The Last Chronicle

by Miss Starfire

After years of struggling to build their lives together, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts have lost everything. But as all-out war looms, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance, Tony and Pepper are ready to take it all back. It has all come down to this. Story 8 of 8. The epic finale to The Last Chronicles Saga.

4. Chapter 3

Guest Review Responses

Guest: WHYYYYYY?YOU INSANE ...GUHHHHHHHH. JUST WRITE A GODDAMN BOOK. FORGET THE CHALLENGE .I'M GONNA PUT A BULLET IN MY HEAD! – I should write a book. And I have one idea in mind for a real book. But first I want to finish all the IMAA ideas I have in mind. The new story that I will post after this one, also for Armored Adventures, is an AU. A rather chancy one. BTW? If you haven't read SilverPedals1402's A Heart of Dust and Gold, GO DO IT!

apps: Speechless...no words to say...just wondering where and how it will end...update...you are an awesome writer...hats off to your stories – The word "speechless" seems to be the common denominator for the last chapter. I wonder what's it gonna be for this one ;) Thank you so much for supporting me!

Toni: Can I just say WOW. You are awesome! The amount of PLANNING and CREATIVITY that went into writing this fic. I can't even begin to imagine it! I can't believe you had this planned from the start! Thank-you and congratulations on writing this series! Seriously. Whitney!? I'd like to her more about Pepper's thoughts on the whole 'Aldrich is your biological father' thing 'Dammit! I need more information!' Yeah. I hear ya buddy :) Thanks again! – LOL! I have, no lying, folders for each of the stories, calendars of the timeline and files upon files of how these stories come together. I have issues, it seems XDDD. Anyway, I'm happy you love it and that these efforts make your day. You will get more information here, too, but probably the kind you didn't want to know :(

Iron kid: Love the chapter as always I got a challenge for after u finish this story but I got idea for u next story it about baby James as teenager his mom and dad go miss he take over the iron mans suits to be the new iron man and keep New York save try found them on his journey his new friends,rivals and new and old enemies so I hope u take my idea because I you think can make this story – DUDE! ARE YOU READING MY MIND?! Almost 100% of what you just said, WILL happen. There's a few details changed, and I won't write that right after these stories, but the plot is already developed and it includes a lot of what you want to see. Now I know that least one person (and a lot more, I hope), will be interested in a sequel to this… I just hope you guys can wait for it :D

faithful reader: three words WHAT THE HELL – WHAT THE HELL, INDEED! Although, I'm predicting that the common theme for the reviews for this chapter will be: "HOW DARED YOU, MISS STARFIRE?!"

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Chapter 3

"Whitney," Tony said once he found his voice and pointed at the blonde. "WHITNEY?!"

The agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. nodded timidly to the inventor before she took out the Madame Masque mask from behind her back and waved it towards him to show to everyone how she had been going undercover with Doctor Doom.

"What the… the mask and you… and… what-what…?" Tony struggled to put together coherent words. "Has… has EVERYONE in here gone fucking INSANE?" Tony's arms waved in the air.

"I'm actually with Stark on this one," Gene said from his upright position behind Tony, pure self-control and his promise to Pepper to not kill Whitney the only two things keeping him from shredding the blonde to pieces where she stood. "Now I know for sure that this is a sick joke."

"It's not a joke," Fury shook his head. "This is as real as it gets. Agent Stane has been working with us for years, ever since Pepper advocated for her release from The Void. She's been paying back her punishment by working for us. She has many, many, many more years of service to offer."

"How do you even have the mask? We destroyed it and the duplicate," Tony seethed.

"I'm afraid that was my doing, Anthony," Howard Stark chimed in. "Nick approached me a few years ago about making a new version of the mask as payment for a favor I owed him. But, he had told me that the Black Widow was the one who would be using it." Howard fixed Fury with a hard glare.

"If you recall, Stark, my exact words to you were that I would be giving the mask to Black Widow," Nick replied, rather smugly. "And that's just what I did… and she held onto it until we were convinced that Agent Stane was ready to begin using it. So far, the new mask has worked out perfectly. Agent Stane has been using it almost constantly for over a year, with no signs of the psychosis that the original version caused."

"Agent? Agent Stane? I don't…" Tony exhaled and rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. "I don't believe this. I'm supposed to trust the word of both the woman who tried to kill Pepper, and the one that tried to kill my son? Do I have idiot, stamped on my forehead?"

"No, but you do have easily fooled tattooed all over you," Hawkeye retorted with a smirk. "Whitney has been working near you for a while."

"What?"

As if on cue, Whitney placed the mask on her face and turned into the most recent individual she had impersonated, leaving Tony and Pepper to gasp in surprise.

"Jonas?" Tony scoffed and threw his hands in the air, as if not being surprised was mandatory at this point. "You… You were piloting the jet the night it blew up?"

"Yes," Whitney said in Jonas' voice before she returned to her normal self. "We couldn't risk your pilot knowing the truth, and if we only had to rescue you two instead of him as well, the mission would be much easier for us. So we took that route."

Tony's eyes darted from staring at Whitney to over his shoulder to stare at an equally shocked Gene Khan behind him. "Did you know about this?"

"Does this look like the face of someone in the know?" Gene pointed to his angry face. "I only knew that Arthur Parks was part of it. He's the one who disabled the engines and turned off the lights."

This time, everyone's eyes landed on the Living Laser, who had joined the group between Fury's and Maya's explanations of what had been happening. The action made the man take a step back and raise his hands in a defensive stance.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I know I got carried away with the creepy song in your alarm clock, but I was told to make it believable. Ya know, in case Doc Doom was listening in, somehow. They… they didn't tell me how. So I improvised."

Tony rapidly shook his head left and right. "Rain, rain: go away. Tony Stark dies today," the blue-eyed scientist repeated. "That was you?"

Arthur's only response was to nod and shrug apologetically, and Tony simply threw his head back in disbelief. "I should've known. I should've known better than that!"

"We all should've known better," Howard said, finally partly able to return to a somewhat normal state after hearing the fate of his tragically departed wife. "And I think we've also heard enough for one day. I… I need time to think."

"We all do," Rhodey said, his glare poking holes in Nick, Maya and Maria. "It's late, anyway. It's been a long day and we need to rest."

"Agreed," Maria said with a nod. "The rest of the levels have been cleared for use. We may all return to our regular living quarters, at least for tonight."

"And then?" Rhodey asked, hands turned into fists, now understanding what Fury had meant by his presence here being as a friend of the Starks and not an agent of SHIELD: his contribution in this sham had been kept to a minimum in an effort to keep him and everyone else in the dark.

"Is there anything else we need to know, Sir?"

"Plenty," Fury said, seeing the unblemished defiance in his underling. "But like you all said: now is not the time."

There were no immediate arguments against Fury's words, but before everyone trickled out of the room to head to the upper levels of the structure, Trish approached the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. with an unreadable look on her face. The petite woman stood before the tall man, eyed him up and down and waited patiently until Nick acknowledged her.

"Mrs. Stark?" Fury gave her an almost respectful nod, though it was still eerie to him how said title could apply to both to Trish and Pepper Potts. "Is there something you want to say to me?"

"Yes," she nodded. "But, it's more of a question. A general wondering, if you may."

"Alright. What would that be?"

"How…" Trish paused and tilted her head to the side. "How do you sleep at night?"

The look on Fury's face denoted he was taken aback by the random inquiry. Yet, before he was able to even think of a good reply, he found himself on his back on the floor, punched right in the face by none other than Trish Stark.

"With a conscious like yours," her glaring eyes looked down at him, "you deserve to lose the other eye."

The commotion made everyone return to the room to see Nick rubbing his chin, staring almost in awe at the wife of Howard Stark. It was not as if the impact had been severe enough to break any bones, but the simple fact that the most reserved and quiet of all the women in here had just taken him by surprise – him, the head of the most powerful international organization in the world – was something that Fury could not help but admire.

"The Starks sure know how to pick them," Nick said, almost mockingly as he stood up. "I'd hate to be there when the laughter stops."

"Then you'll hate your life tomorrow," Diane Tincher said, standing beside an upset Trish and being flanked by Bambi, Roberta and Lila. "It's not only the Starks that know how to pick them. You'll find that out."

With those words, Nick Fury finally realized that a rather long line had just formed behind Trish, with the single intent of ripping him a new one.

xxxXXXxxx

When she opened her eyes again, it only took her half a second to remember where she was. Perhaps not the actual location or its name, but she knew that whatever dimension they were currently in had to have been accessed by one of Gene's Makluan rings during their efforts to escape the exploding base of operations of Iron Man. It actually did not matter to her where they were or how long they had been here; what she wanted to know was the way out.

