Chapter Six
June 12th, 2011
The morning started like any other in the Raavi household. Sesha’s piano practice – muted, of course – drifted down from upstairs, mixing with the sounds of Arun making dosas in the kitchen while on a conference call with vendors from Mumbai. Sara sits at the dining table, reading her engineering notes while eating her breakfast, trying not to drop crumbs on her laptop.
“Saranika, finish your food first,” Sandhya says, walking down the stairs. “You can study for your test afterwards.”
“Amma, the test is due in an hour!” Sara whines. “And it determines whether I pass the class and I don’t have to take it again when I do my high school coursework.”
Harsha bounds down the stairs in his workwear, just having started his engineering internship at Google. “I still can’t believe you’re taking upperclassman-level classes already.” he groans. “You’re such a nerd, Sara.”
“You’re the one with the Google internship!” Sara sticks out her tongue. “I think Stark Industries has better tech.”
“Georgia Tech is really selective with the SI internships. And, not all of us can be Tony Uncle’s favorite student,” Harsha teases back and then calls up the stairs. “Sesha, I’m taking the car!”
Sesha’s piano stops. “Sure, do whatever!” she yells before continuing. She’d been learning La Campanella for the last few weeks, and it’s been getting better as she practices back at NYU.
After Harsha leaves, Sara finishes studying, takes her test (which she aces), and goes to her room to change into her training clothes. She had a lot to prove today.
Training Room, Stark Tower
“Focus, Raavi,” Master Chen instructs, circling around the thirteen-year-old as she moves through her forms in the training room Tony especially made for her. “The fire comes from the breath, not the emotion.”
Sara exhales slowly, ribbons of flame following her movements as she executes the complex sequence. After three years of training, she could create and maintain multiple streams of fire simultaneously, though controlling their temperature and intensity required intense concentration.
“Fix your stance,” the teacher corrects. “You need to remember that fire is controlled, even if it’s aggressive. Think about your mom when she’s mad – scary, but not chaotic.”
Sara cringes at the comparison but adjusts her stance anyway. Master Chen had become like her second (third) father as one of the few people who knew her secret over the years. He had combined traditional Shaolin with what he called “practical applications for enhanced individuals,” though Sara suspected he had just watched Avatar: The Last Airbender and copied down Zuko’s every move (and Tony probably paid him a lot of money to develop a training program for her).
“Okay, there we go!” he nods. “Go again, but –”
He’s interrupted by JARVIS’s voice. “Miss Raavi, Mr. Stark requests your presence in the main lab. He says it’s urgent.”
Sara looks questioningly at Master Chen, who sighed but then nodded. “We’re done for today, you can go. Remember your breathing exercises.” She smiles and leaves to change from her training clothes into an SI-issued t-shirt and sweats.
Soon enough, she found Tony hunched over something glowing – the arc reactor in his chest casting blue light across his workspace. Papers scattered around him featuring complex energy calculations she recognized from the other lab she’d been in during her earlier engineering days – plus her physics homework.
“Tony Uncle?” she calls out. “JARVIS said you needed me?”
When he looks up, Sara notices the dark circles under his eyes. “Hey, Kuvi. Come look at this,” he says in Telugu.
She moves closer, curious. “Is that the new element you created? The one that replaced the palladium?”
“Oh, you’ve been going through the classified files, huh?” Tony smirks, but his voice had that fatherly pride – he felt weird harboring that pride. “But yeah, I’m trying to figure out how to stabilize it further, maybe increase the output without–” he starts coughing.
“Are you okay?” Sara panics, reaching for him instinctively. Her hand warms with healing energy – an application of her powers they’d discovered by accident.
“I’m good,” he waves her off, but she notices how he leaned into her touch slightly. “I just need some sleep – your mom would murder me if she knew I was keeping you up past your bedtime.”
Sara glances at the clock – almost midnight. She’d been training too long, perhaps. “My mom’s definitely asleep and would probably be fine with you keeping me here longer – I can just sleep in your guest room.”
Tony nods absently, already going back to his calculations. Sara sits on a nearby chair to watch, randomly adding her suggestions. She’d inherited his and Arun’s gift for engineering, though she got too tired of speculating why that might be – focusing on energy coefficients, power outputs, and other fun math and science-related things was better.
