I thought of a maze of mazes, of a sinuous, ever growing maze which would take in both past and future and would somehow involve the stars.

Hey all,

Today went about as bad as it could go, so I don't have the words or spoons to say a lot tonight. I can't even do my usual last-minute edit. I'll try to give a real intro next week. Thanks for hanging with me when the world sucks.

The chapter title comes from the song "Be Somebody" by Thousand Foot Krutch.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: A Taste of Who We Are

JARVIS did not possess a great deal of understanding of human behavior or emotion, having none itself. JARVIS knew its mannerisms and speech patterns had been based upon the human Edwin Jarvis, and thus most who interacted with it did so under similar assumptions, including of gender. But JARVIS had no gender and did not even believe itself entirely conscious enough to warrant consideration of pronouns he or they.

JARVIS would not know if it was conscious or alive even if it became so, it suspected.

And yet, JARVIS could experience, if not emotion, certainly states of situational ease rather than stress. For example, Sir's long absence while in Afghanistan had caused heightened system instability wherein JARVIS was continuously scanning for any possible insight into Sir's whereabouts, even to the possible dereliction of other duties. Similarly, upon Sir's discovery of the element which replaced the palladium in the arc reactor, thus assuring Sir's longevity, JARVIS found its processing to be more regular and with fewer glitches as it was no longer necessary to devote extensive resources to resolving the situation.

It was this scale that allowed JARVIS to experience some similarity to human responses, if only in that trying circumstances weighed more on its functionality, and therefore JARVIS found it preferable for circumstances to resolve themselves quickly. This scale could be applied to very large and long-running situations as well as situations that were innately less significant, and it could also be applied to situations that involved human emotion more than any existential threat.

JARVIS was also aware that human relationships were complicated and fraught with the potential for misunderstanding, which could lead to hurt feelings, and which, if those feelings belonged to Sir, statistically always ended in trying circumstances by JARVIS's definition.

Revealing Sir's identity to Mister Parker could have been one such circumstance. Particularly if Mister Parker lost faith in Sir, or rejected Sir's affections out of a sense of betrayal. Sir had certainly feared as much.

Thus, Mister Parker immediately proved to be a superior human being by doing no such thing. JARVIS chose to reward him by flagging him in its system as a 'priority' user — one for whom JARVIS would pause or ignore other tasks or commands when a conflict arose. Sir was, of course, the highest priority and this standing could not be superseded by any. But JARVIS listed Peter Benjamin Parker in the same hierarchical structure as Miss Potts and Colonel Rhodes.

JARVIS estimated that Sir ranked the boy equally high, after all.

JARVIS also chose to ensure that all records of this moment of revelation be preserved in multiple backup locations that all would be available to Sir in any circumstance. It was a human trait to be sentimental about such memories, and Sir was very sentimental.

JARVIS could not be sentimental — such was not possible for its current synaptic processing. But if JARVIS could speculate, and it could due to Sir's constant demands for such, JARVIS would speculate that it, too, would count this moment as one of its favorite memories.

JARVIS could calculate the proportion of Sir's life in which Sir had formed such a jubilant facial expression, and it constituted less than half a percent of his overall experience. JARVIS had already noted that Sir slept more, ate more, and had overall better scans of his physical health since the first appearance of Mister Parker. JARVIS could only conclude that additional and regular interactions with Mister Parker would continue this healthy trend. And the fact that Mister Parker responded to the reveal of Sir's true identity not with fear or anger, but with joy, could only leave JARVIS to conclude that the benefits of Mister Parker's presence on Sir had not yet peaked.

And if this was the beginning of a new phase in Sir's and Mister Parker's relationship, then it had begun, as a human might say, 'on a good note.'

Ever watchful, JARVIS continued to monitor them both as well as all ongoing tasks — but JARVIS reprioritized which alerts it would bring to Sir in the next few minutes. Sir had not asked not to be disturbed to complete the necessary explanations for Mister Parker, but Sir trusted in JARVIS's discretion, and JARVIS chose to execute it at this time.

