𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐫

༻ ❁ ༺

Rose Hill, Tennessee
8:05 PM

TONY VENTURED TO the small town with Harley by his side. His stomach was no longer empty and he was now wearing appropriate clothes for the cold, snowy weather.

As they walked, he couldn't help how quiet the kid could be if the genius himself would start the conversation, and Tony was starting to feel awkward as the two walked together.

"The sandwich was fair, the spring was a little rusty, the rest of the materials, I'll make do," he begins as they entered a dead end street, "By the way, when you said your sister had a watch..." he looks down at a Dora the Explorer digital watch already on his wrist.

"Yeah?" Harley questions.

"I was kind of hoping for something a little more adult than that," he tells the kid, "Not even my daughter would like this."

Harley guffaws, "She's six! Anyway, it's a limited edition. When can we talk about New York?"

"Maybe never, relax about it," As the two walk to the end of the street, Tony muttered hastily as they pass a memorial place with lit candles and images of the victims.

"What about the Avengers? Can we talk about them?" Harley continues.

"I dunno. Later. Hey kid, give me a little space," Tony demanded, feeling uncomfortable as he gently pushed him away to create a space between them.

He chose to divert his attention by scanning the memorial site; the brick walls were covered in the ashy remnants of the explosion victims, which appeared as five shadows resembling bodies.

It was disturbing yet intriguing at the same time. Harley approached the area more as Tony talked.

"What's the official story here? What happened?" Tony asks.

"I guess this guy named Chad Davis used to live roundabouts," the boy sat down on the elevated ground created by the explosion's crater and looked at Tony as he spoke, "He won a bunch of medals in the army. And one day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb. Then he blew himself up, right here," Harley finished with a somber tone, looking sadly around him.

Tony gazed around at the offerings that others had left on the altar for the deceased after touching one of the shadows on the wall. He had a resentful expression on his face, as if he was haunted just by being here.

"Six people died, right?"

"Yeah," Harley nodded.

"Including Chad Davis?" Tony continued, to make sure he was right.

"Yeah, yeah."

Looking around again, he seemed to think the story was missing a certain element, "Yeah, that doesn't make sense," Tony stated as he sat next to Harley, looking at the boy, "Think about it. Six dead," he then pointed at the dark figures on the wall to make sure Harley understood, "Only five shadows."

But Harley was a smart kid, he had already noticed this, "Yeah. People said these shadows are like the marks of souls going to heaven," Tony looked away from him and made a face when the kid mentioned religion, "Except the bomb guy. He went to hell, on account of he didn't get a shadow. That's why there's only five."

"Do you buy that?" Tony asks, with no intention of making fun of him, just to be sure of what the kid believes in.

He and Pepper never forced religion onto Charlotte, they wanted her to figure it out on her own. Even when Pepper's parents insisted for their daughter to be at least baptized, they were against it and in the end, they won.

"It's just what everyone says," Harleys replies.

And Tony saw right then and there that, despite his intelligence, this kid was still a bit naive. And it was fine since he was only twelve years old, and he deserved to remain naive before facing the hard realities of adult life.

Tony nodded his head, showing Harley that he was being attentive.

"You know what this crater reminds me of?"

Already knowing what the kid was about to say, Tony began to scowl as he quickly tried to change the subject, "No idea. I'm not-I don't care."

"That giant Wormhole in, um, in New York," Tony closed his eyes as he began to feel his heart pound heavily on his chest, he tried to contain it, "Does it remind you?" Harley questions, cheekily.

Feeling offended, he glared at the boy once he opened his eyes, "That's manipulative. I don't want to talk about it."

"Are they coming back? The aliens?" Harley continues pressing.

"Maybe-Can you stop?!" Tony raised his voice a little to show his urgency in how nervous Harley's questions were making him. "Remember when I told you that I have an anxiety issue?" he reminded Harley when he saw that the kid dropped his smile.

"Does this subject make you edgy?" Harley stammered at him.

"Yeah, a little bit," the genius interrupted as the kid tried to continue his questions, "Can I just catch my breath for a second?"

"Are the bad guys in Rose Hill? Do you need-Do you need a plastic bag to breathe into? Do you have medication?" Harley kept asking, genuinely concerned but making Tony even more anxious as he tried to hold himself back from freaking out.

"No," Tony replied shortly as he exhaled through his mouth.

