palpable cloud of anger in the air around the team. This did not seem to escape Hill’s notice as she stood pin straight in front of the screen. 

“On the day of the Invasion, Fury made an executive decision that the two powerful objects, the Tesseract and Loki’s Scepter, needed to stay with SHIELD. He was hoping to continue the research to develop something to protect the world against future hostile alien attacks. When SHIELD initially had the Tesseract before the Invasion, one of the security measures was to have four very convincing duplicates. This of course didn’t stop Loki from finding the correct Tesseract, but it did help keep it safe for decades. Nick switched out the real one for a fake on that day and that is what is in the Asguardian vaults now.” Thor growled and Tony’s mouth twitched upward as he saw Hill flinch. 

“And why exactly are we hearing about this now?” Steve asked.

Tony rolled his eyes, the obvious answer on everyone’s mind. Natasha always got straight to the point. “Who took it?”

The screen changed to a picture and a blueprint of a fortress inside of a mountain. “HYDRA,” Hill explained quickly. “However, with all the research we have on it, we know exactly how to track it and we’ve tracked it to this location.”

“Another HYDRA base,” Steve observed the obvious again. “Is there a chance that the scepter is there as well?”

“Possibly,” Hill agreed. 

“They’d have to be even stupider than SHIELD to keep those two powerful objects in the same place, especially if they know that we are coming after them,” Tony pointed out. 

“They have moved it around between two different bases since they took it about two weeks ago,” Hill explained. “But the first base they took it to has been cleared out of all personnel and research.”

“HYDRA was working within SHIELD for decades until recently,” Bruce offered. “They must have known that you had the real Tesseract, where you were keeping it, and that you could easily track it. Why would they take it now?”

“This was a secret that was kept between only me and Fury,” Hill protested. 

“And we all know how tight SHIELD’s files were kept,” Tony shot back, humor completely gone from his voice at this point. “SHIELD is no longer standing because of HYDRA, but HYDRA has been doing really well for themselves. The people in this room would know that more than anyone. I think it’s safe to say that any secrets of SHIELD are known by HYDRA, so Hill if there is anything else that you and Fury were hiding from us, now is the time to tell us or I won’t be as inclined to forgive next time one of your little experiments gets out and you come crawling to us for help.”

“I’m not inclined to forgiveness this time,” Thor snarled. 

“Hill, how could you let this happen? How could you not tell us about this until now?” Clint asked, looking genuinely upset that he was kept in the dark. 

“Look, I don’t know if now is the right time to be fighting about why this happened.” Steve stood up and extended his hands in an attempt to calm the group. 

“Cap, you can’t seriously be okay with this?” Clint protested. 

“I’m far from okay,” Steve countered with a deadly serious tone that took Tony by surprise. Steve turned back to Hill. “This is a great breach of our trust, in my trust with SHIELD. I gave everything to stop HYDRA in the war and now I find myself doing it over and over again seventy years later. Going behind my back to steal an artifact that I personally helped take out of evil men’s hands twice, is something I’m not going to forget.” Steve visibly took a deep breath and turned back to the team. “But right now, let’s find a way to get the Tesseract back as soon as possible and then we’ll deal with this.”

Bruce and Clint nodded in agreement. Nat gave a terse nod and Thor let out a strained “fine”. Tony leaned forward in his chair and said, “Alright Hill, tell us everything you know and let’s make a plan.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 42

In the next few sessions with Dr. List, he became more and more frustrated as Eva’s powers plateaued. Feeling the pressure begin to build, she knew she needed to figure out exactly what Dr. List wanted from her in the long run. The more she thought about how gravity affects time and space, the more she realized that HYDRA could want her to open rifts in reality or make a black hole or something equally world-ending. She knew that there was no way for her to build up her powers to that scale, but they seemed very determined. Dr. List started to bring in other men in white coats and argued with them as they tried different things for Eva to do. Eva knew that they were injecting her with drugs again when she was unconscious. She would wake up feeling jittery or sluggish or too energetic, but thankfully none of that worked and they left those ideas behind for a second time. 

Eva was starting to get nervous that soon they would turn to more drastic measures of getting her to perform better. Her escape plan had not developed much further after her discovery of the grates in her ceiling. There hadn’t been another opportunity where she was conscious enough in her room to try anything else. She had been trying to get a better layout of the facility, but all she could figure was that they were underground somewhere. After a particularly difficult experiment session where Eva was asked to send two HYDRA soldiers to the ceiling and walls, which ended in both of the soldiers breaking their arms or wrists, Eva decided that the next time she was awake in her room she would make her move into the vents and just try to go upward until she hit the surface. 

Unfortunately, the next day the atmosphere inside the experimentation room was noticeably different as she was wheeled inside. There was usually a team of men in lab coats behind the glass but this time it was only Dr. List and a man she had never seen before wearing a single eyeglass. Eva stifled a grin thinking of all the names Tony would call this man with a monocle like Mr. Peanut. However, that feeling didn’t last when she saw the doors open and four men brought in a large reinforced box that contained something she had hoped she would never need to see in person. 

The men set the box on the table in front of her and scurried out, locking three bolts on the door behind them. Eva felt a chill flutter down her spine as she regarded the item Tony had described to her as the reason that Loki had brought the aliens to Earth. The reason her parents and sister were dead now. 

The Tesseract glowed a bright blue that lit the room better than any of the fluorescent lamps on the ceiling could. From her seat a few feet away, Eva could notice more detail than she had been able to see in the pictures. The light inside swirled and shifted around the cube slowly, almost like she was watching a miniature blue galaxy living inside a glass container.

“Evangeline Moore.” Dr. List’s voice broke her concentration, and she looked up to see him and the monocled man watching her carefully. Dr. List did not look angry like he had been lately, but rather somber, which was somehow much worse. “I did not want it to come to this, but your lack of progress has led us here.”

Eva’s heart sank at his words. She should have escaped that day she discovered the grates when she had the chance. What were they going to make her do? She thought Tony had said the Tesseract helped open a portal for the aliens to come through. Are they going to push her through a portal into space? Would it tear her apart to create a portal?

“Baron Strucker,” Dr. List continued, gesturing to the silly monocled man next to him, “has had some success exposing other enhanced individuals to an item similar to the Tesseract to augment their abilities. I personally don’t like the risk of losing someone as powerful as you, but we now have limited time–” 

The microphone cut out and Eva watched as the two men shared a few tense words between them. Clearly, he thought there was a good chance she was about to die. Eva took a moment to scan the room for any possible escape. The room looked like it was carved out of stone. There were no vents visible. The door was triple locked. Maybe if she threw her chair into the window? She guessed that the glass Dr. List and Strucker were standing behind was bulletproof if not stronger. There wasn’t time to consider any other possible routes of escape as Dr. List turned the microphone back on to address her again. 

“The procedure is simple. You will remain in your chair to prevent any… trouble.” Eva gulped. “And we will remotely open the box to expose you to the Tesseract. Do not fight it.”

Angry words built up from the weeks or months in captivity came pouring out of Eva’s mouth. “You cowards!” she shrieked. “You’re going to sit behind your window, press a button, and just watch me die because there's a chance that I can… I can, what? What is this possibly going to help me do? Move bigger stuff around? Open a portal into space? What do you want from me?” 

Dr. List considered her for a moment as the new man, Strucker, spoke to him with the microphone turned off. She watched as Dr. List lifted his hand to silence the other man, who did not seem happy by the gesture. “I am surprised,” Dr. List admitted. “This is the first time you have talked to me and you seem to have some kind of knowledge of the capabilities of this item. I am impressed that you have befriended Stark enough for him to tell you such things. Isn’t he the man who killed your family?”

Eva’s fury grew. “What does that have to do with anything? Just tell me what you want with me!”

“It has plenty to do with what we are doing here,” Dr. List disagreed. “I know everything about you, Evangeline Moore. You lost your parents and sister that day. You lived in a low level crime syndicate and then Tony Stark took you in. Why did he do that? Out of pity? To use your abilities? He is a selfish man so it wouldn’t surprise me if he wanted you nearby to help him. Is he training you up to be part of their little Avengers team? Or are you just helping him move big things around in his little lab? It doesn’t seem like Tony Stark and I are very different then.”

Eva forced her mouth shut as she felt herself ready to curse him into the depths of hell for even suggesting that he and Tony were similar in any way. She realized that if she was going to have a chance of surviving the next few minutes, she needed to get on Dr. List’s good side. He still wanted to use her for her powers. He might pull her out if she’s about to die from whatever was about to happen. She had to think quickly. 

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Eva said shakily. She was so angry at herself for needing to say these words about the man who had done so much for her, but maybe it would come across to Dr. List as a true anger toward Tony. “I despise him for what he did to my family. I had nowhere else to go when he took me in and I endured it by keeping my distance. I don’t ever want to see him again.”

The static from the microphone cut off again as Dr. List and Strucker conversed again behind the glass. Eva could only stare angrily at her lap, praying that her performance was good enough to help her survive. “Very good,” came Dr. List’s voice finally. “Once you have undergone the exposure, if you can prove your loyalty to HYDRA, you will be given more privileges.” Eva looked up from her lap to see a very smug look on Dr. List’s face. “I look forward to seeing how you can benefit our organization, young Evangeline. Hail HYDRA.”

Eva carefully kept her face still as she stared back at him. “Hail HYDRA.”

Strucker nodded his approval as well. Eva let a miniscule breath of relief escape her. The chances of survival had increased. She just needed to get through whatever was going to happen with the Tesseract and then she could get more freedom. That way she’d be able to see the entire base and she could plan her escape. 

“Very well,” came the voice of Strucker for the first time. “Let us begin.” With that, he pressed a button and the box containing the Tesseract fell open. 

Eva immediately felt a power emanating from the glowing cube, as if it had an immense electric current threatening to course through her body or a hot fire trying to consume her. Half of Eva wanted to run away screaming, but she was taken aback by how strong the other half of her was yearning to reach out and touch it. There was no need for these two halves to fight, because Dr. List made the choice for her. 

The cuff around her wrist whirred to life and forced her hand forward until her fingertip touched the smooth surface. 

Instantly, her body went rigid. That white-hot power started to pound through her veins and straight into her brain. But Eva could barely feel it. She was too distracted by the vast and beautiful space that now surrounded her. All the pictures from satellites in the books she read had shown complete darkness with little pinpoints of lights, but the universe she was looking at now was full of color. All shades of blue, purple, green, golden, and crimson clouds of stardust stretched around her lit by billions of twinkling stars and swirling galaxies. 

Then out from her body, an orange glowing grid stretched out into the vast universe bending around each galaxy, planet, and star, circling each black hole, enveloping everything in its embrace. Eva quickly realized that she was seeing gravity itself. 

The stars began to fade along with the rest of the universe and Eva’s heart sank, finding herself missing the beautiful sight. However, the orange net didn’t fade and melded into the room in the HYDRA base that was now materializing around her. Eva was now acutely aware of how fast her heart was beating and how hot her body felt, but she couldn’t seem to care. She was finally seeing the invisible force that was anchoring everything to the earth, that she now understood was connecting the universe together. What would it look like if she switched the direction of it? 

Focusing on the blank wall to her left, she thought about what it would be like if that orange grid moved over there. Before she could think about it more, the netting moved smoothly over to the wall and she felt herself falling to the left.

As suddenly as it started, it was over. Her body fell limp and everything was quiet. Eva tried to open her eyes or lift her head to see what had happened, but she couldn’t. Was she paralyzed or dead? Then a very scary thought entered her mind: how could she do it again?

A sound broke through the rushing in her ears. It was a voice, one that she seemed to recognize. Dr. List was yelling at her through the microphone. “Do it again! Move everything again!”

Eva managed to peel open her eyes and move her extraordinarily heavy head to look up at the two men behind the glass. Dr. List was nearly jumping up and down with a large grin plastered to his face and the microphone pressed up to his mouth as he yelled into it. Baron Strucker was frantically writing in a book while staring at her as if watching an animal do something interesting in a zoo. 

Glancing around her, she realized she was still miraculously upright in her chair but wedged up against the wall. The table that had been standing in front of her was now turned over on the ground and the Tesseract had fallen across the floor. Next, she noticed that she could no longer see the blanket of gravity holding everything. Eva tried to imagine it again, imagine it moving to the right wall, but it did not move like it had before. 

The last thing Eva realized was how much pain her body was in. It almost felt like she had been burned from the inside. The fingertip that had touched the Tesseract felt like it was on fire still. A moan escaped her lips and her vision began to grow cloudy. She felt terrible, but she was alive and she was going to get on Dr. List’s good side and get the hell out of there.

Chapter Text

Chapter 43

Over the next few times of being awake (since that’s how Eva measured time now), Dr. List and Baron Strucker put her through more tests without the Tesseract to see how the exposure had affected her powers. She had not been able to move an entire room again like she had when she was connected to the Tesseract. She was still limited by touch. However, her endurance had increased and she was able to move something as big as a tank and even more objects at once. Overall, Eva had become stronger, but there were no newfound abilities. It was clear that HYDRA was disappointed in the lack of developments. 

Eva was relieved to be alive and relatively unhurt. She was sore from the inside out for a while, and her fingertip that had touched the Tesseract was burned, but otherwise she was okay. What frightened Eva most, was that she found herself yearning to see the beautiful colors of the universe and how gravity held it all together again. It reminded her of how much was out there in the stars and how they are all connected. Somewhere, she and Tony were connected through gravity. She was connected to the other Avengers and Chloe and the people of the Underground and maybe in some way she was connected to her parents and Vic. It gave her comfort. It gave her hope. 