"Gene," Pepper whispered to herself as she again 'swam' back to where the Mandarin still floated in midair, rings and armor not shinning any longer, yet she did not dare to touch him or the rings once more. She was not sure why the Makluan rings were suddenly rejecting her touch – it had never happened before – but she knew she could not pass out again.

"Please, Gene…"

She covered her mouth with her hands as a sign of desperation and fear for his wellbeing. She could now see that the humid sensation she had felt when she had woken up the first time had been blood. His blood. The lack of gravity and large amount released from his body were creating a river of plasma, far reaching enough to have woken her up the first time around.

"Gene, can you hear me?"

Silence was the Mandarin's only response.

Oh, please, please, please don't be dead!

Pepper could feel her heart racing and her eyes beginning to sting, but she did not break down – she could not afford the luxury of curling up into a ball to cry. She had been in worse situations by herself and without any help, but this time around it was different and she knew it to be true. This time around, it was not only her life that was at stake. This time around, Gene's life depended on her, and she had nothing at hand to help him.

"Gene, please… wake up… please…"

Her words fell on deaf ears. Gene was not reacting at all.

What do I do? What am I supposed to do?

She had no way to call anyone for aid. She had no idea where she was or how much longer she would be able to remain there. Was her presence here directly proportional to Gene's conscious will? If Gene never woke up, would she remain here forever, starve and then die with him? Would the oxygen ever run out? Would she become older at a rapid pace? Would Gene bleed to death here…

And, now that she noticed them, what the fuck were those markings on Gene's body?

She rubbed her eyes with the balls of her hands, wondering if her eyes were betraying her. She then blinked a few times, rubbed her eyes again, and it was then that she realized she was not seeing things… not per se. She was just seeing things that she had not seen before; things that were already part of Gene's body that she just now happen to notice.

She could not even begin to describe what she was seeing, but she was starting to remember she had seen it before. It had not been the same color or as prominent, but she recalled the first time she had seen these colored-areas on a person's body before. It had been on Nick Fury, when she had first woken up after the jet explosion, and something had taken over her actions, words and thoughts.

The darkness, Pepper remembered uttering those words once before. It must have meant something to Fury based on the look he had given her when she brought it up, but she had not given it much thought until now. Gene did not have any dark spots on him in the same way Fury did, but he did have some very deep-colored ones on his stomach, head and chest.

"Am I seeinghis injuries?" she asked aloud. "Am I seeing through his armor?"

Before she was able to answer her own questions – before she was able to try to make sense of what she was seeing, her hands brushed his rings again, albeit unintentionally, and she instantly braced for impact. This time, however, the rings rejection was not overpowering. It still stung and left her skin tingling, but something within her made her remain awake, strong, as if her body had suddenly learned how to deal with that particular type of pain.

"We're getting out of here," Pepper said with determination as she began examining the rings, ignoring the fact that the artifacts continued to try to shock her, and completely unaware that her pupils had dilated to the point that her hazel eyes were practically no more.

xxxXXXxxx

It was nearly midnight when he found finally her, right where he knew she would be after checking every other possible place in the building. He knew she was not the only one having a difficult time dealing with the aftermath of the last 24-hours – everyone else was also currently handling the clusterfuck of appalling news in their own way. Yet, from everybody now living in this blasted underground structure against their will, Pepper's pain was the worst of them all. Her pain related to crippling self-blame, and her guilt was of the unforeseen kind: the type that creeps up in you after realizing you inadvertently ruined everyone else's lives.

From all the places in the structure, Pepper had chosen the medical ward to experience some personal time. And from all the rooms in the medical ward, she had settled for the only padded room that had before been used to keep mental patients from injuring others and themselves – a reflection of Pepper's current feelings at the moment. A precise representation of how she viewed herself right now.

"A menace to herself and others," Gene's mind recalled Tony's earlier words today when he had gone to search for Pepper in the couple's room and the Mandarin had found out the duo had had a fight. "That's what she said to me. She didn't even let me say anything else. She didn't let me convince her otherwise. She just stormed out and told me to let her be."

The reasons why Tony had not chased after his ginger were multiple: she was upset, she told him to leave her alone (and she could not get in trouble in here), and he had to settle his own demons before he could attempt to settle hers. Yet, the single most important reason why Tony was yet to look for her, a couple of hours after Pepper had left their room in a fit of rage, was because of Gene. Gene had told him to listen to her and to let her be for now, to let him talk to her first, and to use the rest of the night preparing for when she came back to him.

"She'll come back when she's ready," Gene had told Tony. "Just be prepared for when she does."

His presence near her was not a surprise to Pepper. She had felt him coming when he had reached the stairs to the medical floor. She was not sure how much of her awareness and knowledge of his incoming company was due to her newfound ability and how much of it was due to Gene's brief aura training. In either case, she knew she felt different somehow, more constantly now, and she hated herself for it.

He silently approached her and sat to her left on the floor. She was sitting against the back wall, as far away from the only entrance of the room, as if she had personally committed herself to remain in an insane asylum. Her back was pressed against the wall's soft covering and her legs were bent towards her chest. Her arms surrounded her knees and her chin rested on her forearms, and the look on her face told of how much agony she was currently in.

There were many other things he could have noticed of her at that instant, even in the dim light of the room: the way her eyes showed how lost she felt; the trails of dried tears down her cheeks; or how broken her entire form appeared. Yet, the only thing that immediately caught Gene's eyes was the fact that her wedding and engagement rings were gone from her left hand.

He knew for a fact that she had had them on her person all this time, even before Virgil had handed Tony some of the very few personal belongings the family had managed to salvage before Fury had ordered them into seclusion. Her jewelry box, some old pictures of them, her scrapbooks, the necklace Tony had given her, Tony's pocket watch and dog tags, among other items, were all safely stored in a box in Tony and Pepper's current quarters. The one thing that had never left their fingers, at no point whatsoever – on either Tony or Pepper – had been: their rings.

The same rings that were now in her closed right hand, burning her skin with the feeling of a discovered love façade and despite the fact that Tony's ring was still very much attached to the appropriate finger on his left hand, as he had completely refuted the harsh words that Maya had uttered to them about their bond.

Finally, and after a long period of silence and stillness, Gene decided it was time to bring the redhead back to reality to face the truths she refused to believe as facts.

"You should be angry," Gene whispered, knowing that a soft tone of voice was best to approach her for now. "No one can blame you for that. It's your right to be angry at finding out you're something other than what you thought you were. You didn't choose to be that. You were just born that way."

Pepper internalized his words for a moment, and she almost scoffed at them until she slowly realized the actual weight they had coming from him. He, the great Gene Khan, who had later in his life realized he was not exclusively human. Gene Khan: the half-Makluan that had spent his entire life searching for what he had been told was his birthright, even before he knew how much the purpose of his existence in this world had already been decided for him before he had been born.

Yes: Gene understood what was crossing her mind – what plagued her heart and soul. But that did not mean that her reasons were less valid or would go away by simply coming to terms with whom she was – with what she was.

"Anger won't make it any less real," she whispered back as a summary of her thoughts and slightly surprised at her voice coming out before she even realized she was speaking again. "Anger won't change the fact that I'm the daughter of a screwed-up man – a serial and cold-blooded murderer who killed so many innocent women, including mine and my husband's mother. Anger won't change the fact that me being alive has caused so much pain, to so many people. Or the fact that my son is nothing more than the result of a science experiment. Or the fact Tony and I are together only because that's what a virus determined we should be."

"You're right," Gene said after a pause. "Anger won't make it any less real, but it does cloud our judgement. Makes us either see things that aren't really there, or blinds us from seeing the truth, even when it's staring us in the face."

"That's not anger," she scoffed. "That's just Extremis in me that apparently helps me see people's auras when I'm stressed."

"And, are you stressed now?"

"Yes. Among other things."

"So?" Gene said with a tilt of the head, for the first time staring at directly her since he had walked inside. "What do you see in me?"

Pepper could not stop her head from turning to face him, and her eyes from dilating for a few seconds, allowing her to see what she was not yet aware her son could pinpoint with better accuracy than she could ever hope to do.

"Right now?" she questioned once her eyes returned to normal and in turn her sight did. She then straightened her face once more. "You're calm. Very… serene."

"How can you tell?" he asked, and Pepper simply shrugged, not at all sure herself how exactly she was able to interpret what she saw. Gene then concentrated on his next set of feelings, and then asked the redhead to read him once again.

"Huh," she creased her brow as she read him again. "That's… weird…"

"What is?"

"Wow, it… it changed. So quickly."

"And?"

"How can that be?" she asked herself, her eyes traveling up and down his body as she pieced together what she had already seen a few hours ago, just not on him. In fact, she had been seeing everybody's emotions through their auras, one person at a time, ever since Maya had revealed the situation at hand to all of them. It did not matter how much she had tried so far, the poor redhead had not been able to stop herself from reading and seeing the effects of everyone's feelings around their forms. It was driving her crazy and it also increased the guilt within her.

