Wow. I haven't written anything in at least 2 years, and haven't posted anything on here in that same amount of time, probably even longer. For those that are new to my stories, welcome! For those who have read my work before, hello again! This story has been festering in my brain for several years now, probably since the first Iron Man movie premiered in '08. Don't know why I'm choosing now to finally get working on it, but I feel like I've finally found my passion for writing again. There's at least 70 pages for this story right now, and I work on it every day so there will definitely be more coming out.

So! Providence is going to be a saga (I hope) that spans the MCU. It will mostly focus on Iron Man and Captain America (my two favorite characters, with Cap coming in first because I just love him and have since I was a kid and blah blah blah). The first half of this chapter starts in the middle of Iron Man 2 but that will be the only part outside of Captain America/Avengers. Unless I feel like adding flashbacks or side stories. Idk. We'll see.

Feel free to leave a review here, or head over to my tumblr page. I'm slowly building that back up for my readers to keep in touch with me there. Anyway I'll stop talking and let you get to reading. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I own nothing from Marvel, I only own Diana...

It was hard to keep a secret from him. Dad was always there. Well…not always. At least not physically. Jarvis usually took his place. She liked Jarvis though. And she liked her dad. He was brilliant, funny, easy to be around. But dad never felt like "dad". He was always just her best friend. Some people would frown at her when she told them that.

"That's not healthy." They would say.

"They should seek counseling." They would whisper behind her back.

But they didn't understand. It was completely normal to stay up into the late hours of the night with your father, working on cars and whatever else he felt like tinkering with. It was completely normal to have your dad pull you out of school for a week or two, so he can take you to a conference in Malaysia or Paris or wherever he felt like visiting. It was completely normal to stay in your own room, take care of yourself, get your own food and make sure you got home safely, all on your own.

Then again, maybe it wasn't too normal for a child to know how to book a flight from one country to the next. Or be more than familiar with passing through customs.

But Diana Stark wasn't normal.

At age eight, she graduated high school. At age twelve, she earned her undergraduate. At the ripe age of thirteen, S.H.I.E.L.D contacted her.

She had her first solo mission at age fifteen.

Now that wasn't normal. Even for the super spies that roamed S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. But Diana knew. She was different. She was stronger, faster, better than almost everyone. She was highly adaptable and a fast learner. By age eighteen she was nearly as expert a marksman as Clint Barton.

And here she is at age twenty. Sitting across the table from her father, Tony Stark AKA Iron Man, completely terrified.

"Agent Howard." Nick Fury, Diana's boss addressed her by her code name. Diana looked up at him casually, but Tony's eyes nearly fell out of his head.

"I-I'm sorry. Howard?"

Diana and Fury ignored him. They both knew what that name meant to the Starks, but neither was ready to address that just yet. "Yes sir?" Diana sat forward, folding her arms on the table top.

"Consider this your vacation. I'll see you at HQ in a week." With that, Fury turned and left the restaurant, Romanoff close behind him. Now the diner was relatively empty save for the single waitress and cook, but they'd decided to hide out in the kitchen. Probably a smart move considering the look Tony was giving Diana now.

A tense silence fell over the father and daughter for a few minutes. Diana couldn't seem to bring her eyes up from the table, while Tony wouldn't stop staring at her. Slowly, he chewed and swallowed his donut. "You," he paused to lift an armored finger and point at her, "are grounded."

That somehow broke the ice between them. Diana scoffed and laughed. "Dad please. I'm a legal adult, you can't ground me."

"Oh yes I can." Tony set down his food and sat up straight. "I'm still your father and you live under my roof. And until you decide to move out, I can ground you whenever I want. So," He leaned his head down to catch her eyes, "you're grounded."

"Dad…"

"Don't "dad" me." Tony waved his hand at her. He was emotional. Diana could see the stress getting to him. Like it wasn't already. He couldn't find a cure for the palladium—neither of them could. Thankfully, Diana had worked with a small team of brilliant scientists at S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters and come up with a temporary fix, but nothing permanent had come from it.

"Alright, Agent Howard." Diana managed to meet his eyes after hearing him say her codename. Probably because it was so strange to hear it coming from him at all. Tony waved his hand around, "How about we start this awkward conversation out with a simple explanation. Why the get-up?"

Diana glanced down at her attire and mentally winced. It was probably pretty jarring to see your only daughter dressed in full combat gear. Normally, her hair was let loose and her makeup was heavy. But today, Diana's hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and her makeup was simple—nearly nonexistent. The entire suit was black and hugged her body tightly. But even though it was a form fitting design, it was built to protect her. Various armor plates were built into the suit, creating a slightly bulkier design than Romanoff's choice. Diana might have to work harder at being quiet on their covert ops, but she had an easier time not worrying about dodging one or two stray bullets. Vibranium was an incredible material to work with after all.

