Chapter Seven: Legacy

"Okay, Leo," Tony grunted that evening as he worked on perfecting the top half of the suit, "Can you remember the mnemonic I taught you for because?"

"Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants!" Leo answered confidently and triumphantly from where he was sat at Tony's computer.

"Good," Tony grinned at him. "Now spell because."

"B…E…C…A…U…S…E," Leo spelled out slowly, clearly going through the mnemonic in his head before saying each letter.

"You got it! Nice one, Leo," Tony praised him as Pepper slowly ventured into the room. This time, however, Tony was aware of her entrance. "Hey," Tony smiled at her as he stood up, moving away from the suit to stand at a nearby workstation, opposite Pepper. "You busy? You mind if I send you on an errand? I need you to go to my office. You're going to hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests." Tony picked up a device which looked closely similar to a USB device off the workstation and held it out for Pepper to take. "This is a lock chip," he told her as she took it from him. "This'll get you in. It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading," Tony explained to her.

"Hacking into computers," Leo grinned, getting excited again as Pepper stared at the device in her hands. "It's just like the spy films!"

"Leo, go and get your dad a coffee," Pepper instructed, speaking for the first time since she had entered the room.

Leo glanced at his dad uncertainly before turning to Pepper, confused, "I'm not allowed to touch the coffee machine."

"I'm giving you permission just this once. Be sensible. Be careful. Don't burn yourself," Pepper instructed. Leo nodded, running for the stairs to get up to the kitchen. "And don't even think about running whilst carrying coffee," Pepper added before he left. Pepper waited until Leo was clear of the top of the stairs before turning back to Tony to continue their conversation. "And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?" She questioned him.

"Same drill," Tony told her honestly. No more secrets. "they've been dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them."

"Tony," Pepper started but paused as she tried to work out how to word what she wanted to say, "You know that I would help you with anything but I can not help if you're going to start all of this again."

"There is nothing except this," Tony insisted passionately. "There's no art opening. There is no benefit. There is nothing to sign. There is the next mission and nothing else."

"Is that so?" Pepper questioned, not bothering to hide the disappointment in her voice. "Well, then, I quit." She chucked the device back onto the workstation and walked towards the door.

Tony stared after her, not about to let her leave that easily, "You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. And now that I'm trying to protect the people that I put in harm's way, you're going to walk out."

Pepper turned around, facing up to him. "You're going to make enemies doing this. It's going to put the people you care for in harm's way. You've already got Leo caught up in all this. You're going to get him killed. You're going to kill yourself, Tony. I'm not going to be a part of it."

Tony took a seat in the nearest chair to him, looking somewhat defeated. "I shouldn't be alive, unless it was for a reason," he told her. He should have died from the shrapnel. After all, the weapon had been designed to kill. He had to believe there was a reason he survived it. "I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do." There was a long pause as they stared at each other, contemplating each other's arguments. "And I know in my heart that it's right."

Pepper stared at him before sighing, giving in and walking back over to the workstation. She picked the device back up and looked at it in her hands before looking up at Tony. "You, and Leo, are all I have too, you know," she told him meaningfully before walking away, taking the device with her.

Leo sat downstairs at one of the workstations, doing some of his Math homework. He liked Math: numbers came to him so much easier that letters. He was flying through it, listening to music through his earphones as he worked. He glanced across the room to see his dad, once again, working on his suit. Only, he looked preoccupied and concerned, continually checking the clock. Leo pulled his earphones out, spinning around on the office chair to face his dad. "You okay, Dad?"

"It shouldn't be taking Pepper this long to get the files," Tony answered. All of a sudden, he had a very bad feeling which was interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing from upstairs. "Wait here," he instructed Leo. Maybe he was being paranoid but he had an eerie feeling that Leo would be much safer remaining downstairs.

Leo nodded and gulped as he watched his dad disappear up the steps. He too shared the feeling that something wasn't right. A minute or so after his dad had disappeared upstairs, Leo could have sworn he heard more footsteps up there. Adamant that they were expecting any visitors, Leo was sure that something was wrong. Taking a deep breath, Leo slowly and quietly crept up the stairs.

"It's a shame the government didn't approve it," Leo could overhear the conversation once he'd stopped halfway up the steps, crouching down to avoid being seen. He frowned, recognising the voice immediately: Obadiah Stane. "There's so many applications for causing short-term paralysis," Obadiah continued and Leo slowly and carefully pulled himself up so that his head was poking above the wall, allowing him to see what was going on. Tony was slumped on the couch, not moving, the veins on his face dark blue and highly visible. Obadiah was stood behind the couch, leaning over Tony and holding a device in his hand. Leo could only assume it was the device that Obadiah had used to stop his dad from being able to move.

