hope

"We're gonna find them, Ang."

Avengers Facility - January 13th, 2016

"Mr. Stark, my name is Angus Prewitt. I'm here because I know your daughter and I might know how to find her."

A pause as Tony Stark stared at the boy in front of him. Tall (far too tall), brown-haired and -eyed, and gangly. And far too innocent-looking.

"Jackie, who the hell is this kid?" he said, staring at the boy, who seemed to shrink in on himself a little at the words.

The blonde woman, who was currently standing just behind the teenager, seemed slightly nervous. "Like he just said, sir, he's--"

"Yeah, I heard what he said. But you know as well as I do that there are liars in this world, and how the hell do we know that this isn't one of them?!"

Tony had suddenly gone vicious, a look of near insanity and anger in his eyes as he practically spat out the words. He jabbed a finger towards the boy as he spoke, voice getting louder and louder with every word.

There was a moment of shocked silence.

Jackie broke it.

"Sir, he's just a kid. If you want, we can take a blood sample, but--"

"No, no, I'm sure they can... fake blood, or something, if they need to. No--Angus, I need you to tell me this. Tell me--"

Tony stepped closer to the boy. A look of near petrification was on Angus's face.

Tony stopped.

Nobody could fake the terror in those eyes.

And nobody could fake the loss that plagued them.

Tony Stark was many things. Billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist--as he had once so humbly stated a thousand years ago--to give a few. What he might not have labeled himself as at that same moment--standing in front of America's star-spangled man with a plan, in a year where aliens attacking New York seemed like the craziest thing that would come his way--was as someone who trusted without question.

And Tony Stark now, more than ever, had even less reason to trust. He looked at the tall, dark-haired, gangly teen in front of him, one of his arms in a sling and the other raised up with a black laptop in the respective hand. He contemplated him for a second.

And he decided to trust him.

And, before the boy in front of him could do more than blink, Tony had swiped the big black laptop from Angus's outstretched hand, turned swiftly on his heal, and begun walking very quickly past and away from him.

Angus stood, dazed, for a moment, staring confusedly in front of himself, before gathering himself together and scrambling after the man, leaving an also confused Jackie behind.

"Mr.--"

Tony was walking at a very brisk pace. He'd opened the laptop, holding it precariously out on his outstretched left arm and hand whilst typing on it vigorously with his right. His gaze didn't waver from the device even as Angus came running up to his side.

"Mr.--" Angus's brown eyes widened slightly as he noticed that the lock screen had now turned to a home screen, featuring the Hufflepuff crest and a caption saying "Puff-Puff." "Mr. Stark, how did you know my password?"

"These thirteen keys are the most worn out of all of them. So unless you have simply a habit of typing out the words 'quantum physics' an uncanny amount of times, I'd hazard a guess that that's your password."

Angus couldn't get out a response.

Tony started typing again on the laptop, still walking very quickly. "By the way, what kind of a password is 'quantum physics?' It's like having an FBI agent armed with a paint gun."

Angus still unable to reply, he and Tony turned a sharp corner and arrived at an elevator. Its silver doors blended nearly seamlessly into the walls of the compound. The doors opened, and Tony stepped inside, eyes still on the laptop he held. Angus followed, tripping for a moment over his feet and straightening his back, scarlet in the face. Tony turned to face the doors of the elevator, and Angus noticed that he himself was facing the opposite direction a second later than he was comfortable with. He turned around to face the doors as well and cleared his throat loudly.

Then there was silence.

"Ah--uh--" Angus finally got out. His voice cracked. He cleared his throat again. "Um--you see--the--the thing i--"

"Gosh, you really like Doctor Who, don't you? No normal person has this many tabs open to t.v. show trivia at a time," Tony interrupted.

"I--I--"

"That wasn't supposed to be offensive, by the way," Tony said, voice as indifferent and matter-of-fact as it had been thus far.

The elevator doors opened.

"If everybody in the world was normal, it'd be a very boring place." Tony looked up from the laptop to Angus for just a moment. And then he stepped out.

Angus was left standing there for a moment, confused but a little touched. That didn't help his confusion. Then, with a shake of his head, he gathered himself together and hurried out of the elevator just before the doors shut again.

"Mr. Stark--"

"Hold on, we're almost there. Just take a left at this corner--"

And then they arrived. The doors before them had no handles.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., it's me. Mind if I come in?" Tony said.

