287 Stark Truth

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3rd March 2013, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

Believe it or not, while Stark gave up the position of CEO, he was still the CTO of the company and thus involved in the ongoing projects of his company. I controlled the elevator and entered it alongside the kid.

It took a few seconds for the door to open up and we found ourselves in the billionaire's office and I just sat on the couch, and as I did, mine and Peter's clothes returned to normal. I looped the camera, showing an empty office and conjured a cup of tea. JARVIS should have noticed my intrusion and warned the billionaire of my presence.

I pointed the fidgeting spider themed hero to sit down. The kid was nervous. He did just break into his personal hero's office after all.

His mutterings of his future doom almost made me burst into laughter. When Stark slammed the door open in an Iron Man suit, the kid jumped away in fear. The armored hero pointed his repulsor at me, "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?"

I continued sipping my tea and raised an eyebrow. I could see the recognition and fear settle on his features as he realized who he tried to shoot, "Hello, Anthony Stark. Did you miss me?"

To his credit, it took less than a second for Stark's expression to turn from scared shitless to his arrogant playboy mask, "Jasmine Sayre, as I live and breathe. I didn't expect to see you anytime soon."

I snorted, "It was a spontaneous decision. I was taking a walk and then thought to myself, 'I haven't seen Stark in a while, why don't I go visit him?', so I did just that."

"You could have called," he dryly replied. I could hear the exasperation in his voice, and I suppressed a smirk, "how did you even get in? Reed Richards assured me that the anti-teleportation device was fool proof."

Huh, that was unexpected, "You should know by now that nothing is foolproof, Anthony. Although, I didn't expect you to go running to Richards for something like this. I thought that you would have more pride than that."

The billionaire gritted his teeth, "He is more experienced in dimensional technologies, I'm afraid. I'll make my own when I take a crack at it. How did you get past the shielding, in the first place? I've got to hold that over him."

His tone was light, but his eyes were very intense. I shrugged, "I didn't teleport in. I walked up here. You really need to work on your security, young man."

Before he could retort, I continued, "But even if what Richards has done is something remarkable, it's not very efficient. You could easily bypass it if you knew what you were doing and even overpower it with a strong enough power source. Trust me, Asgard's Bifrost would shear through your shields as if they weren't even there."

It was true. Now that I started looking for it, I could feel the spatial interference inside the building. It reminded me a bit of an anti-apparition ward. It simply stopped irregular spatial folding and thus anyone from teleporting in, as well as teleportation through multiple dimensions. Unfortunately for Stark, the spatial shielding can be subverted by anyone experienced enough for it not to be triggered in the first place, and the dimension shielding has to be tailored to the frequency of each external dimension, which means that Richards has only tailored it to the ones he knows about.

As much as Richards tries to deny it, he's as arrogant as Stark when it comes to his technologies. He simply cannot conceive the idea that anyone would know more about dimension exploration than himself. Sure, he's one of the smartest men on the planet, but intelligence is not wisdom. Reed often makes that mistake, and thus he always presumes that his decisions are the correct ones. There is a reason that I prefer Stark over him. For all his bravado, his arrogance has been tempered with pain and suffering. I would trust Stark to respect my decisions even if I don't explain them entirely. The same cannot be said about Reed Richards. He would interfere with trying to do the 'right thing' from his perception of morality.

My musings were interrupted by Stark sighing and his suit opening up, as he slowly walked to the corner. The unarmed billionaire slowly walked next to me and spoke up, "Can you call next time? I'm not always in the tower."

I raised an eyebrow, "I always know exactly where you are, Anthony, and you rarely even leave this place and we both know why, don't we?"

The billionaire looked uncomfortable and changed the subject, "So, who's the kid?"

The spider themed hero actually squeaked in fear when Stark looked at him. I chuckled at the kid's antics, "I found him on the way here. I owed him one from a while back, and he's always wanted to meet you. He reminds me of you, to be honest. If Howard wasn't your father that is…"

"Please tell me he's not an idiot like the others," the billionaire drawled out.

"Trust me, he might even rival you, if he stopped holding back, of course…"

I turned towards the teenager who looked down and was fidgeting. Unfortunately, the kid opened his mouth and started babbling, "I'm a big fan, Mr. Stark. I'm sorry for breaking in. I didn't know we weren't invited. Please don't send me to prison."

He said that so quickly that Stark didn't even have time to process. The armored hero just sighed again, "Look kid, Sayre here vouches for you, which is something that very few people would ever get. This means you've got to have potential. So, foot in the mouth syndrome or not, you have one hour in one of my private labs to make me something interesting. Impress me and you'll get a position as an intern here. JARVIS will show you the way…"

The teenager was gaping at his idol, "Who's JARVIS?"

"I am, Mr. Parker," a voice responded from the speakers, "please enter the elevator."

