A/N: Sorry about the long time between updates. I've been so busy! But thank you for your patience. Here is some more Pepperony :)

Guest Review Responses

pepperony4evah: Sad as it may sound, men NEVER take a kid that is not theirs as their own. Someday, someday they are gonna walk out! I hope the baby's Tony's or else she, well, loses it. Or else it could be that the baby is alien conceived by asexual means when some stupid alien wanted tony off by hurting her. Alien babies? Huh…I hadn't thought about that ;) lol But in all seriousness, I think you're been a little unfair to men with that generalization. You may only know men that don't have the balls to stay when the kid is not theirs, but I only know men that have stayed (my uncle by marriage, i.e., he took on my aunt with four kids not his own – still together). So, I guess there are some that leave and some that stay.

Guest: Haha loved the humour and pepperony in this chapter. Update soon please! There is more humor coming as the story progresses. I'm not very good at writing humor since I prefer drama, so I'm glad I got a laugh out of almost everyone with the last chapter.

Toni: Hi. Never actually watched IMAA but I've been diligently reading your chronicles. Great stories by the way and your cliffhangers keep me coming back for more! Read recent chapters and couldn't help but play detective and revisit the '2nd Year' to determine the date Pepper's baby was conceived and it was between the months of June/July...after her split from Scott...o_O next thing i know I'm thoroughly doing research on Extremis...now this detective has a headache ;) Good work, Detective ;) The Second Year did end in June. In fact, Chapter 10 and the Epilogue for The Second Year happened in June, and then we see Pepper again on August 14th (Prologue for The Third Year) being told she's pregnant. What happened in between? :P What are your theories on that?

Guest: wow.. now I can see that the story is taking a whole new turn.. but still I am feeling sad and disappointed about Pepper carrying Scott's child... i hope its just a dream...! :) But, but, if it's just a dream…then Tony and Pepper wouldn't be back together, right? ;)

And to everyone else that reviewed: you are all the best! Thank you!

Chapter 3: October

He could not stop staring at her. She was mere inches from him, taking about three-fourths of his own bed, stretched all over the place as if she was the only one on it – which left him curled up in a tiny ball by the foot of the bed. The bed sheets were tangled all over her body, and he just could not get mad at her for it. It actually made him smile.

She had come to him in the middle of the night, crying aloud and sobbing. He had been worried sick at first, and he had been afraid that something terrible had happened to her or the baby. But when she partially spoke and partially whined that she had had a nightmare that the baby was born with tiny horns and hot pink sunglasses, he knew she had just had a bad dream; another bad dream.

At least she was no longer dreaming about Whitney, Ghost or the Maggia, right?

According to the pregnancy book he had been secretly reading when she was asleep or he was at work, the upcoming second trimester of pregnancy was going to be an interesting one. The nightmares of weird births would increase, but her nausea and morning sickness would decrease. The stomach pains would increase due to her body stretching to adjust for the growing baby but, in return, the little life inside of her would start to move around and let him or herself be known. Her hormones were still going to be on overdrive, but not as much as before; not to the point that she would cry a river because she walked to the kitchen and forgot what she had gone there for in the first place.

On the other hand, she was going to start gaining a considerable amount of weight. He could already hear her groaning in the mornings that her clothes were starting to shrink. It was only a matter of time before she would drag him with her to the mall to start buying maternity clothes – and he could not wait for that. She would probably end up just sitting in a wheelchair (he had already thought about bringing out the Pep Ride, if needed) since she had started to become breathless much easier. One would have never thought that this woman had, at some point in her life, spent hours and days fighting crime with him; she could not walk to the bathroom now without feeling as if she had just finished a 5K marathon.

He had been extremely apprehensive, at first, when her symptoms were turning out to be so heightened. A few talks with Dr. Ross and Pepper's OB/GYN, however, had been enough for him to understand that all pregnancies were different. Some women never felt Braxton-Hicks contractions until much later in the pregnancy – some never at all – and Pepper had felt them way before they were to be considered in the normal range. So far, it appeared as if the redhead's pregnancy was going to be one of extremes.

More than a handful of times up to now, she had cried herself to sleep in his arms, confessing to him that she was afraid that her baby would end up being rejected by the world if he or she turned out to be a noticeable mutant. To be honest with himself, he also feared that too, and the more extreme her symptoms became, the more he was afraid that Pepper's baby would end up becoming a curse rather than a blessing. He knew that Pepper would love her baby no matter what, and he would continue to be there for the two of them even if the baby was in fact born with tiny horns and hot pink sunglasses, but for the sake of his ginger, he really hoped the baby turned out to be alright.