Her quick thinking before her encounter with the Tesseract proved to be fruitful in the end and she was given some more privileges as long as she shouted the occasional “Hail HYDRA”. Dr. List now allowed Eva to be untethered in the testing rooms and her room, though in transit she was still strapped to a chair. With her newfound endurance, Eva wasn’t passing out after every session, so she was able to pay attention in the hallways and she quickly memorized the path to and from her room. It really seemed to be part of a big maze of hallways that led to different rooms with no windows in sight to help her get oriented. She did get to see some of the people working in the facility. Eva was happy to see that there weren’t too many HYDRA agents. There were a few guards that she saw posted outside of some doors that looked similar to the men that dragged her around. They were armed with a pistol and a baton and wore earpieces to communicate with each other. Other than these guards, she saw the occasional generic scientist wearing lab coats and a few men in suits. 

During her experiment sessions, she noticed that Dr. List was fighting with Strucker, who wanted to expose Eva to the Tesseract again. Dr. List was sure that it would kill her and Strucker was convinced that it would unleash more power. However, Dr. List held strong and she kept experimenting with different variations of her power to note any new changes.

Not long after her exposure, they were having her experiment again with manipulating objects that she hadn’t touched. Dr. List and Strucker were standing behind their window with a few other scientists watching. Strucker was not pleased as he observed her attempting again and again to make the cube closest to her fall to the ceiling. It wasn’t working. 

Eva jumped in her chair as the door slammed open and Strucker came barging into the room, seething and advancing toward her. Eva scrambled away from him as Dr. List rushed in. 

“Strucker,” Dr. List shrieked. “Do not interfere!”

“We are out of time!” Strucker shouted and Eva found herself cowering away from him into the corner of the room. He pulled the pistol out of his belt and aimed it at Eva’s head. Eva’s body went completely cold and still. It was as if she was watching herself from up above, almost like she was watching the security camera footage of this moment. “Let’s see if she can stop a bullet.”

“You know that is not possible!” Dr. List argued, but Eva noticed that he didn’t move closer to them. “Do not act rashly. She is one of the best successes we’ve had. Maybe even more than the twins.”

Strucker did not move the pistol away from Eva’s head. “Possibly, but they are still getting better and she is not. You know that we are out of time, List. Using more force will help her powers grow like we want them to.”

Dr. List sighed. “You are correct. We are out of time, so let me continue my experiments for the rest of the day and then tomorrow you can bring the Tesseract back in for her.”

Eva watched a grin spread across Strucker’s face as he considered this proposition. The gun fell to his side, and he slipped it back into his belt. “Very well, List. You have today. Tomorrow is mine.” Strucker knelt down next to Eva, who was still quivering in the corner. “You are a weak little girl. Show me you are strong or I will not be so forgiving next time.”

Peaking over her arm that was still posed protectively over her face, she saw Strucker turning to leave the room. In an instant, he snatched the metal cube from the table and it flew straight at her head. Eva threw her arms up in front of her face to protect herself, preparing for the heavy metal to collide with her forearm, but instead she heard a clamor and a scraping on the wall behind her. 

“I knew it!” Strucker cried. “She’s been holding back!”

Eva peered at him with wide eyes. Looking back behind her, she saw that the cube was resting on the corner where the ceiling and the wall met above her head. “It did work,” Dr. List gasped. 

Strucker picked up another cube from the table and Eva turned back just in time to see it hurdling toward her, but it did not hit her. Once it was about three feet away, it veered upward and flew over her head, colliding with the wall and falling up to the ceiling with the same scraping sound as before. 

“Bring in more projectiles,” Dr. List called out to someone outside of the door. 

The next few hours were not fun for Eva, but it sure seemed like Dr. List and Strucker were having a great time throwing whatever they could get their hands on at her. They quickly discovered that she could now manipulate her own gravitational force in a small radius around her body, acting as a sort of shield. After being pelted with metal and wooden balls repeatedly for an hour, Eva started to get the hang of increasing gravity enough upward to change the direction of items that were projected from a slingshot they found somewhere. This did drain her energy more than other tasks, and Eva was grateful for this as they began to talk about shooting her with an arrow before they tried bullets, and she began to lose consciousness.

Next thing Eva knew, she was in the middle of a dream where she was helping Tony attach a new panel to the outside of the quinjet. He was teasing her for taking too much time with the welding on her side when he finished before her. As she lifted her welding helmet to tell Tony that he had sloppy work, there was an explosion behind him that shook her awake. It took Eva a minute to realize that the explosion sound was not part of her dream. There was another boom that shook her cot as she shot up into a sitting position. 

People were yelling in the hallway in various languages as the walls shook and dust fell from the ceiling with the next blast. Eva didn’t have to think. This was the moment she had been waiting for. She wasted no time jumping to her feet and taking two bounds up the wall. Touching the vent, it began to shift as she forced gravity to pull it with increasing force toward the other wall. 

Eva almost let out a shout of relief as it fell across the room and then to the ground with a loud thud. At that moment, the door began to unlock with someone shouting on the other side. She didn’t need any more encouragement. She slid into the vent and began to scramble away toward anything that possibly looked like it could lead upward and outside.

Chapter Text

Chapter 44

The quinjet ride had been quiet and tense. No one on the team was happy and Thor, who was usually the one to keep the energy up, had spent the ride fuming in his seat. Once they arrived at the base, Nat, Cap, and Bruce left for the main entrance. Tony was now sitting in the cockpit of the quinjet, trying to look nonchalant as Thor paced back and forth and Clint sulked in the corner. 

There were explosions below the jet and Cap’s voice came over the coms. “We have engaged with their artillery. Team two, go.”

Tony got up and closed the helmet on his suit ready to move, but Thor was already flying out of the quinjet. “Thor! Wait!” Clint shouted after him.

Grabbing Clint by his quiver, Tony flew out after him, Clint giving a startled yelp as he was suddenly dragged into the open air. 

“Thor! We’ve got to be smart about this. We don’t know what’s in there!” Tony tried to reason with the god over the comms, but he didn’t get a response. He changed tactics quickly. “JARVIS, what are we heading into?”

“There is the small entrance near the peak of the mountain, which Agent Hill informed you of,” JARVIS responded. “There is a strong pulse of energy with faint traces of gamma radiation coming from further into the complex that could only be from something as powerful as the Tesseract.” A map of a system of hallways lit up in front of Tony’s eyes with a pulsing light in the middle. 

“How many people are we looking at?” Tony asked as he aimed his repulsor beams at the fast-approaching door. 

“It seems that the plan has worked and most of HYDRA’s manpower is located at the bottom of the mountain at the main entrance. There are sixteen people on the heat monitor in total at the top level.” JARVIS lit up sixteen points on the map. Two men were at the door, three were in the hallway, and the other ten were around the Tesseract. The last was smaller and off at the other end of the complex. Tony focused on those around the Tesseract.

A blast emanated from the large metal door hidden within the rocks and snow near the top of the mountain. Thor broke through easily and the two lights indicating the guards at the door on his map flickered out. Tony and Clint landed moments later to see Thor’s red cape disappearing around the corner down the hallway.

“The Tesseract is down there with ten people in a large room. One left, two rights,” Tony informed Clint while pointing toward the room in question. 

“This is definitely a trap then?” Clint asked as he brushed himself off after a less than graceful landing. 

“Yup,” Tony agreed simply. “I’ll go try to stop He-Man. You should sneak in and be ready as back up.”

Clint gave a nod as he scurried off and into the vents. Tony decided the stealth plan was no longer an option, so he flew head-on down the hallways, noting the other three men on the ground in Thor’s wake. 

Tony came to a halt as he heard an excruciating high-pitched sound echo around the large room ahead, followed by Thor’s yell. JARVIS lit up his helmet’s screen in red. “Sir, there is a Sonic Taser in use.”

“I would have never guessed,” Tony responded, landing on the ground ten feet from the entrance to the large room where the Tesseract was supposed to be. “Are comms still up?”

“No, sir. I’ll start the repair process now.”

“Good.” Tony was thankful he had added a shield program to deter the effects of the Sonic Taser in one of his first suits after Obadiah used it against him. Thor seemed to be down or at least somewhat incapacitated and Clint may have been too, depending on how close he was when it was set off. There was no way to talk to the others until JARVIS got the comms back online. He was on his own. 

“Can you tell me what to expect in there, JARVIS?”

“Still ten men and Thor is on the ground just inside of the doorway,” JARVIS told him. 

“So nothing new or helpful?”

“Apparently not, sir,” JARVIS said with more than a hint of derision.

Tony walked inside with his hands raised, ready to shoot. His repulsors were only able to fire once before he felt himself flying unwillingly into the room and hurdling into the farthest wall. He was fully disoriented as he tried to lift his head to look around, but he couldn’t lift his head. He tried to get up, but he couldn't. He tried to lift a finger – he couldn’t. All he could see from his position was one side of the room where a man in a lab coat was sitting behind a glass window and four agents were pointing their pistols at him. 

“JARVIS, what’s going on?” he asked through clenched teeth, though he felt that he already knew the answer. 

“Si– Sir– yo–...” JARVIS’ voice was failing and the electricity in his suit was flickering. The bar in the corner of his screen was jumping up and down. 

“Shit,” Tony cursed. He noticed a blue glow for the first time beneath him. The Tesseract was inside whatever machine was holding him to the wall. It must have been an incredibly powerful electromagnet powered by the Tesseract to immobilize him completely, scramble his suit’s electricity, and judging by the muffled angry sounds behind him, trap Thor against the magnet as well. It did not look good. He had to think fast. 

“You guys think you’re really smart, then?” he goaded the man behind the glass, who he presumed was in charge of this plan.

“I don’t need to think that, Mr. Stark,” the man returned with a heavy German accent. “I’ve successfully trapped you, haven’t I?”

“You don’t look so sure of yourself behind that glass,” Tony noted, desperately trying to think of something to do as he talked to this man. He noted that the HYDRA agents had plastic guns and weren’t wearing anything with metal. 

“I don’t think you need to be worrying about my safety right now, Mr. Stark,” the man told him. “I think you need to be worried about whatever else I have in store for the rest of the Avengers downstairs. They’re probably already in a similar predicament as you, if not worse.”

Before Tony had a moment to imagine what kind of sick trap HYDRA had set for the rest of the team, a man burst into the room behind the window and rushed to the HYDRA scientist who looked furious to be interrupted. Tony took this moment to attempt to move any part of his body, but that stupid Tesseract was keeping him completely still. He really hoped Clint was still conscious in the walls. 

The men were speaking in German, but Tony was able to speak eight languages, including German, so he listened to their conversation as he tried to move. “What do you mean she’s escaped?” the scientist shouted at the man. 

“She made it into the ventilation system during the commotion,” the other man responded weakly. “We haven’t been able to track her down.”

“You must find her and get her back at any cost. She cannot know who is here!” the scientist yelled. Tony found himself intrigued. Perhaps it was the heat signature JARVIS picked up on the other side of the floor. Whoever they were talking about must have been important to HYDRA, which made them interesting to Tony. 

“Yes, sir!” the subordinate saluted the scientist. 

Just as the man left the room, Tony spoke up again, trying to keep him distracted. “Lost something, have you?”

“None of your business, Stark,” the scientist growled, his confident demeanor slipping into an angry one that would be easier for Tony to manipulate. 

“Can’t even keep your own people in line,” Tony prodded, hoping to hear Thor breaking out of whatever restraints were keeping him against the magnet. 

“You’re one to talk, Stark. You can’t even keep children in line, Stark,” the man sneered. 

Tony didn’t have time to process exactly what the man was trying to get at, because at that moment, there was a crash on the opposite side of the room. Tony tried to crane his neck around to see what caused it, hoping that it was Thor getting out, but he couldn’t see. The man behind the mirror looked very scared all of a sudden. “Get her!” he cried. 

There were gunshots and Tony saw someone slide across the floor as the bullets flew around the figure that amazingly did not hit them. The first thing Tony noticed about this person was that they were not Thor. In fact, they were much smaller than anyone on the team. The next thing he noticed was that they were heading right toward the Tesseract. 

Tony didn’t have a chance to say anything to dissuade the person from touching the artifact as they abruptly began to climb the wall without difficulty. His eyebrows furrowed underneath his helmet. The only person he had seen do that was–

“Evangeline Moore!” the man behind the glass bellowed.

Tony’s heart stopped completely in his chest. It couldn’t possibly be her. The HYDRA scientist must have said the wrong name or maybe Tony missed her so much that he was hearing things. 

“Do the right thing! I will make you great! You saw what I did for you today!” The person had their back to him, squatting on the wall a few feet away from him, right next to the glowing Tesseract where it was inserted into the giant electromagnet that had him trapped. Could it actually be her?

The bullets had stopped. Tony could see the men with their plastic guns raised, but they weren’t shooting anymore.  

Finally, she spoke. “I did see what you did for me today, List.” 

Tony’s blood ran cold as ice. It was Eva. The thirteen-year-old kid that had lived with them for ten months was here, at a HYDRA base, with guns pointed at her, right next to the Tesseract. 

“You decided to give in to Strucker.” Her voice was low and dangerous, unlike the sassy girl he had watched ride away toward upstate New York two months ago. 

Tony’s mind started reeling. It didn’t make any sense. Why was she here? Had she followed them? Did she know something they didn’t know? Why did that HYDRA lunatic know her full name? Right now, it didn’t matter, he reminded himself. Right now, Eva was here and that’s all that mattered. He needed to get her out and to safety. Craning his neck in his immovable suit again, he could barely make out the side of her face. Eva didn’t look very scared to him, which worried Tony more than if she had been afraid.

“No! I knew we would make progress today, and we did! You just manipulated the bullets around you. We won’t have to run that experiment now. We can just show Strucker the footage.” The man paused and took a step closer to the window separating them from him. He wore a pleading look on his face and Tony could see him swallow hard. “Evangeline, please. I know that you do not want to save the man who killed your family. I will make you strong. I will make you great. You could have anything in the world after this, if you join me. Evangeline, think of all you could have.”

