Wow, this is so awesome. People actually liked my little prequel fic and reviewed it! This is awesome! And yes, of course, there is another chapter here. There will probably be one more chapter after this, introducing the OCs that will be the main characters of "The Melting Point of Iron," and then the real fic shall begin! But for now, here is Tony's near death experience :)

Oh yeah, and by the way, anything I say about Norse mythology in here is all fantasy. I made it up because I'm too lazy to do research.

Sorry if the chapter is like SUPERLONG, but I promise, it's good.

Anyway, on with the story!

I blinked at the lady in front of me. "Uhhh… care to explain?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she started walking away, making a gesture with her arm that indicated she wanted me to follow her. Seeing as I had nothing better to do (besides wonder what the hell was going on here), I followed. We walked in what I guessed was a straight line, and I could only guess because after all, everything was grey, the same dull boring shade of grey everywhere.

At first it seemed like we weren't going anywhere. But slowly, on the horizon, I began to see something. I couldn't identify it; it almost seemed like a void, a black hole where no light came out of because it was too busy getting sucked in. It wasn't directly in front of me either; it was off to my left, and it wasn't shaped like a circle, like a black hole would be; it was like the border of a country; or more like the border of the state of Colorado, really, because it was a ruler-straight line of dark. I was so enamored by the darkness to my left, however, that I almost didn't notice what was on my right.

To my right was brightness. Light, not a harsh glaring light like a flash from a camera or the light from a fluorescent lamp, but a soft, white light like the glow of a computer screen or a traditional light bulb. It was warm, inviting, not threatening at all, and completely unlike the darkness on the other side of what was now only a little strip of grey between the two opposite places. Had the light been tinted blue, it would remind me of my arc reactor, actually.

Tony's situation was getting worse by the hour. When he was first rushed to the medical bay at the Manhattan SHEILD headquarters, he seemed fine. Just unconscious. But when his armor started to get peeled away, they could see the extent of the damage done; muscles pulled, bone fractures, cuts, bruises, and possible internal bleeding. There was even the chance of a concussion. The doctors rushed around the motionless genius, poking him full of IVs and pain medication as they bandaged his wounds and assessed the internal bleeding issue. This went on for hours, but when the doctors finally left, they had to come back again. A light came on the machine that was monitoring Tony's brain activity. It was a small, unassuming white light, but it was nonetheless the light that told the doctors that Tony had slipped into a coma.

Through all this, there was always at least one Avenger by Tony's side. They established a routine of watches; each Avenger would watch over Tony for 2 and a half hours, then the next Avenger would take their place. First was Bruce, de-Hulked; he was the one to notice the coma light had gone on at the end of his watch and alerted the doctors.

Next on the two and a half hour vigil routine was Natasha; she didn't want to admit it, but Tony was one of the few Avengers she actually understood besides Hawkeye. It most likely had something to do with the fact that she briefly worked for him under the name Natalie Rushman as a secretary, when in reality she was a spy for SHEILD, set to spy on Tony. On her watch, he didn't move a muscle without Natasha noticing.

After Natasha was Clint. He hadn't even bothered to take off his empty quiver of killer arrows yet, and he still held his bow in his hand, but he didn't mind. He watched in silence, barely making a move. He was as still as a stone.

"So… what's all this, then? There's all this black and all this white, you're not telling me anything, and all I want is information. What is with the black and the white and the grey and who are you and-"

"Tony," the Woman in White cut me off, "this land of grey is as I said, the In-Between. It is where all souls go before they are taken to the Land of Light, also referred to as Valhalla."

Valhalla. That struck a chord in my mind. "You mean, you're a goddess? A Norse goddess?"

She looked at me amusedly. "Yes, Tony, a Norse goddess, as you of Midgard say. Why do you look so shocked?"

I gave her my classic 'You've got to be kidding me' face. "Because this means you probably know Thor and/or Loki, right?"

"Yes…"

Unbelievable. I was going to say more when she cut off my thought process.

"Tony, the time is now."

Needless to say, that statement confused me. "What?"

She looked at me again, again with that look that gave me the creeps. She seemed so nice but a little off, there was something in that gaze that freaked me out. Like there was something that she wasn't telling me, some secret agenda I was being used to fulfill and I didn't like it. "What do you mean I the time is now?"

"The time," she explained, "is now, to decide where you're going."

I scoffed. "Like I'm going anywhere, right."

Thor now watched over Tony, not saying a word. For two hours he sat like that, until all the nurses and all the doctors were gone, then in a soft voice the other Avengers would not have believed possible for Thor to possess, he spoke to Tony.

