Life as Maya Stark • Iron Man's Daughter [ 1 ]

17

"They're flying up! Why are they flying up?" Pepper asked frantically. Maya shook her head as she started to say, "I have no idea. Tony knows not to fly that high or else his suit will start to freeze and-" Maya instantly shut up as she realized what Tony was doing.

"Obadiah doesn't know about the icing problem," Maya muttered as Pepper looked at the girl with a confused look. "What icing problem?" Pepper asked. "When the suit reaches a certain altitude, the atmosphere becomes so cold that it freezes the suit. Tony and I fixed the problem with his suit, but I don't think Obadiah has even thought that that could happen to him," Maya explained.

Pepper furrowed her eyebrows making Maya smile at her, "Tony is going to make Obadiah's suit freeze up!" Just then, Maya and Pepper saw Obadiah's suit falling from through the air. Maya smiled and threw a fist into the air as she jumped up and down excitedly. Pepper smiled slightly at the girl in front of her before a voice threw her out of her thoughts.

"Potts," Tony said making the two jump in surprise. "Tony! Oh my God, are you okay?" Pepper asked. "I'm almost dead of power. I gotta get out of this thing, I'll be right there," Tony told her and Pepper sighed in relief as she looked at Maya.

"Your father will be down in a minute," Pepper told Maya who smiled widely. As soon as Tony got down here, Maya was going to run up and hug him before telling him that she loved him. The only time she had ever told him that was when she was half asleep, but right now, Maya knew that she was ready to tell him while she was wide awake. She would even call him Dad when she said it.

Maya stood there excitedly by the doorway as she waited for her father to come down. Minutes passed and Maya had a bad feeling settling in her stomach. "Where's Tony? Shouldn't he be down here already?" Maya asked Pepper who gave her a worried look. "You don't think-" Pepper started, but Maya cut her off. "Don't say it. Please, just don't say it," Maya told her, not even being able to handle the idea that Obadiah had survived the crash.

"Potts."

Maya quickly spun on her heels to face Pepper who was saying into the phone, "Tony!" "This isn't working, we're gonna have to overload the reactor and blast the roof," Tony whispered through the ear phone.

Maya's eyes widened at his words. That means that Obadiah was alive. He had survived the crash and he was still trying to kill Tony. Maya walked over to Pepper and asked, "How are you going to do that?"

"You're going to do it, Maya. Go to the central console, open up the bolt of circuits. When I clear the roof, I'll let you know and you're gonna hit the master bypass button. That's gonna fry everything up here," Tony whispered and Maya gulped before starting to walk towards the building.

Maya carefully walked over the shards of glass and walked towards the central console with Pepper right behind her. "Okay, I'm going in now," Maya said loud enough so that Tony could hear her.

"Make sure you wait until I clear the roof, I'll buy you some time," Tony told her. He then sighed and whispered, "You can do this, Maya." Then his voice disappeared and Maya and Pepper were left in silence.

Once Maya cleared the glass, she ran over to the main console and with the help of Pepper, the two started flipping some of the switches that Pepper said they needed to switch. Maya then walked over to a control panel and pressed the buttons that Pepper told her to press before flipping some more switches.

A loud noise came from above and Maya looked up to see Tony on top of the glass window above them. The two made eye contact and Maya felt better upon seeing Tony in that moment. He gave her a slight nod and Maya continued to prepare everything.

Once Maya was done, she heard Pepper say, "It's ready, Tony. Get off the roof." Just then, the glass window above them exploded into a thousand little pieces as they rained down on Pepper and Maya. Pepper tried to shield Maya from as much glass as possible before the two looked up to see Tony hanging on to some of the metal bars above them.

"Tony!" Pepper yelled. "Pepper! Maya!" Tony yelled and Maya looked up at him. "Time to hit the button!" he yelled at her. Maya went to press the button, but froze. "You told me not to!" Maya said. Tony sighed before saying, "Just do it!"

"But you'll die!" Maya yelled, her voice cracking in the process. There was a boom from up above and Tony lost his grip on the metal bar. He was now dangling by one hand. He looked at Maya and yelled, "Just do it!"

Maya felt tears start falling down her face as she said, "But Dad...." Tony felt his heart skip a beat at Maya calling him Dad, but he knew what had to be done. He gave Maya a slight nod before saying, "Just do it, Maya."

Maya shook her head as more tears fell, "I can't. I can't let you die." Pepper looked at the distraught girl before pressing the button for her. Maya let out a scream as Pepper grabbed ahold of her and pulled her out of the building as the arc reactor exploded with electricity.

"No!" Maya yelled as the building then went up in flames. "Tony!" Maya cried as the fire died down. She shook herself out of Pepper's grasp before clicking her heels together and activating the rocket boots. "Maya!" Pepper yelled, but Maya ignored her.

Maya quickly flew up into the air and landed on top of what was left of the building. As soon as her feet hit the ground she started searching frantically for her father. "Tony?" Maya called out as she walked around, making sure to avoid the rubble that was laying around.

It took her a while, but Maya eventually found him. She froze when she caught sight of Tony. He was lying on top of some rubble and his whole suit was messed up. But the thing that really caught her attention was the fact that the arc reactor was not glowing.

Maya felt her heart break at the sight and soon found her legs carrying her over to her father. "Tony?" Maya whispered as she collapsed onto the ground next to him. "Please, wake up. Come on, Tony. I need you. Please," Maya said as she gently shook her father.

Tears were starting to fill her eyes at this point and Maya could feel herself etching towards her breaking point. "Come on, Dad. I need you. You're all I have left," Maya whispered as she rested her head on his suit. Tears were now streaming down her face and Maya let out a heartbroken sob as she said, "Please, come back to me. I love you, Dad."

As soon as those words left Maya's lips, a bright glow lit up her face. Maya gasped and slowly pulled back to see the arc reactor starting up once again. She couldn't stop the smile that appeared on her face as her father's eyes fluttered open and he looked at her.

"I love you too, Maya."