"This is the story of how I died... and I don't mean in the way where I'm breathing one moment and the next not nor is this about a slow and painful death. No. This is about every single moment that I've died ever since I laid eyes on the greatest miracle I have ever seen. If you're thinking of a bouncing baby boy with black hair and green eyes who my wife tricked me into naming Alexander, then you would be incorrect. No, the miracle I'M talking about is the young woman you read about in teeny bopper magazines today. The one you call The Iron Guard, defender of the innocent and vanquisher of supernatural threats. To me? She's just my little princess; Maria."
Alexander Anthony Stark was born on a chill winter's night just after New Year's day. When Tony Stark first held his tiny baby boy in his arms, he really hoped the boy would grow to be taller than him some day. He also hoped to name the boy Anthony Stark Jr., because why not? Pepper, the mother of the smiling boy, wanted to give him a prestigious, royal, yet timeless name. So the boy's name ended up being Alexander, with Anthony as his middle name to compromise. By the time he turned 1, he was already learning how to say his own name, only he was screaming "Andy", as in the last five letters of his name squeezed into a charming nickname. So Andy was the name Pepper and Tony found themselves screaming whenever temper tantrums ensued of things in the house broke because one eager beaver kept running around the house with the world in his eyes.
There was only way to stop this monster of a baby. When Andy found out he was going to have a little sister on his hands, it silenced him for good. He gave everyone the silent treatment up until the very moment his mother went into labour. Tony sat in the waiting room with his son, who was drawing, what looked like plans for a robot dog, in his coloring notebook.
"Watcha got there, sport?" Tony asked, looking over the three year old's shoulder.
"Doggie," Andy replied, "Doggie's name Howard."
"Howard?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Like grandpa," Andy nodded.
Tony froze. He thought that when he told the kid stories about Grandpa Howard and Grandma Maria, the kid was just staring at him with glassy eyes. Everyone knew Andy was a smart kid, but the world was beginning to underestimate just how smart he really was.
The nurse came into the waiting room, telling Tony that the baby was coming. Tony picked up Andy in his arms and carried him, rushing towards the hospital room past the nurse.
"Where we going, daddy?" Andy asked.
"We're gonna meet your sister," Tony said excitedly to the toddler.
"Meet Ria?" Andy inquired.
"Ria?"
"Mar-Ria," Andy corrected, nodding with absolute certainty, "Sister's name."
Maria. Maria Stark. Damn, this kid is pulling at all my heartstrings, Tony thought. He was too busy reading books about how to be a father to a little girl that he didn't even get to discuss naming the baby. Pepper said he could name her because she got her way with the boy. When Andy said "Maria", it almost felt too perfect, like the universe was finally doing something right to Tony Stark. The baby arrived into the world on October 1st at 3:26pm and while her brother stood there and cringed at the screaming child covered in blood, Tony only saw a little piece of heaven sent down to change the lives of all the imperfect lowly people of earth. She was all the joy in the world wrapped up into one tiny little package.
"Maria Virginia," Tony said as he watched the squirming baby in his wife's arms, "That's her name."
Pepper gasped, looking at her husband, "Your mother's name... that's perfect."
"I can't actually take all the credit for once," Tony said, patting the toddler on the head, "It was all his idea."
For those 5 seconds, Pepper holding Maria with Tony and Andy watching over them, everything was perfect. But then she started to cry out a blood curdling scream. Pepper cooed at the baby, kissing her head and bouncing her. Tony tensed up, wondering how on earth he was going to survive if he broke that much seeing her upset. Andy let go of his father's hand and got up on his tip-toes against the bed.
"Baby blue," Andy concluded.
"Oh really, Dr. Stark?" Tony asked, "What's your diagnosis? Gas? Diaper change? Empty stomach?"
Andy shook his head and immediately ran to the nearest nurse in the corner of the room. "Sister hurt!" he shouted, tugging at the nurse's scrubs. She quickly turned around looked at the skin of the baby, seeing the blue-ish tint her in her skin.
"What's wrong?" Pepper asked.
"We need to take her to Dr. Ingram immediately," the nurse said to the other attendants in the room.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Tony halted, "The heart specialist?"
"The baby is blue, Mr. Stark. We'll have to test her for heart defects."
"Heart defects!" Pepper gasped.
Trying to hold on tightly to her baby, the nurse snatched the child away and rolled her out on a cart with a cradle on it, taking her out the door. Pepper squeezed Tony's hand and he didn't need to hear anything else.
"Andy, stay with mommy," he ordered, following the nurse out the door.
