The battle between Iron Man, War Machine and Madame Masque had managed to broil until it had spilled over the breaking point; at which point things had managed to cool down. Tony, breathing heavily, looked disappointedly to Whitney.

"Why are you doing this, Whitney? Why are you killing her?" Tony begged.

"Because she doesn't deserve you, and you don't deserve her! It's not fair, she's not so special! What ever happened to us?" Whitney yelled.

"You wouldn't let us work! Yeah, I kept ditching our dates to be Iron Man in secret but if you wanted to be with me so badly you would've stayed with me! Can't you see we wouldn't have worked? Whitney, you were always like a sister to me. I dated you because I wanted to give us a try. But once I did I realized we're not right for each other. I've let you go, Whitney, can't you just let me go too?" Tony said.

"No, you're wrong! We can work, just give me a chance!" Whitney exclaimed. "Just forget about all this and we can have another chance! All you have to do is dump your stupid girlfriend and let the poison finish her off!"

"Whitney, can't you see I love her? I can't just let her go like that. I need her. I need her like plants need water. I need her more than you'd be able to understand, and I'm not going to waste valuable time trying to explain it to you. If I let her go now just to be with you, I'd never be happy again. I know it's hard for you to accept, but Pepper has brightened some of my darkest days and has completed me in a way no one has done before. She's way too important to me for me to just drop her for someone else. And furthermore, as a superhero, I can't just let someone die." Tony explained. "If you ever love someone like I love her, you'll understand."

Whitney stood in silence. She absorbed Tony's words like a sponge. Unlike the previous times he'd tried to explain this to her, this speech actually stuck. He had managed to say in in just such a way that made both the evil and the good Whitney stop to think about it. His words hurt, like a dagger through her heart. She'd never thought Tony would care so deeply for someone else before. Why couldn't he care that deeply about her? Why was Pepper so special?

"WHY CAN'T YOU JUST FORGET ABOUT HER!?" Whitney exclaimed, pointing her laser gun at him. She refused to go soft on him and give up just because he had made some sorry, sappy, pathetic speech.

"WHITNEY, JUST STOP! Can't you see what that mask has done to you? Can't you see that every time you wear it you lose control? You try to destroy the people closest to you, the people who are trying to help you! You've lost control three times now, and this time I'm not as willing to help you! By now, I just want you somewhere where you'll never be able to hurt anyone ever again…Whitney, you've hurt the person I care about the most. Did you really expect me to come crawling back to you?" Tony exclaimed, calming down. His words sunk in and struck her core. Her whole body froze, and her weapon dropped to the ground. Whitney dropped to her knees and began wildly sobbing, stuffing her face in her hands. Memories dating as far back as first meeting the bubbly redhead flooded into her mind. Memories that made her realize just how cruel she had been to the poor girl, and how much she didn't deserve it. But that wasn't even the worst part. The real icing on the cake came when memories from after putting on the mask came.

What have I done?

"I'm a monster!" She exclaimed. In a matter of minutes SHIELD agents were flooding into the abandoned building, courtesy of a call from War Machine as Tony was talking to her, and removing her mask and handcuffing her.

"Mr. Stark, would you like to take care of the mask?" Fury asked.

"Yeah. I know the perfect thing to do with it." Tony said, dropping the mask to the ground and stepping on it. The mask shattered into pieces, which Tony picked up. He'd dispose of them in his lab.

"And I suppose you'd like this antidote." An agent said, approaching Iron Man. Tony took it, thanking the agent as he rushed back to Stark International to get the antidote to Pepper.

~…~

A half an hour later, after the antidote had flowed through Pepper's system and taken down the poisonous substances, Pepper's eyes fluttered open ever so gently. She awoke to Tony, Rhodey, Howard and her parents gathered around her bedside. Rhodey was standing a little behind Tony, and Tony was sitting right beside her, holding her hand and squeezing it tight. Her parents were on the other side of her bed, waiting with hopeful smiles on their faces.

Once they saw her sit up, Tony heaved a giant sigh of relief as he quickly wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. Pepper smiled as she returned his hug.

"T-Tony…what happened? The last thing I remember is getting home after spending the day with you, a-and then nothing…" Pepper asked tiredly.

