Hey, guys! Sorry I haven't wrote in a while I kind of just lost motivation and stopped writing for a while. I hope you guys enjoy this one and remember to review!

Melody drove to Miami through the whole night as Tony slept in the backseat. When he could sleep. Melody was happy for the alone time, though. It gave her a chance to think. Really think. Mostly about this decision she had made to go into the rest of this fight so vulnerable. This could be her last battle. If she walked in there without a suit with something as easily destructive as Extremis, there was a good chance she wasn't going to survive.

She looked into the rearview mirror at Tony sleeping in the backseat, taking a deep breath as she looked forward at the road again. Tony would be devastated if something happened. He would blame himself and might even try to kill himself, but he would defeat the Mandarin. He would have Pepper and Clint back. Those two would ease the pain with the rest of his family around.

Clint. She had no idea where he was. He could be holed up in a hotel somewhere with Pepper. But she knew those two. They weren't just going to sit idly by. She just wished she could talk to them. Both of them. Tell them she loved them before going into a losing battle. Try to make them understand just what she was doing and how it was for them just as much as it was for Tony.

Then there was her mother. And Steve. They would murder her if she survived this. Natasha too. Natasha would probably do all the killing while the others held her down. She hoped they would understand just like she was hoping Tony, Clint and Pepper would understand.

Who was she kidding? None of them would understand. She didn't even understand. This was dumb. She was all about sacrificing for a cause that meant something, but this was just insane. "I have to call Harley." She whispered as she picked up the phone.

"For what?"

She screamed slightly as she looked over to see Tony letting out a loud yawn while stretching. "We're in Miami already?" He asked as he moved forward to look at the signs on the highway. "That was quick."

Melody scoffed while rolling her eyes. "Yeah, well you were sleeping the entire time." Melody began to feel a panic inside of her. She had to get a message to Harley somehow to get them to start charging her suit. "I got some ideas while we were driving about what we can make and how we can use it to our advantage."

"Great, I'm all ears."

Melody was afraid that soon, she would be nothing.

Emily pulled up to the building in her car. Well, the one she stole. "Congratulations, Supervisor Carter," Fitz spoke through her earpiece. "You are now outside of the Mandarin's secret location."

"Yeah, a huge mansion." She scoffed.

"Doesn't seem so secretive to me either."

"Thanks, Fitz." She spoke with a sincere smile, hoping he could hear her smile in her voice. "And don't worry, we're getting a team for you and Simmons."

"Thank god. I'm tired of being stuck in a lab."

"Talk to you later." Emily spoke through a laugh.

"Good luck, Supervisor."

Emily took out her earpiece, knowing that SHIELD didn't need to keep tabs on what she was about to do. Rhodey was in there. Her daughter and her adoptive father might even be in there. She was going to do anything she had to do to get the people she cared about out of there alive.

Tony looked through the binoculars they had bought as Melody began to strap on the gloves she had thought of and the two of them made together. "Two guards. Big dogs."

"Well," She spoke with a shrug while turning to look at Tony. "No one said we had to go through the front door."

Tony looked to her with a wide smile on his face. He really did miss this quality time and was glad to have it. Even if they were chasing down a terrorist. At least they were doing it together. "I like your thinking, kid."

They snuck down from the tree they were on without a noise, Tony thanking Melody for her spy work, before making their way to the back of the mansion. Melody looked over to Tony once they got to the gate. "You first."

He rolled his eyes at her before getting his running start to jump over the stone barrier. Melody didn't need a running start with her years as a gymnast and her time as a spy in SHIELD. So, When it was Melody's turn, she flipped over perfectly, causing Tony to scoff at her. "Show off."

"Told you there wouldn't be any guards back here." She spoke as she straightened herself up, but Tony immediately brought her down by the shoulders before pointing her head in the direction of the guards on top of the staircase leading into the garden. "Okay," She corrected. "There wouldn't be as many guards back here."

Tony moved ahead of her, climbing up the stairs with his make shift gun. He swung the grapple hook Melody had made to wrap around one of the guard's legs to pull him down. While the other guard was distracted with his partner on the ground, Tony shot off the gun. It was nothing lethal, but it would hurt like hell and keep them down for a long time.