He yawned away the rest of his sleep and slowly climbed out of the bed. Pepper was due to visit her obstetrician today for an ultrasound that would become the first picture of the baby, which she could not wait to add to the album she had been making of every step of the way. She had been using the scrapbooking kit Roberta Rhodes had given her as a gift when she had left the hospital a long time ago. Thus far, she had been doing a pretty good job of capturing the most important moments of her pregnancy; just as the one he was going to help her out with today.

He walked over to his bathroom to freshen up. Once he felt awake and aware enough, he returned to the bed. He began to slowly adjust her body so that she was on only one side of the bed, like a normal human being, and he then climbed onto the other side; the left side – the one that was his. He began massaging her scalp and then moved his way down to her neck and shoulders, and by the time he pulled his hands away from her, she was already half awake.

"It's time to get up, Pep," he whispered into her ear. "Unless you don't want to shower before we go to the doctor."

"I don't want to get up," she mumbled and pulled on the blanket to cover more of her, still feeling tired as hell. "Can she, like, do the ultrasound right here… while I sleep?"

"She probably could," he replied as he lazily combed her hair with his fingers. "But I don't think it'd be as comfortable for you or even sterile enough to count. Come on, baby," he kissed her cheek, "We have to get ready."

"Noooo," she moaned dejectedly and clenched her eyes. "I don't wanna get up! The baby doesn't wanna get up."

Tony smiled, rolled his eyes, pulled away from her and then sighed in an exaggerated matter.

"Oh, well. I guess I'm gonna have to throw away those waffles I was thinking of making you today."

"Waffles?" she said and immediately sat up in the bed, her eyes blinking fast and her nose slightly wrinkled as she tried to smell the delicious scent of her morning craving for the past weeks. "I don't smell any waffles!"

"That's because I haven't made them yet," he reasoned. "But since you're not getting up…"

"Ugh!" she groaned and began sliding herself off the bed with his help, angrily throwing the blanket off her body. "You play a mean game, Stark! I swear, one day it will be you who has cravings and I'm gonna deny them all to you!"

"I'll be prepared," he said without missing a beat, guided her to the bathroom, where she pointedly glared at him before she slammed the door closed, and he then shrugged and chuckled in response.

He walked out of the bedroom and headed to the kitchen to take out the ingredients for making waffles from scratch, and he silently thanked the internet for hosting videos of how to make the only food she could digest in the morning.

Back in the bathroom, Pepper eyed the vanity with partially closed eyes. She yawned loudly, scratched the top of her head and then reached over to grab her toothbrush. Before she was to put any paste on it, however, she stared at it with a questioning glance.

When did my toothbrush end up here?

Still with a confused look on her face, she began eyeing all around her, slowly realizing that it had not been only her toothbrush that had found its way from her bedroom to his. Some of her favorite towels were also here, and so was her makeup bag and hair straightener. She then walked over to the tub and slid the curtain open only to see that her shampoo, conditioner, body wash and bath sponge were also neatly arranged in the corner rack that Tony had bought for them last week.

For us, she recalled. Bought it for us.

She returned to the mirror, and as she mechanically began to go through the motions of brushing her teeth, she noticed that she was not even wearing her own pajamas. She was wearing the tiny t-shirt Tony had given her back when her first undercover mission at The Rotary had gone bad and he had ended up having to flush from her body the date rape drug she had been given. Underneath it, she was wearing only her undergarments and nothing more.

Is this how I came to his bed last night?

And every other night she had ended up here?

She finished brushing her teeth, undressed, and as she threw her dirty clothes inside the hamper, she noticed that the garments inside of it were not only Tony's but also hers. In fact, if she were to estimate the percentages of clothes ready to be cleaned that were inside the basket, she could easily state that they would be equally representative of both of their apparels.

When had this become the norm around here?

Returning to the apartment to live with him seemed as if it had occurred a long time ago. In reality, it had been little over a month. In fact, next week would mark six weeks since she had officially moved back, and it would also signify a few weeks since she had started opening up to him again. Despite the short time that had transpired since her return, she felt as if she – as if they, had been doing this all along: as if the last year when they had gone their separate ways had not even occurred. Nonetheless, she knew it had taken place, and the only proof she needed was her just slightly swollen belly.

She started the shower and waited a moment for the hot water to come out. Once it did, she started the cold water and adjusted them both until the water felt just right. She slid open the shower curtain, walked inside, closed the curtain, gave her back to the stream of water, and felt her muscles relax almost immediately. She closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, and as her mind began to wander, she again began thinking about how close she and Tony were becoming to being considered a couple again, even if they did not call each other that aloud.

Some of her clothes were already hanging from his closet or were kept inside his drawers, mixed with his, and other than pretending to use her bedroom to go to bed, she hardly ever used it anymore. If Tony did not end up inviting himself over to her bed at night, she would simply invite herself over to his, and even though she knew that he was more than willing to do more than just kiss and cuddle, he had been very careful not to force anything to happen between them.

