Chapter 2
Annabeth
Getting to school Friday morning was a struggle. Both her and Percy had nightmares that night, so neither of them was well rested. Estelle was bouncing around the apartment, causing chaos in her excitement to go to pre-k and see her friends. Paul had already left for work, since he had before school meetings today. Sally was rushing around the apartment to get ready for her job while trying to get Estelle ready as well. But her and Percy were like zombies, just barely being able to get up and make cereal for themselves, nightmares echoing in their ears.
Sally stopped rushing around long enough to give them both a hug and tell them she loved them before rushing out the door with her younger child.
“We love you too mom!” Percy called after her.
The two of them eventually got ready and walked out to Percy's car together. The drive to Midtown was filled only with the sound of the radio, neither of them were up to talking about it yet. It wasn't a tense silence though, just sad. Annabeth got out after a quick kiss and goodbye from Percy, and did her best to shake off the funk. He drove off, speeding a bit in order to get to Geode High on time, and she looked up at the decathlon team on the front steps. Peter waved her over to where their friends were standing and she tried to smile in greeting, but couldn't quite manage it. Ned and Peter were practically glowing from excitement about the trip, even though Peter seemed to have some sort of internship there. She wasn't quite sure though, their trio tended to be secretive about it. They were chatting about the tour and actually managed to bring up her mood a little. Their excitement was contagious. MJ at least was trying to keep her cool, but you could tell she was excited about going, if only because SI has a female CEO.
The one thing she was anxious about was not bringing her dagger. She hadn't had any place to put it, and with the rumors that Stark was a Hephaestus legacy, she hadn't wanted to risk it being confiscated, just in case. There was just no telling what security measures they would have in place.
They boarded the bus together and Flash sauntered over like he wanted to cause trouble--but one glare from her and he backed right back up to his seat. She smiled at that. At least he wasn't bothering Peter anymore. She had seen how much his insults had hurt him from the first day and made sure Flash would not be bothering him any more. He still tried occasionally, but it wasn't nearly to the extent it had been.
The bus ride passed quickly by with excited chatter from everyone around her. When they pulled up in front of the tower, the kids all fell into a hushed silence. Mr. Harrington stood up and addressed the group.
“Alright kids please don't act up or die or anything. If this field trip goes bad they're never going to let me take you guys anywhere ever again. Not after the last disasters. So please be on your best behavior and make a good impression. You are the best and brightest of New York, so act like it.”
Everyone nodded, eyes bright with anticipation.
“Alright, let's go in.”
The lobby of the tower was ultra modern and high tech. The space was littered with holograms containing information about the history of the company and past inventions. There were even a few on the super soldier program that Howard Stark had helped out with but it was super vague, likely because they didn't want anyone replicating it.
A guide came over. “Midtown Tech?”
“Yep, that's us!” Mr. Harrington called back to her. He looked really nervous, and it was easy to tell why. The Decathlon team's trip to nationals had ended up with them almost dying and he was not in a hurry to repeat that. Since they'd sat near the front of the bus on the ride over, Annabeth had been able to hear him muttering about how many different ways the trip could end badly. It made him sound like a conspiracy theorist that thought the world was out to get him. Annabeth kind of felt bad, because if anything did go wrong on the trip, it would likely be a monster after her.
He talked with the tour guide for a few minutes before he called them all over.
“Alright guys please remember to be respectful today, this is Ashley, she will be showing us around today.”
“Hi everyone! As your teacher said, my name is Ashley. If you have any questions feel free to ask, just try not to interrupt ok? To get started we’re going to hand out badges. The level badges you all will be getting is white, which means press and visitors. The next level is yellow for interns, then orange for secretaries, office people, and food vendors. Next up is green for the scientists, and then blue for the legal and public relations departments. The highest level is red, which is for Avengers. Sometimes the red has gold detail, but that's only for Dr. Stark and those closest to him. Its very unlikely that we’ll see anyone with a red badge, but you never know!”
She paused for a moment to pass out the badges. For some reason, Peter didn't get one, but he didn't seem worried about it. He was probably going to use his badge he had from his internship.
“Make sure your badge is visible at all times please. We also have to go through security which is just metal detectors like you’d see at the airport but a little more advanced. The last piece of security is fingerprint scanners. Don't worry about those though, Friday won’t keep your prints she just scans them through her systems to make sure you guys aren't blacklisted or prison escapees. You have nothing to worry about with it.”
Cindy raised her hand. “Who is Friday?”
Ashley laughed. “Friday is the AI that runs the building. She monitors everyone coming in and out to make sure we’re safe. If nobody else has a question, let's head on over and get started.”
Flash went first, of course, and preened when Friday announced him as a level white visitor.