"I think I should start from the beginning." Diana decided to skip the tech talk over her suit—she and Tony could geek out about it later. For now, she thought it best to explain everything to Tony. Why she was sitting there. Why Fury called her "Agent Howard". And most importantly, why she hadn't revealed this to him at all. Diana let out a deep sigh, "You told me about grandpa when I was a kid. And about Steve Rogers."

Tony's dark eyes—the same as her own—were fixated on her. Diana continued, "When I was younger, I dug through your encrypted files and found grandpa's old things."

"So, because of rifling through your gramp's stuff, you decided it would be a great idea to become a spy?" His suit creaked when he let out an indignant laugh, as if he was trying to avoid hearing the truth.

Diana slowly nodded. "That's part of it." She sucked in her lips and prepared herself for this next part. It was always hard to talk about Veronica. "You also told me that mom had a difficult pregnancy. That the first few months, it looked like neither of us would make it. And then one day everything changed. Veronica got better, and so did I. Do you know why that is?"

Tony honestly had no answer for that. He really didn't know. It was hard enough hearing Vera's name being spoken out loud again. The woman that would have changed everything.

Taking his silence as an answer, Diana reached into her pocket and dug out her phone. She scrolled through a few menus, entered in a couple of passwords until she finally stopped at a page. Diana turned the phone around and slid it across the table to Tony. He leaned forward. It was a photocopy of a piece of yellowed paper.

Immediately, Tony recognized Vera's handwriting. He froze and started reading it, line by line.

December 6, 1989

Howard and I have agreed. The only way to save my baby is to try the serum. This is…insane. I can't believe I'm agreeing to this. But I must. Tony has been going crazy getting everything ready. He says he wants to get married before our baby is born. He says he wants to try to fix things with his father. For the baby. He wants our baby to grow up with a real family. Tony gave it a nickname today. We've started to call it Beanie.

Tony doesn't know about the heart palpitations. I haven't told him about the pain, the cramps, and the bleeding. Last night was the final straw. Thank god Tony had left for MIT. But Howard found me in the kitchen, blood pooling between my legs. Him and Maria rushed me to the hospital. The doctors said it was a fifty-fifty chance that Beanie would survive into the second trimester. I wasn't going to accept that, and neither was Howard.

So here we are in his private lab. Maria doesn't know, and neither does Tony. I hope and pray he never finds out. What kind of monster would he think I am? Experimenting with a "super soldier serum" that hasn't been fully tested? And on our child?

I am insane. But I'm going to do anything to save this baby. Even if I must become a monster in the process.

By the time Tony was finished reading he couldn't breathe. His brain was going too fast for his body to really focus on anything else. But it made sense. Vera's sudden change in health, the beyond perfect pregnancy, Diana's talents. He was amazed and infuriated all at once. Amazed to think that the mother of his child would do something like that without even talking to him about it first. Infuriated because she did it and because his own father was a part of it.

"How long have you known?" Tony heard himself ask. Diana sat back, tucking her phone back into her pocket.

"I've always known that I was different. I found the files when I graduated high school."

"And this." He pointed at her suit, "How long has this been going on?"

Diana licked her lips, "Technically I've been in training since I was thirteen. I went on my first mission two years after that."

Tony felt his heart fall into his stomach. Fifteen. She was fifteen years old when Fury sent her out to do god knows what. "But, I kept an eye on you. You were in graduate school; you were always in class or ballet or fencing or whatever you wanted to do that month. I knew where you were at all times."

"Because of the tracker?" Diana couldn't help the grin that crept onto her face. Yes, it was true. She was earning her master's degree and attending lessons for ballet and fencing and "whatever else caught her interest". But that was all a cover. The master's degree was real. The other lessons were not. "Dad, I'm not stupid. I knew you would "keep an eye" on me."

"You rerouted the GPS?"

"No." Diana fought back her smile. She was really enjoying watching her genius dad be stumped. "All of the gyms and studios I attended for my lessons were actually S.H.I.E.L.D facilities. When you thought I was taking ballet classes, I was learning basic self-defense techniques."

Tony sat back, staring. He was shocked. Beyond shocked. His daughter has been lying to him this entire time. He was always so proud of her and her accomplishments. Tony always bragged that his daughter was one of the smartest minds of her generation, that she was a jack of all trades, that she was always searching for something new to learn. In reality, she was just learning how to kill, kill and kill.

"You are definitely grounded missy." Tony couldn't help the anger that boiled up and out of his throat. It just didn't seem right to let her off the hook so easily. Some may say he was being stubborn, but Tony liked to think of it as "firm parenting".

Diana had the nerve to playfully role her eyes. "Dad you can't ground me. I'm twenty one."

"Ah-ah," he pointed an armored finger at her again, "you still live in my house. And even if you didn't live in my house, I would personally lock you up in your own house." He sat forward, making sure to catch her eyes. "Diana do you realize that you've been lying to me and Pepper and Rhodey and everyone else? You do understand that at this point, none of us have any reason to trust you?"

"Okay now you're just being dramatic." Diana glared.