Another guard came out, but Melody was ready for him, she stuck a taser into his chest before dropping him to the ground. Tony turned around to see how perfectly she had everything handled, giving her an impressed nod. Sure, SHIELD took Melody away from him, but she was blossoming in their care, and he was proud of everything she had become. "Great job." She looked up to him, giving him a proud smile. His approval would always be the best thing to her.

They continued through the rest of the garden, finding more guards at the fountain. "Seriously?" Melody complained while ducking behind one of the bushes just in time not to be seen.

"Use that bomb thing I gave you." Tony spoke as if it was no big deal. Melody shrugged, pulling out the blue ornament before chucking it, having it land right at the feet of the guards. "Excellent throw."

Melody shrugged like it was no big deal. "Different aerodynamics than what I'm used to with knives and stuff, but yeah," She smiled a big smile. "It was a pretty good throw."

Once it went off, Tony came out from the bush, emptying his clip into the left over guard while Melody punched one that came out of nowhere and then used the taseing gloves she had designed. The guard Tony was taking on had fallen into the fountain so when they walked by, Tony threw his extra bomb in the fountain, going off just as he threw his gun into one of the bushes.

"Nice touch." Melody spoke, impressed with him, knowing he needed some praise too.

"I thought so." He told her before they took a deep breath, heading into the mansion.

It was eerie silent and they had used almost all of their weapons. They were going in there with only their wit and strength to protect them, worrying the each other with the safety of the other. They went forward, past the immediate staircase, finding the entire place trashed. There was a woman lying on the ping pong table and beer cans scattered the floor. This immediately didn't feel right. Melody had infiltrated over a dozen places, but she had never seen a terrorist's headquarters look this messy.

"Why is it so hot in here?"

Tony and Melody immediately turned to each other with wide eyes, wondering where that was coming from.

"I told you to put it at sixty-eight."

Tony peaked around the corner to see a woman in a tight, sparkly dress sprawled out on the couch with a man in a suit sitting across from her. Melody immediately noticed the guns sitting on the table before him.

"My fault again." He complained as Tony inched forward, knowing they had one more trick up their sleeve. "Let me tell you something, sweetheart." Melody rolled her eyes at the way he was talking to her. She wished she got to take him out instead of Tony. "I am not your personal – " He didn't get to finish because Tony tased his head with Melody's little invention.

She gave a happy smile as she moved forward, picking up his .45 caliber, checking the magazine before deciding to bring one more along with her. Tony did the same as she did as the girl on the couch was obviously either drunk or stoned out of her mind.

That's when Melody finally recognized the stench lingering in the air. She was surprised they weren't high just from stepping foot in the place. She was gonna go with stoned. Everyone here was probably extremely stoned.

Tony and Melody made their way through a grand door, their guns pointed forward before discarding of the gloves. Around them was decorations of the Mandarin all around. On screens, there were various pictures and videos running by. As they got further into the room they saw what looked like…sets and makeup chairs. Almost like this was a movie.

Tony and Melody shared a weird look before getting to a bed. A lump was under the blanket. Melody tried not to breath, the adrenaline taking over for her. She knew that right when the blanket was taken off, she was going to get trigger happy, but she had to pull herself back. She wasn't a monster. No matter how much Tony wanted to kill him, the same thing was running through his mind.

Tony gave Melody a nod as she moved to the other side of the bed, putting one hand on the cover, ready to turn it over. Tony gave her the one look she needed. She threw the cover off quick, Tony's finger twitching on the trigger as Melody's hands went back to holding the gun. They both stopped, not sure what to do. The Mandarin wasn't lying in the bed. Two innocent girls were.

"Sh." Melody spoke quickly, not wanting to draw any attention or cause a scene. They both looked to each other, not sure what to do when the sound of a toilet flushing interrupted all of them.

Tony and Melody backed up behind the head board of the bed as the girls laid back down as casually as they could after just being held at gun point. "Well," he laughed out while waving the air around him with the laugh still sitting in his throat. "I wouldn't go in there for twenty minutes."

Both Tony and Melody froze. That was the Mandarin's voice, but it was not the Mandarin's voice. He laughed loudly, causing Melody to give him a confused face before lipping: what the fuck?

"Now," he spoke while sorting through the mess on the dresser. "Which one of you is Vanessa?"

"We had to have gotten the wrong place, right?" Tony whispered to her.

Her eyes got wide as she peaked from behind the headboard while "The Mandarin" threw Vanessa a fortune cookie. "If it looks like a duck and quakes like a duck, it's a fucking duck."

