Hi all,

The good news is, is that I have finally started writing AOU now. Pretty much only on the first chapter but I am now making small progress. I'm still anticipating another posting break. Work is really draining and I want to keep up regular updates on each story and the only way to do that is to take posting breaks in between each story to gain a backlog of chapters. I know you all tell me to not apologise but I feel I have to! This series means a lot to me and I want to produce the best stories possible.

Please do not mention any spoilers for the Loki series either as I am not watching it at present. I plan to watch all episodes in one go when they are all released. Thank you!

I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Understanding the Real Hero: Iron Man 3

Seven

Maya is typing at a computer screen. Behind her, Tony is tied to a bed frame with zip-ties. He regains consciousness noting the predicament he has gotten himself into. Maya notes it is just like old times. Tony doesn't seem to agree. She says it wasn't her idea. Tony notes that she took Killian's card all those years ago.

"I took his money," she corrected.

"Taking his card led her to taking his money. It's the same thing," deduced Sam. "She's kidding herself if she didn't willingly align herself with him."

"I think Maya just wanted to work in partnership with someone," observed Tony quietly. "It could have been Stark Industries. Back in those days, Extremis would have been something I would have taken on. Stane would have advocated for it too. It's highly weaponizable which, at the time, would have impressed me, sparked my interest in having her work close to me to be able to better develop it. Perhaps find a way to adapt it to my weapons too. A lot more people would have died if I'd helped Maya financially to finish her product."

"I think the fact you didn't consider it shows you were already a good person at heart. You were just led astray for a long time," noted Rhodey, patting his best friend on the back.

Tony felt grateful for the support Rhodey was giving him. It helped him understand who his true friends were and how deeply they cared for him.

Tony isn't impressed. "And here you are thirteen years later, in a dungeon."

She corrects him. "No, you're in a dungeon. I'm free to go." Tony waits for her to continue. She sighs and walks towards him. "A lot has happened, Tony. But I'm close. Extremis is practically stabilised."

Clint snorted. "Tell that to the people who got vaporised by your little chemical weapon. Pretty sure they'd disagree on how Extremis is nearly stabilised."

"I suppose if there were people who could regulate it safely it would be considered as nearly stabilised," mused Bruce, considering the scientific aspect of the discovery.

Tony shouts back at her. "I'm telling you it isn't." He lowers his voice. "I'm on the street. People are going bang. They're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself."

"Or not…" added Bruce.

"If it was practically stabilised there wouldn't be so many of these bombings," pointed out Tony wisely. "In fact, I could count how many bombings there would be on one hand." He held up his hand to demonstrate. "None."

"Tony's right," said Steve. "There wouldn't be any. How this Maya can say its practically stabilised when it clearly isn't?" He shook his head, surprised by her naivety.

Rhodey leaned forward in his chair. "Their tests produced a lot of successful subjects. They had a high percentage of survival despite the multiple deaths. They still had over 70% success rate." He continued before Steve could butt in. "30% is a high rate of failure but not as high as it could have been. And I could be overestimating that 30% rate of failure. It could be a lot lower."

Tony was silently considering how he had managed to fix Extremis himself. It taken him days and a few weeks of hard work to find a way to completely fix Maya's formula but he had succeeded. His success had enabled him to return Pepper to normal. It also showed his talents could be utilised in many different fields other than mechanical engineering or computing.

Maya holds up his card he had left her back in Switzerland in 1999. "Then help me fix it." She shows him a formula he has written on the back of a card. It's not all eligible, worn with age.

"Did I do that?" Tony seemed surprised.

"Yes." She couldn't believe he didn't remember.

"I remember the night, not the morning. Is this what you've been chasing around?"

"In reflection, it would have been better if I'd remembered the morning rather than the night," cringed Tony, leaning back further into the sofa cushions.

Quite a few of his companions nodded their heads as if they agreed with his assertion.

"You don't remember?" Maya was stunned.

"I can't help you," replied Tony. "You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideas. You wanted to help people. Now look at you. I get to wake up every morning with someone who still has their soul." Maya looks tearful at his words. "Get me out of here. Come on."

Steve took pity on her. "She doesn't want to be doing what she is, does she?"