"You… you're still calm, but you're also anxious and… happy, but … also sad… and hopeful… and…" she was unable to finish her description when it dawned on her that the last thing she saw in him was desire, akin to a softer version of lust.

"What," she swallowed hard and looked away. "What on Earth are you thinking about, Gene?"

"You," he told her without missing a beat. "I'm thinking about you."

Pepper closed her eyes and the tears returned, and not only because she still felt shame for Gene having unrequited feelings for her, but because Gene's current aura status resembled Tony's when she had walked out on him hours ago. The only difference was that in Tony, the presence of yearning and what she could only assume was love were about ten times brighter than what she had just seen in Gene, and that Tony's colors had also resembled fear.

"He… he doesn't love me," she opened her eyes and angrily wiped her tears. "He only thinks that he does."

"Extremis lets you read his mind, too?"

"No," she replied. "But I know what he's thinking. It makes sense, actually, what Maya said."

"Which part?"

"That Extremis is the only reason why Tony and I can't be apart. I didn't want to believe it, or even think about it, but it's true. So true. The first time Tony willingly touched me in a way that couldn't be absolutely written off as a gesture of pure friendship, was the day he used Extremis to fix his heart. And the rest… we all know how it turned out."

"I don't think that's true."

"It is," she sniffled. "I remember thinking it was odd, that when I ran to him to see that he was alright, his hands reached out for mine. He then hugged me and Rhodey and picked us up, and when he put us back down, he grabbed my hands again. He… he'd never done that. Ever. It was always me initiating any contact with him, and he rarely responded to it. Until then, he hardly hugged me back. I think he started reciprocating after a while just so that I wouldn't feel like a loser for having a crush on him when he clearly did not have one back."

"So, you're saying that Tony never liked you until Extremis kicked in? Is that what you think happened?"

"Yes! That's exactly what I'm saying happened! Looking back now, thinking about the many times I tried to show him how I felt for him… he never… he…" her eyes filled with tears again. "He never gave me hope. He wasn't rude about it, but he always made it clear that he wasn't interested in me like that. He… he dated Whitney and he didn't tell me about it because he knew it'd hurt me… he… he didn't take the invitation to kiss me…"

Pepper closed her eyes again as she tried to forget the feeling of disappointment she had experienced when, after finding out who Force and Shockwave were, and she had asked Tony what was stopping him from kissing her for a job well done, he had all but chosen to ignore her offer.

"If… if it weren't for Extremis in him… if it weren't for it in me… He… we… we wouldn't be… we shouldn't even be… " she added the last part while staring at her rings resting in the palm of her hand.

Pepper's words were interrupted when she felt Gene's hands on her cheeks, slowly turning her to face him. He closed his eyes and shortened the distance between them, and just when Pepper feared he was about to kiss her, he simply pressed their foreheads together and uttered a single word.

"No," he exhaled deeply, before adding: "You're wrong."

Afore to Pepper asking him to explain what he meant and what he was trying to do, she felt her entire body go stiff. She closed her eyes, felt electricity trail up and down her body, and she gasped sharply when she realized what Gene had done.

"I've been in Tony's mind more times than I should be allowed to claim I have," Gene's voice resounded in her head. "If you won't believe me you're wrong… if you won't believe his words… then maybe you should feel what's in his heart."

Suddenly, Pepper's mind's eye opened, and she was back in a familiar hall. She was standing by Tony's locker, or so she thought, staring at the other students passing by, until she saw herself walking toward where she stood.

"Tony!" she heard herself say as she waved. "Sorry I'm late!"

"It's OK," she felt herself reply, but it was not said in her voice. It was Tony's. She was Tony. She was him, from head to toe, seeing the world of this memory from his perspective as he had experienced it. "I just got here."

He's lying, real-life Pepper thought. I can feel him lying. He… he was waiting for me!

Pepper knew what was coming, she remembered that day. It was the first Valentine's Day that Tony had experienced at a school, and he had claimed that it made him sick.

"What held you up?" Tony asked. "Teacher lost track of time?"

"No, I… well…" memory-Pepper bit her bottom lip and real-life Pepper felt Tony's heart skip a beat at that. She felt his eyes land on her mouth, something she had not realized had transpired when it had happened, and he then discretely licked his lips at the gesture before he busied himself by pretending to use his phone.

"Got detention again?"

"No. Nothing bad. Just… this guy. He gave me this."

Real-life Pepper felt Tony's innards churning when he gazed at the single flower she had been given by a student she hardly every spoke to. A myriad of questions ran through Tony's mind, from who the hell this guy was to wondering if Pepper was even interested. The one thing that real-life Pepper felt the most, however, was a particular feeling that made Tony shake where he stood.

"He's… jealous?" Pepper asked herself in shock in her mind, recalling very clearly that the inventor had seemed everything but concerned with the whole affair. "Tony's jealous?"

"He's more than jealous," Gene replied and then the memory changed. This time, real life-Pepper was again Tony, waiting outside the school, resting his back against the wall, moving only when the guy who had given her the flower walked out.

"Hey! You! Matthew, right?" Tony said and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder to stop him.

"Yeah? Uhm, oh, hi, Tony! What up?"

"Not much," Tony shrugged. "Well, actually, there's something I wanted to ask you."

"What is that?"

"It's about Pepper."

"Oh, yeah! That cutie! What about her?"

"What are your intentions with her?"

Real-life Pepper's current face was the same one she could see on Matthew's face.

"What's it to ya?" Matthew asked with a frown. "You guys dating or what?"

"No, of course not," Tony replied, even though Pepper could feel and hear what he had actually wanted to say, but he had not had the courage to voice.

"She's just my friend. One of my best friends. And I just wanted to make sure you aren't gonna mess her up."

"Oh," Matthew said and paused, clearly thinking about an appropriate response. In turn, Tony eyed the boy up and down, thought about a million reasons why the guy was not right for his redheaded friend, and then had to hold back the need to lie about his and Pepper's relationship status to get him to retreat.

"Well," Matthew began. "I just wanted to ask her out. To get to know her better. What do you recommend I do?"

Back the fuck off, real-life Pepper heard Tony think while she felt irritation quickly rising in him. In the end, however, Tony simply shrugged in a nonchalant manner before he spoke again.

"I don't know what to tell you man. As far as I know, she already likes someone."

"She does?"

"Yeah," Tony cleared his throat. "Gene. You know that guy? The one with the glasses?"

"Gene Khan?"

"Yeah. That's the one. She talks about him all day. I think she really, really, really likes him."

"Oh," Matthew's voice dripped disappointment. "I… I didn't know that."

"Well, now you do. Sorry, man."

The memory suddenly dissipated and it was then replaced by a different one and, when that one finished, another took its place, and then another and another, all non-stop; all instances in which Tony had thought of Pepper as more than just a friend, even before he realized what he was starting to feel for her: his jealousy at hearing Pepper become spellbound by Gene; the unfounded anger at seeing the redhead walk Gene out from the abandoned warehouse; the fear in his gut at potentially losing her when the Fire Guardian at Mt. Saint Helens controlled her; his possessiveness when he found out she was going out with Happy…

All of them, multiple occasions in which she had no idea what had been crossing his mind or situations she thought she knew how he had felt or thought. All moments in which she would have bet her spleen that Tony did not like her like she liked him. But she was wrong. Oh, so completely wrong!

Thanks to Gene, she could not only be the witness of the progression of his feelings for her, but sense them first-hand as well. She could hear his internal arguments with himself; one side telling him to make a move, the other telling him not to ruin the friendship. His arguments then evolved from fearing ruining the friendship to wanting to keep her safe, mostly after Obadiah had taken her hostage, and that was not even counting how he had almost lost his cool when Rhodey had told him what Stane had done to her.

She could feel his desperation, his anguish, his growing need to have her nearby, to touch her, to hear her voice, to make her laugh. She felt herself drowning in his constant battle with himself, wondering what the best course of action was. She saw the dedication he put into creating her armor, how much he tested, retested and triple tested the resistance of the suit, all while keeping her absolute safety in mind.

She could feel that after Extremis finally took over and repaired his heart – the moment she had just been cursing to no end – was actually the instance that had helped unravel what he felt inside.

Extremis had been the catalyst for his realizing his feelings for her.

Extremis had allowed him to open up his heart.

Extremis had not been the reason for his love for her – it had only allowed him to take the plunge.

With Extremis, he felt more in control of his life – more capable of defending and protecting those he loved. And even though the word love was at that point not yet associated with what he felt for her, he at least started to act on his crush.

Tony had been conflicted, for many months, before he had ever made a move, and it was now that she realized why that picture of their faces dirtied up with ice cream was so important to him – why he had placed it in his pocket watch. It had been that moment, that particular day, that Tony had finally accepted it all: the day he had finally come to terms, without a shadow of a doubt, that he had been falling for his redheaded friend, all along.

