They arrived in Malibu that afternoon. After being welcomed home by Jarvis, Ellie ran to her room and threw her travel bag on her bed. Then she noticed something that was sticking out from behind her dresser. She bent down and picked it up. It was a photograph of her parents on their wedding day.
Ellie sighed and placed it on her dresser, she was never going to stop missing them, but over the years the pain had lessened. It was actually last month when she had realized for the first time that she hadn't thought of them at all for a single day. It was a big milestone. And having new parental figures definitely helped.
Tony was a good father figure, despite what the press thought. Pepper was also starting to grow on her as a mother figure, and she was someone Ellie really looked up to.
Ellie went downstairs to the workshop and saw that Tony was replacing one of his arc reactor cores. It appeared like it had been completely corroded.
"Tony?" Ellie asked, "You didn't tell me it was this bad."
Tony looked slightly startled, he hadn't noticed her come in. "It's not as bad as it looks."
Ellie shook her head, "Don't do that, you look like ghost Tony."
Tony looked at her, he wasn't quite sure what to say.
"Have you told Pepper?" She asked.
Tony looked down and shook his head, "I'll figure something out."
"Do you promise?" Ellie asked.
Tony looked at her sadly, "I will try, I will do everything I can. I promise you that."
Ellie shook her head, "My parents died right beside me, please don't let that happen again."
That Night...
Ellie woke in the field, as she always did, and Loki was standing in front of her, waiting with his back turned.
"So what are we doing tonight?" Ellie asked. Loki didn't turn around, and Ellie walked towards him, "Loki? Are you alright?"
He turned around slowly, and Ellie could tell right away something wasn't right. His eyes were clear and glassy, his usually calm face was contorted in sadness and anger.
"I'm a monster Bella," He said.
Ellie looked at him strangely, "Loki, what are you talking about?"
He stood there and looked her straight in the eyes as his skin began to change colour, from pale white to deep blue. He wanted to see her face as she realized he was a monster, but her face never changed into fear or anger. She did the exact opposite of what he was expecting, she smiled and laughed a little.
She walked a bit closer to him so that she was less than an arm's length away, she touched his arm and smiled.
"I don't really understand," Ellie traced the silver lines on his face, "But your skin is nice and cool, and I've been burning up all day."
She hugged him, her warm body pressed up against his. Loki realized she didn't care, why would she? She was amazing, she was special, she... Ellie pulled away slightly, and he realized that a single tear had fallen down his cheek. She brushed it off with her thumb, and she smiled at him. She was perfect, and Loki knew what he had to do.
He leaned down and kissed her, he thought she would pull away, he thought he had pushed it too far. She didn't move at first, but when she did, she leaned into him. One of her hands intertwined itself in his hair, and the other rested on his shoulder. After several moments they both pulled back, Ellie's face was flushed, but Loki's held a slightly bittersweet smile.
"What's wrong?" Ellie asked, thinking it was something she had done.
"You don't think I exist, whatever that was... for you, it wasn't real."
Ellie looked away, "I wish you were real."
"I am, Bella I am!" Loki begged. He cared for her, deeply. It was killing him to know that one of the few people who seemed to care that much back didn't believe he was real.
Ellie looked at him sadly, "Only here." She put a hand over her chest.
Ellie woke from her dream, it was a little strange, even by her standards.
She rolled over to get a good look at her alarm clock. It read 12:07 pm. She sat up quickly and got dressed. If she didn't go downstairs soon Tony was going to think she was dead, she never slept in that late.
Tony looked at Ellie as she hopped downstairs an into the kitchen, "Late night?" He asked.
Ellie shrugged and smiled, "Good dream."
"That makes one of us," He mumbled.
Ellie's smiled faded, "Have you made any progress?"
Tony shook his head, "Ellie, I've got to talk to you about something, but Pepper's coming over with a lawyer in a few minutes."
Ellie nodded, "Okay." From the look on Tony's face, it wasn't going to be a fun conversation, but Ellie was an optimist. "I'm gonna go work on my project."
Tony nodded and smiled at her, "Have fun!" He paused, "Don't blow up the house!"
"I won't!" Ellie called from around the corner she had already turned.
Tony smiled to himself, Ellie had been working on something really interesting. It was a theory based off of some research done by a man named Erik Selvig. She was looking into the viability of renewable energy. Tony didn't know all of the specifics, he wasn't a genius in quantum physics, but he knew enough to know that it was groundbreaking research. He was really proud of her, she wasn't as adept with machines and robotics as he was, but she could hack anything, and was stunningly good at math, which probably was what started her interests in physics in the first place.
A few hours later, Tony and Ellie were sitting next to ssh ornery on the couch watching reruns of Little House on the Prarie when what Tony ad told Ellie about earlier came into her mind.
"Hey, didn't you say you wanted to talk with me about something?" Ellie asked him.
Tony nodded slightly solemnly, "Yeah, I wanted you let you know, that if something happens to me-"
"Tony, don't," Ellie warned, tears on the verge of spilling in her eyes.
