Disclaimer: I don't own the MCU...duh. (I do own my OC though).

Leave a review if you can, would really appreciate it!

So… The premise of this story is basically trying to address all the numerous plot holes in Civil War. I mean, don't get me wrong – I love all the Marvel Movies. But… WHAT! How did Cap get away with all the stuff he did and come out of it totally forgiven?

This is not a crossover. Despite the fact that my OC is a symbiote, I decided not to put this under crossover because there are practically no other ways that this story crosses over(at this point in time). Everything else is MCU.

I know that the first chapter is a little short, but all chapters after this will be at least 3,000 words long.

This was inspired by 'Nobody's heroes' over on AO3, by Boleyn13. If you have time, I would highly recommend reading it!

Iron Symbiosis = Thoughts/texts

Iron Symbiosis = Symbiote thinking

"Iron Symbiosis" = Symbiote speaking aloud

*Iron Symbiosis* = Flashbacks

When Toni Stark went through that portal, she did not expect to come back.

In the end, she supposed it was a final defiant gesture against that 'golden boy' Steve Rogers, a way to show him she would put her life on the wire for others. She hugged the missile, (the irony of it being made by Stark Industries not lost on her), and kept pushing forward, even as her suit failed mechanism by mechanism. She let go off the missile and watched with a bittersweet smile as it exploded against the mothership. Her eyes started to close as she ran out of air, and her final coherent thought was one of regret that Pepper had not picked up her call.

As she drifted in delirium, not quite sure if she were alive or dead, she thought she could see something coming towards her. She smiled, and then lost consciousness.

When Toni Stark was born, both Maria Stark and Howard Stark frowned.

This became a common theme of her childhood, both neglected and unwanted. The only light of her otherwise terrible upbringing was her Aunt Peggy and her butler Jarvis. Aunt Peggy, who would come around every month without fail, would tell her wonderful stories all revolving around the brave and gallant superhero, Captain America. She would lie in bed at night, tucked in by Jarvis, thinking of Steve Rogers – for were they not the same person?

When Toni was eight, she finally understood why she was always dismissed by her parents. It was not because she was stupid, (for she was already being touted as a child prodigy even then), but because she was a girl. Even at that early age, both Maria Stark and Howard Stark were no longer her Mama and Papa in her eyes – they had been replaced by Jarvis and Aunt Peggy.

When Toni was 12, her parents could no longer stand the sight of her and sent her far, far away to a boarding school in Switzerland across the Atlantic Ocean. She was devastated when she had to leave, as that would mean she would not see Jarvis or Peggy for an indefinite amount of time. Their goodbyes were teary, love-filled and far, far too quick.

Toni's new school was everything she hated. Stuffy professors focused on tradition, sneering students always trying to get the better of her and no room for creativity.

Well, there was Virginia.

Virginia Potts was abrasive, rude and downright suicidal to confront on a bad day. Toni fell in love at first sight. They clicked, the snarky, short black-haired girl and the tall, awkward ginger. From that day to the day they both graduated, they were always together. Toni fondly renamed her Pepper, and 'Pepper' liked the name so much she started insisting everyone call her it.

Pepper was sent back to her parents for misconduct, and Toni went to MIT at the young age of 15. Their parting was short, and Toni bitterly wondered if she would ever see her again. The adolescent heiress had learned from a young age to shield her heart from others, but if an observer were to look closely, it would not be hard to spot a tear trailing down her face as she stepped on the aeroplane back to her homeland.

Toni never thought she would be happy after leaving Pepper, but that was before she met Rhodey. Rhodey became her light, her reason to continue going in a world that seemed so bitter to her. James Rhodes first met her on a warm summer's afternoon, as she sipped a cocktail at the 'Knock 'em dead' bar.

"Hey! Um… aren't you a bit young for that?" A voice came from Toni's left.

Tony twisted in her seat to stare silently at the person who had dared to interrupt her in her 'happy time'. All the other regular customers at the bar winced slightly and looked away – they had learned early on to not bother the strange girl who sat in a corner and sipped a different drink every time she came in.

