Chapter 9

The scene at the California base of S.H.I.E.L.D. could have only been described as chaotic since communication had been lost with the superhero team. Agents on leave had been woken up from their slumber and ordered to report for emergency duty. The entire workforce of the agency was present and active, despite the ungodly time of the day.

"Where are my eyes, people? I need visual on the area!"

"We're working as fast as we can, sir," Maria Hill said to her director, her eyes scanning the incoming reports from the technicians trying to get their satellites to work again. "ETA is 15 minutes."

Fury sighed. It was nearly an hour since they had lost contact with the Avengers, and he knew that if he did not have something to show Tony in the next five minutes, Iron Man would resort to hauling his ass to Congo, even if they both knew it was not the best way to help the team.

"Hill, connect me to Stark. I need to stall him."

"Yes, sir."

xxxXXXxxx

"What do you mean burning up?" Tony asked, rushing back to the top of the stairs and making his way to the nursery. Ms. Smith followed closely behind, trying her best to explain the situation to the worried first-time dad.

"I don't think it's high enough to warrant a visit to the ER, but we do need to get her some ibuprofen and maybe a cool bath."

Tony opened up the door to the nursery and walked inside, making a beeline to Gwyneth's crib. He bent over it and picked her up in his arms, pressing his lips to her forehead to get an informal read on her fever and not liking what he felt.

"Can you get me a thermometer?"

"Yes, sir," Smith responded rushing to one of the drawers inside the room and taking out the requested tool. She walked towards Tony and placed the thermometer under the toddler's arm, not wanting to further upset her by using the most accurate method for reading a baby's temperature.

"It's OK, Honey. Daddy's here," he whispered to his daughter when the girl complained about the cold object under her arm. The little girl sniffled lightly, her eyes too tired to be kept open, but she still held onto her father's shirt with her tiny fists. "How long has she been like this?"

"About an hour or so, maybe. I put them down to sleep and left to walk Jarvis. When we returned, Gigi was breathing hard and that's when I realized she was ill."

"You said a cool bath and ibuprofen will help?" he asked, already walking out of the nursery with his daughter still in his arms, but not without sending a quick glance toward the sleeping Robert to make sure the little guy was alright, before heading to the bathroom in his room.

"Yes, if her temperature is no greater than 104ºF." Gillian responded, following him close enough for him to hear her, but distant enough to not walk into his room uninvited.

Tony took the thermometer from under the baby's arm, and was both shocked and relieved to see it read 102ºF. "What happens at 104ºF?"

"We'll need to make camp in the emergency room."

Tony pursed his lips. This just could not be happening at a worse time. The two women in his life both desperately needed him at the same time, and if it were up to him he would help them both immediately. However, Gwyneth was the one that was physically closest to him at the moment and the most vulnerable right now.

I'm sorry, Pepper.

"Bring over the medicine," he finally said. "I'll start the bath."

"Yes, Mr. Stark."

xxxXXXxxx

"What do you mean he's unavailable? Did he leave? I told him to wait!"

"No, Director Fury. Mr. Stark is currently tending to an ill Miss Gwyneth."

Nick was taken aback by the AI's response, and for an instant he wondered if Tony would go as far as joking about his kids' health to sneak under the radar. The thought was then immediately dismissed knowing Tony would: a) not give a rat's ass if Nick knew he left for Congo or not; and, b) that not even Stark would resort to using his kids as an excuse.

"Is everything OK?"

"For the moment, it seems he has everything under control, but we await results of a scan I have performed on Miss Gwyneth."

"Very well. Report to him that the Quinjet is halfway to Congo, whenever you can."

"Will do, sir."

"Thanks, Jarvis."

"You're welcome, Director Fury."

Nick rubbed his forehead with his left hand, sitting back in his chair and shaking his head lightly at the reports on his screens. He thought that the greatest threat the team would ever encounter had already come from Loki, his shiny stick of death, the forsaken wormhole, and his alien army, but the preliminary results of the unprecedented winter storm that hit the Avengers seemed to suggest otherwise.

