A/N: alright hello and welcome to infinity war!!

in honor of from the dark hitting one million views, here's a surprise chapter on a random sunday afternoon :)) seriously, i still can't believe one of my books has one million views. i'm currently still processing it lol

we are taking things slowly in this chapter so don't worry, no one is dying (yet) but it is...inevitable. sorry, bad joke.

keep in mind, there is a nine month time skip in this chapter and that's because between the astronomy exhibit and this, all that happened was they went to school and continued to be crazy in love. i figured i'd written enough of that for you guys to have a pretty good idea of how life is going for everyone right now, hence the time skip

anyway, this is like an infinity war preview but this wednesday, we will hit the ground running!

————————————————————

where you almost die at every year?"
————————————————————

NINE MONTHS LATER

"Alright, alright, everyone settle down," Mr. Harrington said to his decathlon team, "Now I know last year's competition was a bust because...well, there was an earthquake and we never actually competed, but this year is our year! This year, our competition is being held at MoMA and we will definitely be competing!"

Little did they know, this year, like the previous year, they were definitely not competing.

Everyone groaned in annoyance.

"In New York? Again?" Flash grumbled, "Why can't we go somewhere cool, like Prague?"

"Come on, you guys. MoMA can be really fun! I'm sure most of you have never even been there before," he said. No one really listened to him after that. He had lost their interest.

"I feel like I'm getting deja vu," Vivian mumbled quietly to Adelaide. She chuckled.

"I wanna say we'll be safer not leaving the state, but look what happened last time," she whispered back. They kept their eyes on Mr. Harrington, nodding to pretend they were listening. Everything he said was written on the permission form anyway.

"Maybe we're cursed," Vivian said to her and she nodded in agreement.

"It's the only explanation," she mumbled.

"...The competition is in two weeks, people, so get studying!"

—————

"How come you don't get Happy to sign your permission slips anymore?" Tony grumbled as he signed what felt like a million different pages. There was just so much to fill out. Contact numbers and names and emails and the list went on for infinity. The packet of forms was like a novella.

"Since you've officially announced yourself my father, the school says you get to do the honors," Adelaide replied, "Congratulations."

They were sitting together at the kitchen island as usual. Her, eating her regular healthy after-school snack of chocolate (they had almonds in them so it counted) and Tony...well, Tony being Tony and complaining about the slightest inconvenience to himself.

"Why don't you bother Pepper with this? She's technically your mother, you know," he grumbled, flipping through the pages, "Do I really have to read all of this?"

"Mm, she said no," Adelaide shrugged and Tony gave her a look.

"Are you kidding me? Pepper says no and she gets to back out of it? What if I say no?"

"But you won't," Adelaide said. He raised an eyebrow, offended. Was Pepper really the strict parent in this relationship? He wanted to be the strict one and Pepper to be the pushover. Just goes to show, a man can have billions of dollars and still have nothing.

"I'll say it right now. No," he said firmly.

"Tony," she said.

"No," he shrugged indifferently, dropping the pen and forms onto the counter. She sighed in annoyance, sliding off of her high chair and coming to stand behind him. She wrapped her arms around him from behind and rested her chin on his shoulder. She made her best innocent eyes.

"Come on, dad," she said, knowing it would make him cave, "You know you do it because you love me more than Pepper does. Please?"

There was a long pause.

Then, Tony sighed and picked up the pen again with much reluctance. She grinned, squeezing his arms briefly.

"Where's the field trip to anyway?" he mumbled.

"MoMA. It's for our decathlon competition," she said. He frowned, glancing at her.

"Is this the same competition where you almost die every year?" he asked and she rolled her eyes, "What kind of competition is it anyway?"

"They test your knowledge on a lot of subjects," she said.

"Explain to me again how that's deadly," he said and she sighed, going back to her snack.

"Just sign the forms, Tony."

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled, going back to signing. He was surprisingly close to being done. "By the way, I'm heading upstate to the compound this evening. Wanna come with?"

"To the compound? Why?" she asked with a frown. He signed the last of the blanks and then finally slid the forms back to her, capping his pen dramatically. He would have done great in theater. He stood up, going over to the fridge to grab a beer.

"Vision turned off his transponder for some reason and I wanna go to make sure everything's okay," he said with his head in the fridge. He stood up straight again, facing her. "You know, just as a precaution."

"Thanks, but Pete and I are going to watch a movie tonight," she said, "It's supposed to be really good. Let me know what you find out about Vision. And say hi to the others for me."

"Will do," he said, taking a swing of his beer. He stopped by her as he left the kitchen to kiss her forehead. "Have fun at the movie, hon. But not too much. And remember, I'm your favorite parent."

Adelaide grinned, "Could you wrote down on a post-it or something? I'm having trouble remembering."

"Very funny. Who's paying for those movie tickets by the way?" he asked and she nodded in understanding.

"I love you the most, dad," she said and he grinned approvingly.

"That's my girl," he grinned, ruffling her hair.

—————

The boy stormed into his sister's room, furious.

"What has gotten into your head?" he demanded.

She was pacing the floor, fisting her hands to control her anger. She knew her brother would take his side. She knew it. He always took their father's side. Always.

"I am not the crazy one here!" she shouted back, stopping her pacing to stand in front of him. The look in his eyes was fierce. He was livid.

