Pepper stared at her computer screen; she had mentally been cursing herself all day for allowing her emotions to get the better of her. Luckily, she had gotten hold of herself quickly enough before Morgan came home, which was quite late. Pepper worried about Morgan being out so late a night, lord knows where she had been.
Peppers gaze shifted to the kinetic energy machine on her desk, the machine moved in a circular motion, her thoughts drifted back to so many years ago
"Got a minute?"
"No"
"Come on you just got off the phone your fine."
Pepper smiled fondly at the conversation had, though at the time she wanted Tony to leave and never come back.
Morgan slouched in her chair, the computer lights dimming and brightening as the algorithms ran. She was still angry at her mother; her anger had only grown when she had come home and discovered her mother had been in the basement. Morgan was nearly shaking with anger as she watch the camera roll play over and over. The key was her mother's locket, something her mother was never without. Morgan sighed,
"Jericho, we've got to get that locket…or least the code it carried to open the door."
She thought for a moment,
"If I get a scan of it can you replicate its systems?"
Jericho's systems hummed like he was thinking,
"Perhaps, though it would require an in depth scan. Just how do you intend on doing such a scan?"
Morgan clasped her hands together,
"Mom is never without that necklace, I will have to sneak into her room one night and scan it while she is sleeping…there's no other option."
Jericho systems suddenly sent out an alarm,
"Morgan…we've done it."
The computer screens around her began to fill with data downloads. Morgan's eyes were bright with anticipation and the reflection of the screens as all of her fathers work began to appear before her eyes. Everything from weapons to suit designs to prototypes. A quick flash across the screen caught her attention, a signal word.
"The Vision."
Morgan grabbed her notepad, writing down the title. Once the terabyte upon terabytes of data had finished downloading that's where she would start.
"This may be awhile, the amount of data in this…treasure chest is more then I calculated."
Morgan smiled,
"Good, that means we hit the mother load of Dads work, we might even find the specs for that locket in here."
Jericho's systems hummed loudly as the data download whirled, images and folders, documents and blueprints flashing the screen quickly as they downloaded.
Morgan couldn't take her eyes off the screen, finally all her questions would be answered.
Pepper jolted as her phone began to buzz, she had been so deep in thought she had lost track of the time.
"Alert System Access!"
Pepper looked at the alert on her phone,
"Morgan…"
She breathed quietly her head shaking as she placed her phone down and placed her head into her hands. She should have known she couldn't keep Morgan from this. Pepper sighed; Morgan was too smart for her own good. Pepper walked over to the vase sitting on her bookshelf, moving it to reveal a keypad. Pepper typed in the combination as the bookcases slid apart to reveal a vault. Pepper hesitated, she knew she would find the hard drive gone, but she entered the code anyway. Pepper stared at the empty spot where the hard drive once sat. Millions of terabytes of data, Tony's work…Tony's life. Pepper slid the shelves closed as she sat back down in her chair to look at the alert. How did Morgan even know about the drive?
Pepper looked out the window, it was too late now. Morgan had accessed the drive and all of the information in it. Pepper clutched her necklace; it was only a matter of time now till Morgan discovered the basement and its contents.
"Happy…"
Pepper radioed for the burly man,
"Yes Mrs. Stark."
Pepper sighed sadly, what she was about to do could cause a forever rift between her and Morgan, worse yet I could cause her daughter to hate her forever. But this had to be done.
"Initiate the Deep-Sea protocol."
The phone went silent,
"Are you sure?"
Pepper nodded, though she was as unsure as the day she and Tony had begun their relationship.
"Yes, this must be done."
Two days later Jericho was still downloading the data, Morgan didn't care. The very thought of being able to shift through it soon kept her going. Morgan raced into the house to grab a snack before retreating to her Tech Den, as Happy called it. Morgan threw her backpack on the sofa when her eye caught site of the basement door, it was ajar. Morgan crept over to it, forgetting about her hunger as she pushed the door open. It creaked as the lights to the stairwell turned on, they were dim as she headed down the stairs her heart pounding. Did her mom forget to shut to door? Morgan stepped on the landing as the lights turned on, the brightness caused her blink as she surveyed the room.
"Empty!?
She called out into the emptiness, Morgan didn't believe her eyes as she walked through the workplace. Tables and cabinets stood empty. Morgan shook her head,
"Why would mom keep me from an empty room?"