"Sir?" A troubled Maria Hill approached Fury, making him groan in anticipation of bad news.

"What now?" he barked.

It astonished Fury how his second-in-command continued to put up with his irritable disposition without so much as batting an eye. He still remembered her first week on the job, many years ago, and he had sworn the woman was gonna end up shooting his ass by week's end. By now, however, despite the strong differences in their leadership approaches, a mutual and extremely silent respect between them had developed, and this wordless agreement was what had kept them working together for as long as they had.

"Our satellites have reconnected with the scene."

"And?"

"Well," she said, walking closer to Fury with a folder in her hand. "Most of the team is doing OK, but we still don't have radio communication with them. We've triangulated their locations and they are slowly recovering from the impact of the weather anomaly."

"I sense a major issue coming, Hill. Out with it."

Maria nodded, having a difficult time accepting the information herself. "It's Mrs. Stark, sir. She…"

Nick swallowed hard. "Please don't tell me I have to tell Tony he has to plan a funeral."

"We…are not sure," she responded, handing him the folder containing the latest satellite images she had just received. Nick Fury grabbed the folder, only needing two seconds of observing them to realize what Maria was trying to relay to him.

"Is this what I think it is?"

"Yes, sir. We would have expected her to recover by now. But, the location of the injuries…we can't determine…"

Nick looked down at the pictures again. "Get Coulson on the line."

Maria nodded and turned on her heel immediately, knowing damn well that 'Get Coulson on the line,' was S.H.I.E.L.D. code for 'Shit just got real.'

xxxXXXxxx

General Rhodes stood up from the still cold ground under him, feeling much more positive about his situation now that his system was restarting. He still had no link between his suit and Jarvis, but at least the arc reactor had turned back on again, making it possible for him to start the regrouping of the team.

"Does anyone copy?" he asked, tapping on the wireless receiver in his ear. "This is War Machine. Can anyone hear me?"

Three damn wireless communicators and neither of them worked.

Just my luck.

A quick scan of his systems showed his weapons were still mostly functional, and for that he was glad. There were no heat signals close to him depicting the presence of the Extremis soldiers he had been following, but for now this was not important to him. He lifted his faceplate and took in a deep breath.

"Hello? Tash? Pepper? Clint? Cap? Bruce?"

He sighed. "That's it. Next time I'm bringing two metal cans attached with a string with me."

"Rhodey?" The sudden response caught War Machine by surprise, and for a moment he wondered if he had imagined it.

"Pepper?" He remembered that Pepper's location had been directly half a mile to his left before the storm had hit, but the sound of her voice sounded as if it was coming from behind him, and very close by.

"Rhodey! Please, help!"

Rhodey headed toward the voice, turning around and lowering his face plate and using it to determine Pepper's location. The infrared picked up a slight increase in heat waves coming directly from in front of him, and if his calculations were correct, there were fewer than 50 feet between him and the origin of the heat wave.

"Pepper? Can you hear me?" he asked after lifting his faceplate once more.

"Rhodey! Hurry, please! I don't know how long I can…ugh!"

"Hold on, Pepper!" he yelled back, running as fast as he could in the suit. The thrusters still needed 30 more seconds to become operable, but based on the urgency of her voice, he doubted Pepper had that long.

A few seconds later, he found who he was looking for, but not what he had wanted to see. He froze on the spot for an instant, taking in the scene before him.

"Pepper! No!" he uttered as he ran toward his fallen friend.

xxxXXXxxx

Almost two hours had passed since the storm, and the snow was practically gone. The scorching sun had returned with a vengeance, and the jungle was even more humid than before. The Avengers had been no more than a mile away from each other, but the disorientation, heat, melting snow and the lack of communication made it difficult to regroup after the setback.

"Clint, I think we should go old-school and start yelling for someone, and stay put. I'm tired of walking around," Natasha said, resting her arm on a nearby tree, and using it to hold her weight.

