Duality

Summary: His misery was the gasoline that was poised to burn the world down and her love was the only thing that could smother the embers of his rage. They are both light and dark and when out together they are balance. SI-OC

Chapter 2.5

Bad Blood

Mia Stark

December 25th 2007

Washington D.C

Mia touched down in D.C around nine at night the day after her mission to the Middle East came to it's bloody conclusion. She would like to say it would be nice to be home but home was a loose concept because she only stationed her things in D.C because it was close to SHIELD. The home she knew for most of this life was back in New York, where Tony was probably spending his time mourning their mother's death with a bottle of booze in hand. She warded off any further thoughts on the subject, her relationship with Tony or lack thereof could be worked on later. Now it was time to go back to her little apartment and enjoy the silence.

She wanted a quiet night to sleep and think of her next move but once she pulled up to her apartment building and heard the sound of AC/DC blaring from her window and the yelling of her neighbors she knew that tonight was going to be anything but peaceful.

Once she marched up the stairs to her room and flung open the door she saw Tony standing at her kitchen table with the blueprints to her fridge. Her brother lazily drifted his eyes over to her, "Merry Christmas Mia, I was just about to get to work on fixing the damn fridge. This thing is about one degree too warm. Really speeds up the expiration of vegetables-" Mia walked over to her stereo and turned off the music before meeting her brother's drunken gaze with a stern and slightly pissed off glare.

"Tony have you been drinking again?"

"Yeah, just one beer...and two or three more, I'm sobering up now, though I was really looking forwards to celebrating the old man's death with my sis! You got any stoories you'd like to share? 'Cause you were there, right? Got to live through the moment and even got a nice little souvenir that you got behind the makeup."

Mia instinctively brushed her hand where her scar existed behind layers of makeup meant to simulate her natural skin tone, "Tony, how long have you been here? In fact how did you know I live here?" her brother broke his gaze and looked back to the plans on her table. "Do you got any Phillips head screwdrivers around here? I'm gonna have to dismantle this thing-"

Her exasperation with her brother peaked in that moment, "Tony forget about the god damn fridge and answer the question; how long have you been here?" her brother threw the plans off her table and met her gaze with about as stern a look she thought a drunk man, especially her brother, would ever be capable of.

"No, Missy, I actually have a question for you: where the hell have you been? I left a voice message two weeks ago telling you that I'd be in town. When you never responded I did what any good brother would do and track your phone down to this room and find an almost empty apartment with your phone and finding out from the nice lady neighbor-Sharon-that you were gone on a business trip to Canada? I'd like to say unless you pull out some maple syrup of the bag of yours that is bullshit, and if it isn't then I'll make us pancakes, just like the old days, when I had a sister."

That comment hurt Mia than she thought it would. She knew she had cheated Tony out of so much and that he didn't know that she was trying to save his life over a decade from now. To him she was just another person who had left him and worst of all to him she had done so by choice. "You always did burn the pancakes. That's why Jarvis would always make us new ones after..." Mia muttered just loud enough for Tony to hear.

"I waaas fiine," Tony slurred out, "where were you?" his voice cracked a little. "I called your landlord, mister Richardson? Cool guy, wish he existed. Didn't like how he turned down four times the worth to buy this building though. Always thought it was a little weird you wanted to live here, D.C sucks, no offense and you aren't planning a political campaign are ya? If you are I could get you to talk to my publicist-"

Mia interrupted Tony's rambling, "Okay so you broke into my home, tried to repair my fridge without consent and then tried to spend millions of dollars on a whim to buy my apartment building? Doesn't that seem a little bit crazy to you Tony? I'm not ten and this goes a little further than reading my diary." her brother offered a sincere hurt expression.

"You would never have had a diary...you were always good at keeping things from me...you know better than to leave a paper trail. You're smart...like me...like him. But you don't run a company or invent. What was it that you said you do? Makeup design?"

"I'm a private military consultant, Tony. You know that, which is why you should know that there are some things that are confidential because the government at the moment is the life of Stark Industries. You know how many NDA's you sign before announcing a new deal to the public. My advice and trips work the exact same way."

"Yeah consultant to SHIELD maybe...I guess it makes sense. You were always Howard's favorite. He gave you all the love and attention you wanted and threw you off to me when he was bored. It would make sense that you work for his legacy. It would also explain the fake land lord and extended overseas trips for the military. Anything else you'd like to tell me? Maybe you're eloping with Cap 2: Electric Boogalo who conveniently is moving to D.C into this very apartment building in the room next to yours?"

