At any other time, Harry would have been fascinated by the burger king drive-thru they got burgers and chips from, but he was still processing the fact that he had been essentially missing for almost two years. In the car, he had noticed the nauseating smell of melting rubber and had firmly clamped down on his emotions before he set fire to his shoes, but now he was stood in a large, bright hall, watching Tony walk up to a podium with a balding man, his mind was free to wander again.

He could feel a headache building from the effort it was taking to ignore the talking and clapping and camera flashes throughout the room, and was vaguely aware of Pepper next to him talking to a man in a suit. He looked up when he heard his name, and caught the man's eye. He seemed to be waiting for Harry to speak.

"What?"

"I was saying the organisation I work for needs to debrief you and Mr. Stark about what happened in Afghanistan." The man replied, smiling kindly.

Harry shook his head and turned to watch Tony.

"I'm sorry?"

"No." Harry said.

"I'll put something in the books, shall I?" Pepper said, resting a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Thank you." The man said, walking off.

Harry winced as the balding man's voice boomed out over a microphone before trailing off. He looked down at Tony, who Harry was surprised to see was sat on the floor in front of the podium eating his burger.

"You don't have to stay for this." Pepper said gently to him. "I can get Happy to take you back to the tower before we contact your parents. I'm sure they're worried about you."

"They're dead." Harry said shortly, watching Tony tell the gathered reporters to sit on the floor. Pepper floundered for something to say as Tony turned to the man on his right.

"Good to see you." He said quietly.

"Good to see you." The man replied, placing a hand on Tony's shoulder.

"I never got to say goodbye to dad." Tony said, then turned to the reporters. "I never got to say goodbye to my father." He carefully chewed his burger. "There's questions that I would've asked him. I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did... If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch of a man we all remember from the newsreels." Tony paused, and looked out at the crowd of reporters. "I saw young Americans killed, by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. I saw how the weapons I created affected people, and communities. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero-accountability."

A few reporters tried to get Tony's attention, and he nodded to one of them.

"What happened over there?"

"I had my eyes opened." Tony stood up and moved behind the podium. "I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up." Tony looked out over the seated reporters and locked eyes with Harry. "And that is why, effective immediately, I'm shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International-"

Immediately, the assembled reporters and TV crews stood up, shouting out questions and pushing forwards towards Tony. Harry shrank back as Tony tried to continue over the noise. He closed his eyes as camera flash after camera flash filled the room, blinding him.

"-until such a time, as I can decide what the future of this company will be, what direction it should take, the one I'm comfortable with, and is consistent with the highest good of this country, and the world."

The balding man moved Tony away from the podium and spoke over the reporters. "What we should take away from this, is that Tony's back!" He began trying to field questions as Harry heard Tony made his way over to him and Pepper.

"Let's go." He said, and Harry nodded, following him out on his crutches to the waiting car. "Hey, you wanna see the original one of these?" Tony asked, tapping his chest.

"No, Tony, we need to go home." Pepper said. "We need to find Harry's family, and let them know-"

"I'm his family." Tony interrupted.

Pepper sighed. "Tony, you know that's not how-"

"The kid doesn't have a proper family." Tony said as they drove through the New York streets. "But he's got me now. Happy, take us to the factory."

Harry was in a daze up until the car stopped and Tony helped him out. He led him through a door, and they were immediately greeted by a large, glowing blue contraption.

"The original ARC reactor." Tony said. "My dad designed it." He leant against the railing and looked up at the glass machine.

"That's..." Harry asked.

Tony nodded. "It's almost identical to the one keeping me alive right now." He tapped his chest, the glass clinking.

After a few minutes, the balding man from the press conference walked in, a cigar between his teeth. He stood with his hands on his hips, regarding Tony. "Well that went well."

Tony gave a small laugh. "Did I just paint a target on the back of my head?"

"Your head?" The man said, coming closer. "What about my head? What do you think the over-under on the stock-drop is gonna be?"

"Ah, optimistically? 40 points." Tony replied, taking off his suit jacket.

"At minimum." The man sighed. "Tony, we're a weapons' manufacturer."

"Obi, I just don't want a body count to be our only legacy."

"That's what we do." The man interrupted. "We're iron mongers, we make weapons. What we do keeps the world from falling into chaos."

"Not from what I saw." Tony shook his head, looking angry. We're not doing a good enough job. We can do better, we're gonna do something else."

"Like what?" the man asked. "You want us to make baby bottles?"

"I think we should take another look into ARC reactor technology." Tony said, gesturing up at the spinning machine above them.

The man laughed. "Oh come on, the ARC reactor? That's a publicity stunt! We built that thing to shut the hippies up."

Tony shrugged. "It works."

"Yeah, as a science project. The Arc was never cost-effective. We knew that before we built it. Arc Reactor technology, that's a dead end, right?"

"Maybe." Tony said. Harry could hear the supressed humour in his voice, even with his eyes closed.

"Am I right? We haven't had a breakthrough in that in what... 30 years?"

"So they say." Tony said. "Could you have a lousier poker face? Just tell me, who told you?"

"Never mind who told me." The man tapped Tony's chest. "Show me."

"Rhodey or pepper?" Tony asked. "It's Rhodey or Pepper."

"I want to see it."

"Ok, Rhodey." Tony took off his sling and undid his shirt.

The man looked around as if Tony was showing him a big secret, and started when he caught sight of Harry. "Who's the kid?"

"This is Harry." Tony replied. "He was in Afghanistan with me."

"What's with the sunglasses?"

"Doesn't matter." Tony said quickly. "You wanted to see the..." He tapped his chest, showing the man the glowing device.

The man laughed, looking up at the large ARC reactor above them.

"It works." Tony said.

The man smiled and sighed, putting his arm over Tony's shoulders. "Listen to me, Tony. There's nothing we can't do if we stick together, like your father and I. No more of this 'ready fire aim' business. Do you understand me? You gotta let me handle this. We're gonna have to play whole different kind of ball now. We're gonna have to take a lot of heat. I want you to promise me that you're gonna lay low."

"Fine."