Clint turned behind him to face her, and noticed how red her face was getting, almost matching her hair even, and he knew the high temperature was getting to her. Even after tearing off the sleeves from her catsuit, and using one of Barton's bow strings to hold her hair up, the Black Widow was slowly becoming a victim of extreme heat and dehydration.

"I'm sure Fury sent reinforcements when we lost signal," Hawkeye said, walking back to her. He took out a handkerchief from his back pocket and patted the sweat off her face as much as he could. "We just have to wait for them to get here, but it'd be easier for them to rescue us if we are all together. You know this, Nat."

Natasha closed her eyes, feeling some relief coming from Barton's efforts to freshen her up. When she opened them up again, he was giving his back to her, in position to give her a piggyback ride.

"You've got to be kidding, Clint. You're not carrying me anywhere."

"The hell I'm not! I'm not gonna leave you behind, and you're not passing out on me, either. So, hurry up and get your fine ass on my back, Widow."

Natasha considered walking around him and continuing their aimless trek, but she knew Clint was correct. At this point, she was so out of it that it would be faster for them to move if he carried her rather than trying to drag her along with him.

Without a word, but with a lot of grumbles and silent Russian curses, she pushed herself up onto his back. He expertly wrapped her legs with his arms, and her arms surrounded his neck.

"When I was up in that tree I saw a village not too far from here. We'll head that way and stay there. It'll be easier for the Quinjet to find us there than below these fucking trees."

Natasha nodded to him, resting her face on his back and enjoying the ride while she could.

xxxXXXxxx

Steve silently walked next to the Hulk, both of them heading to the village Steve had seen while on top of a tree the Hulk had graciously thrown him onto. They had been calling the names of their teammates –more like grunting the names for Hulk, for the past half a mile, but so far neither had any luck in locating them.

"Green…bored...green…" Steve rolled his eyes for the nth time at the Hulk's impatience. He had been uttering his uninterested state since they had begun walking toward the village, and alternated his state with uttering the color of the vegetation surrounding them. At first, Steve had thought he was trying to say something more meaningful, but after a while he realized he was just trying to keep himself occupied.

"We still have a mile to go, Bruce." Steve said, wiping sweat off his brow. "Don't you think you should turn off the Hulk for now? You know, at least until we find the Extremis soldiers?"

The Green Mean Machine looked down at the Captain, his face denoting everything but agreement with his suggestion.

Cap raised his hands in defeat. "Fine, stay green," Steve shrugged. "I'm just saying it'd be less boring for Banner to walk in the middle of the jungle with nothing to do."

"You slow Hulk down."

"We can pick up the pace, if you'd like. But I rather not burn too much energy with this heat around us."

Hulk snorted. "Hulk not get tired, only angrier."

"No kidding," Steve mumbled. "If we keep up this pace, we should arrive at the village in about half an hour or so."

"Too slow," Hulk responded.

"Yeah, you said that already. Are you sure Bruce doesn't want to come out and hang around until –GAH!"

Captain's certain fall was stopped midair by Hulk's index and thumb fingers pinching the back of Steve's uniform, easily lifting him off the ground. Steve could do nothing more than to play puppet as Hulk moved him out of the way to see the familiar-looking object Steve had tripped on: Iron Man's dismantled suit.

xxxXXXxxx

After the cool bath and the ibuprofen, Gwyneth's fever had dropped one full degree. While it was not the progress Tony had expected in two full hours, he was willing to count his blessings for now. Jarvis's scan had revealed no major illnesses in her body, but a minor stomach infection was present. A quick call to the pediatrician and a run to the pharmacy by Ms. Smith was all that was needed to begin treatment for the baby girl.

Trusting Ms. Smith to oversee the recovery of his daughter, Tony was just now returning to his lab. He had not heard from Fury, or anyone for that matter, and he could only hope that no news meant good news, just as the old saying went.

"Jarvis, how much longer until Gigi's temperature is back to normal?" Tony asked, rubbing his face with his hands as he sat in his chair in front of his workstation, wondering when the last time he had used his bed was.