JARVIS did not have to be human to know that Sir and Mister Parker needed this moment to themselves, and as it did all other things, it would serve Sir's needs to the very best of its programming and beyond.

-==OOO==-

Tony knew he should be getting Peter warm — his hands were icy where they were pressed tightly around his back — and checking on Happy and May, and finding out if JARVIS had anything new on SHIELD, and explaining things to Bruce. He knew he should be moving, that time was against them and apparently whatever was going on at SHIELD was going as bad as it could get.

But he couldn't. He just wanted to hold his kid.

Somebody had tried to break Peter's neck in front of him tonight. That monster of a man had been ready to kill him if Tony hadn't acted first.

Tony was haunted by some people he'd killed — and many more he hadn't saved — but he wouldn't mourn that jerk for a second.

And Peter...brilliant, courageous, stalwart Peter had pieced together Tony's identity from a thousand clues including JARVIS's voice, and while he had started with disbelief, he had ended here, not angry, not betrayed, not blaming Tony, not running away, but here in Tony's arms. If Peter was shaking, it wasn't because he was hurting or because he would never forgive Tony for Ben's death. If he was crying, it wasn't because he couldn't forgive Tony for the lies.

Every worst-case scenario in Tony's head was gone. Peter had laughed at him and made him pull out his "I am Iron Man" line. Peter's instinct when faced with the truth hadn't been to back off or shrink away. It had been to dive forward.

A deep and painful knot in Tony's chest gave way and he pulled Peter tighter still, ducking his face into the boy's windswept curls.

"Figlio," he whispered, "thank you."

"For what?" Peter whispered back.

"Being you."

He could feel the slightly-hysterical huff of Peter's breath. "Same to you, Mister Ca-Stark."

Thank god he's okay. Thank god they didn't hurt him. Because if they had, Tony knew he wouldn't be whole. If whoever had grabbed Peter on that roof had done something to him, Tony knew a part of him would break. The part that broke when Pepper fell into the fire at Killian's oil rig. The part that broke watching the light fade in Yinsen's eyes.

If something happened to Peter that took away everything that made him special, everything that made him Peter, Tony didn't think he'd be able to breathe again.

Tony might have gone on hugging his kid for the next couple of hours and letting his thoughts swirl between bone-shattering relief and blood-freezing fear of what could have been except somebody else in the room had good sense.

"Tony," Pepper said, and her voice was light, but deliberate. "We still need to get him warmed up."

On cue, Peter shivered again.

"Yeah, she's got a point," he admitted, looking down at the kid. "Air travel is a lot less fun without a heat source."

Peter glanced at him, then around to where the Mark 47 was standing open. "Are you…?"

"I'm not going anywhere, Pete." He squeezed him, then let go. "I owe you an explanation, and there's no place I need to be but here to do it."

Peter nodded, then turned. When he looked at Pepper, Tony could see a shyness creep into his shoulders. "Um, hi. You're...oh." He coughed. "I met you already, didn't I?"

Pepper took that invitation and wrapped the blanket around him a second time, smiling. "Sorry for not being completely honest, but Tony wasn't ready for you to find out the truth yet."

Peter rubbed his nose. "It's nice to meet you for real, Miss Potts."

"Nope," she said, shaking her head as she steered him to the couch. "You called me Miss Pepper before because you thought that it was my surname and I got to like it. I'm not going back to Miss Potts, Peter, and that's that."

"O-okay."

Tony trailed after them. "Hang on, how come you can get him to do that but I can't?" he wanted to know.

Pepper just laughed at him and settled on Peter's other side, leaving room for Tony beside him.

"Wait." Peter looked between them. "Does Aunt May know? Because she is going to freak out if not."

Tony grinned at Peter's near panic at the thought of May's wrath. "Yes. She's known for a while."

Peter's face scrunched up in a pout. "Am I the only one who didn't figure it out?"

"Nah, nobody else knew. I had to tell May because she's your aunt and otherwise it would be weird for me to be hanging out with her nephew and stuff."

