Chapter One

Aubrey's hands twitched nervously as she sat on the comfy leather couch on the second floor of Stark Industry Headquarters. Men in suits, and women in tidy skirts bumbled around her, making calls and answering important phonecalls. The natural flow in the building made her feel even more out of place, like a rock disrupting a river's current.

She checked her watch for the fifth time in minute, and sighed when she watched the seconds tick by. Her interview was supposed to start fifteen minutes ago, but here she was, growing more and more anxious with each passing minute. Did they forget about her? The interview process had already been grueling enough as it was; she had met with three different people over the course of a month, jumping through hoops for her chance at landing an internship at the greatest weapons manufacturing industry in the world.

It was her last interview, with Obediah Stane himself; or it least it was supposed to be her last interview. It had been almost twenty minutes now and Obediah still hadn't shown up. His assistant had told Aubrey to sit on the couch and wait for him to finish with his board meeting, but now her anxiety about the interview was morphing into annoyance. She had expected this from the notorious Tony Stark, but didn't realize Obediah Stane was the same.

"Aubrey Howell?" She glanced up to see a burly, bald man standing in front of her. He had a welcoming smile on his face as he reached out to shake her hand. Aubrey stood, gripping his large hand firmly. "Sorry about the wait; my meeting went longer than expected."

"It's no problem at all, Mr. Stane." Aubrey hoped her smile didn't give away her annoyance.

Obediah opened the door to his office, gesturing for her to follow. "Please, come in."

Aubrey took in the room as she walked through the door. It seemed almost comical; the room was bigger than her apartment, and yet the only furniture in it was a desk in the centre, and a table topped with scotch off to the side.

Aubrey took a seat across from Obediah, who flipped through a manila folder with her name on it. The folder contained nothing more than her CV and her reference letters. "You're interested in our internship program then?"

"Yes, sir," Aubrey replied, her voice clear. "I just graduated from MIT with a mechanical engineering degree."

"Smart girl," Obediah muttered, squinting down at the papers in his hand. "What exactly do you hope to get from this position?"

Aubrey had prepared for these questions and her answer flowed easily from her mouth: "I want to learn from the best, really. No company has made the technological advancements that Stark Industries has in the past thirty years. I want to work on projects that will constantly be pushing me intellectually. I want to be on a team that will create technology that will push the limits of what we think current technology is capable of."

Obediah finally looked up, meeting her gaze. "And you think you can keep up? We have dozens of applicants applying for this position every day. What can you bring to the table that they can't?"

Aubrey smiled, forcing herself to keep his gaze even though long eye contact made her uncomfortable. "I'm a hard worker, Mr. Stane. I know you hear this all the time but I graduated with honours in three years. I completed three thesis projects in my final year at MIT, in robotics, weaponry, and nanotechnology. My life revolves around my research."

Obediah closed the manila folder, smiling at the girl sitting in front of her. "You certainly seem like a great fit for the position. I look forward to see what you can do here at Stark Industries."

Aubrey froze, her smile slipping off her face in shock. "Wait, that's it? I get the job?"

Obediah laughed, standing and walking around the desk to shake her hand once more. "We knew that you'd be a great fit for the position. I just like to meet the new recruits myself before they start. I'll have my assistant call you later this week to get your schedule sorted."

"Thank you, thank you!" Aubrey gushed. She realized it may have been unprofessional but she couldn't contain her excitement. "I-I can't thank you enough. This has been my dream since I was 18!"

Obediah chuckled, walking with her towards the door. "I appreciate the enthusiasm. We look forward to having you on our team."

Aubrey left the office, thanking Obediah once more before he shut the door behind her. She wanted to jump up in joy, and scream to everyone in the building that she just got her dream job. Instead, she called her mom, excitedly telling her the good news.

Behind the door, Obediah stood, sighing and walking back to his desk. He always found this part of his job tedious, despite the fact that it only took ten minutes. The entire 'interview' was all for show, based on psychology studies showing that having someone as powerful as Obediah Stane accepting candidates into the company would boost morale and improve work ethic. In reality, the three previous interviews from human resources made the decision long before Aubrey stepped into his office. To Obediah, Aubrey was just another engineer, and he would soon forget that they had even met.