"I didn't know that...how did you know that?"

"Hacked SHIELD, I can give you some notes to give to the IT guy at work. Might score some brownie points with Captain Perfect to see his little girly going 'above and beyond the line of duty to help people who need it! I'm curious, is that how he really talks? Or is that just for the press? It reeks of bullshit and I can smell it on your breath so it must be true. You and Cap 2 are f-"

"Tony, don't finish that sentence if you value your jaw. I've never even met Captain Rogers much less...done anything. Secondly I don't want you peddling around behind my back to find things out about me. You get any more stupid questions you can run them through me."

Tony chuckled, but Mia knew well enough that it wasn't a happy laugh. "No, I'll just go ahead and trust you. You've only been lying for what? Twenty three years? You lie about where you work, you lied about what you did with our research. I mean really, you didn't even bother to have SHIELD call it anything other than the Madame Masque project? I helped you build that shitty mask because I felt bad that I had a sister with a fucked up face and now you go around pimping yourself out with it to dad's old government buddies. Hell, I bet that it was never even about hiding the deformity on your face, no you are the deformity Mia, you want to hide and play dress up as other people, hide from the fact that you're so goddamn afraid of what you are! What are you hiding Missy? If there was ever a time to stop and make the slipper fit it's now, Cinderella, otherwise this ball is over!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you fess up to the bullshit and make this situation make sense or I walk out this door and we're done. No reunion concerts or albums when we're broke. I wanna know everything starting up to the night that our parents died, and why the hell the police found you hiding in the woods nearly a mile from the crash and how exactly you got that scar."

Mia ran a hand over her forehead, pushing away a couple strands of hair. "Look Tony; I was seven and had whiplash and a concussion. The only thing I remember from that day was leaving the house...and your fight with dad. Other than that it was all a blank spot in my memory."

Tony threw his arms up in frustration, "See? More bullshit! I know for a fact you didn't have a concussion. What concussed seven year old would be capable of scaling a tree without falling and breaking their neck? The answer is they couldn't, so then why did you lie to the doctor about your symptoms?" he flung the plans to her fridge onto the ground. "You know what, don't answer. That was a stupid question. You know how hard it is to make me feel stupid? It's pretty damn impressive how good you must be at lying for me to think for even a second that you would tell the truth."

Tony stood up, "We're done. I'm leaving. You can live your fantasy life and maybe get the honor of making dad proud by getting a few kids out of Cap 2. I'm going back to my life." he swung the door open and stepped onto her mat before Mia spoke, "Wait Tony! Come back!" he looked back at her. "Sometimes I wondered what I would have done if I lost you in that wreck, It took me until now to realize that I did."

Once Tony left, Mia collapsed back onto her bed with a stinging pain lingering in her heart as her eyes carried on with a starring contest with the ceiling as the weight of her guilt sat heavy as if Thor had planted Mjonir on her chest. She fucked up big time, didn't she?

Mia remembered how she judged the fictional Steve Rogers in the Civil War movie for hiding the truth from Tony, now she understood more than ever how heavy that information might have weighed on Steve's soul. What did that make her now? A hypocrite and a liar? The dark part of herself went further than that and called her every nasty word from A to Z while the optimistic part of herself said, "Where do I go from here? and yet again Mia found herself completely unprepared for what to do next.

It would be about a week later when her own guilt was replaced by her sense of duty when she saw a certain blonde haired man step into the apartment next door to her with a bag strung across his back and an armful of groceries.

It was go time. Mia promised to herself that despite the fact that Tony might never forgive her, that wouldn't stop her from saving his life. Carter was the first step to making that goal a reality.

"Whatever it takes."

John Westrich

December 31st 2007

11:50 PM

New York City

When John Westrich awoke the first thing he had heard was the sound of James Carter's voice echoing throughout the room he was in. But when he looked around to spot his friend, he was met by the sight of a strange man with combed back chocolate-brown-hair, a well defined jaw, wearing a brown suit with a blue undershirt. As hardas John tried to remember this man his memory came up blank. It was at this point the man met his gaze and gave a smile. "Ah, you're awake John. The serum didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would to wake you up. That's good."