Angus's eyes widened as the voice of an Irish woman was heard overhead. "Not at all, sir. Are you holding up after the disappearances?"

The man didn't say a word. His back was to Angus (who had stopped in his tracks at the voice) as, doors smoothly sliding into the wall on either side, he walked inside. Though the boy couldn't see it, the lines on the man's face seemed to get a little bit deeper.

Despite the fact that she (could the voice be called a she?) didn't seem to be a living being, the voice--F.R.I.D.A.Y., apparently--seemed to be able to tell that Tony didn't feel like talking about it right now.

"Who is this you have with you?" she asked politely.

"This is Angus."

"Who--is that an A.I.?" Angus said.

Tony had walked a little further into the room. "I take it you're interested in computer science?"

"I--I would say so, sir," Angus stuttered.

"Then you're going to get a kick out of this."

The man turned around and beckoned for Angus, who had stopped in his tracks at the doorstep, to join him inside. Angus felt a rush of either fear or excitement--he couldn't tell which--as he stepped into the room.

The lights went on, blue and white and glowing and beautiful, and Angus stopped again in his tracks. His eyes--brown and wide--were bigger than one could ever think possible--because he was seeing what he never truly thought could be possible. Computers far more advanced than even N.A.S.A.'s lined the walls, tables that looked like something more than tables were scattered throughout, beginnings of suits and similar weapons and technology laid about on every surface, and the tools that made those things were everywhere in sight.

Tony gave a soft smile at the gaping expression on Angus's face. He walked over to one of the tables and quickly began hooking the laptop up to it. The table suddenly lit up like a hologram, a projection of what showed on the computer screen on display in a cool blue light.

It was a news article about a girl from a high school in rural Iowa. The girl had just broken a total of five records in her first ever meet of freshman year--her first ever meet period. A picture of the smiling swimmer was in the corner of the article. She stood, holding up her medals, clad in a bathing suit advertising the high school's swim team, short, dark, wet hair free from the cap she held in her other hand--smiling.

"'Local Iowan teen breaks five high school records in one swim meet,'" Tony read off of the projection. "'In a race that would take her life on a turn for the better (and wetter), freshman Christa Amory takes the lead as the record-breaker of the one hundred butterfly, two hundred medley relay, two hundred breaststroke, fifty freestyle, and two hundred breaststroke relay.' Particularly talented, yada yada yada, honor to have on the team...." Tony stepped closer to the screen. "'When asked how she did it, Amory simply replied, "My mom. I wouldn't be where I am today without her. Raising me all by herself, well... I'm not the easiest of people to handle at times. Scratch that, I'm not the easiest to handle at all. But she's been doing it for nearly fifteen years. So yeah, it's super cheesy-sounding, but it's because of her. Love you, Mom.'"

There was a pause as Tony turned from the projection to look at Angus. There was something different about his expression. Gone was the cool mask he'd held when Angus had first arrived, the one that had surfaced as they came to the tech room, the shield he'd hidden behind whenever he didn't want to show others what he was feeling.

"She used to be on a swim team?" His voice was gentler now than before.

Angus paused. "Yeah. That was before--before Esther died. She couldn't pay for everything after... after treatments started getting heavier. And... I guess Christa just... didn't wanna do it anymore. So she quit."

The boy stared at Tony. The eyes of the genius didn't leave the picture above the table.

"I don't know her at all, do I?"

Angus squirmed a little. "I...."

"You don't have to answer that." Tony swiped his hand across the projection, and it disappeared. He looked back at the laptop for a moment, before his demeanor changed. He shoved away the sadness in his voice, got it back to a more pragmatic tone--the usual Tony Stark air back in play.

"You knew Christa's mother as Esther, correct? Esther Amory?" he said, arms crossed.

Angus walked up closer to the man and the table. "Yes, sir. Why? Did you know her as something else?"

"Yeah--Rubi. Rubi Theodos. Secretary at a nearby publishing business. Born September 25th, 1970. Parents both dead. Lived alone in an apartment in Manhattan, New York. Nothing fishy. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not even the orphan thing, because being an orphan yourself all you think about when you find out another person shares the same lack of parentage you don't really feel anything but empathy for them."

Tony stared at the boy. "She lied to one of us. Maybe even both of us. Do you have any clue as to why?"

Angus seemed to be caught off-guard. "I--I don't know, sir. I don't have as much experience with this sort of thing as you do, sir."

