Chapter 15
She supposed after a night like the last one, she deserved a reward or two.
It hadn't been easy, telling her family the truth. It was why she had been avoiding it for so long, not wanting to see the hurt or pain in their eyes, knowing that despite the fact that she didn't hold herself with the highest regard, the people in her life cared about her.
But it didn't make it any easier to be around them. To see Rhodey look so determined for her to find a way to live, for the Carter-Sousas' hearts to break. For Pepper's fury when she found out Toni wanted to pass on her company not only because she thought Pepper deserved it but because she was dying.
Even Happy had words with her.
"Ma-am," she heard a voice call out, "I'm going to need to ask you to exit the donut."
She looked down from the giant donut she had nestled herself in, as she attempted to eat away her feelings, and saw Nick Fury standing there, hands on his hips, and looking far less than pleased with her.
So she sighed, as she flew down and slid into a booth across from the man who had been trying to pry into her life for the last few months.
"I told you," she said, raising a brow to look at him, "I don't want to join your super-secret boy band."
He laughed, "No, no, no. See, I remember, you do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?"
She smirked at him, knowing the world's perception of just how alone she was in the world, without a single person in her life who gave a damn.
"It's-" she said, before changing the subject, "I'm sorry. I don't want get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye? Honestly, I'm a bit hung over. I'm not sure if you're real or if I'm hallucinating."
She had read the article detailing her birthday party adventures. She supposed cancelling a large party was bound to gain some suspicions. Imagine her surprise when she read all about getting wasted, talking about peeing in the suit, hooking up with her DJ, and then destroying her mansion.
He smirked at her, and she had a feeling he knew the truth, "I am very real. I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."
"Just my luck," she feigned a sigh. "Where's the staff here?"
"That's not looking so good," Fury ignored her, as leaned forward to touch the palladium pattern growing up steadily on her neck.
"I've been worse," she shrugged, not wanting to go into details about it with him.
"We've secured the perimeter, but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer," she heard a familiar male voice call out.
Well, well, well.
Seemed as if they were finally going to let the cat out of the bag.
"You're fired," Toni said, sizing the man up as he slid into the booth, next to Fury.
"And yet, somehow I don't think you're all that surprised," Clyde Brenton smirked at her.
"This is a complete shock to me," she said solemnly.
"Toni, I want you to meet Agent Clint Barton," Fury said, "However, I gather you've known about his presence for far longer than that."
She gave him an innocent look.
"You can drop the act now, Toni," Harry sighed as he sat down beside her, "I brought them into the loop last night after you told me you were dying."
She glared at her cousin, "But now you gave away my advantage of knowing something they didn't know."
"With all due respect, Miss Stark," Clint leaned forward with a twinkle in his eye, "I'm a SHIELD shadow. I know when someone is keeping me at arms' length. We weren't going to find out anything you didn't want us to find. But once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury."
"Why?" she questioned.
"Why do you think?" Fury asked her, "You've been very busy. You made your girl your COO, you're giving away all your stuff. You gave your best friend your suit. Now if I didn't know any better-"
"Let's just drop the act," she sighed, growing tired of the charade, "What do you want from me?"
"What do we want from you? What do you want from me?" Fury raised his voice slightly, "You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the centre of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with."
She laughed, "Oh, I'm sorry me saving the world has become an issue for you. I wasn't aware of the fact that you were even responsible for me or my actions. Say what you will about the US Government. They might want to take away my suit for selfish reasons, but they never once disputed the fact that I've done great work for the world."
"I found something in SHIELD," Harry interjected, stopping the train wreck of a conversation, "It was why I brought them in. I found a possible cure."
"But before we give it to you," Clint said, returning to the table she'd barely noticed him having left, and placed down an injection in front of her.
"There is no cure," she said firmly, looking down at it.
"This isn't a cure," Fury agreed, "It's lithium dioxide. It'll take the edge off so you can get back to work."
