I am sorry it has been this long since my last update! I plead school... And the general busyness of life...
Previously...
Jadis stood above her daughter with a look of victory on her face. She picked up the knife that Kloi had dropped and raised it to kill her daughter. To her surprise, ice covered her hands. Fear registered on her face when she realized what was happening.
Kloi's magic was not under her control anymore. It was lashing out, in its purest, rawest form, to protect its owner. Her kneeling form was surrounded by a swirling cloud of ice crystals and mist. Then… She vanished. The cloud disappeared, and so did the ice holding Jadis in place. She stood still a moment longer, and then seemed to shake it off in favor of killing Peter.
She turned and leapt toward him – and Aslan smashed into her from the side.
"Pepper!"
Said woman sighed before making her way to her boyfriend/employer's room.
"What is it, Tony?"
The billionaire was staring at himself in the mirror. His chin was raised and his face was scrunched up as he peered down his nose at the reflection before him. He was trying – in vain – to tie his tie. When he saw her reflection in the mirror, he gave her a pitiful look.
Pepper sighed. "Honestly, Tony. How do you not know how to… Oh, give it here."
He gave her a thankful look when it was properly tied.
"For someone with your IQ, you are incredibly incompetent." Pepper stated blandly.
"But you love me anyway!" Tony grinned.
Pepper rolled her eyes and glanced at the clock. " – And you are half an hour late."
He followed her gaze and cursed softly. "Damn, you noticed."
"Anthony Edward Stark!"
Tony cringed when she used his full name. He knew every word of the lecture he was about to receive. Ten minutes later, Pepper was finally done ripping a strip off of her boyfriend. He was staring glumly at the floor, and nodding at the appropriate times. When she finished her rant, he finally met her eyes.
"Can I go now?"
He dodged as she attempted to hit his arm. She sighed in defeat and nodded.
"Get a move on. Now you're forty minutes late."
Tony raised an eyebrow and grinned. "And whose fault is that?"
Pepper ignored him, and he should have taken that as his cue to leave. Of course, he was the idiot billionaire who couldn't take a hint.
"You know, I could cut travel time in half if I took my suit – "
"Tony, get out of this house before I throw you out!"
"It's my house!"
She glared at him, and he finally had the sense to leave well enough alone. Grumbling (very maturely, of course) he made his way down to the garage and into one of his many cars… Pepper sighed when she heard the huge automatic garage door close. He was finally gone, and would only be about forty-five minutes late for his meeting by the time he got there, due to his speeding. She was actually quite proud of herself – that was a new record. He was usually much later than that!
The door to the garage slammed suddenly. Great, he was back.
"Anth – "
"Pepper!" His shout cut her off.
"What?" She returned in the same tone, and made her way into the living room, where his voice was coming from. She opened her mouth to begin scolding him again, but cut herself off with a noise that sounded dangerously close to a screech.
"Anthony – what did you do?!"
"I didn't do anything." He snapped, carefully laying the girl in his arms on the couch. "She was lying there, in the middle of the driveway…"
"Like this?" Pepper gasped, staring at the bruises and cuts that covered her arms.
"I think she's bleeding from her back…" Tony murmured, looking at the blood on his arms.
Pepper didn't know what to do. It was something that Tony would never let her live down, of course – the strict secretary had the proper response for every situation. But now she was just standing beside the couch, gaping at the girl. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. It actually made her look rather like a fish – not that Tony noticed.
"Call Bruce." He ordered, taking charge. "On second thought – don't do that just yet. Get the first aid kit in the kitchen."
When he saw that his girlfriend was still frozen in shock, Tony sighed and resorted to using Jarvis. Pepper quickly shook it off and helped him doctor up the girl's scrapes. The wound that Tony had thought was on her back was actually on her side, but it wasn't bad. They didn't end up calling Bruce, or anyone else for that matter.
The girl was unconscious for only a few minutes after they finished doctoring her up. The couple was not paying attention to her at the moment she woke up – Pepper was calling to cancel his meeting because of "an emergency" and Tony was bugging her.
The girl opened her eyes, confusion on her face. When she saw her surroundings, she only got more confused.
"Where am I?"
The bickering couple whirled around. Pepper gaped again, her facial expression priceless. It would be safe to say that Tony thought it was hilarious, and the girl did not.
"Where am I?" She demanded again, fear and anger evident in her voice. The temperature of the room grew noticeably colder.
Kloi didn't know where she was, or what was going on. It didn't help that the woman was staring at her as if she had a second head, and the man was chortling at his friend's expression.
"Where am I?" She demanded again, more forcefully.
The woman seemed to snap out of it, and glared at the man – who was still laughing.
"Anthony Edward Stark!"
That shut him up. Evidently he knew he was in trouble, and he decided to try and save his neck by answering the question.
"In my living room." He said it like she should know who he was, like he was some sort of big deal. Well, she could burst that little bubble.
She raised an eyebrow. His face was priceless when he realized she had no clue who he was. He stared at her for a moment, before the woman whacked him.
"What?"
"Are you going to stand there gaping, or are you going to answer her?"
"I just did!"
"Tony!"
Kloi sighed in frustration, and sat up. Instantly she cringed in pain, though she instinctively tried to hide it.
