Hello all!

So we've finally reached home for Bryanna, her next step in her life outside of HYDRA. We're only a couple of updates away from the end of volume 1 and I truly hope you have enjoyed the first story following the beginning of Bryanna's journey.

I hope you enjoyed the last two chapters and will enjoy the last chapter in this cycle of updates!

Settling In

"Good morning Miss Stark. It is ten o'clock AM, the weather in Malibu is 70 degrees-"

The voice jerked Bryanna out of a sound sleep and before she could even fully wake up she was on her feet with the lamp that she yanked off the bedstand and readied to strike.

"Hey Bryanna! Take a chill pill and please don't throw that lamp, it's just Jarvis, he's not a person and he isn't going to hurt you."

By the time Tony had a chance to speak Bryanna had already woken up and realized what was happening, her arms already relaxing as she lowered the lamp.

"Right, sorry I wasn't expecting to hear his voice so...yeah." Bryanna gave a sheepish shrug and Tony laughed.

"It's all good. Here, put the lamp back and get dressed so that I can take you on the grand tour. It killed me not to get to show you around yesterday when we arrived." Tony muttered.

Bryanna laughed and looked out the wall of windows at the ocean below. It was an amazing sight and so much more welcome then her room back at the headquarters.

"Hurry up!" Tony called before leaving her new room, door closing behind him.

Bryanna looked outside for another moment, soaking up the sunlight before turning to the boxes with her clothing and scrounging up a pair of grey sweatpants and a tee shirt that Natasha had found for her.

"Hey Jarvis?" She called, feeling slightly odd for talking to the air.

"Yes Miss Stark?"

"How about for future reference you don't wake me up with your voice. Just get rid of the black tinting and let the sunlight wake me up. Once I'm up and retrieving clothing or whatever you can talk."

"Very well Miss Stark, I'll be sure to do that for future reference." The AI said pleasantly.

"Thanks. Also, don't worry about the Miss Stark stuff. Please just call me Bryanna."

Once she was dressed she headed out into the hall and towards where she remembered the staircase being. Taking the stairs at a jog she made her way to the kitchen that Tony had showed her the night before.

"You found your way without trouble! Awesome! I have the most gourmet breakfast available to you...Froot Loops."

Bryanna snorted and accepted the bowl of cereal he offered as he poured a second bowl for himself. She was happy to dig in, not caring that it was only cereal. They both finished eating in relative silence, once they were finished Tony simply dumping the bowls in the sink and giving a quick clap.

"Sweet! Time to show you around!

With that he strode purposefully from the room, leaving Bryanna to chase after her brother as quickly as possible. He took her on a most dramatic tour, showing her around the upper floors with their bedrooms and the several guest rooms. He bypassed the main floor that she had already been given a tour of the main floor of the main wing.

"Wanna see my rec section?"

"Sure!"

He took her to another wing of the house, one that was slightly cut off from the main house. The bottom floor had an impressive bar, along with a pool table, comfortable seating, and floor to ceiling windows. Next to the bar was a fancy state of the art gym, complete with a sauna and lounge patio.

"Feel free to use this whenever you like. Also, the pool is always open."

Bryanna perked up, looking over at her brother with a grin.

"Did you just say pool?!"

He smirked and beckoned for her to follow, leading her out through a set of glass double doors onto the deck of the most beautiful pool.

"Oh yeah, I'm going to be living in this wing." She said distractedly, leaning down to run her hands through the water.

Behind her she heard a muffled snicker and turned just in time to see Tony's hands reaching for her as with a squawk she fell sideways into the pool.

"TONY!"

Her outraged shout echoed across the pool deck as Tony backed away, bending over and wrapping an arm around his middle as he laughed. Bryanna blew an errant strand of hair out of her face with an irritable puff, but couldn't quite hide her grin.

Even if her brother was an annoying brat, it felt amazing to finally be home like this.

