3

There is a phone call later that day, Richard is ordering the team to come to the usual place for a quick meeting before he leaves to meet up with the President, which is pretty tough with planes lacking the access to any navigation systems. There are protocols for such situations – and remedies – but it all takes time and efforts.

'You can stay here with Pepper,' Steve tells Tony when everyone is suiting up. They need to get into a car and drive through the craziness that's going on down in the streets. 'Tony. No one has any problem with that, you need –'

'I don't need anything,' Tony snaps, adjusting his jacket and buttoning it nervously, his fingers having hard time finding the holes. 'I'm good and don't tell me I'm not good because it's counterproductive, we need to know what they plan, I need to know to ask any questions in case I have some and there are no bugs we can use now so that I could call you and butt in anytime or something like that so – yeah, I'm coming,' he ends, turning around and blinking away the moistness in his eyes.

He doesn't cry. He never cries.

It's only that everything seems to silent, silent and empty –

– it's like going back in time to the time after Afghanistan, alone in the Malibu house, silence filling all possible space. It was not a good time – it was only Tony and JARVIS back then. Now, even – without JARVIS – it's Tony and Pepper and the team and they won't let him suffer alone.

'Stay safe, okay?' Pepper whispers into his ear before kissing him on the forehead. 'I'll be here. There's nothing we can do at SI with what's going on, people aren't exactly thinking business right now.'

'Sure thing,' Tony replies, but stops before entering the elevator and clears his throat. 'If you wouldn't mind – the bots –'

'I've got it,' she smiles weakly. That's his girl. Always understands.

'Tony, are you –' Steve tries in the car, while the rest of the team is sitting quietly, as if pretending not to be there, what is pretty unusual.

'I'll love you forever if you don't finish that question,' Tony cuts in and turns around, pretending to be observing the view out of the window. Steve seems to get the hint because he keeps silent for the rest of the short ride.

A few minutes later the team in seated in the usual meeting room with the usual crowd present, the two Generals and Richard. Fury is nowhere to be seen. Everyone takes their places – Tony has Steve on his right and Thor on his left, somehow – and for a moment, the room is filled with thick ringing silence.

'Of course the government has plans for situations like this one and of course it's not going to work because Emperor has his people planted everywhere. Every time you'll try to keep people under control something'll happen, something drastic, and people will act because they are scared, just like the Emperor wants,' Tony states without being prompted, offering an explanation of the obvious that everyone in the room knows but it seems like it needs to be said anyway.

'That's right, Mister Stark,' Mallard nods. 'What the Emperor threated us with has happened and obviously, you did not manage to –' he looks at Steve and seeing his angry face, stops mid-sentence.

'I will be heading for a strategy meeting with the most capable people in this country,' Richard says slowly. 'We need to review our strategies based on our newest information and apply them in the whole country, I have these files for you,' he adds, holding up a paper folder and a pendrive. 'There is everything you need to know here, regarding safety of our people and our country.'

'For now, we will need you to be available for us if anything happens, any kind of a skirmish, a fight, we need you to there as soon as possible –'

'To arrest the bad guys and boost up the morale, my favorite part of the job,' Clint says with a fake smirk. 'Everyone needs to see now that their heroes are calm and collected and maybe they'll follow. It actually might happen, however far-fetched the assumption might sound.'

'Yes, Mister Barton,' Mallard agrees placidly. 'We need you to be out in the city anyway, even if nothing is actually happening – that second reason, people might not listen to NYPD but they will listen to you.'

'I'm sure we can come up with some badges to wear and some signs to hold when we're strolling around, General,' Tony states solemnly, leaning back in his chair.

'Tony,' Cap says just his name, but the tone is more than enough for Tony to stay silent.

'The president might want to meet with you, Mister Stark –'

'If it's about weapons, the answer is certainly a no.'

'Will you have the means –'

'To get to Washington D.C, yes, what kind of a question is that, Richard, dear?' Tony sighs theatrically and crosses arms on his chest. 'Don't worry about me. You've got my number, gimmie a call, I'll be waiting.'

Richard doesn't seem amused; no one else is really amused – though Clint and Bruce are sporting those special smirks – but the man has even a more sour expression on his face.