Morgan felt her like her heart would fall out of her chest, all those years of wondering and hoping for this? She stopped next to a metal table, when a glint caught her attention. She leaned in closer, the table was covered in a thick layer of dust, except for a few spots where it seemed things had been sitting. Morgan jerked her head up to the walls, shadows of tool shapes hung there. Morgan ran her hand along the marks. She looked to the floor where scuff marks lead to the stairwell, she followed them up, dents and scratched in the wall lead her to the top of the staircase. Morgan's heart now beat in fury as her face became red.
"She wouldn't"
Morgan raced out to the garage.
"Jericho pull up the surveillance footage from the house today."
Jericho's system groaned slightly at the extra workload as he pulled up the images. Morgan sat wide eyed in total anger as she watched Happy and his team hauling things from basement and taking them outside. Morgan switched the camera to the outside, a large semi with a storage container was waiting as they loaded the items into it. After it had been filled another came to take it place. Morgan watched as five storage containers were loaded.
"Jericho why did you not alert me to this!"
Jericho responded rather flatly,
"My systems capacity is nearly taken up with the current download."
Morgan sighed,
"Guess you need an upgrade."
"I would appreciate that."
Morgan smirked slightly, Jericho was a learning AI. He learned as he went, human emotions was one thing he still was learning to grasp hold of, although his humor drives seemed to be excelling at exponential rates.
"Can we track those trucks?"
"I believe we can, those containers are Stark Industry containers. They have specific numbers in the system that are inventoried."
Morgan smiled,
"Good, I'll work open that. You just focus on getting that data downloaded. How much longer?"
"13 hours and 17 minutes till completion."
Morgan stretched,
"Time to do some hacking."
Pepper breathed a strained sigh of relief as Happy reported Deep Sea had been executed and completed. Hopefully, Morgan would never find out. Pepper instinctively reached up to her locket, now at last it was just a necklace.
Happy closed Peppers office door behind him, he kept his head up as he walked to his office. Pepper would be furious when she found out he had "accidently" left the door to the basement unlocked and open. He sat down at his desk, picking up a picture of himself, Tony, and Pepper at a New Years party. He smiled,
"She is so much like you Tony, and soon hopefully…she will know more."
Morgan sat at the table, waiting for her mother to come home. In front of her were images from the cameras and the records of the containers, or lack thereof.
She heard the car door shut as Pepper walked through.
Pepper was startled to see Morgan sitting at the table.
"Morgan are you ok?"
Morgan shook her head as she motion for her to come sit. Pepper sat her purse down and made her way to the table. Her heart and guts twisting, how did she find out?
Morgan shoved the images and papers in front of Pepper.
"Care to tell me why you are lying to me?"
Peppers heart fell out of her chest when she saw the images.
"Where did you get these?"
Pepper was confused, Morgan sat back.
"I have my ways."
Pepper was angry,
"You installed cameras? How dare you think you can invade privacy like that!"
Morgan leaned forward,
"Its my home too! And stop dancing around the question!"
Pepper rose, the container records in her hand.
"None of this is any of your business."
Pepper threw the papers in the shredder, Morgan shook with anger.
"Its my father! Its every bit my business!"
Pepper grabbed her arm,
"Ow mom let go!"
Pepper ignored her as she marched her to her room,
"Mom stop!"
Morgan yelled as Pepper swung her inside.
"I'm not two! You can't confine me to my room!"
Pepper was to angry to speak as she slammed the door closed and made her way back downstairs. She scooped up the images, shredding them as tears formed in her eyes.
After the shredder had stopped howling, she sat down at the table, laying her head in her arms. For the first time in years she allowed herself to cry.
"Oh Tony."
She whispered into the still, black night.
Morgan was full of rage, she picked up her pillow whipping it across her room. Her heart pounded; her body steamed with anger.
Morgan opened the window as the night air drifted in, it was cool against her hot flesh as she snuck out the window.
"Jericho where are we at?"
She spoke as she entered her garage.
"5 hours till completion."
Morgan nodded,
"Good, after that we need to find out where those containers were taken. My mother must have had their records erased from the system. They don't exist there. We will access the town cameras, follow them and see where exactly those trucks went."
Jericho's screen flickered.
"As you wish."
