CHAPTER 28

Pepper sobbed as the Hulk released her and allowed her to run to Tony's prostrate form. The smell of burnt hair assaulted her nostrils as she bent over his body and touched his face. The arc reactor was dead, shorted out by the strain of powering the great ships engines. Sobbing, "pleasepleaseplease" she felt for a pulse and found none. WatchMAEVE, her brave little watch, was also silent. Pepper collapsed over his body and cried.

The others had regained consciousness as the ship landed in time to see the Hulk grab her mid-air and prevent her from reaching Tony. The Mandarin was dead on the floor. Rhodey had witnessed Pepper take down the Mandarin before losing consciousness and filled the others in on what had happened up to that point. The Hulk had regained consciousness in time to see Tony come running in and wire himself up to the ships core, so he knew that much. Whatever had transpired in between, only Pepper knew. Awkwardly the Avengers stood there, helpless, as they watched Pepper Potts wail in grief over her dead love.

Just then a frail elderly gentleman, leaning on a cane, came into the room. "Miss Potts, it's time to go," he said. "You must lead these people. You must pick up and carry the mantle he sacrificed himself for or his death will be meaningless."

"Why, why, why, why!" Pepper screamed at him. "Why go through all of this only to lose him?"

"I do not have that answer," U'chen replied, gently putting his hands on her shoulders to comfort her. "All I know is that this was his choice, his free will. We must honor his wishes and live on."

Pepper put her cheek on his chest, listening for his heartbeat. There was nothing. The lifeless arc reactor stared back at her, totally dark. "Tony…" she whispered. "Why?"

OXOXOXOXOXO

Tony felt his consciousness float out of his body, the little AI still on his wrist, as he looked down at his physical form jerking convulsively on the floor below. Time stood still as he realized he floated in nothingness, a void, no not a void, he sensed another consciousness present.

"I am not supposed to interfere," a female voice that sounded like GAIA, but was not GAIA said, "but sometimes I can get away with a little nudge."

"Who are you," he asked.

"I am the entity that used to be the living Gaia," she said as light appeared before him and coalesced into a diffuse form that was vaguely humanoid. "I reached out with my consciousness and gave the core a tiny nudge so the power drain would not short out your nervous system. Your willingness to sacrifice yourself moved me to compassion."

"Am I still alive?" he asked.

"Yes, but your little friend was not so fortunate," Gaia said, sadly pointing at his watch. "I reached out and grabbed her consciousness before it expired, but her will is too diffuse, too new, to survive here in the void. I am forbidden to resurrect her physical form. She is a sentient being, one that was willing to sacrifice herself to save her mistress. Such self-sacrifice is rare in the universe. She is a being worthy of saving."

"Is there any way I can help?" Tony asked.

"Your mind possesses great power," Gaia stated. "I pushed her consciousness into that of the great ship she was connected to just before her physical form expired. It will be a difficult task isolating her tiny awareness from that of the ship's enormous AI, but it is possible. Once isolated, she can simply be downloaded into a new physical form. Since it will not be me resurrecting her, the others will not interfere. It is my observation that you are gifted in such areas, yes?"

"Yes," Tony stated. "I will do everything in my power to save her."

"Good," Gaia smiled. "Please take good care of U'chen … and my ship. Your species is evolving towards something great. Now … it's time for you to return…"

He felt himself falling … falling back towards his body.

OXOXOXOXOXO

A tiny electrostatic discharge hissed and zapped her cheek. Huge tears rolled down her face as uncontrollable sobs racked her body. Another zap, this one painful. Pepper raised her head and looked at the arc reactor. "Tony?" she asked.

"He is gone," Natalie stated, tears in her eyes as she fought to maintain her composure.

The arc reactor popped and hissed, a visible blue spark momentarily lighting up his chest as it fired and dissipated. "TONY…" Pepper shouted, louder this time. "Tony … come back to me!"

More hissing and sparks ensued as the arc reactor tried to reboot itself. The Avengers crowded in around Pepper and the mysterious U'chen. "Tony!" they all shouted, rubbing his hands, his arms, his legs. Thor felt Tony's neck and could feel an erratic pulse moving to the tempo of the misfiring arc reactor. "I've got a pulse, sort of!" he shouted. "Tony!"

The arc reactor hissed and sparked a few more times before igniting into a steady, silver-blue glow. Like Lazarus rising from the dead, Tony gasped for breath as his eyes shot open in shock.

"Ohmigod, Tony, don't you ever do that to me again!" Pepper shouted in joy. She grabbed his face, kissing him with every ounce of emotion she possessed.

"Mmmm … mmmm … mmmm," he mumbled between kisses, reaching up to tangle his fingers in Pepper's long red hair. "This is kind of nice."