"Not really," answered Tony, "but Killian was the only way she would ever get funding for her research. The Government may have granted her time to do some research…"

"She would have been denied eventually," explained Vision. "Her work was unethical, especially when results showed people were dying. No Government would have backed her research further."

Sam's gaze darkened. "She was fortunate Killian could afford to spend his money on her."

"He was also good at covering things up," sighed Rhodey. "They'd been experimenting with Extremis for years. We only found out the extent of the damage Extremis had done after we took down AIM."

Maya turns away from him just as Killian's voice speaks up from behind Tony. "You know what my old man used to say to me? One of his favourite of many sayings… 'The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese'."

Tony knows exactly what to say. "You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?"

"I would say his grudge holds," stated Thor.

"You don't say…" Tony rolled his eyes. Thor was stating the obvious after all.

Killian places a briefcase on a table and turns to face Tony. "How can I be pissed at you, Tony?" He walks towards his captive. "I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation. If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first twenty minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour… I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean."

Rhodey narrowed his gaze at the man on screen. In some respects that would have been the better option. The whole Extremis problem would not have happened if Killian had ended his own life, but he couldn't condemn the man for not throwing himself off the edge. As much as Killian had hurt people, the funds he had poured into Extremis had been helpful in the end. It had paved the way for new research and technology. Even if Extremis was a barred substance, the research AIM had undertaken had proven useful for other things.

It had helped Tony provide a some-what cure for Rhodey's legs after he had been injured during the Civil War. It hadn't completely fixed the problem but it had been enough for him to gain his mobility back. Extremis itself was still volatile but the right formula and dosage was enough to perform small miracles.

Tony snarked back. "Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse."

"But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. Right? You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face, a Bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin, you hand the people a target."

"You're something else." Tony isn't impressed.

Steve glared at the screen. "He wanted to have power but for no one to know it was him? That's…" He shook his head in disbelief.

"It's actually smart," commented Clint. "Let others take the blame and then rise from the ashes as the saviour. Killian could have gained a lot of power if his little stunt had worked. Thankfully, Stark and Rhodey stopped it."

"It is far more dangerous to have people in power behind the scenes," noted Natasha. "You simply don't know what they're up to. You take the head of the fake and the King replaces the head with a new one to control."

Killian asks him if he has met Trevor and Tony confirms calling him 'Sir Laurence Oblivier.'

Clint snorted. "Accurate."

Killian says he knows Trevor is a little over the top sometimes and it is not Trevor's fault because he is a stage actor. He tells Tony Trevor's Lear was the toast of Croydon, wherever that place was.

"England," stated Vision "It's not far from the centre of London."

"Is it a good place to visit?" asked Steve.

"It depends on why you want to visit it," continued Vision. "It has some historical value but whether it is considered a place to visit… only you can make that choice, Captain."

"Basically, he's telling you to do your research," quipped Tony.

The point Killian was trying to make was that ever since the big dude with the hammer who fell out of sky, subtlety had, had its day. Tony asks him what's next for Killian in his world.

Thor grinned at the mention of himself.

"Well, I wanted to repay you the self-same gift that you so graciously imparted to me." Killian holds up three balls and then rolls them across the floor where they come to a stop and project an image of Pepper strapped to an experiment chair where she has been injected with Extremis. Her body is glowing orange.

Tony is horrified.

"No…" Sam stared at the screen, shock crossing his face.

Bruce looked numb. Though he had heard this story before he didn't exactly recall most of the retelling Tony had given him.

"How dare he do that to her!" growled Wanda, scrunching her hands together, willing her powers but unable to summon them.

Thor's own hands crackled slightly with electricity. "Oh, Killian has gone too far! If I had my hammer-"

Tony cut him off. "You'd do what? Smash the screen? This has already happened, Thor! You can't do anything to Killian now!"

Thor settled himself back down, his hands still curled into fists, his stare unforgiving. He was still muttering incomprehensibly under her breath.

"Desperation. Now, this is live. I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment the body is trying to decide whether to accept Extremis or just give up. And if it gives up, I have to say, the detonation is quite spectacular. But, until that point, it's really just a lot of pain." Killian kills the projection and walks over to Tony. "We haven't even talked salary yet." He grabs Tony by the throat. "What kind of perk package are you thinking of?" Killian's cheek glows orange slightly.