Tony waved him off. "Please. If anything, that makes it worse. There's a world of possibilities. And besides, you knew her better than I did. Or longer, at least. What was she to you?"

There was a pause. "Esther... or Rubi, I guess... she... she was a kind woman. She worked as a computer scientist. I didn't know her that well, sir. And I think we should really--" He began to seem a little more nervous--and at the same time more determined to get back to the problem at hand. "I think that we should really be focusing more on finding Christa, sir. That's why I came here in the first place."

Tony rubbed his chin with his fingers. He sighed.

"Kid, that's what I've been trying to do for the past twenty-four hours. And guess what I've found? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I've got no leads, no traces, no idea I haven't explored yet. But you, Angus Prewitt, knew Christa long before I did. And what's the fishiest bit about her life? Her mom. I get leaving a man after finding out you're pregnant with the baby the guy has told you many times he doesn't want, but changing your name? Leaving the face of the planet with an entirely new identity, off to a place in rural Iowa with absolutely no one? That's not normal.

"And you know what else isn't normal? The fact that the last second I saw her face, I knew I would never see it again. I thought she'd died, Ang. The last night I saw her, we were sitting in a restaurant, and then we were attacked."

Tony pulled up another news article on the hologram, this time from even further back than the previous one.

"'February 21st, 2000, family-owned Manhattan restaurant called Zhang's Kitchen was attacked by terrorists, leaving two dead and ten injured, along with a disappearance. Weapons developer and owner of Stark Industries, Tony Stark was present at the scene, but denied commentary. Twenty-nine-year-old Rubi Theodos disappeared from the scene. Despite the numerous searches, she has yet to be found and is suspected to have been kidnapped by the two terrorists who escaped the scene.'"

A face floated on the screen.

"That--that was Christa's mom--that was--" Angus stuttered.

"Esther Amory? Yeah, but not yet.

 "Ang--Rubi pulled out a gun, and then she ran off. Just like that.

"And I never saw her again.

"Tell me that's not something that might be related to this, Ang. Because I've tried to looking for anything else that could lead us to Christa. And believe me, I've tried to avoid thinking about the possibility that her disappearance could be related to her mother. Thinking about Rubi... thinking about her doesn't make me the happiest of campers. But there's nothing else. Nothing. And I have to find my daughter, Angus. And I have to find Pepper. I have to."

Tony's eyes were wide. He leaned over the table, panting slightly. His head was tilted. Every line in his face could be seen as if looking through a magnifying lens.

Angus looked at him. His mind was going a million miles a minute.

"What about the hearing enhancers?"

A pause. A strenuous several seconds as Tony stared at him with even more emotion plastered onto his face.

But this time, it was shock.

"I'm an idiot. A complete and utter moron. Take away my suit and call me Stupid Man, because that, my friend, was the one thing I didn't think of that might actually work. That was brilliant." Tony walked up to the boy and planted a huge kiss on his forehead before walking away to one of the computers. "Utterly genius!"

Angus stood there, frozen, shocked--but also with a bit of a smile on his face. He hurried over to Tony and looked over his shoulder at the screen. "You know what I meant by that, then?"

"Of course I know what you meant by that. You're a genius, after all." Tony pulled up a file on the screen labeled "Prototypes." He scrolled through to find another folder, before clicking on it. A picture of the hearing enhancers Christa had been given just the other day popped up, along with other information. He pressed a button.

At the exact same moment, Tony and turned around and a 3-D model of the enhancers popped up. Angus turned around and followed Tony as he walked over to the table.

"Aren't you beautiful," the man whispered as he plucked one from out of the air, examining it. He began pulling apart the different parts of the hologram enhancer, until he pulled out a tiny chip that heavily resembled a SIM card.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., can you track versions XI and XII of the hearing enhancer prototypes?" he said, eyes still piece of equipment in his hands.

"Right away, sir."

A bar appeared on the hologram beside the enhancers, as though tracking the progress of the search.

Tony turned around to look at Angus, a smile on his face.

"We're gonna find them, Ang."

The boy's eyes lit up.

"That's--that's amazing, sir. Are--are you sure you don't want to look more into the Rubi-Esther thing, though?"

"After we get them back. Christa knew her the best. She can help us figure all that shit out. Oh, sorry, I shouldn't have said that. How old are you, exactly?"

"Fifteen, sir."

"Same age as Christa. Yeah, makes sense...." Tony looked like he was going into deep thought. Suddenly, concern lit up his face.