Just as it had happened that night, a few weeks ago, disregarding his silent solicitations was just about unbearable for her now. Even though she could probably blame it on the increased sex drive the current stage of her pregnancy was giving her, she had to admit that, deep inside, she actually longed for those intimate moments with him as much as she knew he did. She had not been jesting when she had told him that their first night together had been great for her, and she wondered that if her father had not been listening in to their highly inappropriate banter, would they have talked about it in more detail then.

Their first time together had been rather unexpected, and the aftermath had left them with very little time to talk about it or doing anything else for that matter. She had not spoken to him for a week after that encounter and, when she had done so, it had only been to exchange information during the final stakeout before her memories – all of them – had returned to her. The next time she had seen him in person after being together that night had been for her just to tell him she was leaving him and moving out.

There had been no opportunity whatsoever for them to develop the intimacy that had been started that night, and even today, when there was nothing else to lose and Maya and Scott were long gone and practically out of the picture, they were yet to resume their relationship where they had left off. Most of it was her fault, actually, and while she wanted to pretend that nothing had gone bad and that nothing had changed, it would be childish of her to try to imagine she lived in a world where she and Tony had never been apart; had never hurt each other, and had never almost completely destroyed what they had once had together. And yet, in spite of all that, Tony was doing an excellent job of overlooking her mistakes and current situation and he was trying his best to reconnect with her – all at her own pace.

Why was she not letting him go further?

Pepper scoffed at the thought. She knew very well why, and if he knew why too, he would probably stop any and all advances on her, right now.

Or would he? He's really not one to talk!

She inwardly groaned at her own question; she had no response to it anyway.

"Pep?" he called to her from the door. Speak of the devil.

"Hn?" she said, eyes closed.

"How much longer are you going to be? I'm heating up the waffle iron, but I don't want to start them until you're ready."

She opened her eyes again and thought about his question while she looked down at herself. All she had done so far had been to just stand under the shower. Although she was completely soaked, she was yet to wash her hair or even soap her body. All she had done up to this point was sulk about her life and her decisions and think about when and how half of her belongings had ended up making their home in his room – their room.

Our room, she thought and, for the briefest of moments, she felt like a silly, teenaged girl with a crush again. She may have just turned twenty a few months ago, but she guessed that it was never too late to feel silly when in love.

Why did she even have a room of her own at this point, anyway?

"Pepper? Are you OK?" he took a step inside the bathroom, concerned that she was yet to answer his last questions at all. He had witnessed before how the idea of eating freshly-made waffles made her get up and about, so her currently not even responding to his questions with complete sentences was odd to him.

"Honey, are you falling asleep in there?"

Honey, she repeated in her head and a smile came to her face. How could one word, one simple word, make her feel butterflies in her stomach? Or maybe it was just that the baby had finally started moving around in there?

"Seriously, Pep, is everything OK in there?"

His voice was practically next to her, and a quick peek from the edge of the curtain where she stood under the shower stream allowed her to see that he was now standing right outside the tub, frowning and scratching his head in confusion. She held back a mischievous giggle, and after throwing caution to the wind while her eyes were still spying on his form, she replied.

"No, it's not."

His frown deepened and she saw his hand reach over to the opposite edge of the curtain she was watching him from. His fingers held onto the fabric for a second, but he then shook his head and pulled back his hand. He again scratched his head, faster this time, and she could tell that he was becoming even more nervous by the second.

"What's wrong?"

She slowly made her way to the edge of the curtain where he was standing, and before he could react to her move, she partially opened the curtain, pulled his face to hers by the neck and kissed him. Just as the many times she had surprised him like this, his entire body tensed for a second, and then it immediately melted and followed her lead. The kiss lasted for no more than a minute, and when she finally pulled away and stared at his shocked face, she gave him an impish smile.

His eyes blinked fast and he tried to keep his gaze from traveling down her naked form while he swallowed hard to gather his wits. He exhaled in shaky breaths and licked his lips before words finally made their way out of his mouth.

"What… what's wrong?"

Her physical response was to pull him closer to her again by curling her left fingers around the back of his neck, while her right hand began undoing the cords of his pajama pants. Her verbal response to his inquiry immediately followed her actions.

"You're not in here."

xxxXXXxxx

After showering together, getting dressed, and having breakfast, the pair found themselves driving to the private location where Pepper would get the ultrasound done. Sadly, it was too early to determine the baby's sex, but it was about the right time to perform other tests on him or her to see how healthy he or she was up to now. Pepper had been following all of the recommendations her obstetrician had been giving her, but her symptoms and pregnancy side-effects refused to lower in intensity so far, such as the one that was currently affecting her.