And he had been OK with that.

His heart had almost exploded in happiness, in excitement, at thinking of the possibilities, of what could become of them together. And everything he had said and done after that, finally made sense for Pepper: the increased physical contact; the kiss and the hug after the Makluan battle; the need to pick her up at home to walk her to school; his almost illogical jealousy of Happy hugging her… his words following his unspoken confession… his actions… every single one of them…

The forceful yet gentle command made her stop her efforts to move away. He then laced his right hand on hers and pressed them both onto his chest. Pepper was surprised to feel how rapid his heart was working, and she wondered if he could feel her similarly pounding one through his shirt on his back.

"That's all your doing, Pep," he admitted of his fast-pacing heart.

Pepper closed her eyes, not sure what to say but enjoying the declaration nonetheless. She felt him turn around while still in her embrace, and a moment later he ended up facing her, his hands tenderly surrounded her cheeks with his fingertips resting on the back of her neck, and he silently waited for her to look at him. She finally opened her eyes once more and held his gaze as steady as she could as he spoke again.

"Any chance you'd like to give this jerk a shot?"

"Are you offering to be the rebound, Tony Stark?" she asked with a tone that told him she was joking about the rebound part and with a smile on her face.

Tony shrugged and returned the smile, still holding her face in his hands. "I'll take what I can get for now," he joked back.

Her face suddenly turned serious. "Are you sure, Tony?"

"What do you mean, Pepper? Of course I'm sure. I've been sure for a long time."

"Sure for a long time," Pepper found herself saying aloud before another shared memory came to her mind.

"I don't, but that doesn't mean they don't apply, or that everyone else doesn't care for them either and that they won't be trying to enforce them, or that I won't be feeling the effects of them. It's a fact of life… or at least at school. But, hey! They'll only bother me until you and I break up or when school's over; whichever comes first," she finished with a shrug and a weak smile.

"Then I guess it's going to be a long last month at school, huh? Or a very long life, if those rules still apply after graduation," Tony said with a soft smile as he waited for the implicit meaning of his words to befall the redhead. She narrowed her eyes at him as his words repeated in her mind, and once she understood what he had meant, she blushed.

She heard him chuckle when she rested her forehead on his chest to hide her flushed face, groaning and cursing under her breath at his damned charm.

"You are thinking way ahead of yourself, Tony. Like, light-years ahead."

"A light-year is a measure of distance, not time, Pep."

"He did care…" Pepper felt the tears appear again, but this time they were a show of relief, of renewed love and hope. "Even way back then… he did love me."

"What they want is for you and I to break up, Tony," she responded bitterly.

"Well, they are shit out of luck, alright? I'm not going to let a stupid prank get in the way of us."

He used his thumbs to wipe away her tears before he bent down and kissed her square on the lips. Everyone's eyes – including Rhodey's – widened in surprise since it was uncommon to see any couple in school be involved in PDA in the halls, and not even when he had dated Whitney did anyone see Tony and the blonde kiss anywhere else but on the cheek. After a few seconds, Tony finally pulled away and gave the redhead a smile.

"Poor Tony..." her tears were now of guilt. She had walked out of their room, mad and distraught, doubting his words and his feelings for her, thinking she was absolutely correct in her assumptions. She now realized she had no leg to stand on. Her arguments were wrong. She was wrong. Again. She had always been wrong, every time she had ever doubted his feelings for her.

"I was wrong, Pep. Very wrong. I'm sorry for what I said and what I did to you. I'm sorry for getting you into this mess. I'm sorry I accused you of something you didn't do. I'm no better than Ms. Jones. I did to you the same thing she did. I don't know what came over me. I just… I…"

Tony gritted his teeth and closed his eyes again. His right hand formed a fist and he lightly tapped the window with it with every broken phrase he uttered.

"I was a jerk… an idiot… I wasn't thinking… I was…" he licked his lips and inhaled deeply.

He had not planned to confess to her what he had been feeling, but that had been before he had known about the possibility of never seeing her again. The tables had turned; the rules had changed, and the role he was being forced to carry out was not one of his liking. And yet he would play the game; he would bring down the veil that sometimes surrounded him and eat his pride if that was what it took for the girl to know he was sincerely regretful for what he had done.

"Jealous, Pepper," he finally said. "I was jealous… I didn't want Happy to touch you. I didn't want to see you with him. I know how it sounds, but…" his left hand turned into a fist. "But I couldn't help it. I don't want to see you with anyone else… ever again… not anyone else but me…"

He looked up to see that Pepper's mouth was slightly ajar, and that her arms had come down to rest on her sides but she was still standing in the same place as before. Tony's eyes landed on hers and he pressed his body closer to the window before he spoke again.

"Don't leave for California, Pepper. Team Iron Man needs Rescue, and I… need you."

The ginger's shoulders sagged. Her eyes closed. And for the millionth time in the past few minutes, she felt as if there would never be ample ways to show Tony how repentant she was for what she had done to him, hours ago.

"Is that enough?" Gene finally asked after the last memory completely dissipated and he slowly pulled his face away from Pepper's. "Or do I need to show you more?"

"No," she shook her head, opened her eyes and then thanked him with her glistening and dilated orbs, unconsciously seeing honesty pour out of him with every word. "I don't need to see any more."

xxxXXXxxx

"Finally!" Pepper almost jolted in happiness when she recognized the ring that she knew had sent them to a different dimension. She knew she could not make it work, at least not by herself since she did not have the Dragonseed in her, but she knew that if she relied on Gene's teachings about chi and aura sensing, she could get them both out.

"Hang in there, Gene," Pepper pleaded to her friend. "I'm gonna save you. I promise. I'm not going to let you die."

Seconds turned into minutes even though it felt they were in a land where time stood still. She closed her eyes, concentrated all her energy and thoughts, took deep breaths and got to work. All she had to do was trick the rings into thinking it was Gene wielding them. All she had to do was manipulate his chi enough to temporarily supplant her own energy with his. If she 'borrowed' enough of his energy and redirected it back at the ring with the mental command for it to take them back to Earth, back to wherever Tony was at the moment, it might be enough to make it respond. The idea seemed simple enough – as everything in theory seemed to be. Yet in practice, it was an entirely different animal; a completely different wild life to tame.

It was risky. It was tedious. And it was not guaranteed to work. But she had no other choice. They had no other choice. It was the only way they would survive.

Survive.

The keyword for her Extremis to work.

And once again, it did.

xxxXXXxxx

The next morning, Tony was the first one to wake up. This time, however, it was the second opening of his eyes of the day. The first one had occurred two hours ago, before the alarm had gone off, and he had done so only to prevent it from waking up a tired Pepper with its loud noise.

Pepper, the simple thinking of her name brought a happy, stupid-looking grin to his face despite all the chaos and destruction that currently plagued the rest of the world; the memory of the unexpected events of last night, still fresh in his mind.

The sudden unlocking of the door in their living quarters surprised him, but not as much as the current look on her face did. He jumped from the edge of their small bed where he had been anxiously waiting for her return ever since Gene had told him to leave it all up to him. Tony was not sure what it was that Gene could do that he himself could not do for his own wife, but in desperate situations, desperate solutions did end up being all he had left.

"Pepper, please," he began, mere steps from her incoming form as she entered the room. "Let me – ugh!"

At first, Tony thought that she had either slapped him hard or punched him in the face. The force of the impact on him almost knocked him onto his butt, but he held on to her arms to prevent the fall. He then felt his body being spun quickly, almost violently so and, next thing he knew, he was pressed against one of the walls of the room with Pepper's hands and body rummaging all over him.

"I'm sorry," she barely got out between overly zealous kisses that left no room for question about her intentions with him just now. Tony returned her kisses with equal passion and need as he felt coming from her, but his still opened eyes and partly hesitant touches told her he was confused as hell.

"I'm sorry, Tony," she repeated before she began nibbling on his neck. "I'm so sorry!"

He closed his eyes, threw his head back against the wall and dug his fingers into her sides. There had been many occasions that Pepper had been in his present position and many others when she had taken her share of initiative in bed. None of those times, however, not in the years they had been together, had he ever felt as overpoweringly desired by her as he currently did. It was not awkward, just new – and definitely not unwelcomed. Yet, something inside of him told him to be wary, to not just blindly accept the way she was hastily making him lose all rational thought and the little control he currently had over his very being.

As much as he wanted to let her lead, to let her have her way with him in whatever way she wanted, he simply could not. Especially not after he had no idea what was crossing her mind, after knowing how upset she had been and how much they had been put through in the past two days. Most especially, not after she had left his side, hours ago, ready to once again attempt to end it all without looking back.