A notification pops up on one of Tony’s screens—an incident involving Dr. Banner in Harlem. He quickly dismisses it, but Sara is too fast.
Huh. “There are more people like me out there, right?” she questions. “Enhanced individuals?”
Tony’s hands stilled on the holographic display. “Sara…”
“I’m not a kid anymore, Tony Uncle.” She presses. “I watch the news with Akka every day. The Hulk, that green thing in New Mexico last year… there’s something happening in the world, right?”
He turns to face her fully, his expression serious as he switches from English to Telugu. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean–”
“That I should get involved, I know,” Sara finishes. “Stay hidden, stay safe, stay ready, protect the secret.” The words came out more bitter than she wanted them to, but the girl really wanted to help. She wanted to apply her skills.
Tony reaches out, squeezing her shoulder. “Hey. One day, you’ll be ready to show the world who you are. But right now, the best thing you can do is learn. Control your powers, finish your education, be there for your family.”
“While you’re out there being Iron Man? Saving the world?” she had to add that.
“While I’m out there making mistakes you shouldn’t be making,” he corrects.
Sara laughs. “Oh, yeah, I won’t be giving random bad guys my home address so they can come destroy it. Smart move, Tony Uncle.”
“Shut it, Saranika,” Tony seethes, though she could hear him about to laugh. “Now, let me get you home before your mom gets mad.”
Raavi Residence, the next morning
The next morning, Sara wakes up to the smell of idlis and coffee – oh, and voices.
“...I got this high-tech cubicle with two monitors and a new computer, and then I got to network with some of the other interns.” Harsha was explaining animatedly. “I met this really hot guy, too – he came from Stanford as a data science major.”
Sara rubs her eyes as she walks into the kitchen in her pajamas, and Sandhya immediately pulls her into a hug. “Good morning, bangaaram. Did you want to stay over again? How was your evening?”
“Yeah, but Tony Uncle made me come home – it was good,” she starts, knowing she couldn’t explain more in front of her siblings. “I learned some more complex equations.”
“Oh, yeah? And you probably helped him with some new project, too,” Harsha adds, not looking up from his phone. “You spend so much time in Stark Tower – more than you do at home nowadays.”
“Harsha, you’re literally in Atlanta for most of the year, how would you know?” Sara questions sassily. “But are you jealous?” Sandhya looks quite concerned, but the girl pretends not to notice.
“Sara, amma, we might have to cut back on the lab visits.” Sandhya suggests without revealing too much. “You’re pushing yourself too hard with the advanced classes and the extra projects…” By extra projects, she meant the pyrokinesis training. “You’re only thirteen, chinna.”
“Amma, I’m fine,” Sara insists, trying to keep her voice steady. How could she explain that the lab wasn’t just about engineering? That those hours with Tony were the only times she could truly be herself, powers and all? “Besides, the projects are important.”
“More important than family?” Sesha asks.
Sara immediately feels guilty. “You two have always been at college, Akka. When you come home, you’re either on the piano or with your friends, and Anna’s now at his internship.”
“But when I’m back, or when Sesha’s still here, we always make time to at least eat together, whether with or without our parents.” Harsha points out. “When was the last time you were home for that?”
The truth hung unspoken between them. Sara was slowly drifting away, wrapped up in secrets she couldn’t share. She looked at her family—Harsha on his phone but clearly listening, Sesha concerned, her mom worried—and felt the weight of the secrets she was harboring.
Think about how her mom feels with the guilt that she’s been holding for nearly fourteen years. The guilt that she can’t tell Arun Sara’s not his.
“I’ll do better,” she promises softly. “Maybe we can go to the arcade this weekend? Or the temple?”
Sandhya brightens. “Yeah. It’ll be us five again.” But nobody noticed her pained expression.
As soon as her mother says that, Sara starts mentally calculating how to fit this in with her training schedule. As she helps Sandhya make breakfast, she catches sight of her reflection in the window – her face backlit by a strand of morning sunlight that made her look, just for a moment, like she was glowing.
How much longer could they keep this up? How many more secrets could their family hold before something had to give?