CHAPTER 5

May 2011:

"Tony, stay with us," he heard a female voice say from far away.

"Pepper?" he moaned. The voice didn't sound like Pepper, but it was reassuring. Natalie?

"We've got to get him to a doctor!"

He hurt. Something … loud … a jet engine … harrier jet … roared in his ears and rattled his broken body. The pain was excruciating. He couldn't breathe. Tony slid back into the darkness.

Later…

"Can you hear me?" he heard a voice say.

"Rhodey?" he murmured.

"Tony, you're badly injured," Rhodey said. "They're about to wheel you into surgery. You're going to be okay."

"No doctors," Tony murmured. He slid back into unconsciousness.

Later…

Tony's mind registered a faint beep-beep-beep in the distance. For a long time he focused on the reassuring noise. It took his mind off the cloud of pain which permeated his entire body.

Images of the robed figure crushing him like a beer can slipped into his mind and he heard the beep-beep-beep speed up. As he clawed his way towards consciousness, he could feel the crushing pain in his chest. He let go and slid once more into the merciful darkness.

Later…

His mind recognized people talking.

"What happened," he heard a woman's voice say. "Is he going to be okay?" That was Peppers voice.

"He's been very badly injured," a male voice said. "He's got 7 broken ribs, a broken sternum, and head injuries. It looks like the creature tried to rip the arc reactor out of his chest."

"Will he make it?" Pepper asked. It sounded as though she was crying. "Is his arc reactor still functioning? He can't make it without that."

"We think he's going to pull through, but it's going to take time," the mail voice stated. "The arc reactor has been heavily damaged, as has the housing which surrounds it. We uploaded scans taken by JARVIS when Mr. Stark first returned from Afghanistan to recreate the original battery-compatible electromagnet created by Dr. Yinsen."

"You mean … you've got him hooked up to a car battery right now?" Pepper asked. His mind registered the panic in her voice.

"It's a little more sophisticated than a car battery," the man continued, "but, yeah, it's basically just a battery and a magnet."

Tony moaned and fought his way towards consciousness.

"Tony, can you hear me?" he heard Pepper say.

"Pepper," he whispered.

Pain washed over him in waves as he felt the crushing pain in his chest. He let go and sank beneath the surface once more.

Later…

"Here's the arc reactor from my suit. Is there any way you can use it to save him," he heard a male voice, Rhodey, ask.

"Theoretically, yes," the male voice he had begun to think of as "doctor" stated. "Unfortunately, the only person who understands this technology is laying unconscious in that bed. The housing in his chest is damaged and your reactor doesn't have the connections necessary to plug it into his chest socket."

Tony heard another voice, Peppers. "That arc reactor is made of palladium. It's toxic. Long term exposure nearly killed him the last time he used one."

"Pepper, it's all we have," Rhodey said. "It's a temporary solution. The electromagnet will only keep him alive a week or so. Palladium won't kill him for six months."

Pepper was silent for a long time before saying, "some of the engineers who helped Obediah Stane build his suit still work for Stark Industries. They don't know how to build arc reactor technology, but they did help Obediah build the housing which he used to plug Tony's chest reactor it into the Iron Monger suit. It was an earlier, but compatible version of what Tony is using for a socket now. I'll see if they can help."

"Pepper…" Tony whispered. He felt her touch his face. He fought his way out of the murky sea, but as he neared the surface the pain washed over his body. It was too much. He let go and slid back down into the depths.

Later…

"We can reverse-engineer a new power socket to accept the War Machine power supply," Tony heard an unknown male voice say. "However, modifying the War Machine arc reactor to fit inside Tony's chest is impossible."

"Dr. Nyi, all I want to know is can you make Rhodey's reactor work?" Pepper said. Now he had a name. Frank Nyi, chief engineer in charge of Stark Industries main arc reactor.

"Yes … and no," Dr. Nyi said. "I can retrofit an adaptor to repair the broken socket and link it to the War Machine arc reactor, but it's not going to fit inside his chest."

"What are you saying," he heard Pepper say.

"The War Machine arc reactor is a lot less compact than Mr. Starks reactor because it was never designed to fit inside the human body," Dr. Nyi stated. "It's also not made entirely of the same materials."

"What we're afraid of is rejection, Miss Potts," the doctor interrupted. "If we simply remove the existing socket and stick in a foreign object, Mr. Stark could die. We don't know how his body survived the trauma of the first implantation, but if we change things, we will kill him."

"Tony Stark was able to create this thing in a cave … with parts from a bunch of old missiles!" he heard Pepper exclaim. "Why can't you use the resources of Stark Industries to do the same thing?"

"I'm not Tony Stark," he heard Dr. Nyi say, his voice laced with regret. "The best I can do, Miss Potts, is fashion a bandaid that will work long enough for Tony to recover and fix the problem himself."

"Thank you, Dr. Nyi," Pepper stated. "Please get on it right away, top priority."

"Yes, Maam."

So, his arc reactor was damaged and he was hooked up to a primitive electromagnet. No wonder he felt like crap! Tony drifted between the states of awake and unconsciousness, not quite able to go the final mile to wake up, but alert enough to understand what was going on around him. Why couldn't he wake up?

