Authors Note: Please review. I own nothing.

7. The Secret Held by Two

Soon the two had the A.I.M. scientists running. The ones who surrendered were rounded up by the police but before Tony could turn to question his mysterious partner she was gone, leaving not even an energy trace behind. He himself left an ion trail a mile wide that he had yet to have time to fix. He was interested in this mysterious Midnight. But for now he had other things to worry about, like what exactly A.I.M. wanted with an experimental energy source.

Back in Reilly's lab Phil Stark waited. Nine days six hours and thirty minutes they had been working nearly around the clock. The prototype had passed the tests and she should be back by now. His worrying was rewarded a few moments later when the wall they had modified opened, peeling back section by section. She landed inside and the wall closed back up.

"He says it's too bulky! A week and two days of no stop work and he says it's bulky and heavy! Thanks a lot dad!" Reilly Stark gripped yanking off the helmet and smiling at her brother though she continued to look annoyed.

"Back to the drawing board then I take it?" He asked as his sister twiddled with the release buttons on her suit. It was a bit big, giving her twice as much body mass as normal. The buttons were tiny and far too small for the very large fingers of the suit to manipulate.

"Here! Let me help. It is bulky; did you design it off the Hulk buster?" His sister pouted.

"Maybe a little."

"Well let's go back and start over. Let's not use Dad's design at all! Come on there are a few ideas I've been dying to try." His sister raised an eyebrow at him as she finally stepped out of the suit. She wore a skin tight suit that allowed her to interface more closely with the suit.

"Like?"

"Like the flight stabilizers. The gloves are a stupid place to put those. You get shot there you go down like a rock, or worse you start spinning in circles. No, they should be built in to the boots." His sister pulled up the holographic plans for the suit they had already built. She spun it and zoomed in on the gloves.

"No that won't work. See? You're not accounting for weight distribution. You put it in the boots I'll be able to go straight up but no other way. But you're right about the gloves being a silly place for them. Hmmmm." She expanded the view back out to the full armor and split it so they were looking at two separate images. The first was all the extra outer plating the excess was a bit extraordinary and would need to go but they would get there later. For now the second image, which displayed the electronics and various systems of the suit, was what they needed to focus on.

"ALICI? You still up?"

"Aye ma'am. What can I do ya fer?" Reilly grinned at the familiar Irish tone.

"Separate out the weapons systems from the plans from the computer systems and life support. Give me a separate view for each please. And log that flight. It got a bit dicey at 50 thousand feet, may be a bit of an icing problem any higher. What kind of metal does dad use? The gold titanium alloy right?"

"Aye that e' does miss. Shall I make a renderin' of it?"

"Not yet let's get the systems sorted out first. So I figure if we run the stabilizers through the whole suit instead of having them localized it would work even better than just moving them." Phil watched as the third of the split images was fiddled with by his sister. She removed a piece from each glove and examined the holographic image she held in her hand.

"See Dad's problem was he stuck to the basics of the Mark 2 and from the few looks I've gotten at it and the ones that came after they are all the same suit, just with something enhanced. But enhanced to the point where no one really thinks about it being the same suit." Phil grinned at his sister.

"No you're thinking like a Stark." He yawned widely. His sister looked over at him a wide grin building on her face.

"Tiring out on me?" He shook his head stifling another, larger, yawn. She laughed and nudged him toward the door.

"Get some sleep. The suit will still be here when you get back." Phil looked at her closely; she had bags under her eyes, large ones.

"Only if you promise to get some yourself, you haven't since it happened." He pointed at the glowing circle visible under the material of her suit. She ignored him.

"Come on Rei. You need sleep. You've been up for nearly ten days straight."

"Kinda hard to sleep when you are your own night light." She muttered. He laid his hand on her shoulder.

"Why are you doing this sis? You're working nonstop, you're building a suit of armor, you're not sleeping and you're different now. You've locked JARVIS out of your systems entirely, locked me out entirely. Mom and Dad too. I know things changed when you got that thing in you but…"

"I'm fine Phillip!" He jumped, she never used his full first name. No one ever used his full first name unless it was on an official form or he was in serious trouble. Natasha was the only one who insisted on using it. She was far from fine and both of them knew it.

"Fine, I'll go. But I'm coming back tomorrow. Well today. And I'm bringing provisions." He grinned. She forced a smile.

"I'll be fine, seriously I'll be fine. I just want to get this done." Phil left and as the door shut he watched his sister examining the holographic stabilizer but a tear escaped her eye and then the door closed.