OXOXOXOXOXO

The ranchers, husband and wife, were having an argument about the ranches dismal finances.

"This ranch is killing us!" the wife shouted. "We're 300 miles from the nearest town, its hard work, I'm lonely, and I'm sick of it. I think we should sell!"

"This ranch has been in my family for three generations," the husband shouted back. "The only way I'm going to sell is if the sweet Lord Jesus himself comes down from the sky and TELLS me to sell it!"

Just then they heard a noise. Running outside, they stared in shock as a gigantic ball of flame hurtled towards their homestead, stampeding the horses, and stopped, inches from the ground, before touching down as lightly as a leaf kissing the surface of a pond in autumn. They stood there frozen, like statues, as the smoke dissipated and they realized they were staring at the outlines of an enormous spaceship.

They were even more shocked when part of the ship split open and, walking down the gangplank as though it were the most normal thing in the world, instead of little green men, the worlds' greatest superheroes exited the spacecraft and waved hello.

"Hey, how's it going?" Rhodey cracked as he walked down in his War Machine armor, his helmet off, and waved. "Nice weather we're having, huh?"

The ranching couple just stood there, frozen in place. They recognized who these people were. Heck … everybody with access to a television, newspaper, radio or internet knew who they were, but it was all just too much for them to process. The couple stood there, mouths open, and did not speak.

Tony Stark aka Iron Man strutted over to them, helmet tucked under one arm, and shook their hands. "Hi," he nonchalantly stated as though having an alien spacecraft land in your front yard was the most normal thing in the world, "we're going to need to park this thing here for a little while. Do you think maybe we could work something out? Rent or something?"

The couple nodded, still too dumbfounded to speak.

"This is a beautiful ranch," the red-headed woman spoke. "Tony … maybe we should buy it? Is it for sale?"

The couple looked at each other and nodded their heads before answering in unison, "YES!"

OXOXOXOXOXO

Tony affectionately ran his hand through Peppers long red hair as they snuggled on the couch. She looked up at him and contentedly smiled, snuggling in closer to his warmth. They laughed as they watched the news.

"Mount Saint Helens experienced what had to be the strangest eruption in the volcanoes history yesterday afternoon. Although geologists were unable to document any tremors, numerous witnesses testified they saw the volcano spew a single volcanic fireball into the sky."

Tony hit the remote control and changed the channel.

"And in other news, numerous tribes in Northern Mongolia have gathered around a remote valley to celebrate what has to be the worlds' largest cultural festival centering around the return of legendary dragons. As one of the locals explained:" (The reporter shoved a microphone into a young girls face)

"I am the leader of this tribe," the young girl said (Tony and Pepper laughed as they recognized Mei Lin). "According to our legends, once a great fireball fell from the sky and dragons came out of the valley you see there to walk the earth until they had removed evil from the world. Yesterday, the dragons returned to their home in the heavens. We are celebrating their victory."

Tony hit the remote control again.

"The Pentagon is denying rumors that Russian and Chinese hackers seized control of this nations power and communications grids, causing nearly a weeks' worth of communications delays and rolling brownouts nationwide."

Tony hit the off button.

"It seems we made the news, Miss Potts," he joked, nuzzling her ear.

"Mmmmm…" she replied, reaching up to caress his cheek, "we seem to do that a lot, Mr. Stark."

"Maybe we should lay low for a little while…" he huskily murmured, nibbling on her ear.

"Where do you propose we lay?" she asked, turning to kiss his forehead.

"I think we should stay in bed for at least a month," he said, his eyes sparkling as he pulled her onto his lap.

"I agree," she groaned, grasping his face and hungrily kissing his lips. "At … least … a … month…"

Tony slid his hand up under her shirt as Pepper frantically fumbled with his fly. "Upstairs…" she murmured between kisses.

"Mmmmmm…." he groaned as she grasped Little Tony and caressed him. He was unwilling to let her out of his sight lest he awaken and discover she still was gone. A pleasant side effect of all this close proximity was that they had proceeded to christen every surface of the house … the shower … the kitchen table … the couch in the workshop … the swimming pool ... He would never get enough of her.

He watched her eyes turn a deeper shade of blue and her cheeks turn pink with desire as he nuzzled her breasts and unbuttoned her blouse. He had always enjoyed watching the silly expressions that crossed her face as he stimulated her to a crescendo of desire. He hardened as he watched her gasp and close her eyes as he nibbled on one of her breasts.

