Mazzy sits in the passenger seat of one of her dad's cars. The drive is quiet. She stares out the window while Tony keeps his eyes on the road, both of their minds wandering to darker places they don't know how to get out of.

Sokovia was left with a big, gaping hole in its center. The people survived, but they might as well have died considering their lives were left behind on the rock Tony and Thor had to destroy to save the rest of the planet. They were uprooted and forced to start again. But what else could have been done? Nothing, really.

Pietro is dead, leaving Wanda alone and empty. Sometimes, if Mazzy thinks about it too hard, she can still hear Wanda's scream when it happened. It was loud enough to hear over all the fighting, even with just one hearing aid.

Bruce is gone, too. Not dead, but gone. When Mazzy asked where he went, Natasha said that he had disappeared. He chased after the jet Ultron was in and took it from him. Apparently, he put it in stealth mode, which means that they can't track him. He is just gone.

The Avengers set up a new facility in upstate New York, surrounded by a bunch of trees and fields. It is way more peaceful than being in the center of the city, but it isn't necessarily the same. It feels very different. Mazzy can feel that difference just driving up to it with her dad. Nothing can ever stay the same, apparently. Everything has to change all the time.

There is one thing that changed the most, though.

That thing is what the two Starks are thinking about. It's what they are always thinking about in the backs of their minds, even when they are trying so hard not to.

Tony knows— he knew— that letting Mazzy fight was a bad idea. He never should have allowed it. Ever.

But he did. He allowed it. And, sure, Mazzy turned out just fine. She did well, even. She saved a hell of a lot of lives and is very proud of herself for it. He can see it in her eyes. There is a new light in the brown of her eyes that only comes from the pride she feels for helping; for being a Real Avenger. Mazzy saved people and she loved it.

He's proud of her, too, of course. How couldn't he be? She is strong, and she is smart, and she wants to use her gifts to help the world. She is an angel.

Still, Tony wishes he had never allowed it. He won't admit it to her, but he wishes he never let her fight. He wishes he locked her up in her room until she stopped fighting him on it. Most of all, he wishes none of it ever happened.

Because above every good thing that comes from Mazzy fighting is the bad thing. The one bad thing that makes Tony feel like the lives she saved weren't worth it— a selfish, morbid thought, but a thought that looms in his brain nonetheless.

While saving all the lives of the Sokovians, Mazzy subsequently ended her own. Practically. At least, that's how Tony sees it. Mazzy, though, feels like her life is only now beginning.

The Secret is no longer a secret.

Mazzy is officially and publicly known to be considered superhuman.

The general public knows. They had seen it with their very own eyes. Mazzy Stark— the little girl who was once "so sick and bedridden" that she wasn't seen in public for years— is now running through chaos and danger to kill murder-bots and save human lives with her unnatural strength.

Now, the media is everywhere. Mazzy can't go outside without being followed by obnoxious journalists asking her the same questions over and over again. She isn't even allowed outside the house by herself anymore. She isn't allowed to talk to any of the journalists, either, even if the question is reasonable. She is no longer able to say a word to any of them.

Her previous hopes of someday being a normal girl with friends and big birthday parties are completely squashed. The moment she killed that first Ultron-bot in Sokovia, she permanently and irreversibly became Tony Stark's Superhuman Daughter. Forever and ever and ever.

Mazzy has tried her hardest to convince her dad that she can handle it. That she can still be a normal kid and be trusted on her own. But it isn't her who Tony can't trust; it is the whole rest of the world. They will ask questions that he doesn't want to answer, as if Mazzy hasn't already done enough of that on her own.

Tony wants to hide Mazzy in a box and lock the door. He wants to protect her. Not just from everyone else, but from herself, too.

Still, though, Mazzy knows that her dad's answers are lies, and all she knows for sure is what she has figured out on her own. And that isn't enough for her liking. So, as time goes on, she searches for more and more answers and only hopes that they are the truth.

All Mazzy has left are her hopes of finding the truth and being a superhero. Everything else is all stomped on and ruined, like a frustrating homework assignment after a bad day.

"So, is this the Silent Treatment or something?" Tony asks, his finger tapping repeatedly on the steering wheel as he breaks the deafening silence.

Mazzy huffs, rolling her eyes with her head facing out the window so Tony can't see it. "I'm not giving you the Silent Treatment," she tells him.