It was situations like this that Leo had used in his many arguments with Pepper regarding why he needed his own mobile phone. Pepper had argued that such situations were childish fantasy and never going to happen. Leo made a note to use this entire scenario as a counter-argument. Leo placed his hand in his pocket, gripping the coms device he'd stashed in there and praying the phone would ring. If someone called, he could use the device to answer it and ask for help. Unless he received a call, Leo had no way of calling for help.

Leo watched as Obadiah walked around the couch, moving to stand in front of Tony. Leo felt more confident with Obadiah standing there. It meant the man had his back to him. Not only did that make Obadiah less likely to spot him but it would give Leo the opportunity to sneak up on him from behind when the time seemed right. "Oh, Tony," Obadiah started as he pulled some earbuds out of his ears. Leo smiled; that meant Obadiah wouldn't be prepared to use the device in his hand when Leo surprised him. "When I ordered the hit on you, I worried that I was killing the golden goose," Obadiah was telling Tony as he picked up a contraption from his briefcase. The thing looked scary and it was only when Obadiah placed it on Tony's chest, against his arc reactor, that Leo realised what the contraption was for. Leo's eyes widened. He had to move fast.

Leo stood up, scrambling up the remaining steps and running at Obadiah's back. Apparently, he didn't have as much stealth as the spies in the movies he watched for Obadiah turned in time, swiping his arm out and sending Leo flying through the air. Leo landed hard on the floor, whacking his head off the steps which lead up to the area in which the piano had sat prior to Tony destroying it. Leo groaned, feeling sick as his head throbbed in pain and blood dripped down his face. Obadiah walked over and grabbed a fistful of Leo's shirt, lifting him up. "Oops," he simply said as he inspected the gash on Leo's forehead. "Then again, it might knock some knowledge into the boy," Obadiah commented, turning back to look at Tony. "He doesn't exactly have the Stark intelligence trait, does he? Are you sure his mother didn't lie to you?" Obadiah questioned as he dropped the now unconscious Leo onto the couch beside Tony.

"Right. Back to business," Obadiah said to get himself back on track as he picked up the contraption once again. "Where was I? That's right, killing the golden goose," Obadiah said as he placed the contraption back on Tony's chest. "You see, I think it was fate that you survived that," he told Tony as he pushed the device down and turned it. Tony gasped out in pain as Obadiah pulled the arc reactor out of his chest, it only remained linked to Tony through the wires coming out of Tony's chest.

"You had one last golden egg to give. Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?" Obadiah questioned. "Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kind of a world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?" With that question posed, Obadiah yanked the wires out of Tony's chest, allowing Obadiah to hold the miniaturised arc reactor in his hand. "Oh, it's beautiful," Obadiah commented as he inspected in closely.

"Tony, this is your Ninth Symphony. What a masterpiece. Look at that. This is your legacy. A new generation of weapons with this at its heart. Weapons that will help steer the world back on course, put the balance of power in our hands. The right hands," Obadiah monologued as he carefully placed the arc reactor into a case. "I wish you could've seen my prototype. It not as… well, not as conservative as yours. Too bad you had to involve Pepper in this. I would have preferred that she lived," Obadiah said casually as he stood up, case in hand. "As for the boy," Obadiah added as he picked Leo up again, "I'll take him with me. Just in case any of your friends decides to play the hero." With that, Obadiah left, the case in one hand and Leo slumped over his other shoulder, leaving Tony paralysed on the couch behind him.

Colonel James Rhodes was driving home from work, a nice relaxing evening of sitting in front of the television and doing nothing planned for when he got home. When his phone started ringing, he half considered ignoring it until a side glance showed Pepper's contact ID on the screen. Knowing Tony and of his recent project, he wouldn't be surprised if the man had gotten himself into some kind of trouble. Answering the phone, however, he wasn't expecting to hear quite as much trouble as he did. Pepper informed him of everything that she knew by spurting all the information down the phone at him in one breath. Rhodey struggled to keep up with what she was saying. "Pepper, slow down. Why would Obadiah…?" Rhodey began to ask but was cut off by Pepper continuing to spurt information down the phone. "Okay, where's Tony now?" Rhodey asked her. He had to get to him, quickly.

"I don't know. He's not answering his phone," Pepper answered Rhodey, talking to him on the phone as she left the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division's headquarters, backed up with a number of agents including Coulson with the aim to find Obadiah. "Please go over there and make sure everything's okay," Pepper asked Rhodey as she reached the car she and Coulson would be travelling in.

Rhodey took a sharp right in his own car as he suddenly changed his destination from his own home to Tony's. "I'm on my way," he told Pepper.

"Thank you, Rhodey," Pepper thanked him before hanging up the phone.

Rhodey put his foot down on the gas pedal. If he got done for speeding, he'd make Tony pay the fine for him.