"You probably shouldn't be moving too much." The man informed her in a rather off-hand manner. "You got yourself pretty beat up. Speaking of which, I am waiting to hear why exactly I found you in the middle of my driveway?"
Kloi wasn't listening. She was struggling to hide her pain. Obviously the strange pair in front of her had doctored up her scrapes, but they evidently hadn't realized that she had a couple broken ribs – little mementos of her fight with her mother. She felt the pain increase with each breath she took, and then it suddenly numbed. Her eyes widened as she realized that it was her magic, healing her.
And then she remembered that she didn't have her crystal. She wouldn't be able to control it! That thought sent her into a panic, and what little control she might have had vanished. The couch around her began to ice over, and the man suddenly cut himself off.
"What – what – !"
Kloi gasped for breath as her magic spiraled further out of control, icing over everything in the room. Fortunately, it didn't touch the couple – Kloi wasn't sure why, but she wasn't about to jinx it by wondering.
"Calm down." She muttered to herself. "I need to calm down. Calm yourself, Kloi. Calm…"
"Are you doing that?!" The man yelped, staring at his living room.
"YES! SHUT UP!" Kloi snapped, still trying to calm down.
The woman was staring again, but this time at the ice everywhere. Even Kloi's sharp tone didn't snap her out of it.
The man slowly shuffled over to where Kloi was still muttering at herself, trying to calm down. He awkwardly set a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, it's ok. Nobody's going to hurt you, kid."
In spite of the flare of annoyance at being called a kid, Kloi felt herself begin to calm at his touch. Aslan's mane – how did he do that? Suddenly she remembered what Aslan had said… She was to trust the first man she met when she left Narnia, but not the first woman.
Her eyes darted between the two as the ice began to recede. The woman was still staring at the ice on the floor, but the man was gazing straight into her eyes. His gaze was confused and thoughtful.
"What is this place called?" She asked quietly, jolting both of them out of their respective dazes.
"Malibu…" The man answered slowly.
"Malibu?" She paused. "What world is this?"
"I – beg your pardon?" The woman stammered.
Kloi frowned, but the man answered before she had a chance to say anything else.
"Earth." He said, matter-of-factly. Seeing no flash of recognition in her face, he tried again. "Maybe you call it Midgard?"
Kloi shook her head. "No. I have no knowledge of this world. It is as Aslan said – I must wait here until I can rejoin my brother." A shadow passed over her face. "But I do not know how to find him without – " She cut herself off.
"Without what?"
"It does not matter." She would trust the man, as Aslan said to, but she wouldn't speak of her crystal – or lack thereof – in front of the woman she wasn't to trust.
"Clearly it does if – "
"It does not matter." She cut the man off. "Would you mind telling me your names?"
"Tony Stark." He said cockily, as if he was some sort of big deal. "And this is my lovely girlfriend Pepper. Mind returning the favor?"
"Princess Kloi of Narnia."
Pepper gaped at her again, but Tony just raised an eyebrow and sighed. "Another one? Please tell me you don't have a psychotic brother intent on ruling my world?!"
Kloi bristled. "My brother destroys tyrants! He would never become one!"
"Please don't pay my pet idiot any mind." Pepper said soothingly, eying the ice that was beginning to creep up Kloi's arms. "This world very recently went through a devastating war when a man from another world tried to take over and rule as the great tyrant. He destroyed a city, and many lives. Tony is part of the crew that helped to fight him off, and isn't eager for something like that to happen again."
Kloi didn't answer, but calmed down a little as Tony grumbled about being called an idiot. Pepper rolled her eyes at him and continued, "Try to ignore him when he's being stupid. He doesn't know when to shut up, but he usually means no harm."
Kloi smiled a little at Tony's protesting yelp.
"Believe me, I am very good at ignoring things I find irritating. I've done it for most of my life."
The two women shared a smug look before Kloi remembered what Aslan had said, and broke eye contact with a frown.
"So… Where is Narnia, and how did you end up in the middle of my driveway?" Tony asked, trying to break the sudden tension.
"Narnia is… I don't know. And I think that my power brought me to you, I couldn't control it after – " She cut herself off again. "I was injured because I was in the middle of a battle. And then my power brought me here to protect me from the one who wants me dead. But she cannot reach me now."
Tony looked at her suspiciously. "After what?"
"It does not matter."
"You keep saying that."
"And I will continue to say it." She changed the subject abruptly, a niggling suspicion in the back of her mind. "The man who recently attacked this world – what is his name?"
"Loki." Tony returned. His eyes were angry, but the anger was not directed at her. "Speaking of the wretch – are you Elsa or something? What's up with the ice stuff?"
"Tony!" Pepper reproved, then she added gently for Kloi's benefit, "You don't have to tell us anything you don't want to."
"No, it's fine. Aslan said that I could trust the first people I meet." Kloi tweaked the truth just a little. After all, the Lion had said not to let them know that she didn't trust the woman.
"Oh, well, in that case…" Tony said expectantly.
"I can control water, ice, snow, and temperature." She left out her other powers. "At least, I can sort of control them. They are attached to my emotions and physical state – for example, when I am in pain, my powers are likely to lash out."
Tony raised his eyebrows. "You really are a little Elsa."
"I don't know what you mean. My name is Kloi. I am a witch."
"A what now?!"
Kloi sighed. This was going to be a long day…