AN: I am so so happy with the ratings of Tarnished, guys! 5,700+ views *squee* Thank you all very much! :D

I promised you a quick update period for part two of this chapter before Monday, and here it is - I hope you guys like it as much as part one! Which now brings me to a couple of answers of the reviews I have received, so if you left me a comment on part one, read on.

BelieverOfManyThings: I'm happy the suspense got to you. Thanks for reviewing - you were the first, yay! - and I hope to hear from you again! :)

Trinigyal: I won't write it explicitly in case I ruin the surprise for other readers who weren't as discerning as you, but - YES! You're spot-on my friend. :) Hope to deliver more of those heartracing TonPep moments you have come to crave, in this part of the chapter as well. ;) And here is honourable mention #2 - keep it coming!

Tbnasib3: Oh, I am so, so glad you're out of the confusion tunnel! I was beginning to question my ability as a story-teller - which isn't much, granted, but still, self-doubt doesn't make for a happy camper. I'm very glad I have managed to deliver the coup you needed to get the bigger picture. :) I hope that now you're aware of exactly what is going on, to hear from you again! Thanks.

Inkling39: Thank you so much, I'm very happy that you like the way I write him! :D You know, I don't know much about Loki as a character, but I have seen his Loki-movies, and did background research on how Tom Hiddleston attempts to portray the character - which helped immensely, because the way he sees Loki is so very interesting. I can only hope to make my Loki half as interesting as Hiddleston sees him! Hope to hear from you again. :)

Beguilingirl: WOW. Thank you, thank you so much! :) I'm thrilled that you liked chapter two so much, especially with regards to the pepperony, and the parallels of the beginning vs. the end of it. Visceral descriptions - wow. Just... Guh. *flails* :D

As for your review to , part one - I am extremely pleased that you thought it was worth the wait. You're right, as of this moment Loki's less noble side is totally in control, and he has a wicked game plan. I think, in the way I see this character, that he has learnt something from his previous trip to Earth and his subsequent defeat at the hands of the Avengers. And his mother did manage to make him turn around during his Days of Trial in Asgard. He has such a profound respect and affection for her gentle nature, and I think in the end we'll have to see just how important the lessons she imparted him will be. But the desire for revenge is very strong for Loki right now - and something else is cropping up too, I don't know if you've noticed; it's something darker and of extreme importance with regards to how he feels towards Pepper. But I won't say any more than that. ;) I'm very glad you liked TonPep again in chapter four, and hope that your expectations for part two aren't disappointed. Thanks for the reviews - I better hear from you again! :)

*Chapter six: The never-dawning day*

Part II

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When she opened her eyes after she didn't know how long, it was dark around her. Not just the room she was in, but outside too by the looks of what lay outside the window.

There was an ache behind her eyes, and her mouth felt thick and dry as the desert. Stretching a little, she winced at the cramped feeling in her muscles, and blinked in hazy confusion. How long had she been asleep?

The bed beneath her felt familiar, and she instinctively knew that she was home. But that's all that came to her. Frowning unhappily at the state of her body and at the fact that she could not recall how she'd ended up here, Pepper tried to remember anything about-

About when?

An even more upsetting thought crossed her mind; that she did not know what day it was, how she'd ended up in bed – hell she couldn't even be sure of the date or time of year at this point!

She tried her throat wanting to see if she could speak, but it was so dry from disuse that it hurt just to try.

She sat up in bed and held her pounding head in her hands, wanting the ache to let up so that she could think straight. She knew that her voice would come out a scary croak, but tried it anyway. "JARVIS?"

There was no reply. That's how she realised that her situation was a little worse than she might have imagined. Usually when she or Tony woke up JARVIS would automatically turn on the lights, enquire about their rest and so on. But this time there was nothing. And he hadn't responded to vocal prompt either. She remained bathed in darkness.

What was going on? Why couldn't she remember how she got here? And why wasn't JARVIS running? Where –

But before the thought could fully formulate inside her head, her body became rigid and her heart shrivelled. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to make sense of it all. There was something … something she was supposed to remember, Pepper knew, her mind was telling her so. But what was it? It had to be important!

She heard an echo of a whisper touch across her mind-

And suddenly it all came back.

She was …

A widow.

Tony…had left her.

Tony was…dead.

It all came back to her in one head-pounding agonising flash. The party, his tardiness, the guests. The sound of his suit roaring through the air towards the house, her happy dash down the stairs –

The colour of the red, everywhere. On him, on her.

The look in his eyes, so vivid in her numbed brain, as they looked at her for the last time before breath left him.

Without even realising it Pepper was sobbing and wailing. Her husband was dead. Tony was gone. He had been killed. No, no, NO! This was a nightmare, this couldn't be real, Tony couldn't be gone for ever!

But it was right there, vivid and crippling in her memories. His death. His funeral. Her encompassing grief. Her heart cried out for the soul-mate it had lost. But she couldn't get him back. How…

How could she reach him now? The thought that she would never see him again, never speak to him again, never feel his touch, or hear his voice-

She couldn't take it.