Bryanna was sitting on the couch in the media room next to Tony chowing down on pizza as the final credits for the movie they had been watching rolled across the screen.

"Sir? You have a visitor waiting at the front door."

Jarvis's voice echoed through the room and Tony looked up.

"Who is it?"

"It's Mr Rhodes sir. It appears that he has returned early from his trip. Shall I allow him entry?"

"Yeah, let him in. Tell him to wait for me in the living room." He smirked as he looked over at Bryanna. "I have a little surprise for him."

"Very well sir."

Tony stood to his feet, setting aside the pizza box he had been holding and grinning wickedly.

"Oh this is gonna be fun. Let's go scare the crap out of Rhodey."

Bryanna followed willingly and Tony rubbed his hands together gleefully.

"Alright so here's the plan. I'm going to hide behind the wall just outside the living room and when I give the signal the living room lights are going to flicker and go out, leaving only the light from in the fountain and the fireplace. Then you are going to walk out there and just whisper his name before asking him if he missed you in this really eery tone. With your black tracksuit you should scare the almighty crap out of him."

"Why would I ask if he missed me?" Bryanna questioned.

"You might look older and more mature, but anyone who knew you when you were younger would recognize you now. Just trust me on this." Tony said with a grin.

"...I can't believe I'm doing this but fine, I'll do it."

"This is gonna be epic." Tony whispered, the two of them falling silent as they crept up to the wall.

"Jarvis, now." He just barely breathed.

But it was enough that the AI was able to follow the plan, lights flickering before going out.

"What the hell?! Tony, where are you?"

Tony looked over at Bryanna and gave a nod, the teen letting out a soundless sigh and straightening, slowly gliding through the doorway. He wasn't looking in her direction and didn't see her at first, not until her clothing rustled and he wheeled to face the noise only to let out a strangled shout.

"Wha-?!"

"Rhodey~ did you miss me?" Bryanna singsonged softly, allowing the light to reflect off her shadowy eyes.

Rhodey's eyes went so wide that they looked like dinner plates and in a turn of events that neither of them had considered in all their foolishness, her brothers friend lunged towards her, fist cocked back as his other hand grabbed for her.

Instinct took over and Bryanna dived sideways, flinging her hand out and sending the large man flying backwards with a single swipe of her shadows. He let out a shout as he went airborne, hurtling backwards toward the window. Cursing, Bryanna reached out and grabbed onto him with her shadows, accidentally tilting her shadows and causing Rhodey to slide down them before landing ungracefully on the floor.

"Oh my god Rhodey!" She shouted, running towards the man. "TONY! I think I broke your friend!"

Tony came bolting out of the hallway moments later.

"Jarvis! Lights!"

Bryanna reached Rhodey's side and dropped down next to him just as Tony came up next to her.

"I'm so sorry! I'm such an idiot, I didn't mean to do that!" She cried, poking and prodding him worriedly as he gasped.

"Dude, you alright? I can't believe I didn't think that you might react on offensive." Tony muttered, pulling his friend into a sitting position.

Rhodey opened his mouth and closed it a few times before pointing at Bryanna.

"I'm hallucinating. The mushrooms in my salad gave me hallucinations. Tony, I could swear I'm looking at a fifteen year old version of your dead sister."

Tony coughed awkwardly and Bryanna wrung her hands nervously.

"Um, I'm not dead so..."

Rhodey just stared.

"Currently I am in such a state of shock that I can't freak out yet. You have about three minutes to make your explanation."

"I was kidnapped by terrorists and had my death faked while I was their prisoner until the government rescued me months ago and forced my brother to keep it secret for investigative reasons but now I'm home." Bryanna said instantly, summarizing her painfully long story into a five second explanation.

His jaw dropped.

"You were a prisoner...of terrorists?!"

"Yup, she was also an experiment. And she has freaky weird shadow powers clearly." Tony added, openly gaping at her. "So when were you planning to tell me that you have MAGIC?!"