'This is a matter of an utmost importance, Mister Stark, in case you didn't notice,' Richard states, looking through the file in front of him, and continues without looking up. 'How are your factories? Will you manage to be on time with all our orders? I believe you received our documentation before this situation –'

'We're working on 100% capacity now, according to my latest information – we were working on 160% before so this is going to slow things down, but there is only so much human hands can do and human minds can process – all out contracts will be fulfilled just like we agreed. Unless something else happens, something we couldn't have predicted, something crazy, you never know with a madman – so far, though, we're dealing well with what we've predicted – by the way, I must mention I'm severely disappointed by the fact that you failed at preventing the Emperors threat from coming true,' Tony finishes firmly, keeping his face blank.

They have no way of knowing what transpired within the Tower – about JARVIS – and Tony just can't pass up an opportunity to remind them that it's their failure.

Steve gives him one of those concerned please keep quiet looks again, but Tony wasn't going to say anything more anyway.

Richard, predictably, ignores him completely.

'We are regrouping our forces – all the divisions that have not been regrouped so far – as we speak, Within 24 hours all plans will be in course, including what you have on the drive. General Mallard will stay here in New York, so he will be taking care of your group's actions.'

'What about Director Fury?' Natasha asks, studying the man's face.

'What about him?'

'He isn't here. I believe he must have left a word for us?'

'Ah, this,' Richard nods, taking an envelope out of his jacket's inside pocket. 'Yes. It is of no importance to our meeting though. Have a look at it in your own time,' he adds, sliding it across the table towards Natasha.

'Anything else, sir?' Steve prompts, noticing how Tony is playing with his hands nervously.

'I expect complete obedience from all of you,' Mallard states as Richard puts the file into his suitcase. 'This is no longer a game to be played by single players, whether you like it or not, or even by your little team. It's our work together with all available forces that matters –'

'Because you have no idea what's going to happen,' Tony cuts in, wrapping his hands on his chest again to keep himself from moving them continuously. 'You didn't get any new messages from the Emperor, am I right? I thought we were meeting here because you had something to tell us, not to remind each other how we don't like working together and how unruly the Avengers are. If you want us to play along, tell me: you didn't receive any message from the Emperor, right?'

'No, we didn't, you are right, Mister Stark,' Richard admits, his voice tight. 'This is exactly why we need to proceed with caution and plan our moves defensively, unless we can determine where exactly out enemy is and what he is planning.'

'There were no letters from the Emperor, then?' Steve wonders aloud and Tony can almost see his brain working inside his head.

'The letters stopped after the message with the deadline. No one has heard from the man ever since. No one in Europe, in Asia, anywhere.'

'Curious –'

'You don't seem to be taking this seriously, Mister Stark,' General McKee speaks up for the first time, an then chuckles, making Tony twitch.

He doesn't have patience for this today.

'I take this far more seriously than you can imagine,' Tony snaps and sands up abruptly. 'And therefore I don't have time for this gibberish, you don't have anything to tell us equals this meeting is pointless now, I've got real problems to take care of if you want your army supplies in time, Stark International doesn't run itself, especially R&D – we'll be going now, right, Captain?'

'Okay, Tony – I don't believe there is still anything of importance we need to discuss?'

'We'll call you,' Mallard says, standing up, too, and everyone follows the suit.

No one says anything when they walk back to the car or during the ride. When Tony steps out of the elevator, Bruce grabs his hand and doesn't let him go; everyone knows that Tony would like to go hide in his workshop.

'Will you manage to eat something?' Bruce asks quietly as everyone else goes to the kitchen. Tony takes a moment to think.

'Yeah, maybe,' he says in the end and smiles weakly at Bruce's concerned face.

The dinner is ready quickly and Tony stays for a few minutes, picking at his food more than eating it, and then excuses himself after grabbing a bottle of orange juice. Pepper doesn't come up, he meets her in the workshop where she's doing something on her laptop; she closes it as soon as he steps in though. He sits on a sofa without a word, she comes a few moments later and cuddles herself to Tony and they stay like that for a long, long time in a complete silence. The room is on one of the higher floors so they don' hear any commotion that might be happening down in the streets.

