Last chance

Lydia’s Pov
The cold shook my bones, the hard floor irritated my knees and the tears blurred my vision. I didn’t know where I was, I could only see, feel and smell the blood that was on my hands. The blood that was seeping out of a metal suit, my father’s metal suit … that had his cold and stiff body inside.

A flash of light and I could hear me screaming, and suddenly I was back on my room. With tremors still running through my body I stayed still under my covers, trying to calm my racing heart.

“Young Miss” Jarvis voice reached my ears “Are you alright? You seem to have had a nightmare” The robotic but still somehow concerned voice asked me.

“I’m fine Jarvis” I muttered, the image of my father’s body on my mind every time I closed my eyes “It is just like you said … it was just a nightmare” I pulled the cover a little more tightly around myself “What time is it?”

“It is 2.47 am, young Miss, still early morning, you have only slept a little more than 3 hours, so I recommend you to sleep more if you can” Jarvis responded me, still sounding a bit worried.

“Is my father asleep or is he still awake?” I asked him, ignoring his suggestion to sleep more, there was no way I could sleep at the moment with those images in my head “Sir is still in the lab, he is running a simulation on the Ark reactor for tomorrow’s night inauguration of the tower” I huffed a little at hearing his answer “What happened to sleeping and resting because tomorrow is an important day” I said in a low voice “Then inform him I will be going down to see how the simulation is going … also can you tell Dum-E to make some hot chocolate, please?”

“I have informed Sir of your intention to join him young Miss, he has paused the simulation so the both of you can watch it from the beginning, but are you sure about asking Dum-E for hot chocolate?” Jarvis voice interrupted my search for a hair tie, “You are right” I answered him “It’s probably for the better if I make it myself” I continued with my quest of looking for a hair tie “A wise decision young Miss”

I hummed a little when I finally managed to find a hair tie, I pulled my hair into a bun for safety reasons and put on a sweater to fight the cold, the lab was ridiculously cold sometimes and even though I wasn’t trembling anymore I didn’t want to feel the cold at the moment. Once I was ready I went to the kitchen to make myself some hot chocolate.

“If I may make a suggestion, young Miss” Jarvis said while I was taking the milk out of the fridge “Maybe a tea will be a better choice”

I just hummed and put back the milk on the fridge, turning around I spotted the kettle and put it on the stove after filling it with water, I looked for some tea bags and chose some lemon-flavored ones. As I waited for the water to boil, I decided to make some coffee for my father as well. When the two beverages where finished I pulled out to mugs and filled them and went to the lab.

“Are you alright?” My father asked me as soon as I had entered the workshop “I´m fine, how is the simulation going” I asked even if I already knew the answer “It´s going well, as expected of two Stark’s, of course” He answered while starting the simulation

“Jarvis said you had a nightmare, want to talk about it?” He asked awkwardly

“Jarvis should know that snitches end up in ditches” I said while handing him the mug with tea

“He was just worried, you know how …” He took a sip of tea just to spit it out immediately “How dare my own daughter give me leaf water?” He asked dramatically “Did you see her commit this grave sin, Jarvis? This is a mutiny!”

“Yes sir, the audacity of her actions knows no limits” Jarvis dry voice could be heard through the lab.

“Stop being so dramatic dad, and that was for you being a gossip” I said while switching the mug I had previously given him with the one that had coffee “I know that Jarvis ‘telling you I had a nightmare’ is because a silly named protocol you made”

“I can’t believe it, the sassiness of this kids, I don’t know where you get it from, seriously” He said “This is much better, I don’t know how you manage to drink that leaf water” That was said after he sipped on some coffee.

“It is a mystery, Sir” “It’s healthy for you, according to Jarvis” Both Jarvis and I, answered him.

“Can’t believe you turned my daughter to the dark side, J” He said with a serious face while turning around to keep looking the running screens, some time after both of us had finished our drinks he spoke again “Well, it’s obvious this will be a success, do you want to watch a movie with your old man, dear daughter of mine?” I laughed a little at that “What happened to ‘making sure everything goes smoothly?” I asked him “It’s okay, after all the both of us have been working on this project” He said confidently “Also, we both are Starks” He finished while shutting down all the screens “Come on, let´s go watch some movies”

I just shrugged my shoulders and followed him, I knew he was still a bit worried because of my nightmare, but honestly after seeing him I was much better, still I let him put a fuzzy blanket around me and put my head on his shoulder when Jarvis started the movie. It was not long after he started stroking my hair that I started feeling drowsy and it took but a few minutes for me to fall asleep.