"There's nothing," she said, shaking her head, "I've tried all the combinations. There's nothing I can do."
"I found your father's notes, Toni," Harry said, "The ones SHIELD had. And they have something in it you need to try."
She sighed as she looked around her mansion as the SHIELD agent brought in boxes of her father's research. She had known from Aunt Peg that they had taken the stuff her father had worked on to secure it, and honestly, she hadn't cared. Her father hadn't given a damn about her, and he had gotten her mother killed.
Except now he was apparently going to save her life.
It was laughable.
"Miss?" JARVIS interrupted her train of thought, "Colonel Rhodes is on the phone for you."
"Patch him through, J," she said, tapping on her earpiece as his voice filled her ear.
"Tones?" Rhodey asked, and she grew wary at the tone of his voice.
"I'm here, Caramilk," she greeted, "Is everything okay?"
"I took the suit to the military," he told her, "They got an official contract with Hammer Industries for him to weaponize the suit."
She sighed, "Well we knew it would happen. As much as I hate the idea of his hands on my technology, this isn't an unexpected surprise to either of us."
"They also want to unveil the suit at the Stark Expo," he told her, and she stilled. Was this what Hammer meant when he said he was working on something big? Was he trying to show her up at her own expo?
The nerve.
"Fine," she sighed, "I did promise him a slot if he could get something working. Either way, Rhodey Bear, it's still going to be you who pilot's the suit. I'm the only one who can take away that configuration. And there is no one I trust more with it than you."
"Thanks, Toni," he told her softly, "I love you, you know that right?"
"I love you too," she said, ignoring the looks Clint was giving her. "I'll see you later?"
"You will," he promised her, before ending the call, as Fury walked into her lab just then.
"Fury," she greeted, gesturing for him to sit down.
"It's time to talk, Stark," he said, looking at her. "You know, I knew your godmother? She was my mentor when I first started at SHIELD. Taught me everything I know. That woman is a force to be reckoned with, and I often pitied anyone who stood in her way. You remind me a lot of her. So I really shouldn't have been surprised to gather you know as much as you do about us, given your family."
"Yet you underestimated me anyways," she shrugged.
"Your father wanted you kept in the dark," Fury told her, "He didn't want you brought into SHIELD. He wanted to protect you from all of this and refused to let anything or anyone come near you or your mother. He wanted to keep you safe."
She scoffed at that.
"That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology," Fury said, gesturing to the arc reactor.
"No, it was finished. It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturised it and put it in my chest," she said, looking at him sharply.
"No," Fury disputed, "Howard said the arc reactor was the stepping stone to something greater. He was about to kick off an energy race that was gonna dwarf the arms race. He was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery."
"Just him, or Anton Vanko in on this too?" she said bitterly, remembering the feeling of finding out her father had taken credit for something he didn't do.
"Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin. Anton saw it as a way to get rich. He was going to sell it to terrorists. When your father found out, he had him deported," Fury said, leaning back, "When the Russians found out he couldn't deliver they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next 20 years in a vodka-fuelled rage. Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in, the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco."
"You told me I hadn't tried everything. What do you mean I haven't tried everything? What haven't I tried?" she pushed, trying to get more information.
"He said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started," Fury said, and she nearly laughed.
"He said that?" she asked in disbelief.
"Are you that girl? Are you? 'Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart.
"I don't know where you get your information, but he wasn't my biggest fan," she said bitterly.
"What do you remember about your dad?" Fury cut her off.
"He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me, so it's a little tough for me to digest when you're telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he's passing it down. I don't get that. You're talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school. He hated me from the moment I was born for being a daughter when he wanted a son. He wrote me off and turned his entire focus to finding Captain America's body and reproducing the serum. I was nothing to him, a failure, a woman who could never make it in a man's world. And he made sure I knew how worthless I was, every day of my life."
"That's not true," Fury interjected, and she simply shook her head. It didn't change the truth of her life to have someone disagree with how they interpreted her childhood. She knew the life she lived.