At some Tony must've fallen asleep because when he opens his eyes the next time, after what feels like a blink, the sky outside is dark. He's alone on the sofa, but it's easy to hear two voices whispering in the far corner of the 'shop.

'Hey,' he says, but it comes out weak and raspy and makes Tony wonder if he was screaming during his sleep. JARVIS would tell him normally what's been happening if he noticed Tony's discomfort, but –

– okay, so maybe he was shouting. Or crying. Or both.

Pepper has seen all of that before, but Steve – Tony recognizes the voice of the ever-present good soul – he hasn't. He wouldn't think any less of Tony, of course, but that doesn't mean it Tony would like that.

'You're awake,' Pepper says pointlessly when she notices him sitting up on the sofa. 'You feeling okay?'

'Yeah, peachy,' Tony replies, cracking his spine with delight. 'Time?'

'Seven thirty,' Steve says and it takes Tony a second to process that there will be no other voice supplying him with a number down to seconds. He swallows.

'What are you conspiring about now, hmm?' he asks, putting on his shoes – must've been Pepper to take them off. 'Anything I need to know? Cable is still working, right? The news will be pretty old, but since that'll have to do for now –'

'No, nothing exceptional has happened,' Pepper assures him. 'At least not according to the news we can get. Everyone just keeps being confused, but that's expected, we have the rest of the day off in all our facilities, everything is still supposed to resume working tomorrow at 8 a.m., just like we decided before.'

'What is it, then? There must be something. I can see your crestfallen faces – okay, maybe don't tell me. It was the envelope, right?'

'No, actually no, Tony,' Steve says calmly and Tony can tell straight away that he is not lying. 'You can see the message later, Natasha has it, but it was just a note about Fury's actions from now and how he's not going to stay in New York because he's needed elsewhere. Nothing has happened, really, we were just talking –'

'Steve was telling me what the war was like for people back then, you know,' Pepper interrupts, her voice suddenly soft. 'It's always been far away, the fighting, world wars, ir was just our soldiers on other continents fighting, but never here. We haven't really had anything like this happening, ever – and everyone is just afraid. We keep getting calls from people asking if we're okay. I called my mum,' she adds, knowing he'll understand. Pepper never talks to her family, but under these circumstances, even she would call them to tell them she is safe.

'Okay, whatever,' Tony shrugs; everyone he cares about is in the building, barring Rhodey, but Tony is least worries about Rhodey who has the War Machine and all the defense system of the White House between him and the rest of the world. 'Do we need to talk Stark Industries or are we game?'

'We're okay, Tony –'

'Good, great, I'll go back to work then, our systems inside the tower are working perfectly – so guys,' he calls louder, turning around to give the bots a suggesting look, 'we need to be moving. There are things to be done.'

'Will you be okay here?' Steve asks, looking around, and the words by yourself are thick in the air.

'Yeah, sure, me and the boys need some tunes and all that to work,' Tony offers and rolls his sleeves up, ignoring Pepper's stare. He can't be bothered to change into more casual clothes. 'I know you'll be up there if I need ya, all the jazz, thanks, bye,' he adds and sits down by his desk, listening to their steps as they leave.

Turn on the computers manually, how peculiar, he thinks, blinking away the tingling in his eyes.

'Daddy's home,' he adds quietly, knowing that the bots will hear him and that they will understand.

For the next two weeks everything is chaos – and that's enough said.

There are fights in streets and protests in front of the government buildings, since everyone thinks it's their fault. Telling the world that it was the madman that caused a war who disconnected the whole world from the information it's been feeding on, well, it would be even a worse choice. There is, of course, a possibility that the Emperor will announce that anyway, but he hasn't tied so far and gave no indication of planning to do that in the nearest future.

He gave no indication at all, to be honest, regarding anything.

Mallard calls the team several times, telling them to calm a crowd here and there and it works each time; just seeing Iron Man in the sky is enough reassurance apparently. That is the kind of attention Tony is completely okay with.