20 whole minutes had past, which felt like 20 years, while Maria was in ICU, a pacemaker attached to her tiny little body. Tony hated standing there on the other side of that window, watching strangers handle his precious bundle when he could do absolutely nothing. Dr. Ingram came out later and told Tony that her heart is having a hard time beating on its own and they would have to do a complex heart procedure to even have a chance of it working properly again. As quick as a bolt of lightning, Tony came up with another plan.
"What if I told you I could make a chip that could keep her heart beating?" Tony suggested.
"I'd say explain so I can dictate whether you're crazy or not," Dr. Ingram responded.
"It's like this," Tony explained, "Two chips, one for each heart. One chip is taking in senses from the heart and distributes it to the other chip on the other heart. So the heart is beating against one chip and the other chip is on the other heart, the other heart keeps beating."
"Linking two lives together?" Dr. Ingram contemplated, "Where on earth are we going to get a volunteer to do that? It could have immeasurable repercussions and side effects."
"Please," Tony begged, "Let me try, at least. Even if I have to wear it myself."
"It would have to be a stronger, younger heart for that kind of thing to even be possible, Mr. Stark."
That's when the worst idea he's ever had hit him. With every piece of equipment he could find just in the hospital, he was able to engineer two tiny chips. When he touched one, he felt it on the other one. A perfect creation and perhaps the only way his daughter could live. The stronger and younger heart, however, was going to take some convincing.
"Hey Andy..." Tony said, sitting his son in his lap in Pepper's hospital room.
"Sister ok?" Andy asked.
"Maybe," Tony nodded, "but... she's gonna need your help."
"My help?"
"Yes... you can say no if you want, kiddo. You're gonna wear this," he pulled out the tiny chip from his pocket, "on your heart."
Andy looked down at his chest and frowned.
"That's right," Tony validated, "Inside you. When the doctor puts that inside you, Maria will stop crying."
Andy looked blankly at his father for a second, then tilted his head slightly. "Save Ria?"
Tony nodded, "Yes. Save Ria."
Andy nodded back with a brave, yet slightly terrified expression on his tiny face. "Ok."
Scaring the hell out of Pepper, both of her children underwent surgery to place the little chips on both of their hearts. Andy went in first and he was awake within 2 hours after his surgery. The second the chip was placed onto Maria's heart, it started beating at a strong and steady pace all on it's own. Within the week, everyone was alright and perfectly healthy. It was Tony Stark's greatest invention yet; the one that saved his baby girl's life, and he didn't regret a single thing.
That is, until he started to discover the side effects.
"Welcome to the Stark Mansion," Tony greeted the 5th babysitter he'd hired to watch the kids while the parents were off at work, "There's a list of emergency numbers on the kitchen counter, nap time is at 2:00 sharp, and there is a personalized fridge in the kitchen filled with all of the food their mother has approved them to eat. Any questions?"
"Just one," the babysitter said, "You put on the ad that your children are special needs, is that correct?"
"Right," Tony nodded.
"Is there any sort of procedure I need to follow when it comes to play time or putting them to sleep?" she asked.
"Right," Tony answered, "The boy is 7 and the girl is 4, which I understand is your specialty. They behave just as any other 4 and 7 year olds would, but I do highly suggest strongly enforcing things like sharing and cooperation and inside voices."
"Do they have problems managing their anger?" she inquired.
"Well... that's a bit complicated," Tony shrugged, "See, these aren't your average brother/sister duo. They actually each physically feel everything the other feels. So if one of them is happy, the other gets happy. If one of them is nervous, the other gets nervous. If one of them feels pain-."
"They both feel it?"
"Exactly."
"Interesting."
"So that means when one of them gets angry-."
From upstairs, a loud high pitched tiny girl's screech filled the echoey walls of the house. "Get your foot out of my face, butthead!"
Tony nodded, "The other is sure to follow."
"Get your face out of my foot, twerp!" the little boy's voice followed.
Hence why it's been difficult finding a babysitter who can tolerate them for more than 20 minutes. All of their lives, Maria and Andy have felt every single thing the other has felt. Once they got older, they started to realize what was actually going on. Hitting puberty and having everything be about image and embarrassment started to become a sick joke. As pre-teens, Andy thought pricking himself with a needle and watching Maria gasp in pain while she was flirting with a boy would be a joy to watch. Maria was the only girl in her class who was thrilled when she first started getting period cramps.
