Yeah. Um...

I'm sorry I haven't updated in almost 7 months...

I really don't have an excuse for this. I've had it in progress for a while and I just never seemed to be able to add more than a few sentences to it. But somehow, this story gets a few new followers every week, it seems- and thats what made me say, "Okay, Ophelia, get your ass in gear." You guys still (hopefully) want to read this, so I finally got my shit together and finished the chapter. Once again, sorry it's so incredibly late, but I hope you enjoy it!

Tony and Fiona matched each other turn for turn as they rocketed through the air. They left white trails behind them as they hit incredible speeds. There was silence between them as they flew but they didn't need to say much. Fiona kept going over the event of the past few hours. Something had happened to him over those long months and it had changed him. She wasn't sure if it was for the better.

Small villages began dotting the desert below them. Many looked desecrated, with bare foundations and chunks of rubble everywhere. Unfortunately, there were people in the wreckage too. Bodies strewn like they had been thrown by an explosion. Blood splatters on the remains of walls. Fiona closed her eyes as they flew, letting Jarvis navigate. She was thankful for the filters in her helmet because she was sure that the smell of destruction and death was heavy in the air. After a period of blind flying, she heard Tony's voice.

"Hey, Fi? We're getting close. Get ready for some action." Fiona opened her eyes. She could see smoke rising over a small ridge in the distance. She swallowed the fear and rising nausea and sped up to fly level with Tony.

"Let's do it," she said, forcing the tremors from her voice.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The pair landed with twin clangs in the center of a group of locals and terrorists. There were screams and yells from both groups. The siblings moved as one, turning and firing repulsor blasts at every Ten Rings member in sight. Seeing that Tony had that situation covered, Fiona began exploring buildings nearby. She opened a thermal filter on her HUD and scanned the nearby buildings. Empty...empty...ah. In the third building, her scan picked up the forms of three people, one larger and two smaller, cowering while a tall, broad, form stood with a gun over them. She stalked over to the small house and ripped the door off its hinges, firing a single repulsor blast as she entered. The gunman was down before he could finish turning, his automatic clattering to the floor. The woman clutched the her children to her, crying out her thanks. Fiona nodded and left. Tony was in the process of punching through a wall. As she watched, he yanked his arm back, pulling a man through the concrete. He tossed the man at the feet of the assembled crowd as a low rumbling made it's way to Fiona's ears. She turned to see a tank crawling through the street toward them.

"Got it?" she heard Tony ask.

"Yup." The tank launched a missile and she took to the air, drawing the missile away from the street before destroying it with a repulsor blast. She launched a missile of her own and dropped back down to the rubble-filled streets. The tank exploded as she landed, creating an impressive fireball. Even with the suit, the force had her stumbling back a few paces.

"We done here?" she asked Tony.

"Not quite," he replied. A new array of targets popped up on Fiona's display. She zoomed in on one to see a crate with the Stark Industries logo painted on it. It exploded as she watched, courtesy of a small missile launched from her brother's suit. She followed suit and soon there were smoldering piles scattered around the small village. Without a word, Tony launched into the air and Fiona followed, giving a small wave to the villagers as she rose. The two blasted away into the bright blue sky.

They flew silently, until Tony's voice came through the speakers. He wasn't talking to her, though.

"Hello?" A pause. "Who's this?" Another. "Sorry, hello?" After several variations of that, Tony finally seemed to be holding a normal conversation, excuses flying from his mouth. "Yeah, I'm driving with the top down."

"Who is it?" Fiona asked through the comm.

"Rhodey," replied Tony. "No, Fiona wanted to know who was calling." Suddenly Rhodey's voice was coming through her speakers, with a message flashing up on her HUD asking her to stay quiet while Tony talked. Fiona took that to mean that this wasn't a conference call.

"Mm. Listen, I need your help right now."

"Funny how that works, huh?"

"Yeah, speaking of funny, we've got a weapons depot that was blows up just a few klicks from where you were held captive."

"Well, that's a hot spot," said Tony. Eighteen years of listening to Tony had trained Fiona's ears to the different inflections of Tony's voice, and though he was might sound casual to any average listener, Fioa could hear a tightening in his voice indicative of stress and panic. Rhodey could apparently hear it too, because his next statement was laced with suspicion.

"Sounds like someone stepped in and did your job for you, huh?" Fiona needed to intervene before something happened.

"Why do you sound out-of-breath, Tony?" Rhodey asked suddenly.

"Tony, let me talk," murmured Fiona. Tony didn't respond, and Fiona could almost hear him saying Relax, I got this, accompanied by a dazzling grin.

"I'm not, I was just jogging in the canyon." Fiona actually smacked her faceplate with a metal-gloved hand.

"I thought you were driving," replied Rhodey. Ooooh boy. This was going downhill fast.

"Right, I was driving to the canyon, where I'm going to jog." Fiona fumed inside her helmet. Tony was digging them into a hole that was going to be awfully hard to climb out of. She was about to speak up and try to smooth over the conversation when her HUD alerted her to two something's in the sky behind them.