He can't really sleep at night, though – if he doesn't take some pills he keeps waking up every half an hour, expecting a certain person to speak up and calm him down, but it doesn't happen, it can't happen, it won't happen – and the medicine is not the kind that can be just taken all the time, so in the end Tony gets most of his sleep during the day, in somebody's lap or on somebody's shoulder. Sometimes it's Pepper, most of the time it's Steve or Bruce who are, of course, the most concerned ones, but everyone gets their share of comforting him at least a few times.

Tony still feels so empty, though, without his better half, and so incredibly hollow inside even when he flies over gigantic frenetic crowds, pulsating with emotions. He can't really hear them and he can't bother to think about them.

The suit's operating system doesn't talk back, it just recognizes voice commands. Tony's alone inside the Iron Man costume and sometimes it feels nothing but scary.

'There was a delivery earlier when you were in the 'shop,' Clint tells Tony when he's eating a late breakfast a few days later. Clint is getting some food, too, but since he keeps a bit more humanly hours it's probably a lunch for him already. 'I had the letter checked. It's safe.'

'What does it say?'

'I don't know, didn't look, says it's from Texas, has SI logo on the envelope. There are a few SI facilities there, right?'

'Yeah, 'bout seven,' Tony replies absentmindedly, examining the envelope in his hands. He'd say he never gets paper letters, but since times have changed and not everyone has the phone number to Stark Tower, not like it's in Yellow Pages, the most efficient method of communication is snail mail. A few good decades back in time.

Well, that and telegraph, but there are not enough of the machines and people who know how to use them to actually make things work efficiently.

Clint nods at him and leaved with his plate full just as Tony wipes his hands to open the envelope.

The contents of a letter are mundane, it's made to look like a regular report, but it doesn't take Tony long to realize that there is a message hidden in the letter – or not so hidden, it's pretty obvious if you know what to look for. First letters of each line make a word, that's a classic. Going from the bottom to the top, no problem.

Only someone with Tony's memory can recognize a name that they haven't heard for at least fifteen years, but he recognizes it immediately: Hansen. Maya Hansen.

The P.S. says the man who supposedly wrote the letter would like Tony to come over to make a few decisions, which translates into meet me there. The sender's P.O. box number, Tony realizes, is not the real one – it's a date. In two days.

Ah.

'Pepper!' Tony shouts loudly, knowing that she is somewhere in the penthouse. He can hear her footsteps a moment later.

'What, Tony? I'm doing something –'

'I'm going to Texas. Tomorrow.'

'Tony, are you serious? We need you here –'

'This,' Tony waves the envelope in front of Pepper's face, 'is a message. There's someone I need to meet. She might be able to help us somehow, though obviously she couldn't say in a letter that anyone could potentially intercept, how. So. I need to go – no one else from the team can go with me. I'll take my goon squad.'

'You sure it's not a trap?' she asks, concern obvious on her face. Smart.

'There are about two people who know there is some connection between her and me – Rhodey and Happy. I mean, other than a connection of a passing hello and drinking illegal booze in the same room back in MIT.'

'I get it,' Pepper says quietly. 'I'll have everything arranged as SI, that's okay – talk to the team.'

'I will,' Tony assures her.

Steve, of course, says no. Tony rolls his eyes. Steve still says no and Tony starts to get annoyed because they both know he will go to Texas whether Steve says it's okay or not, Tony bothers to ask only because it's just a matter of pretending to be a good team player.

'I don't know what Maya is playing at, but she's one of the cleverest people I know,' Tony tells Cap, sitting on the kitchen counter as Steve cooks pasta for the dinner. 'She was mostly into biotechnology, but she was clever enough to learn a bit of this and that to put it together one or another brilliant project – and that was like, seventeen years ago? When I last heard of her? So, her name didn't come up for seventeen years and that can only mean one thing.'

'Oh yes?' Steve sounds skeptical, but Tony ignores that.

'That she's been working on something big ever since, duh,' Tony rolls his eyes and jumps off the counter, checking his watch. 'So, I'll go and pack. Dinner in fifteen?'

'Yes, Tony,' Steve says with a resigned sigh, the same way he does pretty often and it always leaves Tony feel like a little kid. It's not bad, really, Tony thinks it's pretty fun sometimes, just… strange.

The rest of the team isn't any less reluctant, but they are a bit less stubborn and a bit more realistic and Tony gets their blessing over the pasta.