Tony watched as Eva bent down toward the Tesseract. “My name is Eva!” she shouted. 

Tony only had time for his eyes to widen as she placed both of her hands around the Tesseract. “No!” he screamed, struggling inside of his suit to get to her as he watched her body grow stiff with the power surging through her small frame. “NO!”

Then, she straightened, taking the Tesseract with her, effectively turning off the electromagnet. Tony fell to the floor in a clatter. He barely had time to sit up before they began to shoot at her, but the bullets whizzed past her again, bending slightly out of the way. Suddenly, Eva lifted a hand away from the Tesseract and the entire room was upended into the ceiling, including all the men and their guns, but Tony also felt himself falling upward. Everything fell back toward the floor in nearly the same instant. Then he went tumbling to one wall and then back to another. He may have hit a few more surfaces, but he was so disoriented, he couldn’t be sure. 

Tony felt dazed as his suit finally came back to life. He was on the ground, but definitely with a few bruises. He didn’t give JARVIS time to come completely back online as he initiated the thrusters to put him onto his feet. Eva was walking toward the glass. The man she called List was glued to the ceiling and screaming. 

Flying through the air with one burst of his repulsors, Tony was at Eva’s side. When he placed a hand on her arm, he flinched, as her furious eyes filled with a burning blue light snapped to him. “Eva,” he tried, as gently as possible. “Let go.”

Her eyebrows knit together as if she was trying to understand what he was saying. Tony pressed a hand to the side of his helmet and his suit melted off of him. He stepped out, completely exposed. He moved to stand in front of her and grasped her shoulders, careful not to touch the Tesseract. “Newt, it’s okay now,” he said. “You’ve done a good job. Let’s go home. Put it down.”

Tony let out an audible sigh of relief as the Tesseract slipped through her fingers and hit the floor with a thud. The blue fire in Eva’s eyes faded and she began to cough violently. Tony had her in his arms in an instant, trying to keep himself from shaking. Could she survive being in contact with that thing for that long? What would exposure like that do to her body? He needed to get her to Dr. Cho and Bruce immediately. 

“JARVIS,” he said to the Iron Man suit, which stood at the ready behind him. “Do we have comms?”

“Yes sir,” the AI responded through the suit. “All systems are back online.”

“Put it on speaker and pull up everyone’s location on the glasses.” Tony kept an arm holding Eva snugly to him as his other hand dug into a pocket and found a pair of his tinted glasses. Placing them onto his face, he spoke. “Cap, are you there?”

“Tony.” Tony breathed a sigh of relief hearing Cap’s response. “What the hell happened? We lost your whole team.”

“No time for explanations,” Tony said quickly. “I need Bruce to be Bruce and everyone in the quinjet. We have to get back.”

“Tony, calm down. Is someone hurt?” Cap asked. 

“Yes,” Tony told him. “We have the Tesseract, but someone was exposed.” He swallowed hard before telling him the next part. “Eva is here. She’s the one who was exposed.”

“Eva?” Tony heard multiple confused and shocked voices speak up in the comms. 

“I don’t know why she’s here,” he responded as they began to talk over each other. “That doesn’t matter right now. We just need to get her somewhere safe.”

“I’m pretty su– sure I’m the one who just saved your ass,” came a weak voice next to him. 

Tony’s head snapped down to the girl under his arm. She was shaking and so much more frail than when he had seen her two months ago. There were dark purple circles under her eyes and her skin was sallow and nearly transparent. He noticed for the first time that she looked far skinnier than what he remembered from before. His heart rate spiked at the sight of her. “Newt, we just need to get you some medical attention and then you can make all the jokes you want.”

“Young Eva,” a large voice sounded behind them. Thor came up and held out his hand, Mjølnir landing in his grasp a moment later. “Why are you here?” Tony had never heard Thor sound so gentle as he bent before the girl. 

Tony felt everyone on comms hold their breath waiting for the answer as they listened through JARVIS in his suit. Eva’s head hung low as she answered and Tony’s grasp on her shoulders tightened. “They took me,” she whispered. “The first night I was at the new house they broke in, drugged me, and I woke up here.” 

Tony’s heart dropped into his stomach. He felt like he wanted to tear through every person he saw in this hellhole and throw up at the same time. “I’m so sorry,” she continued. “I was working on a way to escape. I mean, that’s what I was doing until I saw that it was you guys breaking in and Tony was stuck and the Tesseract... I would have made it out eventually–”

She didn’t say anything else as Tony pulled her fully into his chest and squeezed, probably too hard. His heart broke as he felt her grasp onto his shirt and the wetness of her tears where her face was buried into his torso. He saw the darkness in Thor’s eyes, and behind him Clint had jumped down from a nearby grate in the wall, the same fury reflected in his eyes. There was a distinctly Hulk-ish yell that emanated from the speaker on his suit as Cap spoke up. “We’ll take care of the rest down here, Tony. Get her to the quinjet and we’ll be there soon.”

“Right,” Tony agreed. “And, Nat?”

“Yeah,” came her terse response. 

“Get everything off of their computers before we go.” He knew she would know what to do. 

“Of course.”

Thor found the Asgardian container for the Tesseract they had brought along and safely collected the Tesseract for transport. Clint disappeared into the vents again, most likely joining the rest in exacting vengeance on every single person in this facility. 

Tony’s head snapped up to peer into the room where the scientist had been, but there was no sign of him. As much as he wanted to jump back into the suit and track that bastard down, Eva’s grasp on him was too strong and he squeezed her closer as she took a deep breath and looked up at him, clearly attempting to put on a brave face. 

“Tony, could I–” she started and faltered. “Could I maybe,” she continued before Tony could interrupt, “come back with you for a little bit before I go back to that new place?”

It took everything inside Tony to remain composed as he responded. His usual snark and sarcasm didn’t lead to being earnest very often, but he put every ounce of it he had into his next statement to really help Eva understand that he wasn’t going to mess up again. “You’re coming back permanently, Newt. I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 45

“How bad is it?” Tony asked Bruce as he turned away from Eva and lowered his voice. 

“As far as I can tell, she’s malnourished and tired, but otherwise fine,” Bruce told him in an equally low voice. Tony could see the exhaustion in Bruce’s eyes that always followed a long stint as the Hulk. Apparently, hearing that Eva had been captured and kept in that place over the comms had sent him into a second, unintentional rage.

“Nothing lingering from the exposure?” Tony clarified. 

Bruce sighed heavily. “Her vitals are good and steady. All the scans from JARVIS came back as okay. She has minor burns on her hands from where she touched the Tesseract and I’ve treated those. There’s really not much else I can do until we get her to the Tower.” Bruce laid his hand on Tony’s shoulder. “We’ve got her, Tony. We’re not going to let anything else happen to her.” Tony only managed to give a small nod in response. “I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

Tony glanced back at Eva. Steve, Clint, and Thor were crowded around her, all trying in their own ways to keep her spirits up. She was smiling, and Tony thought she looked genuinely happy, though he couldn’t imagine why. 

Deciding it was okay to leave her with them for a few minutes, Tony headed toward the front of the plane. Nat was in the cockpit with the windshield full of files and pictures instead of the starry sky that should have filled the window. JARVIS was set to autopilot, taking them back to New York as fast as possible. 

Tony sat heavily in the co-pilot seat and scanned through the files Nat was reading. “So who are we killing for this?” he asked. The question came out as a joke, but Tony knew that he absolutely meant it.

“The list keeps getting longer,” Nat told him, not attempting to hide her anger. 

“I thought I checked everything. I thought we did everything possible to keep her safe and send her somewhere where she could have a good life.” Tony knew that he was only trying to ease the guilt he felt, but it wasn’t helping. He should have done more. “Was it the Lee’s?”

“No,” she countered. “They were killed when Eva was taken.”

Tony rubbed his temples, trying to push off the impending headache. Not only had he let the kid down, but he’d gotten two kind, innocent people killed too. “How did HYDRA know? We kept this so tight. JARVIS has been watching for her name in the media or in any government database.”

“Graves,” Nat told him simply. “I’ve been tracking him ever since that night, but he’s off the grid somewhere. I guess now he’s working for HYDRA or with HYDRA. The good news is that through this I have some more information about how they contacted him and maybe I can track him down.”

“Good.” Tony squeezed his eyes shut once before he had to ask the next question. “What did you find out about what they did to her?”

Nat glanced at him. “Are you sure you want to hear that?”

Leveling his gaze with Nat’s, Tony nodded. “I need to know.”

She considered him for a moment more before pulling up a multitude of files. “Plenty of bloodwork, spinal taps, and biopsies, plus a few cocktails of drugs. They discovered that she’s had her DNA altered, probably in utero, and that is the origin of her enhancement, but not much beyond that. Most of this paperwork is on the tests they put her through. They pushed her to her limit every time and had her trying to manipulate more and more until she plateaued. That’s when they brought in Strucker and the Tesseract.”

“So today wasn’t the first time she had been exposed?” he asked. 

Nat shook her head. “They exposed her a few days ago.” She pulled forward a report. “This Dr. List, who seems to have been in charge of her, said that her eyes glowed and she manipulated the gravity of the entire room before she lost physical contact with the Tesseract. They reported that there were no negative reactions other than exhaustion and minor burns where she touched the Tesseract. Today there was an entry stating they found she could manipulate gravity around her immediate person and tested this by using projectiles. They were planning to try arrows and guns next.”

Tony let his head fall into his hands, trying to contain all of the anger and sadness swelling inside of him. “Tony,” came Nat’s voice after a minute of him trying to process what the kid had gone through in the last few months. “She’s so much more powerful than we thought if she can hold onto the Tesseract for any amount of time without dying or having detrimental side effects. They aren’t just going to let her go.”

“I know that,” Tony growled, not so much angry at Nat as he was with himself. “I knew that she was powerful and had the potential to be one of the most powerful people on the planet when I first met her. That’s the reason I took her in in the first place.”

Tony reflected on the last year as Nat continued to flip through the files. That had been his reasoning for signing those papers initially. It was the making of a very big problem a few years down the line, but now, everything was so different. He loved that kid. He’d grown to consider her part of the weird family they had going since getting the team back together, and she was his responsibility. Now he’d failed in that responsibility. He’d failed her. 

“What are you going to do, Tony?” Nat asked quietly. 

Tony looked up at her and saw true concern in her eyes. He hadn’t realized how much she actually cared for the kid too. “I thought that living in the Tower filled with superheroes was the most dangerous place for her, but now I think it’s the safest place she could be.”

Nat considered him for a moment. “I agree.”

“Then I’ll adopt her.” It had slipped out of his mouth like it was the obvious solution, like it wasn’t the biggest decision he may ever have to make. Even after he had said it, Tony realized that it was the only solution and one he had been considering since that conversation with Pepper a few months back. 

Nat leaned back in her chair and observed Tony, using her strange ability to see into his very soul. “Good,” she said without an ounce of sarcasm.

Tony’s eyebrows shot up. “No lecture about not being responsible enough?” he asked incredulously. 

She shrugged. “Nope. I think you’re the best one for the job.” He just shook his head in disbelief. “I hate to inflate your ego that’s already popping at the seams, but you’ve come a long way, Tony. You’re taking life more seriously. You aren’t throwing yourself into danger impulsively. You aren’t actively trying to be in the spotlight… as much.”

Tony snorted at that one. “I do miss the spotlight. What could I do to get it back on me?”

“And,” Nat shot him a glare as she continued, “you really care for her and I think she really cares for you too.” She smoothly cleared the screen and took a flash drive out of the control panel to hand to him. “It’s not going to be easy, but you’re the best chance she’s got. Don’t mess it up.”

Tony swallowed the sarcastic comment that nearly slipped out. He knew that was as much of a gold stamp of approval as he could possibly get from Nat, and he wasn’t sure he deserved it. “Thanks Nat,” he said, taking the flash drive and pocketing it, before getting up and heading back to where Eva was now sitting up in her cot. 

She smiled at him as he returned and took the chair next to her that Clint vacated to join Nat in the cockpit instead. “How are you feeling, Newt?” he asked. 

“About the same as when you asked twenty minutes ago,” she told him with an eye roll. “The Tesseract isn’t going to make me grow a second head.”

“I don’t think I could handle two of your mouths sassing off at me all the time,” Tony said half-heartedly. 

“Starkling is very mighty indeed to have withstood the Tesseract’s raw power,” Thor stated proudly. Tony did not feel the same pride. 

Apparently neither did Steve. “I don’t think any of us wanted you to be put in the position to have to be in contact with the Tesseract in the first place.”

“I can’t believe I actually agree with grandpa over here,” Tony admitted with a smirk. 

“As much as I love seeing you two get along about something, it honestly wasn’t as bad as you are all making it out to be,” Eva admitted, bashfully. “I guess it hurt some, but it wasn’t bad. It was actually… kinda cool.”

Tony, Steve, and Thor’s eyes met over her head. “Cool, how?” Tony asked, attempting to make his voice as nonchalant as possible. 

Eva looked at him, and he saw a spark behind her eyes that made his stomach twist. “It showed me what gravity looks like.” He watched her hesitate and he could tell that there was more, but she apparently wasn’t ready to share. “And it was… powerful.”

Tony swallowed hard. Was that somehow worse than her getting hurt? The look in her eyes, the look of excitement and longing, was more concerning than anything. He smiled at her and ruffled her hair, to her dismay. “Wow, you really are living up to your name, Newton.”

“Stop it,” Eva complained as she tried to push her hair back into place again. 

“Well, try to keep your nerdiness to yourself next time. Hitting the ceiling and the ground and a couple other walls in ten seconds did not feel good, even in the suit,” Tony admitted, watching her reaction out of the corner of her eye carefully. 