"Working for him isn't going to save Pepper, is it? Especially if Extremis isn't accepted by her body," growled Steve, his eyes flashing angrily.

Tony shook his head. "No. Once Extremis has been injected into the body, it's extremely difficult to remove. He wasn't that serious about me working for him anyway. It would have been a bonus if I had agreed, but he already had everything he needed. His only problem was Extremis' unpredictability. If the product could be fixed without human's becoming walking bombs, it would have been a sure-finer winner. Unfortunately, the human body isn't ready for that specific upgrade. Some may be, but not many. We're always evolving, one small change at a time. No human is the same. It's possible those that were able to tolerate Extremis already had the evolutionary change to be able to accept it. Those that died did not."

Bruce nodded, agreeing with Tony's hypothesis. "This. DNA is changing all the time. The ability to heal oneself, even from a killing blow, is a potential the human race could evolve into. Extremis just accelerated that for some individuals."

Sam glanced at Steve. "Much like the serum, Steve. It changed you, made you the perfect emulation of the human body. You're the next step in the evolutionary ladder."

Steve wasn't sure he liked the comparison. Despite his limited understanding of science, he did recognise where Tony, Bruce and Sam were coming from.

"Let him go!" Maya shouts out.

Killian tells Tony to hold on and releases him from the choke hold he had him in. Tony takes in deep breaths. Maya stands behind them, a taser pointed to her neck. Killian steps forward. She tells him again to let Tony go.

"What are you doing?" Killian asks her.

"1200 CCs. A dose half of this size, I'm dead."

Sam had already figured out how this situation was going to end. "He's going to kill her, isn't he? If he convinces Tony to join him, he doesn't need Maya."

"Even if he does kill her, Tony wouldn't join him," stated Steve.

Tony briefly wondered if Steve believed what he said. He couldn't keep doubting him. Steve had said he had wanted to work with Tony and repair their friendship – if there was a chance of doing that.

"It's times like this my temper is tested somewhat. Maya, give me the injector."

Maya steps back. "If I die, Killian, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?"

"Technically, he's already got a product," noted Sam. "A product which isn't one hundred percent reliable but gives him power in other ways."

"He'd have enough product to sell to the wrong people," said Wanda, horror crossing her features. "Including HYDRA."

"Or the Ten Rings," added Tony darkly. He knew without a doubt if Killian hadn't been able to perfect his formula, he'd have made do with what he could in selling it to more scrupulous people who could have used Extremis in terrorism activity.

"We're not doing this, okay?" said Killian.

"What happens to you? What happens if you go too hot?" She taunts him.

"Even those who have control of Extremis are still capable of going too hot and becoming a bomb themselves." Rhodey shuddered. "Even Killian still had the potential to go boom if he was pushed far enough."

Tony smirked, remembering Killian's demise.

Killian turns back to Tony. Waits a bit and then promptly shoots Maya through the chest. "The good news is, a high-level position has just been vacated."

Tony lowered his head. Despite her flaws and her willingness to work with Killian, Maya hadn't deserved to die the way she had.

Maya sinks to the floor.

Tony watches, shaking his head. "You are a maniac."

Killian disagrees. "No, I'm a visionary. But I do own a maniac. And he takes the stage tonight." Killian walks up the stairs, leaving Tony alone in the dungeon.

"No," Steve shook his head, disagreeing with Killian's assessment of himself. "You're just a maniac. The only visionary in that room is Tony."

Once again, Tony found himself surprised by Steve's compliments.

"He is," said Wanda, backing up Steve's opinion. "Not that we saw it at the time, but he is." She studied her hands, and Tony realised she was regretting every action she had ever taken against him.

I suspect the next movie will be harder for Wanda than it will be for me, mused Tony. Especially if the next movie was about the creation of Ultron. That movie would be just as painful for Wanda to watch as it would be for Tony.

Killian walks with Savin. Savin tells Killian once they had the Patriot installed it would take him nine or ten minutes for the takedown. Killian tells him that is great but the last time he looked there was still somebody inside the Patriot suit.