"Well, I'm getting some passive-aggressive vibes from your side of the vehicle and you haven't said a word since we left. I don't know. It feels Silent Treatment-y." Tony glances over at her, just barely missing her second eye-roll.

"It's not Silent Treatment-y. It's I Have Nothing to Talk About-y," Mazzy clarifies. Tony nods and turns his attention back to the road, biting his cheek. Mazzy glances over at him carefully, an idea popping into her head. "Unless you wanna answer a question."

Tony blows a sigh out of the side of his mouth. "What's the question?" he asks reluctantly. Questions usually don't go so great with his overly curious, kind-of-nosy daughter. But refusing to answer any questions at all is just flat-out suspicious, and it will only raise more questions.

For a moment, Mazzy thinks about what exactly she can ask without setting him off. It's like playing a strategy game. She has to make the right moves at the right time, or everything will fall apart and she'll leave with probably even less than whatever knowledge she had before.

She knows her dad isn't keen on answering questions about her past, but maybe he'll answer some other question about some other person. Specifically, the one person Mazzy has found out about by searching the web.

"Who's the Winter Soldier?" Mazzy asks, her finger tapping rhythmically against her thigh.

Tony's throat tightens. She doesn't know, does she? Maybe she just heard about it on the news or something back when Steve and Natasha had a run-in with him. Tony clears his throat. "One of, uh, Cap's old military pals. He was captured and experimented on. Why are you asking?"

"Is he still captured?" Mazzy asks, her curiosity piqued. "Or did he escape? Is he, like, living a normal life now?"

"Why are you asking?" Tony asks for a second time.

"Why don't you want to answer me?" Mazzy asks in return. He doesn't say anything. Not even the quietest sound comes from his mouth. He just doesn't answer. "Right," Mazzy huffs. She leans back in her chair, crossing her arms and shaking her head. "You never want to tell me anything."

Tony sighs, his fingers resuming their tapping on the steering wheel. "You ever heard of the word classified? There are things I'm not allowed to tell you, Maz. It's like you forget you're a little girl sometimes and-"

Mazzy interrupts him with a dramatic scoff. "I deserve to know classified stuff! I'm an Avenger, Dad! I'm just as-!"

"You are not an Avenger," Tony interrupts in a stern and angry voice that Mazzy doesn't often hear.

She's so not used to it that it makes her flinch. Tony keeps his eyes glued to the road in front of him and Mazzy keeps her wide, watery eyes glued to the side of her dad's face, her chest aching.

Tony's jaw is clenched tight like he's trying to stop himself from saying more. He swallows. "You're a little girl who always happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You're just a little girl who really needs a babysitter. So quit acting like you're a superhero or an Avenger. Whatever you think you are, you're wrong. You're a kid. That's all."

Hot tears now slip down Mazzy's cheeks, and Tony refuses to even glance at her to see her face. His grip is tight on the steering wheel and his face burns. Mazzy turns her entire body to face the window, pulling her knees up to her chest and pressing her cheeks against her legs. She tries her hardest to keep her crying silent, but Tony hears her sniffling as he parks the car outside of the new Avengers Compound.

Tony shuts the car off and unbuckles his seatbelt. "You coming with or staying here?" he asks. Mazzy doesn't move or say anything at all. Tony nods. "Yeah. I'll try to be quick."

He gets out of the car and leaves Mazzy by herself inside. Mazzy only moves now that he's gone, turning her head to watch him leave. She kicks the dashboard and covers her face with her hands, now letting herself cry as much as she needs to.

"It's not fair," Mazzy whispers to herself through her tears, over and over again.

It's not fair. It's not fair because she is more than he'll ever allow her to be. It's not fair because she is strong, and smart, and brave, and all she wants to do is be a good person and help people, but her dad won't let her all because he wants to keep all these stupid secrets! Or, Mazzy thinks, maybe he's scared she'll become better than him. Maybe that's it. Maybe he doesn't want his daughter upstaging him.

The truth, though, Mazzy doesn't know or understand. She can't. Because Tony won't tell her.

✮

Mazzy sits alone on a couch in the Avengers compound, staring blankly at a television screen with a popsicle in her left hand and the remote in her right. She was watching The Regular Show but it ended and started playing Mighty Magiswords, which she has no interest in watching. So now, in a last-ditch attempt to find at least something entertaining, she flips quickly through all of the TV channels.

