Mazzy, quietly as a mouse, sits on the mattress of the top bunk in her bedroom, staring intensely at the laptop screen in front of her. Her eyes burn a bit from how long she's been staring at that screen, reading article after article. It has been hours by now, but every time she tells herself that she is reading the last one, another intriguing title catches her eye and draws her further down the rabbit hole.

Luckily for her eyes, but unluckily for her curiosity, a firm knock on her bedroom door pulls Mazzy away from her screen. For just a second, her heart drops down to her stomach. She quickly pulls herself together, slams her laptop shut, and opens up the book next to her.

"Come in," Mazzy calls out to whoever is on the other side of the door.

She has never felt so rebellious in her whole life. She thinks that, maybe, this is what being a teenager will be like. Except for the fact that she is pretty sure teenagers are sneaking out of the house to go to parties rather than sneaking into restricted files to find answers about their own past.

"Hey," Tony says as he enters the room.

Mazzy skillfully pretends to be enraptured in her book.

Tony makes his way over to her and casually begins fiddling with the small things that line her shelves as decoration. He always has to be doing something. "What'cha reading?" he asks her.

Truthfully, Mazzy isn't sure what book is in her hands. She didn't really think about it when she picked it up. So, she holds the cover out in front of herself, presenting it to her father. "This one."

"Nice," Tony replies, picking a Rubik's cube off of Mazzy's desk and starting to mix it up.

If Tony is to be honest, he is in there because he feels a bit guilty. Ever since he arrived back home after that mission in Sokovia, he hasn't been giving Mazzy very much attention at all. Of course, he is still making sure she eats well, brushes her teeth, and goes to be on time, but he hasn't been actually spending time with her.

He, of course, has a reason for all that. He would never be intentionally neglectful. But, when he came back from Sokovia, so did Loki's scepter. And the scepter is the key to what Tony thinks is one of his greatest ideas yet. So he has been working on that with Bruce for days on end with little to no free time.

Like a skilled actress, Mazzy marks her page— which she wasn't really reading— with a bookmark and places her book on her pillow. She scoots to the edge of the bed, letting her feet dangle off of the side. "Did you figure it out yet?" she asks her dad.

"I'm not sure. Jarvis is working on it," Tony says with a shrug.

Mazzy lets out a hum of acknowledgment, unsure of how else to reply. Sometimes he can get frustrated about these types of failures, and she doesn't want to make him feel bad. She cradles her chin with her hand like someone with a bad toothache would.

"The party's starting soon. You planning on hiding in your room like the socially inept nine-year-old you are, or will you come out and join us?" Tony teases, raising his eyebrows at his daughter. He places the scrambled Rubik's cube on the mattress next to her.

"I'm not socially inept," Mazzy scoffs.

"Oh, you're not, now, are you?" Tony snickers, gently tugging on her feet. "You still use grandma slang."

"Well, maybe just a little bit."

"A little bit? Yeah." Tony smiles and Mazzy furrows her eyebrows at him, pretending that she isn't smiling. Tony reaches an arm up to her, so she can grab onto him and hop down from the top bunk. It seems more fun than using the ladder. When she lands, he places a hand on her back leading her out of the room. "Come on. People are arriving," he says.

"If I'm socially inept, then why do you want me to come to your party?" Mazzy questions, quirking an eyebrow.

"Because I'm sure Steve loves your grandma slang," Tony answers jokingly. "He's not big on the no-no words."

The real reason is that he doesn't think it's healthy for her to be sitting around in her room and reading all day. The fact that she spends so much time in her room makes part of him want to start sending her to school, but now she'd be miles ahead of her classmates, so she wouldn't be doing much socialization there, either.

At first thought, Mazzy isn't very excited about this party. She knows it will only be adults, and even worse, there will also be adults that she doesn't already know. Those types of adults suck because they are always asking her questions. Questions about school. Or worse. Sometimes they just ask about her dad because they want to be good at flirting with him. Mazzy doesn't ever let that happen, though. The only person who is allowed to flirt with Tony is Pepper.

However, despite the annoying stranger adults, Mazzy is happy because she knows the Avengers, whom she has grown to like a lot, will be there, along with Rhodey, whom she hasn't seen in a while.

With her dad at her side, Mazzy joins the party, earning huge smiles and finger waves from several of the people in the room. Sometimes it makes her feel special, and sometimes it makes her feel patronized. Today, she's in a decent mood, so she feels special.

At these types of parties, there is always a set of rules that Mazzy is supposed to follow. These rules were made up following the incident at Tony's birthday party. They are rules that keep Mazzy safe, both from the people around her and from the knowledge that she is so desperately clawing at.

So, tonight, Mazzy Stark decides that she will only follow some of those rules.

One of the rules is that she is, at all times, ordered to be in the presence of someone whom she already knew before the party. At this particular party, the list includes Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, Steve Rogers, Thor Odinson, Nick Fury, Maria Hill, James Rhodes, and Helen Cho. The list technically also includes Sam Wilson, but she only barely knows him and doesn't yet know him enough to want to follow him around like a shadow. Anyway, that is the rule Mazzy decides she will have to break.

