School SUUUUUCKS. GAHHHHHHHHHH! Stupid fr-

-I'm going to assume that's my cue. Author, I'll handle the intro this time. You go lie down for a bit.

...Okay.

Well, al-righty then, it's the Author's third day back in 'academic prison', as she calls it, she's still adjusting, so cut her some slack if she's late with updates or whatever, okay? Thank you!

"Why do you get to pick the next movie?" Tyler whined. He knew the sort of movie that his sister liked to watch, usually gruesome shoot-em-ups, and they didn't appeal to him at all.

"Because you picked Back to the Future," Taylor said. "JARVIS, can you pull up all of Dad's action movies, please?"

A British voice responded to her request. "Certainly, Miss Stark. Would you like me to include purely action movies, or movies that have split genres which include action?"

"The second one," Taylor answered, and a list of movies popped up on the screen. She grabbed the remote and started browsing.

"We could watch the sequels to The Matrix," Tyler offered.

"Nah. Those make my brain hurt."

"Terminator?"

"Last time we watched Judgement Day you went off on me for how impossible the ending was."

Tyler fell into a brooding silence, trying to think of another suggestion, while his sister browsed through the movies. Finally she said, "Die Hard or Predator?"

"Predator."

"Well, too bad! We're watching Die Hard. I just wanted you to feel like you had some choice about what we watched."

"Not that movie again! You watch it all the time, try something different. Besides, it's basically plotless."

Tyler regretted the remark the moment he made it and knew he would suffer for it later. "American hero kills Germans. That's basically every WWII movie every made."

Taylor was turning a little bit purple. "I can't believe I murdered a room full of SHIELD agents to get this back," she said in disgust.

Tyler whipped around. This was news to him. "You killed people to rescue me?"

"Yeah... I bet you killed people to get yourself captured, though, so what's the point?"

"What's the point? The point is that I KNOW you have much better control over your powers than I do. I try my hardest to not kill people, and for you it's a choice! It's a choice and you made it wrong, Taylor! Do you know how selfish that is?"

Green was starting to crowd the edges of Tyler's vision and he closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. In, out... in, out. He felt rather then saw Taylor scramble away from him, recognizing the danger almost immediately.

"How about we watch more of a feel-good movie?" she suggested, her voice small.

Tyler opened his eyes and sighed in relief as the green faded away. "Sure. That- that sounds good."

They ended up picking the opposite of a feel-good movie, as they both bawled their eyes out at Good Will Hunting, a movie neither of them had seen before since they weren't fond of dramas. It was really great, though, and knowing Robin Williams would be dead in a few years just made it all the sadder.

When Tony walked into the tear-fest, he was at first unsure of what he was seeing. Both kids had seemed pretty tough when he had seen them earlier, but maybe this was just the stress of a foreign environment taking its toll. Then he recognized the movie on the screen and understood. Pepper had forced him to watch it with her because it was apparently about a troubled genius not nearly as well off as he was, and she wanted him to be thankful for what he had. Tony still maintained that he hadn't shed a single tear during the movie. The footage of that night was deleted because it was glitchy, and not because Tony Stark didn't want his crying on film.

He cleared his throat, drawing the attention of what claimed to be his children. He still wasn't sure about that. "Listen up, kiddos. I'm gonna be gone for a few days, so until I get back, Pepper's your mommy. Listen to her, and don't tell her I said she was your mommy. Then she might think we have a thing, which we do not."

Taylor snickered, because her mom and dad definitely had more then just a 'thing' in the future. Tyler quickly attempted to keep Tony from noticing his sister's laughter by asking a question.

"Where're you going?"

"Afghanistan. Lovely vacation place this time of year, only a small chance you'll get pierced with red-hot shrapnel," Tony replied, completely unaware of the irony in his words.

Tyler and Taylor both stared at their father, jaws gaping, for a few seconds. It was only when he noticed the odd looks they were giving him that they attempted to compose a cover-up.

"What?" Tony asked.

"Nothing," Tyler responded just a little too quickly.

"It's just, we didn't know you had ever been to Afghanistan," Taylor added.

"It does seem like the sort of trip a person would like to forget."

"Yeah, plus you don't really go do weapons demonstrations in the future."

Tony gave Taylor a suspicious look. "I didn't say it was a weapons demonstration. How did you know that?"

She shrugged helplessly while her brother gave her a warning look. "Future?"

"But you just said you thought I'd never been to Afghanistan! You're lying to me, aren't you?"

"No, I just have a crummy memory," Taylor tried to salvage. "I remember you left for a demonstration about this point in time, but I didn't remember where."

Tyler nodded in an attempt to validate his sister's lame story.

Tony gave the two a distrustful look before turning away. "I have to go now, but I think I'll have a couple questions for you when I get back," he said, turning away.

The twins waited with bated breath for him to leave before collapsing on the couch.

"That was close," Taylor muttered.

Natasha was looking through her disguises. She had hair dye in every color of the rainbow, makeup that could change any of her features to make her look unrecognizable, and colored contacts, among other things. What to wear, what to do. She had been released from the hospital earlier then expected by convincing her doctors and Fury that appearing injured would win her sympathy points and help her get close to Stark and his new misfit children.

She picked out some dye that would make her appear brunette instead of redheaded, and carefully concealed her features with makeup. The trick, she thought, was to not put on too much, or else-

She groaned and glared at herself in the mirror. What was she doing? What had she become? She knew the amount of guilt that would come with completing this job. It would lay heavy on her psyche. Children were so much more fragile and innocent then adults. No matter how many carefully worded reassurances Coulson put forth, she knew what would happen to the kids if she did her job. They'd never see the light of day again. Many, many less dangerous threats had been locked up by SHIELD for much less.

"What are you thinking?" she asked herself aloud. Was she thinking that she was going to not complete her job, let the kids go? Of course not. She was a professional. She was just... what was she thinking?

No. Such thoughts were unwelcome and unprofessional. No, no, no. But as she picked up the makeup and continued reapplying it, memories from two very different times played through her head. One was her troubling childhood. The other was the time Agent Barton was sent to kill her.