"Right, so I have some questions."

"You--you do?"

"You know Christa. And she didn't tell me about you. I'm suspicious. It comes with the job."

Angus gulped. "That's very understandable, sir." He tried nervously looking at the man, but Tony's gaze was on the bar hovering in front of them, very slowly filling up.

"Glad you understand. Now, what's your relationship with Christa?" Tony asked bluntly.

Angus opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out for a few seconds were grunts. "Um, we're good friends, sir. I don't... what else... what do you mean?"

"I mean you're a tall, good-looking teenage boy. You say you're close to my daughter. She hasn't mentioned you before. How am I to know whether or not you two are dating if I don't ask?"

Angus's tongue was even more twisted. "I--sir--"

"Do you have intentions of dating her?" Tony interrupted, finally turning to look at the boy.

Angus's dark brown eyes were wide. He looked like he desperately wanted to speak, but couldn't.

"You don't have to be afraid to say anything. Just remember that whatever you do--my daughter has the whole of the Avengers behind her."

Angus's eyes grew even wider, and his face turned red as Tony turned his face away from him again. "Sir--" he spluttered. "Really, you--you've got--you have nothing to worry about. Sir."

"Call me Tony, Ang."

"...I'll try, sir."

They stood there in silence for several minutes, both staring at the bar moving slowly in front of them. Tony had a relieved look on his face, his trademark cockiness back in business. Angus wasn't entirely certain what he should be doing, but didn't say anything. He was too busy trying to process everything that had gone on up until now.

And if he was being honest with himself, he kind of liked the silence. It wasn't as uncomfortable as he might have guessed it would be, had he been told this would happen before it did.

And that silence was filled with triumph.

And then it was shot through the heart by a bullet.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke suddenly. "Tony, I'm afraid we've reached a problem."

Tony's face drained of all color. He ran to the computer behind him.

"What's happened, F.R.I.D.A.Y.? Is it a glitch? A virus?"

"I've lost the signal, sir. I'm not sure what happened, but it's disappeared," came the voice of the A.I. from overhead.

Tony ran back over to the hologram. He didn't show a hint of the urgency displayed in the way any other person might have in this situation.

"Try again."

The bar reappeared on the screen. It crawled a few inches forward, but quickly disappeared with a large red ERROR appearing on the screen in front of it.

"I'm sorry, sir, but--"

"Again." Tony gritted his teeth. He leaned over the table, hands clenched in its edge.

The bar appeared again, but the error signal came back within a second this time.

"AGAIN!" Tony nearly screamed it this time.

"Sir, there's no--"

"Don't tell me there's no point. Don't you dare tell me there's no damn point."

The bar came up again, but not even for a moment before the red flashed on top of it--again.

"Sir--"

But Tony had started rebooting the tracker on his own. The bar came up again and again, only for the same red message to appear.

ERROR

ERROR

ERROR

ERROR

ER--

"Mr. Stark--please--stop! It's not going to--it's not going to work!" Angus ran up to the deranged man at the computer.

"Stop, Angus. Get away," said the man. And his voice was frighteningly low.

"There's no point. There's no point, Mr. Stark."

A pause.

"I'm sorry. Tony... I'm sorry."

And then everything stopped.

The man stopped pressing the button.

He stopped looking at the screen.

He almost stopped breathing.

And then he turned towards the boy behind him. A boy whose whole life he had ahead of him, a boy who could walk away from this and go live it with no guilt at all, nothing weighing down on him because of what he had done.

This was all his fault.

If he hadn't sent the girl away in the first place--if he'd been more careful when she'd come back--if he'd paid more attention--if he'd gotten to know her a bit--hell, if he hadn't been so reckless in the first place, none of this would have happened in the first place.

But then he wouldn't have gotten to meet her.

But then he wouldn't have gotten to screw up her life so damn badly.

The only thing that Tony could hear was his heart beating.

And pain that was on his face was that of a broken man.

Angus's voice suddenly pierced him. A soft knife, a blade of gentleness, a shard of melting ice.

"Do you remember earlier? When, um, well, we'd just met. It was when you... well... got all... angry, and... you were going to ask me something. But then you stopped.

"What were you going to ask me?"

There was a pause. A silence filled so heavily with pain and sorrow and loss, it felt like Tony's entire body was screaming.

"Did you love her?"

A beat.

"I did."