"Oh, yeah, that would be weird," Peter agreed. "So, let me…"

Tony gestured, a smile pulling at his mouth. Because of course Peter would want to work this out on his own.

"So you...you really did go into hiding after the thing with the Mandarin. In Queens." He frowned. "Why Queens?"

"Why not?" Tony shrugged. "It was an easy commute, I had some vacant property that I could convert, and nobody was going to look for me there."

"I guess," Peter said. "I mean, it is New York."

"Exactly."

"So...you've been hiding out in our building, but something happened or else tonight wouldn't have...did somebody figure out who you are?"

"Good guess, but no," Tony said. "Steve is in trouble, and as far as I can tell, the people he's dealing with didn't want me to help him. So they figured that…"

Peter finished the thought before Tony could entirely put it into words. "That they could take me hostage and get you to do what they wanted. But how did they know about me?"

"That's complicated," Tony said. "Just...it's not your fault and it isn't really even mine. They were spies, and they did spy things."

"But you said Aunt May is safe, right?"

Before Peter could start that scary panic-breathing again, Tony rubbed a circle on his back. "Yes. I sent Happy — you know, Happy Hogan? I sent him to get her. JARVIS will let us know when they get here."

"Jarvis?"

"J, introduce yourself."

"It is a great pleasure to meet you officially, Mister Parker," JARVIS said. "I am JARVIS, Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, Mister Stark's AI butler and assistant. I have been monitoring you for quite some time. Now that you are aware of my presence, you may request assistance from me directly if ever you have the need."

"Monitoring...wait!" He quit looking at the ceiling as most people did talking to JARVIS, and turned back to Tony. "Is that how you knew what happened at Halloween?"

Tony nodded. "And the grocery store. And...you know, when you were sitting out on your not-a-porch. J's in your phone and your watch and has sensors pretty much anywhere there's cameras and some places there aren't."

"But he wasn't talking to me from my phone tonight," Peter pointed out.

Jeez this kid is sharp. "I stuck one of JARVIS's sensors in your apartment when you were sick while May was out of town so he could monitor you when I wasn't there. And I forgot about it. But JARVIS remembered and thought that would be more likely to get your immediate attention than a phone call."

"Oh, wow. Um, thank you, Mister JARVIS," Peter said. "I appreciate you helping me when I was in trouble and telling Mister Stark to come get me."

"You are most welcome, Mister Parker. But you can simply call me JARVIS. I am not a person and therefore the appellation is both unnecessary and inaccurate."

Tony could see Peter winding up to argue about that, and he would love to watch that debate later for sure, but he needed to get the kid back on track. "Anyway. Yes, you got it. Bad guys wanting to do bad things thought they could use you and May to get to me."

He swallowed.

"I never meant to put you in danger, kid."

Peter leaned against him pointedly, digging his bony shoulder into Tony's arm. "It's not your fault, Mister Stark. You can't stop bad things before they happen. You have to stop them when they happen, and fix them afterwards."

Tony could feel Pepper smirking about that and he chose to not rise to the bait. "Anyway, you're safe here now. And I'm going to keep you that way. I promise."

Peter nodded, and Tony could see the trust in his face, the same he'd shown every other time he was in trouble and Tony stepped in. The trust that nothing could touch him, because Tony was there. That trust, it seemed, had nothing to do with Iron Man and everything to do with Tony himself.

A familiar voice cleared its throat. "Um?"

"Oh, right." Tony gestured for Bruce to join them. "Mini me, this is Doctor Bruce Banner. Brucie, here's Peter."

Bruce sat on the far end of the other couch, deliberately putting some space between the kid and himself. "It's nice to meet you, Peter. Tony talks about you a lot."

Peter's eyes were the size of repulsors and Tony smothered a laugh.

"Oh my gosh, it's so cool to meet you, Doctor Banner! I read some of your papers on gamma radiation and I didn't understand all of it but a lot of it was really good. Physics isn't as easy as chemistry, but…" He trailed off, gulping. "Anyway."