"You sure you don't have any tech in the area I should know about?" Fiona switched off the conversation so she could speak.

"JARVIS, identify."

"One is an F-22 fighter jet and the other is a Global Hawk jet. Both appear to be targeting you and Mr. Stark." Fiona rolled over so she was flying on her back and her stomach lurched. Two small shapes were following the siblings, gaining quickly.

"Tony, we've got company," she said. She activated her thrusters, sending her shooting ahead at supersonic speeds. Tony's helmet turned towards her.

"Flaps on my mark," he said. He eyed the fast-approaching jets. "Wait...wait...NOW!" The siblings deployed the flaps on the backs of their suits, catching the air and letting the jets go rocketing past. Fiona's head was rattled around from abrupt speed change and she was sure she had given herself whiplash. The jets wheeled around to try and target them again.

"We gotta hide somewhere," said Tony. "They'll just come back around."

"Yeah, but we're two miles up in the middle of the desert. Where are we gonna..." Fiona trailed off as her thoughts caught up to Tony's. "Damn it, Tony..."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm calling Rhodey- no, I'm talking this time," she said, cutting off Tony's attempted protests as they chased after the jets. "JARVIS? Put the call through." The ringing was loud in her helmet. Thankfully, there was a click as Rhodey picked up.

"Hello?" The word had a suspicious tone.

"Rhodey, it's Fiona, listen- those things flying above the desert? That's Tony and I. You gotta call off the jets, we can't hold up out here. Please!" There was a moment of silence, then Rhodey was issuing an order to someone on his end. "Oh my god, thank you, Rhodey." She hung up, adrenaline slowly fading as she clutched the belly of the AWAC. She looked at Tony, who was hugging the underside of the other jet. They felt the jets execute a large, swooping turn, and then, horrifyingly, Tony's jet began rolling as though it was trying to dislodge him.

"I think we've been discovered!" he yelled as he tried desperately to club on, but to no avail. He was sent flying into Fiona's jet, ripping a wing off. Fiona released her grip on the jet's underside as it lost control. A chair came flying out as the pilot evacuated. She could see the man fumbling for something as he fell. Something wasn't right, though. A felling of horror ran through her as she realized the man's parachute should be opening. She dove after the flailing man, putting as much power into the propulsion as she could without going supersonic again. Closer...closer...yes! She grabbed on to the back of the chair with one hand and punched a small metal square with the other, darting out of the way as a white parachute billowed open. Above her, Tony had zoomed away to avoid the shots from the other jet, and she quickly joined him.

"Okay, I know it was my idea to come here and we did some good stuff but that was way too much excitement for my liking. Let's not do that again, okay?" Tony mumbled his agreement.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Look, Tony, you gotta stop struggling. It's way easier to get the suit off if you relax," said Fiona, trying-and failing- to stifle giggles. "Mine came off like nothing." Tony scowled at her.

"You're just skinnier. Come help-hey!" Tony yelped in pain as a robotic arm tugged at his.

"Pardon me, sir, but the process will be much easier if you take your sister's advice." Fiona laughed, but stepped out of the pile of disassembled armor at her feet and went to help her brother. She tapped Dummy on the top of its robotic claw and it scooted out of the way, allowing her access to Tony's flank. As she worked, the tapping of heels reached her ears and she looked over her shoulder as Tony froze.

"What's going on here?" Pepper asked.

"Ah...hey, Pepper!" Fiona said brightly. Pepper cocked one perfectly shaped brow.

"Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing," said Tony in defeat. Pepper took in Fiona's disassembled armor and her mouth dropped in horror as her eyes traced over the battle scars on Tony's suit.

"Are those bullet holes?"

"It was Fiona's idea!" Tony blurted. Fiona yanked on a piece of the suit. "Ow! Hey!"

"Is this what you were building that flight stabilizer thing for?" Pepper asked. Deciding on the truth before Tony could spout another excuse, Fiona nodded.

"They're Tony's creation. He started them after he got back." Pepper held up a hand.

"I feel like the less I know about this, the better." With that, she left, shaking her head. The siblings glanced at each other, then burst into laughter as soon as the door to the garage workshop closed. There wasn't a huge amount of hilarity in the situation, it was just stress from the past several hours relieving itself. Fiona took the opportunity while Tony was laughing and distracted to yank off another piece of his armor.

"Hey! Jeez..." Fiona dropped the thigh plating at Tony's feet.

"You said you designed it to come off. I'm taking advantage of your design." Tony scowled again, but, locked in his armor, was unable to do anything as his sister snapped a photo on her phone.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Back to the matter at hand," said Tony in the lab later. He was typing something on a computer. Fiona knew what the "matter" was without Tony saying anything. She nodded.

"We need proof before we can do anything. Shipping histories. And to get those, we need to get-"

"Into my office at SI," Tony finished. He plucked a small USB drive off his desk and tossed it to Fiona. She snatched it with one hand. "Obie's probably got a lot of security on the mainframe. This'll get you in."

"And I'm going and not you because..." Fiona asked. "I've been locked out too! If I go in there I could be under as much fire as you!" Tony considered that.