Killian walks into the room where Rhodey hangs in the Iron Patriot suit as they try to drill their way into the armour. Killian pulls off his jacket. He tells Rhodey hello before telling the others to step aside. Killian places his hand on the suit and it begins to glow orange telling him that he will get Rhodey out of there.

"I tried telling myself he wouldn't be able to penetrate the armour…" sighed Rhodey, feeling guilty that he'd allowed himself to be captured in the first place and his suit taken from him to be used against the President: the man he was supposed to protect, not endanger. He'd failed in his civic duty. His shoulders slumped. "I was wrong."

Savin tells him he will damage the armour which Killian agrees with. Rhodey can feel the heat burning through the suit. Killian tells Savin that he can fix the armour and that he will take the Chinook to base camp and he wanted Potts with him. Savin explains she is still in Phase Two.

Killian glares at him. "You're not going deaf, are you?"

"If Pepper is still in Phase Two, isn't it a good thing?" observed Bucky. "Surely the longer she's in Phase Two should indicate –"

"The body is accepting Extremis, yes," answered Tony. "If they were going to have a violent reaction to Extremis, it usually happened quite quickly into Phase Two. Phase One being the injection itself." It still grated on him what Killian had done to Pepper: forcing Extremis on her before it was ready, willing to take the risk with her life. It dawned on him then Tony had done the very same by not leaving the mansion when he should have done. He had deliberately risked her life, and she had nearly died because of his actions.

The parallels between him and Killian were uncanny.

It made him feel sick.

Tony is still zip-tied to the bed. Two of Killian's men have been charged to keep an eye on him. Tony's borrowed watch starts bleeping and one of the men pick it up. Tony tells him to be careful there as it is limited edition. Tony asks the guard with the pony tail what the mileage count is between Tennessee and Miami. The guard answers instantly as 832 miles. Tony is impressed. The Guard tells him he is good like that. He tells his companion to stop the beeping. Tony tells him if he breaks it, he bought it. The guard throws the watch on the floor and smashes it with his foot.

"Okay, that wasn't mine to give away. That belongs to my friend's sister. And that's why I'm gonna kill you first," said Tony.

"This doesn't go the way you intended for it go, does it?" sighed Clint, taking a gamble.

"Not at first, "grinned Tony, "but it soon gets better."

The guard smirks. "What are you gonna do to me?"

Tony eyes him carefully. "You'll see."

"You're zip-tied to a bed."

"Not the first time he's been tied to a bed," muttered Rhodey.

"And you would know?" Tony joked, already remembering the number of times Rhodey had walked in on him in that position before. "At least I'm still clothed."

"Urgh… Don't remind me," groaned Rhodey.

Tony flips his hands. "This!" Nothing happens. "That!" Nothing happens again.

The guards are not impressed.

"I'm assuming the suit is otherwise preoccupied?" guessed Clint. "It can't get out of where it is stored?"

Tony nodded. "Exactly."

Rhodey is sweating inside the suit and Killian remarks is he coming out. Rhodey tells the suit to not open several times before it becomes inevitable that it will open. The suit opens and Rhodey jumps out and punches Savin in the face before kicking him.

"At least you hit him," grinned Natasha.

Rhodey leaned back in his chair, proud of himself. "Pity I couldn't do more damage to that son of a bitch." It was rare Rhodey swore but in Savin's case it was well deserved.

Killian glows red and breathes fire at Rhodey. Stunned Rhodey makes a comment giving Savin the opportunity to knock Rhodey unconscious.

Killian calms himself. "It's a glorious day, Savin. This time tomorrow, I'll have the West's most powerful leader in one hand, and the world's most feared terrorist in the other. I'll own the war on terror. Create supply and demand. For you, for your brothers and sisters." Killian walks away after putting his jacket back on.

"I'm honestly surprised they just left me there. Didn't tie me up or kill me."

"Maybe they assumed taking the suit would render you powerless?" suggested Steve.

"If they believed that, they don't know Rhodey," pointed out Tony. "Never underestimate him. He can surprise a lot of people and has done so over the years. Honestly, he's scary when you make him mad."

Rhodey folded his arms across his chest. "Too right."

"Trust me, you're gonna be in a puddle of blood on the ground in five, four, three… Come on! Two…" Tony is still trying to summon the suit.