She keeled over and curled up in a foetal position on the bed. Her frame shook with her violent crying, and she clutched her hands to her chest where the ache of missing him hurt the most. His name was a desolate mantra running over and over in her mind, as though she was trying to call him back to her-

But this time he was truly gone. This time, she was truly alone.

Something whispered across her mind again, forcing her to halt abruptly. She'd remembered something else. Or rather, someone else.

Their son. Her precious, fatherless baby boy.

Panic seized her in a heartbeat.

Where was he?

Where was her son?

This galvanised her into action. She didn't know where she found the strength, but she bolted off her bed and made her way out their bedroom to the nursery. Everything here, too, was dark. She tried the lights, but the switch clicked emptily, no electricity impulses seemingly getting through to the appliances. Her breathing became more laboured at each and every new finding of a puzzle that grew more terrifying and befuddling with each second. She didn't know what had happened to the house.

She finally reached the threshold of the nursery, where she ground to a halt.

This room, too, was dark – and the cot was empty. Shockwaves of adrenaline and panic fed her new-found strength, and Pepper whirled around and dashed down the stairs, her heart in her throat. She tried to tamp down on the rising hysteria in order to maintain logical thought.

There were two things that she knew: one, the house was empty, and looked as though it hadn't been lived in for a long time. Two, neither Larissa, the nanny, or her son were here – and she didn't know where they were.

Her breath picked up its tempo and became wheezy. There was a painful lump clogging her throat, and she couldn't swallow it down. For one brief, insane moment, Pepper thought about taking the stairs to her left in order to go down to the workshop, to see if by some miracle they were there. But just the thought of it clamped her muscles rigid till she had to force herself to her knees on the floor, or collapse. She couldn't go down there. The workshop had to remain sealed shut. She would not setfoot on that staircase.

Pepper forced herself to think again. She did not know where her BlackBerry was. And had no idea where Happy, or even Rhodey were. She got up and ran to the phone on the coffee table. Bringing the handset up to her ear, she discovered that there was no dial tone. She numbly dropped it back onto the table.

She didn't know what to do, and despair rose sharply within her. All these distressing facts wereplaying havoc on her control; empty house, no phones, a shut down JARVIS, no idea where her baby was …

For the first time she noticed that she was chilled to the bone, probably because she wasn't wearing any socks or shoes, and the only thing that covered her body was a thin t-shirt that covered half of her thighs.

Suddenly she heard a noise inside the house, and was startled out of her wits. Pepper did not scream – thankfully her throat would not have allowed it – and dove for cover behind the large sofa, her senses sharpening, trying to pick up any sign of imminent danger. She crouched behind the sofa and ignored the pain in her knees as they rested on the hard floor. Her breath was baited as she waited for something to happen.

He emerged from the shadows of the hallway, footsteps silent on the marble flooring. His hands were drawn behind his back and his pose was completely casual. She had not seen him or heard him yet. His green gaze glittered as he looked at her. He walked closer to her. "Pepper?"

This time she shrieked and jumped about a foot in the air. Her frightened eyes scanned his form up his legs, his waist, his torso, his shoulders and neck, until finally they focused on his face. Sobbing with relief, recognition sparked within her. "Oh Rhodey! I was so scared, I thought there was an intruder in the house."

He helped her to her feet, his sharp gaze never wavering from her wan face. "Are you okay, Pepper? What are you doing here?"

Pepper looked at him, confusion plainly written on her face. Her voice was anguished when she spoke. "Rhodey where's the baby? Where's Larissa? What – what happened here? The phone lines are disconnected, JARVIS is shut down … Whuh- w-what is going on?"

Rhodey looked down at the flashlight in his hand, and it was the first time Pepper noticed it was even there. When he looked at her again, she couldn't read his expression, until it changed and it slipped into a mask of cool calm. "Pepper … look, come here, let's sit down on the sofa, all right?"

They both sat down and Pepper twisted the t-shirt in her lap. "Rhodey, what's happening?"

He looked at her steadily with a pitying, patient look on his face. "Pepper, you moved out of hereweeks ago, after Tony's funeral. Larissa … she doesn't work for you anymore. I – look, there's no easy way to say this, but I just want you to know that I am here for you, Pepper."

Pepper's eyes were impossibly wide and blue as she looked at him, and her heart was in her throat as she listened to what he was saying, because none of it made sense. He spoke again, his tone halting, trying to be soothing.

"Hon … the kid is living somewhere else now, as per your wishes. You felt like you couldn't take care of him the way he deserved, so you placed him in someone else's custody. This was two months ago, Pepper. A few weeks after Tony's death, you both moved out of the house into an apartment closer to town. Larissa was looking after him practically twenty-four seven by then. You realised he needed more than you could give him at this point, so you placed him in the care of a friend. Until last week, you'd visit him three times a week at her house."

Pepper just stared at him uncomprehendingly. This was devastating. This couldn't be true. She would-

Would she … give up her son?

She had given him up, three months ago! How could she not remember any of this?! Something was wrong!