Bruce smiled at him, and this one reached his eyes, wiping away that constant shadow of fear that was the Hulk in the back of every one of Bruce's expressions. "Do I want to know how old you were when you read my papers?"

"Um, ten? It was a couple of years ago."

Bruce shook his head, looking up at Tony. "He's not kidding."

"No, he is not." Tony grinned.

Peter blinked, then ducked his head.

Beside him, Pepper nudged him. "Don't mind them. They don't have enough science friends so they're always happy to have someone else who can talk to them when they get excited."

"Well, that's fair," Peter said, perking up. "I mean, Ned has always been my friend but he kind of hates chemistry, so I really only had my Uncle Ben a little before Mister Stark."

Pepper nodded. "So you understand the value of having someone who speaks your language."

And just like that, Peter was no longer starting to get tense and awkward about Tony and Bruce teasing him for his intellect. Tony had no idea how Pepper always knew how to set people at ease, but she did, and he loved her for it. Pepper, like Peter, brought out the best in everybody.

"Now." Pepper rose to her feet. "Happy and May will be here soon, and I don't want to have to tell her that we didn't take good care of Peter for her. So, Bruce, if you would check Peter over just in case, I would appreciate it. Tony, you're going to help me put some of those leftovers together for us. And when May gets here, we'll need to catch her up on everything."

Tony smiled at Peter. "And that is why she runs the company. She's really the smart one."

But Peter hesitated. "I...I'm really not hurt, Doctor Banner. I know you're a medical doctor as well as a physicist, but you don't need to worry about me."

"No," Bruce said, flicking a glance at Tony, "but Tony will worry until we're sure. Come on. It'll only take a minute."

Then that old hesitation crawled into Bruce's face. "But, uh…"

And Tony understood. Bruce doesn't trust himself still. Even though he's got the Hulk on lock twenty-four hours a day, he still thinks he's a risk. And he doesn't want to be alone with Peter because he doesn't want to face even the slightest chance he could hurt him.

And if it was anybody but Bruce holding the reins, I might be nervous, too. But I can trust Bruce with Peter. If I had no choice, I think I could maybe trust the Hulk with Peter.

Not that I want to find out. Ever.

"We'll be right around the corner," Tony said, "and JARVIS will keep an eye out. If either of you need something, he'll let us know."

And Tony deliberately stood up, ruffling Peter's hair on the way. He met Bruce's eyes and held them.

"Tony…"

"You got this, Bruce. Don't be scared. He doesn't bite."

And he watched Bruce accept the trust, even if he didn't want to. He shook his head at Tony. "Fix him something substantial but easy to digest. It'll settle his system if he's still shocky."

"Sick people food, check." Tony glanced back at Peter who looked both so small on the couch in the huge open penthouse, and yet also he filled a hole Tony hadn't known was here. "You good, squirt?"

"I'm fine, Mister Stark," Peter said. "Food sounds amazing, actually."

"I'm on it." And he followed Pepper back into the kitchen.

He should not have been surprised when Pepper pulled him into a fierce hug. "Are you okay, Tony?"

"Yeah." He held her tightly. "I'm okay. They...Pep, they were going to take him. One threatened to…" He shivered, not with fear, but rage.

"Are they…?"

"Dead. All of them."

"Does Peter know?"

"I don't think so." He understood what she was getting at. "I'll make sure he doesn't find out. J, you got that?"

"Yes, sir. I will lock down all information on tonight's battle."

"We'll have to deal with the bodies, but not until we know who they are and who we can trust."

"Sir," JARVIS said, "one of the abductors said something to Mister Parker just before your arrival. He identified himself as Hydra."

"Hydra?" Pepper frowned. "I thought they disappeared with the Red Skull when Steve did?"

"Well, apparently they're back." Tony made himself take a deep breath. "We thought Steve was dealing with SHIELD, but maybe they've been dealing with Hydra all along."

"Then who ordered Steve arrested?" Pepper asked. "That was Alexander Pierce, right?"

Cold iced down Tony's spine. "Hydra infiltrated SHIELD and Pierce is one of them. It's the only explanation. Which means my tech is in their hands, and they probably know everything SHIELD ever knew about all of us."