Bryanna did a double take.

"Wait, they never told you?!" She squawked.

"No! They said that you had some unusual abilities now, ones that were under control and that you'd share with me when you were ready!"

"Are you kidding me?! How the hell did they expect me to share that?! "Hey Tony, I'm a freak with shadow powers"?!"

Tony shrugged.

"That's as good as any a way!" Then he rocked back on his heels and scrubbed his face. "My sister is a freaking modern day Harry Potter. Unbelievable."

A slightly hysterical laugh pulled both back to Rhodey who sat there between them looking between them with wild eyes.

"Don't mind me, I'm just still trying to absorb that the girl that was like a sister to me that I though was dead is actually alive and sitting in front of me. Oh, and that she threw me at a freaking WINDOW!"

"...sorry about that." Bryanna muttered.

"Sorry." He echoed, shaking his head and standing. "I swear to god that you Starks are send me to the looney bin. Man, I need a drink."

Tony shrugged and slung an arm around Bryanna's shoulder.

"A drink can be arranged. You're probably going to need it for this story." Her brother said cheerfully, Rhodey groaning but following Tony and Bryanna as they started towards the hall.

"So does Pepper know about this?" Her brothers friend questioned.

"Yup, she was there when I got the news."

"How about Happy?" Was the next question.

"He met the day we got back. They seem to get along well enough." Tony informed him.

"And what about Stane, does he know?" His question sounded resigned, as if he knew the answer already.

"Yup, I called him when I was at the conference."

"Well why didn't you call me?! I might as well have been related to her with the amount of time I would spend with you guys, with the times I would pick her up from school on my way to meet you guys at your house." Rhodey snapped, clearly exasperated.

"You hadn't come back yet and as I recall the last time I disturbed you "at work" you had flipped and told me to never randomly call you when you were working again unless Armageddon had arrived or I was dying." Tony quipped, his comment making Bryanna snort.

"This isn't a random call! This is a call to tell me that Bryanna just came back from the dead!"

"If I apologize will that make it better?" Tony asked, smirking.

"No chance in hell. I don't forgive you, neither for not calling, nor for pulling that prank on me like that." Rhodey grumbled. "I forgive Bryanna, she apologized and actually felt remorseful, but you're a bastard that doesn't deserve my forgiveness."

Bryanna burst into laughter at his statement and Rhodey grinned slightly, reaching over to ruffle her hair. The three of them meandered to Tony's party room and over to the bar where Bryanna watched Tony and Rhodey get themselves drinks.

It reminded her of when she was a kid, watching her brother and Rhodey hanging out together.

It was comforting.

"Bryanna, your brother requests your presence downstairs."

The aforementioned girl looked up from where she was studying the screen of her new laptop. Her web browser was pulled up with several sites on bedroom design themes, Tony had been encouraging her to personalize her bedroom and she had finally decided to follow through on his advice.

"Let him know that I'll be right down." She called to the AI before closing her laptop and setting it on her desk as she shoved her feet into her new pair of converse and grabbed a hoodie off her chair on her way out the door.

On her way past the mirror she met her own eyes, smiling slightly at the sight of brown eyes looking back at her. The Shadow eyes she had now as a result of the experiment were just another thing that stripped away who she used to be, and when she had voiced that to Tony he had come up with the idea of coloured contacts. It had taken her a little bit of time to get used to them but now she wore them all the time. The only people who had ever really gotten a good look at her eyes without the contacts not including the agents back at headquarters were Rhodey, Tony and Pepper.

Pleased that her appearance looked relatively presentable she hurried down the stairs to the main floor, pulling her hoodie on fully as she reached the main floor.

"You wanted me?"

Tony nodded, gesturing towards Pepper who smiled up at Bryanna from where she stood next to Tony.

"Hey Bryanna, ready to go?" The woman asked.

"Yup!"