Two months into the internship, Aubrey was still just as excited as her first day. The hours were long, and many of them were spent running simulations or scribbling equations on notepads rather than actually creating anything, but she still loved every second of it. Her team consisted of seven other engineers, creating any idea that Tony Stark came up with. The current project was a missile, more powerful than anything they had ever created. The Jericho missile.

Aubrey had started midway through the project, when most of the design was already complete. All they had to do was sort out some bugs with the release of the sixteen MIRV's from the main warhead. In simulations, the casing of the warhead was not completely falling off when reaching it's set distance, and the MIRV's inside would explode before reaching their target. Aubrey suggested integrating a pressure-release latch that would push the casing off the warhead when it was one kilometre to target.

Aubrey stood next to her team, chewing on her fingernail as she ran through the simulation with the new design. She watched the coding being written on the screen as the design for the missile was holographically pieced together. She hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath until a green box with seven letters flashed on the screen.

SUCCESS.

The team hollered, turning to each other and congratulating one another. A wide grin spread across Aubrey's face as the scientist next to her, Dr. Reed, slung an arm over her shoulder. "We did it!" he cheered.

"I'll send these designs to Mr. Stark right away," Dr. Humphrey, the head of the team, decided, tapping away at the keyboard. "The Jericho Missile will be in production within the next week."

The group had decided three weeks ago that when the Jericho design was finally complete that they'd celebrate with a round of the most expensive whiskey that Ben's Pub had to offer. The pub was only a few blocks away, and it was always filled to the brim with lawyers, doctors, or trust fund babies trying to drown out their stress with thousand dollar bottles of booze. Tony Stark always gave a generous bonus to the engineers when they finished a project, and it would easily cover the cost of a night at the pub.

The only problem, of course, was the fact that Aubrey wasn't turning 21 for another four months, and she wouldn't fool anyone trying to sneak in. She was cursed with round cheeks that made her look three years younger than she actually was. "Have fun tonight, everyone, I'll see you tomorrow!" Aubrey tried to make her voice as nonchalant as she could, but the thought of missing out on the celebration stung. She told herself what she had been saying throughout her entire life: it'll pay off in the end.

Her social life in high school and university had been non-existent, as she spend all her free time combing through research journals, and tinkering around in the workshop. Unlike Tony Stark, academics hadn't come easy to Aubrey. She didn't get straight A's by doing the bare minimum. She didn't build engines and circuit boards before she was ten. She just loved what she did and worked hard her ass off to get where she was.

"Ah, sorry Aubrey," Dr. Reed sighed, looking guitily at her, her eyebrows raised. "We'll celebrate again on your birthday."

"Don't worry about it," Aubrey grinned. "I have to finish up some paperwork anyway."

"See you tomorrow, Aubrey!" he said with a wave, chasing after the other men who were already halfway across the room by now, eager to be holding scotch glasses in their hands. Aubrey smiled one last time, as she watched Dr. Reed jog out of the room. Only once he was gone did she sigh, running a hand through her hair. She knew it was stupid to feel left out, but she was hoping that once she graduated she'd finally be able to make some friends.

While her team was walking to the pub, preparing to party like the legendary Tony Stark, Aubrey was setting herself up at the team's computer, a stack of folders piled next to her massive coffee mug. She took a sip, grimacing at the bitter taste, before powering on the computer. Despite the fact that she worked at the biggest tech industry in the world, the computer was hardly used. Most of the team relied on Stark's latest AI systems and holographic design software, and only used the computer when drafting up reports.

When the computer was on, Aubrey slipped some headphones over her ear's and let the music take her into another world. She had heard that classical music was better for focusing, so she always played it when doing tedious work, despite the fact that she'd rather listen to anything else.

There were already some files open on the computer, but she ignored them and instead opened Jericho's design file. As with any research project, Stark Industries liked to keep a detailed account of every step of the production process. It would take hours for Aubrey to transfer her nearly illegible scribbles to the Stark database. But then again, it wasn't like she had anything better to do.

