Chapter 54 – You're Going To Kill Yourself

A/N – Very scared of you guys after hearing what you want to do to Obie. Nah, not really but still wow! This is going to be a tough decision for me and the competition continues for a while yet.

KittenSparrow: I might do an AU of this story where they watch it at some point but I've got so much on my plate that it won't be anytime soon.

Booklover2526: I'm glad that you liked the drama even if it you knew what would happen next. Enjoy this chapter!

nessa11997: You're welcome :)

LianaDare8: Glad you liked it and especially the team's reactions because those were some of my favourite scenes to write in this story so far.

youwannabekate: Loving the mythology route you went down there :) Biggest mythology geek in the world here after all :D Hello from therapy come join me :D Glad you're excited and hope this lives up to your expectations.

ReaderoftheBooks: Like the sound of unleashing Natasha on him; I'd enjoy the show during that one :D Glad you liked it

Pagen Goddess: That's why I couldn't resist putting it in. The irony was too hard to resist :D

Post U Later: I know right! And I don't often wish death on anyone even fictional characters.

LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I know, thank god! That technology always gave me the creeps when I saw it because it's basically complete torture in a compact form! Uggh!

ladynarutochan: Most of the suggestions are sick but it's Obie so :D I suggest no physical harm if you want more chapters. Yup! Enjoy :)

babyliss12: Gruesome but I'm a big CSI fan so I don't really care :D One of the leading ones so far I think :) Glad you liked it

XxXSilverShadowXxX: Glad you're still liking it :) And it's okay, maybe you'll pick up another oneshot along the way :D

XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked the chapter and the reactions that the others had to Obie :) I will add that to the very long list of stuff I should already be writing :D

Amara Calla: Sure, just PM me when you've come up with an idea. Glad you enjoyed it and I certainly will :)

"At least his plan is going to fail completely if that is the only one that he's got," Bruce said slightly relieved that Obie didn't appear to have a substantial plan that might actually have ended up seriously endangering Toni and he might never have met her if things had gone his way with a more thought out plan, "he's never going to be able to actually make the suit work without Toni and it's not like she's going to help him."

Natasha however despite her previous agreement with this statement was beginning to feel a bit uneasy about the evidence already presented before her in earlier scenes. Obie clearly had it in for her for more than just the fact that he wanted her throne if he hired terrorists in Afghanistan to kill her instead of going to an assassin who would get it over with cleanly and quickly. And he must have predicted that they would torture Toni before they killed her too because they were that type of organisation. That spoke of a man who was willing to do anything to Toni to get what he ultimately wanted and preferably it would involve as much torture as possible. Now that a device that induced paralysis had been introduced Natasha was getting the distinct feeling that it wasn't going to be just thrown aside after being used on Raza. But she did her best to delude herself into believing she had to be wrong and that Obie wasn't smart enough to think of that. It wasn't working all that well.

Piper entered another one of Toni's labs to find Toni working on the Mark III Iron Man suit. Once she was finished detaching the part she had been working on she gave Piper some of her attention, "hey! You busy? You mind if I send you on an errand?"

"Wasn't it kind of Piper's job to go on errands for you at the time?" Clint said confused as to why Toni would be asking Piper to do something for her when it was what he was being paid to do. And knowing Toni's penchant for overpaying for things and splurging on buying entire buildings to keep restaurants she liked in business (or so she could knock down places that were known criminal hotspots or were violating several health codes) Piper was probably paid exorbitantly well for doing so.

"Yeah, but this wasn't just any old request," Toni told him, "if I'm asking him to do something that is a little unusual or could be morally against someone's values I always make sure to ask first and then I'll try and do it myself if they say no and if I can't then I'll look for someone else who can and is willing to."

Toni stepped away from her work and walked over to the desk nearest to Piper telling him, "I need you to go to my office. You're going to hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests."

"And that is one of the reasons we get on so well Annie," Natasha said, "you know not to go charging into a situation without any Intel no matter how angry you are about what's happening. You act rashly like anybody else in the world would sometimes of course but nobody can say that you let your emotions rule your life if they see you in a crisis situation."

"This is a lock chip," Toni told her picking up a device that was obviously more sophisticated than the USB drive that it appeared to be, "This'll get you in. It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading."

"SHIELD would kill for something like that because they don't have that many good hackers despite being an intelligence organisation," Phil commented. If that comment had come from anyone else who had worked for SHIELD in any capacity excluding Natasha and Clint then Toni would have kicked them out of her Tower and told them to never come back. But she knew that Phil had no plans to steal her tech and take it to the intelligence organisation. He just knew the ins and outs of SHIELD and that they would need something like that to get their operations at optimum level. Toni was quite happy keeping her tech away from them and not giving SHIELD anymore power. One organisation holding all the power was never a scenario that ended well. Especially with maniacs like the World Security Council in charge.