"My calculations estimate she will recover by morning."

"Tomorrow? OK, that's fine, I guess." He said, staring at his watch and noting it was almost three in the morning of tomorrow.

"Indeed. Agent Coulson is an hour away from his destination."

"Any word on the team?"

"Not yet, but our satellite has been recalibrated, sir. I am working on finding their locations as we speak."

Tony nodded. The basement was quiet for some time while Jarvis ran diagnostics and Tony weighed his options. He stared at the ready Mark VII in front of him, but the knowledge that his daughter was ill prevented him from suiting up and leaving, at least not until he was certain her temperature was back to normal. His eyes then darted to the still empty screen where his teams' vital readings had once been displayed, which only served to remind him of Pepper's words.

"Tony, can you hear me? Something's happened…"

Pepper.

Tony covered his face with his hands for the millionth time today, taking in deep breaths to keep him from losing it. He was torn between his duty as a father and his duty as a husband, and for the first time in his life, Tony Stark did not know what to do.

The silence in the room was suddenly interrupted by the sound of feedback, followed by a familiar voice. "Stark? Are you there? How does this even work?"

The billionaire straightened out his back, looking around him to find the source of the voice, and looking under him to make sure he did not step over any other random receiver he might have dropped earlier.

"Give to Hulk!"

"No, wait! Let me try it again!"

"HULK ANGRY!"

"Dammit, Bruce! Can't you just wait a moment?"

"AARRGGHH!"

Tony's eyes darted to the live feed of the Iron Man camera and was glad to see the upside down view of Steve's face.

Yes.

"Jarvis, can they hear me?"

"Connecting now."

"Steve? Can you hear me?" He waited for a response as he heard the scuffling between the two friends.

"Wait, Bruce! I can hear something. Tony, is that you?"

"No, it's your grandma!" Tony responded, letting his arms fall and hit the sides of his body in frustration. "Of course it's me! What the hell happened?"

"Snow storm smashed into us out of nowhere,"

"SMASH!"

"No, wait! Not now!" Steve said to an anxious Hulk. Once he heard the annoyed snarl coming from the creature, Steve shook his head and returned his attention to the helmet in his hands. "Storm's gone now. I'm with Bruce-"

"HULK!"

"-Hulk," Steve corrected himself. "Do you have visual on the others?"

"Jarvis?"

"I have located Hawkeye and Black Widow, moving in a northwest direction, about five miles ahead of you, Captain."

"Where are they heading?" Steve asked, finally flipping over the helmet so that the image was right side up.

"Radar shows a village is ahead. My guess is that they are heading to open land," the AI provided.

"Fury sent a Quinjet to get you guys out of there," Tony said, pulling up the map of the village and its surroundings on his screen as Jarvis began labeling the current positions of the Avengers he had found so far.

"That's what we figured. We're both heading to the village, too."

"Coulson will be there in less than an hour. I'll give him the coordinates of the village so that he can meet you there," Tony said, frowning when he saw Pepper and Rhodey were still unaccounted for.

"Copy. What do we do with your suit? I almost smashed into it."

"SMASH!"

"No! No smash!"

Tony rolled his eyes as he heard the shuffling and argument between Steve and Hulk. "Dammit, Rogers! Would you just please stop saying 'smash'? You're getting him all riled up!"

"Yes, sorry!" Steve said, protecting the helmet as much as he could from Hulk. "So, your suit?"

Tony sighed. "Yeah, I can't seem to be able to link up to it from here, or at least not enough to put it back together." Tony responded as he typed override codes that were not functioning.

"Do we just leave it here, then?"

"Actually, I need you to reboot it, manually," Tony said, picking up the Remote Optical Interface from his desk and putting it on his right eye. "I don't have visual via the optical interface. A manual reconfiguration and reboot can solve the wireless port connectivity problem."

Steve's face via the live feed showed rapid blinking and an aggravated face. "I've got no idea what you just said."