"Do you need to be on it?" Harley continues.

"Probably," he retorted, annoyed.

"Do you have PTSD?"

"I don't think so," Tony replied through gritted teeth as he tried to control his breathing.

"Are you going completely mental?" Harley questions as he places his hand on Tony's arm for comfort, "I can stop. Do you want me to stop?"

"Remember when I said to stop doing that? I swear that you're gonna freak me out," Tony snapped at him with a shaky voice before walking away from him, "Ah, man, you did it, didn't you? You happy now?"

"What did I say?" Harley looked back to Tony running away from the dead-end into the corner of the street while taking his jacket off, "Hey! Wait up! Wait, wait," Tony leaned against the wall, worried and breathing irregularly, before collapsing on a tiny snowbank and lying down, attempting to calm his breathing.

Suddenly, two quad bikes approached the two and came to a halt at the curb, causing the snow on the curb to be thrown on top of Harley and Tony.

"Hey, Harley!" A boy with dark hair and taller than Harley taunted the kid, smirking. "Who's that? Did your dad finally come back home?"

Tony frowned, this must be the bully.

Harley seemed surprised for a moment before he finally retorted, "Laugh it up, E.J! You know who this is? This is Tony Stark!"

The genius quickly covered his face with his cap and shook his head at E.J, attempting to maintain a low profile.

E.J laughed mockingly, "Tony Stark is dead," with one last jeer at the man who looked to be homeless, the bully and his friend rode away on their quad bikes, leaving more snow to be thrown at the two.

"What the hell was that?" Harley exclaimed.

He wanted to ask him that as well, because if that teen boy was his bully then he didn't see the fairness of him bullying a younger kid.

Tony could only raise his arm to distant Harley and give him some space. When the kid backed away, he grabbed a clump of snow and began slapping it all over his face to cool himself, then flung it in Harley's face.

"Your fault. You spazzed me out," Tony gave the kid a smirk when Harley smiled cheekily at him, "Okay, back to business, where were we?"

Harley shrugged.

Tony sniffs and controls his breathing, "The guy who died. Relatives? Mom? Mrs. Davis, where is she?"

"Where she always is," Harley replies.

"See? Now, you're being helpful," Tony sighs.

Tony walked to the pub where the twelve-year-old said Mrs. Davis would be, leaving Harley on the other street. However, he was completely unaware that a battle awaited him there.

And that his daughter was currently in Miami, inside a cell.

༻ ❁ ༺

She didn't remember falling asleep, but she woke up at the sound of someone passing by.

Charlotte jerked into a sitting position as soon as the memories of where she was truly were returned, dismayed to discover that she had not dreamed of being abducted. She remained in the same cell, sleeping on the same mattress.

She looked at her cell bars and saw a man who she once called her friend staring at her. Even with a gun strapped on his belt, Hugh still had the nerve to look remorseful and sympathetic. In truth, he looked pitiful, like he did not truly want to be working for Killian, nor did he want to betray her family.

Still, she did not trust him.

"What?" she asked, kind of annoyed, "Have you come to apologize?"

Without a word, he moved his hands from behind his back, revealing a objects covered in a fabric cover. Hugh removed the cover and Charlotte felt relief flood through her when she saw her prosthetic limb resting in his arms.

"I would," he began, "but something tells me that it would fall on deaf ears. Consider this a bargaining gift."

Stooping to one knee, Hugh reached through the bars and placed the prosthesis, still wrapped in the cloth, on the ground a few feet beyond the cell door.

"Thank you," She murmured, quickly but cautiously making her way over to the parcel. She was thankful that her parents had thoroughly shown her how to attach the limb by herself. The independence they had taught her to have from a young age was proving to be valuable in this moment.

Once she had comfortably reattached the metal structure, Charlotte quickly hopped back up onto the bed, creating a further distance between the two of them.

She did not trust him, and was leaving nothing to chance.

"I would be willing to listen, however, I can't say the same for my parents." After a few seconds of silence, with Hugh unable to meet her eye, she leaned forward slightly and spoke in a hushed tone.

"Are they making you do this?" The girl gave him a sad glance, feeling genuine pity for the man she had known since she was seven years old. "I could help you."

Hugh's downward smile slowly turned into a smirk, and Charlotte didn't like it. His expression was smug and the way he looked at her made her feel hopeless.

"I don't need your help."