He's in Texas in the afternoon the next day. According to the letter, the meeting is supposed to take place at noon the next day, so Tony just enjoys the little bit of peace and quiet away from New York and the masses of people who are constantly in the streets. There are so many people whose work depends on what the Emperor has taken, who are now unemployed and angry and used to having things their way – a SI facility on the outskirts of a small town in Texas is like a different world. The social structure here is completely different and people are not as affected as they're in other parts of the country, especially that there's nothing linking the place to tech or science. Even the SI factory produces mundane plastic elements that can't be a threat, even in the eyes of the Emperor.

There's a hotel in the town so Tony rents a room under a fake name, for one night, and somehow no one recognizes him – or if they do, no one mentions anything. Maybe it's just too hard to imagine, Tony Stark visiting such a boring place.

Tony doesn't sleep all night, but that's no surprise at all. He spends the dark hours doodling random projects for the future on his tablet and trying not to cry every time he speaks up and no one answers.

At noon Tony's sitting on a bench in front of the factory's main entrance, a place that anyone can access, to make it easier for both of them to come and go unnoticed. The sun is shining strongly, its rays almost burning his skin, bringing back all the unpleasant memories of Afghanistan, but he manages to ignore that just fine. There are worse things he needs to be concerned with.

A woman walks up to him, medium pace, air of self-confidence around her, and Tony recognizes her immediately: the same brown hair, the same eyes, the slim figure…

'You age well,' he says, acting exactly like the dick he used to be back in college. Maya smirks – she's always had a sense of humor, even though she could be rather aggressive at time. Mental instability comes with brilliance, Tony knows, so he's always waved it off.

'You've got grey hair in your goatee,' she replies, sitting down next to him. 'I'm glad you got my message.'

'No one sends me written reports, not even in this situation,' Tony says, crossing his legs and observing her closely. Maya's face doesn't reveal anything. 'So? Why did you want me here? It was a pretty nasty thing to set up, come here all the way from Texas under those circumstances and not in the suit, you know, so that people wouldn't follow me – that's my security team,' he adds, noticing that she's glancing at a car in the back in which three men in dark suits are sitting. 'No one would let me out of home without them, apparently. But you know what I mean – by the way, don't you have someone with you? I mean, you're such a bright and progressive mind, you're a perfect match for Emperor's victim –'

'That's what I wanted to talk about,' she cuts in firmly. 'You don't know what I've been doing for the last fifteen years, right? You'd ask me about that straight away if you knew. Too interesting to wait.'

'So, what are you working on?' Tony asks, standing up.

'Do you trust me?'

'Not at all,' he replies with a dashing smile. Maya runs a hand through her hair.

'Good – I need you to come with me. I need to show you something because you won't believe me if you don't see it with your own eyes, I know you, and this sounds like a sci-fi tale more than reality.'

'I've taken part in those, yes,' Tony nods, standing up. 'I'd say not much can surprise me after housing Thor for two years and seeing him travel between realms several times, I'm sure you've heard – but I'm inclined to believe you indeed. Where to?' he asks, offering her a hand.

'My lab.'

'Nearby?'

'Half an hour drive. My car. Your boys can follow, if you swear they won't talk.'

'Please,' Tony just replies, sounding wounded. He would be mad not to trust his security team – JARVIS picked them out. Tony trusts – trusted him completely.

'Get in the car then,' Maya tells him, opening the passenger's door of a dark blue Volvo. Tony given his boys a sign before entering and they pull off a moment later. Neither of them speaks throughout the ride.

Maya's lab turns out to be in a small facility a few miles out of another small town in the middle of nowhere – convenient – and seemingly abandoned.

'It's been just the three of us, me and two assistants, recently, for the last few weeks – we had a few other people working with us, but they said they preferred to stay with their families,' she answers Tony's questioning look when he sees the place. 'And Aldrich –'

'Aldrich?'

'He's my lab partner. He… died, a few months back. Accident.'

'Uhm,' Tony murmurs, trying to take in as much details of the surroundings as possible; it doesn't seem like anything much – only that Tony can tell there is much more to it than it looks like. A whole underground labyrinth, maybe, from the look of it.