I ignored the kid fangirling as he babbled question after question to the poor virtual intelligence and I waited until he left the elevator. I pretended not to notice the fond look on the billionaire's face, "So, what's your angle? Why did you come here?"

I shrugged, "it was on a whim really. Yes, there is something I wanted to talk to you about, but it's not as urgent. To be honest, the biggest reason is the kid."

"Yes, why did you bring an awkward teenager to my office?"

"It's for both of your benefits really. He needs a role model in his life, and you need someone to keep you grounded. You've been spiraling out of control, Anthony."

Stark growled at me, "You left me with a shitshow, Sayre. I've been doing my best to hunt down Hydra. You were right, they're still a thing. I even found the footage of my parents' assassination."

I nodded, "Hydra's gone, kid. I took care of it myself. The whole 'take off one head and two others will take its place' doesn't work if I starve the damn thing. For all their ideological nonsense, they are a weird mix of a cult and a gang. Only the higher ups really believe that nonsense and the grunts are only hired men. All it took was for me to get rid of the higher ups and the money, and the organization splintered into nothing."

Stark was unamused though, "Taking SHIELD with it…"

I shrugged, "If SHIELD had survived, it would provide a backup for the organization to rise again. It was better this way. Maybe if Fury wasn't so adamant on taking me out, I would have played ball, but I just let things take their course. What's he doing now?"

"Well, after you ruined his reputation, I hired him as head of intelligence for the Avengers. He gives us missions and whatnot, which we can accept or refuse."

I chuckled, "So, you turned him into a glorified secretary?"

The billionaire burst into laughter, "I have to say that it was one of my more brilliant moves. You should have seen his face when I offered it to him."

I snorted in amusement and Tony continued, "What really happened with Pierce?"

I shrugged, "Pierce wanted control over Marvel, so he sent the Winter Soldier to kill 'Morgan Evanshade'. I always have backups for big assets like my company, and in this case, it was another alter ego, Jasmine Sayre. I caught my would-be assassin of course and deprogrammed his brainwashing. He's still barely a functioning human being, haunted by the abominations that he was forced to commit. He's especially guilty about his involvement in your father's death since they were friends. And since Pierce declared war, I arranged for him to die, as well as his entire organization."

"So, you took out an international terrorist organization with fingers in almost every pie, because they tried to take over your company?"

I smiled at him, "I was planning on leaving them for you and Rogers to deal with. But they fired the first shot."

"What about the Winter Soldier?"

Damn, was this man predictable sometimes, "tell me, would you really kill a man who's just escaped decades of torture and is barely more than a broken remnant of a human being?"

"HE KILLED MY MOM"

I nodded, "He did, but he wasn't in his right mind. It wasn't his choice. This would be like blaming Barton for the death of the agents on the helicarrier during the invasion. You're not thinking straight."

My dry tone must have shocked him. I could understand that; human beings often expect violence and aggression in the face of violence. Stark thought that I would yell back at him.

Seeing that I was beginning to get to him, I pressed further, "I could bring him to you if you really wanted me to. He wouldn't even resist. He would allow you to kill him because he thinks it would be your right. You have no idea about the guilt that this man is feeling every moment of his life. I wouldn't really care, not really. He's just a mortal. I have seen countless others like him die in front of me. I am already a monster. But I wonder how that would affect you. What would Maria think of you if you went through with it and killed Bucky Barnes?"

Tony's shoulder sagged, "She wouldn't want that for me."

I nodded, "No, she wouldn't. If it was a bad man that killed her, I wouldn't have said a word. But your target is not. The Winter Soldier is dead. The only thing remaining is the broken shards of Bucky Barnes. There is no need for your obsession anymore. Hydra is gone, and it was a mistake for me to tell you about its existence if you weren't going to be involved in taking them down, I see it now."

"I just miss her so much…"

"I know, and so do I. Maria was my friend, and a wonderful person. Her death was a tragedy to everyone who ever met her. But I have already avenged her. I destroyed the people who killed her and their organization. I even killed the super soldiers that Hydra tried to make using the serum stolen from your father. You need to stop feeling guilty over what happened and move on. Stop obsessing over your armors and start living. I'm not saying that you should stop innovating, but don't let it consume you. When something like the invasion happens, if you fail to handle it, I will take care of it. So, stop obsessing; you're worrying everyone around you, especially the lovely Miss Potts."

Stark groaned, "Fine, but I still don't understand why you brought a kid to my office."

I gave him a smug grin, "Well, outside of him being a teenager with a genius intellect and an obsession with tech, his character reminds me of you. You know, without the arrogant billionaire part, of course."

"I still don't see it. Sure, even if the kid is smart, that doesn't mean that we'll even tolerate each other."

"I have a feeling you will. After all, he's a superhero, just like you."

I counted in my head how long it took for the billionaire to digest my last sentence. It took twenty-seven seconds for him to yell out, "He's a WHAT?"