Being home alone sounded a lot more cool when she was little. She used to think she'd be able to, like, build a huge pillow fort or something when left home alone, but now that she is allowed to be home alone, building a pillow fort all by herself sounds very boring.

And if she wanted to do something crazy like all the kids in movies do, she'd throw a party or something, but she can't do that, either, because of two reasons. One: she doesn't have any friends. And two: she's never truly home alone. Even if she's in her quarters alone, they're still just quarters. The whole rest of the compound is full of people. It'd be pretty hard to sneak a bunch of people into the Avengers Compound.

Either way, she's only eleven years old. If she were to throw a party, they would probably just eat way too much ice cream and sing Happy Birthday to no one. No eleven-year-old is throwing any ragers. Especially not Mazzy Stark.

She's home alone now because everyone else is off doing something. Some of the Avengers are in Nigeria— or something like that; Mazzy can't quite remember what they said— and her dad is off in Massachusetts to give a speech at MIT. He invited her to come with him, but Mazzy said no.

Truth is, Mazzy doesn't really like spending quality time with her dad anymore. She doesn't want to talk to him because she doesn't know when he's lying and when he's telling the truth. Plus, she still holds a slight grudge against him for the things he said about her being just a little girl, even if that's immature of her.

All Mazzy wants is to be an Avenger, but it turns out that the whole Sokovia thing was a one-time gig.

She is not an Avenger. Sometimes, just to remind Tony of the harsh things he said to her, Mazzy even refers to herself as a Not-Avenger.

Just last week, the Avengers were all hanging out together and ordered in. When Tony went to Mazzy's room to tell her she should come join them, she asked him, "Are you sure this isn't just an Avenger thing? Because you don't wanna invite a Not-Avenger to your Avengers Club Meeting, right, Dad?" Tony wasn't pleased with that. He's getting really sick of it, actually, but Mazzy just keeps pushing. Their relationship is more strained now than ever.

Mazzy tries her best not to think about it.

In fact, she's not thinking about it now as she flips through the TV channels. Walk the Prank, Miles From Tomorrowland, Pawn Stars, Shark Tank, Duck Dynasty, and about a billion news channels. There should be a channel that plays just The Regular Show.

Letting out a bored groan, Mazzy keeps flipping through channels. Her clicking is interrupted, though, by the sound of heels clacking against the hard floors. Mazzy drops the remote, the channel landing on some news outlet.

Turning around to look over the couch, Mazzy calls out, "Hello?"

Much to Mazzy's surprise, none other than Pepper Potts comes into the living room. Mazzy's bored expression instantly morphs into a smile as she leaps off of the couch and slams into Pepper, wrapping her arms tight around her.

"Hi, Mazzy," Pepper breathes out with a soft smile on her face, running her fingers through Mazzy's curly hair. Mazzy looks up at her like she's the sun. "Heard you bailed on your dad's MIT trip, too, and thought I'd stop by to see you," Pepper explains.

"I don't even know why he thought I'd want to go with him," Mazzy says with a huff, finally pulling away from Pepper.

"I don't know, either. He's the worst, isn't he?" Pepper jokes, raising her eyebrows.

"The worst," Mazzy agrees with a nod. She then notices the grocery bag in Pepper's left hand. "What'd you bring?"

Pepper starts making her way to the kitchen and Mazzy follows closely by her side. "Well, I brought some ice cream and toppings, but I'm not sure you need it," she says, gesturing to the popsicle in Mazzy's right hand. Pepper reaches to touch the back of her head, slightly furrowing her eyebrows. "You didn't get that in my hair, did you?"

"No, no, no. That'd be a waste of popsicle," Mazzy replies. She finishes off the last of her treat and tosses the stick into the garbage. Kneeling on one of the stools at the kitchen island, Mazzy watches as Pepper unpacks the grocery bag. "So what kind of ice cream did you bring?"

Rolling her eyes, Pepper shakes her head. "You can have it tomorrow. You're gonna make yourself sick."

"I swear I won't get sick. I can eat an impressive amount of ice cream before throwing up," Mazzy tells Pepper. She reaches into the bag and pulls out the ice cream herself. It's Neopolitan, which Mazzy loves. Second to chocolate. The topping Pepper brought includes things like sprinkles, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and M&Ms. "Oh, my gosh," Mazzy says in awe, practically drooling just looking at it all. "You can't bring this and then tell me I can't eat it!"