"Let me take a look." Melody rolled her eyes, knowing that some things, you would never be able to change.

"Did you know that fortune cookies aren't really Chinese?" Tony gave the man a confused face, just not getting it.

"There's some people back here." One of them mumbled as Tony ducked down again.

"You're right." Tony sighed out while still trying to look back to the Mandarin. "It's a fucking duck."

Tony stood up with his gun pointed out, Melody following his lead as he still rambled on about fortune cookies. "Hey!" Tony called.

He turned around to look to them, his eyes getting wide and his hands immediately going up. "Bloody hell." He cursed. "Bloody hell."

"Don't move." Melody commanded through her teeth.

"I'm not moving." He told Melody with a nod. "You want something? Take it. Although, the guns are all fake because those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones."

Melody had to blink at that. "What?"

"Hey," He spoke, moving closer to them. "Do either of you fancy any of the birds?" Melody blinked again. "Hey," He spoke with a bit of a chuckle. "We're in the modern area. Women can be with women."

Melody shut her eyes, taking a deep breath just to keep her cool. "You're not him." Tony spoke while moving his gun back. "The Mandarin," he spoke before cocking his gun back. "The real guy," he pointed the gun to him as Melody took her safety off, really wanting to shoot something at the moment. "Where?!" He began to panic, starting to run away while waving his hands around. "Where's the Mandarin?!" Tony screamed out, just getting closer to him. "Where is he?!"

"Whoa," He spoke, finally finding a chair to sit down. "He's here. He's here." Melody turned her head, sensing there was more to this than they could ever imagine. "But he's not here." They both shook their head. This was the last thing they expected of today. "He's here, but he's not here."

"What do you mean?" Melody asked quickly, the adrenaline still pumping through her and all of this confusion wasn't helping it.

"It's complicated." He spoke with a shrug before getting on a serious face. "Hey, it's complicated."

"Is it?" Melody fought back as he nodded. "Then uncomplicate it."

"Ladies, out," Tony commanded as he followed, making sure they were safe. "Get out of the bed. Get in the bathroom."

Melody turned over to make sure everything was okay when she saw him trying to crawl away. Finally, she got the opportunity to shoot something. She shot the ground right in front of him, causing the girls in the bathroom to scream. "Sit." Melody commanded as Tony got to her side.

He sat in the chair, folding his arms like a perfect child as Melody and Tony looked to him, not even knowing where to start with all of this. "My name is Trevor." He spoke with a shrug. "Trevor Slattery."

They both blinked a couple of times, not knowing what to say to that. The Mandarin's name was Trevor Slattery. "What are you?" Tony asked, his voice wearing with patience. Trevor shook his head, not knowing what to say to that. "What are you? A decoy? You're a double, right?"

Melody nodded, knowing that was the only option that could make sense. "What?" He spoke, almost offended. "An understudy? Absolutely not."

"I'm gonna kill him." Melody spoke before raising her gun up.

"Don't hurt the face!" He immediately screamed, causing her to pull her gun down. She remembered hearing that line from a lot of douchebag actors she slept with in her bad girl phase. "I'm an actor."

"Douchebag." She whispered under her breath.

Tony was completely confused and done with the conversation all at the same time. "You've got a minute to live. Fill it with words."

"It's just a role." He spoke as he shook his head. "The Mandarin." He spoke in the Mandarin voice they were so used to, causing the two to give each other a worried look. "It's not real."

"Then how did you get here, Trevor?" Melody spoke, moving closer to him, causing Trevor to adjust his position on the chair.

"Um," He leaned back slightly. "Well," Melody pushed her gun toward him again, causing him to jump. "I have a little problem with, uh, substances." He spoke quickly, causing her to move the gun further away from him like a reward for talking. "I ended up doing things…there's no two ways about it in the street, that a man shouldn't do."

Melody blinked rapidly, not wanting to hear any more about Trevor Slattery's time as a prostitute. "Next!"

"Then, they approached me about the role. And they knew about the drugs."

"They said they'd get you off them?" Tony assumed.

He turned to them with an excited face with his finger up. "They said they'd get me more!"

Melody brought her gun down instantly, turning to Tony with an annoyed and tired face at everything that was happening in this very second.

"They gave me things." Trevor went on. "They gave me this beautiful palace. They gave me plastic surgery. They gave me things."

