Chapter 11

"Tony, we're surrounded," Pepper said to her husband, her head moving all around them to confirm her worst fears. If she ever made it out of this alive, she was going to make sure to beat the secret to learning to detect 2.0 soldiers out of Killian's miserable body.

"Surrounded by what…oh…" The worrisome tone Potts had used caught the interest of the archer. Hawkeye's eyes picked up the glow of the villagers behind them. He mimicked Pepper's head movement and scanned their surroundings. With a loud exhale he made his feelings known before uttering a warning to his peers. "Guys, we've got company."

The rest of the Avengers' eyes looked left and right, slowly coming to the realization that they had been set up when they saw people dressed in Western-looking clothes emerging from the huts.

"What's the count, Stark?" Captain America asked, not sure his body would last much longer. He had been fighting non-stop and chasing the Hulk for miles. Even with his superpowers, he too needed a rest before attempting to survive a one-on-one combat with other super soldiers, and he could not imagine his team feeling any better than he.

"Jarvis' count is close to 200 red dots; doesn't include these bitches," Iron Man said as he pointed to the 1.0 soldiers in the middle, "Or Pep," he added, finally letting go of her hand but still staring at her, hoping his intentions to protect her at all costs were visible to her through his faceplate.

Pepper shook her head lightly at him, clearly reading his silent promise of giving up his life for her if it came to it, and silently begging of him to consider the possibility that she could probably withstand better against the soldiers than he could.

"So, what's the plan?" Rhodey asked anyone who would answer, his faceplate firmly in place to hide his shocked face, all the while thinking about the array of things he would probably not survive to do. The soldiers behind them did not attempt to jump them just yet, however, as if they were waiting for some unspoken order to attack at the perfect time.

"How many rounds of Black Ice do we have, total?" Tony asked.

"Per everyone's count, twenty-seven, sir," the AI chirped in via Iron Man's speakers for everyone to hear. "May I suggest they are saved and used only if absolutely necessary?"

"Jarvis has a point," Widow said, trying to sound as calm as she could and ignoring her now throbbing head. "Is backup on its way?"

"Fury said he's sending the cavalry via the Hellicarrier, but it's gonna take ten hours, at least." Tony responded, powering up his repulsors to ready them for the attack he knew was coming, and inciting every other Avenger to follow his lead in their own way.

"I don't think we have ten hours," Hawkeye stated, staring at the way Natasha was sweating profusely despite the cool breeze the darkening skies had brought with them.

"No, we don't," Tony agreed before nodding to Steve. Steve shrugged and shook his head back at the team before giving the only order he could think about.

"Fight your way out."

xxxXXXxxx

Fuck. This. Shit.

"Jarvis, take control of the Mark XLIII and keep an eye on Pepper," Tony ordered, running toward the ready Mark VII. On his way to the suit, he picked up a full syringe from his workstation and stabbed his right leg with it without hesitation. After pumping its contents into his body, he then threw the empty container on the floor and stood still in front of the Mark VII as the bracelets called upon it for assembly.

"Sir, did you just -?"

"Save it, Jarvis. Make a note of the date, time and dosage."

"Yes, sir," the AI responded, almost sounding humanly concerned for his creator. "Sir, are you going to travel to the Congo?"

"Yes. Tell Miss Smith she needs to stay as long as needed, and have Happy give her a hand." The suit closed around him. "It may take the Hellicarrier four hours to get there, but I can make it in two or less."

The shortened travel timeframe came with the price of going suborbital, which would be a physical pain in the ass for him, but he had no other option if he wanted to reach Congo as fast as he could.

"But, sir, the likelihood of one more suit leveling the chances of survival for the Avengers is mathematically remote."

"I don't care, Jarvis," his robotic-sounding response came from within the suit as he headed to the ramp of the basement. "I'm not losing my wife."

xxxXXXxxx

The battle cries of the heroes were echoed back at them by the Extremis soldiers. The plan of action was to get as far away from the village as possible, hopefully unscathed, while splitting up the forces of the angry furnaces and then waiting for the Hellicarrier to find them in the morning –or whenever it could. The sun was almost completely down for the day, and the bright moon was already present in the sky allowing the soldiers' glow to resemble a scene from a horror movie.

"Rhodey! Stark! Take to the skies and blast them!" came the order from the leader of the Avengers, and both suited members complied immediately. Starting with the weaker set of soldiers, War Machine and Iron Man aimed their repulsors at the scurrying bunch, following them as they tried to blend in with their more evolved brothers and sisters to save their hides.