She ended up second to last in line, with just Peter behind her. He muttered something under his breath that sounded like ‘should have told her to announce me as yellow’. She scanned her visitor badge and went through the metal detector without incident, but when she scanned her fingerprints, the man working it nearly dropped his coffee in surprise, then told her to try again. She did, but the same thing must have popped up because he asked her to come with him. This was concerning. She didn't know if the mortal police had her fingerprints from any of her and Percy's quests, so this could turn out really bad. Luckily, Peter came through and demanded to see the screen.
“Kid you can't see it, it's confidential. Miss, please come with me.”
To which Peter whipped out his badge-which was red and gold-and the man stepped out of the way.
“Here you go sir, I'm so sorry I didn't realize.”
“It's ok,” Peter said, then swore at what he saw on the monitor. “Yeah Annabeth you're going to need to come with me. You didn't do anything wrong, I’ll explain in a minute, ok?”
He turned to Ashley and Mr. Harrington, once again flashing his badge. “I'm going to take her, and we will not be rejoining you on the tour.” Mr. Harrington looked like he wanted to protest this, but Peter didn't give him the chance, immediately turning towards the security guard. “You are going to stay here and not say a word of this to anyone, do you understand me? If you leak this you will be out of a job and blacklisted from SI.” Peter's voice was more authoritative than she'd ever heard it, like he was used to being respected here, like his word was law.
The guard nodded, looking slightly terrified.
“Good,” Peter continued, “Someone will call you in to sign a NDA at some point, but for now just stay here.”
And with that he grabbed her arm and practically dragged her to a wall that opened up to reveal a hidden elevator. She was pretty sure it was Dr. Stark's personal elevator, but it opened for Peter as soon as we got near it. There was a knot of anxiety in her stomach. Peter had said she wasn't in any trouble, but this was not something that happened to everyone. What was going on? Peter wasn't any help either, anxiously tapping his foot and looking over at her. The elevator ride was quick, and they got off on a floor full of conference rooms. He led her into one, closed the door behind her, and told her to sit.
“Peter, you need to tell me what is going on right now, or I'm leaving.”
“No, no, don't leave. Um this might sound a little crazy and I'm probably not the right person to be telling you this, but the reason your print came up is because they were already in our system. They came up as Annabeth Stark’s fingerprints.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Did you know?”
“No, of course not. This can't be right. There must be a mistake.”
“I ordered a paternity test, one of the interns should be here any second so you can take it. But it's very unlikely that it's going to say anything different from what I just did.”
Her mind was racing. How could she be Tony Stark’s daughter? She had a Dad. Sure, he was a piece of shit and she hadn't been in contact with him for a long time, but he was her dad. Right?
Or…Maybe he wasn't. He had always been clear about his dislike of her because of all the monsters she attracted, and hadn't made any attempts to reconnect with her since she ran away. As much as she hated to admit it, it was possible he wasn't her dad. It's not like she would remember getting kidnapped when she was three, and he’d certainly never acted like her dad. He was never physically abusive like Gabe had been to Percy, but he was emotionally abusive, so Chiron or Paul were the closest she had to a father figure.
An intern rushed in to give Peter the test, and rushed right back out again.
“You up for this?” He asked.
No. “Yes,” She answered, trying to not seem as nervous as she was.
The test didn't take long, but it felt like forever with both of them staring at it in silence.
It was a match. She was Tony Stark’s daughter.
Tony
He was in the middle of a meeting at the compound when he got the call.
“Peter I really can't talk right now, can you call me back later? Wait, aren't you supposed to be in school or something?”
“You need to get back to the tower ASAP.”
“What?”
“Tony…We found your daughter Annabeth. She's here at the tower, alive and healthy, but you should probably get over here.”
His heart nearly stopped. His daughter was alive, healthy, and in the tower right now. With Peter. And probably freaking out. He immediately called a suit, walking out of the meeting despite various protests. This was more important.
“Tony! Tony, are you still there?”
“Yeah kid, I'm still here. I’ll be there as soon as I possibly can ok? Do not let her out of your sight.”
“Will do.”
“Friday, end the call with Peter and call Miss Potts immediately.”
“Calling Pepper Potts.”
The suit got to him then, barely enveloping him before taking off towards the tower at full speed. Pepper picked up almost immediately.
“Tony, why are you calling me? I know for a fact you should be in a meeting right now. Please tell me you're there.”
“I was, Pep, I promise, but something more important came up.”
“What happened?”
“Peter found Annabeth. They're at the tower right now. I'm on my way.”
“Oh my God Tony, what do you need me to do?”
“Get a room ready for her, and deal with the lawyers and PR department. I want to know where she's been these 14 years.”
“I'm on it Tony, you go see your daughter. I love you.”
Pepper ended the call only a few minutes before he got to the tower. He rushed into the nearest elevator, heart pounding in his chest. What was she like? What if she’d been raised to hate him? Where had she been all these years?
“Friday, take me to my daughter.”
The elevator felt like an eternity, when it was really only about 30 seconds until he was on the right floor. Friday lit up the way to the right room, and he paused to take a few breaths before he opened the door. It was time for him to meet his daughter.