When Tony had finished his flight and had gotten an ice pack for his head, he returned to the lab and finally took note of the package Pepper had left for him earlier. It was the first reactor, mounted and with a plaque about the edge that read 'Proof That Tony Stark Still Has a Heart' calling back to the articles that had come out after his return about Stephen having left. They had speculated about why the other man had left and had settled upon the fact that Tony Stark did not care about anyone but himself, having no heart left for Stephen.

Flipping on the TV for a bit of background sound, Tony was surprised at the mention of a Gala he was unaware of for his company. "Tonight's red-hot red carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall where Tony Stark's is third annual benefit for the Firefighter's family fun has become the place to be…"

"Jarvis, did I get an invitation to this?"

"I have no record of one, sir." Tony entertained the thought of going, and, with Jarvis stating that his suit had a further five hours before it would be completed, decided to go. He changed quickly and grabbed a car at random from his collection. It was an irrational wish, but he hoped Stephen would be there. It had been a Gala, after all, that had started it all.

Every flash of white had Tony turning his head; a white glove, a white scarf, a handkerchief, some flowers, none of it Stephen. He moved quickly about the party, nimbly avoiding the agent from the the Strategic whatever it was that was so determined to take up his valuable time. It took five laps around the gala before he admitted to himself that there had been some error in his thinking. Tony went to the bar, wanting nothing more than to drown his disappointment and was approached by a figure he remembered turning away the night before his visit to Afghanistan.

"Well, well, Tony Stark. Fancy meeting you here."

"Miss?"

"Everhart. You know I almost believed you.

"I haven't said anything all night; you'll have to be more specific."

"Is this," the glossy photos smacked against his chest, "what you call accountability?"

"What is this?"

"It's a town called Gulmira. You heard of it?"

"When were these taken?"

"Yesterday." Tony felt his very soul freeze, how could this have…someone had betrayed him.

"I didn't authorize this."

"Well, your company did."

"Well I'm not my company." Pepper...no, she would never…but Obbie…he had only ever been proud of his weapons. But no, Stane had practically raised him after… Tony left Ms. Everhart quickly, figures jumping out of the way of his charge, to the doors where Obadiah stood holding council with the press. He promptly learned that it was Obadiah that was behind his continued failure to protect others as the man he'd considered a father figure was revealed to be a traitor. Tony watched the news on the villages as he finalized the suit, making a decision on what to do.

Gulmira was no match for his creation, and Tony quickly laid waste to the twisted imitations of his own designs. He had not, however, been expecting to have a little…tussle with the Air Force. Though a bit chagrined about the plane being destroyed, Tony now had even greater proof of the suit's ability to withstand the tests this life threw at him. The tank may have momentarily knocked him from the air, but he wouldn't be taken from the skies, and his memories of them, easily.

Returning to the mansion, however, revealed another small flaw in the design as he was manipulated every which way as his bots attempted to get him out of the suit. He froze at the sight of Pepper in his lab, still in the middle of exiting the suit. He had so much fear that this would be what finally lead to her abandoning him for real; she had already seemed to be moving away from him. He tried to play it off with a bit of banter, but Pepper had already seen the marks of bullets that riddled the suit.

Once he was free of the suit, Tony calmed Pepper down to the best of his ability and turned to tinker a bit more with it as he spoke.

"Hey, you busy? Mind if I send you on a little errand?" Despite the stare Pepper gave him in return, Tony explained how he wanted her to get information from his office so he would know exactly what Obadiah was up to.

"And what do you plan to do with the information if I bring it back to you?"

"Same drill: find my weapons and destroy them."

"Tony, you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all this again!"

"There is nothing except this! There's no art opening, no charity, nothing to sign. There's the next mission, and there is finding Stephen. That's it. Nothing else."

"Is that so? Well, then, I quit."

"You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. Now that I'm trying to protect the people I've put in harm's way, to be the man Stephen had seen in me, you're going to walk out?"

"You're going to kill yourself, Tony. I'm not going to be a part of it."

"Pepper, I wouldn't be alive unless it was for a reason. I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right. Stephen had known it all along. I have to do this. I have to show him that I understand and..and that I love him still." Tony tinkered angrily with a random bit of tech on his desk as Pepper took the chip and left to hack his computer. Eventually, he wandered upstairs to burn off a bit of his nervous energy.

Tony was in the kitchen getting some water when somewhere in the house he could hear the phone start ringing. Setting down his glass, he went toward the persistent ringing that was coming from…under the pillow? He answered it quickly hoping for good news from Pepper.

"Pepper, d.." Tony jerked once, only just hearing the high whine that loosened every bit of his body before he felt large hands lower him down. Obadiah, stood over him, no longer wearing the face of the family friend who was practically an uncle, the face of betrayal.

"When I ordered the hit on you, I was worried that I was killing the golden goose. But, you see, it was just fate that you survived it, leaving one last golden egg to give." Tony heard a sizzle and brush of heat at his chest. Ice flooding his veins as he realized Obadiah's intention.

"You really think," Obadiah's wrist twisted violently, loosening the reactor from its socket, "that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?" Tony's breathing stuttered as the reactor entered the edge of his vision, and was jerked out of his chest. "Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?" Obadiah, waved the arc reactor in his face as he continued to monologue at Tony, a typical villainous trait that he had always scoffed at. Every word killed him a little more inside, mentally and physically, until, "It's a shame you had to bring Pepper into this, I would have preferred she live. But, I've already dealt with that Doctor of yours who was going to ruin everything...might as well deal with Pepper now.

Tony's mind froze, the implication of Obadiah's words hitting him like concrete. "He was so easy to get rid of, you know," Obadiah taunted. "Just a little car crash and he was out of the game." No…NO! He couldn't have…Hearing about the attempt on Stephen's life somehow hurt more than the one on his own. Stephen was far more deserving of life than he. "Goodbye Tony."

Obadiah left Tony's line of vision, and he was left alone in his mind, alone in his home, alone in his soul. He couldn't die here. So many others would die if he gave up this life now. Tony strained to move something, anything, as the minutes passed like hours in a timeless void, his heartbeat the only means of tracking time.

No. Dum, no. Dum, ba dum, Tony's heartbeat thrummed in his ears, moving in time with his refusals. He would not die here. He would not die alone again. He. Would. Not. Die. Now. His entire body twitched, and he fell forward, off the couch and onto his hands and knees. His original reactor. It was down in the lab. His vision narrowed down, focusing in on the elevator, and he began to crawl.

The past floated in and out of Tony's vision, wars of time long past and the echoes of his love calling for him. Tornoni! Don't leave me! Please! You can do this! Breathe! The voice in his mind got him as far as the lab table, but his fingers slipped from the edge and he lay unmoving where he fell. He could feel the phantom tears, or maybe they were his own, upon his face Tornoni, don't leave me, please don't leave me… Boipit boip? Dum-E? He opened listless eyes to see the bot holding the old arc reactor out to him. Tony took it with a simple, "Good boy," for his bot, and struggled to place it in his chest as the last of his vision began to fade to black.