"W-Who are you? Where am I?"

"My name is Aldrich Killian, I'm the CEO of AIM, the soon to be leading bio-pharmaceutical-engineering company in the world. You were flown back to New York City after the attack because Afghanistan lacked the ability to give you the aid your body needed."

"W-Who made it?"

Killian's smile turned downcast, "Unfortunatelyonly you, John. The rest of the 107th wasn't as lucky. Though I disagree with the idea that you were the lucky one. They get a monument while you rot in a wheelchair. Hardly a fair trade off." John feltpanic and agony at the same time.

"N-No, how did I survive! You have to be lying! Where the hell is James! I'll believe it from his mouth and not you, you lying sack of shit!"

"Ah, Captain Carter? He's moved out of the city. I can play back to you his whole speech about how he signed up to work for the counter terrorist organization to protect the American people at home. He decided the funeral was the proper place to do so. Though personally it wasn't nearly as tasteless as Justin Hammer taking the chance to beg for military contracts to develop new troop carriers as a way to commemorate and prevent what happenedto the Commandoes from happening to other brave soldiers, or the government hacks talking about how they plan to double down and how that they should receive more money to the inflated military budget to 'avenge' the fallen heroes. It was really an...interesting way to go about mourning the fallen."

John felt as if his mangled body suffered a blow to the gut as he struggled to move his body in an effort to smack the lying bastard who stood watching his struggle with an almost gleefullook in his eyes. "You can struggle all you like, God knows I did when I was also an invalid." John's sore throat growled, "Don't you fucking call me that!" Killian gave a shrug. "I'm only telling you the truth as the doctors around here think it to be. They'll tell you that your legs are useless and that your body is soburned you'll never be able to move around without being in constant agony. They'll tell you that since you have no family they'll bin you up in a place for people who can't live alone to waste away while your disabled body holds the greatness of your tactical mind prisoner. It's all the truth as they see it."

"Then what the fuck are you doing here then? If my body is so shredded what do you have to gain from being here?"

Killian smirked, his smile giving off almost a sadistic glee as he spoke. "Like I said you were a brilliant tactician. I've read the mission reports. You were the brains to Captain America's brawn and it was your ability to improvise under fire and use even rudimentary means to cause maximum chaos. I mean how many other men would have the idea to turn a terrorist filled cave into an under-water cavern with a couple crates of explosives and a map? You single handily might have taken years off the length of this war by destroying those men and their weapons. I could use that type of mind at AIM."

"H-How could I be of use? I'm not a scientist. I can't help you build anything."

"AIM is about a lot more than science. We're working on something that will change this world for the better an eliminate physical and mental disabilities and it's earliest development is in your blood working to repair your brain as we speak. Without it you would likely have no short term memories and your ability to speak would be almost non-existent. You wouldn't even be awake to speak to me. If you work with me then we can bring this miracle of science to people around the world. Is that something not worth fighting for?"

Killian turned up the volume on the television, "Listen to these people talk. They buried your friends only to use their names as talking points in order to gain favor for lining their pockets. They have no intention of changing this world, only to prosper in this imperfect one." the sound of a firework barely crackled over the sound of the television and Killian once again met his gaze. "The New Year is upon us, John, it's a time of possibilities. You can decide how many of yours involve a wheelchair." Killian pulled a card out of his jacket pocket. "Once you watch the funeral call me on this number and I'll arrange for you to be treated immediately. If you don't call me in two weeks then this broken state will become your reality. Don't mistake this for cruelty because I only want to show you how desperate this situation is because after all it is our desperation that fuels creativity. I once made this offer to Tony Stark and he left me waiting for him, funny enough that happened on New Years as well. Do you think that you're smarter than Tony Stark, John?"

Killian set the card on his bed stand, "You have two weeks to figure that out." he then left the room, leaving John alone in his hospital room to listen to the funeral.

Hi everyone, I wanted to write a quick interlude kind of half Chapter before returning to the flow of the story mostly focusing around James.

Thank you for all the reviews on the prior chapters. Even the negative reviews are helpful because I know my writing is not perfect and if nobody ever told me what I could do better then I would just stagnate.

If someone leaves a negative review on this story whether it's fair or not please do not treat them poorly as they might just be having a bad day or have different tastes which is no reason to judge them and use cruelwords.