Suddenly, a heartbreaking thought crossed his mind. With self-control he thought no man would have been able to muster after the woman he loved had him half undressed, pinned to a wall and was in route to being undressed herself, Tony abruptly stopped her trails of kisses down his exposed chest and pulled her back to face him. He swallowed hard, licked his lips and held her wrists in his hands, all the while searching her eyes for the truth – for the reasoning behind her actions of now.

When she stared at him dumbfounded, unable to make sense of his own movements while she breathed hard, and he did not move for an eternity, Pepper frowned in a way that made Tony want to take a step back. In a swift move, she was able to partially reverse their roles by using the grip he had on her to her advantage. She guided her arms toward the wall behind him, twisted her hands, and then ended up being the one grabbing onto his wrists. Just like that, Tony was now at her mercy using strength he was not aware she even had, and while he could still have easily pushed her away, he was so confused and aroused that the thought never entered his mind.

He opted to loosen up his tense muscles and kissed her back, more intensely than before. Just as he expected, she eventually loosen the hold she had on his arms, and when she moved her hands to his back, Tony took the opportunity to pull away ever so slightly and asked the most pressing question he had in his mind.

"Are you saying goodbye?"

She grinned against his lips while she shook her head vehemently, answering his question between kisses and almost out of breath.

"Never," she kissed his closed eyes. "Never again," she kissed his face. "Not in a million years," she finished her response by adding: "Now shut up and kiss me back, you jerk!"

He barely had time to chuckle before she silenced him with kisses once more.

He slowly turned around in the bed until he once again faced the back side of his redhead. He pushed himself closer to her bare body, ran his left hand down her face, shoulder, arm and hip, and then lazily rested his arm around her waist. He pressed his chest to her back, kissed her shoulder and slid his nose up her neck, and then felt the positive results of his efforts in the form of goosebumps trailing down her skin.

"Is it time yet?" she was barely able to get out. The previous day had been stressing enough, finding out most of the things that had been kept a secret from them, and today promised to be another day of harsh truths. The world still depended on them and S.H.I.E.L.D. An unknown number of lives had still been lost, on a global scale. Their son was still being kept in Latveria, and Doctor Doom was still set on exerting his revenge. None of the problems had changed overnight. Nothing had fixed itself or had gotten better on its own. Nothing had magically turned into a figment of their imagination.

But something had undoubtedly shifted between them last night.

"Nobody has come knocking on our door," Tony whispered to her, inhaling her scent without discretion, blatantly letting her know and wanting her to know that he was basking in her presence. From all the times they had made love, last night had been the first time that it had felt the way it had. It had felt as if all these years there had been an invisible wall neither of them had known was there, and it had somehow crumbled after their fight, leaving them closer than they had ever thought they could be. Perhaps it had been the result of pent-up frustrations or the lack of intimacy in the past few weeks. Or maybe it was just the fact that Extremis had been on high alert in both of them.

"Do you want to sleep a little longer?" he tenderly kissed her cheek. "I can get started while you rest."

"No," she said almost immediately even though she was struggling to open her eyes. The events of the previous day had taken a toll on her, that much was true, and after learning from Gene how deep and intense Tony's affection for her actually was, her emotions had been shaken to exhaustion as well.

"I have to hear this," she placed her left arm on his. "I have to find out what else we need to know."

"I don't want to think how much worse it can get," he confessed to her. "I'm honestly tired of this act Fury keeps pulling on us. I'm so tired of all of them!"

"I'm tired, too," the redhead said and then turned to face the blue-eyed inventor. "But after today, there's nothing they'll be able to keep from us. With everyone else here, including Rhodey and Gene, they'll have no option but to spill the beans on everything. Or we'll all go crazy on their ass."

Tony chuckled and gave her a small nod. "Especially Trish. I didn't know she had it in her."

"I know. But you'd be surprised what people do when they're pushed just right. I mean, you and I are no strangers to that, but it's expected that we kick ass. Trish, Diane… even Roberta, they're not very physical. Not even trained. But I have a feeling that before this is over, we're all gonna have to learn something new or will have to do something we aren't used to doing or would want to do."

And that scares me the most; he wanted to say but did not. Instead, he simply nodded to her, kissed her lips slowly, and when he finally pulled back to admire her sleepy face, he was glad to see her smile.

"Shower?" she asked with a wink and a smirk.

"Before or after?" he teased, earning him an even wider smile from her.

"How about during?"

xxxXXXxxx

The meeting room felt crowded again, more so than it had felt like the day before, yet no one dared to leave or even voice their complaints about it. Fury had promised them the rest of the information they so desperately wanted to know, and they would not end this meeting until it was all up in the air. Today was not any old day – it was the last day of being in the dark, of the truth being kept from them, and soon enough they would be on their way to planning the most intricate and dangerous counterattack that any of them had ever been a part of.

The people present we are all the same as before – Whitney Stane included, but the environment felt a tad less formal than yesterday. No one was sure why the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. was leaving his guard down; maybe the hit Trish had landed on him had made a difference overnight – or perhaps it was just that he too was tired of keeping up the circus for so many years.

"He was weak when he came back," Maya began unceremoniously, yet she easily caught the attention of everyone in the room. "Doctor Doom suffered a great deal while in the hands of Yogthulu. I'm surprised he made it out, to be honest."

The brunette's posture showed she was as exhausted as everyone else was. She rested the back of her head against the top of the chair she was sitting in, rested her hands on her lap, and then stared at the ceiling while she relayed the rest of the story – as if she was able to watch it unfold before her.

"He was weak for years after that. He wouldn't admit it, but he was on edge, jumpy even. That's why he set up the bounty. Because he couldn't take you out himself. Aldrich told me that Yogthulu is… was an extremely cruel creature. He said that Doctor Doom had to watch his fiancée die, over and over again, while he was trapped in that dimension with it."

The reminder that Victor von Doom had at some point been almost a normal human, with a family and people he cared about, did nothing for anyone in the room. It did not matter who he had been before – what mattered was who he was today and what he had done to them and to the world.

"I got in because Aldrich told me he was working on a very important cure for cancer," Maya continued. "That it had been commissioned by S.H.I.E.L.D. He told me he needed a geneticist and botanist and, and since I was both of those and also a complete nobody and his stepdaughter, I accepted his offer without question. He told me that this research was historic, showed me the records of what this virus could do in the right hands… He didn't tell me he had been the only one working on Extremis all those years, or that he had created it. And by the time any of us realized he was working for Doom, all we could do was play it out. As weak as Doom was, he had plenty of tech at his disposal. We, S.H.I.E.L.D. and I, we didn't want him to just let loose in the world what he did yesterday. Not until we were ready to fight back."

"But you failed," Tony deadpanned. He had his back hunched, his forearms resting on his thighs, and his eyes fixated on the floor. "You fucked it up more than it needed to be. You should've just told me when you first found out. I'd… I wouldn't have let this happen. Any of it."

"Just as now, there wouldn't have been anything you could've done, Stark," Fury said. "Or anyone, for that matter. Doom covered all his bases. He knew what you would do about weapons being accessible to anyone but you. He had all of us by the balls. Our hands were tied."

"I'd buy that your hands were tied," Pepper said from her position to Tony's right. As opposed to his hunched posture, Pepper was sitting upright, arms and legs crossed, with a menacing look on her face. "But I don't buy that he had you by the balls. You have none."

Despite the grim situation, Tony looked back to her with a smirk, proud of his wife's quick wit. She replied to his approval with a quick tilt of her head.

"Anyway," Maria Hill began. "It took Doctor Doom a few weeks after his return to gather enough strength to set up the bounty. Fifty million in U.S. dollars. Thirty million for Pepper, so that she would be the first likely target, and cause Tony as much pain as possible with her death. The remaining twenty for Tony himself. He summoned everyone and anyone who had known you and had a score to settle with you. Almost everyone agreed to join. All but one person."

"Who?" Tony asked, wondering who of all his enemies had taken a pass at becoming a legend overnight.

"The Ghost," Maya replied and Tony immediately tensed. "He said that he'd make more money blackmailing you. He said you were worth more alive."

Pepper's eyes sought out the genius' but he remained focused on the floor before him as his mind replayed the events of that day.

"There you are!" Ghost said and aimed one of his new laser grenade guns toward the couple. And without shields to protect them, all Iron Man could do was move out of the way. It was difficult to walk around the collapsing structure at the same time that they were being shot at, so Tony flew them both to the nearest window, rearranged Pepper so that most of her body was protected by his, and jumped…

From the tenth floor.

One of his armored boots failed him on the way out and their landing was sketchy at best, but he still managed to keep her from taking any damage from the fall. Ghost was right behind them, jumped out of the same window Tony had just broken, disappeared in midair, and then landed softly on the ground just a few feet before them. Tony quickly jumped to his feet and stood in front of Pepper, who was still trying to make sense of what was going on.

"You know something? I've just figured out I've been going about this all wrong."

"What?"