“Ah,” Thor seemed to come to a realization as he rubbed his head. “Is that why my head is bruised?”

“I can’t believe that huge head of yours can bruise,” Tony joked, trying to keep the mood light as he saw understanding dawn in Eva’s eyes. 

“Did I hurt you?” Eva whispered, eyes wide in disbelief. 

“Of course not!” Thor guffawed. “It would take far more to hurt the god of thunder!”

Tony laid his hand on her shoulder and waited until she met his gaze. “We’re both okay. You did good.”

She didn’t look convinced. “I didn’t even realize that it happened to you too. I can’t believe how careless I was.”

Tony squeezed her shoulder. “Why don’t you lay down and rest? We’ll be at the Tower before you know it. Pepper is very excited to see you.”

His heart gave a squeeze as she put a lot of effort to smile at him. “I can’t wait to see her.” Eva sank down onto the cot, laying on her side and still facing Tony. “I guess I am pretty tired, though I feel like I’ve been sleeping for months.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to hang out with everyone once we get back,” Tony told her, brushing a piece of her hair out of her face. 

Eva reached out and took his hand, holding it with more force than Tony thought possible with how frail she was looking. “Thank you for finding me, Tony.”

Tony gave her a sad smile and held her hand tightly in his, even when she tried to let go. “I’m sorry we didn’t find you sooner. It’ll never happen again.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 46

Eva woke up sometime later, still lying on a cot in the quinjet. She found out that she had been inside one of the Andes mountains on the border of Chile and Argentina for over two months. Under different circumstances, she would have been excited to leave the country for the first time in her life, but right now all she wanted to do was return to the Tower. 

Tony was still next to her, holding her hand, his head bowed as he gazed at the floor, apparently deep in thought. He hadn’t left her side for more than a few minutes since he had made her drop the Tesseract. Eva could tell that he was trying to act normal, but she saw that finding her in that HYDRA base unexpectedly had shaken him. 

Part of her couldn’t quite believe that this was happening. Maybe it was all going to be a dream again and she would wake up in her cell. Tony’s hands holding hers and his smell of coffee and motor oil convinced her otherwise. She was really going home… to the Tower. 

After Eva had escaped her cell, she had clambered through the maze of ducts, choosing to move away from shouts and loud noises and upward as much as possible. At some point she heard someone else in the ducts and began to float through, trying to diminish any noise and avoid getting caught. It was shortly after she went zero-gravity that she heard Tony’s voice. 

There had been no choice. Her body just moved toward him. It felt like an out of body experience seeing the Iron Man suit stuck to an electromagnet that took up a two story wall, and the man inside was talking to the man that had held her captive for months. It took her a few moments to notice Thor strapped to the electromagnet with a series of intense metal restraints and how the Iron Man suit was malfunctioning. 

Eva still had a hard time comprehending just how easy it was for her to decide to bust into the room without a real plan. She had spent months cowering away from any HYDRA agents, just sitting around and hoping that Tony would show up to save her, and then she jumped in at the first moment she saw him and the Avengers in trouble. Maybe it just showed how much she cared for them or maybe it was the lure of touching the Tesseract again. 

It was even harder to believe that she had been so out of control when she was holding the Tesseract that she had sent both Tony and Thor falling at least twenty feet up and down and side to side. She barely wanted to think about what happened to the nine HYDRA agents that went through that without the Iron Man armor or superhuman endurance. 

Deciding not to think about that, Eva noticed for the first time why she had woken up. The quinjet was slowing down and losing altitude. Steve walked over to Tony and put a hand on his shoulder. “We’re touching down in five,” he told Tony. 

Eva sat up on the edge of the cot. Tony didn’t let go of her hand, and she was happy to have an anchor to this reality, still not fully convinced that this was actually happening. “What do you want to eat for dinner, Newt?” he asked her, pulling out his phone with his free hand. “Anything in the world.”

“Cheeseburger,” she said almost immediately. 

Tony gave her a genuine smile. “Great minds think alike. That’s exactly what I asked for after–” he faltered, clearly unsure if bringing his kidnapping up was a good idea. 

Eva hadn’t heard him talk about his time in Afghanistan since that night he told her about Yinsen. It was somewhat comforting that she and Tony had been through something similar now. “I don’t know if I’d call your mind ‘great’,” she teased. 

“You’re right. I think ‘greatest of all time’ is better,” he replied. “Yours can be ‘great’.” He typed a few things into his phone. “We’re going straight to the med bay, but the burger is on its way.”

“Thanks,” she said quietly. For some reason she had become nervous all of a sudden. She wasn’t sure exactly what HYDRA had done to her or what kind of experiments Dr. List conducted while she was unconscious. Eva knew she hadn’t been eating solid food until she had been given her recent freedom in her cell. She definitely hadn’t looked in a mirror, so she had no idea what she even looked like. With how much Tony was doting on her, she could make an educated guess that she looked like shit.

“You’ve gone quiet, Newton,” Tony pointed out. Eva just shrugged. “What’s on your mind?”

“It’s nothing important,” she said, not wanting to freak him out more.

“I doubt that.” Tony ducked his head down to try to see her face. “Look, Newt. You’ve gone through something bad. I want to help. I want to be here for you, but you need to talk to me.”

Eva snuck a peek at him and saw that his expression was genuine and worried. “I guess I’m just a little scared to go to the med bay.”

Tony didn’t respond right away. He shifted in his chair. “Because it’ll remind you of being there?”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that,” Eva admitted. “I don’t think that will bother me, but I just… I don’t know what they– what they did to me when I was out.”

He paused again before responding, squeezing her hand firmly in his. “Nat got all of the records they had on you and I took a look. From what I could tell, they didn’t do anything that will have lasting effects. Do you want to hear the specifics?”

Eva met his eyes. “You’d tell me?”

“Yeah, kid. You deserve to know. If you want to know, that is.”

Eva thought about it for a moment. “It’s nothing that will hurt me later?”

“Not that I could tell. I think you’ll just need to eat well and get plenty of rest in the next few weeks to get you back to normal, but we need to confirm that at the med bay,” he explained. 

“Okay,” Eva said slowly. “Then I don’t want to know the specifics right now. It’s just– it’s… freaky that I don’t know what happened when I wasn’t awake, I guess.”

“Yeah, kid. That’s a terrible feeling, and I’m really sorry that it happened to you, but if you ever want to know, just tell me and I’ll give you the files.”

“Thanks, Tony.”

Eva was embarrassed as the entire team led her out of the quinjet a few minutes later like she couldn’t even walk. Then she saw Pepper, running up to them with tears openly falling down her face as she pulled Eva into a tight hug, whispering how she was glad she was okay into Eva’s ear. Eva held onto her tightly, a few of her own tears escaping her eyes at the reunion. Everyone ushered her into the med bay where Dr. Cho and Bruce began running tests. The team tried to keep things light and fun, making jokes at each other’s expense and discussing what to do with the rest of the night, while Eva inhaled two cheeseburgers and fries. 

Dr. Cho and Bruce confirmed what Tony had suspected: she was malnourished and exhausted. Dr. List’s tests and the exposure to the Tesseract didn’t seem to have any long lasting effects on her body or health other than the burns on her hands, which Bruce had already covered with a cooling gel and bandages. Eva was relieved, but she didn’t understand why she didn’t feel better. 

It was one of the best nights of her life. Eva couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. She had been dreaming of being with them for two months, and now they were all finally together – eating good food, playing games, making jokes, and pulling pranks. Tony and Pepper did not stray from her side the entire night and the rest of the team stayed in Tony’s living room to hang out with her. Even Natasha sat nearby, poking fun at Clint while she crocheted something that looked like a purple hat. Eventually, Steve announced that it was time for bed when Eva began to fall asleep on Tony’s shoulder. Despite her protests, Tony actually agreed with Steve and led her toward her room. 

Eva didn’t hide her happy tears when they opened her door. Everything was just how she remembered it, but the things she had packed to take with her to her new home were not there. “I’ve already got Happy tracking down your things. It should all be back tomorrow,” Tony explained, reading her mind as he guided her to her bed. “I hope you can survive a night without trying to destroy posters of me.”

“I’ll try,” she responded, wiping away her tears. She sank onto the edge of the bed and Tony sat down next to her. “Pretty crazy day.” 

“That’s a bit of an understatement for the both of us.” He looked around her room. “We missed you around here. I’m just sorry I didn’t bring you back sooner.”

“What did you think was happening? That I was actually ignoring you and following what you wanted me to do? I thought you knew me better than that,” she teased, but immediately regretted it when he did not tease her back, and a bitter look crossed his face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It wasn’t your fault and I know that.”

Tony blew out an angry breath. “I should have known, kid, and I will always be sorry for that.” Eva tried to interrupt but Tony continued. “No, Newt. Don’t argue with me on this one. I promised to protect you and I didn’t.”

“I know you’re doing your best. None of us could have known that they knew about me or wanted me.”

A dark look passed over Tony’s face. “You’re right about that.”

Eva let her gaze fall to her hands in her lap. “What’s going to happen with me next?”

There was a long pause and Eva could hear her heartbeat pounding against her chest. She didn’t know exactly what she wanted him to say, but she didn’t think that she could separate from him and the team again. After all she’d been through, how was she supposed to live a ‘normal’ life now? What did that even mean to her anymore? She didn’t have her parents or sister for a normal life. The Underground and living with Mr. Graves was never really normal. But living with the Avengers was definitely not normal either. Being able to manipulate gravity and getting kidnapped by HYDRA was so beyond normal that it didn’t even register on the normal radar, but that’s who she was. That’s what had happened to her. 

Maybe being with Tony and the Avengers in the Tower was as normal as it was going to get. Was it possible to be fostered by the Avengers or get Tony’s guardianship extended? Would any of the team be willing to take her on? Would she want anyone other than Tony? 

Before she could start to spiral further down into the possibilities, Tony reached out and took her hand, effectively making her meet his eyes. “Eva,” he started and she knew that he was being serious, using her actual name. “I’ve been trying to do the right thing for you and I keep messing it up. I thought that finding a family would be a good new start for you, but I don’t think that’s really on the table anymore.” Eva nodded her head in agreement. “Even if you never want to use your powers again, you will never be a normal kid. I want to do what’s best for you and I think keeping you here is what’s best for you.” 

Eva’s eyes grew wide. “Like living in the Tower permanently?” she asked hopefully. 

He nodded slowly. “Is that something you’d want to do?”

“Yeah!” she agreed quickly. “I mean I love living here. I love everyone here, but… how?”

Tony decidedly looked anywhere but at her. “Well, I haven’t exactly looked into this in detail and I’d have to make some changes to things, but I would file for your adoption.”

Eva’s heart stopped at the word. Adoption? Tony Stark, adopt her? “You’d do that?” were the first words that slipped out of her mouth. 

“Don’t sound too surprised,” he chided. “I guess you’ve grown on me, Newt.”

“That’s probably an understatement if you are going to just take me on as your kid without much thought,” she shot back. 

“Don’t get me wrong, kid,” Tony said. “There’s been plenty of thought, I just didn’t really consider it a good option for you until now.”

They sat in silence for a moment while the information rolled over Eva in waves. At the crest of each wave, she was riding high on the idea of having a family again and this time it sticking for good. And that family was Tony, and maybe with a little convincing, Pepper too. Then she’d dip down and realize that all her other families were taken away, and why wouldn’t this one follow the same trajectory? Or would this mean that she would completely forget about her parents and sister – her real family? But they would want her to be happy and who better to do that than the Avengers?

Eva was pulled out of these rollercoaster emotions when Tony squeezed her hand, letting go to get up from her bed. “Think about it. It’s not like you need to decide right now. If you don’t want it to be me, I think Pepper or Steve or even Bruce would be happy to take you in. We’ll make it work, however you want.” 

“No,” Eva said. That was one thing she was sure about. “I want it to be you.” 

Tony paused. Eva couldn’t see his face, but she heard him take a shaky breath before saying. “Alright then.” He walked to the door and turned before opening it. “Try to sleep through the night. We can get back in the lab tomorrow.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“JARVIS will be watching over you.”

“He always is.”

“I’m not watching. Merely monitoring,” JARVIS chimed in.

Tony grinned and shook his head. “Goodnight, Newt.”

“Goodnight, Tony.” Tony was opening the door, and Eva felt the need to say one more thing. “Hey, Tony.” He turned back to her. “Thanks for finding me. Even if you didn’t mean to, I wouldn’t have gotten through that without you.”

It was too dark in the hallway to see Tony’s face, but he took a few moments to respond. “I’ll always find you, kid.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 47

Pepper was standing in the hallway after Tony closed the door. She moved silently with him to the living room that was now empty of all the Avengers. Abruptly, Pepper turned and embraced him. Tony let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and folded into her. He buried his face in her hair and just took deep breaths, relishing in her closeness for as long as he could have it this time. 

They hadn’t spoken about their relationship since the kiss incident a few months ago. She had been traveling on Stark Industries business, and he hated to admit it but he had been avoiding her and everyone that reminded him of Newt, so he had thrown himself into Avengers work. He figured since she hadn’t brought it up again, that she had made her choice to keep her distance, and he didn’t blame her. The missions with the Avengers and HYDRA weren’t world-ending threats, but it didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. He was putting himself in the line of fire, not as much as before, but it was still happening. 

Tony knew that she was wildly upset about what had happened to Newt, probably more than the rest of the team. Pepper loved the kid and considered her as her responsibility as much as Tony did. 

“I offered to adopt her,” he admitted quietly. 

There was a pang in his chest as Pepper pulled away to look at him. “Really?”

“It was one of the options I put out there. I told her that I was sure there were a few people in the Tower that would be willing to adopt or become her guardian, including you.”

Pepper’s eyes grew. “Of course I would. What did she say?”