"Think again!" he shouted, "How dare you say that to our own father!"

"What he is doing is immoral!" she said into his face, giving up on trying to control her anger. She didn't want to fight with her brother. They never fought. They were a team. But this was getting out of control.

"So you think yourself wiser than him now?" he spat, "You think that you know better?"

"That is not what I am saying," she said, gritting her teeth, "I'm saying at least I have a heart."

The boy paused, his lips parting in surprise. He took a step back, shaking his head. He couldn't believe it. His own sister.

"He took you in, he saved your life," the boy spat, "He gave you everything you could have ever asked for. Our father is our savior and this is how you want to repay him?"

The girl looked away in anger, letting out a short breath. She glared at the wall behind him and crossed her arms across her chest.

"He is wrong and you know it too," she said.

"He is our father!"

"That does not mean he always has to be right, Griffin!" she shouted back, "He's making a big mistake!"

"No," the boy breathed, "The only person making a mistake is you. You cannot see the good in what he is doing."

"Why don't you understand!" she breathed, dropping her hands to her sides. She couldn't let her brother make the same wrong choices as their father. He was better than that. And she was scared for him. For his fate, if he kept to this path.

"He is doing what he is necessary," the boy said, "He is making the choices that no one else is brave enough to make. And he is testing our loyalty. If you will not side with him now, he will never trust you again."

He needed for her to understand. He could not let her stray from the right path. She was better than that. Perhaps she was too young to understand this now, but, as her older brother, it was his responsibility to show her the right choice to make. He would talk to their father, explain to him that she was only young and did not know better. Father was generous. He would give his forgiveness to her if she asked for it.

His sister slowly shook her head, stepping back from him.

"He will destroy everything," she said, her eyes filling with fear.

"No," the boy said, "He is going to save everything. Please, have trust in me, in him. Apologize to him. Don't do this."

This was it. The girl suddenly knew this would be the moment. This would be the moment that she would look back upon in the future and know that she had lost her brother to the monster that they called their father. There was no turning him back from this. She had lost her brother.

"Do you still love me, Griffin?" she whispered with a shaky voice.

She almost didn't want to ask. She knew her brother worshipped their father. He put their father before everything and everyone, including himself. She feared his answer, but she needed to know his truth.

Her brother's black eyes flickered around her face in surprise. She held his gaze, just barely holding back her tears.

He cast his eyes to the ground.

Her heart wrenched in pain and suddenly, she had no control over the tears that escaped her eyes and rolled down her face. She had lost her other half. And it hurt.

"You know that I still love you," she whispered shakily, "Even if you don't..."

He said nothing, still staring at the ground. Words could not mend this relationship. This was not some race in the woods where they promised to love each other forever. This was the end.

"I wish I could have helped you," she said quietly, "I'm sorry."

As she would soon come to know, the ending would be far more catastrophic than she could have ever imagined.

—————

It was pretty late.

She and Peter had spontaneously decided to have dinner together after to movie since they were both hungry so she ended up staying out longer than planned. She knew Tony would be cool with it. She was only out with Peter.

So that's why she was surprised to find Tony sitting on the sofa, watching tv when she came back from her date.

She frowned, putting the leftover takeout bag on the table before walking over to him. She sunk into the sofa beside him and his arm came down around her sleepily. He was watching some reruns of a football game but she could see he was clearly distracted.

"How was the movie?" he asked.

"Awful. But Peter and I just made fun of it the whole time instead which ended up being way more fun. We got Chinese afterwards. I brought you back some egg rolls," she said, gesturing to the bag she left on the table.

"Thanks," he said. She frowned. He looked...off.

"Did you go to the compound?" she asked him. He nodded.

"Vision wasn't there," he mumbled tiredly, "I have no idea where he could be. He's giving me radio silence."

"But that's so unlike him," she frowned, "He's always so responsible. Did something happen that would cause him to leave suddenly?"

"No idea," he said, shaking his head. Adelaide thought about it.

"So what now?" she asked. He shrugged.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. She studied his face in the dark room. The only light was coming from the tv.

"Should we be worried?" she asked.

"No, not at all," he lied, "It's probably nothing. He'll contact me when he can."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, definitely. Why don't you go to bed, hon? It's getting late," he said with a reassuring smile, squeezing her shoulder.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Just gonna finish this game and I'll head straight to bed too," he said, gesturing towards the tv. She nodded after a moment, kissing his cheek.

"Goodnight, Tony," she said quietly. He smiled a little for her.

"Goodnight, hon. Sweet dreams," he said as she slipped out from under his arm and took herself to her room. Once she was gone, he sighed and switched off the tv. He leaned his head back against the sofa, staring up at the dark ceiling in the silence of the penthouse.

Something was wrong, Tony just couldn't tell what it was yet.

—————

A/N: okay, yes, i know they only went to moma for a field trip in the movie, but i just wanted to change it up to a decathlon event cause ✨drama✨ also cause we have to keep the decathlon being inadvertently deadly each time streak going for as long as possible

idk why but the last scene in this chapter gave me major anxiety, mostly because we all know what's coming for them but they have no idea. it's scary when you think about just how much pain and agony each one of these characters are about to come across

this book is also so close to reaching 100k it's insane!! so glad you guys are enjoying this story and these characters so much, it truly does mean a lot 💛

question: any theories on how adie might meet her brother?

see you wednesday!!