"I'll put it in the freezer and you can eat it tomorrow, Mazzy," Pepper insists, pulling the ice cream away from the girl.

"Put it in the freezer and I'll just have to eat it all by myself after you leave," Mazzy tells her with a shrug.

Pepper lets out a dramatic sort of groan-slash-huff. "Fine."

"Yes!"

"But you can only have one scoop tonight. Do you understand me?" Pepper says very, very sternly.

"Yes, ma'am," Mazzy says with a salute.

"Great."

Together, Mazzy and Pepper get out bowls and fill them with ice cream— Mazzy is even able to sneak a second scoop into her bowl despite what Pepper said. They both drown their ice cream with toppings and don't hesitate to dig in once they've completed their sugar-filled masterpieces.

"I'm so glad I stayed here instead of going with Dad," Mazzy says with a mouth full of chocolate deliciousness.

Pepper smiles softly at the girl. "I'm just glad I got to see you. I miss you a lot, you know."

"Then you should come over more," Mazzy tells Pepper, raising her eyebrows. She doesn't fully understand why Pepper and her dad broke up. It's just another thing Tony doesn't like to and refuses to talk about. Either way, Mazzy isn't sure she cares. She just wants Pepper to be around again.

It's weird getting used to someone being there, and then suddenly they're just gone. Pepper had been there for as long as Mazzy can remember. She can't remember her life before Pepper. She isn't even sure if there was a life before Pepper. She's pretty sure that her dad and Pepper knew each other before she was even born. But now Pepper is just gone all the time. It feels sort of empty without her there, but Mazzy doesn't say that because she doesn't want to make Pepper feel guilty about leaving.

At first, Pepper frowns into her bowl of melting ice cream, but when she sees Mazzy look up at her, she forces a smile back onto her face. "You're right. I should come over more."

"I get why you don't come over, though. My dad is a jerk sometimes," Mazzy says.

"What do you mean?" Pepper asks. Of course, she knows ways in which Tony can be a jerk, but she's curious about what's bothering Mazzy in particular about her dad.

"He lies all the time. And he doesn't want me to be an Avenger, even though I could be an Avenger. I'd be a really great Avenger, I think," Mazzy says, scooping up her last spoonful of ice cream.

Pepper sighs, giving Mazzy a sympathetic look. "I know you'd be a great Avenger, honey, but your dad's right about not letting you. It just isn't safe, and it's not good for a kid," she explains.

Mazzy glares at her now empty bowl, resisting the urge to shift her glare towards Pepper, who's also now finishing off her ice cream. "I guess everyone wants me to be a Not-Avenger," she murmurs, an irritated tone to her voice. Why can't at least Pepper be on her side in this?

"It's not that we don't want you to be an Avenger. It's just that we want you to be as safe as you can be," Pepper tells her, placing her hand on top of Mazzy's.

Nodding with fake understanding, Mazzy pulls her hand away from Pepper's and slides off of her stool. She grabs her bowl and Pepper's bowl and puts them in the sink, filling them up with water. "I have some homework to do. Thanks for the ice cream," Mazzy says, giving Pepper a small, fake smile.

"Of course, hon. We should have ice cream dates every once in a while, don't you think?" Pepper replies, getting up and following Mazzy to the door.

"Yeah. I love ice cream and also you, so that'd be perfect."

Pepper knows that Mazzy is only rushing her to leave because she agrees with Tony, but she lets her rush her anyway. She understands her frustration. Mazzy has every right to be angry and confused about everything. Tony just won't communicate. It's got to be so difficult for her, Pepper knows.

"I'll see you soon, Maz. No more ice cream tonight. Got it?" Pepper says as she opens up the door to leave.

"Yeah, yeah. No more ice cream," Mazzy huffs. She waves as Pepper walks out the door. "Bye, Pepper," she says in a sing-song voice.

As soon as Pepper is gone, Mazzy shuts the door and rolls her eyes at no one in particular. She then makes her way to the freezer and takes out a Bomb Pop before sitting back down on the couch.

When Mazzy looks up at the screen and sees the video the news is playing, her heart drops down to her stomach.

Wanda has just accidentally thrown an explosive into a building, killing twenty-six innocent people.