'We weren't supposed to show this to anyone for some time yet,' she continues, getting out of the car. Tony gestures at his men to stay in the Audi – maybe it's a stupid decision, but he has a gut feeling that he can trust Maya, and he it's not like he can't defend himself. 'But in this situation – I've been thinking about it ever since the first power blackout, but especially since the satellite connections went haywire – things got pretty serious. Very serious, I'd wager, much more dangerous that the government can let the public know, and while I'm not privy to those secrets, I can deduce my answers. We're at disadvantage and the man who singlehandedly starts a global conflict by pushing the right buttons has access to an unlimited source of information that we've lost – that doesn't sound good. I'd say it sound pretty awful,' she stops for a moment, opening the door before Tony and gesturing at him to enter the building. The lights are on immediately; a movement detector, no doubt.

'And you know I know more because we're playing for the home team now, right?'

'I can deduce easily that it wasn't the government who cut off the feed,' she talks, leading him down the stairs into the basement level, much bigger than it looks from the outside, just like Tony guessed. 'Anyone with enough brains can figure out that if the Emperor steers the crowds the right way, we – scientists, inventors – are going to be extinct pretty soon because everyone loves the comforts if 21st century – but they all prefer their lives.'

'Well, there is a certain wisdom to it,' Tony comments, looking around and mentally cataloguing every detail he can notice, for further reference.

'This man needs to be stopped and it's very unlikely that he'll be stopped with what resources we have now at disposal.'

'Agreed.'

'So, now I'm going to show you something, okay?' she says as they enter a big room, filled with gigantic screens. 'I'll show you a simulation of what we can make human body do – it's completely accurate. I've been working on this for years.'

'Did you replicate –'

'The serum? No,' she stops for a moment and shakes her head. Not even a drop of sweat on her temples. 'No, it's – ours. Was ours, mine and Aldrich's, but now it's my secret and mine only to keep and I am willing to share it with you.'

'I'm listening,' Tony prompts impatiently, crossing his arms. This… doesn't sound safe. At all. Whatever it is.

'It's – it's technically a virus,' she explains quietly, switching the feed on the screens to what looks like DNA structures and various organisms' schematics. 'We called it Extremis. It rewrites the entire DNA code of the injected person –'

'Impossible.'

'I know it sounds impossible, but think about what I've just shown you and believe me, I can do more – you need to listen to me,' she says, stopping for good finally a few minutes later. 'I know all I can offer you right now is this numbers and pictures and a few test results that we conducted on animals – they died, Extremis is not designes for animals, but I can show you the cellular changes – there's so much more to it,' she adds; it's solemn but her eyes are shining. 'I've got a way of doing this to people.'

'This?'

'I'll give you detailed data if you wish. That's easy – we tested Extremis in all possible ways, It's makes the cells impeccable, makes them perfect, that'swhat Extremis does. It rewrites the genetic code to make the body better than it could ever be and while we don't know exactly how it'll work on the mind, we can speculate –'

'So it'd give a body what, speed, strength, pretty face, and make your brain work faster?' Tony inquires, sitting on a chair he pulled from one of the desks.

'Yes – it's extremely dangerous, you understand. Extremely. In wrong hands – I don't even want to think about that,' she says, shaking her head. 'We've managed to keep the research safe from anyone who could potentially use it in a wrong way, it has never left the walls of this lab, but this might be the time to use it.'

'Use it?'

'It can be a weapon, yes,' Maya admits, standing a few steps from Tony and observing him closely. 'For the good boys or for the bad boys. You know which one I'll prefer –'

'So, Aldrich wanted to tell it to the bad buys?' Tony asks, raising an eyebrow. Maya's face darkens.

'Oh god, no,' Maya breathes, closing her eyes for a moment. 'He was – jealous, I guess would be the word. Bitter. There is one thing I didn't tell you yet, you can't use the serum on everyone. Only about 2,5% of the population has the genetic ability to live through the whole process, and it turned out Aldrich wasn't one of them.'

'He insisted on trying it anyway,' Tony guesses, because there can't be another end to this story. Maya's face tells him enough.