"Maybe so." Tony straightened his back and picked up his half-eaten donut. "But I've had a bit of a day, and I don't want you out of my sight until I fully understand what the hell this all means."

He took a bite from his donut and looked out the window effectively ending the entire conversation. Diana folded her hands together on top of the table and let out a quiet sigh. She had an aching suspicion that this week-long vacation wasn't going to really feel like a vacation.

January 15, 2012

Typically, Diana genuinely enjoyed cold weather. Having grown up in southern California, she didn't get to see snow very often. So whenever she got the chance to be in a cooler climate, she gladly took it. The arctic however, was completely different. Here the cold physically hurt. The winds were so strong they sucked the air right out of her lungs whenever she stepped outside. Her cheeks burned from the harsh, biting winds and she was sure her feet would be numb for several days after she got back from this frozen wasteland. Diana tucked her chin into her scarf and glanced out the small window next to her. The snow cat she'd been traveling in had a terrible heater. But they were almost to the location. Diana hoped it wouldn't be a lost cause.

"We're here ma'am." The agent driving her to the coordinates pulled to a stop. Diana rubbed at her heavy eyelids before turning to exit the vehicle.

"Get the search team to the deck. I want to know why they're bringing us out here." She looked out the window one last time, the ice caps shrouded in shadows. Diana let out a slow breath, trying to calm her excitement. She didn't want to get her hopes up.

Diana checked her watch, it was nearly dawn. The sun would not be making an appearance unfortunately. If only they'd found this later in the year, Diana grimaced as she finally pushed open the door. She braced herself against the freezing winds, moving towards the agent who had driven her to the site. He was currently arguing with the leader of the dig team.

"You don't understand," he shouted over the wind, "you guys are gonna need one hell of a crane!" Diana felt her stomach flip. Could it really be? She followed where the dig team leader was pointing and felt her mouth fall open.

It was the plane. It had to be. She could see half of a wing sticking out of the ice and from the size of it, that was only a sliver of the entire thing. By her guess, everyone was currently standing right on top of the left wing. Diana could make out the massive shadow of the plane under the ice.

"Get our boys down here!" Diana called back to her subordinate. "Bring the drilling equipment!" She adjusted her hood and wool hat, spotting men in orange jackets milling about around the plane. As helpful as they were being, they couldn't know what or who could be down there. "Keep these men as far away from the interior as possible. I don't want any of this getting leaked, understood?"

The subordinate set off to do his job while Diana began to search for the right spot to begin the excavation. Before long, the dig team had arrived and a man-sized hole had been cut through the top of the ice allowing entry. The S.H.I.E.L.D science team had set up a sort of base camp inside several different portables to keep out of the strong, icy winds. Diana was the first to be sent down into the interior.

"Don't send down anyone else until I say." She ordered before dropping down, not waiting for a response. To most S.H.I.E.L.D agents, she was known as the Ice Queen. Agent Diana Howard was quiet and precise, always successful on her missions but never truly warm to other agents. Which of course wasn't true. She just needed to keep people at a distance. Most everyone recognized her immediately. The Stark heiress was hard to forget. Thankfully no one had said anything to her or leaked her true day-job to the press. Diana always had a sneaking suspicion Fury had something to do with that.

"Agent Howard, do you copy?" One of the science officers was checking to make sure her radio was still working. Diana lowered down a bit more,

"I copy." She answered, gently easing the harness around her waist and carefully lowering to the plane's surface. Diana came to a slow halt, her heavily booted feet clomping onto the interior of the plane. "Base—I'm in." She breathed, her helmet providing both oxygen and protection from the even harsher cold below the ice. Diana unhooked her harness and whipped out her flashlight, clicking it on and sweeping it over the plane. The place was dead. Everything was covered in ice from the floor to the ceiling. She shined her light upwards, noticed a few scattered icicles and frowned. She'd have to be mindful of those. Slowly, Diana made her way further in, hearing radio chatter in her helmet's built in speakers. She could hear her own breath as she carefully placed one foot in front of the other. Ice blanketed in thick sheets over every surface, and hardly any spot was safe to walk on.

She swept her flashlight towards the front of the plane where she saw what looked like a helm and the pilot's chair. It was centered on a now destroyed console, a large viewing window shattered long ago sitting in place of the nose of the plane. Diana picked up her pace feeling her heart rate pick up with it. Could it be? She walked towards the helm, her flashlight glinting over something metallic and…red. Ignoring the ice beneath her feet, Diana jogged the rest of the way towards the chair, falling to her knees in the snow and ice. Her breathing was heavy from anticipation. Please, please, please.

Diana reached out a shaking hand, sweeping away the gathered snow before falling back on her haunches. "Base," a smile formed on her lips, "get Fury on the line."

"But ma'am it's…three in the morning in New York."

"I don't care." Diana leaned forward again and swept away more snow revealing the red, white and blue shield beneath the ice. "Tell Fury we found him. We found the Captain."

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