Author's Note: Thank you so much for your reviews!! I'm glad you're liking the story so far. After this point there are a few parts where a lot of time passes, not so much in this chapter, but in chapters to come. Hope you still like it! :)
Chapter Two
All Tony could hear was Pepper. "Tony! Tony, please be okay, please be okay!" She kept repeating to herself over and over again. He could feel her fingers up against his neck, checking his pulse, the other on his forehead.
"Pepper...I'm fine." Tony slurred.
"Oh Tony! You're awake! Gosh, I was so worried! If you're not in the Iron Man armor, I don't suggest you ever do something like that again." She ranted, "I can't believe you charged him! What were you thinking?" She demanded, breathing heavily.
Tony just laid there. 'He has my father...' was all Tony could think.
"Tony? Are you listening to me? Can you even hear me? Look at me! Maybe you're pupils are dilated! You could have a concussion!" She grabbed his face and turned it toward hers. They were within inches of touching noses.
"Did you really mean that?" Tony asked, blinking rapidly.
"Mean what?" Pepper asked.
"That I'm a better choice?" Tony asked, a goofy smile appearing on his face.
"Oh stop it! Of course you're a better choice, Gene went AWAL on us!" Pepper said, exasperated. She glanced down at his chest, where his graduation gown was burnt and singed right through. "You might want to take that off so people aren't wondering what happened..." She said uneasily.
Tony glanced down at the graduation gown. "Oh, ya. I guess you're right." He unzipped it and tossed it aside, leaving him in his nice suit with a slightly singed tie. That's when he noticed that Pepper wasn't wearing hers either. "What happened to yours?" He asked.
"Oh...I ripped it." She said sheepishly. "On accident." She said quickly.
"Right, right. Of course." Tony smiled, but only for a moment before he heard shouting from down the corridor.
"Tony! Pepper! Man, where are you guys?!" Rhodey called. He came around the corner, noticing his friends. Tony sitting on the ground, with Pepper leaning toward him, his face in her hands.
"Uh....am I, well, intruding on anything?" Rhodey asked, genuinely surprised and also perplexed.
Confusion crossed Pepper's face while Tony started to laugh. "What? Oh! NO! I mean, heh....no. No." Pepper said quickly. "It's a long story that you actually need to know." Pepper supplied.
Rhodey snickered, "I don't think I want to know what you guys do for your extra-curricular activities..."
Tony laughed even harder. "No! Rhodey!" Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to calm herself. "Gene was here!"
Tony's laughter stopped abruptly and Rhodey's smile faltered. "Gene? Here? Is that why you guys ran off so fast?" Rhodey asked.
"Yes. I spotted him at the top by the back door, I pointed it out to Tony, and once the speech was over, he bolted. And I followed." Pepper said, as if that explained everything that Rhodey had just walked in on.
Tony and Pepper spent the next five minutes filling Rhodey in.
"Well, it's taken him two years to find those four rings. I don't know how long it'll take him to find the last one." Tony said, sounding depressed. "I don't know when I'll see my dad again, if I ever will."
Pepper placed a hand on his shoulder, "It's okay Tony, maybe we can try to beat him to it." She smiled slightly.
"Ya man, things will work out. We'll start right away." He said confidently.
Weeks passed, and they weren't any closer to finding the last Makluan ring. Tony and Pepper sat in Tony's new and refinished armory. Since he had taken over his father's business, they could have been using the many labs in the Stark Industries building, but there was a certain feel to the armory back near Rhodey's house that they just couldn't leave behind. Plus, it was closer.
Pepper nudged Tony's shoulder, "So how do we know if we get a lead to a ring, but it ends up being a ring that Gene already has?"
Tony's eyes closed in frustration, "I know, Pepper. I'm trying to figure something out."
Pepper put her hands up in defense, "Okay, just making sure you thought of it."
"It's Tony Stark, Pepper. Of course he's thought of it." Rhodey said from the door. He walked in with a pizza and a couple of sodas. "Thought you guys might be hungry."
They sat in silence, each eating their pizza and drinking their sodas. "And it took two years to find four rings, even with your dad's help, Tony..." Pepper said quietly, not wanting to upset him too much.
Tony stared at the wall across the room, "With each ring, it gets harder and harder. I'm beginning to think whether it's even worth it. I might just want to wait for Gene. He'll return my dad sooner or later."
They were shocked. Pepper almost dropped her pizza while Rhodey choked on his drink. "Are you nuts?!" Rhodey blurted, "If Gene gets that last ring, he'll be invincible! You won't be able to beat him, even with your Iron Man suit!"
"Did you not see what he was capable of back at graduation? For crying out loud! He almost took me with him!" Pepper cried.
Tony cringed, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I guess I wasn't thinking about that. I was only thinking of my father. You guys are right. Gene's making this extremely personal." He said, his eyes pleading. "He's taken my father, and then there was that split second when I thought he had taken you, Pepper, and I was frantic! I know I need my friends. That's the only way I'll get through this, but...I don't want anything to happen to either of you."
Rhodey shook his head with a smile on his face, "Gene was our friend, I think he still feels that. Even if he does get one of us, he won't sway us away from you. We won't join him."
Tony nodded and sighed, "Well, we better work even harder then." He stated, getting up from his chair and grabbing a piece of pizza, "We'll have to pull a few all-nighters." He grabbed at least eight books from under the table and passed them out to Rhodey and Pepper.
"Make that a LOT of all-nighters." Pepper mumbled.
Okay, I'm sorry!! I know this chapter is super short! But I put up Chapter three also to make up for it...Read and Review please! Thank you :) No flames would be nice...
