Chapter 5 Arguments and Explosions
"You didn't follow the plan! Can't you ever stop being an arrogant self-centred-" Cap started.
"You put everyone in danger Stark! If you think you're going to get away with this-!" That was Fury. I'm pretty sure he's going to threaten to kick me off the team in a few minutes.
"You deeply betrayed us Son of Stark!" I'm not really sure what to think about Thor's comment, and Clint's just been glaring at me the whole time.
"You never listen to anything, you got Clint injured and now he's got his leg stuck in a cast just because you thought it was a good idea to throw a stunt of going into the bugs' mouth and killing it from the inside out!'" That was Widow. She's very peeved at me as is plain to tell. But what did she expect me to do? The only weak spot on the creature (no-one can actually figure out what it was supposed to resemble, some form of alien worm maybe?) was inside of it and I didn't fly into it, it swallowed me! The reason I blew it up from the inside out without contacting any of the others was because I couldn't as my link to them had shattered and I was having a panic attack.
I should really tell them all this, it might not do much good but it could help them to understand my actions. It wasn't something I could control and really, how was I supposed to know that it was attacking Clint when it exploded and trapped him under the rubble of the building he was in?
"You always disobey orders and frankly, I'm done dealing with you! You're off the team Stark!" If I had been moving I would have frozen at Cap's words. Instead I look at him, and everyone else who had been yelling at me. I hadn't said a single word since I came in, keeping my face completely poker, showing no emotion or movement as I battle against myself and Leopard to stop myself from ripping and roaring into action. It's moments like this when I really can empathise with Bruce, it is really difficult to suppress your own shifting, especially when any emotion can cause it and not just two that Bruce has to deals with.
Cap's breathing deeply as he and the other's catch their breath from their rants. I just look at each of them, somehow managing to control the Leopard, my emotions, and my body language in front of them as I break apart from the inside. After a few more seconds I simply stand, don't say a word, and walk out of the room with them yelling after me, but I don't hear them. All I can hear is my heart thumping in my chest preparing for a shift and the Arc glowing brighter and brighter as I struggle to control it, if I can't control it, it'll release all the energy my heart is creating which is powerful enough to cause a blackout around the whole city for hours whilst I die unless it is replaced or given more energy. That is something which I cannot afford to happen. I can feel them coming after me through the vibrations in the floor, so I begin to run. I don't know where I'm going, but I need to get away from here quickly and either shift somewhere and calm down or take out my Arc Reactor and let the energy inside of me be used for something more urgent.
I hear the sound of a Taser being shot out and I know that Natasha's shooting her Widow Bites at me to get me to stop. But I'm too fast for them to hit me. I haven't used my full speed or strength in front of them in fear of what they would do, but like Bruce said when we first met "We're a time-bomb" except that I'm actually the bomb and they were the countdown. I dodge out of the way of the bites coming towards me and use my extensive energy to push my legs to almost their full speed-a speed which I know even Captain America will have trouble keeping up with. I hear shocked shouts from the Avengers behind me, but I can't stop or I'll lose control. I enter the Common Area of Avengers Tower and I hear Bruce yell in surprise at my sudden appearance and speed, but I can't stop, not now, or we'll have an even bigger situation on our hands than me just 'disobeying orders'.
I was heading to the elevator which I knew I would reach when I felt a stab in my chest causing me to abruptly stop and fall over myself, landing on the floor in a heap as I feel panic rise inside of me. The Arc is about to release the energy. I sense the Avengers standing around me and feel them turn me over so that I'm staring at their faces, but before anything else can happen, I pull out my Arc Reactor and sit up before throwing it high into the air and yelling for JARVIS to destroy it.
Almost immediately after I cry out to JARVIS I see one of my suits appear out of nowhere and destroy the Arc Reactor, which immediately explodes, and the energy from the explosion enters into my heart and I feel it abruptly stop and darkness envelops me.
When I wake up, it's to the sound of voices, both angry and confused. I can make out the voices of the Avengers and Fury and... someone else, another female? I can't tell what they're arguing about but I can feel the emotions and their thoughts in the atmosphere of the room and I have to breathe deeply to stop my heart from racing again, when I realise that it's not beating. I try to make out some of the yelling and discover that I've been dead for about 8 hours-judging by the comments being made-when the Arc Reactor exploded. They'd taken me to the lab and placed another Arc Reactor in my chest, but my heart hadn't started. Even now as I listen to them arguing, I can't make out the sound of a heart monitor beeping even though I know it's attached to my chest and my heart should be beating, but isn't. The Avengers are currently playing the blame game, as to who's fault it was that I'm 'dead' and I sigh quietly as I listen.
