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.

7. Chapter 6

Guest Review Responses

Wll: Wow! I don't even know where to start! I mean, you're awesome, so much talent for this and I REALLY hope you keep writing it, the story is so engaging... And know that with every chapter you post, you make a LOT of people happy and hopeful to read it! So that's it, among other compliments... Keep up your amazing work, Thank you! – Aww! Thank you soooo much! You have no idea what hearing [reading] these words means to me! Just a few days ago, I realized that The Last Month, the first of these stories (all of the Last Chronicles stories), was posted on September 19, 2013. My goal was to finish this story, The Last Chronicle, on or before September 19 of this year. I don't know if I can make that deadline, though, seeing as I feel we're just halfway done with this story, and I want to keep it as coherent and engaging as I can, seeing all the stuff that's happening. I WILL DO MY BEST FOR YOU! Again, thank you so much!

Amazing-Batman: OK...OOK...OOOKAAAYYYY... Finally cought up with this rollercoaster of emotions! I might need to read this twice though cuz my brain cells have exploded(in fact I'm surprised I still have some left...). BUT CAN WE PLEASE ADDRESS THIS ISSUE OF NO GUEST RESPONSES LIKE WHAT HAS HAPPENED?! THERE HAS TO BE A VALID EXPLANATION FOR THIS. – LOL! I know how you feel! I've been going back to all the Last Chronicles stories to proofread them and make sure this story is still in line with what happened in the past stories, and sometimes I go: "WTF WAS I THINKING HERE? POOR PEPPER!" or, you know, 'Poor Tony,' or poor whoever I messed up when writing. I mean, I've been such a horrible person to these characters! They deserve a happy ending… but not all of them will get it :( Thank you for reading and reviewing! And sorry for the heart attacks!

Guest: KEEP WRITING! – Sir, yes, sir… or Ma'am, yes, ma'am… either way: YES! WILL DO! ;)

A/N: YAY! Guest Review loving for me again! Thank you! I see we got some new people (or some that I hadn't heard of in a while). Your reviews give me life! They're like what cookies are for Cookie Monster. I was about to get the shakes without them ;)

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Chapter 6

The reports were finally in.

It had taken weeks and a lot of effort on the part of S.H.I.E.L.D. to get their agents around the world, as well as any assisting governments and vigilante groups, to take full stock of the situation, compile an up-to-date casualty report, and get it to the Muir Island base without being caught or intercepted.

None of the news was encouraging.

Nick Fury stared at the screens in front of him, showing a map of the world filled with green and red dots. Each green dot was a city or other significant facility that was still in proper operating condition. The red dots represented locations that had fallen under attack by Doctor Doom, and there were a startling number of them. Even more unnerving was the fact that the attacks had been in no way consistent, but had been orchestrated with specific targets in mind. It was clear that Doom had been picky and precise when staring his war; he was not messing around on this.

Across Europe, the damage had not been the result of wholesale destruction. Having grown up with European history, culture and values, Victor von Doom had not wanted to destroy the symbols and landmarks with which he was familiar or admired, and the care with which he had attacked his part of the world reflected this. Cities such as London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, and Athens had been spared the most amounts of destruction and death, as only buildings that housed the seats of those countries' respective governments had been annihilated, as well as military installations. Famous structures and cultural symbols had been left intact. As a result, collateral damage in these cities was at a relative minimum. Two exceptions had been Berlin, Germany and Moscow, Russia. Evidently, there was no love lost between Latveria and Germany or Russia, and Doom had bombed their capital cities all-to-be-damned.

In Asia, South America, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East, Doom had been far less merciful. The attacks here appeared to have been done simply to further cripple the world's infrastructure and economy, as well as to lower the overall population, if only slightly. Three Chinese cities had been razed to the ground; Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, all of which had housed the Chinese seat of government or economic and financial centers. The nation was crippled to a point where recovery was going to be horrendously difficult. Tokyo, Japan, and New Delhi, India, were also burning ruins, their heritage and cultural contributions eradicated without hesitation. Doom appeared to hold no more love for the Far East than he did for the Germans or Russians.

Although not as widely recognized, the cities of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Lima had been decimated, ruining South America's most important stock centers and tourism industries.

Sydney, Australia was simply gone. That had been possibly the most heartbreaking report that had come in. Apparently, just to show that he could, Doom had remotely hijacked an American nuclear submarine and had launched two missiles, each with a five megaton yield. The first had detonated right over the southern continent's most famous city, completely removing it from the face of the Earth and irradiating the surrounding landscape for up to an estimated one hundred miles.

The second missile had detonated over the capital of Wakanda in Africa. The Wakandan people, technologically ahead of the West by nearly half a century, had managed to put up a defensive force-field in time to block the missile and bleed away most of the radiation, but enough had still gotten through to contaminate the tiny country. By this point, nearly eight percent of the population of Wakanda's capital had died of radiation sickness.

Needless to say, King T'Challa had immediately declared war on Latveria, and had sworn a personal oath to make Doom pay for his crime against his people. The Black Panther had managed to make visual contact with Muir Island via a hidden signal that he felt confident that Doom would not be able to intercept. The African king had offered assistance in any way necessary to the resistance force, an offer that had been gladly accepted.

