The Unknown Variable

Nothing that is recognizable from any published or known work belongs to me; JK Rowling and Disney have that privilege.

Enjoy

Tony walked over to a table where he laid multiple sheets of thin parchment down. Yinsen and I were hovering by his side, eager to see what the genius was planning.

Yinsen picked up the parchments, trying to decipher what secrets they held… or understand what the random sketches meant. As Yinsen put them back down I was able to see more of the sketches though the paper because of the back light.

"Clever," I commented to Tony, who gave me a small smile before saying,

"This is our ticket out of here."

Yinsen looked confused and expectantly at Tony, waiting for an explanation. "What is it?" He asked.

"Flatten them out and look." Tony replied, and I immediately did just that, beating Tony by just a millisecond.

The escape plans were now clear, the huge crude metal suit looking up at us from the table. I let out a low whistle, even in a cave I should have expected something like this from Tony.

Noticing the obvious circle in the chest, I knew that the Reactor was going to be the power source.

"Oh," was all Yinsen could say in his shock, "Wow, impressive."

"Well," I said, looking up at the older men, "Let's get cracking!"

The first thing on our to-do list was get the Arc Reactor into Tony. I went to help Yinsen, but Tony had glared at me and told me to wait on the other side of the room.

I had glared at him but complied, Tony hadn't wanted me exposed to anything more than I should. He was protecting me, and I wondered how much he was shielding me from.

The Ten Rings still came every once in a while, you could barely tell an hour from a day here, and took Tony away.

Every time he was gone, it was too quiet in the cave. Yinsen tried to make conversation, but I would just ignore him, lost in my worried thoughts or working on my own plans. When Tony came back, he ignored me and just went back to work… or collapsed on his cot unconscious, but the second one only happened a few times.

I tested a few more theories out while Tony got the Arc Reactor inserted, like how long my invisibility could last, or if the palladium could actually hold my sparks. Both, I had discovered, were an advantage. From what I could tell, I was able to hold the invisibility as long as I concentrated, or wasn't shocked out of it.

The palladium did indeed hold my sparks, I had set a small piece on the floor, and while my invisibility was up, and sent a bolt of electricity at it. The palladium had absorbed it, and was glowing slightly. I fed it more of my blue bolts and it had soon become a metal bit within a whirling storm of electricity. I could pick it up safely, but the sparks in my hand flared and it shoot across the room and hit the wall with a bang, leaving scorch marks in its place.

"Penny! Are you ok?" Tony called over from the table, and I could hear the worry in his voice that was barely masking the pain. It was the first time he had said my name since the plane ride… as far as I knew.

"I'm fine," I called back, my mouth twisted into a frown.

Tony was soon done and I realized that the Ten Rings goons were even more idiotic than I thought, they never even came to investigate the bang.

Now that Tony wasn't in danger of dying, the real work would begin.

Tony and Yinsen were talking in hushed whispers, obviously discussing something that they either didn't want me to know about, or the Ten Rings. Personally I hoped it was the Ten Rings and not me that they were keeping things from.

"…you're insane, the cameras catch everything!" Yinsen hissed to my father.

'We Starks never claimed to be completely sane.' I mentally responded, half wishing to say it out loud.

Before Tony could retort I said quietly, "I might just have a solution for keeping pesky little eyes out of our project."

Tony spun around, obviously not knowing I was there, and replying "How?"

A wide smile appeared on my face as I said, "Leave that to me… just make it look like you're working on that missile."

I stood directly below one of the cameras and shifting into partial invisibility, or at least what I hoped was partial. In theory, since my electricity could create an electric field that hid me from sight, then I should be able to create one that only hid me from cameras; a field that emits the right frequency that blocks the camera's abilities to see me.

I opened up my tablet, and I saw Tony watching me out of the corner of his eye even though he and Yinsen appeared to be working.

I quickly tapped into the camera and started recording, after about an hour of footage, I spliced it into smaller segments and then set it on random rotate before wirelessly hacking into the camera above me and started looping the film.

I repeated the process with the other cameras and soon we were free from all flies on the wall.

"Done," I said tiredly as I put my pad, still open, under a lamp. The charge was full and would last a while, though not forever. But I could trick the solar charge for a bit with a bright lamp.

"Why didn't you tell me you had that… and where did you get it?" Tony asked me, well, demanded really, but I pretended he asked nicely.

I shrugged and replied, "Didn't want to get caught with it… and I created it." I replied before turning away from him and started working on the suit, Yinsen and Tony soon following.

Yinsen caught my eye once Tony was occupied once again, and mouthed, 'You need to tell him, or I will.'

I sighed; I had no clue how I was supposed to tell Tony that he was my father.

It was some time later, and Yinsen and I both convinced Tony to take a break. Not to mention that my Tablet needed to charge and I didn't want the loops to play for too long, lest someone noticed.

I was fiddling with my bits of Palladium; I really wanted to melt them down, but couldn't do it with Yinsen and Tony around. So I improvised by crushing each bit into as much of a sphere as I could, and used my sparks to weld them together. It was crude, but it hopefully would work.

Yinsen and Tony were playing a game that I couldn't remember the name of, but I knew it was annoying Tony not being able to work. He looked a lot better since the Arc was place; he shaved and didn't look as hackled as before… though he still looked like he had seen better days.

"Good," Yinsen said as the dice landed on the small board, "Good roll, good roll."

