Book Four; The Next Leg of Her Journey

C H A P T E R 1

BOOK FOUR; THE NEXT LEG OF HER JOURNEY -- A MARVEL FANFICTION
CHAPTER ONE

"Renesmee, hun, you need to get up." Pepper called into her oldest daughter's bedroom. After everything that had happened, Tony decided to get another two buildings built; the one on the lake and one for Pepper and thei- her kids. After the incident a year ago, no one wanted their kids near the man and Pepper didn't want her kids to grow up knowing the abusive man was their father. And so she asked Steve to erase the knowledge of the man as their father from their memory. Pepper also got divorced from the man, not wanting to be accosiated with him like she used to be. Luckily the incident hadn't gotten out to the media just yet, so that was good.

"I don't wanna." The girl mumbled, snuggling down into the blankets. "We've got a stupid field trip today, to here no less. So what's the point of going to school if we're just going to come home again anyway?"

"Because," Pepper started as she sat down on her daughter's bed, "if you go, you'll be able to prove everyone wrong. Won't you?"

"That's just it!" The girl exclaimed as she sat upright, looking at her mother with tear-filled eyes. "Everyone's saying I'm the daughter of Tony Stark and I'm not! I never have been! They keep saying I am but I know I'm not, I would know if I was. Right?"

"Of course you would, hun." Pepper comforted, brushing a long strand of her daughter's rich brown hair out of her face. "How about we go see Aunt Carol before you leave, alright? You, Peter, Harley and Rosalice will need some sort of motivation for today, now, won't you?" Renesmee sighed in defeat, nodding in agreement to what her mother had just said. It was true, the four of them would need motivation if they had to deal with Lucas Nicholbackson for the whole day in their own home.

Once dressed, Renesmee headed downstairs to meet her brothers, sisters and their Aunt Carol. "Morning, Carol!" Renesmee greeted as she entered the room. Whenever Carol returned from a mission in space she would usually spend some days at the Potts residence, as would Bruce whenever he got stressed. (In actuality, it was whenever he needed to see his goddaughter but she didn't need to know that).

Speaking of Bruce, he had stepped into the role of godfather more than ever. He filled in the little holes where Tony would have filled if he had never done what he did. The man had filled in the hole so much that Renesmee had once called him 'dad' when they were all together and Bruce had immediately responded to the girl.

"Morning, Little Dragon." Carol greeted, hugging the child close to her. Whenever Pepper had to go on a business trip with Tony, Carol was always ready to take care of the kids, mainly because she got to see Peter, Harley and Renesmee but she would never admit to that. "Ready for today?"

"Kind of," the girl replied, smiling at her brothers who were messing around. "Shouldn't we be going?"

"You should be." Pepper said, looking directly to her two eldest sons who immediately stopped messing around and released each other, both apologising to their stern mother. Pepper just gave a soft chuckle before shooing all of her kids out of the door and heading towards the main building herself to talk to Tony.

"Aunt Carol? Why don't we have a father?" Morgan asked after they had all sat in silence for a good fifteen minutes.

Carol took a deep breath, remembering what had happened after Tony had hit Renesmee, starting the first form of abuse.

"Why did you hit her?!" Peter roared, anger clear on his face. How dare that man, their father none the less, hit his baby sister? His own daughter?! "How dare you hit her! She started to trust you! We started to trust you, Stark! Clearly, you are not worth our trust!"

"Don't you dare yell at me, Peter Benjamin Stark-Potts." The man replied. Everyone watched as the two went at each other throats, Bruce comforting the hurt child in his arms that were slowly turning green.

"You don't deserve our trust!" That was all it took for the man to snap.

In a flash Peter was on the ground, clutching his eye where Tony had punched him. Eyes widening, Steve quickly stood between his teammate and his godson. "Move. Out. Of. The. Way. Rogers." The angered man growled at his captain, glaring at Peter through the gap between the super soldier's arm and side.

"No. You've hurt Renesmee, and now you've hurt Peter, too. When is enough enough for you, Tony? You were never like this with any of them. Why change now?"

"They need to learn."

"Yes, they do need to learn. But not like this, Tony. This isn't the way they need to learn. This will hurt your family if you keep doing this, don't you see? Peter's cowering from you, Renesmee's cowering from you, Morgan's cowering from you, Georgie's cowering from you, Harley's cowering from you, Rosalice's cowering from you. Can't you see? You've lost all the trust your kids had in you in one single, lonesome night. You're the one that's going to get hurt, Tony, not them. It will be your loss, don't you see?"

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way."

"No. It's my job to plant myself like a tree and say to you, no, you move. So, what's your move, Stark?"

SMACK

Another hit, this time to Harley who was trying to get his younger siblings away from the man they had once been able to call 'dad'. Rhodey jumped in immediately, restraining Tony with one of his own pieces of tech that he had made to restrain Dragon. "You need to stop, Tones."

"Never." The enraged man replied, attempting to break out of the machinery he was restrained by. "They need to learn the way I learnt!"

"They don't. And nor do they deserve to grow up knowing what you did to them, Anthony." Pepper said, speaking up for the first time in a while. "Steve, I don't want them remembering or associating Anthony as their father. They will have no memory of him being their father, they will not remember him as an uncle either. Just a man that stays at the compound on weekends and who I go on business trips with. Understood?"

"Clearly." Steve said before looking at each child in turn. When they remember, if they ever do, it's going to hurt more than it would if they never forgot. Steve knew this, as did Bucky who had to watch the kids lose part of their memory again, this time for a good reason instead of taking over the world.

Bruce watched as Steve took out a long, wooden stick that had a beautiful dark blue crystal placed at the tip of what looked to be the handle; it was stunning.

"I'm sorry," the man apologised before closing his eyes.

Bruce watched with guarded breathe as his leader, his captain, pointed the stick towards the children of the team known as the Avengers and spoke one word that caused the kids to black out for some odd reason.

"Obliviate."

And that was all it took for them to forget.

"It doesn't matter," Carol replied, not wanting to tell them that Anthony Edward Stark, their mother's business partner who she detested with a shocking passion to the children not so much the adults, was their father and that he was - is - also a member of Avengers, a very close knit team that were - are - able to call each other family. That man can't be included, because he went against the one promise the family ever made and what they swore by.

Never, in a million lifetimes, were they to touch a child in wrong light. Tony went against that, and so he was kicked out of the family. Iron Man didn't hurt them, so why should he get kicked out? It wasn't right. So Iron Man stayed, Tony Stark went. That's just how it had to go unfortuantley.