For now, Mazzy is still by her father's side. She's sitting at the bar, which technically isn't legal, but she doesn't care and neither does Tony. She kicks her feet back and forth as she waits for the bartender to fill her cup with Coke and listens to Rhodey's War Machine story.

"But, you know, the suit can take the weight, right?" Rhodey is saying. Mazzy takes her Coke from the bartender with a smile. "So I take the tank, fly it right up to the general's palace, drop it at his feet. I'm like, 'Boom. You lookin' for this?'"

For a moment, there is this painfully awkward silence as Tony, Thor, and Maria force smiles onto their faces. As soon as Mazzy realizes that that is the end of the story, she remembers that she is supposed to laugh. Unfortunately for the people around her, that realization comes at the moment that she has a sip of Coke in her mouth.

So, in an attempt to make Rhodey feel better about his joke, Mazzy sprays Coke right out of her mouth, all over the bar in front of her, laughing loudly like Rhodey's one-liner was the funniest thing she has ever heard. The bartender lets out a sigh and grabs a towel.

Unfortunately, Rhodey sees right through the performance. "Okay, I don't need the pity laughs from the nine-year-old," he sighs, holding a hand out in front of him. Mazzy's laughter comes to an abrupt stop and she uses her sleeve to wipe her face clean. "Why do I even talk to you guys? Everywhere else, that story kills," Rhodey complains.

"That's the whole story?" Thor asks.

"Yeah, it's a War Machine story."

"Oh, it's very good, then."

"It's a great story, Rhodey. Swear," Mazzy insists.

"It's impressive," Thor agrees pitifully.

Rhodey presses his lips together and rolls his eyes, letting out a silent sigh. "Quality save." In an attempt to change the direction of the conversation, he turns to Tony. "So, no Pepper? She's not coming?"

"What about Jane? Where are the ladies, gentlemen?" Maria asks, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Well, Miss Potts has a company to run," Tony reasons with a shrug.

"Yeah. She's always busy," Mazzy groans. She misses Pepper a whole lot. Pepper is one of her favorite people in the entire world and she hardly ever gets to see her anymore. Sometimes, though, Pepper will pick her up and take her on ice cream dates. Those are Mazzy's favorite, and she supposes they make up for all the time Pepper spends working.

"Yes, I'm not even sure what country Jane's in," Thor comments. Mazzy doesn't know Jane. All she knows about her is that she is Thor's girlfriend, apparently. Mazzy thinks it's convenient that she just happens to never be around. She wonders if this Jane is even real, but Thor swears on it. "Her work on the convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer."

"And the company that Pepper runs is the largest tech conglomerate on Earth," Tony adds on to his previous statement, trying to one-up Thor and his supposed girlfriend. "It's pretty exciting."

"There's even talk of Jane getting a, um, Nobel Prize."

"Oh, brother," Mazzy huffs, sharing meaningful eye contact with Maria and Rhodey.

Can't Pepper and Jane just be impressively smart at the same time without one being inherently better than the other?

"Yeah, they must be busy, because they would hate missing you guys get together," Maria tells the men sarcastically. She then raises her hand up to her mouth, coughing out, "Testosterone!"

"Gross," Mazzy murmurs, scrunching up her nose as she signs the word by rubbing her hand over her belly in a claw shape.

"Oh, goodness," Rhodey says.

Maria brings her hand up to her chest, raising her eyebrows. "Oh, excuse me," she says, pretending to clear her throat.

"Want a lozenge?" Rhodey offers as he and Maria walk away, leaving Tony and Thor with amused smirks on their faces.

After a moment longer, Thor leans over to Tony. "But Jane's better," he says before walking away.

"Nuh-uh!" Mazzy calls after him. Unfortunately, Thor either doesn't hear her or completely ignores her. Probably the latter. She turns to her dad. "Is Jane even real?" she asks him.

After a moment of thought, Tony shakes his head. "No. She's not," he answers as he helps Mazzy down off of her stool at the bar.

✭

By eleven o'clock on the dot, Tony is tipsy enough to believe Mazzy when she says she is going to the bathroom and will be right back. Mazzy is actually not going to the bathroom.

Instead, she is joining a group of young women gathered around a small table far away from where Tony is. She chooses the women because, well, women always feels safer than men. So, she sits down at one of the chairs and the women suddenly get all quiet.

"Where's your dad, sweetheart?" one of the women asks, her eyebrows pinched together.

"Oh, it's okay. He said I could come talk to you because I really like your blue dress and I just really wanted to tell you," Mazzy lies effortlessly, putting on the most adorable smile she can manage. To the women, the smile is awkward and weird, but adorable and charming nonetheless.

"Thank you so much," the woman says, her smile wide and her hand against her heart.

"Yeah, of course," Mazzy says. She leans in closer, her elbows on the table. "Hey, do you remember when I was little? Like, when I was three or four?" she asks.