As Aubrey typed, her eyes kept drifting to one of the other open folders labelled finances. She wasn't exactly sure why she felt the urge to look over the file, especially since she wouldn't understand any of the finance jargon, but her curiosity was persisting. She knew she could get in trouble for digging around in Stark's finances, but Aubrey had always been horrible at resisting her curiosity. So after only an hour of working, Aubrey gave in and opened the file.

Like she had expected, she didn't understand any of it. It was mostly numbers and abbreviations that she didn't understand. The only thing she could wrap her head around was the sheer number of zero's on the page. No wonder Tony Stark was able to live the way he did if he was making this much money on sales. Aubrey scanned the page, landing on a line with three familiar letters: ATL. The Atlantis Project.

The Atlantis Project was one of Stark's most recent and successful series of weapons. It was named as a joke that the weapons could have sunk Atlantis. Missiles, explosives, non-lethal stun grenades... you name it, the Atlantis Project had it. Aubrey had studied the grenades in her lab at college. She smiled as she remembered when one of the lab techs had accidentally set off the grenade in the lab. At least ten people, including Aubrey, had been temporarily paralyzed for twenty minutes as they waited for the effects to wear off. In the end, no one was hurt, but everyone had reffered to the tech as Grenade for the rest of the year.

Aubrey clicked on the Atlantis Project, trying to ignore the sick feeling in her gut when she thought of how much trouble she could get in for snooping. Her eyes scanned the page, taking in the information. She was able to understand some of the code: most of the weapons were sold to the US Army or Navy, but one line drew her eyes. It was a sale made on June 10th to the US Air Force, and was enough money to cover the cost of the entire project. Normally, this wouldn't cause any concern, except for the fact that a day before, the same amount was sold to the Air Force. While Aubrey didn't understand the business side of Stark Industries, something about the sale nagged at her. Why would Stark Industries sell the exact weapons to the US Air Force one day apart?

The engineer dug around some more, comparing the sale on June 10th to other sales of the Atlantis Project. Even to the untrained eye, there were some discrepencies between the sales. Missing data, money being moved around from one offshore bank to the next before finally reaching Stark Industries, restricted access... the list goes on.

Maybe this is normal? Aubrey thought, sitting back in her chair. But she knew in her heart that something was being covered up.

Aubrey pulled a USB from her bag. She knew the risks of downloading sensitive information on her USB but she had to get to the bottom of this before bringing it up to Mr. Stark. She knew she couldn't do it by herself, but Aubrey knew exactly who could help.


Two days later, Aubrey was pulling up to her family home in Salem, Oregon. She had called her mom on the drive, saying that Mr. Stark gave her paid vacation time for their success at completing their project. After she hung up on her mom, she called her supervisor, saying that she was violently ill and wouldn't be much help at work and to start without her. Dr. Humphrey was nice about it, if not a little disappointed that she'd be missing their promotion of the Jericho Missile to Mr. Stane and Mr. Stark. Aubrey tried to act disappointed as well, but she didn't think either of them would care if she missed the meeting. She hadn't seen Obediah since their first interview, and she never even met Tony Stark. To them, she was merely another face in the crowd of talented engineers.

Even though she was close with her family, Aubrey paused as she stood at the door. Was she supposed to ring the doorbell or just walk in? She hadn't visited them since joining MIT.

As it turned out, Aubrey didn't have to do anything, because before she could react, her mom had whipped open the door and enveloped her in a hug. "Oh sweetie, I'm so happy you're home! We've all missed you so much."

"Thanks mom," Aubrey said, trying not to breathe as she hugged her mother. Karen Howell had a bad habit of dosing herself in the strongest vanilla perfume on the market. Anything closer than arms length away made Aubrey gag. "Where is everyone?"

"Your sister is upstairs working on God knows what, and your father just ran out to grab some food for dinner. We didn't realie you'd get here this quick," Karen hummed, opening the door wide for Aubrey to step in. The house was decorated just the same as when Aubrey left it, and as usual, there were about six different vanilla scented candles burning around the house.