"You still haven't told me where you're from." Tony commented, lifting the top of a nearby teapot to see if there was anything left within.

"I'm from a small town called Galmira. It's actually a nice place." Yinsen replied.

"Got a family?" Tony asked, and I was surprised, small talk was never something Tony took part in… as far as I knew anyway.

"Yes," Yinsen replied, still looking at the board, "and I will see them when I leave here."

Something about the way that he said that struck me as odd, but I dismissed it as a man missing his family.

"And you Stark?" Yinsen asked, shooting me a look, I narrowed my eyes, silently warning him. If he blew it before I could explain…

I couldn't see Tony's expression, and part of me didn't want to, but the silence that followed that question was heavy, until Tony replied lowly,

"No."

"No?" Yinsen repeated, shooting me a look. He obviously was wondering what the full story was. He only knew what he guessed and observed which wasn't a lot … I hoped.

"So, you're a man who as everything," He paused for a moment, catching my eye, "and nothing."

I knew Tony noticed Yinsen's not-so-discreet look at me, but he didn't turn around. Guilt flared up in my chest, but so did all of uncertainties… all of my insecurities came rushing back, but I pushed them away. I would talk to Tony when I was ready…

Yinsen must have noticed something from my expression because he glared before opening his mouth to say something.

'Fine' I mouthed to him, he snapped his mouth closed and nodded to me once before standing up and walking to the other side of the cave to give us some sort of privacy.

I sighed as I walked over; I had practiced this talk many times in my mind, each one different, with different reactions from Tony. In other words, I had no idea how this was go; I was terrified.

I sat down besides Tony; I was looking down at me feet, avoiding his gaze. There was an uncomfortable silence, before I spoke, barely above a whisper.

"I never told you much about my past," I stated, and in that instant I had Tony's full attention. He peered at me with a curious expression. I took a deep breath before continuing, "My mother and father were young when they first met, about eight years old at the time and became best friends. Over the years though, as they both grew, they became so much more.

"They started dating when my mother was sixteen and my father almost seventeen. My father had gotten into university early, and my mother was so proud. She thought that he was going to propose."

I looked at Tony out of the corner of my eye; he had a pained expression on his face, most likely thinking how, to his knowledge, my story was so similar to his own.

"But they were young, and weren't exactly careful, so my mother became pregnant. We were never sure how my Grandfather," I spit out this word as if it would burn my tongue, "on my father's side, found out, but before Mom ever got the chance to tell my father the news, he took her aside, and told her … ok … he threatened her to leave.

"He was determined that my father was not ready for a child, and it would only ruin his future. Grandfather was a very powerful and influential man, and my mother was terrified that he would do something to her and the baby, so she staged a huge fight with my father, right as he went to propose, and left."

I couldn't bear to look at Tony, to see if he had put the pieces together yet, and now that I had started I couldn't stop until the whole story was out.

"Grandfather died before I was born," 'thankfully' I added silently "but he was a drunk, and in those months before he died, every time he was intoxicated, he would write my mom and me letters, horrible letters, that I wasn't supposed to read." I admitted that part.

Mom had always tried to keep me away from Howard's letters, but I had found them when I was ten, and the contents had made me cry for a week.

"The only good thing he ever did was set up an overseas trust fund for me and my mom, but the trust came with a clause, she had to never tell my father about me, or we would lose the money.

"Mom didn't care at first about the money, and was determined, once she heard that he died, to tell my father, but she didn't. I wasn't the healthiest child growing up, and she needed the money to take care of me. She was stuck between telling my father and keeping me well.

"About three years ago," I continued, my voice low, "Mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she made me swear, on her deathbed, that I would find my father and somehow fix what was done."

I managed to look up into Tony's gaze. His eyes betrayed his thoughts, his mind had put the pieces together, but his consciousness refused to acknowledge what was right in front of him.

I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting back tears, and I pulled my tablet out of my sleeve, and opened it up.

"I never showed you a picture of my mom," I tapped two icons, and a headshot of my mom appeared on the screen. It had been taken four years ago, right before she was diagnosed. Dr. Millod, the doctor who had been practically my father growing up, had taken the picture.

It was in the hospital gardens; Mom was leaning on a maple tree, the green leaves framing her figure, making her eyes sparkle. It was one of the only times I saw my mom completely happy, without the pained echo in her eye.

"My name really isn't Piper Penelope Telnets," I continued, my voice becoming choked, 'he's going to hate me' I saw Tony look at me in surprise.

I silently handed Tony the Tablet, "My mom's name was Evanna Ellyn Grace," I heard Tony gasp in recognition of both the name and the picture.

Tears were starting to pool in my eyes as I continued, "My real name is Penella Piper Maria…" I paused as watched as Tony stood up at the sound of his mother's name and walked off, not even letting me finish.

"Stark." I whispered softly to myself, silent tears now streaming down my face.

You all can hate me all you want for cutting off there… but you don't have to wait long, I'm updating pretty quickly…

(sorry for the long wait, I was at camp last week and then the stupid computer decided not to work for me)

oh and so you know I am currently (almost) always two-three chapters ahead of where you all are… yup, so most of the wait is just on my Beta getting the chapters back to me.

To the reviewer Sarahh12 (from a while ago) who I could not reply to because the PM feature is turned off, what did you mean when you said 12k?

Thanks for all of your guy's (and gal's) dedication to this story.

Cp