Hulk, on the other hand, did not need any plan of attack; he was simply enjoying the fact that he was able to finally put his strength to use. Not caring for the type of soldier he fought, his fists threw punches left and right, breaking bones and tearing off limbs. He alternated his punching attacks with stepping over the mindless soldiers that tried to climb up to the beast by his muscled legs. Without anticipating it or realizing it, Hulk's dismembering of the soldiers was assisting in slowing them down while they retreated and grew back their lost body parts.

"How many more can you get, Bruce?" Rhodey asked from his flying position, challenging the monster in hopes that their chance of survival increased if Hulk kept up his good work. When Hulk's response was to throw to Rhodey a severed arm that he easily dodged, Rhodey knew better than to taunt the Green Machine. "Shutting up now."

Steve kept an eye on his team as he used his skills to his advantage over the strength and speed of the soldiers. He knew that if a handful of them tried to take him down, he would be outnumbered, so he kept jumping from one cluster of furnaces to another, avoiding getting cornered by them. He knew he could have easily ran away from the village if he wanted to, but as the leader he was not going to leave until everyone on his team left with him, even if it was all scattered in different directions.

Natasha and Hawkeye fought back-to-back, watching over the other's six, just as they always did during missions. Being in the middle of the crossfire was not new to them, but they knew that their techniques and military training were their only advantages against this enemy. A well place kick or punch from the Extremis soldiers to either of them could very well mean their painful and slow deaths.

Natasha shook her head, blinking rapidly and trying to adjust her tunneling vision. She had no idea why she was feeling progressively worse to the point the adrenaline that had helped her make the run to the village was no longer being of any assistance. She had tried hiding her declining state from her partner, but she knew better than to even pretend she was not about collapse any moment now.

"Clint," she bent her right arm behind her, grabbing the back of his shirt to get his attention. "We gotta go. We gotta find high ground and run. I'm gonna cover you and you're gonna haul ass, OK?" She knew she was not going to make it far, but if she could get Clint out of the dead zone she would feel much better about subsiding.

The archer's response was to scoff loudly as he released an exploding arrow that pierced the forehead of a soldier that was getting too close to them. His eyes never left his target as he waited for the head to explode, sending brain matter all over the place before the defeated soldier fell onto the ground. "Like I'd leave you behind. You know me better than that, Nat."

The female spy ground her teeth, whether in pain or in anger, she was not sure; she had never had trouble convincing Hawkeye to leave her to her own devices. She wanted to believe his defiant attitude was due to their current unusual circumstances, but she knew that his reluctance to separate from her ran deeper than that; all she could do right now was insist and hope he came to his senses, and quick.

"You know it's the best option, Hawk. You can climb one of those trees with your slingshot arrow and then pull me up."

"No, not gonna happen; I ain't leaving you behind, so forget about it. And give me one of your exploding bullets."

"No! What? Why?"

"Because I just shot one of them in the head and he didn't come back. And, since you haven't fired one shot since we got here, I'm assuming you're not intending on using them at all."

The Widow pursed her lips, mentally cursing him for his observation skills. Her vertigo was only getting worse; she did not dare to waste bullets when she could not even aim. Clint was right; she was not intending on using them at all. She reluctantly grabbed one of the requested bullets and handed it to him. He grabbed it and placed it inside one of his non-exploding arrowheads, immediately shooting at another soldier and piercing his brain again. As expected, the bullet reacted to the body heat and exploded a second after the arrow incrusted itself in the forehead, rendering one more soldier out for the count.

Two down, two-hundred-something to go.

"The head!" Hawkeye screamed when his theory proved correct twice. "Shoot their fucking brains off!"

Steve heard the observation of the archer, but knew he only had so many bullets with him. Instead, Rogers' plan became to use his shield to decapitate whatever soldier he could. "Did you hear Hawkeye?" the Captain asked as he aimed his shield to the closest soldier. "Cut the heads!"

"The heads? What is this?" Tony asked as he flew closer to Pepper when he noticed she started breathing hard. "Are we trapped in a zombie movie?"

"I don't think they want to eat our brains, Tony," Pepper deadpanned, her keen hearing picking up his voice over the chaos surrounding them. She took a deep breath before continuing her deliverance on the soldiers by any means she could. It made Tony flinch to see his usually peace-loving girl using her hands to decapitate, her fists to crush skulls, and her legs imitating Widow's signature move to sever any ties between the soldier's spinal cord and their brains.

Her swift movements continued without stop until before her stood her next combatants: a little boy and a little girl.

xxxXXXxxx

Tony saw her hesitation, knowing as well as he that those two children could have been their own. The tests were yet to confirm or deny the presence of Extremis in the twins' DNA, and he could imagine Pepper's thoughts calling out to her the way they were calling out to him.