"I'll go up and say hi," Aubrey mused, trying to sound nonchalant. Karen's eyebrows raised; Aubrey had always been much closer with her mother than her little sister.

"Oh, don't you want to catch up first?" Karen asked. Aubrey smiled, hoping that her mother didn't see through her facade.

"I'll be right back down, I just want to see how she's doing," she reassured. Before Karen could say another word, Aubrey was bounding up the stairs in the direction of her sister's room. She walked down the hall, realizing that she had been in such a rush that she hadn't even bothered to kick off her dirty shoes before walking on the carpet. She left faint shoeprints with each step.

Before reaching her sister's room at the end of the hall, Aubrey paused at the room just before. Her bedroom. When she was in high school, that room was her safe space. She spent hours sitting at her desk, burning her retinas as she stared at her homework on her laptop. She would only ever leave for meals or for the daily Howell game night. Usually Uno or Go Fish, but sometimes they would play Monopoly if it wasn't a school night.

Aubrey considered pushing the door open to see if the room was the same as when she'd left it, but she decided she had more important things to do, and moved on. Her knuckles rapped gently against her sister's door, before she turned the knob without waiting for an answer. As she expected, Jean was sitting at her massive desk, surrounded by monitors and a headset covering her ears. On one screen, Jean was shooting some bad guys in a first-person shooter game, in the second, she was watching anime without the subtitles, and in the third, a stream of code was flowing across the screen.

Typical Jean Howell.

"Hey nerd," Aubrey said affectionately, yanking Jean's headset off her. At first, Jean looked enraged, but when she saw who it was, she rolled her eyes.

"I should have known." That was about as close as Jean could get to a 'welcome home.' "What're you doing here?"

"Can't I just visit family on my day off?" Aubrey asked, pulling up a chair next to Jean's desk. Jean's steely grey eyes bore into Lily's blue ones.

"I'm just shocked you're not downstairs with mom, boring her ears off talking about robots." Another eye roll. Classic 16 year old.

Aubrey's face screwed up. "I'm sorry, but what part about robots is boring to you?" At that, Jean snorted, finally showing the first hint of a smile. She could have replied with another sarcastic remark, but she held her tongue. Aubrey and Jean's relationship consisted of bickering and constantly trying to prove to the other who was the smartest. Their dad, Kevin, called it the 'dick measuring contest of the mind.'

"So what are you really doing here? Because I saw on your schedule that you're supposed to work today," Jean said. Aubrey didn't even bother asking how Jean knew Aubrey's schedule, considering how Jean's tech savvy mind basically had access to everything.

"I need a favour," Aubrey admitted. She pulled the black USB from her pocket, tossing it into her sister's hands. "But you have to promise not to tell anyone. I mean it."

Jean grinned, closing her anime and plugging the USB into her computer. "I like the sounds of this. What am I looking at exactly."

Aubrey took in a breath before explaining what she had seen on the computer, and stressed that she just wanted a second opinion before bringing up the issue to Tony Stark. She wasn't sure whether she wanted Jean to confirm that she was right, or to shut her down and tell her that she was paranoid. Aubrey wouldn't be able to decide which option she actually wanted, until Jean gave it to her.

"Gotcha. Let's see what shady business is going on in Stark Industries." Jean pulled her headphones back over her head before getting to work. She was clicking open various files, comparing different transactions. Aubrey didn't say anything, knowing not to bother her when Jean was like this.

Even though Aubrey and Jean were constantly trying to prove who was the smartest sister, they both knew the truth: Jean. The high schooler had a gift for seeing patterns in what appeared to be a clusterfuck of information. Science came easy to her, to the point that she was working at a college level in her junior year of high school. She coded for fun, hacking into databases just for the hell of it, and creating systems with no intention of sharing them with the world. While Aubrey would spend hours trying to work out equations, Jean could see the answer in minutes.

There was no question on who was smarter between the two, but it was also clear who deserved to have the wealth of knowledge.

After fifteen minutes of Aubrey anxiously trying to stay quiet, Jean finally pulled off her headset and turned to her older sister. "Okay, look here."