But growing older and older, they adapted, soon becoming numb to things like needle pricks, stubbed toes, paper cuts, or any sort of small injuries like that. Soon, emotions would get in check too. But the emotions were very much the same, in fact, it brought them closer and closer as siblings. For example, when Maria got dumped at the prom, Andy had a feeling something was wrong and drove there to pick her up to avoid further embarrassment. However, the anger thing still got in the way most of the time. And when they learned how to carry their emotions separately, feeling two different emotions at the same time got to be a little tricky.
"Andy!" Maria called, following her brother to the front door of the house, "Andy! I know you can hear me!"
"I know!" Andy spat, "I am quite literally ATTACHED to you."
"Why can't I go out with our friends tonight?" Maria asked.
"Because," Andy said, "Maggie, Ivan, and Nate are all over 21 and you don't belong, little girl."
Maria scoffed, "I am NOT a little girl."
Andy stood up beside Maria, placing his hand on her head and swiping it back to his chest, indicating her tiny figure to his tall frame, "Little girl.."
Maria growled and crossed her arms, "Ugh! I hate you!"
"Good!" Andy spat back, slamming the door behind him and jumping into the new sports car he fixed up himself. Throwing on his sunglasses, he stepped on the pedal and speeded away out of the driveway.
With an angry huff, Maria stormed down into the basement. The computer system awoke when she pushed open the glass door. She pressed her hand against the I.D. scanner to turn on her own personal computer assistant.
"Good afternoon, Miss Stark."
"Angelo," Maria greeted, plopping herself down on the stool in front of a table, "Pull up blue prints for the gauntlet. I wanna get some work done so I can stop feeling two things at once."
"Right away, miss," Angelo said, a hologram of blue prints appearing before Maria as she started to move different pieces around, playing with the shape and style of the gauntlet, "Incoming visitor, Miss Stark. It's your mother."
"Tell her I'm not in," Maria said, avoiding looking at the completely glass door.
"You and your father both," Pepper said, pushing the door open and marching into the lab, "Always with that same sorry attempt to get out of a confrontation."
"What am I being confronted about?" Maria asked, "Whatever it is, Andy did it."
"No," she chuckled, "I came to talk to you about something worse. How are you feeling?"
"Oh god not this question again," Maria groaned, throwing her head down on the metal table, "When other people get asked that question, it's a conversation starter, a way to show ones concern for another. When I get asked, it's an actual serious medical health concern."
"I know it's frustrating," Pepper said, pulling up a stool next to her child.
"That's the thing, mom. It's not frustrating at all. Do you know why? Because Andy is out with friends right now having a great time. It's like I'm not even allowed to feel anger or sad whenever he's happy. For once I just want to feel my own emotions on my own."
Pepper placed a hand on her daughter's back, rubbing it gently as she sat up to continue fiddling with the pieces of the holographic gauntlet. "You're more separate than you think," she said, "The fact that you're even able to feel upset right now is a lot of progress. Don't forget, he can feel everything you feel too. I'm sure he just wants to have a good time, but he's too upset to do so. Doesn't that say something about the bond you two have? You're brother and sister. You're family. Even more than that, quite literally, your hearts beat as one. Maybe if you both tried sympathizing with each other instead of fighting it, you'd get along a lot better."
"I hate emotions," Maria concluded.
"Alright," Pepper said, standing up out of the chair, "Do me a favor, though? Don't lock yourself in here to escape your problems."
The sound of the I.D. scanner was heard behind them as Tony walked in, unbeknownst to the two women just ahead of him. "Friday, it's time to escape my problems."
"Of course, sir," Friday answered.
"Let's start with Mark 73," he said, pressing a button that revealed his current stash of Iron Man suits. Pepper cleared her throat and he jumped, suddenly lightening up when he saw two heads full of red hair. "Hey! Maria's here. Great. How's that gauntlet coming along?"
"I'm trying to figure out where to place the repulser generator in a place that won't disrupt the movement," Maria frowned, zooming in on her blue print plans, "I want to be able to actually move my wrists."
"Of course you do, otherwise you'd just be blowing things up behind or below you and that's no fun at all," he said, getting his hands on her holograms.
Pepper shook her head. Like father like daughter, she thought. As she turned to leave, she caught herself on a lug nut, almost tripping over. When she caught herself, she bent down and picked it up, frowning as she looked around for that mangy mutt. A tiny little robot dog peeked its head from behind the leg of a table with a scared look on its face.
"Howard!" Pepper shouted in frustration as she kicked the lug nut away, "Will one of you please teach the stupid robot dog to stop leaving his waste all over the floor?"
"Andy's dog," Tony answered.
"Andy's problem," Maria finished, both of them snickering to each other.