“She wants to stay here.” Tony couldn’t stand to look at Pepper as he admitted the next part, so he pulled her back into his chest. “And she wants it to be me.”

He felt Pepper’s arms squeeze around him even tighter. “Of course she does. There wouldn’t be anyone else.”

Tony took an unsteady breath into Pepper’s hair again, unable to fight back a smile of pride that came with hearing that from the kid. “She didn’t give an answer. She needs time.”

Pepper nodded under his chin. “That makes sense with… everything that happened.” Tony’s smile vanished. “But I know she’ll decide that she wants to stick with you, one way or another.”

“I won’t let her out of my sight again,” Tony said darkly, unintentionally squeezing Pepper into him harder. 

His grip relaxed as he heard Pepper start to sniffle. “Tony,” she said with a trembling voice, “She’s so thin and looks so… weak. What did she go through? How can she come back from something so terrible?”

Tony looked down at Pepper and let go of her for long enough to wipe away her warm tears with his thumbs. “Nat got the information about everything that happened in there. It’s not pretty but we got there before she got into the worst of it.” He was so angry at himself for letting this happen to Newt, but Pepper always brought him to a better perspective – one that centers around the kid and looking to the future. “She’s strong and I’ve seen her get through some tough things. This time we’ll all be there to help her. She’ll make it through just like before and we’ll make sure nothing like that happens again.” Pepper nodded and reached up to hold his hands to her face. Tony happily stroked her cheeks and brushed hair away from her forehead. “I already have JARVIS working on a few things.”

She cracked a watery smile. “I’m not surprised.”

Tony’s chest warmed to an almost unbearable level as he admired this beautiful woman who held so much kindness and selflessness in her heart. He loved her beyond words or actions and all he could do was bring her in once more to lay a soft kiss to her precious forehead. 

The warmth in his chest instantly turned to stone as he let her go and took a few steps away. He knew that with the new promise to keep the kid in his life forever, he would need to make sure there was a clear line between him and Pepper. No more confusion. No more ‘just this one time’. He needed to be a consistent rock for the kid and Pepper made him into sand.

“Pepper,” he said slowly. “She wants you in her life and I want you in her life, but I can’t keep playing this game. She needs consistency. I’ve messed up before and I can’t do that to her again. I need to set some boundaries.”

Before he could set said boundaries, Pepper moved toward him, grabbed his face and kissed him solidly. His chest exploded into fireworks, but his brain was thoroughly confused, which was not a feeling he felt often. He pulled away. “So boundaries?” he barely got out.

She smirked at him. “Emotional maturity is very sexy on you.”

Tony’s mind went completely blank at the word sexy. He yanked her in, his body flush with hers, and he tangled his hands in her hair, completely losing control and dipping her head back to deepen the next kiss. 

When they finally came up for air, Pepper was laying on her back on the couch and Tony was fully on top of her. He forced himself to pull back and rested his forehead on hers. “I didn’t realize all I needed to do was say the word ‘sex’ to get you to cave,” she whispered between breaths. 

Tony felt himself losing control again and buried his face in the crook of her neck. “It’s been a long time,” he muttered into her skin. “And you are torturing me. I’m trying to be emotionally mature for the kid.” At his own reminder of why he was trying to keep his distance, he was able to wrench himself away from Pepper enough to get a few inches between their bodies and look her in the eye. “Remember?”

She was not helping him, as she lifted her hands to play with the collar of his shirt. “I remember very clearly, and it’s still a turn-on,” she purred, making Tony groan. Pepper grinned up at him and he nearly bit his tongue off trying to keep his cool. “I’m just enjoying watching you squirm for a minute before I tell you something that I’ve been thinking about.”

Her fingers traveled under his shirt and Tony had to close his eyes to keep his focus. “Has it been a minute yet, because I’m very new to this emotional maturity thing and I don’t have much left in me.”

Pepper chuckled and thankfully pulled her hand away from him, instead resting her hands on his face. “Tony.” Her voice was serious now. Tony’s breath stopped in his chest as he waited. He tried to stamp out that flicker of hope that had been squashed so many times before, but it persisted as she continued. “I know that you need to be Iron Man right now. The world needs you to be Iron Man and there’s no one else to do it.” Her hands brushed his hair back lovingly and that spark of hope turned into a flame. “I can see you trying to care for your life more, even when things are dangerous, especially since Eva has been here. I want to be a part of that life with her… and with you. If you want, I’ll be here permanently. No more on and off. We need to be a solid foundation for Eva.” That flame was now a raging fire in his chest, which flickered at her next word. “But I need you to promise that when you’re out there, being Iron Man and risking your life, that you’ll do everything in your power to come back to us. We need you here just as much as the world needs you out there.”

Tony dipped his head back in toward her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I promise to make the world a safe place for you.” He pressed a kiss to her left cheek. “And any family you want.” He kissed her right cheek. “I promise to be here for you whenever you need me.” He pressed a kiss finally to her mouth. “You are more important to me than the world.”

Pepper’s smile lit up his whole body with pure, absolute joy. He settled back into her and kissed her, softly this time, and she returned it with an equal amount of love and patience. For tonight, the heat had dissipated, melting into a calm adoration, and they curled into each other after moving to their room. With Pepper pulled to his chest, feeling her steady breathing, he found himself sleeping soundly through the entire night for the first time in well over a year.

Chapter Text

Chapter 48

Eva woke up to the sun on her face for the first time in months. She hadn’t woken up once during the night. She couldn’t even remember having any dreams. After all the time she spent sleeping in the last few months, Eva didn’t really think she would be able to sleep through the night, but here she was stretching and feeling amazing after a full night of sleep. 

That day was just as fun as the night before. Everyone put all their obligations on hold again and spent time together. She and Steve spent the morning in the kitchen making their now-famous pancake breakfast, and Rhodey arrived just in time for the feast. Then Clint brought out some board game that they had never heard of which nearly started a war between Nat and Tony with Bruce abandoning his own strategies to mediate, but it ended with Eva on the floor laughing when Pepper came out of nowhere and won it all. Thor left with the Tesseract for his home planet after the game and promised to return within a few weeks. Shortly after he left, Happy brought her things and Chloe came with him, crushing Eva in a hug for the ages. Chloe helped her put her things back into her room and spent the rest of the night hanging out in the Tower. 

Eva noticed Tony and Pepper sharing a few looks and started to wonder if there was a possibility of them getting back together. They had really kept their distance since that day she had accidentally walked in on them almost kissing and ruining it, but now it was back to the flirting that she had helped initiate a few months ago. This time she wasn’t helping at all. She decided to ask Tony about it later.

After another great takeout dinner and a movie, Eva fell asleep content in her bed again. However, this time it wasn’t a dreamless sleep. She found herself back in the testing room with Dr. List and Baron Strucker hiding behind the glass. The Tesseract was pulsing blue on the table in front of her. She wasn’t tied down to a chair this time, but there were twenty men surrounding her with guns pointed her way. 

“Go ahead, Evangeline,” came Dr. List’s voice over the intercoms. 

Eva stepped forward and took the Tesseract in her hands. She couldn’t feel the power surging through her this time, but she saw the universe again. It wasn’t quite as detailed as she remembered but that warm glow of gravity stretching out for lightyears distracted her. Eva had it move upward, downward, sideways, in circles, and every way she could think. Squeezing it around her, she could almost feel the gravity of the universe hugging her. 

Finally it faded and she saw the room again, but it was nearly unrecognizable. Blood. There was blood everywhere. Eva could see the remains of black clothing and guns scattering the room, but it was covered in blood. She felt herself screaming before she heard it. 

Then she was awake. It took her a few minutes to realize that she was safe inside her room in the Tower, but it also looked different. As she was starting to panic, she saw that she was floating about five feet off of her bed, her blankets wrapped tightly around her. Eva fell back into the mattress and fought with her covers when someone knocked on the door. 

Tony entered before she could say anything. It was clear that he had been asleep, wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants that looked disheveled. He walked soundlessly over to her and helped her untangle herself from the blankets and sheets. When she was finally free, he spoke up. “Lab?”

“Yeah,” she agreed with a croaky voice, eager to get out of her room. 

However, when she came out of her room, she noticed they weren’t alone. “Are you okay, sweetie?” Pepper asked. Clearly she had also been asleep, wearing a pair of shorts and sweatshirt, and was coming from Tony’s room. 

Eva felt her eyes grow wide and a smile crack across her face as she looked between the two of them. “I’m much better now.”

Tony rolled his eyes but swung an arm around Pepper. “Well, Pepper was going to take you to lunch tomorrow and explain everything but I guess this works too.”

“So you’re together?” Eva asked, excitedly. “Officially?”

Pepper pulled away from Tony and took Eva’s hands in hers, her expression earnest. “We are,” she confirmed with a smile. “And I wanted to let you know that I’m here permanently. I know you and Tony have talked about you staying at the Tower from now on, and I just want to let you know that I’ll be part of that life too, if you’ll have me.”

Eva threw her arms around Pepper’s neck. “Of course!” she exclaimed. “I’m just so happy for you both!”

Tony was smiling over Pepper’s shoulder as she let go of her. “You two have fun in the lab and try to get some sleep tonight.” She pressed a kiss to Eva’s temple and then gave one to Tony as well before starting down the hallway. “Goodnight.”

“The perfect woman,” Eva heard Tony mutter under his breath. 

“Yeah, what does she see in you?” she teased. 

Tony wiggled his brows. “Oh there’s plenty.”

“Ew!” Eva shoved him as they started toward the lab. “I don’t want to hear about any of that.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve soundproofed the walls,” Tony told her with a smirk and Eva only partially feigned her gags as they entered the lab.

“That’s so gross.”

Eva felt the rush of calm wash over her as she stepped into the lab and was greeted by DUM-E and DUM-U. It didn’t look like much had changed since she had last been there, which was surprising because Tony didn’t like to put things back where they belonged. Eva wondered if he had been here much. 

Tony moved across the room to his primary workbench muttering under his breath, but still loud enough for Eva to hear. “A proposal is probably a little sudden, but it seems like now is the best time to do it. Then we can have a little wedding before Mr. Red-White-and-Blue gets too carried away with the team outings.”

“Did you just say that you want a little wedding? You?” Eva asked, incredulous.

Tony turned back to her. “That’s what you got out of everything I just said?”

She shrugged. “I just thought you’d want a huge televised event or something.”

“I said a little wedding, not a little afterparty.”

“There it is. I thought you’d hit your head too hard on that electromagnet.”

Tony smiled and shook his head and started rummaging through his workbench. “You think it’s a good idea?” he asked her. 

“You’re asking me?” Eva asked incredulously, joining him at his bench. 

“I’m just trying to include you on family decisions now.” He pulled out a few items from a drawer, but she couldn’t see what they were behind his screen. 

She smiled. “I think it’s a great idea. She just said that she was going to be around permanently, so might as well have a big party and make it official.”

“That sound logic is why you’re in the family.” Eva’s smile grew as she rounded the table to get a look at what he had on the bench. There were three items: a StarkPhone, a watch, and a necklace.

“Let me show you something,” he said as she joined him.  

“You’re not going to propose with a necklace, are you?” Eva questioned, looking pointedly at the necklace. 

“Please,” he scoffed. “I think you know that I have more class than that.” Eva didn’t hide her snort of laughter. “Don’t worry, I’ve had a ring picked out for years. No, these are for you. I’ve developed a way for you to call the Avengers in case something bad happens and whoever is closest will come immediately,” he explained. He picked up the phone. “I’ve added a few features to your phone.” Flipping it over in his hand, he showed her a subtle button on the back that had to be pushed in and to the right to activate. “This is how you activate the panic button on your phone. Also, if it’s destroyed, it will send out a distress signal to JARVIS.”

Tony handed her the phone and she held it like a bomb that was about to blow. “I guess I’ll just never drop this then.”

Tony looked at her sardonically. “It’s a StarkPhone. It won’t break that easily.” He moved on to pick up the watch. “This is the backup. It’s connected to your phone, so it acts like any smartwatch, well not like any smart watch…” Swiping up on the screen, the signature holographic screen of Tony’s personal tech appeared. “But more importantly–” Turning the watch on its side, Eva saw a miniature version of the button from the phone on the watch. “You can activate the panic mode on this as well. Same thing: it’ll alert the entire team and the closest team member will get to you.”

Eva took the watch as he handed it to her. It was much nicer than any smartwatches she had seen. The lock screen looked exactly like a traditional fancy watch with golden hands and numbers, but as she touched the screen, she could read a text from Chloe. 

“Finally, we have the back up to the back up.” Tony held up the necklace. It was a gold chain with a small gold circular pendant dangling on it. Engraved on the front of the pendant was a subtle shape of the original arc reactor that powered Tony’s first suits. He flipped it over and she saw, again, the same button mechanic. “Same thing, but that’s all this one does.”

Eva flipped it back over in her hand when he gave it to her to see the engraving. “You just couldn’t help yourself, then?” she asked, trying not to seem too touched by the gesture. 

“Have I ever held back from putting my brand on something?” he asked. “I did hold myself back from making that glow. I thought you would like something more subtle.”

“You’re right about that,” she agreed as she placed it around her neck. “Thanks,” she told him genuinely. “It does make me feel better.”

“It’s mostly to make me feel better, but I’m glad it helps you too,” he responded. “Now, even if you press one of those buttons, it might take us a minute or two to get there, so you need to be able to hold your own until we get to you. I’ve talked to Nat about training you.” Eva, who was inspecting her new phone, looked up immediately at that statement. “You’ll start when Bruce says that you’ve built up enough strength.”

“Really?” Eva asked skeptically. “She’s willing to do that?”