She helplessly looked at Rhodey. "I – I … don't re-remember any of this! I c-can't - Oh, God Rhodey! I can't even remember th-th-the funeral!"

He took her hand and squeezed it lightly in a reassuring manner.

"Don't worry Pepper, you're not alone. You have friends, and you have me. We're going to get you through this, because you need to be strong now, okay? Tony's son needs you to be strong now, Pepper. Your son needs his mother."

She hid her face in her hands and cried brokenly. "I can't make any sense out of this!"

"Look Pepper, all I know is you disappeared around a week ago. Happy came to your home to pick you up for work in the morning, and you were gone. No one knew where you were. We've been looking for you ever since. It only occurred to me this afternoon to come up here to see if you were here, even though it didn't make any sense."

Pepper shook her head, feeling completely lost. "I've been here for a week?"

Rhodey nodded. "I guess so. I didn't think to come up here to look for you because … hell, you wanted to shut up this place and never return!"

Pepper looked around her, noticing how bare and empty the large, dark house seemed.

"Look, don't worry about the company, I've been taking care of things for you. If you need time, take all the time you need. You don't need to worry about anything but you right now. You just need to focus on getting back on your feet, and you have my support. You know that, right?"

Pepper's gaze was drawn towards the large floor-to-ceiling windows and the expanse of the night beyond them, as though looking for answers there that would help her make sense of all this.

"Rhodey. What happened … to JARVIS?"

Rhodey remained utterly still as he regarded her. An uncomfortable frisson tingled at the back of her neck; his stillness and unwavering stare were a little eerie.

"JARVIS was shut down when you left. He downloaded himself over at the company servers. As for the 'bots … they're in storage downstairs."

Pepper understood which room he meant by 'downstairs.' She was hesitant when she spoke again. "And the …suits?"

Rhodey calmly replied that all the Iron Man suits were in storage as well, just the way Tony had left them. Even the last one was there, mangled as it was.

Her hands twisted her t-shirt again, feeling like she had no hope of getting a grip on reality.

"Look hon I'm going to be brutally honest with you. It's for your own good. Tony's death hit us all pretty hard, but for you, it was even worse. You became unstable … unhinged. You know, years ago he made me promise that I would look after you, if anything were to happen to him. I tried to take care of you and the kid for his sake. But you've been on a downward spiral for some time now, Pepper. The last truly sane thing that you did was when you placed the baby in someone else's care."

Pepper looked at him silently. Shock had set in a while ago, and now she just felt too numb to wrap her head around any of it. Everything was wrong. None of it made sense. The only positive thing here was that at least her son was being cared for properly.

Rhodey placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort, frowning worriedly at her. "Pepper there is no food or water or electricity in this house. How did you stay here all these days?"

Pepper had no answer to that. He sighed and rubbed her shoulder briefly. "Look, what we're going to do now is get you dressed. I'll tell the guys that I've found you, and that you're okay. We've all been so worried! We thought you'd been kidnapped, or that you'd done something crazy."

"I'm here for you, Pepper. Next time don't just drop off the face of the earth without alerting anyone, all right?"

Pepper nodded numbly, hardly knowing what she was agreeing to. The numbness had spread all over her and now she was cocooned by it. This was better. Being unaware of anything was better right now. This was all she could do. She couldn't think about any of it without feeling disbelieving grief or hysteria threatening to take her over and under.

Leave this house? How could she do that?

Who was this other woman, this other Pepper, this stranger that had done all these things? How could she leave the house where they had started, where they had loved each other and where they'd conceived their baby? This was their home! She couldn't leave. She wanted to stay here.

"Come on, let's get you dressed more warmly, and then we'll get you home."

Pepper shook her head at him. "But don't you see, Rhodey? I am home. I'm not going anywhere."

Rhodey frowned in worried disapproval. "But you can't stay here, Pepper. There's no water, no electricity, no gas here."

"But it's what I want. I just want to stay here. You said you'd do anything I asked. Well right now, I just need you to make this house liveable again."

Rhodey sighed, but acquiesced to her request. "Let me know if you need anything else."

Then he got up and left the house. Pepper got up and locked the front doors. She returned to the sofa and curled up on her side, trying to dull her senses. She needed to make this unbearable hurt go away, but it seemed to be a losing battle.

Living … so much as merely existing without Tony was the hardest thing she had ever done.

Pepper didn't know if she could do it.

And there you have it, guys, the end of chapter six. I'm so looking forward to hearing about your opinions and feelings -please please please. the feels!- about how things are evolving. The next chapter is already a work in progress soon to be posted, so I think I'll be seeing you all next week - fingers crossed!

Thank you all for the reviews, the story and/or author favourites/alerts, it gives me great, almost unparalleled pleasure! Keep this up, and I may just have to reward you all with a bit of Tony/Pepper on the side. Or perhaps a very quick preview snippet of unedited!chapter seven. *Grins* But we'll see how it goes. ;)

Don't forget to R&R! Come on, don't be shy, I love hearing your opinions and discussing them with you! :) So yes. I'm looking at you: please write to me and press that button!

Till next time.