Today Pepper was taking Bryanna shopping so she could fill out her wardrobe a little bit. Normally she could care less about stuff like shopping but she was really looking forward to seeing some of Malibu right now, mall included.

"Just before you leave I need to talk to Pepper. Stay and talk with Obi for a few inutes or something." Her brother said before leaving the room with Pepper, their heads bent together as Tony talked in a low tone.

Bryanna's went from smiley to sullen in seconds and she heaved a heavy sigh before turning to the man she had been studiously ignoring.

"Obadiah." She said flatly in greeting.

"Hello Bryanna, how are you doing this morning." Obadiah asked pleasantly.

Bryanna narrowed her eyes in response and his smile became slightly strained.

"It's nice to see you without those sunglasses on from when I first saw you. Your eyes look just like your fathers, it's a shame to hide them."

Bryanna ignored him, deciding instead to amuse herself and see how long he could stand her staring at him wordlessly. She drained the emotion of her face, staring at him blankly with ramrod straight posture. He looked away, glancing around the room but Bryanna could see the rising tension in his muscles and smirked inwardly.

"Bryanna, why do you dislike me so much? Is this because of how I treated you when you came to me after your parents death? Please understand, I never meant to hurt you. Your parents death was extremely hard for me as well and I realize now that my behaviour, the way I almost took it out on you, was extremely wrong. I do apologize for that." Obadiah said, turning back to face her.

Bryanna blinked before snorting.

"I actually had forgotten about that to be honest, I'm surprised you even remember that."

"You forgot? That's really all I can think of that you might resent me for, I don't understand why you hold such evident dislike for me." Her father's old friend said, sounding mildly puzzled.

Bryanna's arms crossed and she could feel the shadows in her eyes behind the contacts churn.

"It's actually really quite simple. I know it was you who told the "social worker" that Tony wasn't qualified to care for me. It was you who gave her the writing on paper that allowed her to rip me out of my home legally and away from Tony." He opened his mouth to argue but Bryanna spoke right over him.

"I'm not a fool, I never was. I know what I saw, and the fact that Tony didn't see your silent exchange was only testament to where he was emotionally at that point. Because of you opening your mouth that Social worker who "just happened" to be working for the terrorist organization was able to rip me out and force me into that place of horrors for six years. I hate you for that, because the only reason you said something is because you wanted me out of the way while you groomed my brother into taking over the company. You wanted money, you never cared about me."

"Bryanna that's not true." Obadiah said quietly.

"Like hell it isn't. You are the reason my brother wasn't able to keep me, if you had never spoken up my brother could have fought that claim and prevented them from taking me, due to no reasonable evidence that their accusations were correct and instead placed the blame on them holding a grudge against my father and trying to further hurt our family. And because he has the money he does he would have been able to take that to court, I never would have had to leave his care." Bryanna spat.

Obadiah reached out towards her and Bryanna took a step back, throwing up her arm defensively and glowering at him.

"I won't tell Tony, because right now he relies on you and from what I've heard and seen, you seem to care about him too. I won't risk hurting that for Tony's sake. But I refuse to be friendly, or even fake liking you. Leave me alone, or you will regret it."

Seconds after the last word left her lips her brother walked back into the room laughing while Pepper rolled her eyes at him.

"Alright Bryanna, let's go. Abandon the boys to their fun." Pepper said with a smile, Bryanna returning that with a grin of her own as she breezed past Obadiah and fell into step with her brothers assistant.

"Have fun! Don't do anything I would do!" Tony called after them as they exited the house and headed to the waiting car where Happy stood.

"Ready to go?"

"Absolutely, thank you Happy." Her brothers assistant said, climbing in the back with Bryanna.

The doors closed and they pulled away from the mansion, Bryanna glancing over her shoulder at the towering structure before turning to the ocean and gazing out over the blue expanse.

Man, she loved her new home.

So what did you think? Reviews are welcome! Flames shall be laughed at, posted for others to laugh at, and ignored as I continue the story.