Jean pointed to the screen. On it, she had two transactions from the Stark financial records. The first was the June 10th sale that Aubrey had found suspicious, and the second was the sale to the Air Forces from June 9th. Just by looking at them, she could see the missing data in the June 10th file. "Just by looking at it, you'd think that the data is incomplete. There's some inconsistencies between the files, that you wouldn't really pick up on unless you compared the two transactions."

"What kind of inconsistencies?" Aubrey asked, her mouth dry. She didn't like where this conversation was heading. Was Stark Industries siponing money from the US Air Force and covering it up as a weapons sale?

"The big one is where the money is coming from. In the first sale, the money is being sent from an account set up by the Air Force for transactions like these. These accounts usually only hold a certain amount of money; enough to cover the cost of the sale and then some. There's no way for Stark Industries to charge the Air Force twice because there simply wouldn't be enough money in the account. That, and the government would realize what was happening instantly and move in on Stark."

"So where's the money coming from then?" Aubrey was even more confused. So if Stark Industries wasn't stealing money from the Air Force... where were they getting all this money?

"It's been wired through a series of offshore banks, to make it untraceable. But whoever did this didn't know how to cover their tracks. Like I said, the data appears to be missing, but it's not really. It's just encrypted," Jean went on. "And not very well, may I add. It clearly wasn't a computer scientist doing this. My software should be able to sort through the code fairly easily."

"Software?" Jean flashed a cheeky smile at her sister.

"Designed it myself." Aubrey huffed. Of course Jean had some top secret software that she had developed. "This should take about an hour, maybe you want to go see how mom is doing? She was pissing herself when you told her you were coming to visit."

Aubrey contemplated it for a moment but shook her head. She was too wrapped up in this conspiracy theory to be able to pretend that she was just coming home from work for the weekend. She would go visit with her family later; after they had sorted this entire mess out. "Who do you think is doing this?" She pointed at the screen.

Jean shrugged. "My guess is someone pretty high up. Stark must have a great finance team, and if you were able to pick this out just from screwing around for a bit, they've probably known for a while. So either someone is making some pretty believable excuses, or they're being paid off. Either way, Stark probably doesn't care as long as the money is coming into his account. It's not like anyone is embezzeling money, they're just making some shady sales."

Aubrey gaped. "Could Tony Stark be behind this?"

Jean rolled her eyes, effectively answering her sister's question. "If Tony Stark was behind this, there'd be no trace of the money, even with my software. He's too smart to get caught."

Aubrey thought: then who could be behind the shady money in Stark's finances? If it wasn't Stark, it probably wasn't Mr. Stane either; he was just as powerful as Mr. Stark, but with a conscience. Pepper Potts? Aubrey had never met the assistant, but she knew her for being the one to clean up after all of Mr. Stark's messes. Maybe she was getting sick of being Stark's nanny, and was making up enough money before she could ditch.

"Whoever it was, was clearly doing their business on the lab computer. They probably knew that no one uses it and it would be hard to trace their digital footprint. There's probably a million computers in that whole business, it was just dumb luck that it was one in your lab. And that they forgot to close the files," Jean explained. Aubrey nodded along. The lab was usually filled with technicians and engineers; the culprit probably got interrupted before they could finish looking over the records.

There was a quiet beep and both sister's turned to the computer. The file was now looking more complete, with the missing data filled in as it should be in a normal report. Aubrey's eyes scanned the page, taking in what she could understand. When she reached the sales origin, she froze.

Afghanistan.

"Wait, someone's selling weapons to Afghanistan? Isn't that the exact opposite of what you're suppose to do?" Jean asked. When she turned, Aubrey was already walking towards the door. "Wait-"

"If someone's secretly selling our weapons to Afghanistan, I have to tell Tony Stark. You said it yourself that he couldn't have been the one behind this, so he needs to know." Aubrey was wearing an expression that Jean had never seen on her sister before. She was determined, terrified, and hopeful all at the same time. Jean grabbed the USB stick from her computer and tossed it to Aubrey, who caught it easily. She was in such a rush that she almost forgot the key evidence.