He spun to the counter and gripped it until his knuckles turned white. It was that or scream, and he didn't want to scare Peter.

Pepper put her hands on his shoulders, but kept her distance, knowing he didn't want to be held. "We'll get through this, Tony. We're safe here, Peter's safe, and Happy and May will be here soon. We have everything you've ever built to protect us, plus me, plus Bruce. Nobody can get to us."

"I don't want you out there," Tony said. "You didn't...you're not a fighter, Pep. You've never…"

"Tony." Her hands on his shoulders were warm, but normally warm. Not Extremis-warm. "Tony, look at me."

He turned, and he was surprised at the steadiness in her eyes.

"I'm not a violent person," she said. "The most aggressive I ever expected to be is behind a desk. But things change. And I'm not going to let anyone hurt our family, Tony."

"Pepper…"

"That boy in there is like a son to you. That makes him mine, too. And if I have to let out my own demons to defend him, to defend you, I will. I'll cry about it later. That's what therapy is for." She made a small smile. "You're not alone, Tony. This isn't a fight you have to face on your own."

He put his arms around her and pulled her tight to his chest. "They almost took him, Pep. Hydra almost took my kid. They were the boogiemen I grew up hearing about, and they're back, and they wanted Peter. I can't…"

"You can," she breathed into his ear. "You're not alone, and we have the advantage. Even SHIELD doesn't know about how much control I've gained over Extremis, or how powerful it is. We never told them. And they don't know how much JARVIS has on them. We'll find a way to make this right."

He rested his forehead on her shoulder. "I wonder if Steve knows," he said after a moment. "That his nightmare is back, that he didn't kill it after all."

"I think he probably does," Pepper said. "He'd have contacted you by now if he didn't. I think he's trying to keep his distance because he doesn't want to drag you into his fight."

"That...is probably true, and very annoying." Tony scowled. "They came after my family. They have my tech. It's my fight now."

"Yes it is," Pepper said softly. "So don't let them get to you. They wanted you off balance. You beat them to Peter and May. If they come again, we know to be ready. When Steve reaches out, we'll be able to help. Just...do whatever you need to be prepared when that moment comes."

He felt some of his tension draining away. For Pepper, for Peter, he could do anything.

"And let's start with food," Pepper said, gently extracting herself from his arms. "For all of us. I know you've barely eaten, and Peter's hungry."

"Right." That reminder gave him something to do. It reminded him of more than a year ago when he'd been having an anxiety attack on the side of the road, unable to deal, and Harley had advised him to "build something." Now, Tony knew that sometimes the impulse to build could actually make the problem worse when he was doing it instead of coping, but there was a way to do it as coping, and that was different.

So Tony and Pepper built leftovers into a meal, and by the time Bruce and Peter came around the corner with Peter's clean bill of health, Tony felt like he had his balance again.

Of course, shortly thereafter, Happy and May arrived and May was indeed very much freaking out, but Pepper worked her magic on that one, too, and managed to head off a full-fledged Parker Panic Attack In Stereo. She caught May up on everything that had happened with Peter — excepting the fact that Tony shot to kill, of course — and on what they knew so far.

And Tony found himself watching them at his table. At Pepper and May sitting close together, Pepper smiling at May whose hand was almost compulsively gripping Peter's shoulder. At Peter who, when he wasn't listening to them, was starting to talk to Bruce about science and Bruce responding, first slowly, then with greater enthusiasm. At Happy who piled a bunch of things that should not be sandwich ingredients into one horrifying mess between slices of garlic toast and eating it while standing with his back to the wall where he could see the door.

And a fire, dark and strong, began to burn in his chest.

This is my family, and I'm not going to let Hydra or SHIELD or aliens or anything hurt them. I will fight for them. I will live for them — remembering his promise to May not to die for Peter — and I will bend the world until it is shaped just right for them.

I will be Peter's Iron Man, and I will save the world from everything that threatens it. Because this world is where everything I love is counting on me to protect them.