"Well?" The man said, glancing over at the bartender, "You guys do realise she is definitely not 21 yet, right?"

The bartender suddenly became very interested in the glass he was cleaning.

The man scoffed in amazement, and then held out his hand to Toni.

"Hi. My name's Rhodes, James Rhodes. Why is nobody meeting my eyes now? You're not the daughter of a mafia boss, are you?"

Toni smirked a little in amusement, and then replied," I'm not the daughter of a mafia boss, don't be silly."

Rhodey relaxed a little, and Toni waited until he took a long drink and then she added, "I do own this bar, though."

The resulting spit take was so large, that Toni could do nothing but hold her sides to try to stop the convulsions of laughter. After a while, Rhodey joined in too. Toni invited Rhodey to share a drink with her, (not because she was lonely, just bored), and the two hit it off. Rhodey was a little stiff but so, so genuine. They decided right there and then they would be best friends.

Toni and Rhodey soon became inseparable, and one would rarely be seen without the other. Rhodey was the one to introduce her to heavy metal music, (and so started her addiction to AC/DC), and Rhodey was there whenever she needed him – after her first breakup, after she crashed her first car, and most importantly when her 'parents' died in a tragic car accident.

Her mourning for Howard and Maria Stark was brief, for she had barely even known them, and felt little emotional attachment to them. Her mourning for the third person in the car, Jarvis, was much longer and more heartfelt. The media never even mentioned him, so intent were they on the famous couple.

But Toni remembered. And Toni cried for him on many a night. Jarvis, I will make sure you are remembered somehow, someday.

But she eventually dried her eyes, put away the tissues and stood back up, (with a little help from Rhodey). She valued Rhodey even more now, as dear Aunt Peggy was starting to forget places and names, Pepper was far, far away and Jarvis was buried 6 feet under. She built robots, each one with a meaning lost on most people, but so, so important to her. The media had started to take an interest in Toni, and Toni learnt the price of being famous, wealthy and intelligent. She graduated MIT (Valedictorian, of course), and topped her 18th birthday with a night of sin and debauchery. (The media had an awful lot to say about that, as expected).

Rhodey had to leave. He was going away for military service, and it might be a long time before he could come back.

Toni knew that he would leave, (everyone did eventually), but it still hurt so much when he did. He went with the air of knowing that he was abandoning someone else, but not wanting to admit it. He cried, and he told her he would be back before she knew it. She smiled, and nodded, and deep inside her heart fractured. He went away, dressed in combat fatigues like all the other men, and Toni picked herself up, took a deep breath, and set upon her next objective – taking control of the Stark empire that her father had left for her.

She took control with relative ease, the other board members folding with good humour and welcoming smiles on their faces which didn't reach their eyes.

She didn't trust any of them.

Virginia 'Pepper' Potts came storming back into her life, and it was like she had never left. Rhodey came to visit every now and then, and she felt as near to complete as one could get. The media was still skulking around her ankles, noting down with great relish her liking of alcohol, her 'promiscuity' and her ruthlessness.

She didn't care.

She was nicknamed the 'Merchant of Death' by the press, and she thought it sounded pretty cool.

She finally finished programming JARVIS, and when he said his first words, she could not be any prouder.

Then Afghanistan happened, and everything escalated from there.

Toni fell through space, barely hanging on to life. The mothership was in ruins behind her, the missile had done its work perfectly,(she had designed it, after all). The portal, a whirling mass of beautiful colours, was tauntingly near to her but starting to close. Something slammed into the insensate Toni just before the portal winked out of existence and gave her that little extra momentum which was enough to carry her through.

Toni would bury any memories of the portal through drugs, and copious amounts of alcohol. At night though, she dreamed of far-away planets and creatures she had never seen before in her life.

Deep inside her, a symbiote from a species near exterminated by ****** hibernated, slowly regaining its strength.

Updates should be fairly regular, weekly for the most part.