Melody turned away from Tony's face at the sound of slight snoring. "Did he just nod off?" Melody asked Tony.

"Hey!" Tony spoke as he kicked his foot.

"Oh!" He woke up instantly, Melody putting her gun up to him again. "And a lovely speedboat. And the thing was that he needed someone to take credit for some 'accidental explosions'."

Melody tuned out as soon as she heard "he". "He?" Melody questioned while looking Trevor right in the eye. "Killian?"

"Killian." He repeated with a smile.

"He created you?" Tony asked.

"He created me." Trevor continued with that goofy smile.

Tony and Melody both brought their guns down while looking to each other. "Custom made terror threat." Melody spoke with a shrug, knowing that Killian was an evil genius.

"Yes!" Trevor explained while standing up to go pour himself a drink while Tony and Melody threw themselves down on the bed, finding themselves completely worn out from this revelation. "His think tank thinked it up." Tony and Melody looked to each other, not sure what to do anymore. The Mandarin wasn't really the Mandarin. The Mandarin was Killian and they had no idea where he was. "The pathology of a serial killer." Trevor announced in his Mandarin voice, but it just faded in the background for them. "The manipulation of Western iconography. Are you ready for another lesson?" That caused them both to look back at him. He sounded just like the threat they were going after for so long and it wasn't him. "Blah, blah, blah." He spoke in his regular voice while offering the two a drink.

Tony turned his down, but Melody grabbed it and downed it. She really could have used a drink after all of that. "Of course it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life."

Tony looked to him with a slightly angry face. "Your performance? Where people died?"

"No, no." He spoke instantly. "Look around you. Costumes. Green screen." Melody looked up at him, realizing that Trevor didn't totally know what was going on. They were using him to get the blame off of AIM. "Honestly, I wasn't on location for half of this stuff and when I was, movie magic, love."

"I'm sorry," Tony spoke as he stood up to walk towards him. "But I've got a best friend in a coma who might not wake up."

Trevor looked completely confused. "So you're still gonna have to answer for that." Melody told him while looking him up and down. "You're still going down."

They finally noticed that Trevor wasn't looking confused because of what they were saying. It was because he was looking at someone else. Tony swung his arm back, but Savin caught it before hitting him in the face and gently setting him down.

He looked over to Melody as she gave him a hateful face. "Round two?" He offered with a cocky smile.

Melody punched him right in the face as he grabbed her by the wrists, pulling her forward and slamming his head into hers so hard, she was knocked out. He slowly brought her down to lay with her uncle, her head ending up on his chest and his falling on top of her head. Savin looked up at Trevor with a heavy sigh, knowing that they really should get rid of this guy. "Okay, Trevor, what did you tell them?"

He stood there for a moment, thinking. "I didn't tell them anything."

"Nothing?"

He thought again, just to make sure as Savin rolled his eyes. "No."

"You should have pressed the panic button."

Trevor shrugged while picking up his unopened beer. "Well, I panicked but then I handled it."

Right as he opened the beer, they heard footsteps. "Don't get too mad at Trevor, Savin." Savin turned at the sound of one of his bosses, deciding to do what he told him. "He did his part as the bait to get Melody here perfectly. That's when Zeke looked down at the two lying on each other in their unconscious state. "Aw." Savin looked over to one of his masters with a smile. He looked to Melody with a wicked smile, excited that she was finally going to be his. She looked the same as he remembered before leaving to create Extremis with Killian. "How cute."

Clint felt like this was all getting useless. Like they weren't even trying to heal him anymore. He felt they were just making it worse. He felt tired. He felt weak. It was like they were sucking the life out of him and it wouldn't surprise him if they really were. Sure, Killian was top dog, but you could break some orders for love. He knew he did.

It just made Clint so mad that this little psychopath was in love with Melody and was trying to get him out of the way so Zeke could rush in and try to win her heart. It made him sick to his stomach, actually. The fact that someone could call that love was atrocious to him. Clint did know one thing, though. Melody would never go with him.

That's when something clicked to him. This was why Zeke was keeping him alive. He had him as leverage. Go with Zeke or Clint dies. She would go to him for her boyfriend's safety and he knew it. That's probably what Killian was doing with Pepper as well. If Tony gave over with what Killian wanted, he could have Pepper back. They were the bait in this situation. That's the only reason they were still alive.