"I was raised by my mother, my father a no-good drunk that only served to create me and sponge my mother dry. The only things I can admit that he did that were good was that he gave me a means to live with my condition - though he did have help - and he took me in when I had no one else. My story isn't pretty, and it to tell it adequately would take some time, even abridging it, so listen up and listen well."

Magdalyn's Tale

The universe was huge, infinite really, and full of endless possibilities, countless tomorrows. The future is static, ever-changing, and impossible to know for certain, as it could change by even the slightest action taken - or not taken - today. But certain things - terrible things in this case - seemed like they were meant to be, and seemed inescapable for some individuals. Some would ask if it was fate while others blamed bad luck, though neither was entirely wrong. Either way, both involved parties suffered from this seemingly inevitable course (the younger of the two long since having given up and resigning herself to a fate that she despised more than anything). No one ever could have prepared them for the loss of that particular life, her place thought to have been absolute in their lives...

Tony and Pepper had, over the course of her pregnancy, began to drift apart, his alcoholism getting progressively worse the closer her due date got. He truly did love Pepper with everything that he had, both real and artificial, but the prospect of fatherhood (his own past haunting him now at every waking moment) had frightened him, driving him deeper down the bottle. His own father had left a deep scar in his life, the flesh always raw and exposed, and he knew in the pit of his stomach that he would do the same to his own child if he had any part of its life. It killed him to have to hurt Pepper in this way (the pain clear on her face every time she looked at him), but he reasoned that this was for the best. Pepper knew what was causing the wedge even without him having said the words, and she also knew that he had to deal with it on his own and face his demons by himself. No matter how badly this divide had crushed her, she kept her head up, doing her best not to show it, fighting on for the sake of her child.

When Pepper finally had the baby, her adorable daughter, she had been alone. The Avengers had visited her and the newborn in the hospital, and even Loki had poked his head in for whatever reason, but Tony had not shown up once. She knew (her fears confirmed by Steve) that he had passed out drunk on the day of their daughter's birth, a bottle in his hand, however she took some comfort knowing that he was safe at home. Crazy as it was, she still loved him.

Pepper's faith in him was rewarded, however, she wished that it had been under better circumstances. Somehow, Tony had not completely rid his body of the Palladium when he rediscovered the cure, the remainder falling dormant until the day that his daughter was born (the placenta protecting her in the womb), the Palladium reactivating in her tiny body. Going to the hospital in a panic (the billionaire scared sober), Tony had administered a liquified version into the baby, only to have her reject it in a nearly fatal allergic reaction. Quickly coming up with a solution, Bruce by his side for every step, offering more than advice, they had created a means to save her life - the catch was that they had to administer the serum to her every day for the rest of her life.

From there things only got worse, and by the time that their daughter was one, Pepper had no choice but to completely give up on Tony if she wanted a healthy environment for her daughter. Leaving everything that she had known for what felt like the entirety of her adult life, she moved into a nice little apartment near the suburbs, working again as an office aid. Collecting a nice monthly check from the billionaire (written out for their daughter and her care), Pepper would check in with the others on his behalf, occasionally acting as his caregiver when he had no one else. She never took her daughter with her on these trips, refusing to let Tony anywhere near her before he cleaned up and got his act together (one of the Avenger's stepping in (usually Steve), or in the case when none of them were available, an agent of SHIELD would act as a temporary babysitter). For a time, the single mother thought that her daughter believed Steve was her father, becuase he had been one of the only constants in her life.

Years had passed, and the girl grew up with only her mother and a handsome check from her father to support the both of them (a majority of the money kept in a private account (quickly accumulating to the point where she was rich on her own)). She wasn't stupid though - she saw the anguish in her mother, and she had grown to resent her father for his abandonment and money. What did they need the money for, when they had each other and the pure love of a mother and daughter? What good did the cash do to ease the grueling death of Pepper's heart? She hated her father as much as a person could hate another, and for an eleven year old, that was saying something.

One particularly cold and snowy winter day, when they had been out grocery shopping, there was an accident, and Pepper had been run down when they had been crossing the street in front of their home. The roads were icy, glossed powder-blue with sleet, and the car's tires had not been properly taken care of, and even though the cabby had tried to stop at the sight of the duo crossing the street, it was too late. Metal twisted into bone, innards punctured and gushing from the inside, blood repainting the flesh. Both mother and daughter had been hit, Pepper's injuries far worse from acting as a human shield, though it looked grim for the both of them. Child needing organ transplants immediately, and knowing full well that she wasn't going to make it much longer if only because of internal bleeding, Pepper had the doctors transplant her organs into her daughter, thus saving her life. Pepper died during the operation, but it was with a smile on her bloodied face, knowing that her daughter would be alright.

Again, her friends had been there for her, and Tony was a no show.

After she had been released from surgery (not an hour after she had learned of her mother's death), she saw her father for the first time in a very long time. Even daunted by her now uncertain future and in torment due to the combination of surgery and the loss of her mother, she could not let her anger at him go. She hated him, blamed him even, and that further aggrieved her, knowing that her mother had never intended for them to have such a sour relationship. Pepper had somehow never hated him, and it was that strength that she had admired most in her mother. She doubted that she could ever forgive him for this, for the life that she had had... For the life that had been lost...

But being a minor, she had no choice but to go live with him, and being her last remaining relative, there was no one else to take her in. It was true that he could have just given her up for adoption, but she was his daughter, and as selfish as it was, the last remaining link he had to Pepper. Intimated as he was by the child, a part of him did love her...

Even still, time was not their friend, the girl acting up in all the worst of ways as she became a teenager, her resent growing until she wound up where all girl's with daddy issues go - the strip club. She had the means to support herself ten times over, and the brains for most any job that she could have wanted, but she stubbornly chose to take her clothes off for a living. It seemed as if her sole reason for living was to publicly embarrass her father and shame the name of Stark (worse than he ever did), and to personally make his life as uncomfortable as she possibly could.

She actually wasn't that bad of a person at heart, once one got past the resent she wore like a shield, but she had been so destroyed by her father, as well as irrevocably damaged by the passing of her mother, that she chose to ruin her own life in the name of revenge. She was so young, and so lost...

But that was before she had found love...

In the most unexpected place, at the most unexpected time, with the most unexpected person...

Kind of messed up, I know. I totally hated killing Pepper that way, but as with Phil's death, I felt that this gave it more purpose. I wanted to display the kinder side of Mag, but I felt that the way I had this written, I couldn't do it, so I guess that that will have to wait. At least I managed to paint a decent picture of why Mag hates Tony so much... Right?