"If he'd have told us that the Arc Reactor was going to explode then we could have prevented this!" Cap, as usual, always blaming it on my lack of input. What did he expect me to do? I couldn't exactly tell them when they were all shouting at me and trying not to leap at them in full Leopard form and hurt them.
"If you had actually let him speak during the 'debrief' instead of shouting at him for the whole time, then it wouldn't have happened!" Pepper. So that's who it was! I can clearly hear the hurt and anger in her voice as well as sense her distress as she tries to control the Snow Leopard. Her voice cut through all of the other's and they immediately shut up. Nobody likes Pepper when she's angry, she's very, very, terrifying when she is (and trust me, even I'm afraid of her and we've been married for 9 years).
I open my eyes and I can clearly see her facing the Avengers and Fury who stand a little way off to the right side of the bed staring at her with shame etched on their faces. Even Fury and Natasha are revealing their emotions which is surprising-Natasha also appears to have been crying. Pepper is extremely pale yet flushed a dark red from all of her crying and her green eyes keep changing to turquoise and back as she fights to suppress the Snow Leopard and her shaking.
She's dressed in a black dress and heels which clearly states that she was at Stark Industries before she came here, and I can clearly make out the bump of the twins she's carrying, and I'm almost afraid to think about what the press and company is going through right now as I'm sure that the whole world knows that I am dead. I turn my thoughts away and look back at Pepper and feel tears fill my eyes at her next words.
"Had it not even occurred to you, to ask him why he 'disobeyed' your orders Captain?!" She glares at Steve and everyone else before continuing. "I asked JARVIS what had happened and he told me that when you Captain America, ordered Tony to shoot a repulsor beam at the-the THING that it SWALLOWED HIM! SWALLOWED Captain! He didn't fly into it! And when he blew it up, he had been panicking and couldn't control his Arc Reactor and had no way of communicating with you to warn you! Yet, all of you, turned your backs against him and didn't even listen to him when he tried to explain! You didn't even let him speak! Now he's dead because his heart was going too fast to be able to use the energy the Arc Reactor was creating! Yet now you're blaming him for his own death when it was your fault! All of you murdered him! The only one out of all of you that I can deem as innocent here is Bruce. And if you think that I'm going to support you all with Tony's money then get lost. You killed him and now I've lost the only man I've ever loved! All because he got a teammate injured!" The last of her sentence breaks off in a broken sob and fresh tears are falling down her furious and hurt face. No one says anything and I can sense their shame and regret, even Bruce who didn't do anything wrong feels as though he should have stayed in the room to try and calm things down.
"Now I have to run a company and deal with the press who are demanding to know how he died! And I don't know what to tell them, because despite what you've done I know you're good people and I don't want you to be known as murderers." Her expression is somewhat softened now and the tears keep coming. That's the Pepper I know and love, one-despite everything that she's been through-still looks for the best in people no matter what they may have done and looks out for them. I want to comfort her, so I do it the only way I know how. Letting her know I'm here.
I allow the tears in my eyes to fall at the scene before me and I finally let my heart start beating again. The silence filled with the sound of the heart monitor beeping rapidly and everyone turns around to see me-and I'm wearing nothing but shorts-sitting upright on the cot, crying. Crying for all of them, but most particularly Pepper. I remove the lines attached to the heart monitors and carefully slide off of the cot, ignoring the sounds of gasps from the Avengers and Fury, and walk straight to Pepper whose eyes are wide in shock. Then I wrap my arms around her, pulling her shaking body into my chest, and hold her as I cry silently with her.
After some time, I slowly pull out of the hug and gently kiss her lips, feeling her body begin to relax and calm down. After a few long seconds I break the kiss and hug her once more before whispering in her ear: "I love you Pepper" then I turn to face the Avengers and Nick Fury.
Author's Notes:
Thanks for the feedback being made, it is really appreciated. I know the past few chapters have been short and have a bit of information missing that should probably be in them, but I always feel like I'm writing too much until I post the chapter and see how much I've written. I'll try and make some of the next few chapters longer. By the way, I'm the sort of person that can have 20 stories going through their head at once, so when I get bored with one I tend to abandon it until I get back into it again, so if it feels like things are missing in the story that's because I want to get to one of the exciting parts in the story that I have planned before I've even got the climax for it written, I'm very impatient with myself and I write a LOT of stories.
By the way, I won't be able to publish or update any new chapters as often as I have lately since I'm now back at school and have homework to catch up on, anyway thanks for the support and reading my story! :)