20.

New York City, 2016

Tony blinked back. "A what now?"

"A sister. Well, a half-sister - or at least so she claims. She says that Klaue is her father too." But part of Kass was still in denial of that in the case of her own parentage. "Regina. Her name's Regina."

"You okay?"

"Yeah - I think so... Just so shocked..." She scoffed. "She wants to meet."

"It could be a trap."

"Yeah... Or not... It could be anything, really... I mean, it could all be some joke for all I know. Someone wanting to pull a prank on me for some reason."

"Do you want to meet her?"

"I don't know... I think I need some time to absorb all this."

"Yeah, that's understandable." Tony took the piece of paper and read it himself. Well, it couldn't be much clearer than that. "Do you think that was her in the security footage?"

"Well, this is pretty personal, and obviously whoever it was wanted to make sure I got it, so yeah, I think there's a good chance it was." She thought back to the security camera footage Pepper that shown them, with the person looking right at the camera - right at her.

It all made sense now - well, sort of. Actually, there was still a lot that made no sense.

Later, Kass found Tony in the main office sitting before the computer. "I'm going through that security footage from the break-in again," he told her.

"Oh yeah, find anything interesting? Good luck topping the big 'half sister' reveal though."

"Nothing too exciting yet on that so far. I did find a few other gems as well, though..."

He clicked on a video. In the clip, Kass - wearing jeans, one of Tony's band T-shirts, a pair of his high-top sneakers that were way too big for her, and a pair of ridiculously expensive sunglasses - stood in front of the camera. She had even sprayed shaving cream on her face in a sort-of goatee. Speaking in an exaggerated low voice, she said to the camera, "Hey there, I'm Tony Stark. My ego is big, but not as big as my-"

The clip ended there. Tony swiveled around in the chair to look at her.

"I was bored," she defended. "So I went through your closet."

"And my shoe closet, and my sunglasses collection... And used like half a bottle of shaving cream."

She shrugged.

He moved the clip over into another folder. "I'm keeping this, to haunt you with it forever and ever."

"And ever. Be my guest. You have to admit though, it was actually a pretty stellar impression of you, if I do say so myself."

"Eh, as your boyfriend, I was expecting a better impression of myself."

The clicking of high heeled shoes signaled Pepper's arrival. "Ross is here."

"Secretary or Agent?"

"Secretary."

"Clearly he didn't appreciate me putting him on hold."

"He's not here about you, actually. He's here for Kass." Pepper looked deeply concerned. "He says he's come to arrest you."


"Ross, this is ridiculous-"

"This is the law, Stark. Besides, knowing Ms. Konstantin's track record, she's used to it."

"Hey! I rarely ever get caught!" Kass, handcuffed, was being escorted out of the facility by agents. Tony was running after them.

"She retired!"

"Then why's she linked to illegal arms deals?"

"Excuse me? This is the first I've heard of this. The only shopping I've done lately was buying a vinyl copy of Led Zeppelin I online." She turned to Tony. "Which I put on your credit card, by the way."

"Ross, come on," Tony pleaded.

"I'm just doing my job, Stark. You might want to stick to doing yours." He turned to Kass. "And you, you need to find a real job."

"She has a job - with Stark Intelligence."

"We're done here, Stark."

"Where are you taking my girlfriend?"

"In for questioning. And then, most likely to jail."

"Well I'm going to get my lawyer on the phone right now-"

"Go ahead, but I'm one-hundred percent sure they'll tell you she's breaking the law."

"Just leave it Tony, I'll go with them. This guy has been waiting for an excuse to arrest me for a long time."

"I'm not about to let this go," Tony was still protesting.

"I know," she said.

They shared a brief kiss before the guards yanked her away.


"Ross and Ross - well isn't it my lucky day."

Agent Ross stood at the entrance to the building, and she passed by him as the guards led her inside.

She was plunked in an interrogation room, hand-cuffed to the desk, and left for a few minutes.

Quickly growing tired of the silence, she began tapping on the desk with her free hand, and stomping her feet under the desk.

"'Hey, hey mama said the way you move

Gon' make you sweat, gon' make you groove

Ah ah child way ya shake that thing

Gon' make you burn, gon' make you sting'-"

The door buzzed open.

"Ah, glad I could get your attention. I still have like the whole song to get through, though."

Agent Ross sat down across from her. "Kazimiera Konstantin, I take it you know why you're here."

"Agent Ross, I haven't got a clue. Care to tell me?"

"Gladly. What are you planning?"

"Other than what I'm going to have for dinner once I get out of here, nothing - well, Tony and I were planning on a weekend trip to the mountains..."

"Let me rephrase: What's Ulysses Klaue planning on doing?"

"I have no freaking clue! What's he got to do with anything?"

"In this case, everything. We received a tip on the arrangements you made with Klaue."

"Arrangements? What arrangements?"

"You know which arrangements."

"Do I sound like I know?"

"The transfer of Vibranium weaponry."

She scoffed. "A tip from who?"

"It was anonymous."

"Oh yeah, yeah, that's totally legit."

"But it's not totally unreliable either."

"Depends on who it was. I've made a lot of enemies in my time."

"I'm not surprised."

"Come on Ross, I'm an Avenger - or, well, I was, kind of..."

"Well it seems like many of the Avengers are criminals nowadays. While we're on the subject, you don't happen to know the whereabouts of Captain Steve Rogers, Sergeant James Barnes, Agent Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson, and Wanda Maximoff?"

"Even if I did I wouldn't tell you."

"Thought as much."

"And just because Klaue may or may not be my biological father, doesn't mean I'm working with him."

"This tip says otherwise."

"Yeah, your sketchy tip!" It seemed that Klaue just kept sneaking up on her.

Ross got to his feet.

"Awesome, are we done?" She moved to stand as well, though awkwardly due to still being attached to the table.

"I'll be right back - don't go anywhere."

"Hilarious."

The door slammed shut behind him. She gave it a few minutes before jumping into action.

She withdrew the piece of Invisi-tech Tony had slipped into her pocket during their rushed goodbye kiss.

"Oh Tones, you know me so well..."


"Any luck?" Secretary Ross asked when Agent Ross joined him in one of the main offices.

"Not yet. She's not talking - I mean, she's talking lots, just not any information that is of any use to us."

The Secretary of State sighed. "Well, keep up the interrogation. I want to get to the bottom of this."

"Yes, Sir. Will do."

Another agent rushed into the room then. "Uh, Sir, Konstantin just vanished."

"What? What do you mean, vanished?"

"As in she was there one second, and gone the next."

"Could it have been an issue with the security footage?"

"Nope. We checked."

"Well check again." Agent Ross followed the agent to the security control room. It couldn't have been more clear though: the interrogation room was empty. The pair of handcuffs lay severed on the floor.

They watched as the door was opened, seemingly by an invisible hand.

Ross cursed. "Son of a-"

I miss Tony so much! Rumour has it though that we might have a cameo from him in 'Black Widow' - whenever we actually get to see that movie. Fingers crossed that will hopefully be soon!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)