The pony-tail guard comments how did they get this shift. Tony tells them he is going to give them a chance to escape, to put down their weapons and to tie themselves to those chairs and he will let them live. He tries to summon the suit again.

"They must have thought you were crazy!" stated Thor. "Where is your suit?"

"Stuck somewhere," said Tony. He sighed. "Besides, I am crazy. We already know I'm not normal." What was the point in denying he wasn't crazy? He didn't care either way. Tony knew he wasn't normal. Besides, he preferred being crazy than normal: life was a lot more fun that way.

The guards were not impressed. Tony tells them they should be gone by now. They are not terrified. Tony begins to count down again and one of the guards tells him to shut up.

Tony very quickly counts down. "Five! Four! Three! Two! One!" Something smashes through the window, knocking the ponytail guard over the head before attaching itself to Tony's right arm. "Told ya." He blasts the first man with the Gauntlet which spins Tony around in the bed and he yanks himself free from the zip ties. Ponytail guard brawls with him whilst another piece of the suit flies through the window and attaches itself to Tony's leg. He kicks the guard away from him, ripping the gun from him. "Where's the rest?" Tony wonders.

Clint sniggered. "At least you can partially defend yourself."

"I can do a lot of damage with only a small part of my suit. It gave me the edge I needed," explained Tony serenely.

Harley watches as the garage door shakes as the remaining parts of the suit try to leave. He throws something at the padlock on the door, exploding the chain allowing the doors to fly open as the remaining pieces of the suit fly up into the sky.

Sam praised Harley. "At least the kid recognised he could do something to help."

"You would have been in a lot of trouble if the kid hadn't been home to let the suit out," pointed out Bruce.

Tony didn't want to think about the implications if he hadn't been able to regain his full suit of armour. He certainly wouldn't have been able to save the staff on Air Force One when Killian's men had attacked it. More innocent people would have been killed in his ruthless quest for revenge and power. Thank god, the kid had been at home!

More men converge upon Tony's position. Tony fires his repulsor at them and then engages the flight stabiliser on his boot and hand causing him to spin round in the air as he fired off bullets from the gun he held. He flies at them, shooting at his attackers from the repulsor and the gun at the same time, exploding equipment and boxes all around him, taking them down one by one. Tony spins in the air again, using the momentum to land on top of the stairs where he blasts another guard with his repulsor.

Clint was impressed. "That looks so cool."

Tony raised an eyebrow in Clint's direction. "You've seen me do cooler things in person."

The archer shrugged. "It looks better in a movie."

One guard manages to get their arm around Tony's throat from behind but he stomps on their foot and he uses the guard's gun to shoot his opponent in front of him. He then used the foot booster to send himself and the guard flying back into the wall, dislodging the guard from Tony's throat. He throws the guard away from him and then turns to point two guns at another guard below him who holds up his arms in surrender and drops his gun.

"Honestly, I hate working here. They are so weird."

Tony lets the guard escape.

"He could have been faking it," pointed out Sam.

Tony shook his head. "Nah, he wasn't. I tracked him down after this. Offered him a job in security at Stark Industries. I don't forget people. He needed a job to keep his family afloat. He only took the job with Killian because it was the only one on offer. He fled when he could. He's still at Stark Industries now."

Steve offered Tony a smile. "I'm glad you gave him a chance."

"Sometimes all people need are a chance to change to be able to better themselves," muttered Tony quietly.

As Tony walks out of the dungeon parts of the suit arrive and attaches to his body giving him more protection.

As he makes it outside the reminder of the suit has arrived and he catches the faceplate and attaches it to the helmet. "It's good to be back. Hello, by the way."

JARVIS greets him. Above he sees a Chinnock leaving and then sees Iron Patriot flying up into the sky.

"That's not good…" noted Sam.

Rhodey wakes up to hear an announcement stating Stark is loose and somewhere in the compound. Rhodey gets up and runs off.

"Hearing that Tony was at the Compound was the best news I could have received," grinned Rhodey. "It meant we had a chance to stop Killian before his plan got too far."

Tony tries to fires his thrusters but they don't engage.