The doctor had assured her that stomach cramps were normal in new moms since their bodies were stretching for a growing baby for the first time, but that did not make the spasms any less painful. In fact, at this very moment, as they were heading to meet up with said doctor, even Tony wanted some relief from the woes of pregnancy that ultimately affected him as well; such as how his right hand was currently being crushed by Pepper's left hand.

"I think we should seriously consider those Lamaze classes, Pep."

"You… you think?" Pepper asked in a sarcastic tone as she tried breathing through the pain, but found that it was not helping. Her right hand was holding onto the roof handle of Tony's car and her left hand was still overpowering his Extremis-enhanced muscles in his right hand.

Good thing I only need one hand to drive, he thought as he too avoided screaming in pain at how hard the ginger was squeezing his hand. If he did not have Extremis in him, he was certain that he would have lost his entire arm by now. Despite the pain, though, he still somehow managed to lift her hand to his mouth and kissed it, causing in her a small smile he immediately returned.

"I'm sorry, Tony. I-I know it's not your fault."

Tony shook his head at her to let her know he was not even taking her anger seriously and then gave her another kiss on her hand. Minutes later, Pepper was finally able to relax when the cramps subsided, but neither of them let go of the other's hand.

She was still partially in shock at having shared a shower with the inventor just hours ago, especially since it entailed seeing him with nothing on again – something she really had not had many opportunities to do in the past – and based on the way he had been staring at her and had uttered her name in delight, she was pretty sure that he had been entranced by it, too. Her eyes still practically danced and her pores still tingled as she remembered how intense the entire experience had been, even though they had not actually engaged in sex.

He had had no qualms, though, about carrying her and pressing her back against the shower wall, her legs tightly wound around his waist, but he had been reluctant to do more than just engage in intense foreplay. Even though he had heard and had read that sleeping with Pepper would not hurt the baby, he was starting to believe that everything about this pregnancy was so off that the odds that he did end up somehow hurting her or the baby were probably too high.

That did not mean, however, that he could not do other things for her.

And he had.

And the thought about it right now and the recollection of hearing her say his name between pants and moans in his ear while her nails had dug into his neck, shoulders and back, triggered in him shivers that ran down his spine… and other things that he probably should not allow to happen right now.

That was a good way to start the day, though; he would not deny that.

He turned the car to enter the parking lot and was happy to find it deserted, for the most part. The appointment had been scheduled on a Sunday in a facility that only opened Monday through Friday, and all as part of the efforts to keep the pregnancy a secret as long as possible. Scott was yet to decide what his involvement with the baby would be, although he had been sending gifts to Pepper any chance he had to help with the process. Last week, the redhead had received a box with several maternity items, such as the socks she sometimes wore at night that help reduce swollen ankles.

At least he's trying, Tony stopped the motion of the car. He then exited the vehicle, rounded the front of it, and by the time he arrived at the passenger's seat, the ginger was already halfway out while she rolled her eyes at him.

"Tony, I'm pregnant, not disabled. I can get out of the car."

"I know," he shrugged but still grabbed her hand in his to help her balance herself and then closed the door behind her. "I'm just trying to be a gentleman, and you're kinda not letting me be one for you."

"I didn't fall for you for being a gentleman," she responded with a chuckle. When she then repeated her words in her mind and she saw the smug look on his face and the wink he gave her, she could not help to blush. "Uhm, I mean… uhm…"

She felt like an idiot right now: blushing at something so simple and that had already been previously disclosed, especially after what they had done hours ago without batting an eye. She figured it was either due to her crazy hormones or due to the fact that they were yet to give a name to what they had. For her, it felt as if he was somehow courting her before asking her to be his girlfriend, which made her feel as if she was an active participant in the initial romance part of liking someone but taking baby steps to get somewhere with them.

Girlfriend, she thought for a second and had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the term that would have previously shaken her heart. Girlfriend or boyfriend did not really begin to describe what they were and, perhaps, the word for what they were to each other was yet to be invented. They were not husband and wife, or fiancés, or a simple couple, or just plain lovers. They were friends, yes, but there was more to it than that, and everyone who knew them was aware of it. Significant others, maybe? Partners? Other halves? Friends with benefits?

Yeah; she could not think of the word right now.

Seeing that she had nothing else to say, he led her out of the parking lot and to the back entrance of the building to see that the doctor's vehicle was already there. The nurse that would assist during the procedure was also already present. Upon seeing them, she immediately ran to the door to unlock it and let the couple inside. The woman greeted them both with a bright smile and then, to Tony's disappointment, she asked him to sit tight and wait outside while Pepper was seen.

"I can't come in with her?" he asked with a frown, his hand still holding onto the redhead's. "I promise I won't get in the way."

"Not for the first part of the examination, I'm afraid," the nurse responded. "But as soon as the actual ultrasound begins, and if Miss Potts allows, you can then come inside."