Aubrey rushed down the stairs, hardly even noticing her mother's call from the kitchen. "Something came up at work, I have to go!" she called back, not waiting for Karen to come say goodbye. She felt a twinge of guilt for basically ignoring her mother in the whole twenty minutes that she'd been home, but Aubrey knew that Karen would want to know every little detail about why Aubrey was leaving so suddenly, and she couldn't risk it. If someone was really selling weapons to Afghanistan, Mr. Stark would have to hear it in person, and immediately.

Her father pulled up into the driveway just as Aubrey reached the car. Kevin had a big grin on his face, with two brown bags in his arms. "Hey there, sweetheart, you just get here?"

"I'm actually leaving already," Aubrey admitted. "Work called me back in for an emergency."

Kevin's face crumpled, and he stepped forward to stop his daughter from leaving. His arms were full, so he couldn't physically stop her. "Can't you stay the night? You just drove 14 hours to get here, you need to rest."

"That's what caffeine is for," Aubrey said with a smile, quickly kissing his cheek. "Love you dad. I'll text you when I'm home."

"Aubrey, please-" His words were cut off by Aubrey slipping into the car and shutting the door. Aubrey mouthed 'sorry' through the window, before starting up her car. She did feel bad, but she knew the sacrifice was worth it. She could always come back down in a few weeks to make up for lost time.

Aubrey had a plastic bag full of empty energy drink cans in the passenger seat, and she leaned over and fished around for a full one. Even though the air conditioner had been blasting the entire drive, the drink was still warm. It didn't matter though, she needed the caffeine to get her through the long drive. She only stopped a total of three times: twice to fill up on gas, and once to squat behind a bush and relieve herself of the mass amount of Red Bull she consumed.

Fourteen hours later, Aubrey Howell was back in front of Stark Industries.


Unsurprisingly twenty four hours of driving, 30 hours of no sleep, and ten energy drinks did not have positive effects. She was barely functioning as it is, but she was well past the point of common sense. Aubrey knew she must have looked like a crazy person, running up the stairs with her red hair tied in a messy bun, stains from the energy drinks dotted over her white shirt, and large bags under her eyes. She flashed her badge to anyone who attempted to stop her. She had a mission and was not going to stop until she met with Tony Stark.

From down the hallway, Aubrey saw a flash of auburn hair. Pepper Potts.

"Pepper!" Aubrey called, sprinting towards her. Like Mr. Stark, Pepper and Aubrey had also never had the chance to meet before, so when Pepper saw a girl who looked like she spent the night in a jail cell racing towards her, she immediately called for Happy Hogan to come to the rescue.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it right there," Happy ordered, stepping in between the two women.

"I need to talk with Ms. Potts right away. Actually I need to talk to Tony." Aubrey's words spilled out of her mouth the same way water spills out of a glass when it's knocked over. She was messy, and her lack of sleep in over 24 hours was showing. "It's important."

"Tony's not here right now, I'll take you down to security to get this sorted out," Happy said, guiding her away from Pepper. It was an obvious lie; if Happy was here, then it was most likely that so was Tony. Plus, Aubrey had seen a flashy Audi parked in front of the building when she arrived. He was probably here for the team pitch of the Jericho.

Happy's grip on Aubrey's arm was firm, and she hated the way he was talking to her like a crazy person. "Let go of me!" Aubrey snapped, ripping her arms away from Happy's hands.

Just then, Obediah stepped out of the door that Pepper was just about to walk into. From the few seconds that the door had been open, Aubrey saw a glimpse into the office. Leaned casually back into the chair with a glass of scotch in hand, was Tony Stark. Aubrey called out his name, and Tony's eyes widened, ducking away from view. He sees a messy girl calling his name and he instantly thinks that it must be some girl he humped and dumped at a party.

"What's going on here? You're making a scene," Obediah said, trying to look calm. He waved some people past, as if to say 'there's nothing to see here.'

"I found something in the Stark Industry finance records." Aubrey finally got out a sentence that caused everyone to look at her, and not just because she was causing a scene. Happy's grip on her loosened on her, and she jumped away. "I really need to speak with Mr. Stark about this."