"Well, then, clearly you knew my dad better than I did," she said with a shrug.
"I worked with your father too, Toni," Fury told her softly, "He cared about you, in his own way. More than you ever will know."
"What?" she asked, slightly sharply, knowing he must have been full of shit.
Fury stood then, as Harry and Coulson carried in a large crate in front of her, "I got a two o'clock. Okay, you're good, right?"
"No, I'm not good!" she nearly yelled back at him.
"You got this right?" Fury said, as he turned to go.
"Got what? I don't even know what I'm supposed to get!" she yelled desperately.
"Clint will remain a floater at SI with his cover still intact," Fury said, "You remember Agent Coulson right?"
She nodded, and Fury paused for a second before turning to face her again, "And Toni, remember, I got my eye on you."
She watched speechlessly as the man exited her mansion.
"We've disabled all communications," Clint told her, "No contact with the outside world. Good luck, Stark."
"What if someone needs to each me?" she turned to Harry, worried that her family would panic.
"I let them know we're working on a solution and not to disturb you," he told her gently, "Besides, they can reach me in the case of an emergency.
"Okay," she exhaled. "Okay. Please. First thing, I need a little bodywork. I'll put in a little time at the lab. If we could send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean, Cross Creek, for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that'd be nice."
She gestured at some of the agents, needing them to leave; to give her space to breathe. How could anyone think with so much going on around them?
"I'm not here for that. I've been authorised by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet. Okay?" Coulson told her, looking unamused.
"I think I got it, yeah," she said slightly rattled.
"Enjoy your evening's entertainment," Coulson said, turning his back to leave.
"Stay?" she asked Harry, as she gestured to the box. "I don't think I can go through all of this by myself. Especially if Howard's left anything personal behind. Please?"
"Of course," he told her softly, "We're in this together, Toni. We'll find a solution. I promise. I meant what I said, I'm not just going to sit back and watch you die."
She took a deep breath, before turning to the box. It was time to get started.
She dropped the box 'Property of H. Stark' on her table, opening it up gingerly. There was a set of blueprints for the Arc Reactor, with her father and Vanko's names on it. She threw it to the side after scanning it briefly, there was nothing there she hadn't seen before, except maybe Vanko's name in the design.
There were some clippings as well, of Vanko's defection from the Soviet, and she scanned the article briefly, as it lined up with what she'd been told of him.
She pulled out a set of reels of tape, as she gestured for JARVIS to bring down the movie projector she had installed to watch old movies. Say what they will about updating technology, somethings were meant to be watched the old-fashioned way.
"Everything is achievable through technology," her father's voice boomed out, Harry took her hand in his, knowing how hard it was for her to watch him when she'd tried so hard to ignore her father for over a decade. "Better living, robust heath"
She picked up one if his notebooks, flipping through it carefully to see his notes with various equations in it. Harry was going through another journal, as her father droned on in the background.
"And for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace. I'm Howard Stark, and everything you'll need for the future can be found right here. City of the Future? City of Tomorrow? City of-" he cut off, losing his train of thought, "I'm Howard Stark and everything you'll need in the future can be found right here. So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I would like to personally… Antonia, what are you doing back there? What is that?"
Her eyes flickered back to the screen in surprise to see her father talking to her. She saw her younger self on screen, as Harry looked over at her. She didn't remember any of this, probably having been too young to form actual memories.
"Put that back. Put it back where you got it from," Her father yelled at her as she held a model of a building in her hand curiously, "Where's your mother? Maria? Go on. Go, go, go, go."
He shooed her off the screen with a gesture as a man picked her up and took her away from the camera.
Of course he wanted to get rid of her, even then. Even when she was curious and wanted nothing more than to learn. To build, to create, and to make. She had still cared about his opinion, even then, even when he wanted nothing to do with her.
"All right, I think we got it-" the camera man said.