"And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?" Piper said glancing down at the drive that he was holding in his hands.

"I have a feeling overprotective Piper is coming back," Steve sighed. He quite liked the Piper from earlier on in this movie but he could sense the Piper that he had a few unpleasant altercations with coming back now. And it wasn't the most thrilling thing in the world.

"Same drill," Toni deadpanned probably sensing that Piper was not going to be happy with this idea, "They've been dealing under the table and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them."

"He's not going to react well to that," Bruce sighed. Honestly he didn't like Toni going out and risking her life any more than Piper did because she was probably the most vulnerable of them all even if you factored in her training outside the suit because when fighting someone who had more training than her unless she got lucky she could lose in that situation. But unlike Piper he seemed to understand that there was absolutely nothing that you could do to stop Toni once she had an idea in her head and so he didn't try. Plus the amount of lives that Toni had saved whilst risking her own was a monumental amount that while he hated to admit it was probably worth the risks that she took.

"Toni," Piper said taking a deep breath before he continued, "you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you are going to start all of this again."

"Now should be the time that Lady Toni was given the most help from those close to her for the benefit of her righteous crusade," Thor said offended by Piper's statement, "shield brothers should stand by one another no matter what one of them is doing unless it is wrong by the laws of your land or against your personal morals."

"There is nothing except this," Toni told him beginning to get angry that he didn't understand what she was trying to do, "There's no art opening. There is no benefit. There is nothing to sign. There is the next mission and nothing else."

"Okay I admit that is a slightly unhealthy level of obsession," Natasha said and sensing Toni's wrath was about to come down on her she continued, "but Annie had the right idea in principle. You just shouldn't go into a mission and lose yourself in it completely."

"It worked didn't it?" Toni said as her only defence.

"Is that so?" Piper said sadly, "Well, then, I quit." With that he threw the drive back down onto the desk and turned to make his way out of the room but Toni stopped him with a snapped, "You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. And now that I'm trying to protect the people that I put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?"

"You don't hold back on the hard hitting points do you Toni?" Clint said impressed by her cutting straight to the heart of the matter which was that Piper seemed to only be okay with her when she was being the typical billionaire that appeared in the papers in a negative light.

"You're going to kill yourself, Toni," Piper retorted, "I'm not going to be a part of it."

"I shouldn't be alive," Toni deadpanned as she took a seat again resolutely not looking at Piper.

The shocked looks on the Avengers faces at this statement were unanimous because somehow despite her risk taking and their quips about her having suicidal tendencies they never quite pictured her as actually saying something that genuinely screamed out that she didn't believe she deserved to live.

"Answer me honestly Annie," Natasha said cautiously not sure if this would be received well, "did you ever consider committing suicide? And I mean ever!"

"If we're being honest then yes," Toni told them shrugging, "but that was a long time ago when I was in seclusion and my life was basically one big mess wrapped up in a bow. I don't think like that nowadays."

"Unless it was for a reason," Toni finished finally explaining fully why she really wanted to do this for people, "I'm not crazy, Piper. I just finally know what I have to do," she paused a second before making her next statement as if wondering whether it would reveal too much, "And I know in my heart that it's right."

"Toni's motivations for doing anything on a silver platter there," Bruce said shaking his head fondly. He supposed Toni was reckless with her own life but it was because she had this deep rooted belief that other people's lives were worth more than hers because of some mistakes that she had made. Of course that was wrong but wasn't that what made a superhero live up to the hero part of their title in the end. They always cared more for others than they did for themselves on at least some level. Even the assassins of the group cared about human life and valued it unlike the villains out there who didn't get the sanctity of life. That's one of the things that made them villains.

Piper breathed deeply clearly realising that Toni was really passionate about this and wouldn't be talked out of the risks she was taking to fulfil what she saw as her purpose so he walked back over to the flash drive and picked it up and confessed, "you're all I have too you know," before leaving.

Natasha considered this last statement thoughtfully realising that was maybe one of the reasons that Piper was so protective of Toni. Because he was trying to protect the only person that he had but he saw that he wasn't the only person that Toni had anymore since the Avengers had rolled into town. That could be why he had always clearly felt threatened by them.

A/N – Yay! The end of this chapter finally :) Think my mum is waking up and I haven't gone to bed yet. Whoops!