Obediah let out a long breath, taking a few steps closer so that no one else could hear. "Look, why don't you come with me to my office so we can talk this over?"

It sounded like an invitation, but Aubrey knew it was an order. She nodded, following the burly man away. Happy tried to come with them but Obediah waved them off.

"Should I tell Tony?" Pepper called and Obediah immediately shook his head.

"No use bringing him into this until we know what we're dealing with." In other words, 'this girl is probably crazy and I'll handle it.'

Aubrey followed Obediah into his office down the hall. She had been there only once before, when she was first interviewed by him. It was also the last time they had spoken. It struck her as odd that these would be the two only times she would enter the office, but Aubrey brushed it off. Obediah was a powerful man, of course he wouldn't be inviting interns up to his office.

Once in his office, Aubrey refused to sit down. She had been sitting in her car for far too long and was jittery from all the caffeine.

"Now," Obediah began. "What's all this about?"

"When I was drafting up my reports on the Jericho missile, I found something. The SI finances were already open on the computer... I didn't mean to snoop but I found something. I think someone working at Stark Industries is selling weapons to Afghanistan," Aubrey explained. She held out the USB for Obediah to take. He looked at it for a long moment before finally grabbing the USB and plugging it into his own computer. "If you look at the sale made on June 10th, you see it was ran through multiple offshore accounts to try and cover the tracks. My... I ran it through a software and found the money came from Afghanistan."

"How did you do this?" Obediah asked, looking stressed. He must have realized that Aubrey wasn't as crazy as she looked just moments ago.

"I just figured it out," Aubrey said quietly. She felt bad for not giving Jean the credit she deserved, but something was telling her to keep Jean's name out of this. Sure, Aubrey could trust Obediah, but she just wanted to be careful. She didn't know how big this was.

"Does anyone else know about this?" Obediah asked, his face serious. His brows were furrowed and his mouth was pulled down in a frown.

"Just me," Aubrey lied.

"Let's keep it that way. Until we get this figured out, I don't want news of this leaking. I'll have to tell Tony of course, but we'll get to the bottom of this," he promised. He straightened up, pulling away from his computer. "I appreciate you bringing this to my attention."

Aubrey let out a breath, relieved that this whole mess was about to be solved. She was also relieved that Obediah did not seem upset that she had snooped through Stark's finances. He didn't really seem to care how she found out, just that she did. "Thanks for listening to me."

Obediah forced out a smile, guiding her towards the door. "You look like you could use some sleep. Look, why don't you take the day off, get some rest, and then we'll regroup in the morning and figure out what to do? I have to make some calls in the meantime to try to figure out who could have done this."

Aubrey wanted to protest, but she had nothing to say. At this point, her mind wasn't functioning anymore. Maybe a few hours of sleep wasn't such a bad idea. "And you'll let me know when you find anything out?"

"Of course," Obediah said, opening the door for her. If she wasn't so exhausted, Aubrey would have realized that he was trying to force her out as fast as possible, just like in their interview. "You know, I knew you were going to be a great addition when we first met."

Aubrey blushed. She never knew what to do with herself when she recieved compliments. "Thanks, Mr. Stane."

"Please, call me Obie."

"Oh, okay, well then thanks Obie," Aubrey said with a soft smile. It was the last thing she said to him before he gently closed the door behind her.

Aubrey left the building, feeling relieved to get the information off her chest. She was confident that Obediah would handle the situation, and she would be back in the lab in no time, like nothing had changed.

How wrong she had been.

A/N: Welcome to the new fic! I've never written an Avengers fic before but after watching the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I was dying to dip my toes in this fandom. This idea came to me while rewatching the first Iron Man movie and I hope you all are as excited as me to see what comes of it! I have to say though, writing the sciency scenes is a lot harder than it sounds and I'm quite nervous that the FBI is going to show up at my door any second now because of my Google history about missiles.

These first few chapters are going to be mostly backstory but I hope you'll stick with it! It'll be an eventual Bucky Barnes x OC, but gotta develop the main character first, you know?

Aaaand finally, if you have any Bucky fic recommendations, please drop them in the reviews as I am in desperate need of more Bucky content.