"Okay," he said after a moment. "I'll talk to Pepper."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Fiona could hear Pepper's heels tapping rhythmically through the earpiece she wore. She had wired Pepper up with a similar one that looked like a Bluetooth headset, in case she ran into trouble and needed to be talked through anything. The sound of a door opening came through.

"Okay, Fiona, I'm in Tony's office," Pepper said softly.

"Good," murmured Fiona. "No sign of Obie?"

"Nothing." There was the faint sound of Tony's swivel chair rolling as Pepper pulled it out and sat down. The sound of clicking. "Sector 16? What are you up to, Obadiah?"

"Sector 16? What the hell..." Fiona muttered. She could hear someone else talking now- a harsh male voice that she couldn't understand. Then it switched to English, and Fiona's heart nearly stopped.

"You did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Tony Stark. As you can see, Obadiah Stane-"

"Oh my god," came Pepper's horrified voice.

"-your deception and lies will cost you dearly. The price to kill Tony Stark has just gone up." Fiona sat back in her chair. She had been hoping against hope, even with the information they had found already, that Obie was somehow not involved. He had been a strong father figure to her for her entire life, and- up until the benefit gala- she had loved him like one. But the truth was staring her in the face- or rather, yelling in her ear, and she couldn't tell herself otherwise any longer.

"So what are we going to do about this?" Fiona jumped as the voice of the man in her thoughts came faintly through the earpiece. She heard Pepper's small intake of breath. "I know what you're going through, Pepper. Tony. He always gets the good stuff, doesn't he?" Obie's side comment led Fiona to assume that he was doing something with the spirits Tony kept in his office. There was a moment of silence. Then Obadiah's voice was heard again, much louder, as though he was standing next to Pepper. Fiona prayed that she had managed to hide whatever she had been viewing. "I was so happy when he came home." You lying rat, thought Fiona. "It was like we got him back from the dead. Now I realized...well, Tony never really did come home, did he? He left a part of himself in that cave. Breaks my heart." Every fiber of Fiona wanted to scream at Pepper to get out of there NOW! but she held her tongue and listened.

"Well, he's a complicated person," was Pepper's calm response. Thank god Pepper was so cool under pressure. "He's been through a lot. I think he'll be all right." Good job, Pepper. Please get out before something happens...

"You are a very rare woman. Tony doesn't know how lucky he is." Well, Obadiah was right about one thing. When this was all over, Fiona was going to sit her brother down and have a talk about really understanding women.

"Thank you. Thanks," replied Pepper. There was a squeak, presumably as she stood from the chair. Had she gotten the USB?

"Is that today's paper?" Obie asked. For some reason, that simple question sent Fiona's heart racing. Pepper remained collected, though, and made it out of the office without a hitch. The tapping of her heels was noticeably faster as she left.

"Ms. Potts? We had an appointment. Did you forget about our appointment?"

"Pepper, is that...?"

"Nope, right now, come with me. Yes, it's Agent Coulson." The latter of the two statements was directed at Fiona, answering her question. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Pepper would be safe now. "Sorry, I've got Fiona on. Fiona, are we good?"

"Yeah, yeah, we've got what we need. Make sure Agent Coulson sees it."

"Will do. Please be safe," replied Pepper. The call was ended, and Fiona slumped back in the living room chair, rubbing her hands over her face. How had they gotten into this?

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Later that evening, Tony and Fiona both sat in the living room. Fiona had recounted what she had heard from Pepper's mission to Tony's office. They were silent, both scrolling through their phones, hoping for a call from Pepper, reassuring them that the Strategic Homeland whatever-that-long-thing-was taking care of Obadiah. Quite suddenly, the silence was shattered by just that, a ringing emanating from Tony's phone. Fiona sat up as he put the phone to his ear, just in time to se Obadiah round the corner, hand outstretched.

"Tony!" she yelled, but her warning came too late. A high-pitched frequency filled the air. Fiona's limbs stiffened and she toppled off her perch on an ottoman, sprawling on the floor, barely able to breathe. From the eye not pressed into the soft white carpeting, she could see Tony suffering the same fate, skin pale and veins standing out like marker on it. Obadiah held up the device that was causing their paralysis.

"It's a shame the government didn't approve it. There's so many applications for short-term paralysis," he said, setting a small metal case on the couch next to Tony. He opened it. "When I ordered the hit on you, I was worried that I was killing the golden goose." He pulled a small metal cylinder out of the case and placed it over Tony's arc reactor. Tony jerked as it latched on. She could see smoke rising and watched as Obadiah slowly lifted the arc reactor from its housing. Wires still led into the metal-rimmed hole in Tony's chest. Obadiah leaned closer to Tony, muttering something that she couldn't hear

Then Fiona watched helplessly as Obadiah ripped the wires from Tony's chest.

I know that at least some of you are reading, so if you could leave a review, that would be phenomenal. It really does make feel good and it helps me write faster (hint, hint...)

See you next time (which I promise will be in the next week!)

Ophelia