"I've left everything to you and Pepper. And I said that I want her to be your guardian when-"
"If. Tony, it's IF," Ellie corrected.
"I know kid, I just wanted you to know that you don't have to run ever again. I don't want you to."
Ellie could no longer contain herself and leaped upon Tony like her life depended on it. "You're not going anywhere Tony."
The next day, Tony, Ellie and Pepper were all leaving for Spain to go watch a race. Ellie was excited, Pepper was dreading the flight, and Tony was neutral on the matter. He checked his watch, time to go sign over his entire company to Pepper.
Ellie dozed off pretty quickly during the plane ride to Madrid, something Tony envied.
Tony and Pepper sat across from each other, and both of them watched her as she smiled in her sleep.
"She always looks so happy when she sleeps," Pepper remarked.
"She's always happy, period," Tony replied. He watched her silently, "She told me that she has different variations of the same good dream every night."
Pepper smiled, "I wish."
"Me too," Tony said. He watched her sleeping peacefully and wondered what she was dreaming about.
Loki was trying desperately to teach Ellie how to dance, "Bella, use your left foot to step forward." She promptly stepped forward with her right foot, Loki sighed.
Ellie laughed, "Sorry! I warned you, I'm terrible!"
Loki smiled at her and shook his head lightly, "I simply don't understand, you have perfect rhythm and coordination when I'm teaching you how to fight, but dancing just pushes you over the edge doesn't it?" He asked playfully.
"Those are totally different things! Incomparable," Ellie said.
"Really?" Loki asked. He held out his hand, and Ellie grabbed it. He put his other hand on her waist, and she put hers on his shoulder. "Pretend we're in battle, move with me, feel where I'm going to go next."
Ellie kept looking at the ground, at her feet, and she kept making the wrong moves.
"Bella," Loki said. "Don't look down. Look me in the eyes. Stop thinking about what your feet are doing, let it be controlled by instinct."
Ellie looked up at Loki's green eyes, and she only thought about him as he started to move. At first, she stumbled often, but pretty quickly her movements became more fluid, and eventually, they were dancing perfectly.
Loki smiled at her, she was staring into his eyes and smiling, he was as well. He spun her around and she laughed, as she was coming out of the spin she stumbled slightly, tripping over him. She caught herself by wrapping her arms around his neck, and he caught her by the waist. Ellie rested her forehead on his shoulder, and they swayed like that for a few moments. Loki pulled away slightly and looked at her face again. She was amazing.
She tilted her head up towards him and stood on the tips of her toes, she leaned forwards and-
The plane landed with a jolt, and Ellie was ejected from her dream. She looked out the window and saw that they had arrived at their destination.
Ellie, Pepper and Tony stepped out of the car in Madrid, Spain. They were there to watch the Grand Prix, Stark Industries sponsors a team, so they were going for support of some kind. When Ellie had initially heard of this plan she was going to stay in Maui, but at the last minute she had thought of something that would be a bit more fun, so in the end, she decided to go with them to Madrid.
"Hey, I'm just going to go for a little walk, I've been sitting down way too much today," Ellie said.
"Sure kid, just be safe," Tony replied. Ellie nodded and walked down the steps and walked around a corner and out of site.
What Tony didn't know was that Ellie had made some phone calls yesterday, and was now on her way to get into Stark Industries revolutionary Formula One race car. She did have a hand in designing it, and she was a good driver, so what could go wrong. Tony was going to be either pissed or impressed and she wouldn't know until she had already done it. She reached the tent where a man named Rico was waiting for her with the uniform.
"Are you sure about this Miss Stark?" he asked.
"I'm sure Rico," Ellie said, "This is going to be fun!" She exclaimed.
"You are more like your father than you might like to admit," Rico said, amused. They both laughed, Rico handed her the uniform and left her so she could change.
Meanwhile, back at the restaurant...
Tony was desperately trying to ignore Justin Hammer, who had managed to weasel his way into the bar beside Tony. Tony had held nothing but disgust for the man after he tried to 'persuade' Ellie to take his job offer. Tony was also trying to deal with an angry Pepper, since she just now discovered that he hired Natalie as his new personal secretary. So, all in all, it was shaping up to be a poor afternoon. Little did he know it was about to get worse.
"You know, you let Ellie do a lot of dangerous stuff, but this seems a little much. Don't you think?" Justin said.
Tony shook his head in confusion, "What?" he asked. Justin didn't respond but simply pointed to the TV where it showed Bellicose Stark as the driver.
"Pepper!" Tony shouted.
"Tony, what's-" Pepper started to ask, but Tony pointed to the TV and she was silenced.
"This cannot happen!" Tony said.
"Absolutely, I understand, how can I help?" Natalie replied.
"Where's Happy?" Pepper asked. Tony pulled his hand through his hair. It's not like he thought that Ellie couldn't do it, but he just had a really bad feeling, what if she crashed? He felt physically ill, and it wasn't because his blood toxicity was on the rise again.
"He's in the car outside," Natalie responded.