Tony's shoulders sagged and his frown deepened – and almost turned into a pout – until Pepper squeezed his hand and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. The gesture made the genius smile a little but his eyes still showed that he was upset that he could not go in with her just yet. The nurse, sensing that perhaps they needed a minute alone, decided to go inside the examination room and closed the door behind her.

"It's better for you to wait until I'm set up," Pepper reasoned, her left hand finding his cheek while her right one still held on to his.

"Why?" he shrugged. "It's not as if, you know, I haven't seen you… like that… before."

Pepper felt her face grow hot again and she looked away, exhaling slowly to control the blush she could already feel forming at the base of her neck.

"It's… it's not that, Tony. It's, uhm, well… she-she… you may not like what you see… it, ahem. It might gross you out."

"Gross me out?" his head recoiled. "Why would it gross me out? Hearing you throw up every morning for weeks didn't gross me out. How can this be any worse?"

"It's, uhm… It's girl stuff."

"Oh," he said, looked down for an instant, but he then furrowed his brow and stared at her again with a doubtful look. "Wait, are you trying to make me uncomfortable with 'girl stuff'? Because that's not gonna fly… anymore."

Pepper rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"OK, fine! Look, let's make a deal."

"What deal?"

"How about you sit this one out and just come inside when the ultrasound happens. I have to come back in two months to determine the baby's sex, so that leaves you with plenty of time to research what these examinations entail. If, after reading it, you still want to go inside with me, then I'll let you come in. What do you say?"

Tony pursed his lips, thought about her suggestion for a moment, and then nodded.

"Sounds like you've got yourself a deal, Miss Potts."

"Very well, Mr. Stark," she smiled and he then sealed the deal by kissing her knuckles. She chuckled and shook her head playfully. As she was about to walk away, he pulled her back to him, held her face in his hands and gave her a long kiss.

Pepper kissed him back and held onto the sides of his shirt. A second after the kiss ended – when the nurse that had just returned to collect her, cleared her throat – Tony stole another quick kiss and whispered to her.

"I love you, Pep."

The redhead mouthed it back.

xxxXXXxxx

He was flying as fast as he could in the direction of his destination. He was on a short timetable and he only had a few minutes to fulfill his mission and return home. There could be no mistakes, no delays and no option to fail. He had one goal and one goal only, and everything in his world depended on him successfully completing this assignment in the blink of an eye.

He saw the location in question from his position in the sky and it did not take him more than half a nanosecond to land before its entrance. He rushed inside, stared left and right, ignored the fact that he was not alone in this quest, and began searching for his targets.

One by one, he found almost all of what he needed, leaving but one final step to complete. He was getting much better at this, and if he said so himself, he was kind of proud that he had outdone his last attempt at completing the objective with better accuracy than before. There was a learning curve to all of this, and he had always known this to be the case. That had never stopped him, however, from practicing the best maneuvers before the actual execution took place and, after much researching, he had finally found this site to be the only location where all his needs would be met.

His final target was in sight and he did not give the man a chance to blink. He rushed over to him, dumped all of the items on the counter and spoke.

"I'm in a hurry," he began. "Do you think a hundred would cover it?"

The man, who was still in shock at the scene unfolding before him, slowly looked down at the items for a moment and then nodded.

"Yeah, but I'd owe you change."

"Keep it," he responded, left the bill on the counter, placed all of the items inside the reusable bag he had brought, and left the establishment as quickly as he had arrived, leaving behind in his wake a very confused convenience store clerk who had just sold a bunch of junk food to Iron Man.

xxxXXXxxx

"Tony!" the ginger said between giggles. "That tickles!"

"Well, I'd be done by now if you stopped moving!" he said, also chuckling himself as he held a black marker in his hand. "Come on, Pep! Just stop moving and we'll be done, OK?"

"OK," she said before another fit of laughter hit her when Tony's fingertips brushed her belly and he just scoffed in exasperation. He sighed loudly and waited for her to finish laughing and, once she did, he was finally able to place and date the mark on the wall.

"There you go!" he said with pride and took a step back to admire his handiwork. He knew there were better devices he could have used or even built from scratch to tally the growth of Pepper's baby bump, but she had insisted on using the wall in her former room – future nursery – to do so.

"Don't move, Pepper," he told her. "Let me take the picture."

"Alright," she said and stayed as put as she could while Tony grabbed his pod from his back pocket and snapped the photograph. He then sent it wireless to the printer and, once he gave her a thumbs-up, she ran out of the room and toward the printer located in the small office space by the living room. Seconds later, she returned with the picture he had just taken of her, and she wasted no time to add it to the scrapbook.