"Friend," he began, "I know you may not be able to hear me, but myself and our comrades are worried for you. We need you back, you are a vital part of our team. I know you are with the White Lady, but she is lying to you. She does rule the In-Between, but that does not make her a goddess. She is just another soul like you, she was banished there after my father saw her evildoing ways, and now she must guide souls like yourself to Valhalla, but that does not mean Valhalla is where you are meant to go. Not yet. Choose the darkness, Tony. It will bring you back here."

And with that final note, his vigil was ended and Steve's was next.

"You need to decide Tony. The light… or the dark. Where are you going to go?"

Quite frankly, this was starting to annoy me. I wanted to go back to my friends, but something in her tone of voice made it sound like she was pushing me to choose the light. Valhalla, she said it was. But that wasn't where my friends were…

"Your friends don't matter to her, Tony! Don't choose the light!"

Well, okay. How about that? There was a new voice behind me, very different from that of the woman in front of me. I didn't turn around to look at who it was; I first imagined her, because it was another female voice, but not so warm and inviting (and slightly creepy) like the voice of the woman in front of me; no, this voice was a rather average voice you could hear on the streets of New York City, in any small town, or really, just anywhere. My curiosity got the better of me before I could mentally put together the rest of what I thought she might look like.

She had long, nearly elbow-length brown hair, some of it straight, some of it in big curls around her face; it had a slightly disheveled look to it. She had glasses that framed her dark blue eyes. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, roughly 5 foot 7 inches tall, she was wearing a black t shirt with blue jeans, and she was wearing red hi-top Converse. Her clothes were also a little disheveled, like she'd been running or something.

She smiled. "My appearance to you, Tony, is purely a figment of your imagination. If you could see, really see what I really look like, you would see that I am a soul, from Midgard, and all you can ever see of a soul is a white ghost-looking thing, like you see in movies. It's actually kind of silly, really. Now, first order of business, that lady over there whom you call the "Woman in White"? She is just like me. She's from Earth too. She was banished here by Odin because on Earth, she was a thief, a murderer, a liar, a coward, a robber, a terrorist… you name it, she'd done it. She was banished here to guide all the souls to the Decision Point, which is right where you are now. But even in death that lady over there is trying to manipulate you. She wants to guide all the souls to Valhalla, in hopes that Odin will give her a pardon and let her go too. He won't, though. He's a god, he knows better than that."

Through her whole speech, I was dumbfounded. Not by what she looked like, but the fact was she was a normal person from Earth! Not that far off in age from me either, but I filed that thought in the back of my mind for reference later. Suddenly, I was bursting with questions. "Well, alrighty then, is Miss Prissy over there just like you? Why, then, does she talk funny like Thor does? And why are you here?"

"Well, Miss Prissy as you have so aptly named her, may be a thief, but she's an Earth time 18th century thief. She's not exactly modern. Me? I'm here voluntarily."

"Well then, why are you here?"

She sighed. "I died in Earth time the year 2002, on December 8th. I would be in Valhalla right now but… the… manner of my death prevents me from going."

I had a feeling she didn't want to tell me anything further, but I pressed on anyway. My curiosity was getting the better of me. "How'd you die?"

Another sigh. "I… I killed myself. I'm a suicide soul, doomed to walk the In-Between for all eternity."

The way she said it made my blood run cold (if my blood was still even running. I mean, I could actually be dead for all anyone including myself knows.) "Wow… I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It was my own misguided thoughts that did me in, and that's okay. I can't go back, now. But for normal souls like you… you can go back you know. You can go back to the darkness of mortality and your friends, the people who care about you."

Scoff. "I don't have anyone who cares about me." It was true, too. The only people that cared for me cared for my money, except maybe Pepper, but that was about it.

"Then who are these people?" She raised her hands above her head and drew a circle. Suddenly, a montage of faces were shown, like in a movie, actually. I saw Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Steve, and Thor… all taking turns sitting in what looked like a rather uncomfortable plastic chair, and from the point of view of Tony, they appeared to be in what looked like… was that a SHEILD medical bay? And furthermore, the point of view was from a bed… meaning Tony was the one they were watching over. They were watching him! There wasn't a second of the montage where there was not an Avenger sitting by him. Then, suddenly, whereas the montage had been silent before, words now came through.

Friend, I know you may not be able to hear me, but myself and our comrades are worried for you. We need you back, you are a vital part of our team. I know you are with the White Lady, but she is lying to you. She does rule the In-Between, but that does not make her a goddess. She is just another soul like you, she was banished there after my father saw her evildoing ways, and now she must guide souls like yourself to Valhalla, but that does not mean Valhalla is where you are meant to go. Not yet. Choose the darkness, Tony. It will bring you back here…

That was Thor! 'Valhalla is not where you are meant to go, not yet…' So this woman, the one wearing the Converse, she was right. And that lady in white, don't listen to her, she's a fraud. "Those people," I answered, "They are my friends. Apparently, they do care… okay so I was wrong. It's not the first time. But I have another question for you."