Tony sighed. "Right. Uhm, Bruce…do you mind, uh, changing back?"

"HULK!"

"I'll take that as a no," Tony said, wondering why it was his luck that it had been a behemoth and an old man who find his suit.

xxxXXXxxx

Rhodey kneeled down next to Pepper, having terrible flashbacks of the last time he had knelt before her like this. Last time, she had been on the brink of starvation, and many miles away from home. This time, she was again numerous miles away from home, but he would have preferred her to be on the brink of starvation once more rather than on the brink of actual death.

"How did this happen, Pepper?"

Pepper coughed loudly, tears of pain and fear streaming down her face. "I was about to immobilize the two soldiers I was chasing when the storm hit. One of them smacked back the two syringes and the wind sent them my way."

Rhodey shook his head, damning the ill-timed weather disturbance and his own inability to help her. "Shit, Pepper. What can I do?"

"I-I don't know, Rhodey," the visibly scared woman said, feeling as if every breath would be her last. Rhodey felt his own tears come to his eyes now, pondering if this was the last time he would speak to her, but not yet giving up on the chance that he could still save her life.

I can't fail her; I can't fail Tony.

The modified ice compound was specifically designed to be used in non-life threatening areas of the body. The necrosis the compound caused was fast-acting, and almost criminally precise. While its effects were only limited to the area the ice compound affected, a well-placed shot could mean the end of the victim's existence.

Such was the case with Pepper now, giving the impression that she was on borrowed time.

The blast of the syringes had landed on the left side of her body. The majority of her left leg was covered in the compound, and Rhodey could see the blackness of some of her dead skin through the ice, and the ember specks of the virus trying to keep its host alive. Ending above the junction of her leg and her hip, and starting on her face, the compound was attempting to eat up her skin and vital organs, traveling from her left cheekbone down to half her throat, her left arm, her chest, and her hip.

Had the damage only been superficial, neither Rhodey nor Pepper would have been concerned with her state, especially since the compound had been designed for soldiers weaker than her. It was, however, the fact that the necrosis was trying to reach her aorta, her lungs and her heart, that made the situation even more daring than foreseen.

In fact, as ironic to her as it was, the only thing keeping her alive so far was the technique Killian had recently taught her: selective use of the Extremis. By keeping the part of her body that was unaffected by the ice inactive of the virus, she was concentrating all her energy in keeping the necrosis from reaching any of the organs without which it would become impossible for her to remain alive.

She had been putting all her efforts in fighting the necrosis for hours now, and her strength and hope were beginning to die along with her body. "Rhodey, I'm so tired. I can't keep this up."

"Not an option, Pepper. Just hold on for us, for Tony, OK? I'm sure he and Fury are looking for us."

Pepper nodded. "I know. I spoke to Tony after the storm disappeared, but something happened with the link before I could tell him, and I haven't been able to connect with him again. Can you…?"

Rhodey shook his head. "My wireless communicator is busted, too, and I can't connect with Jarvis. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," she said with a smile that had been meant to help Rhodey feel better, but she could see it had done the quite the opposite when he held onto her right hand and his face fell.

"Pepper, there must be something that we can do. I can't…Tony…he'll…"

"He won't know. Don't tell him what happened… please. Tell him the soldiers got me. Tell him that you never found me, tell him…"

Tell him anything but that his weapon killed me, was the thought he knew she was trying to express.

He could not blame her for trying to hide the truth from Tony; they both knew him too well. If Tony ever knew that his creation had been her demise…

Rhodey did not want to imagine what the knowledge of such would do to the billionaire.

Pepper squeezed Rhodey's hand tightly, causing Rhodey's mind to return to reality only to see her smile fade, and her eyes close in defeat.

A/N: OMG! Drama, much? Not really; just getting started. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions for Pepper's name. I have my top three in my head now, but I will wait for a few more chapters to see if anyone comes up with something else. How do you like this chapter? What do you think I will come up with next?