'He did, it didn't kill him… instantly,' she explains, sitting on one of the desks, playing with her hands nervously. 'It took a few hours. He made me run tests. Extremis worked perfectly for that few hours, until something happened – like organ rejection, his cells just couldn't take the virus changing them and attacked it. He – he died quickly, then –'

'When was it?' Tony asks, keeping his voice as soft and neutral as possible. If it's been only the two of them working on Extremis, than Maya had to deal with everything by herself and it makes Tony feels lightly sick.

'A month before the war broke out,' she replies quietly her hands are shaking slightly, so she puts them into the pockets of her jeans. 'When the whole world found out what the Emperor wanted, I sent everyone away. There were only three small teams here, it's extremely secret, this place. They never told their families what they were really doing, the other scientists, they couldn't. So they are safe – and I'm here, supervising. Taking care, watching over this place.'

'How is it funded, anyway? You've got lots of fancy toys here,' Tony says, pointing at the hi-tech equipment around.'

'The facility was founded by people who wanted fancy things done for them – that's what the other teams did. The paid a lot. And the Extremis, well, me and Aldrich, we had money. We both did lots of things besides that one project, and some of them were… extremely lucrative.'

'You mean illegal.'

'Are you going to tell the police about it?' Maya laughs drily, jumping off the desk. 'We didn't make any weapons, if you're wondering. It was mostly very wealthy people – and mostly dying, willing to pay everything for a few months of life. We helped them. They paid. We had money for research. End of the story.'

Tony gets up from the chair and walks around the room slowly, looking at the information displayed on the screens; he's now a biologist but he knows enough to understand that what is in front of his eyes is research that will literally change the world.

'So, this is all amazing, but I'm still waiting for an explanation why you had to tell all this to me and now,' he states, turning around to face Maya.

'I haven't told you the most important thing yet,' she confesses, gesturing at him to follow her into another, smaller room. 'Extremis enhances everything to previously unreachable levels, inhuman even, some people would say, we believed that – I believe that it would enable a brain to process information at light speed and pick up signals that are out of our reach now.'

'I think I get what you're trying to tell me,' Tony says slowly, a thousand scenarios already playing in his mind. That would be – that would be everything they need. 'Is that for sure?'

'As sure as it gets – I have a copy of our studies for you,' she adds, walking up to a bookshelf and taking a thick folder from between some books. 'It's one of the most important things we worked on with Extremis and everything we've been able to confirm so far worked, so it's pretty safe to assume this will work, too.'

'And you get a supercomputer for a brain.'

'And you get exactly that, yes,' Maya nods, handing Tony the folder. He takes it, trying not to grimace, but he doesn't feel like explaining his peeve to Maya right now.

'You still didn't answer my question, though,' Tony reminds Maya, following her out of the room – she's heading up to the surface level, towards the exit. She stops abruptly and Tony almost bumps into her.

'I had a sample of you DNA back from out college times and I let myself run the tests – you're a match. Genetically, for the Extremis. The 2,5%. And I think that if there is anyone who can do a lot with what the virus does, it's you. Think about it.'

'Ah.'

'I wanted you to know in case – in case things go badly.'

'Okay –'

'I'll be here all the time, I can't leave this place unsupervised, if you ever…'

'If I ever decide.'

'Yes. Everything you might want to know is in the folder,' she says, glancing at the thing that Tony is holding.

'Thanks for showing me,' Tony tells her as they're walking towards the main door. 'Keep safe,' he adds and kisses her on the cheek, just like he used to in his more playboy times. Maya smiles.

'You too, Iron Man,' she waves his as he walks back to his car.

'To the airport – we're going back, drive fast,' he tells the man who's driving, closing his eyes. He might as well try to get some rest, since there'll be lots of work waiting for him at home, and even more thinking.

He isn't even sure he should tell the team about what the trip was all about. They'd say no, they'd forbid him from even considering the Extremis, but Tony can't be so sure.

A/N: I'm taking bits and pieces for the comic here, putting it together the way that fits into the story, so please forgive me if you're an avid comic book fan^^

Thanks for your support so far! I hope you liked this chapter, I'd love to know what you think & I'll be most thankful for even a shortest comment. I start my exams this week and hearing from you always puts me in positive mood :) Wish me luck!