“I know she seems a little quiet and intimidating at first, but she really cares about you like the rest of us,” he explained. “She’s the best out there and you could use some training for self-defense. I know you don’t want to have to rely on your little party trick to get you out of trouble.”

Eva shivered, recalling her latest dream and tried to deflect. “Coming from the guy relying on an iron suit,” she muttered. 

“I rely on my enormous intellect. The suit is mostly branding at this point. Alright, alright,” Tony sighed, throwing an arm around her shoulders to squeeze her into his side. “Enough chit chat. You’ve got months of work to catch up on.”

Eva spent the rest of the night feeling completely at home again, going over blueprints, practicing her welding, and reviewing some of Tony’s newer projects. Tony walked with her to her room and made sure she was comfortable before leaving her for the night when they were done. As always after a night of fun in the lab with Tony, Eva slept without a dream.

Chapter Text

Chapter 49

Training with Natasha was exciting but not easy in the slightest. The Black Widow did not go easy on Eva just because she was a kid. At first, Eva was happy that she wasn’t holding back and she was being treated like an equal, but after two hours of getting kicked, punched, and taken down repeatedly, Eva wasn’t sure she wanted to be treated like an adult yet. 

Natasha wanted her to learn how to defend herself without using weapons or gravity at all to start, so Eva really had to learn to focus. The training from Gary was a good foundation, and Natasha even admitted that, but it had been a year since Eva had needed to fight without her powers and she was definitely rusty. Popping into the ring with Chloe didn’t end up helping much since Black Widow used elements of many different styles of fighting, and boxing didn’t account for her opponent leaping at her, legs first. 

After her morning trainings with Natasha, Eva joined Tony and Bruce in the labs at the Avenger level of the Tower. She was completely content working alongside them, helping with little tasks that she could do and listening to them planning new gadgets and defenses for the Avengers. Tony gave her small projects to practice her welding and building skills. Eva was getting better at reading his holographic schematics and putting things together. Her welding lines were more consistent and clean, and she practiced whenever she had a chance. Tony noticed and gave her a couple bigger projects, nothing important, but physically bigger challenges that she loved doing.

Her nighttime routine didn’t change much either. She was surprised by these new dreams. Before it had just been replays of her real life, so she had suspected that the dreams after being kidnapped by HYDRA would be reliving her kidnapping or being trapped in that stupid chair or the experiments she had endured. Instead she was dreaming about hurting people with her powers – losing control while holding the Tesseract or even just while messing around. Then suddenly she’d come to or turn around and everyone was dead. First it was just HYDRA agents, then it was random civilians, then it was people that she knew and loved. 

Tony and Pepper were always there when she woke. She suspected that JARVIS would tell them when she was dreaming. Eva tried to convince them that she was okay and that they didn’t need to wake up, but Tony waved her off every time and was there again the next night. Pepper would give them both a kiss, and Eva and Tony would spend a few hours in his personal lab before she could go back to sleep.

Eva hadn’t forgotten what Tony had asked on that first night. She spent most of the next few weeks thinking about it. He hadn’t brought it up again, but Pepper had. 

One night, there was a knock on her door as she was getting ready for bed. Eva told JARVIS to let whoever it was in as she finished washing her face. Pepper was sitting on her bed, dressed in her usual fashionable yet relaxed style with a box in her hands. “Hey Pepper,” Eva said as she walked up and sat next to her. “What’s up?”

“I wanted to talk for a minute,” she told her. “Is that okay?”

Eva made a face. “Am I in trouble for spending too much time in the lab?”

Pepper chuckled. “It would be great if you two would go outside every once and a while, but no, that’s not what this is about.” Pepper smiled gently at Eva. “I know you’ve been thinking about the possibility of adoption.”

Eva’s eyes widened, not having expected this conversation. “Oh yeah, I’ve been thinking about that.”

“Well, as much as I’ve tried to convince him to bring it up again, Tony really wants you to come to your own conclusion. I absolutely agree that you should, but I just wanted to put my two cents in, if you don’t mind.”

“Okay,” Eva agreed. 

“Okay.” Pepper gave her another warm smile that helped Eva relax. “Being close with Tony is a rollercoaster. I think I have some authority over the matter since I’ve known him for over a decade.”

Eva snorted. “How do you do it?” she teased. 

Pepper grinned back. “It’s not easy, and I’ll be the first to admit that. He’s smart and funny and incredibly thoughtful to the people he loves, and he always thinks he’s right, no matter what.” Eva laughed again. “But,” Pepper continued, “I’ve seen him change for the better since becoming Iron Man. He wants to make the world a better place and I think anyone would be hard-pressed to find that he hasn’t done just that.” Eva nodded her agreement.

Pepper took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m not sure if Tony told you why we split up.” 

Eva shook her head. “Not really.” 

Pepper nodded and continued, “It hurt me to love him while he flew away to put his life on the line and take risks that put him in more danger than necessary. I couldn’t just stand by and wait for him to die anymore and he couldn’t give up Iron Man.” Eva’s heart broke at Pepper’s expression. She could understand the feeling after watching the Avengers fly off to fight HYDRA, but Pepper had been doing that for years. 

“What changed?” she whispered. 

“He met you,” Pepper replied with a genuine smile. “He somehow became an even better man with you around. He’s more emotionally available. He’s thinking of the future in a way that includes him and everyone he loves. He’s considering options that he would have never dreamed of even a year ago. You, Eva, are an incredible kid, and I’m not talking about what you can do.”

Eva blushed and she began to inspect her fingernails that were always chipped and mangled from her time in the lab. Pepper continued despite her obvious discomfort from the compliments. “You’ve been through so much. Things that would be hard for any adult to handle, but you just keep smiling and helping others smile. I don’t think you understand how tense things were between all the Avengers before you arrived, but now they all actually want to spend time together and act like a real team or even a family. They do it for you and for what you represent: the future generations that have to live in this world that they’ve created. 

“It’s different for Tony, though. He loves you. He would never admit this, but he was beyond heartbroken when you left. He barely went into his lab when you were gone. And I caught him staring at your emails, well, I guess the fake emails, all the time.”

Pepper shifted, placing the box she had been holding between them on the bed and taking Eva’s hands into hers instead. Eva looked up into Pepper’s eyes and was surprised to see that they were starting to fill with tears. “All of this to say, I love you too Eva. I think you are the most amazing young woman I will ever meet. Tony and I would be absolutely honored to be called your parents.”

Eva’s heart swelled almost uncomfortably with love and also uncertainty, but Pepper moved on. “We will do whatever you decide you want. If you’re not ready for adoption yet or maybe you think you never will be, that’s okay too. We’ll figure it out, but I want you to know that we both love you and we’ll do whatever we can for you. Just tell us what you want when you’re ready.”

Eva could only stare back at her, no idea how to respond. “I– I don’t know–”

Pepper squeezed her hands again. “That’s okay. Take your time, and Tony and I will be here when you’re ready to decide.” She turned away and picked up the box that was sitting between them, wrapped in brown paper. Pepper handed it to her. “I think you should have this. I made it for Tony a while ago, but he doesn’t need the reminder anymore.”

Carefully tearing away the paper, Eva stifled a gasp. In her hands was a glass box containing an arc reactor. Eva had seen the schematics for all the iterations of Tony’s arc reactors and this one was special. It was the very first one. The one he and Yinsen had made while he was kept hostage in a cave. The most amazing part was that around the edge were the words “Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart”. 

This time it was Eva’s turn to look up at Pepper with eyes full of tears. “I couldn’t possibly take this.”

Pepper smiled and nodded her head enthusiastically. “Yes you can, and you should. No matter what you decide, I’m afraid you’re stuck with having Tony in your life, and occasionally you will need the reminder that he does have a heart. I used to need that reminder often, but now that he has you, I don’t really need it anymore.” 

Eva stared down at the gift, unable to comprehend the emotions flowing through her. Tony rarely expressed how he felt, but he showed her through his actions. Pepper telling her point blank that she loved Eva and that Tony loved her even more was overwhelming. It was nice though to hear it spoken aloud that she was loved. That hadn’t happened in a while. 

The bed shifted as Pepper stood. “I’ve given you a lot to think about. I’m always here if you want to talk.”

Eva placed the gift gingerly on the bed and shot into Pepper’s arms. “Thank you,” she whispered into Pepper’s shirt. “I love you too.” Pepper rested her cheek on the top of Eva’s head as she held her and they stood like that for a while. When Eva finally pulled away, she gathered up the courage to ask what she was really wondering. “Do you think that my parents would be upset that I’m finding a new family? Do you think they would be… proud of me?”

Pepper paused and leaned down, grasping the sides of Eva’s shoulders. “I think they would be so incredibly proud of you. You are doing so many amazing things. All those people you’ve helped in the Underground, how much you’ve built with Tony, how much you’ve excelled in school. I didn’t know your parents, but if they raised someone exceptional like you, I can’t imagine that they would be disappointed in the slightest. I think they would just want you to be happy and safe. So if you make the decision that makes you happiest, then I think they will be proud.”

Eva nodded, tears falling down her face. She knew Pepper was right, it was just hard to accept. “Thanks, Pepper.” Pepper pulled her into another embrace and gave her a kiss on the forehead before letting go. 

“I’ll be here whenever you want to talk,” she told her as she left the room. 

Eva sunk into her bed, cradling her new gift in her arms. She had a lot to think about.

Chapter Text

Chapter 50

The next week progressed similarly, and Eva felt like she was easing back into her life again. Chloe came by when she could. She visited Mitchel at work during the day when he wasn’t too busy. The Avengers were constantly moving around the Tower – training, planning, and preparing for the next HYDRA base. 

Director Hill often came by the Avengers section of the Tower to call meetings. Eva was never invited or filled in on what Hill told them, and she didn’t expect to be. Once after training with Natasha, she had walked in on Tony and Bruce discussing something and she definitely heard them say the name Strucker, but they had quieted down when she entered and Tony started blabbing about something inane. Eva wasn’t in a hurry to hear about what Strucker or List were up to, so she didn’t ask any questions.

Eva knew Tony wouldn’t stop until everyone involved in her kidnapping was behind bars or dead. She hadn’t brought it up, but sometimes she caught him staring off angrily during their nighttime lab sessions. Maybe it was the dreams that she was having, but she didn’t really want to be involved in their takedown of HYDRA and the people who had hurt her. She just wanted to stay here and not have to worry about getting taken again. 

One night, Eva had a particularly bad dream. Tony had to climb up onto her bed to wake her up and drag her down from where she had been floating almost ten feet in the air. He held her in his arms as she cried into his shirt, still wrapped up in her blankets. Once she had calmed down and wiped her tears, Tony said, “How about a vacation?” 

The next day, Eva found herself sitting with Tony and Pepper in a lush private jet heading to California. Last time she thought she was going to Los Angeles, it didn’t turn out well, but she knew this would be different. Tony was disappointed to learn that Eva didn’t have a passport and wasn’t patient enough to wait for her to get one so that they could go somewhere more exotic. He had to settle on going to his new Malibu mansion on the beach instead. Pepper told Eva that he had only been there a few times anyway since his old one infamously fell into the ocean over two years ago. 

When Eva had told them that she had only been out of New York two times, once to go on vacation with her family and once when she was recently kidnapped, Tony perked up about showing her around Southern California. Eva was just excited to go somewhere. She didn’t really care where. The rest of the Avengers were going to show up at the end of the week and it was going to be like a real vacation. 

Eva’s face was glued to the window as they landed. The sparkling Pacific Ocean spread to the horizon beneath her with white sandy beaches and a large pier with a ferris wheel and rollercoaster. Then the city stretched out so far, unlike New York that was all scrunched together. She could see buildings and winding highways expanding out onto the horizons where the tallest mountains she had ever seen surrounded the sprawling city. 

There was a convertible Lamborghini waiting for them when they exited the plane and Tony hopped into the driver’s seat as a few people loaded their luggage into the back. Eva immediately regretted that she didn’t have any shorts because it was a perfect 75 degrees and the sun was shining. 

The engine of the luxury car roared as Tony sped off down a small highway that followed the coast. Eva grinned from ear to ear as her hair blew in the wind and she watched beach houses, tourists, waves, surfers, paragliders, and cliffsides race by. Tony cranked some unusually happy tunes that she typically preferred instead of his usual rock favorites, and Eva sang along loudly with Pepper joining in every once in a while. 

Eva’s jaw dropped when they pulled into a driveway of the biggest house she had ever seen. “I downgraded to something smaller after the last…incident,” Tony told her as they walked into a beautiful entryway with a tall ceiling topped with a skylight letting in the sun’s warm rays. 

Pepper rolled her eyes. “You mean the one where you invited anyone to come and blow it up on national tv?”

“Admittedly not my proudest moment.”

Eva wasn’t really listening as she wandered past them into the living area that had floor to ceiling windows facing out toward the glittering ocean. A large balcony wrapped around the edge. Balcony was a bit of an understatement since it was more like a backyard with a firepit, pizza oven, outdoor kitchen, infinity pool, and jacuzzi. “JARVIS, open up the windows,” Tony said aloud. 

“Of course, sir,” came JARVIS’ voice. 

Eva jumped as the windows began to fold back and a salty breeze hit her face. “Man, if this is how you react to this place, I wish I had seen how you would have reacted to the last one,” Tony said as he followed her into the living area. 

“Yeah, this place is a real shithole,” Eva breathed, barely able to put any feeling into her joke. 

“Try not to blow this one up,” Pepper said as she moved toward the hallway. 

“You’re going to bring that up a lot, aren’t you?” Tony complained. 

“It’s hard to forget,” Pepper chided. 

After they settled into the mansion and Eva got over her initial shock, they took Eva to Santa Monica for a shopping spree to get her all sorts of summery outfits and swimsuits to wear and keep at the mansion for any other times she visited. Eva felt like she was in a happy daze the entire time. Tony reserved an entire section of a restaurant on the pier where they sat on an outdoor porch and watched the sunset over the water while they ate. He informed them over dinner that he had booked a whale watching cruise and a paragliding lesson later in the week so Eva could get the whole experience. 