"Well, my plan was to blackmail you, right? Put some old-fashioned nanobots inside of her – which I did, and then threaten her life forever. But, I think I just thought of a better plan."

"What is that?" Iron Man asked and then felt Pepper crawl her way up by using his legs and back as support until she could look over his shoulder to face Ghost.

"After breaking into Hammer Multinational, and finding out what happened to your ex-girlfriend, Whitney, I figured out how to replicate Madame Masque's technique – it wasn't that difficult, really. That's how I got into your fancy apartment as Josh… how I kept an eye on you…"

"So?" Tony asked just to earn him some time to think of what to do next. The inventor could already tell what Ghost's new plan was and he knew it did not bode well for him and Pepper.

"So, why go through the trouble of having to put up with you and that pesky redhead if I could just disappear you both? Why waste my time and yours blackmailing you if I could just as easily take your place as the CEO of Stark Solutions and have my money with me every day? No one would ever know, right, Tony? All anyone would see is you."

Pepper furrowed her brows when she saw Tony's aura spike in anger while he stared at the palms of his hands. It had been a long time ago and they had both survived that day, even if just barely. His actions had been more than just a little justified. They were alive today because of them. Yet, the ginger knew that his first kill – Tony's first somewhat conscious act of murder, would always be present in his mind. Even if she knew he would do it again if he had to. Even if he had come to terms with it, in his own way.

"You took care of him, though," Fury said, measuring his words. "But he was just the first one."

"Sasha Hammer came next," Maria Hill started. "She sold you her company because with the little money she had and what she got from you, she bought out and revived the Maggia. With Justin Hammer and Count Nefaria being zombies, and with her investors running for more profitable businesses, she had nothing to lose."

"She…" Maya gulped, for an instant feeling guilty at remembering that she had known, all along, what Pepper and Tony had been up against even before their covert operation within the Maggia ranks. "She wasn't counting on Pepper figuring out her tactics, though. She wasn't counting on you two going undercover to stop the Maggia's plans."

"You heard me!" she pointed an accusing finger towards him. "I had no clue you were here until two days ago! But, as it turns out, your presence here, as unexpected as it was, worked well for me."

Tony flared his nostrils, narrowed his eyes at her and clenched his fists. "No," he said, took a step back and his arm reached behind him to the lock the door. "It didn't."

The moment the words left him, the wall behind Sasha exploded in a million pieces when the suit busted inside and caught the attention of the guards outside the office. Tony immediately ducked, and seconds after he practically kissed the ground, the bullets began making holes in the front wall. He covered his head with his arms and hoped the bullets ricocheting off his suit did not end up hitting him in the exchange.

As the amount of bullets fired began slowing down, he began crawling away from the door, aiming to reach the hole that would be his escape. It was not lost to him on his way out, however, that when the firing finally stopped and he heard a loud thud near him, it had belonged to the dead body of Sasha Hammer, killed by her own thugs.

"Then came AIM," Fury stated. "They tried to kidnap Doctor Betty Ross for their efforts to merge their controller chip with the nanobot project that Project Pegasus created. They tested their new robotic army's tactics by attacking the Stark International building when Miss Potts was bedridden after the Maggia encounter."

Both Maya's and Tony's lips pursed at that.

"Fine," Scott said and stared at Tony up and down. "Pepper's dying, anyway. Stark killed her."

"Why you little son of a –"

"Stop! I mean it! I don't care if you're rich, Tony. If you don't calm the fuck down, I'm going to get security guards to escort your ass out of here, and yours too, Scott!"

"Like that'd keep me from her," Tony scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. He then opened his mouth to continue his rant but his words were interrupted by the loud beep of his pod. He took it out from his pocket, his eyes not once leaving Scott or Maya but when he spared a glance to the incoming message, all color drained from his face.

"No!" he said, eyes wide as saucers, and he then began rushing down the hall and jumped into the elevator.

"Tony!" Maya called. "What is it? What's wrong?"

The brunette's questions went unanswered, but when the television screen in the nurse reception station suddenly changed to a news report, Maya and Scott saw what had made the inventor rush his way out of the hospital.

Stark International was on lockdown, currently under attack by AIM.

"AIM then used what they learned from that attack on SI to try to take Doctor Ross during the event she attended," Hill said. "But again Miss Potts and Mr. Stark thwarted that."

Pepper's eyes were the ones that looked lost in time now. She remembered that portion of her life, when she and Tony had been separated because of her own decision to break apart. She had been so angry at him – at finding out he had asked Gene to jumble her memories of them, and both of them had paid the price for their stubbornness. That had been a year of pain and suffering for the both of them: a year that had slowed down their relationship and their everyday lives, and had perhaps even provided an advantage to Doom's current plans.

For his own part, Tony remembered the feeling of dread he had felt when he had heard Pepper scream for the armor's force field's protection at having found herself in the middle of AIM's attack during the National Women's History Month celebration in New York.

"SHIELDS!"

At hearing her desperate scream, Tony Stark stopped in his tracks, his eyes widened under his faceplate, looked over his shoulder and gasped.

"Pepper…no…"

The redhead was covering Maya's upper body with her own while the armor's shields built around them. Once the shield closed and the AIM attacks were deterred by the force field, Pepper lifted her head, stared all around her and sighed in relief. She then carefully placed Maya's head on the ground, stood up, turned to face Tony and double tapped her right ear.

"Stark, Maya's down," he heard her icy voice inside his helmet and he soon realized she was connected to the Rescue interface via her pod. It took the inventor a few seconds to react to her words and when he did it had been only because Whiplash had managed to take advantage of his distraction and had hit him in the back, sending the red and gold suit of armor and its user crashing down to the floor.

"Tony!"

"Every member of AIM was there that day," Fury stated. "And you fried every single one of them. That was all she wrote for them."

"After that, and after Scott left," Maya began, "Doctor Doom wanted me to move to Latveria. So I broke up with Tony. Moved to Europe. And I have worked at his castle since then."

"How long have you known?" Tony asked the only question he could complete after hearing the brunette's shocking words. This news he had not expected, and as many times before, his life was about to change yet again. "I mean," he amended his inquiry. "How come this is the first I'm hearing of it? This is not something that just happens overnight."

Maya shrugged, her fingers playing with her fork which she was yet to use to eat anything on her plate. She had suggested for the two of them to go eat out at a nice restaurant for dinner and they had done so even though Tony had been exhausted after a long board meeting with SI. He had, albeit reluctantly, finally accepted after she had told them that it was very important for them to meet because they 'needed to talk.'

"I've known for a while, but I didn't get the official notification until last week. I'm due there in three days so I need to start getting ready now."

Tony looked away from her to gather his thoughts. He knew he should be feeling sadness, disappointment, or maybe even relief of some sort, but he was afraid to show any emotion lest this was a way for Maya to coerce him into getting married right now before she left.

Even though he had brought it up that night during Scott Summers's birthday party, in the end they had not gone through with getting married then and there. He had gotten cold feet at the last minute and had ended up making it up to her with sex that night. Needless to say, the situation had been rather awkward between them after the failed wedding attempt, and the brunette had been highly disappointed that her plan had not worked as well as she had intended it to. Moreover, her time was now up; her employer had called her back. Immediately and without room for discussion, she was to report to headquarters before midweek.

And so was her stepfather, for that matter.

"What…" Tony gulped, afraid of the response. "What does that mean for us?"

Maya gave him a sad smile and then looked down at her engagement ring. She wiggled her finger to make the diamond shine against the dim lights of the restaurant before she finally took it off her finger. She held it in between her fingertips, glanced at it with disappointment and then left it on the table by Tony's left hand.

"I guess there is no us, anymore. Not that there ever really was an us, anyway."

"He was tired of me failing to become pregnant by Tony," Maya continued. "Doom wanted me to have your baby, to extract the naturally processed Extremis from him – like Aldrich had been trying for decades. But I just couldn't get pregnant from you because you didn't want me to. Extremis did not find me worthy, and the virus had already chosen Pepper as your other half. Shortly after that, we found out Pepper had done in one night what I couldn't do in nearly a year, so his plans changed."

"So, what are you really doing here, Maya?" Tony asked her once he placed the trash bag by the entrance door and he had called housekeeping to come vacuum and mop the rest of the mess. "I don't think you came by just to say 'hi'. Are you here to argue or tell off Pepper because of the baby? Because that's not going to happen on my watch."

"Actually, I did come here just to say: hi. I don't know why you'd think otherwise." She shrugged nonchalantly and walked closer to him. "I thought that you and I had broken up on good terms, Tony. And I never disliked Pepper even though she was all you ever thought about when dating me. I really just wanted to meet the little guy I've heard so much about in the news. He's very cute, by the way. Even with all that powder on him, you can tell that he's your son."

"When Doom found out about the baby," Maya exhaled deeply, "about James, he first wanted me to extract Extremis from him, which meant killing him to do so. That's why I sent out the crows to your apartment, to warn you of the danger."