Tony watched her as she carefully inserted the picture in the frame she had created for it in the pregnancy album she had been working on. Once she was done, and a wide smile formed on her face, the inventor walked over to her and held her waist from behind. Pepper rested her back against his chest and her hands on his arms, and closed her eyes when he began placing kisses down her neck and shoulder.

He did not allow his gesture to be the start of anything other than just a short moment of showing her attention since their pizza would soon be delivered, but that did not mean that he had not wanted to keep going down the path her moans were taking him. He switched sides on her neck and repeated the process. As he was pulling away from her, his pod begun to ring and they both frowned when they recognized that the sound they were hearing was not one of a call or a text message, but of the notification of an assignment.

Iron Man was needed. ASAP.

Pepper turned around in place and watched him with concerned eyes as he took out his pod from his pocket again and read the summary of the mission. His eyes widen in shock for a second, but when he remembered that the redhead was staring at him with intent eyes, worry all over her features already, he tried to play it cool for her.

"I've got this," he said with a smile. "I'll be back before the pizza cools down."

"What is it, Tony? WHO is it?"

"Don't worry about it. It'll be easy," he said, took a step back from her, but she immediately pulled him back by surrounding his waist with her arms. He looked down at her already teary-eyed face, and even though going on missions was not something new to her, he knew that sending him off alone – no Rescue and no War Machine – set her on edge due to her state.

"Who is it, Tony? If it's so easy, then tell me."

Tony swallowed hard, briefly closed his eyes and then opened them once more to speak.

"It's Rhona, Pep. Rhona Erwin."

xxxXXXxxx

He had thought that the mission would be easy – he really had, but when the escapee of the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane proved to him that she had been spending her time away from him rather wisely, he had begun to sweat.

He was currently down on the ground, on one knee, breathing hard to catch his breath and staring down the barrel of one of Rhona's latest inventions. He was not sure what she had called it, and he did not really care. All he cared about was that she had been watching him from afar for the past few years, and that she had designed weapons to specifically target his tech.

"Where are we on the schematics, Pep? I kinda need them before she hits me with that thing again and completely disables my suit!"

"I'm working as fast as I can, Tony," the redhead responded via the internal communication system. "I've hacked into her files three times already, but she keeps kicking me out!"

"I don't have much time, Pepper. I don't mean to be a prick about it, but can you hurry up?"

xxxXXXxxx

"I know, Tony! I'm trying!" she retorted and strained herself to not let her shaky hands slow her down. She had been watching Tony's fight with Rhona via TV for the past hour and it had been nothing but torture for her, especially since she was not even at the temple where she could do more for him than just being a bundle of nerves at seeing the dark-haired young woman using everything she had against her blue-eyed boy.

Tony kept a few laptops and some Iron Man business devices at home, but none of them were proving to be sufficiently suitable for this particular mission. The closest she had gotten to assisting him had been connecting to the temple's servers via her pod, and even that was proving to be useless since Rhona Erwin had accounted for that to be the case as well.

"How the hell is she doing this?" Tony asked over her earpiece. "How is she hacking our fucking servers, and my suit? HOW the hell is she blocking out my Extremis?"

"I don't know, Tony," Pepper said with a shake of the head he could see via the webcam connection she had just started with him and continued her task. "I-I really don't know. I… ugh! DAMMIT!" she slammed her hands on the dining table in desperation when her attempt at sending another suit to him via remote failed again.

"Oh, shit! She's getting ready to fire that damned thing again!"

"Leave, Tony!" the redhead pleaded him for the twentieth time, her hands again restarting the sequence to override the intrusion Rhona Erwin had managed to complete on the software that controlled all-things Iron Man. "Just leave, please!"

"I can't leave, Pepper," he told her as he tried to get up and at least become a difficult target for the incoming Goth girl. "My thrusters are shot!"

"Then shoot her ass!" Pepper suggested.

"With what? My defense systems are down! She fried them all!"

"No!" Pepper screamed as her ensuing attempt at helping her genius boy failed again. How was this even happening? How could this be real? Had they not been carefree, laughing together, just a couple of hours ago? Had they not just been talking about what they would do for Halloween this year? How had Rhona's preparations against him remained under the radar for so long?

It had all started out looking easy, not at all ostentatious, and had definitely not shown signs of how atrocious it would quickly become. Rhona Burchill – or Rhona Erwin as Team Iron Man had known her while attending the Academy and continued to refer to her – had shown her face in downtown New York, just another unknown person in the crowd, until she had begun triggering the bombs she had been planting for weeks. The commotion had called the immediate attention of the media and the authorities, and they had all thought that they had been dealing with a demented girl that was trying to play terrorist for the fun of it. Their initial plan had been to use tear gas on her to slow her down, but she had just kept walking and moving, completely unaffected by the chemical attack.