The next day, they went down to the beach. Eva skipped around Tony and Pepper, finding shells and splashing in the water acting like a toddler instead of the teenager she actually was. They even spotted some dolphins nearby and Eva wanted to try to swim out to see them up close, but Tony convinced her to stay on the beach. 

Eva was on and off of the beach the entire day. Tony found a large canvas tent, some umbrellas, and reclining folding chairs in the mansion that Eva floated down to the beach from the backyard on the top of the cliff. After they set everything up, she and Tony also brought down a cooler full of snacks and drinks so they really had no reason to leave. 

At sunset, Eva decided to walk down the beach and look for more seashells that she could bring back to the Tower. She was thinking she could make a necklace for Chloe if she gathered enough cool ones. Tony and Pepper were pretty comfortable under the tent and decided to stay back. After Tony reminded her about ten times to stay on the ground and stay within sight, Eva set off. 

She had some pretty good luck finding shells that didn’t have any breaks or cracks. Placing them carefully in her pocket, she accumulated a nice collection. As the sun touched the horizon, Eva paused and found a piece of driftwood to sit on to watch the water turn incredible shades of gold and pink. Her mind wandered unwillingly to all the people that she wished could experience this with her: Gary, Vic, her parents. She had been pretty young when her family had taken the vacation to Florida, but she distinctly remembered building a sandcastle with Vic while racing against the sandcastle-destroying tide. She and Vic had nearly lost their minds with excitement when they spotted manatees in the water. 

Remembering the conversation she had with Pepper a few days before they had left, Eva wondered what her parents would have wanted for her? It wasn’t the first time she had thought about this. During her time in the Underground and beating up guys to help Graves steal alien tech, she had always wondered if they would have been proud of her. Looking back, it definitely wasn’t something to be proud of, but what about now? She was doing well in school on her own. She wasn’t hurting anyone like she had been with Graves. She had helped the people of the Underground get a real home. They probably would be proud.

Pepper was right that more than anything, her parents would want her to be happy. Was she happy with Tony and Pepper? Was she happy in the Tower? The only thing that got her through being a captive of HYDRA was dreaming of being with them. The last few weeks were probably some of the best in her life. She was insanely happy to be with them. Living with them was absolutely what she wanted. 

Why was she hesitating then?

Eva looked toward the sky that was glowing with oranges, pinks, and purples as the sun dipped underneath the ocean. “Mom, Dad?” She found herself speaking aloud, hoping that they could hear her somehow. “This is probably stupid, but I just need you to know that I’m happy and that I know Tony and Pepper might be some of the only people that could take your place– not take your place, but take care of me like you would want.” A few tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. “No one could ever take your place. But they actually want me. They want me to be a family with them, for real, forever. I think I want that. I– I know I want that… with them.” Eva wiped the tears away from her cheeks. “I love you.”

After a few more minutes of watching the sunset, Eva rose, took a deep breath, wiped her face, and headed back toward the tent in the distance. As she approached, Eva noticed that Tony and Pepper had changed positions and were sitting close together in the sand. She nearly turned around since it looked like they might be having an intimate moment, but Pepper saw her coming back and waved her over. 

“Glad you’re back, Newt,” Tony said as she got close. “We’ve got news.”

“News?” she questioned.

“We’re getting married,” he explained, pointing to a shiny ring on Pepper’s finger. 

“What?” she sputtered at the sudden admission. 

“Don’t act so surprised. I told you I was thinking about it a few weeks ago,” Tony chided. 

“I didn’t think you’d do it so quickly!”

“Why not?” Tony asked. “Like you said, for some reason she wants it to be a permanent thing and we might as well make it official.”

“You don’t always make it easy,” Pepper commented, but her voice was gentle as she snuggled into Tony’s side. 

“Wow,” Eva sighed as she sat on a chair next to them. “Congratulations!” She had to force her smile a little, since she had just been ready to tell them that she wanted to move forward with adoption, but maybe now wasn’t the right time. “How are we celebrating?”

“No time for that,” Tony told her. “Wedding is on Saturday.”

Eva’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Like the Saturday that’s in five days?”

“That’s the one,” he said, like it made total sense.

“I’m so confused,” Eva admitted. 

“Like I said,” Tony explained. “We’re done waiting and we’re already here on the beach?”

“I mean it would be beautiful, but don’t these things take some time to plan?” Eva asked.

“I thought you knew me better than that, Newt. I can make anything happen with the right amount of money.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “If you say so.”

“Do you mind helping with some planning during your vacation?” Pepper asked. 

“Of course!” Eva readily agreed. “That sounds fun!”

“Great, we can go look at some dresses tomorrow for both of us.” Pepper was absolutely glowing. She turned to Tony. “You need to call everyone and make sure they can get here by Saturday.”

“Already on it,” Tony told her as he took out his phone. 

They had a nice dinner on the patio, and Eva tried to make herself scarce afterward so Pepper and Tony could have some time to themselves. A few hours after dinner, Eva was sitting in a chair on the balcony, wrapped in a blanket, listening to the waves below, and reading a new novel that Natasha had suggested for her, utterly content. Tony came out to join her. “Are you having a good time here?”

“Maybe the best,” Eva admitted. 

Tony ruffled her hair affectionately. “That’s good to hear.” They sat in silence for a while, looking up at all the stars that were never visible in New York. “What do you think about the wedding? You seemed a little…reserved when we told you,” Tony pointed out.

“Oh! I was just taken by surprise. I didn’t think you’d propose with me around.” Eva’s face scrunched as she thought about it. “I thought you’d save it for a vacation you take with just her, so I’m not here to ruin it.”

He rolled his eyes. “I did it now because I want you here. Why do you think I made the rest of the team wait until the end of the week? Clint was very disappointed he couldn’t take a longer vacation.”

“You wanted me here? Why?” Eva asked, taken aback. 

“Jeez, Newt. Don’t make me say it,” Tony sighed. Eva continued to stare at him in confusion. “It wouldn’t be complete without you. We want to celebrate with you before anyone else joins in.”

Eva had to look back at the stars away from him as she was overcome with emotion. “That’s… cool,” she said stupidly after a moment. “So you just asked her, while I was walking down the beach?”

“Yup.”

“No fireworks or drone show?” she asked.

Tony chuckled. “Those are good ideas. Maybe I’ll have to see what I can do about something for the ceremony, but that kind of thing doesn’t really feel right anymore. I think we’re both ready to move past the theatrics and get to it.”

“Ew.”

“Not that, Newt. I mean start a family.”

“Gross.”

“Jesus,” Tony groaned. “I mean start a family with you.”

“...Oh,” was all Eva could think to say. Tony shifted in his seat just as she did too. Eva untangled herself from the blanket and sat up on the edge of her chair to look at him. He looked back at her with his eyebrows raised in anticipation as she took a deep breath. “I was actually ready to tell you something earlier when you gave me the news about the proposal.”

“Really?” he asked, clearly trying to act nonchalant. 

“I guess, I’ve been thinking… that maybe…” Eva started, trying to find the right words.

“Growing old over here,” Tony teased.

“Okay, okay,” she said. “I want to move forward with adoption.” Eva couldn’t read his expression in the dim light, so she looked down at her hands instead. “You know, like get adopted by you… and Pepper too now, I guess.” He still didn’t say anything, so Eva kept talking to fill the silence. “I’m sorry I took so long to decide. I guess it’s hard to let go of my parents. I mean I know I’m not really letting go of them, but it kind of felt like that. Anyway, I’m ready to move forward if you still want to…”

Next thing Eva knew, she was being crushed in an awkward seated hug. “Alright.” Her voice was muffled in Tony’s shoulder. “I guess you still want to do this.”

“Of course,” Tony told her and Eva was taken aback by the emotion that filled his voice. “I really didn’t know if that’s what you wanted, but it’s definitely what I want, and Pepper too.”

Eva returned the hug. “It is what I want. When I was stuck in that… place, the thing that kept my spirits up was thinking of being back in the Tower and spending time with you and Pepper and everyone else. I really am happy.”

Tony drew her in even more as she talked about being with HYDRA. “Let’s keep it that way then.”

Pepper was beside herself when Tony called her out so they could tell her. Eva let the happy tears fall as she was squeezed between Tony and Pepper, finally in a complete family again.

Chapter Text

Chapter 51

The week that followed was a whirlwind of wedding planning, vacationing, and relaxing. Eva enjoyed every second. They went whale watching on a private boat and saw a baby whale. Eva learned how to paraglide and it felt so good to soar through the ocean air. 

When she and Tony went on a hike along the seaside cliffs a few miles up the coast while Pepper was getting her nails done for the wedding, Eva walked to the very edge of the cliff and held out her arms, trying to get that feeling again.

Tony walked up to her, staying a few feet away from the edge. “I have to admit. It’s a little tempting to just push you over the edge.”

Eva’s eyes popped open. “I’ll make sure to tell that to the judge when we go through the adoption process.”

He chuckled. After a moment, he asked in a more serious voice, “Why don’t you want to jump? Do some tricks? If I had the ability, I would have jumped off every building in New York by now.” 

“I don’t think I have enough control to do that,” she told him. “It’s hard to slow down.”

Tony gave her a doubtful look. “There’s plenty of room to slow down here. You just have to be far enough away.” He pointed to the horizon and swung his finger over their heads to the other horizon. “Go this way and you’ll have plenty of room.”

“I guess, but it’s not just slowing down.” Eva sighed and took a few steps away from the edge, her dreams flooding her mind. “Whenever I use my powers, I end up hurting someone or almost hurting someone. I think it’s just best if I use it in the lab and that’s it.” 

“Practicing will only give you more control,” Tony pointed out. 

“I practiced plenty with HYDRA and I still hurt you and Thor,” Eva responded bitterly. 

Tony was quiet for a while after that and Eva regretted bringing up HYDRA. She was about to apologize when he spoke again. 

“What’s the point of being able to fall into the sky and float down without getting hurt if you stop yourself from doing it?”

She wasn’t sure how to respond to that, and kept quiet. Her dreams continuously reminded her of the family she lost and the ways in which she hurt people or could hurt people with her powers. Though she no longer agreed with Graves’ ideas and she had a much better understanding of what lengths Tony and the rest of the Avengers took to keep as many people safe as possible, Eva was still hesitant to use her powers. 

Tony studied her for a minute and looked out toward the horizon. “It’s sad to see you becoming afraid of yourself, Newt. I’m not saying you need to join the Avengers and run into battle, or even start floating around the penthouse, but your abilities are part of you and you need to make peace with them.” 

Eva mirrored him, gazing out at the horizon. Maybe this was a good first step to getting used to using her powers without it being a risk to anyone else. Maybe it could even be fun. 

She shook her head and took another step away. “I’m not ready yet. I’m sorry.”

Tony placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and led her away from the cliffside. “Don’t be sorry, Newt,” he told her. “Just tell me when you are ready.”

The next two days were exciting. Pepper did some final planning for the wedding, and Tony put together the afterparty. Rhodey arrived a day before the others because he was going to be Tony’s best man. Eva was incredibly flattered when Pepper asked her to be her maid of honor. She tried to turn her down initially because she was sure there was someone else that was more fit for the job. Pepper retaliated by saying, “You’ve already done all the duties of a maid of honor. You helped pick out the dress and decorations. Now you just have to stand up there with me.” Eva agreed happily. 

Things got exponentially louder when the Avengers plus Happy and Maria Hill arrived that Friday. Everyone congratulated Tony and Pepper on their short engagement when they arrived, but when Tony announced the news about Eva agreeing to the adoption, the room erupted. Steve gave her a huge hug, Nat sent her a rare toothy smile, Bruce gave her a thumbs up, Clint took her by the shoulders and shook her as he yelled something unintelligible, and Thor just picked her up and threw her into the air. 

“Thor don’t break her right before all the fun,” Tony chided as Eva turned on zero gravity, pushed off the ceiling and floated to the ground.

“Starkling is far more durable than you let on,” Thor argued back. 

That night, Tony and the guys had a mini bachelor’s party on the deck while Pepper led the ladies and Eva up to the rooftop. In true Pepper style, the rooftop was classily decorated with simple and elegant plants and furniture. There were large wicker chairs and hammocks scattered around with plush pillows. Pepper handed out wine to Natasha and Maria while Eva helped herself to a sparkling cider from a fridge hidden underneath a planter. 

They gathered around a firepit near the side of the roof that looked out over the ocean and sipped on their drinks. Eva listened as they talked about the wedding plans and asked Nat about a possible romance with Bruce that they had all been witnessing for a few months now. Nat wasn’t a famous spy for nothing. She didn’t give them anything to gossip about, so they turned back to Pepper to get better gossip about Tony, which she happily divulged. 

After at least an hour of hearing embarrassing stories about Tony, which turned into embarrassing stories about everyone they knew, Eva’s sides were sore from laughter. Once the wine was gone and the laughter subsided, Pepper decided to go to sleep to get ready for tomorrow and the other ladies decided to go to bed too. 

Evidently, Tony’s party didn’t end early. The next morning Eva came out into the living room to find Tony, Clint, Bruce, Rhodey, Happy, and Thor strewn out across the room sleeping on various pieces of furniture. Steve, however, was already up and in the kitchen. Picking her way gingerly through the slumbering figures, Eva joined him. 

“Crazy night then?” she whispered. 

Steve rolled his eyes. “Thor started a drinking contest and it went downhill from there.”

“I’m guessing Thor won?” Eva speculated. 

“I won,” Steve told her with a mischievous grin as he dipped bread into an egg mixture and laid it onto the stove.