Bastards! They're just kids!

Tony had personally killed many men and women since the inception of his suit back in the caves, but he had never been faced with the pain of murdering children. He could not imagine himself ever feeling comfortable with the idea even if he was forced to do so to save his own life.

I need to find a cure, I need to…

Iron Man's thoughts were interrupted when his live feed of the battlefield went dark, much so as his screens back in the lab had done so hours ago. This time however, he was not surrounded by his basement filled with tech; he was traveling at ungodly speeds toward the scene of the war.

"Jarvis, what the hell? What happened?"

"I've lost connection with the suit, sir."

"Why? How?" he asked, already thinking of faster ways to reach Congo.

"I can only assume the suit has been damaged in battle. I will attempt to reconnect."

"Dammit! Get me satellite imagery," he spat. "Wait, no, not yet. Reduce consumption to the minimum and put everything into the thrusters. I need to get there in less than an hour, J."

"Sir, while what you request is plausible, we are not certain the effects of achieving such speeds will leave you in any condition to aid Mrs. Stark."

"I have to try, Jarvis. I have to be there for her."

xxxXXXxxx

Pepper felt the hit in her gut, both children jumping high enough to kick her in it and sending her flying away from where she had once stood. Her hands flew to her stomach, the shock of their attack hurting more than the hit itself before her back hit the ground.

"I can't…What am I supposed to do?" she mumbled, lifting her head from the ground to stare at the incoming little soldiers. Pepper swallowed hard, wanting to close her eyes and just give up, but the scene of the two kids only served as a reminder that she had two kids of her own waiting for her back at home.

She rolled to her right side and stood up just in time to grab the two kids by their necks with either hand. She knew that without removing their heads they would just keep coming back, but she could not force herself to break their tiny necks. Instead, she threw each one as far away she could from her, knowing that the fall would not kill them but only slow them down.

She looked away from them, over her shoulder and then at the sky, expecting to see Iron Man still floating near her. When she saw only Rhodey close by and no Tony in sight, she cursed her luck at her wireless receiver surviving the winter storm thanks to the heat she emanated, but not surviving Rhodey's surgical to her.

"Rhodey!" she called as she fought her way close to War Machine. "Where's Tony?"

War Machine's head snapped left and right, only now realizing as well that the billionaire was nowhere to be found. He figured he had gotten as close to Pepper as he could without actually landing on the ground, but from his view from the top there was no sign of the eccentric man.

"I don't know, Pepper," James responded, lifting his faceplate and lowering himself to the ground as much as he could without endangering his only protection against the violent attackers. "He's probably coming up with some crazy idea to get us out of here." He responded as he took a shot at two soldiers.

"I don't know, Rhodey. He was just here."

"Don't sweat it, Pepper. I'm sure he's…Watch out!" Rhodey screamed mid-sentence when he saw the familiar small contraption coming toward Pepper. He grabbed it in his metallic hand and threw it upward as high as he could with such a hasty movement before screaming an alert to everyone around him. "GRENADE! DUCK!"

The warning and jerky attempt at redirecting the device were not enough. The single grenade exploded in the air, but it only gave way to five more that were already on the ground to explode. It was then clear that the one grenade aimed at Pepper had only served as a distraction from the rest.

"RHODEY!" Pepper screamed as she tried to grab War Machine and pull him away from the closest grenade as it exploded. When she realized there was no possibility of them running away far enough to be safe, she did the only thing she could think of.

She hugged Rhodey and turned up the heat.

xxxXXXxxx

"NO!" was all that Natasha heard before her body was tackled to the ground by Clint. The air was pushed out of her lungs when her back intercepted the solid surface underneath her. She felt Clint's arms surrounding her, pressing her close to his body so that she was almost completely enveloped by him.

"Natasha," he grunted, resting his forehead on her scalding one. "I lo-," he managed to utter before the grenade exploded near them, cutting off the last words he had wanted to say.

xxxXXXxxx

Steve's eyes widened when he saw the explosive land in front of him. He took a few steps back as his mind processed an appropriate response before running away from it. Memories of a similar situation he had walked away from returned to him, prompting him to curl up behind his shield and hope to make it out alive once more.

xxxXXXxxx

"PPPEEEPPERRR!" Tony's heart-wrenching scream could have woken the dead. Jarvis had just connected him to the images of the satellite, showing the exact moment the grenades had gone off, leaving behind nothing more than clouds of smoke. War Machine's feed had been reconnected long enough to see Pepper's face as she surrounded Rhodey with her arms and heard them both scream before the screen went dark.

