Chapter Text
A blaring alarm rose Pepper Potts from her already fitful sleep, sending her into a flurry of panic, her hand already halfway to the watch on her wrist to enable to gauntlet Tony had designed for her years ago.
"I wouldn't advise that, Miss Potts. There isn't an imminent threat." F.R.I.D.A.Y's cool voice would've echoed through the room, but it was mostly drowned out by the ringing, and Pepper had to strain to catch the full sentence.
"FRI, what's going on?" The words rushed out of the woman as she stumbled down the corridor to Morgan's room, where she could already hear crying. It made her heart clench: thinking of her daughter, scared and confused in her room, not understanding what was happening, and why Pepper wasn't with her.
"One of Stark Industries' intern's projects is currently going haywire." The AI responded smoothly, opening the door to Morgan's room the second Pepper reached it. "They pulled the lever to alert everyone to evacuate. You and Morgan are the only ones left in the building besides the interns."
Pepper stooped down to pick up Morgan, trying to soothe her daughter's crying.
"Mommy? Why is it so loud? Turn it off!" The toddler whined and wailed, wriggling in her grip.
"Shh, Morgan, it's nothing. We just need to go for a bit." Came Pepper's quick reply as she practically glided down the stars to the private car park, not trusting the elevators.
"Go where?" Morgan twisted, trying to get a look at what was going on, and almost causing her mother to stumble down the stairs.
"We're going to Happy, Morgs, now stop moving." She shot back, a little snappier than she would've liked, but she had to focus on getting Morgan out safely in case the interns' project exploded or something.
Outside, Happy paced by the car with a concerned expression, sighing as he spotted Pepper and Morgan making their way out of the emergency exit. Morgan stumbled over to him blearily, having insisted to be allowed to walk once her mom had carried her down the stairs.
"Jeez, Pepper, what the hell? One minute I'm sleeping, the next, my phone's assaulting my eardrums." The man grumbled, but his irritated expression dropped the second Morgan yawned, rubbing her eye with a glare at Pepper for waking her up.
"Oh, hi, little miss! How're you doing tonight?" His tone was as bright as he could manage, but still tinged with worry.
"Tired." Came the girl's quick reply, and Happy barked out a laugh, looking up just in time to see Pepper turning away, towards the tower.
"Where are you going?" He took a step towards the woman in confusion. "I thought I was taking you both to the safehouse."
"That's really sweet, Happy, but I need to check if there's anything damaged, now that the alarm's off. Please make sure Morgan actually gets some sleep."
Pepper didn't look back as she walked towards the entrance of the tower, even speeding up her pace. She had no patience for whoever caused this.
Short and quick strides took her to the entrance of the tower, into the elevator, and to the intern labs without needing to be asked where she wanted to go, courtesy of F.R.I.D.A.Y.
"What was anyone doing up, working on projects at three in the morning, anyway?" She muttered under her breath, though nothing answered her.
The sharp click of her heels approached the area F.R.I.D.A.Y directed her to, a frown creasing her usually soft features. These days, it was as if she never stopped frowning.
Pepper approached three figures standing next to a slightly smoking machine that she assumed was the one that malfunctioned and caused the alarm.
"What's going on here?" Her voice carried a little sharper than she'd intended, especially due to the look on the three intern's faces: shock, confusion, fear.
The man on the left scrambled to explain himself. "We're so sorry, ma'am. We got notified there was a surge in the machine's power and thought it finally be able to work, but when we got here, it overheated and our override wasn't working. Jacob just got scared, that's all. That's why he pulled the lever." At Pepper's disapproving face, the intern shrunk into himself.
"Please, Miss Potts. Don't fire Jacob. If anything, it was my fault. I was the one who convinced him and Lyla to check out the surge with me." It was an obvious lie, if his constant blinking and glancing around said anything, but she felt the slightest bit of admiration, seeing as he did just lie to his boss to save someone's ass.
At that, her glare softened, the selflessness of the intern reminding her of... Of who? It was as if there was a gap in her memory, blocking out whoever she was trying to think of. The gap in her memory cause irritation to bubble up, but she pressed through her doubt, pushing it to the back of her mind. "What's your name?"
Sure, the question was slightly unprofessional, but she almost never acted in impulse, and this one query couldn't end badly, right?
"Andrew. Andrew Garfield." Was his, albeit slightly confused, reply.
"Well Andrew, I'll ignore it just this once, but I expect this machine to be broken down for scraps by Monday. Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. Now, all of you should go home and get some rest. God knows tonight has been eventful enou-"
Before Pepper could finish her sentence, a deafening whirring made all four of them clutch at their ears. The intern in the middle, Lyla, squeaked and dashed out of the building, dialing a number rapidly on her phone. Jacob and Andrew looked at their machine in horror, rushing over and trying to shut it off, typing in code after code, but it all failed.
"What the hell is going on in here!?" Happy's words were almost drowned out, and Pepper didn't have time to wonder when Happy had arrived, and where Morgan was.
As the assault on their ears intensified, Happy, Pepper, and Jacob all but doubled over, stumbling towards the exit.
Andrew looked like he was about to faint, but stayed resilient near the machine, still trying to override whatever was going on.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y, shut it off!" Pepper instructed, her shoulders releasing some tension as the AI responded with "On it, Miss Potts."
However, it was all in vain, as a few seconds later, F.R.I.D.A.Y had more to say.
"It appears that I am unable to shut the machine off. Something else is countering every attempt to do so."
Pepper grimaced, but before she could say anything else, Happy cut in.
"What could possibly be able to counter you!?"
The reply came after a pause, loaded with the most amount of shock an AI could feel.
"... I'm countering myself, Mr. Hogan."
At that, even Andrew paused, all of them staring at the ceiling in confusion.
Pepper, naturally was the first to speak up., her brows furrowed once more.
"What do you mean? If you're trying to stop the machine, how could you be trying to keep it active?"
The reply was swift: "An external AI, identical to me, I going against my program. It doesn't seem like a copy; this is my exact code and program. But it isn't me."
Before the group had the chance to interrogate her more, the whirring stopped, and Andrew let out a sigh.
"Well, whatever you did, it must've worked, huh?" He forced out a chuckle, trying to make light of the situation even with his eyes dating around the room nervously.
The tense atmosphere lightened, causing Pepper to gasp in worry, turning to Happy so quickly that it was a wonder she didn't get whiplash.
"Where's Morgan!?" Her gaze bore into his soul, practically daring him to say that he left her alone.
"She's with 30 of my best guards." Came his collected answer, and Pepper's shoulders slumped with a sigh of relief.
It didn't last for long, however as F.R.I.D.A.Y's voice rang out, echoing in the lab.
"To answer your earlier statement, didn't do anything, Mr. Garfield. It just seems that the force countering my attacks stopped."
Before the group could fully process that information, the machine let out some kind of hiss, before emitting some type of smoke, and all of them coughed, waving their hands to try and get rid of it, to no avail.
However, their movements stilled as a silhouette appeared, dark against the bright smoke. It stumbled slowly into view, freezing as it saw Pepper.
"... Pep? What are you doing here, isn't it your day... Off?" The voice Pepper would do anything to hear again broke off at seeing her look so stricken.
In the earlier days, she would call his number just hear his voicemail. Then, she'd rewatch his hologram message over and over, until Happy would tell her to get it together for Morgan. She still dreamt about him every night. But never did she think that this could happen.
Pepper's voice broke as her eyes filled with tears, only one word escaping her:
"Tony?"