Prologue

November 9th, 2008

7:02:23 AM

Pepper's Apartment

Malibu, California

Click.

Breaking News. The famous Stark mansion up on the high rocks over looking the bay area has erupted in a ball of flames. Currently it is unknown whether or not the owner was within the house, or what had caused the explosion.

Pepper Potts set at the edge of her bed and stared in absolute horror. This was definitly not how she wanted to start the day. She had just pulled out of the shower and turned on the news, only to find her boss's house was engulped in fire.

After a moment she shook herself from her dumbfounded shock and grappled for her blackberry which was perched ontop of her little night stand next to the clock. With the dexterity of a well trained assistant she dialed her boss's number. Her world began to crumble as it went straight to voicemail.

2:42:43 PM

Stark Mansion

Malibu, California

Hours of pacing the perimeter that the police had set up they finally allowed her to cross the yellow tape. Still no word from Tony, though she had called his phone at least a hundred times by this time. Pepper knew after the first two hours of not answering that Tony was probably in his mansion at the time of the explosion, but kept trying the number to keep herself doing something. Hanging onto a false hope.

The police officer led her to the crew that just searched the house for sources of the fire and anything else.

"It seems there was an electrical surge of some sort that set off an explosive material in the basement. We found no one in the house thankfully." The fireman said.

If he wasn't in the house, where was he?

November 17th, 2008

9:23:42 AM

Stark Industries

Malibu, California

"Ms. Potts, You're going to have to accept that Mr. Stark was in his house at the time of the fire. No one has heard from him since. If he is still alive somewhere, He'd contact us at the very least." Greg Jilek, one of the board members, said in an exasperated tone.

"There was no body found in the house." Pepper hissed. Completely infuriated by the rate of which the board members wanted to liquidate Tony's shares and claim the company for themselves. It hadn't even been a fortnight yet, and they wanted to declare him dead.

"We are going through with this with or with out you, Ms. Potts. If you would like to transfer to another sector of SI, please state where, We are more then willing to keep you on the payroll." The man said.

"It's just not about my job here." She growled then stalked out of the room.

November 9th, 2018

10:23:12 AM

Cemetery

Long Island, New York

She knelt down to the gravesite that held no body and placed a bouquet of flowers just below the name. It was funny that they chose to bury the casket out here, next to his parents. The last decade had been funny, though that wasn't the best word to describe it.

She still worked for SI, under the same man who told her that they were going to declare her boss dead. She moved to the east coast, trailing behind him, and now made a ritual out of visiting this gravesite once a year. Mr. Jilek seemed to be rather sympathetic, and attempted to make things go smoothly for her. The entire board handled her at arms length, remembering the last time she blew up at them.

"They put me next to my parents?!" A soft voice interrupted her. She whirled around to meet the eyes of her former boss. She just stared at him for a long moment before promptly fainting.

12:02:12 AM

Unknown

Long Island, New York

"Pepper...Come On, Pepper.." The voice was coaxing her. "I didn't travel half the world over to get back just to have you faint on me..."

"Tony...?" She cracked her eyes open a inch to meet those eyes again. She then started to look at his face. There were new wrinkles, new scars, and his hair resembled more of a salt and pepper shaker.

"Yeah." He replied. He turned away, then she realized she was in the passenger's seat of an old Honda Accord. She felt the engine start and pur softly as he shifted it into drive and they were in motion.

Pepper continued to just stare at him, flabbergasted at the fact that he was sitting right next to her, living and breathing. She watched him, taking in every detail. Hair was longer, pulled back into a very messy pony tail; it was more gray and white then black now. He had a large scar that stretched horizontally across his neck. There was also another rather big scar on his right cheek that stretched all the way down to his jaw bone. His right eyebrow was gone. He also seemed to have old healed burn marks from the back of his ear trailing down his back.

He was wearing a long sleeve white shirt, black fingerless gloves, a pair of dark blue jeans, and what looked like a pair of black sneakers. All said clothing looked like it was just bought recently and thrown on, but removing the tags beforehand.

"You're dead..." Pepper finally stuttered.

"No, You guys declared me dead." He growled with an underscore of venom that she had never heard in his voice before.

"You just dropped off the face of the earth! No word, No message, NOTHING." Pepper returned with nearly the same tone.

"It's kind of hard to call someone when your being kidnapped!" He shouted at her, efffectively silencing her. "An explosion in my workshop, and I am no where to be found? No contact, word, anything from me. What did you think happened?!" He hissed at her.

Pepper went to open her mouth to say something in her defense but found no words. She shut it again, waited for a moment, taking a deep sigh.

"Whatever you excuse, Doesn't matter. I'm back now ready to reclaim what is mine and I need your help."