"Shoot."

"Why do you help these souls like me?"

She pondered the question a few seconds. "Because… I feel like I need to. Like I need to help others make the right choice at the right time, instead of making a mistake like I did. I don't want this to happen to others."

"Why don't the others help you?"

"Because they don't care. They have no care anymore, they are drowned in their despair and their misery, they don't care about the ones they could save. I was like that, until I stumbled upon this place and that woman over there," she pointed at the offender, "putting everyone in Valhalla, no matter what they wanted. So I decided I'd actually try to redeem myself, instead of being a moping soul for the rest of eternity."

That almost sounded like what I did to save New York City, actually. The Woman in White being the nuke, the souls being NYC, and me being the woman in Converse in front of me. Crazy world.

I was startled out of my thoughts by the Woman in White. "So now you know my story. Who I really am. But now that doesn't matter. You need to choose."

I was going to object when the Converse chick interrupted me. "She's right! Don't you hear that noise?"

It was back to Natasha's watch when suddenly, out of nowhere, a loud, prolonged whine was emitted from the heart monitor on the opposite side of Tony's bed.

Tony had flatlined. He had no heartbeat.

Natasha ran to get the doctors and the other Avengers. This was serious.

"Oh my god…" I whispered, "I'm dying."

I know I had been told that earlier, but now was when it fully hit me. I was dying. That noise was the heart monitor in my hospital/medical bay room. I had no heartbeat. I could die! The arc reactor was no longer keeping the shrapnel in my heart from killing me. If I didn't choose now, I'd die either way. I went up to the line of darkness to my left. "It was nice knowing you all. I'll be seeing you in a few years when I die hopefully of natural causes. For now," I saluted, "the world and my friends need me."

The last thing I heard before I jumped over the line, into the darkness, was the voice of the Converse chick, "Say hello to my sister for me!"

The Avengers gathered around him, but only on the outer edges of the room, to watch the doctors try to revive him, but to no avail. They couldn't use a defibrillator because of the arc reactor, and when they were told there was nothing they could do, they pronounced him dead, at 3:56 am, Monday, the 25th of June.

They went over to his bed to say their final goodbyes; they were so engrossed in their grief they didn't notice the noise in the background.

It was a very, very faint noise… slow and steady.

Beep… beep… beep…

Natasha was saying her goodbye when she saw movement.

"Guys… I just saw Tony move."

They all looked at her like she was nuts. "Uh, Natasha, he's dead. I know it's hard to accept that, but you have to. He's not going to come back."

"… not going to come back."

Through the haze in my head, I could faintly hear Bruce say that. Always the forthright one, eh? Well obviously they hadn't heard the heart monitor start up again, silly people. I'd prove them wrong.

I moved my left hand again and tried to open my eyes. Okay, so I might be there mentally, but physically my body wasn't ready for a step as large as opening my eyes again. Fine then. I twitched my hand again and heard the group gasp collectively.

I heard Steve's voice first. "Did his hand just move?"

Next was Thor. "My brother in arms! You are alive!"

I moved my right hand now, curling my fingers into a very, very weak fist. In the silence of their watching my regaining life, I think someone finally noticed the heart monitor because I heard Clint say "He has a heartbeat! The monitor's beeping!"

How observant of you to notice so soon, Legolas.

I rolled my head to my left to meet Bruce's eyes. I tried to talk, but apparently I was too dehydrated to do that because all that came out was a faint hiss of air. My throat hurt from not enough use in the past day or so.

Bruce understood what I meant though. I wanted to say "You were wrong, haha!", and being my science brother, he just laughed and said "Okay, I was wrong."

The rest of the group was still recovering from their shock. "I guess I shouldn't be so surprised," I heard the Capsicle mutter. Natasha asked him why.

"Because he's Tony Stark. With him, there is always a way out. Even a way out of death."

As he finished speaking, I felt the darkness take me again, but this time, not the darkness of death; but rather, the darkness of a very well earned sleep. I would explain my experiences to the group some other time; maybe they could decipher what the Converse chick meant by "Say hello to my sister for me."

But for now… sleep.

So? Whaddaya all think? Please drop me a review to tell me! I would absolutely love to know!

Totally random info, but this is the longest chapter I have EVER written for ANYTHING. I've been sitting at my computer writing this for probably a total of 3 hours or more. Be on the lookout for "The Melting Point of Iron."

:D