"Miss Potts," the doctors said, "we have a more pressing problem."

"What is that, doctor?" she replied.

"Before we got that temporary electromagnet working, some of the pieces of shrapnel floating around Mr. Starks body pierced his pericardium and worked their way into his left ventricle," the doctor stated. "If we don't remove the particles, they could kill him."

"Can you remove them?" Pepper asked. He could hear the worry in her voice.

"We'll need to bring him back in for surgery to do that," the doctor stated. "He's very weak. We don't know if he'd survive."

"And if we don't do the surgery?" Pepper asked.

"He'll die anyways."

He heard Pepper gasp and begin to cry. "Tony should make that decision. When will he wake up?"

"We're keeping him in a medically-induced coma to minimize the trauma from his injuries," the doctor said. "If we taper off the medication, he should regain consciousness in a couple of hours."

"Make it so," Pepper quietly ordered.

Tony was able to hear all of this, but it exhausted him. They must have him on some great drugs, he thought. Although pain still permeated his body, it was more diffused. Two hours … he'd be able to wake up in two hours. Tony let go and drifted off to sleep.

Later…

"Tony?" He felt her hand in his. She was caressing his face.

"Pepper…" he murmured.

"Can you hear me?" she asked.

"Mmmm … been hearing you for the last few hours," he replied. "Couldn't speak."

"Your arc reactors been badly damaged," she said. "Dr. Nyi from the Arc Reactor Lab has come up with a patch to make Rhodey's reactor compatible with your chest-socket, but it's not a permanent fix."

"Do it…" he stated

"It won't fit inside the existing socket," she continued. "You'll have to carry it around in a pouch or something."

"Don't worry," he said, smiling weakly. "That won't last long. I'll make a new one."

"Tony," she said, "we've got a bigger problem. Before they got the temporary magnet in place, some shrapnel entered the left ventricle of your heart. If they don't remove it, it will kill you."

"What else is new?" he replied. "I heard. Tell them to go ahead and take it out."

"But … the doctor said you may be too weak to survive the surgery," she said. "You could die!" Pepper started to cry.

Tony weakly moved his hand towards her cheek. By god, it felt like lead! "If I was meant to die, I would have died long ago. Don't worry … I'll pull through."

Pepper sniffled and nodded.

God, he felt tired. "So tired," he murmured.

"Sleep…" Pepper soothed as she caressed his hair. "When you wake up, it will all be over."

Later…

"So, you're the energizer bunny now, swapping out batteries?"

"Fury!" Tony mumbled, opening his eyes to see Nick Fury's one good eye staring at him. The look of concern on Fury's face betrayed the I'm-too-badass-to-be-worried tone of his voice.

"You'll be happy to learn that you've got 3 less pieces of shrapnel floating around your chest right now, Mr. Stark," Fury wisecracked. "If you keep this up, pretty soon you won't need to wear that damned flashlight in your chest anymore."

"Ha – Mmmmph!" Tony both laughed and cried out in pain. "Don't make me laugh. It hurts."

"Take it easy on him, Fury," Pepper said. She was sitting on the other side of his bed. "Or I swear to God I'll kick you out of here."

"What happened? With the mission, I mean," Tony inquired, his brain still fuzzy from the pain medication. "Is everybody okay?"

"Rhodey suffered a broken leg and cracked skull. They've released him, but he's been hobbling up and down the hallways bugging the crap out of the nurses about you," Fury said. "Thor got pretty banged up. Whatever tech that Mandarin guy was using, it used Thor's own electromagnetic discharge against him. It's going to take him a while for him to re-grow his hair."

"Mandarin?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, that's what the Burmese guards we interrogated called him," Fury continued. "They're terrified of him. Claim he's some sort of Asian sorcerer."

"The only difference between technology and magic is the level of technological sophistication of the observer," Tony quoted Arthur C. Clark. "From where I stood, it looked like he was harnessing an unknown energy source and channeling it through a device in his hands."

Fury gave him a look of surprise. "Do you have any idea what this power source was?"

"No," he stated. "But by the way Thor was able to temporarily hold him at bay with his hammer, I suspect the power sources may be similar."

"Can you reverse engineer it?" Fury asked.

"Get me a piece of that technology, and with it I'll retro-engineer the world," Tony weakly replied. "Ouch! Pepper, I think my pain medication is wearing off."

"I'll get the nurse," she replied. "You! Are done. Out!" she said to Fury. Fury didn't argue with her. He'd recently learned the hard way that Pepper Potts could go toe-to-toe with the nastiest, most hardened drill sergeant.

"Nick?" Tony asked before Pepper shoved him out the door. "How are the others?"

"They're okay, although the Captain is pretty pissed off about losing his shield," Fury replied.

"Tell him I'll make him a new one," Tony stated. Fury shut the door.

"Sleep…" Pepper said, caressing his cheek with the back of her hand. "The more you rest, the sooner you can get back on your feet."

He let go and drifted back to sleep.