Tony groaned. "The suit had charged enough for hand-to-hand combat but not enough for full-flight. If it had of been, I could have stopped the War Machine suit before he even made it to the President's location."

Rhodey patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Tones. We did all we could. We did save the President, even if it was a close call."

Rhodey makes it outside and knocks out a guard, taking his phone to call Tony. Tony asks him if that was Rhodey in the Iron Patriot suit. Rhodey confirms it wasn't and Rhodey asks him if Tony has got his and Tony confirms he kind of has, and to meet him at the main house as fast as he can as there is someone, he'd like Rhodey to meet.

"I bet you were disappointed to meet the Mandarin, weren't you?" asked Steve.

Rhodey replied with a nod. "I was. He wasn't who I was expecting to be honest. But we could still charge him as being involved with the plot against the President, even if he wasn't directly involved himself."

Trevor is snoring, holding a can in his hand as a few skimpily dressed women play Table Tennis. Two guards arrive and tell the girls to leave just as Tony arrives holding up a Table Tennis bat. The two guards shoot at Tony in the suit but Rhodey dives through the window, smashing it, shooting the two guards down. Trevor wakes and begins drinking bear again.

Sam shook his head in amusement. "He's really nonplussed by this, isn't he?"

Tony approaches Trevor and Rhodey levels his gun at the man who is the Mandarin. "You make a move, and I break your face!" warned Rhodey.

"I never thought people had been hurt. They lied to me," explained Trevor.

Steve's gaze narrowed. "It doesn't matter. He was still complicit in the plot. He may have been led to believe it was all an acting job but real people got hurt. Real people died."

Rhodey is disgusted. "This is the Mandarin?"

"I know…" admitted Tony, "it's… it's embarrassing."

Trevor tries to introduce himself to Rhodey but he slaps Trevor's hand away. Tony tells Trevor if he can inform them of where Pepper is, Rhodey will stop doing it. To demonstrate, Rhodey places the gun against Trevor's face exerting pressure.

"Ow! That hurt. I get it! I get it! I don't know about any Pepper, but I know about the plan," said Trevor.

"So, he didn't care his employers were planning on hurting and murdering the President?" Bucky was shocked. "Beggar's belief he can be fine with that! It's like he has convinced himself as long as he isn't the one doing it, it's not illegal! Even though he was reading from a script, he was still threatening America and the world! He's just as culpable for what has been happening as Killian is!"

"Spill!" Tony orders him.

Rhodey asks if he knew what happened to his suit.

"What? No. But I do know it's happening off the coast. Something to do with a big boat. I can take you there!" Trevor suddenly cheers as the football match he was watching on tv shows a goal being scored.

"Well…" Natasha tipped her head to the side, rubbing her forehead. "At least he has some use if he can tell you where to go…"

"It didn't reduce his sentence though," remarked Rhodey. A hired actor or not, Trevor Slattery had been involved in some of the biggest terrorist attacks to hit the world in years. He hadn't deserved to get off lightly, just because he had been a hired hand.

Rhodey is rapidly losing patience. "Tony, I swear to God, I'm gonna blow his face off."

Trevor elaborates further about the plan. "Oh, and this next bit may include the Vice President as well. Is that… Is that important?"

Clint was stunned. "Oh my god. How can this guy think it isn't important?"

Steve tried to keep his anger to himself but it came out in his voice as he narrowed his gaze at the screen. "Simple. He really didn't care."

"As long as they kept giving him women and drugs," interjected Tony darkly.

Rhodey sighs. "Yeah, a little bit."

Tony approaches Rhodey. "So."

"What are we gonna do? I mean, we don't have any transport."

"Right." Tony agreed but then an idea forms and Tony glances back at Trevor who has just opened another can of beer. "Hey, Ringo. Didn't you say something about a 'lovely speedboat'?"

Trevor just looks at them.

Steve sighed. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

Tony winced. "You're not wrong to have one of those."

To be continued...

Please let me know what you think!

I did have a few thoughts about this chapter but I can't remember what I was going to say. My brain hit a fog. Been a really busy week at work. Thankfully, I only have 4 days to work this coming week and then I am off for 13 days where I hope to get a lot of writing done in the time I'm off.

The next chapter will be posted next Sunday 4th July.

Until then,

the-writer1988