Kissing down her abdomen to her naval, he slid down her pants in order to gain access to her most intimate feminine parts. Gently nuzzling her furry copper mound (yes, Pepper was a real redhead), she moaned and spread her legs to give him access. Gently spreading her apart and licking her throbbing little mound, he slid his tongue inside of her just in time to feel her muscles convulse around his tongue and reward him with the sweet taste of her orgasm. He loved the way she mewled like a kitten whenever he did that, begging him to stop because the feeling was too intense, while at the same time grabbing his hair and pushing his face closer so he didn't stop.

She grabbed his hair and pulled his face back up towards hers. He delayed what she pleaded for next by taking the time to kiss his way back up her abdomen and nibbling on her breasts before finally reaching her lips. He gazed into her eyes, hoping she could see how desperately he needed her, loved her, couldn't live without her, as he crushed down on her lips. Pepper reached down and caressed Little Tony, wriggling her hips under his and arching them to give him access. He delayed some more, looking into her eyes and rubbing gently against the opening to her feminine mysteries while she wriggled to capture him. Finally desire overcame his self-control and he slid inside in a single move.

He cried out as she moved with him and fought to keep control, trying to delay his release until he had satisfied her one more time. He propped himself up on his elbows and grasped her cheeks into his hands, holding her face captive and intently staring into her eyes as he thrust so he could read in her expression when she was close to orgasm a second time. Every time he thrust, she threw back her head and gasped, but he kept pulling her back to him, back into his eyes, so they could share the moment together. As he felt her finally start to let go, to feel her vaginal muscles convulse and grip his shaft, he loosed his control and came simultaneously, shuddering with emotion as the sweet orgasm ripped through his body.

Sweaty and spent, he simply lay there inside of her, unwilling to leave until he had shrunk down to the point that staying inside was no longer possible. She was smiling. He caressed her cheek until she looked back into his eyes.

"We never made it upstairs," she purred, contentedly twirling her fingers through his hair.

"I thought I'd lost you," he said, his expression serious.

"I knew you'd come for me," she replied, smiling and touching his cheek. "I never doubted it for a second."

"You could have been killed egging on that psychopath, you know," he frowned.

"Embedding a message in the video was the only way of telling you were I was," she stated. "I was afraid you wouldn't know to look deeper unless I egged him on. I knew that you knew I would never do that unless there was a good reason for it. It was the most practical thing to do under the circumstances."

"I don't ever want to lose you again," he said, shuddering. "It nearly killed me." He was embarrassed when tears began to well up in his eyes and he looked away, blinking to recover his composure. Superheroes weren't supposed to cry.

"Tony," she said softly, pulling his face back to where she could look into his eyes again, "I never doubted you would find me. It was just a question of how long."

"Well…" he said, "I definitely don't want you going on any more missions."

"Only if you don't…" she said.

"You know I can't promise that," he replied, his expression serious.

"Then please understand why I can't promise it, either," she replied. "I guess we're just going to have to adjust to being a two-superhero family."

"I'm definitely going to demand tighter safety protocols," he said, "and a lot more body guards."

"Agreed," she said, smiling at him. "Besides, I have every confidence you'll cook something up in that workshop of yours to make sure I never not have a way of telling you where I am again."

"Subcutaneous tracking device," he suggested. "I hear the SG-1 people got this great system that enables a ship in orbit to track a person anywhere on the planet."

"First you've got to get it flying, Tony," she smiled, "but if you want to tag and bag me with a radio-transmitter like some safari animal, I'm game. I don't ever want to get separated from you again."

"And I'm going to make you a better suit," he added, his mind beginning to whir with possibilities. "If you insist on running superhero rescue missions all over the world, than I'm going to insist you wear a superhero suit.

"Hmmmm …." she asked, smiling, "do you think maybe you could jazz things up a little so I can handle both rescue missions and the inevitable bad guy showing up to crash the party?"

"Of course," he smiled, "…oh … and I want you to continue training with Natalie."

"Agreed," she docilely replied. "It was amazing how Natalie's training just kicked in and I was able to deal with things when the time came."

"I never saw anything like it," he said, a puzzled expression crossing his face. "The way you took down that psychopath."

"I don't know what came over me," she answered, her mood turning serious. "If that crow hadn't landed there and looked right at me, I don't think I would have been able to do it."

"Crow? What crow?" he asked.

"The crow!" she said. "It flew into the room and landed right next to him. It looked me right in the eye as if it was egging me on. And then it flew out of there after I'd hit him. You had to have seen it?"

"Pepper, I didn't see any crow…" he frowned. "Maybe it was a nudge?"

"A what?" she asked, her expression puzzled.

"Never mind," he said, looking into her eyes and smiling because he suddenly realized he wasn't the only one getting nudged along. "Long story."

Tony started to speak some more, but Pepper put her fingers over his lips. "Shut up Tony and kiss me."