"Okay, get him, get in the car, get us to the track," Tony said, downing the rest of his drink and walking briskly out the door.
They quickly got into the car, Tony knew that they were going to be too late as he watched the race start on his screen, she was actually good, and so Tony decided to try and be less anxious, but by the fourth lap she was firmly in the first position and had a good lead. As they pulled up to the track, Tony had started to cheer, and most of the concern about her crashing had dissipated. That was, until a man in an orange jumpsuit ran onto the course.
...
Everything was going well, Ellie was in first place. It was a little more difficult to steer than she thought it would be, but after the first lap, she got the hang of it. It also helped that she was playing around with simulators at home before they came here.
All of the sudden she got a transmission over the radio line, "Miss Stark, there's someone on the track ahead, we'll try to get him off, but you might get there before we can do anything, be careful okay? The car can be replaced, but try not to injure yourself or the man."
"Copy that, I'll be careful," Ellie responded, she slowed down slightly, but she then realized that she hadn't asked where on the track he was, but before she could radio back, she saw him.
He was wearing an orange jumpsuit, but as she slammed the brakes and turned the wheel, she saw that he had whip-like extensions on his arms, and the jumpsuit began to burn away as the whips seemed to surge with electricity. He looked right at her and whipped his right arm across the body of the car, narrowly avoiding her legs and slicing the car in half. She soared through the air and the car landed upside down, the seatbelt dug into her shoulder, and she heard a snap. There was an intense ringing in her ears, and she could tell that she had at least fractured her collarbone. She looked at the man who was stalking towards her, she knew she needed to move.
She unhooked the seat belt and carefully rolled away from the car, she removed her helmet, and she watched his facial expression carefully. He seemed surprised, and she knew that he had been expecting Tony.
She moved into a crouched position, noticing the burning fuel all around her, she knew if he hit the fuel with the electrically charged whips it would cause an explosion. She waited for a few more moments and quickly rolled just as she saw his arm begin to rise above his shoulder. There was a large explosion, and Ellie felt the heat burn on her back, but she didn't have time to dwell on that. He was making a show of it now, he whipped his arms in circles as more cars came careening around, he shredded them, and Ellie was lucky not to be hit by any large pieces. She quickly jumped to her feet and was facing the man.
They were in a bit of a stare down, and he raised his arms to deliver a final strike.
Tony swore he had a heart attack when that man cut Ellie's car in half, he had another when he thought he watched Ellie get engulfed in an explosion. The third heart attack came when she stood perfectly still while he was about to cut her in half, only to see her narrowly dodge his whip.
As they turned the corner, Tony could see Ellie avoiding another stroke of the whip, "Do you have the suit?" Tony asked frantically.
"Yes, yeah. Here." Happy said, handing him the black suitcase.
"Hit him!" Pepper shouted as Happy sped up and rammed the man into the fence.
"Where's the key?" Tony asked, looking around, his hands were shaking.
"It's in my pocket." Happy said, he took one hand off the wheel and dug into his pocket to find the key, which he handed back to Tony, who then opened the door of the car and got out. He threw the case on the ground and stepped onto it, Tony glanced over to Ellie, she was holding her arm up close to her, but besides some minor cuts, she didn't seem to have any major injuries.
As the mask of the suit went over his face, Tony's robotic sounding voice said, "Stand back kid."
In the meantime, the man in the orange jumpsuit had cut the car in half, and Pepper was screaming. Tony kicked the car away from the fence and shot a repulsor blast at the man, but the man had moved away too quickly and he missed. The man managed to get a whip around Tony's neck, but it was only a simple discomfort to him as he continued to wrap himself up in the cord to get closer to the man. It worked, and soon Tony was able to rip the arc reactor out of the man's 'suit'. He knocked the man to the ground.
Tony glared at him as he began to laugh, "You-you lose, you lose Stark." The security dragged him away, and Ellie went to stand beside Tony.
He noticed that she looked a little pale, "You okay kid?"
"I think my collarbone is broken," Ellie responded. He could tell she was in a lot of pain.
"Happy, get another car, Ellie needs to go to the hospital," Tony said to Happy, who was a few feet away. "Why didn't you just run away? You gave me a heart attack watching you dodge those things by like an inch!" Tony whisper yelled.
Ellie smiled slightly despite the pain, "Sorry."
"Well, I'm not going to reem you out for racing because I was seriously thinking about doing it a few moments before I saw that you had beat me to it, but please don't scare me like that again. Okay?" Tony said, trying his best to sound parental.
"Deal." Ellie said, she looked around at the scorch marks on the pavement from the whips, "You're going to go and figure out what the hell was right?"
Tony nodded, "You know me well kid. If there are any problems, or if you want me at all, just call," Tony told her. She nodded and headed towards Happy, who had procured another car since the one he had originally gotten was now shredded and laying on the pavement. Tony gritted his teeth, the calm facade he had in front of Ellie was now gone. He was furious, how dare that man touch his daughter? He went to go find a car of his own, he had a bone to pick with the would-be Iron Man.