"NOOOO!" he yelled as he increased his speed even more, preparing to make the trek into suborbital space, hoping to make it to his team in time, even if just to avenge them.

Pepper, please don't die. Please, please don't leave me again.

If Tony ever wished for some unearthly force above to hear his silent prayers, now was the time.

xxxXXXxxx

The entire bridge of the Hellicarrier went silent as the images of the massive explosions displayed on the screens. Even the ever-calculating Maria Hill put her hand to her mouth in complete disbelief.

Nick Fury stared at the war zone, slightly shaking his head before lowering it and closing his eye. When he opened it again, the cloud of smoke was dissipating, the flames as bright as the night would allow them to be.

"Sir?" Hill walked toward her superior, never feeling so grateful to not have full command of the organization. "What do we do now?"

The director stole a quick glance toward his second-in-charge, silently sharing with her his unwillingness to call his next order. Maria knew what was coming, and even though the possibility that at least one of the Avengers could have made it out of the explosion was present, they all knew what it would mean to leave an entire colony of angry Extremis soldiers on the loose. Their first priority was, regardless of the status of their team, the extermination and/or containment of the carriers of the virus.

"Send the bird to deliver the package."

Maria nodded slightly and turned on her heels. She arrived at her workstation, hesitating as her finger hover over the button that would initiate Protocol 7.12.6: Operation Black Ice.

xxxXXXxxx

The sound of explosions nearby pulled him off his reverie. He had been walking toward the general direction the Quinjet had been heading before it had crashed. Had he not been pushed off the jet by his subordinates, he too would have died along with them in the din.

Apparently, neither of them wanted to see him die, again.

He cursed under his breath, a thing he hardly ever did. He was always calm and collected, and very few situations ever shocked him to the core. At this rate, however, the present situation was going to become one of those said situations, if not the one that would take the number one spot on his list.

Coulson wiped the sweat of his brow, picking up his pace as much as his battered body could. He was bleeding from his forehead and he kept tripping on stray vines on the darkened grounds. He could feel the bruises around his shoulders already forming, caused when the thick foliage abruptly stopped his parachuted descent from the Quinjet. He would have a lot to explain to Fury, especially the reason why ten perfectly trained agents thought it was more important that he survived the attack on their jet rather than them.

I still don't even know what hit us, he thought bitterly, remembering that one moment the jet seemed fine and the next all their equipment died, sending their mighty aircraft to its final resting place. There had been no warning, no master alarm going off, no gust of wind, no…nothing! It had been as if they had suddenly entered a secret alternate dimension where no technological equipment was allowed to work.

Or maybe just another trap.

The explosions continued ahead of him, reminding him that he was there for a reason, and that now more than ever did all of them need all the help they could provide. He knew he did not have much to offer them and that his backpack was mostly empty of useful arsenal, but if he had to die again, he would do it helping those who had avenged him.

xxxXXXxxx

"Wait! No! Stop!" The loud voice made Maria Hill stop as she was about to press the button to start Operation Black Ice. She turned around to face Fury, thinking it had been he who had given the order, but instead saw his face looking as confused as hers.

"Sir?"

Fury's eyes turned to the man standing next to him. He had been with S.H.I.E.L.D. for a few years now, and had seemed to be a promising agent until Tony Stark had pointed out he was playing Galaga on the job. "What is it, Agent?"

"Director, there's an anomaly in the video, sir."

"Anomaly? What anomaly?" Fury asked, not wanting to sound as impatient as he felt.

The agent nodded to Fury before walking up to the video feed and rewinding the tape. He pointed to the right-hand portion of the screen and allowed the video to run its course. "Here, sir, watch what happens to the flames around here."

Fury, Maria and anyone close by stared at the scene as it was replayed several times, the last two times in slow motion when no one seemed to see what was being pointed out. It was not until then that the anomaly was clear to everyone. The flames of the explosion were merciless all around the war zone with the exception of a small piece of land on the right side of the screen. As the flames neared the location in question, they parted ways as if something was blocking their path, going around the seemingly empty patch and reuniting themselves again after only a few feet. Something or someone was cocooning itself from the fire, and Nick very much doubted it was anyone he knew.

A/N: *kneels and begs for forgiveness* For a moment in time I thought about deleting this story, I kid you not. I have been so darn busy I've hardly had time to breath. I mean, it's a good thing to have work, but DAMN! I hope I didn't lose you with the long wait. I'm so so so so sorry! Please don't go away! :(