"I'll… I'll… I'll come in and," Howard hesitated as the film changed to a clip of him drinking the whiskey he'd loved so much. The whiskey that had gotten her mother killed. The clip changed again, as Howard appeared to be rehearsing the same scene again.
"So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I'd like to personally show you," her father trailed off losing his direction, "my ass. I'd like to… I can't… This is… I can't… We have this, don't we? This is a ridiculous way… Everything is achievable through technology"
She reached the last page of his notebook and sighed. This was supposed to save her life? This? She threw it to the side and took a glass of whiskey as she sipped it. Mendel, she needed something to take the edge off.
"Antonia," her father, said, grabbing her attention. "You're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you. And someday you'll realise that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. I know you will. You're clever, and as much as I want to keep you safe, keep your mother safe, I know that is not the life that is meant for you. A woman in our world? Your life is going to be filled with struggle, with opposition, and with heartache. It's why I need you to be better than me, to be stronger. You are my legacy, and I know you will change the world when you figure this out, Antonia. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you."
Her father ended his rambles, and she felt herself shaking slightly.
"What a load of shit," she said, sounding watery, "How dare he say he cared about me? That I was his legacy? He never even told me he loved me to my face, and he goes and leaves a clip saying I'm his greatest creation? He hated me for being a woman, for not being good enough. Who is he to re-write our history and try and pretend it's anything different than what it is?"
"He wasn't a good father," Harry told her softly, "But maybe he did love you, in his own way. It doesn't make anything he did right; not the way he treated you or how he hurt you. But you must also consider that Obadiah was his partner for years. How much did he manipulate for his own greed?"
"None of that matters now," she wiped her eyes, "They're both dead, and this just all proved to be a giant waste of time. We've learned nothing from this."
"Or maybe we just need to look harder," Harry told her, as he stood to make a call.
She sighed, looking down at her father's notebooks.
It was going to be a long day.
It was nearly an hour later when she heard Coulson's voice call out, "I'm sorry Miss, no one is allowed inside right now."
"Excuse me?" Her cousin's voice responded, "Who are you to say I do not have permission to visit my cousin? Does she know that SHIELD is even here?"
Coulson spluttered and Harry stood, "Agent Coulson, my sister is more than welcome to be here. Besides, I asked her to come."
"And I brought coffee," Ava sauntered into the room, "Something which I know Toni very much will appreciate."
She perked up at the sound of her favourite beverage.
"You are officially my favourite cousin again," she said, taking drink from her.
"Even when I'm the one who told her to come over?" Harry frowned at her. "I asked her to bring the coffee!"
"I brought more than just the coffee," her cousin said, as SHIELD agents began dragging in the models of the Stark Expo she'd left at SI for the company to use as a basis for the expo setup.
"Why?" Toni questioned, looking at it as the agents set it up in front of her. "Oh shit."
She stared at the globe in the centre, as understanding filled her head.
Harry squinted at the model looking at both of them.
"I don't see it," he frowned.
"JARVIS, could you kindly Vac-U-Form a digital wire frame? I need a manipulatable projection," Toni commanded, as JARVIS began scanning the model.
"1974 Stark Expo model scan complete, Miss," JARVIS said, as the projection appeared in front of them.
"How many buildings are there?" Toni asked, lifting up the model to bring it to the cente of the room as she turned it upright.
"Am I to include the Belgium waffle stands?" JARVIS asked, and Ava laughed.
"That was rhetorical, J. Just show me," she told her AI. "What does it look like to you?"
"An atom," Ava said proudly.
"Oh shit," Harry echoed he earlier sentiment.
"In which case the nucleus would be here," Toni gestured to the centre, "Highlight the unisphere. Lose the footpaths. Get rid of them."
The model lit up, as she moved to the side the things she didn't want to see any longer.
"What is it you're trying to achieve, Miss?" JARVIS asked her curiously.