"Whitney poisoned you the same way she did my dad, except this time more powerful…but she's in an extremely heavily guarded SHIELD prison cell now. She won't be hurting anyone anymore." Tony explained. He looked deep into her eyes, glad to see them opened and sparkling again, like normal.

"You have no idea how glad I am that you're okay…" Tony said exasperatedly. Pepper smiled and patted his shoulder. She turned to her parents and talked to them before Yinsen assessed her overall health and concluded she was safe to go home, but she should take it easy for the next few days; meaning no Rescue for a while. And Tony would be sure to enforce that.

Rhodey and Virgil decided to go on their way and leave Tony and Pepper alone, as Tony had probably been through too much to bear in the past twenty-four hours and probably only wanted to be alone with her for a bit. Besides, Virgil could see his daughter when they got home, and Rhodey knew Tony should get home after walking Pepper home so he could get some sleep himself; he'd been through a lot in the past sixteen hours. Howard went home to make sure Tony got home to get some rest, and Pepper's mother returned to her apartment in the city. She'd catch up with her daughter in the morning. Right now, she needed to get back to bed so she could get up for work the next morning. (Yinsen, after being thanked graciously by Tony and Howard, took all the information about the poison and its antidote that he had gathered from the experience to a locked filing cabinet in his home office where it'd be safe; after which he'd get some rest himself.)

In the meantime, Tony and Pepper walked home slowly, holding hands.

"So how much did you miss me?" Pepper asked, playfully poking his nose. Tony smiled.

"Pep you have no idea how crazy I was just driven today." Tony answered with a chuckle. Suddenly he stopped walking and closed his eyes for a moment.

"Pepper, in the past twenty-four hours I imagined my life without you in it, and that's not something I want to imagine ever again…" Tony said, pausing briefly. "Promise me you'll never leave my side, no matter what happens to us?" He asked. Pepper could see the sadness lingering in his eyes. She noticed the bags under his eyes and could tell he'd relentlessly tried to save her. She even saw signs of tears shed lingering on his cheeks. She placed her free hand on his cheek and squeezed his hand tight.

"Tony, I would never dream of leaving you." She said simply. Tony smiled and placed his hands on her cheeks, then proceeding to pull her in for a long, passionate and caring kiss. Upon separating, the two continued their walk.

"That's good, because this day made me realize that I really wouldn't survive a day without you." Tony said as they continued their walk to the Potts' apartment.

"Oh, I knew that." Pepper said teasingly with a chuckle. Tony smiled and shoved her gently, causing Pepper to shove him back, and so forth.

"So, what exactly has happened since I've been out?" Pepper asked as their playfulness died down.

"Rhodey and I have been on a wild goose chase looking for Whitney for the past sixteen hours so we could save you. That's what happened in a nutshell…" Tony explained. He proceeded to explain the last sixteen hours in more detail to her.

"So, if she's had the antidote all along, why didn't she just smash it and get it over with?" Pepper asked.

"I don't know. The mask has been changing her ever since she first put it on, and I think it's been controlling her. Manipulating her into being evil like she has been. I've picked up on the hints, too. I could see her fighting it, trying to break free of the mask's influence. I don't think she ever actually wanted to hurt you." Tony explained.

"Well do you think she's going to be okay now that the mask is destroyed?" Pepper asked.

"I hope so…it'll take a long time, but someday she'll be back to the Whitney I used to know. Someday her life will finally be looking up." Tony explained, wrapping his arm around Pepper's shoulders and pulling her close to him as they continued their walk to the Potts apartment. Maybe it wasn't for Whitney, but right about now, life was finally back to normal; and boy, was life good.

What's this? Two chapters in one night? :O gee, I've never done that before! But there we have it! The end! Kinda sad, because this is like, the only thing I've been doing for IM:AA for a while…I dunno. Maybe more ideas will come in the future…we'll see what happens. I can say one thing for certain, and that's the fact that I'm really not going to force myself to come up with any ideas. If it comes to me, it comes to me. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Good stories take patience…

Hey, you can always check out the stories I write for other shows…maybe…depending on if you know said shows or not…I dunno. I know I've got two one-shots on the way for two different shows, so if you know of Wordgirl or Penguins of Madagascar (and are a fan of Skilene) keep a lookout! XD

Anyways, enough with my sappy weirdness…review!