Weapon usage had immediately followed when she had begun firing at them, and the police had been left with no option but to bringing in the heavy artillery then. She had taken no hostages, which meant they did not have to hold back, but when the woman had had a technological response to stop all of their attempts at ending her angry rampage of destruction, they had called Iron Man.

That had been her hope; that the men before her that she considered unskilled and unworthy of partaking in the execution of her plan called in the man in the gold and red suit of armor. He was her real target, after all, and she had not spent the last few years of her life preparing for this moment to not get a chance to carry out her deed as it should be.

One attack had led to another, and before Tony had known what had hit him, he was nearly down for the count. The assaults Rhona was executing were merciless, practically flawless, and filled with a solution to almost anything Tony had thrown her way. Needless to say, it had taken the superhero duo by surprise.

I have to do this, the redhead thought as her hands alternated between both of the keyboards of Tony's and her laptops and of her pod to try to override Rhona's command on their servers once and for all. I have to do something for him!

She had been trying to take back control of their resources since Tony had realized that their system had been compromised, but so far neither she nor the inventor or their combined attempts at kicking out Rhona's intricately created malware had had any luck. It was as if she had somehow been studying their upgrades and latest technology developments and had then done nothing else other than developing the perfect code to hit them where it would hurt them the most.

This type of attack did not take just a few weeks or months to be conceived, as it was evident in its complexity and current success that she must had been working on it day and night since her failed attempt at the Tomorrow Academy.

It was payback time.

"Pep?" the inventor's weary voice resounded in her ear as he was yet again hit with one of Rhona's suit-incapacitating rays. "Pepper, I… I don't think I'm gonna make it out of this one. I'm sorry."

"No, Tony!" she said and tried to ignore the feeling of dread that was invading her heart and mind and that she knew could very well make her lose out on the final attempt at recovering control over their tech that she had. "Don't say that! It's not over yet!"

xxxXXXxxx

"I… ah… I think it is," he said with a sad smile as he stared at her face on the screen of his helmet. "I… I can't move anymore."

"Tony, please," her cracking voice broke his heart. "Get up, dammit! Get up and get out of there!"

"I can't," he said and clenched his teeth as he tried his best to move an inch but failed. "I really can't."

"Tony, no. Tony, please… Please… I… I c-" the ginger's words were cut when his suit's communication HUD finally powered down completely and he lost contact with her. He closed his eyes for a second, sent her a final goodbye and apology he could only hope would somehow reach her, and prepared to meet his end.

He was now facing up, his suit practically shut down. His battery was running out, and his software refused to respond to his voice commands. He was trapped inside his armor, powerless to stop the slow steps Rhona was taking toward him, a bright smile on her face.

He was tired; exhausted, in fact, of trying to use Extremis to hack into his own systems to at least release himself from his armored tomb. Pepper had been trying to help him too; he knew that for a fact, but it appeared as if the brilliant but crazy Rhona Erwin would have the last laugh after all.

"Look at you, Anthony," the girl said as she began to close the distance between his fallen form and her standing one. "The smartest person on the planet is about to fall under the hands of who you thought was not on par with you. How does that feel, huh? How does it feel to be taken down by your own tech?"

"My… my own tech?"

"Yes," she chuckled and pointed to the weapon she was currently holding in her hands. "This little number here is based on your negator packs. The ones you created to stop Force and Shockwave. Do you remember them? They were pathetic, the two of them."

How the hell does she know about that? It's impossible for her to know about those!

"I knew that without your tech you were nothing – less than nothing, actually. I take away your suit and you have nothing to take me down. Nothing to stop what's coming to you. To everyone you love."

No, the inventor refused to give her more ammunition to better enjoy her victory over him.

"You won't make it that far, Rhona. You will be stopped!"

"By who?" the Mad Thinker asked with a shrug as she leaned down to his face when she finally stood above him. "War Machine? Rescue? I don't see them here right now."

"They aren't the only heroes in town."

"Perhaps," the girl said in a bored tone and then pressed the manual emergency unlatch button on Iron Man's neck and it immediately released the locks on the helmet. "But with you out of the picture, it doesn't matter what happens to me later. I really don't care if S.H.I.E.L.D. tries coming for me. I really don't care what they try to do to me."

"No," Tony groaned when Rhona pulled the entire helmet off his head and threw it over to the side. The look of insanity on her face was practically inhuman, and even though he was painfully aware that he was reaching the end of the road, he would not let her win without inflicting some kind of pain on her.

"Hey, Rhona? I want to ask you a question."

The woman was visibly taken aback by the sudden smug look on his face and his random request, but since she was certain that she had the upper-hand, the Mad Thinker decided to humor his wish.

"What is it, Anthony? What do you want to know before you die?"

If Tony could have shrugged, he would have, but he had to make due with only managing to scrunch his nose.

