Hi everyone! Sorry for the late update, but since I missed posting a chapter last week, that means that you get two chapters this week! (I actually had the second chapter ready first, so I figure that I might as well post them in the same weekend.) Today's chapter focuses on Tony racing to stop Stane and save Pepper at the end of "Iron Man"—I imagine that that must have been a pretty unpleasant flight for Tony, who would have had a lot on his mind at the time. Thanks so much for your reviews (hint, hint :)), and I'll see you again tomorrow, (and then again in two weeks after that).
Disclaimer: I own no part of the Marvel Universe. I do own several Marvel bobbleheads though, so that's pretty fun. :)
Time
Getting into the suit and getting in the air seemed to take hours, but as soon as he was en route to the Stark Industries R&D building (Rhodey hopefully right behind him in the fastest car he owned), Tony had time to think, which wasn't really ideal at the moment. As soon as JARVIS reminded him that the arc reactor he was using hadn't been designed for flight, Tony started doing the math: yes, he could make it to R&D, but once he got there, he was going to have to take down Stane fast. Which would be easy, or a challenge, depending on the specs of the suit that Stane had had R&D build for him.
Tony had to think of him as 'Stane' now. Up until an hour ago, he'd been 'Obie,' his friend and mentor, pretty much the last guy in the world he'd ever thought would turn on him. But everything had changed tonight—Tony didn't think he could ever kill Obie, but he would have to kill Stane. Stane, who'd been his father's friend, who he'd known his whole life...who was the reason he'd almost died in a cave, and why he'd almost died again tonight.
Tony didn't know how to process a betrayal this big. He knew, logically, that Stane wanted him dead, had tried to make it happen several times already, and that he'd doubtless try killing him again before the night was over. But it still felt like a punch in the gut every time he thought about it, because honestly, Tony had thought he'd known Obie better than he'd known his own father. He'd known him longer, certainly, and he'd clearly hidden his plans for a hostile takeover of the company pretty well, because Tony had never suspected anything like this from Obadiah Stane.
He'd thought they were friends, he'd thought...well, it really didn't matter now, did it? Tonight he would have to kill Stane before Stane killed him. He'd probably never be able to pinpoint the exact moment when they'd gone from friends (or at least allies) to mortal enemies; for Tony, it had come tonight, but he guessed that Stane had started hating him a long time ago, and maybe now it was too late to ever understand exactly why.
Okay, so I can think of a lot of reasons why people in general might hate me, but Stane specifically? I guess I could ask him what the hell finally set him off, but I doubt I'll get a coherent answer from a bloodthirsty maniac in a metal suit, Tony thought grimly, willing his own suit to go faster, to get to Pepper before Stane did. Pepper. What the hell was he going to do about the things he was feeling for her?
Part of the problem was that he wasn't exactly sure what he was feeling. As he flew toward her, he knew that he couldn't even contemplate the thought that he was too late, that she was already—no, he couldn't handle that right now, so Tony forced himself to try and figure out what it was that he felt for Pepper Potts. He was leery to attach the word 'love' to it, given his limited experience with that. Did loving someone make you blurt out the truth even when the truth involved flying metal suits and mysterious bad guys? If he really loved Pepper, why had he risked getting her involved in all this?
Because I don't have anyone else, Tony thought grimly. If I lose her—but he really didn't think he had the mental fortitude to finish that thought, so he pushed the suit to move as fast as he dared, calculating how much power it would take to cover the remaining distance, how much power he'd have left when he arrived. He wouldn't be able to save Pepper if he flew so fast that his heart gave out before he even got there—he had to pace himself, had to consider what kinds of weapons Stane's suit was likely to have, and how he could counter them with what little power the arc reactor could still generate...
I just need enough time to figure it out, Tony thought frantically, not referring to the weakening arc reactor—the math on that was easy—but whatever the hell was going on (or rather not going on) with Pepper. I'll just ask her, as soon as I finish this, he told himself. I'll just ask if…if we could try for, what, some semblance of normalcy? Find out if she'd consider adding 'girlfriend' to her credentials? If we could just, maybe, go on a date, only not like my usual dates, just to see if she could…see me the way I've started to see her.
Tony knew that it was kind of a long shot. After all, she'd been his assistant for over ten years: she knew about pretty much every skeleton in his closet, was intimately acquainted with his every flaw and indiscretion—hell, she'd had her hand inside his chest. If she tried, he was sure that Pepper Potts could think of literally hundreds of reasons why dating him would be a bad idea. But Tony was way past the point of concerning himself with the logical arguments for why he and Pepper shouldn't become romantically involved. Rationally, he knew that it could screw things up—that he would probably screw things up—but he also knew that he didn't really care. If I'm still alive tomorrow, I'm mentioning the girlfriend idea, he told himself, and then the familiar silhouette of Stark Industries appeared before him, forcing Tony to return to the problem of Obadiah Stane...