She is being reckless about this, and part of her knows that. If she wants answers, she'll have to be patient and pry the answers out of the strangers carefully, like a surgeon removing shrapnel from around the heart. But she has already drank four Coca-Colas and her energy is through the roof, sugar racing through her blood and making her tap her hands and feet against the table and floor.

"I'm sorry?" the woman asks, glancing at each of her friends awkwardly.

"Like, when I was sick. Do you remember the news?" Mazzy asks.

"I don't know, honey. I don't really remember," the woman says awkwardly. She looks around the room, searching for Tony. "Where's your dad? Why don't you-?"

"Actually, I have to pee. See you later," Mazzy huffs, sliding off of her chair and leaving the women at the table confused.

She actually does have to pee, now, but she could wait longer. She just knows already that none of the women are going to be of any use. They are all clearly either drunk or close to it, and they won't listen to her that way.

So, Mazzy goes to the bathroom. When she gets out, she decides that she is going to go put her pajamas on before coming back downstairs to say good night to her dad and everybody else. She is tired of this party and now frustrated due to the woman in the blue dress. When she changes and comes back down to where the party is taking place, Mazzy sees that the place is mostly cleared out now, minus the people that she already knew beforehand.

Now that there aren't so many strangers, everything feels a lot less overwhelming.

When she joins the others, Steve is trying to pick up Thor's hammer. Mazzy creeps up behind Tony and climbs over the back of the couch in order to sit next to him. He wraps an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side.

They all watch as Steve attempts to pull the hammer up off of the table. It lets out a little squeak and gives the slightest amount of movement, but Steve seems to be unable to pick up the hammer along with everyone else who isn't Thor. He lets out a sigh, holding his hands up in surrender as Thor lets out a laugh.

Tony clears his throat. "And, Widow?" he says, glancing at Natasha, who apparently hasn't yet tried picking up the hammer.

"Oh, no, no. That's not a question I need answered," Natasha says, shaking her head and taking a sip of her beer.

"Maz?" Bruce offers, raising his eyebrows at the girl.

Trying to be like Natasha, Mazzy shakes her head. "No. Not a question I need answered," she says, echoing Natasha's words.

"All deference to the Man Who Wouldn't Be King, but it's rigged," Tony says.

"You bet your ass," Barton agrees, patting his shoulder.

"Steve," Maria says, gesturing to Barton. "He said a bad language word."

Steve lets out a sigh, shaking his head. "Did you tell everyone about that?" he asks Tony.

"Tell everyone about what?" Mazzy questions.

"I told you. Steve doesn't like no-no words," Tony answers. Mazzy scrunches up her face, confused, but Tony has already changed the subject back to the hammer; "The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints is, I think, the literal translation."

"Yes. It's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one," Thor says, standing up out of his seat. He stands next to Mjölnir and picks it up easily, flipping it in his hand. "You're all not worthy."

The group lets out a chorus of scoffs, laughs, groans, and plenty of muttered words.

That is, until they are all interrupted by a loud, ear-piercing ringing.

At first, Mazzy thinks that maybe she accidentally messed with her hearing aids when she was changing her shirt, so they aren't fitting in her ears correctly and subsequently letting off a loud ringing in her ears. But that ringing would be loud to her and extremely quiet to everyone else around her, and everyone in the room is recoiling in on themselves in reaction to the ringing, which means that it definitely isn't the hearing aids.

Footsteps march across the room behind them. "Worthy," a low, grumbly voice seems to murmur.

Mazzy presses her head against her father's side as they all turn around to face the sound. A tall figure stands in the shadows, small blue lights emitting from certain parts of its body.

"No." Slowly, the figure turns around, revealing itself to be some sort of mangled robot with a jack-o-lantern-like face and strings hanging from its body. "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

All?

From Loki's words, Mazzy had already figured out that she must have hurt someone in the past. But killed? Could that be true?

Then again, they don't even know what this robot is. Maybe it doesn't truly know anything.

"Stark," Steve says, glancing at the man.

"Jarvis," Tony speaks, receiving no answer.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or I was a-dream."

"Reboot Legionnaire OS. We got a buggy suit," Tony continues to try talking to Jarvis, despite the silence he gets in response.

"There was this terrible noise."

"Dad, what's wrong with it?" Mazzy asks anxiously, clinging to her father's arm.

"And I was tangled in... in..." The robot brings its arms out at its side, looking down at its form, as if only now realizing what it is. "Strings."

The more it speaks and moves, the less robotic it seems. What kind of coding mistake leads to this?

"I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asks it.

Tony moves himself in front of Mazzy and she peeks nervously out from behind him, watching the robot warily.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" Thor asks.

Then, and audio starts to play. It is Tony's own voice emitting from the robot. "I see a suit of armor around the world," it says. And, in response, the room goes silent for a good four or five seconds, Mazzy staring up at her dad with wide, confused eyes.

Bruce's eyes widen as he comes to a realization, his head turning to Tony. "Ultron."

"In the flesh," the robot replies. "Or, no, not yet. Not this chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

Faintly, like the ticking of a clock, Mazzy can hear guns being cocked and weapons being raised.

"What mission?" Natasha asks.

"Peace in our time."