He began walking away, but still giving her a patronizing expression - it made Charlotte mad.

Then she smelled something being burned, and when she glanced down, she noticed that the hand placed on the mattress had melted through the cloth and was now melting through the springs.

Squeaking with surprise, Charlotte jumped out of it and stared at her own hand. Her arm looked horrific; all of her veins leading to her hand were glowing orange, and her skin was bright red; she could feel it now - it burned so badly.

She used her other hand to press on her blazing arm and was surprised to feel neither pain or heat. But it was getting out of hand; it was now spreading to Charlotte's chest and neck, and she began to feel panicked as her eyesight blurred.

"H-Help! Someone, please! It burns!" she screamed, trying to pull herself towards the cell bars, "It burns!"

Hugh approached and his eyes widened at the girl's state, all of her face's veins were now covered with the Extremis serum and her brown pupils were glowing orange. Panicking, he reached into his walkie-talkie.

"We have a situation here, I think she's about to explode!" he informed hurriedly.

Growing impatient, and very scared, Charlotte reached with her arm for him, "Help me-,"

Suddenly, a surge of searing heat rushed through her outstretched arm, and a hot substance that looked like lava slammed into Hugh's chest, causing him to howl in pain and tumble backward onto the floor.

Charlotte shrieked and instantly backed away, covering her mouth with her regular hand and watching with widening, terrified eyes as Hugh stopped moving - all she could hear was a terrible sizzling sound, and she tried not to think about what was burning.

Her arm and hand were no longer blazing, nor did they feel hot, and her face and eyes were back to how they were before the unexpected incident.

Charlotte, on the other hand, couldn't take her gaze away from Hugh's lifeless figure on the floor. She had backed away from it so far that when her back met the wall from her cell, her legs trembled for a few seconds before giving out and allowing her to slide down the wall and sit on the floor.

She whimpered silently, tears in her eyes, as additional guards surrounded the man she had just killed, and Aldrich Killian was among them, scrutinizing him.

"He's dead," one guard, a bald one, told his boss.

And Killian, he huffs before grinning maniacally at Charlotte.

"Remarkable!" he exclaims, excited. "You have just proven yourself to be very valuable, Charlotte Stark."

"No! Wait!" she begins, rising to her feet, "I didn't mean to! I-I-" stammering, Charlotte began to feel queasy as soon as she heard that Hugh was dead. She killed him, "Oh my God I-I didn't mean to..." covering her mouth and staring at the floor, Charlotte held down the bile that was threatening to come out.

"Oh, no, no! It's okay! Sssh..." Killian began shushing her with a gentle tone, he turned to his henchmen for a moment, "Get him out of here, leave me alone with her!" he barked.

"But sir-" the bald guard quickly shut up when he saw the look Killian gave him, and quickly enough, three guards helped him carry the deceased man out of the area, leaving his boss alone with the girl.

When gone, Killian smiled again, "That was fantastic. Truly, amazing."

Charlotte's widened eyes looked at him with shock, "A-Amazing?" she murmured, "I just - I just killed him!" she screamed, "I didn't mean to! The fire - my arm..." sobbing, she approached the cell and stood right in front of him, glaring, "I'm a murderer!"

Charlotte stared at him, her expression haunted.

Rolling his eyes, Killian grabbed the bars of her cell and leaned closer, "Charlie, I might've been wrong about you. You're stronger than you look. You were supposed to explode, but instead, you were able to control your Extremis! Don't you see what this means?"

She backed away from him with a disgusted expression on her face, "I killed him..." she mumbled, feeling dreadful.

"Forget that! You're not seeing the picture here, you might be a successful test subject."

"I'm not a test subject!" Charlotte screamed, covering her ears and eyes and turning her back on him, "I wanna go home! I want my parents!" she yelled out, crying as she felt that even her tears were now warm as they slid down her cheeks.

"Well boo-hoo, you brat. I changed my mind, I'm not using you to get to your father. I think Pepper is going to be enough," Killian said as he straightened the cuffs on his blazer.

"W-What are you gonna do to me?" Charlotte meekly asked, still not looking at him.

For a little while, Killian remained silent, as if he realised that by not answering, he was simply adding to her anxiety. Charlotte was about to turn around to face him, but she refrained since he was a psychopath, and she dreaded him.

"That, kiddo, is going to be a Christmas surprise."