Pepper clenched her eyes and jaw shut to keep another whimper from coming out, but when her body began shivering it was enough for Tony to know that she was as terrified as he was.

There before them, written in red letters on the tiny mattress that had once been inside the crib and was now on the floor, was the phrase: KILL IT OR WE WILL.

"You moved away and he wasn't very happy about that," Maya said, remembering the punishment she had received for back-talking to Doom upon her return from meeting baby James. "But it did what I wanted it to do. It gave me time to try to find out what I could do for you without letting Doom know about it. It was hard. I'm not even sure if he really doesn't know what I've been doing all this time. But I couldn't let him go through with it. I knew… I knew it would be hard to kill Pepper when I found out she has such a resilient type of Extremis in her. But you… Tony… your Extremis is so easily manipulated because it's not really embedded in you like hers or James's is."

"My point is: how do you know that Pepper is not responsible for your issue with Extremis?"

"Are you stupid?" Tony spat and resisted the urge to throw something at her smiling face. "Pepper would never do this to me! She would never hurt me!"

"Really? Because as far as I know, she's hurt you plenty so far. Didn't she move out of your apartment after you told her you loved her? Didn't she get engaged to Scott and almost married him, knowing that you still wanted to be with her? Didn't she make you forget how you two slept together the night you were supposed to marry me?"

"So, what? Those were just misunderstandings. I've hurt her, too, but that doesn't mean she'd purposefully try to hurt me. Besides, she doesn't even know how Extremis works! She wouldn't even KNOW how to do this to me. And if she did know, she wouldn't try to kill me with it."

"Tony, you're so blinded with love… or by what you think is love. Have you ever wondered why or how you fell for her, so hard, so fast? It had never happened to you before but with her… you just lost it. Your world revolves around her in a way that is not healthy. In a way that is not at all… natural."

"Just because no one has loved you like I love her, it doesn't mean it's not real."

"Really?" she repeated. "Extremis made you, for all practical purposes, a computer, Tony, and computers can be hacked; manipulated, influenced to simulate whatever we want them to do. A good programmer can make a computer do that and much more; especially if that someone knows the circuitry and systems, in and out – especially if that someone will soon become a certified cybersecurity expert. A.K.A. A legal computer hacker."

"What are you trying to say?"

"What Bruce refuses to tell you so that he won't hurt you," Maya said and spared Bruce a glance just to see his face blanch. "That whatever you're suffering from is not biological; it's technological. Your body is not betraying you, Tony. It's your programming. Your link to Extremis is being hacked by a virus of the computer kind. That's why nothing we've done to help you has worked. Because it's not biology that's screwing with you. It's your wife."

"And that's why you did it," Tony's words were more of a statement than a question once the memory of that day faded away. "That's why you started controlling me through Extremis."

"Yes," she admitted. "At first, Doom wanted you dead. That was it. But then, when he found out about what Pepper meant to you, she became higher on the kill list. He knew that if she died, it would destroy you – break you. But he also wanted what Aldrich had promised him: a way to cure himself from the damage he had sustained in the explosion that had killed his family. And from the irreparable damage Yogthulu had inflicted on him. And then his second plan occurred to him…"

"Second plan? You mean me using me to kill Rhona Erwin in cold blood?"

Maya shook her head at the inventor. "That was all me, Tony. I was testing the range of control I had on you. It turned out, I had plenty – more than the chemicals I had been feeding you for a while, both before and during the time we lived together, that made you snap at Pepper over nothing. But no. That's not what Doom is aiming for now."

"What does he want now? I mean, other than killing me, my husband and my son, world domination and having the planet named after him," Pepper asked, slowly seeing how almost every terrible thing in their lives for the past five years was all a result of Doom's wrath.

"Doom wants James alive because of his many abilities and for his unusual Extremis combination. We actually already extracted some of his DNA and cured Doom and Aldrich of their ailment. His DNA is precious. It works. He is precious. His abilities go beyond what any of us imagined they could be. His DNA can change the world."

"What do you mean?" Pepper asked even though she was afraid of the response. "What can he do?"

"He…" Maya hesitated, not sure where to begin to list what she had learned from their son. "He's strong, like Tony's Extremis-enhanced abilities, but he'll probably be a lot stronger than Tony will ever be. He's smart. Learns fast for his age. He can heal fast, too – faster than you, Pepper. And his body can also learn how to cure anything that afflicts him on the first try rather than in several tries like you, Pepper. He…" Maya swallowed hard. "He can even regrow missing parts of his body… removed parts… cut off parts…"

Everyone in the room snapped up their heads to stare at the brunette with a mix of incredulity, hatred and a need to snap her little neck right here, right now, all wondering how the hell someone could mutilate a baby in the name of science. The silence that followed her confession was long and heavy, and the enraged parents' gaze on her made her feel as if she would suddenly combust where she sat. She was surprised, however, just as everyone else, that neither Tony nor Pepper made any effort to approach her. Yet, the redhead's single comment after the thick quietness was all she needed to know that her time would soon come.

"Too bad you can't regrow missing body parts, right, Maya?"

Maya's head hung in shame, not having anything to say to defend herself, but she continued answering Pepper's question nonetheless. "He can also see in all spectrums. At will. He can turn it on and off."

"What?" Tony shook his head. "He can do what now?"

"See in all spectrums. And auras – better than Pepper can. That's how he was able to see Doom roam around your house. Doom wasn't able to hide from him. Doom, he… he's… intrigued by your son."

"Intrigued enough not to kill him while we figure out a way to get him back?" Pepper asked.

"Very much so," Whitney replied with confidence she had been lacking yesterday, to everyone's surprise. "He's an adorable, incredibly sweet little guy. But in the wrong hands and with the wrong guidance, he can do some damage. Some real damage. Worse than what we saw happen yesterday. And even then, whatever Doom or James can do together, it wouldn't be as bad as what Tony alone can do."

"But Doom wants me dead, anyway," Tony said, almost bitterly. "I'm not what my son is."

"No, you're not," Whitney admitted. "But Doom, he still wants you alive, Tony. For your gifts that no one can ever replicate."

"Yeah, yeah: specimen 1," Tony scoffed. "Of course he wants me, too."

"It's true," Maya explained. "Tony just wanted to repair his heart and maybe create a link with his suit, but he ended up creating a neurological interface with computers and their systems. In today's world, that is something better than any weapon. Tony's bond with computers can allow him to control any weapon from anywhere, at any time."

"And with AIM's controller chip embedded in people through the Mainframe that Basil Sandhurst created, the one major device that Doom has been rebuilding and enhancing all these years," Maria began, "anyone with the power to control computers can control the world."

"And anyone that can control whomever controls computers," Rhodey said, voicing everyone's thoughts. "Can do, through Tony, whatever they want."

"And that's why Doom still wants Pepper dead," Gene said, piecing together what Maya and Whitney were trying to get at. "Because no matter how mad Tony is, no matter how much hold a corrupted Extremis has on him…"

"Pepper can snap me out of it," Tony finished for Gene before he looked back to stare at Pepper. "I can't harm her. No matter what she does to me. I would never hurt her in anger. Not even to save myself."

"And Doom knows that," Maya said, her eyes now on Pepper. "Every time I tried to corrupt Tony enough to retaliate against Pepper… especially after she had put herself in danger… it never worked. Even when they were apart, even when he was just livid at her, he never let it blind him. He never let it stand in the way of how he felt about her. Even angry, he still listened and did what she said."

"Doom won't kill James or Tony," Whitney stated and closed the distance between herself and the redhead. "But he will kill you, Pepper. If we go to him. If we try to stop him, you're the first one he'll go for. There's no one else left to carry out the bounty since Gene and Happy took care of the last major participants of it, and I took care of Kevin Kowalowski and Mitch Richards."

"Are you kidding me?" Happy asked, throwing his hands in the air. "They were in on it, too?"

"Yes," Whitney nodded and turned from facing Pepper to staring at Happy Hogan. "I took down Kevin, the only normal human member left of AIM after Tony killed all the robotic ones, shortly afterward Kevin tried attacking Pepper in the bathroom of The Boom Boom Room and she left him there… naked and confused. We took him into custody that night and I've been posing as him ever since when I spy on Doom. And I also decommissioned Mitch when he tried to pull a fast one on everyone after he was fired from SI. Mitch heard of the bounty from his cousin: Kevin Kowalowski."

"To put it simply, Miss Potts," Fury eyed the redhead. "Doom is out to get revenge on the world, staring with you."

"And you couldn't stop him before?" Rhodey asked, exasperated. "You knew all of this was happening and you didn't stop it before it got out of hand?"

"You talk as if Doctor Doom hasn't given all of us a hard time," Maria Hill snapped. "Don't you think that if we had known and had had the means to stop it, we would have?"