"I'm discovering, correction. I'm rediscovering a new element, I believe. Lose the landscaping, the shrubbery, the trees," she said, flicking things to the side. "Parking lots, exits, entrances. Structure the protons and the neutrons using the pavilions as a framework." It began to come together in front of her and she could shake her head in disbelief. She moved her hands up as it filled the room around her, "Dad. Dead for almost 20 years, and still taking me to school."
She clapped it down in her hands, nearly smiling.
"The proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for palladium," JARVIS told them, and Harry laughed aloud as Ava's eye lit up.
"Thanks Dad," she said, analyzing the smaller size of the element.
"Unfortunately, it is impossible to synthesise," JARVIS told them, and Harry's face dropped.
DUM-E's claw reached out to her, looking distressed, but she simply stroked him.
"Get ready for a major remodel, Darlings. We're back in hardware mode," she said, walking out of the room to get what she needed.
She'd show them all the meaning of the word impossible.
And so, she grabbed a hammer, and with Harry and Ava's help, she knocked down the walls of her mansion, drilled into her floor to access the power grid, as she gave her house a makeover to make way for the prismatic accelerator.
The parts went through her walls, as she screwed them together tightly.
"I heard you broke the perimeter," Coulson said, looking far less than pleased with them, "Agent Carter-Sousa."
"We were following Director Fury's instructions," Harry shrugged.
"Yeah. That was, like, three years ago," Toni sassed back, "Where have you been?"
"I was doing some stuff," Coulson said vaguely, with a gesture.
"Yeah, well, me too and it worked," she grinned, "Hey, I'm playing for the home team Coulson, you and all your Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Now, are you gonna let me work or berate me further?"
Coulson pulled out Captain America's shield from the box her father had left her and she sighed.
"What's this doing here?" Coulson asked, looking less than pleased.
"That's it. Bring that to me," Toni gestured.
"You know what this is?" Coulson gave her a look as he handed it to her.
"It's exactly what I need to make this work," she said, needing something to support the heavy weight of the coil. Captain America would help save her life after all. Her father's true legacy keeping alive the one he'd never wanted. "Lift the coil. Go, go. Put your knees into it. There you go. And, drop it. Drop it. Perfectly level. I'm busy. What do you want?"
"Nothing," Coulson sighed, looking at Harry, "Goodbye. I've been reassigned. Director Fury wants me in New Mexico."
She shook her head. Of course Fury wouldn't even follow through on his threat to keep her contained. What did her life matter in the long run to him?
"Fantastic. Land of Enchantment," she said nonchalantly.
"So I'm told," Coulson said simply.
"Secret stuff?" Ava asked him, curiously.
"Something like that," Coulson said, nodding at them, "Good luck."
"Bye. Thanks," she said, shaking his hand. Say what she will about the man, he was nothing if not dedicated.
"We need you," Coulson said finally, looking back at her.
"Yeah, more than you know," she said simply.
"Not that much," he grinned, as he left the room, and she turned her focus back to finishing the accelerator.
They built for hours, until it was finally done, and she stepped back as she turned the key.
"Initialising prismatic accelerator," JARVIS said, as a blue light shot through the device. She turned the wheel on the top.
"Approaching maximum power," JARVIS informed her.
Ava took a wrench as a lever to help steady the turned wheel, as it shot out holes in her wall.
Harry let out a shout, as the light began destroying her workshop, before concentrating on the triangle in the centre, and glowing blue.
She turned it off after a moment, as it continued to glow.
"That was easy," she said, taking off her protective glasses and picked it up carefully with a pair of pliers.
"Congratulations Miss. You have created a new element," JARVIS said.
She carefully placed it into the arc reactor, as it began to power up.
"The reactor has accepted the modified core," JARVIS told them. "I will begin running diagnostics."
"You did it," Harry breathed out and Ava beamed as she pulled Toni into a hug.
It wasn't a confirmation yet, but she knew the truth, even without the numbers.
She had done it, she had found a viable substitute to palladium and she had saved her life.
She wasn't going to die.
And just like that, the burden that had been weighing on her for the last few weeks had lifted.