----- Tony’s Pov -----

“Young Miss seems to have fallen asleep, Sir” Jarvis voice announced, I turned my head to see that was true, Lydia’s eyes were closed and she seemed to be sleeping peacefully, I turned around and shifted into a more comfortable position, just as I was about to close my eyes to try to get some shuteye, Jarvis voice reached my ears again “There was something I couldn’t inform you about previously, Sir” That made me open my eyes again and make a gesture so Jarvis could keep going “While young Miss was having a nightmare there were some strange spikes of unidentified energy”

That shook the little sleep that I had “What do you mean by that?” “They lasted a few seconds, but before she managed to wake up, the sensors captured some readings” He explained while projecting the readings so I could see them “They seem similar in nature to the ones given by the Ark reactor, no electronics where malfunctioning in young Miss room, and there wasn’t any disturbance in the rest of the tower, Sir”

I could see what Jarvis meant by similar in nature to the Ark reactor, at the beginning that readings where the same as the ones given by a fully functional Ark reactor, but towards the end they changed, as if the had been transformed to serve a specific purpose.

“And where did the output of this readings begin, J?” “They seem to come from young Miss’s body, Sir if I may” Jarvis started projecting a video “This is a recording of young Miss’s room, at the time the sensors started capturing the strange readings young Miss’s body lighted up, more specifically her veins started emitting some light”

The recording showed Lydia’s tossing body, proof of her nightmare, but after some time what Jarvis said really happened, the veins on her face started faintly glowing, if it wasn’t for the darkness of the room it wouldn’t have been perceivable, it didn’t show on the video but it was provable that all the veins on her body were also glowing “And her vitals?” “Normal for someone having a nightmare, Sir”

“Even now her vitals are normal, I also monitored her after she woke up but she didn’t seem to be in pain or uncomfortable”

“I see” I muttered, it was true, even now she didn’t seem to be any different, but the image of her glowing veins was in front of my eyes “Save this recording under a safe file, J” “Top security, Sir?” “Yes, lock it tightly and start another file under the name ‘Faven’ … delete this from the main server as well” “Done, Sir” “Also start monitoring her vitals and her surroundings, if something off the mark appears let me now immediately” “Already doing so, Sir”

“What would I do without you, J?” I sighed while watching my daughter’s face “Young Miss will be fine, Sir” “I hope so” I mumbled, turning around to study some more the readings and to watch the video a few more times

“Sir, it is 5.37 in the morning, I suggest a few hours of sleep, you have a busy day” “Whatever is happening to the young Miss, it seems to not be harmful for her, please rest for a few hours” Jarvis added when I ignored him the first time “It isn’t harmful for her yet, but we don’t know if the situation will change” “To make some definite plans and contingencies we need more information Sir, there is unfortunately not enough information for us to make a plan … I recommend resting for a while and tomorrow do some questioning about young Miss’s state, I assume you don’t want her knowing yet?”

“Yeah, you are right as always J, and yes, don’t tell her anything yet” I answered him, before attempting to sleep.

----- Lydia’s Pov -----

We were a few minutes away from officially inaugurating the Stark Tower, my heart was pounding from excitement and happiness, both, dad and I have poured a lot of energy in this project and if everything goes well in a few months we will be donating some fully functional Ark Reactors to impoverished regions, so more people could have a better life.

“Are you alright young Miss? Your heart rate is a little elevated” Jarvis voice shook me out of my musings, the question itself was a little weird, both him and dad have been making this kind of weird questions since I woke up, but since I was so excited for today’s events, I just humored them and answered all their questions.

“I’m just excited, J” I answered kindly “Everything going well on dad’s side?” I asked him in turn “Everything is going smoothly on Sir’s side” “That’s good” I said while checking the hologram for any faults or malfunctions

“I will start installing the Ark reactor, shut down the tower and wait for my signal to power it up again, dear” Dad’s voice could be heard from my phone “I got it, shutting down the tower at this moment” I said while turning off everything

After a few minutes I could hear my father’s voice telling me to light the tower up “Done, how does it look like?” I asked him “Like Christmas’s come early ... but more me” I laughed at that “Well dear father of mine, everything looks okay on my end … so I will leave you to admire your genius alone” “Where are you going?” “I’ll take a shower while you come back” “Okay, do you want me to go and get us some food?” “Do you want tomorrow’s headlines to be ‘Iron Man going for a bite at midnight’ or ‘Stark genius does it again, first building supported completely by clean energy in NY?’ just order us something” “You are no fun, I see J has been influencing you, is sushi okay?” “Yup, I will see you in a bit” I disconnected the call and went to my room to take a shower.