"It seems like you had the chance but you blew it!" Rhodey spat back, not at all caring that he was screaming to his second-in-command leader. "You said he was weak when he first came from wherever he was! You could've stopped him then and there!"

"We didn't know everything at that point! Everything we've told you we gathered over years of intel! And we can't just waltz into Latveria and take him. There are protocols we must follow!"

"Well, to me it sounds like you did know everything, or at least enough to take action," Gene offered. "And protocols only slow things down. If you'd have told me you couldn't get to him, I would've!"

"And he would've killed you on the spot!" Maya cried. "He knows about Makluan science. He studied the rings and he knows how to stop you. You don't stand a chance against him! Not even now with all your ten rings of power!"

"And he knows everything Iron Man is, has and knows," Tony spat viciously and accusatorily towards the geneticist. "Because you told him everything about Iron Man and me. You gave him my specs, didn't you?"

"He threatened to kill my mother, Tony. And he did it anyway, even after I gave up the specs to him. So I designed the one thing that can slow him down. He doesn't know I have it and he doesn't know what I can do with it. It's not strong enough to last for a long battle, but it can buy us some time."

"What would that be?" Pepper snapped. "More of your mutated crows?"

"No," she replied. "A window of opportunity. A way for everyone in this room to avoid being controlled by him when we get to Latveria. And I have the blueprints to his home."

"And you think that's gonna be enough?!" Tony stood from his chair. "My lab is gone and any other places we could've used to prepare to attack Doom are gone! He blew them up because you told him what and where they were!"

"But you can rebuild it," Maya argued. "We have a lab here we made for you! We just need you to bring it to life! It's a replica of the Makluan Temple when I used to visit. It just needs your operating system."

"And then what?" Pepper stood as well and closed her eyes, not wanting to deal with what reading anyone's aura would do to her. "Do you know how long it takes to build weapons? To mass produce them? And, even if we could sneak into Latveria, Doom will know the moment we set foot there."

"And," Rhodey joined. "In case you haven't noticed, Doom may be just one man, but he has resources. Last time we fought him face to face, it was Tony and me and we couldn't even touch him!"

"And then it was Gene, my father and me!" Tony reminded them. "And if it hadn't been by an ACCIDENT, by me leaving the fucking ring in the device he had built and Yogthulu coming for him, he would've killed us! Or at least, the world would've been destroyed by those interdimensional portals he opened!"

"And, correct me if I'm wrong," Gene interjected, "but from everyone in this building, including S.H.I.E.L.D., the only ones that maybe stand a chance against Doom are Tony or me."

"HEY!" Happy snapped. "I can help, too! I'm Iron Man's backup!"

"You can't, Happy," Whitney shook her head. "Gene's partly right."

"Partly?" Gene snarled. "Do you want another one-way trip to The Void?"

"What Whitney means," Maya took a step forward, at some point having decided to abandon the comfort of her chair, and stood between Gene and the blonde, "is that no one person can do this. It's going to require a lot of work and coordination, but we can stop him. Doom is relying on his machine to work. He extrapolated the power of the controller chips and made it so that airwaves replicate its properties. If he can, right now, he can take over everyone with the push of a button. But all he can do is to connect them to the Mainframe, wirelessly, accessing everyone's consciousness via televisions, cell phones, radios, satellites, you name it. The problem is –"

"That he can connect to them, but he can't control them like that," Tony said. "Basil Sandhurst needed the Mainframe because the waves of the helmet were limited. He needed the helmet, plus the chips in everyone and Extremis' neurological interface to make it work. The Mainframe was the middle man and Extremis was the power source."

"Right," Maria Hill agreed. "Doom diminished that inefficiency by changing the device's propagation medium, but for him to be able to mass control everyone in the world, he needs to control you, Tony. I'm surprised that he hasn't done it right now. Extremis is partially awake in you – he should've been able to sense you're alive."

"Then why the hell did you turn it on?" Howard demanded, more than just tired and angry at everything that was coming to light. "Tony's right: you've got no idea what you're doing!"

"We had to turn it on for me to run the last tests on it, and it was only minimal. Its traces can't leave the building we're in at the low intensity that it's currently active. I made sure of that," Maya clarified. "Besides, we need to turn it off again anyway before we go to Latveria to face Doom. There's no way to completely remove Extremis from Tony, but we can switch it off… and hope Doom hasn't figured out a way to turn it on remotely."

"No," Tony shook his head. "If you turn it off, I can't be of much help to anyone. I need Extremis' enhancements to have a chance against Doom!"

"You mean you need Extremis for Doom to control you," Gene spat.

"Not for a while," Maya offered. "What I created are small chips that go in the backs of our necks," she used her left index finger to point to said location. "They prevent these airwaves from affecting our brains. Or at least until they stop working. I haven't been able to get chips to last more than an hour. They end up short-circuiting after the Mainframe's waves hit them nonstop."

"An hour?" Pepper scoffed. "That wouldn't even let us get to the outer walls of Doom's castle."

"Not all of us have to make it all the way inside," Maya said in a grave tone. "Only one. We only need one of us to make it to Doom's main power core room. All of his tech uses it to function, no matter where in the world he is, including his armored suit. The core uses a special type of airwave to power all of his devices. That's why he was able to replicate that power for the Mainframe – because he had done it before. But all of that doesn't matter. If we can shut down his power source, he's nothing more than just an ordinary human. All of his defenses and resources become obsolete."

"So," Rhodey began, "I guess that if that's the source of all his power, it's very secluded and heavily guarded?"

Maya nodded once.

"Then how are we going to make it there in under an hour?" Gene asked, angry that even with his teleportation abilities, not even he could make it past the castle's outer walls.

"We're not," Maya answered. "Our job will be to make sure the one person that can make it there is not harmed while the only person that has ever been in the power core room, leads them there."

"Wait," Tony shook his head. "I thought you said that you had his blueprints. You aren't sure how to get there?!"

"It's bobby-trapped, high tech, traps change every sixty seconds and it takes half an hour to make it to the room – it's beyond me. Beyond any of us. But someone made it there once. That's how I know it actually exists."

"And you expect us to make it there?"

"Yes," Maya stated and then watched Tony with eyes so full of pity that it actually made the inventor feel as if his blood had suddenly rushed to his feet.

"How?" Tony asked, not at all pleased with the way the brunette was staring at him right now. "How do we know this is gonna work? How do we even know we'll make it in time?"

Maya took a step towards Tony, leaving but a foot of distance between them, swallowed hard and finally replied.

"Because the one person that is immune to the Mainframe's mind control powers, even without a chip… is Pepper. She's the one that needs to be guided to the power core to shut it down. And…"

Maya took in a deep breath, eyes never leaving his blue ones, and then finished her response. "And because the only person that has ever seen the power core room, the only one that has… survived and figured out the traps… the person who actually found the room before I even knew it existed… the reason why I know it exists…The only person in the world that can lead Pepper to the room… is your son."

No.

Tony froze where he stood, unable to see, hear or feel anything other than his rapidly breaking heart – his collapsing hope.

No!

Their plan – their only feasible plan – was finally revealed to him, and he wanted nothing more than to repudiate it right now. In the back of his mind, he knew it was a sound plan of action. He knew that based on what they were aware of and the circumstances, it made sense to take that route. Yet, he could not make himself accept it. He could not make his mind consent to the fact that both his son and his wife had to risk their lives for the sake of the world.

NO!

The silence in the room was thunderous; everyone's thoughts scrambling to come out but at the same time being stopped by the pain they all felt.

Pain for the inventor.

Pain for redhead.

Pain for all of them.

This was too much. It was simply too much.

Pepper could not believe that the fate of the planet rested on their little army of twelve: Rhodey, Tony, Happy, Gene, Whitney, Maya, Maria, Nick, Widow, Hawkeye and herself – at most – to make it to Latveria, have a toddler lead the way, and rely on her to destroy what she was sure was the root of all evil in the world.

How were they expected to do this? How could anyone in this room think that they could make this plan at all work?

"We'll never make it," Rhodey stated in defeat. "Even if all of S.H.I.E.L.D. went with us… once those airwaves hit us and the chips fail… we're done."

"And that's why it won't be just us," Nick said and stood up as he saw the last of his guests arrive. "That's why I called in some favors. On reinforcements. For help."

"On who?" Gene asked, and when his eyes landed on the new arrivals and his jaw dropped, Pepper could not help but to turn around in place to witness the large amount of individuals that were now standing by the door; some of whom she recognized – most of which she did not.

"Scott?" Pepper uttered and Tony forced himself to break out of his reverie and looked back.

"What?" Tony barely uttered, his mind still in shock. "Who are these people?"

The apparent leader of the group, relying on a Pep Ride to move, of all things, moved forward into view and finally replied. "We, Mr. Stark, go by the name of the X-Men."

---

A/N: THE END!

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