"Oh, just curious about one thing: where is Andy, anyway? Is he still as dead as I left him? Or have you since then made another pitiful pet to keep you company, huh?"

Rhona glared at Tony and his arrogant smile grew as he continued his verbal assault on her.

"Or was it too painful to make another Andy? Is that why you're trying to kill me? Because I put a hole in your fake brother's robotic stomach? That was a hell of a good shot, wasn't it? One for the books!"

"Shut up, Stark!"

"What?" the inventor continued. "Is it painful to remember? Is it sad that he DIED?"

"Shut it!" she screamed, pressed the weapon against his forehead and increased the level of power output on it. "This is going to fry your brain! This is going to kill you very, very, VERY painfully, Stark?"

"More or less painful than when Andy the Android died? Oh, wait! You can't answer that question because he was NOT real. He couldn't feel any pain!"

"I said shut up!"

"Or what? You're still gonna kill me! You're still gonna kill me because I killed your FAKE brother."

"No! That's not it!" Rhona spat. "You don't know a thing! You don't know why you're about to die!"

"You mean it's not because I broke your toy? Is it because you know I'll always be smarter than you?"

"NO!" the Goth girl screamed at the top of her lungs. "It's not because of that! It's because you have a target sign painted on your back!"

"What?"

"YES! Someone wants you dead, Stark. You have a price on your head," she held her finger against the trigger. "And so does she," she added with a sinister smile. "So does her ginger head."

Tony's eyes widened when he realized who she was talking about, and before he could come up with a retort and before she finished pressing the trigger on the gun, a newcomer caught them both by surprise.

The flash of purple and gray arrived out of thin air thanks to the stealth feature the suit possessed. By the time Rhona knew what had hit her, her body was already being pushed away from Tony and directed towards the alley that had been to Iron Man's left. Faster than it took him to realize what had just occurred, and seconds before he began panicking, a loud explosion occurred inside the alley, sending debris all over the place.

The flames escaped the narrow passage in every direction. With them and the continuing explosions, her form was thrown back into the streets. His eyes widened in fear when he saw Pepper hit the ground with her back, and it took him a moment to realize what she had just done; she had just risked her life for him, again.

"PEPPER!"

The inferno continued burning near him. In his immobilized state, all he could do was watch in horror as the random flares of fire threatened to reach her. She was slowly recovering consciousness and she had now begun to sit up. However, a moment after she shook her head to clear her ears from the explosion, another flare headed her way.

"NO!"

Tony tried his best to move, but his suit was as heavy as it had ever felt. His eyes followed the path of the flame, and it was then that he realized something was odd about the area around the ginger. When the fire never actually touched her or reached her at all and instead seemed to have reached an invisible barrier, it dawned on him that she was currently being protected by some kind of a shield.

How?

She blinked a few times and then got down on all fours as she recovered her breath. It had been difficult enough in her condition for her to do what she had just done, and she was glad that the force field around her was giving her a little bit of time to recuperate. She then held her head in her hands when she felt the world spinning around her, and despite the pain and nausea she was beginning to feel, she forced herself to look up at the inventor and sighed when she saw he was alright.

"Tony," she whispered before her shaking hand took out her pod from her pocket. She pressed a few buttons on it and, seconds later, Tony felt his armor beginning to open up. She eyed him for a few more seconds, and when she saw that he was now out of the suit and heading to her, she allowed herself to fall on her side and removed the shield her pod had been projecting for her.

"Pepper!" he cried out and skidded on his knees before her. He slowly flipped her over so that she faced up, held her in his arms, and she could barely keep her eyes open to stare at him.

"Pepper, what did you do? Why did you do that? I… I told you to stay behind!"

"I," she inhaled deeply. "I couldn't let her… kill you… I couldn't let her… let her…"

"Pepper, you idiot!" he kissed her forehead and caressed her face, briefly stared at the hot mess that was the alley where Rhona had been sent flying off, and then returned his attention toward his redhead. Her eyes began closing so he shook her, begging her to remain awake.

"Come on, Pep, stay with me. Don't fall asleep on me. How-how could you do this? How could you put yourself in danger like this? What did you do to her?"

Pepper gave him a smirk before she spoke.

"I blew up the bitch," she said with a satisfied smile. "I… I put her in my suit and blew her up."

Tony's eyes widened even more than before and he then looked back at the now dying fire.

"You… you put her in the suit? She's… she's dead?"

"Yes," her voice was merely a whisper. "I… I finally hacked the system… got my suit back online… flew here for you…"

"Pepper," Tony began and his eyes returned to her. "You… you shouldn't have come."

"How… could I have not?" she said as she felt her body shutting down. "How…could I not?"

The sound of the incoming fire department and ambulances was tuned out by him; his eyes never leaving her face as she finally closed her eyes and passed out.