Eva paused in the middle of slicing strawberries. “Really?”

The grin didn’t fade from Steve’s face. “They didn’t believe me when I told them that I haven’t been able to get drunk since the serum.”

Eva slapped her hand over her mouth, attempting to stifle her fit of giggles imagining Steve pounding back drinks without a reaction as the others got completely sloshed. “Wow, I’m sorry I missed that,” she said when she finally gained her composure. 

“Don’t be too sure,” Steve told her as she handed him the pile of sliced strawberries and freshly washed blueberries. “I don’t think any of them would be particularly proud of how they acted.”

“That’s exactly why I’m sad I missed it,” she said. After making six cups of coffee, she gently roused the heavily hungover team. They each thanked her for the coffee and slumped at the table for breakfast.

Before she knew it, it was time for the wedding. After she had helped to set up everything on the beach, Eva put on the blue dress that she and Pepper had picked out earlier that week, and Nat even helped her put on some makeup. 

The ceremony was beautiful. Thankfully, Tony and the other guys had sobered up enough by the time of the event. Pepper looked absolutely stunning and Tony looked utterly lovestruck. Eva’s cheeks hurt by the end of the short ceremony that lasted for the duration of the sunset. It was almost the simple ceremony that was promised until fireworks started going off when they kissed at the end. Tony sent Eva a wink as everyone gasped in awe. 

The reception was much more fun. Tony set up an entire dancefloor on the deck with JARVIS in an older mark of the Iron Man suit DJing. Thankfully, no one wanted to drink that much after their escapades the night before, but it didn’t stop Eva from dancing with every single one of them multiple times. At some point she must have sat down and fallen asleep, because Tony had to wake her up to usher her to bed despite her protests, and she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

Chapter Text

Chapter 52

Eva was sad to leave California the next day, but at the same time, she missed the city and she was excited to get back to the Tower. The team took the quinjet back and Eva rode in the private jet with Pepper and Tony, who were stealing happy glances at each other for the whole ride.

Tony had been right about things moving faster when you threw money at it, because the adoption process only took two weeks. She, Tony, and Pepper went to a few appointments with a social worker and a judge, where they reviewed her file. Her social worker, who had not left a great impression with Tony, or Eva for that matter, seemed very impressed with just how far she had come in the last year. Her grades were above average, and she had credits in classes that wouldn’t be offered for her age at normal schools like Physics and Engineering. She even gave Tony and Pepper some high schools that she thought would be a good fit for Eva, which she noticed Tony wasn’t as excited about as she was. But other than an annoying comment from the social worker about her “troublesome behavior” improving, the process went smoothly.

All the Avengers wanted to come with them to the courthouse on the day that they were signing the papers, but Tony insisted they celebrate afterward at the Tower. He had been working hard to make sure that no one caught wind that he was adopting a kid. He and Pepper were planning to make an announcement about their marriage and do a talk show to fully throw off anyone that might have an inkling later that week.

Nevertheless, Eva had a fun night with the team when they returned from the courthouse. Pepper made a fancy dinner, Steve made a delicious chocolate cake, and at the end of the night, Bruce presented her with a small wrapped gift. 

“It’s from all of us,” Bruce told her. 

Eva took the gift as everyone watched her with big smiles. She gently tore back the paper and opened the small box. Inside was a small golden A on a loop. Looking up at the group in confusion, Nat spoke up. “It’s for your necklace,” she explained, gesturing toward the arc reactor necklace she hadn’t taken off since Tony had given it to her. 

“Yeah, you can’t just be represented by Iron Man,” Clint said with derision.

“You are an honorary member of the Avengers,” Thor proclaimed. 

Steve gave her a gentle smile and added, “You’re part of our family too.”

Eva had to turn her gaze back down to the gift in her hands, completely overwhelmed with emotion. She was lucky enough to have a new family, but now she was getting a whole extended family too. “Thanks,” she whispered. “This means a lot.”

Nat reached forward and helped her unclasp the necklace, place the ‘A’ charm on it, and return it to her neck. Eva looked up at them again and they were all beaming at her. She smiled back. “Does this one have a panic button too?” she asked in jest. 

Bruce cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?” Everyone looked equally confused for a moment until Bruce realized and turned to Tony. “There’s a panic button on that thing?”

Tony shrugged. “Didn’t I tell you all that you’re on Newt protection duty if it goes off?”

“I’m just impressed it’s that small,” Bruce admitted. 

“That’s good that you have that,” Steve commented. He looked at Tony. “Is that the only one she has? Reaching up to a necklace may be too obvious. Maybe that watch?”

“Already ahead of you Cap,” Tony said with a smile. “One on the watch and one on her phone too. It’ll send out a signal to all of your phones with her location.”

As Tony and Steve continued to discuss other ways to keep a watchful eye on Eva, Nat leaned over to her. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them agree on anything so easily.”

Later that night, Eva was in the lab with Tony as usual. She hadn’t dreamed during the vacation, but it started up again when they had returned to New York. So that’s why she found herself in Tony’s lab on the night of her adoption, working on placing a delicate microchip into some of Natasha’s gear. Tony was at his workbench trying to program the Iron Legion for better civilian interaction. 

Eva was about to place the tiny chip into a Widow Bite when Tony finally spoke up. “How are you doing, Newt?”

“I’m almost there,” she whispered, trying to focus on keeping the gravity steady on each piece. Once it was placed perfectly, she closed it up and pressed the button. She smiled as it glowed and she turned it off again, gently stacking it with the five others she had assembled. 

When she looked up again, Tony was watching her with a smug look. “What?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Just impressed with myself for teaching you so well.”

“Yeah, it was all you.” She rolled her eyes as she picked up the next pieces. 

“Hold on,” Tony said. “I’ve got something to show you.” 

He moved over to a set of workbenches on the other side of the room that were usually used for spare parts, abandoned experiments, and broken tools, but Eva noticed for the first time that it wasn’t a cluttered mess like it usually was. It was cleaned off and resembled Tony’s benches. 

“Sorry that it took this long, but now that you’re a permanent resident, I thought that it made sense that you get your own space and tools,” Tony explained. 

Eva stared at the space, fully equipped with tools and a computer system. “This is for…me? In your lab?” she asked. 

“I mean it’s not really my lab anymore. I only come in here with you so we can call it our lab,” he explained. 

“Our lab,” she whispered as she rounded the desk and sat on the stool behind it, not sure what to do first. 

“Mostly, I’m tired of sharing my things, so just use all of this now,” Tony complained. 

Eva looked up at him and smiled. “Thanks Tony. This is… more than I could have ever imagined.”

He reached over the workbench and ruffled her hair. “You’ve got to get a better imagination then, Newt.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 53

The Avengers had gotten back into their HYDRA hunt and Eva could tell they had a bit more fervor since they had found her at one of their bases. One afternoon while Eva was sitting in the lab with Tony and Bruce, the team was called to ship out and take care of another base. Tony came over to her, gave her a brief kiss on the forehead, and said, “See you tonight.” Then, they were all gone. 

Eva felt like a chair had been taken out from underneath her. She had never liked watching them leave for missions, but it was different now. They were her family now, and she could never be sure that they would come back. 

After finishing the laser, she put all her tools away and headed up to the private lab in the penthouse. Pepper was out of town and wouldn’t be back until late that night. Tony had given her a few projects to work on at her station and she was also working on a few things that she had come up with on her own. Eva decided to pull out a coffee maker that she was trying to alter to brew espresso, very strong drip coffee, and nitro cold brew coffee all controlled by JARVIS for Tony’s birthday coming up in a few weeks. 

However, about an hour in, nothing was working right and she couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that had been looming over her since they had left. Eva sighed and flopped angrily onto the couch. “JARVIS?” she called from her spot, face-down on the couch. 

“Yes, Moore-Stark?” JARVIS responded and Eva rolled her eyes at Tony’s new nickname that he had programmed after her adoption. He had found her new hyphenated name very amusing.

“Where is Pepper?” 

“Ms. Potts is currently in a meeting and should be on the jet in a few hours. Would you like me to call her?”

“No,” Eva sighed. “I don’t want to interrupt her. Let’s call Rhodey instead.”

Rhodey answered after only two rings. “Hey Eva,” came his kind voice from the speakers. “Is something wrong?” 

“No,” Eva assured him. “Are you free to talk for a few minutes?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“What do you…” Eva cringed, not sure how to bring it up without sounding like a scared and complaining little kid. “How do you…”

“Did Tony leave on a mission?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Eva admitted. 

“And you’re worried?”

“I mean, I know that they’re strong and capable and the best people for the job, but it’s still dangerous.” Eva shook her head. “I’m being stupid. I’m sorry–”

“No, no,” he interrupted. “You’re not being stupid at all. I mean you just joined the family and then Tony runs off into danger. You have every reason to be scared or worried or sad or frankly you could be pissed and that would be completely understandable.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah, kid. Look, I’ve known Tony for a long time. He never necessarily had a strong sense of self-preservation, but since Iron Man, it’s been really hard for me and Pepper to watch him run off into danger. It really feels terrible to watch him try to save everyone and put himself in the line of fire while just sitting around.”

“Is that why you decided to be War Machine?” Eva asked. “To be with him and protect him from being stupid?”

“That was a big part of it,” Rhodey admitted. “I am sad that I can’t help more.” He paused. “Is that something you would want to do? Go out and help him?”

“No,” she told him quickly, not having to think twice about it. “That’s not something I want to do if I can help it.”

“Good,” he told her. “You don’t need to do that and I don’t think Tony or anyone else would want you in a position where you could get hurt.”

“I mean I would love to help, I want to help, but… I don’t know.”

“No need to explain. It does help me to find some way to help when I can. Maybe you can do the same in your own way.”

“I mean I help with building stuff,” Eva told him weakly. “But even then I don’t really help that much.”

“Just the fact that Tony lets you into his lab and the Avenger’s lab says that you absolutely help him,” Rhodey argued. “I think that’s a great way for you to help out.”

“Yeah,” Eva said weakly. “That’s where I am now, but it really doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Rhodey sighed. “I don’t think anything makes me feel better, but it lessens the worry a little, if that makes sense.” Eva nodded her head, even though he couldn’t see her. He continued anyway. “Let me tell you, though. It’s been much easier since he’s teamed up with everyone else. They make a good team. They even him out a bit. He’s much safer with them than he was when he was flying around by himself.”

Eva smiled. “That’s true.”

“Is Pepper there?” 

“Not until late tonight,” Eva told him. 

“I didn’t realize you were there alone. Man, Tony does not think things through does he?”

“They had to leave in a rush,” Eva explained. “It’s okay. I need to work on Tony’s birthday present anyway.”

There was a rustling on the other side of the call, as if he were checking something. “I could get over there in about an hour and we could do a movie night,” he offered. “Or go out on the town and use the usual godfather explanation, which is technically true now.”

“No, no. That’s okay,” Eva said quickly. “You don’t need to do that.”

“I don’t need to, but I would like to,” he said.

“Really, I’m okay. I know you have things to do. It’s been really helpful talking to you.”

There was a pause again. “Are you sure, Eva? It wouldn’t be hard to get there.”

“It’s really okay, Rhodey. Thanks for offering and thanks for everything you said.”

“Call back if you need me or if you change your mind.”

“I will.”

Eva distracted herself with projects for the rest of the afternoon, made herself some pasta for early dinner, and watched some mindless tv, trying not to look at the news or the internet for any hint about how things were going. When she became too restless again, she found herself heading toward the gym. After running on the treadmill, jump roping, and taking out all her frustration and anxiety on the punching bag, she was exhausted. 

As she was getting changed to go to bed early, JARVIS spoke up. “You have a call coming in from the Boss, Moore-Stark.”

Eva snatched up her phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Newt,” came Tony’s voice from the other side.

“Hey,” Eva said, trying to keep the emotions of simultaneous relief, frustration, and happiness out of her voice. “How’d it go?”

“Oh, you know, we’ve been causing some trouble for our HYDRA friends. That’s not interesting though.”

“I’d say it’s pretty interesting,” she countered. “Are you on your way back?”

“That’s why I was calling.” Though his voice was light, Eva could tell that he didn’t want to tell her the next part. “We won’t be back until the morning. This is going to take a bit longer than we thought.”

“Everyone’s okay?” 

“Yes, of course. It’ll take a lot more than a few HYDRA agents to hurt any of us,” he reassured her but she didn’t feel much better. “JARVIS said you spent a lot of time in the gym this afternoon, even after your usual training with Nat this morning. Trying to beef up?”

Eva squinted up in the general direction where she considered JARVIS could see her. “Why would JARVIS tell you that?”

“He’s on high alert to tell me anything happening to you since you’re alone,” Tony explained like it was no big deal. “He’s the babysitter while I’m out.”

She rolled her eyes and then added, “I just rolled my eyes.”

“Don’t worry, I could hear it from over here,” Tony joked. “Listen, you should get some sleep and I’ll be there when you wake up. Pepper’s going to be there in a few hours too.”

“That’s good,” is all that Eva could think to say. She wasn’t sure why, but there was anger building up inside of her all of a sudden. “I think I’ll go to bed. I’m pretty tired from my workout.”

There was a pause. “You okay, kid?”

“Yeah, just tired,” she lied. 

“Alright, I’ll see you in the morning,” he told her after a moment. 

“Bye,” she said before hanging up abruptly and throwing herself on her bed. Why was she so angry with him? Why did she hang up on him like that or talk to him like that? What if that was their last conversation and she acted like a brat? Then she was suddenly more angry at herself than at Tony. “Uuuugh!” She squeezed her head, as if that would help her make sense of what she was feeling. 

Eva laid in bed for a few hours, her emotions switching between being angry at Tony for leaving and being angry at herself for being selfish. Eventually, she must have fallen asleep because the dreams started.