Before entering the shower, I noticed something shinning on my wrist, I hadn’t seen it before due to my sweater’s sleeve covering it, but I had a shimmering, glowing tattoo on my wrist “What the hell?” I muttered, I scanned the tattoo, it looked like a crystal surrounded by a snake with an ‘L’ at the bottom, a little weird for a tattoo, did dad play a prank or something? I inwardly mussed to myself, “Whatever, I’ll just ask him when he comes back” I said and continued with my shower

----- Tony’s Pov -----

“You heard the ruler of the house J, order some sushi, you know from where” I said while returning to the tower, checking that everything seems to be in order, at least on the outside.

“Already done, Sir” “As perfect as always Jarvis, is every …” “Sir, I have to tell you something” Jarvis interrupted me, which was rare in itself, and the feeling that I couldn’t shake since early morning came back with a vengeance “Is my daughter okay?”

“Young Miss is fine, but I noticed that when the Ark reactor was turned on the energy that appeared last night reacted to it, young Miss’s vitals were normal and there wasn’t any changes, but the moment that the Ark reactor energy lighted up the tower the same phenomenon of her veins glowing happened again, it seems that both energies are connected somehow, since they seem to react to each other” Jarvis explained “But is she okay?”

“Yes, young Miss is fine, as I said, there wasn’t any changes to her condition and she didn’t seem to notice that something was happening to her, also the glowing only lasted a second, as soon as the Ark reactor energy settled on the tower the glowing stopped”

“At least she is well, the same readings were captured?” I asked “The sensors recorded the same readings as before, but there wasn’t any ‘transformation’ this time, the readings stayed the same”

“Did something happen or it was to short a stimulus?” I wondered, it was weird, if the Ark reactor really was what triggered her then it should have produced the same results this time “I don´t know, sir, I am currently revising all the readings acquired at the moment of lighting up the tower” “Excellent, inform me if you find anything else, I’ll will arrived in four minutes” “Yes, Sir”

Fuck, what the hell was happening? It didn’t take me to long to reach the tower and soon enough I out of my suit and waiting for my daughter on the kitchen island.

“Dad, did you play a prank on me?” I heard Lydia’s voice behind my back “What are you talking about?” I asked confused at the random question “I’m asking if you decided to put a tattoo on my wrist” She said distractedly while showing me her wrist “I don’t mind is kind of pretty, but I didn’t think you would go for this color, green is not exactly the color choice I would expect you to make” She continued while searching the fridge for something

“Please tell me that you just decided to have a tattoo without telling me” She turned at my word with a face that spelled that she thought I was dumb “No, I didn’t, that’s why I asked you” She responded with a duh tone of voice. “When did you noticed the tattoo” “While I was taking a shower” “And you didn’t notice it before?” “No … it wasn’t you?” She asked confused

“No, it wasn’t me … for now let’s cover it and don’t show it to anyone, okay?” I told her while covering the tattoo with the sleeve of her blouse, she allowed it, but it was obvious that she still was confused “There is some …”

“Sir, Mr. Coulson is calling” “Ignore it, J … we have to talk about something dear, are you feeling well?” I asked her

“Yes, I’m fine, I feel normal, no pain, no strange feelings, my blood vessels don’t hurt either” She answered sarcastically, I do admit that the questions after she woke up could have been a little more subtle.

“I have to show you something, bring the file …” “Sir, my protocols have been breached, I recommend to leave this conversation after our guest leaves” Jarvis said before the elevator door opened.

“Agent, tonight is not good, consulting hours are from three to five pm every other Thursday” I said as soon as Phil walked out of the elevator, I also gestured to Lydia to come closer.

“Well Mr. Stark I hope you can make it a good night, there is something you should check out” Phil said while taking out some folders from his briefcase

“What is that?” Lydia asked interested, at her voice Agent did a doble take “Miss Stark, I didn’t see you there, I hope you find yourself alright” “I’m fine” Lydia responded while taking the files from Agent’s hands “He doesn’t like being handed things” She said while putting the files on the counter surface.

I opened the folder, intending to make Agent leave as soon as possible, but I realized immediately that, that wasn’t happening “It seems SHIELD was playing with things they didn’t understand again” I looked at agent “This is the space stone?” Lydia asked while checking the files over my shoulder.

“It is called the Tesseract, in fact” “What did you call it?” Both agent and I, said at the same time.