Johannesburg, South Africa, and Cairo, Egypt, had also suffered attacks, although Doom had taken care to avoid damage to the Egyptian museums holding historical relics from the ancient past.

In Turkey, the ancient city of Istanbul, known by many names over the course of millennia, had been pulverized into oblivion. Doom had utilized some new weapon that he had decided to test out on the beautiful city, and the warheads he had dispatched, instead of exploding on contact, had released some bizarre rotating devices that began giving off massive sonic booms that literally flattened the metropolis. Those reporting on the destruction stated that it truly looked like a giant safe had been dropped onto the city. The jewel of the Black Sea had been turned into a pancake.

Doom had also targeted major religious centers in the Middle East and elsewhere, seeking to crush any spiritual comfort people may have tried to turn to for deliverance from his wrath. In Rome, although much of the ancient city had been spared, the portion that had housed Vatican City was a black smear on the Earth now, with the heart of the Catholic faith and many of its leaders incinerated, including the Pope. The city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia had also been targeted, with Doom literally erasing the center of the Islamic faith altogether. The loss of the Kaaba was a crippling blow to Muslims around the world, exactly what Doom had intended. Jerusalem in Israel, naturally, had fallen in the crosshairs as well, and the world's most holy city was a fractured shell. The world's three main religions had viewed this city as the center of their promised lands, and the destruction of its historical markers brought about despair across the globe. And anger. Anger against the man who had destroyed everything that held hope for mankind.

In all of this, North America had suffered the least from the attacks, but had not escaped unscathed. Toronto, Canada had withstood the actual bombing quite well, but a massive fire that started from the rupturing of three separate gas lines had followed, reducing much of the city to ash.

In Mexico, Doom had made centuries of scientific predictions come true in an instant, beating the long-predicted earthquake to the punch. Mexico City, which had alternately stood and floated above the remains of a lake since its foundation in the fourteenth century, had finally sunk. Doom had not even bothered with actual bombing of the city itself, in this case. Four small missiles, each one only packing enough punch to destroy a single, moderately-sized building, had penetrated through the city streets at four specific points that the Latverian madman had determined to be weak in the overall structural support of the city. The reverberations of the explosions had resulted in a domino effect chain reaction below the surface, and within roughly two minutes, Mexico City, which was still mostly intact to the very last, finally collapsed into Lago de Texcoco.

The United States, oddly enough, had suffered the least damage of all, although everyone involved in the resistance who knew of Doom's contempt for the West knew that this only meant that something special was in store for the Americans in the near future. Only New York City and the location of the Makluan temple in New Jersey had been attacked. Again, Doom appeared to favor historical sites such as museums and libraries, and these buildings had been left mostly untouched. The rest of New York was mostly dust now, with special emphasis on the locations where the headquarters for the two companies hosting the Stark name had been located. The United Nations building and New York stock exchange had also been primary targets. Of the great city with its famous skyline, the only remaining marker to its former beauty was the Empire State building, which still stood (albeit barely) like a headstone over Manhattan. The Makluan temple and the Iron Man armory it had housed were in a secluded section of New Jersey, but the combination of Doom's missile attack and the armory's self-destruct mechanism had left a massive crater that had claimed a portion of the nearest neighborhood to the site.

Washington D.C. had not been attacked at all, a move that was very surprising, indeed. Despite the loss of much communication, word had spread of the U.S.'s apparent fortune, with many voicing the opinion that it had been the United States itself that was responsible for the atrocities, until the official confirmation was made that the source of the attacks had been Latveria. Team Iron Man and their allies were certain that Doom had spared the American capital for when world domination had finally been achieved, at which time Doom would probably march straight into the White House and the Capitol, and force the country's former leaders to lick his metal boots while the rest of the world watched. After this, he would likely destroy Washington at last, followed by many other U.S. cities. Knowing Doom, he would want the fall of America to be as excruciating and humiliating as possible, with the whole world looking on, and as such was saving it until after he had won his war and could devote time and care to doing just that.

Finally, in addition to a few military bases here and there, Muir Island had been lightly bombarded. Nick Fury was almost certain that Doom knew S.H.I.E.L.D. was using the facility, though not necessarily for what. Surely, if Doom had known that Iron Man was located here, he would have attacked in full force to try to capture him and annihilate everyone else. No; Fury was pretty sure that Doom had figured out from the start that the "death" of the Starks in the plane explosion had been a scam, but did not know where they were located. His attack on Muir Island was simply a way to let them know that he knew something was being done there to try to fight back, and he had taken the time to shake them up a little; let them know he was on to them.

Fury sighed and looked away from the map of the destroyed cities and focused on the casualty reports on the table next to him. The attacks had lasted only about thirty minutes from the first strike on the Makluan temple to the last known impact – Hong Kong – and no other attacks had followed in the weeks since, but the human effects had continued on long after the bombings had ceased.

At this time, with the world's most populated cities having been targeted, it was estimated that anywhere from sixty-five to eighty million people were dead, either directly from the attacks, the resulting fires and collapses, medical conditions developed as a result of these conditions, or due to lack of food and water in the areas surrounding these cities after production and trade had halted. Famine and disease were sure to be on the rise in the coming weeks and months. A good fifteen million survivors were injured in some fashion, and fifteen million more were still missing or otherwise unaccounted for.

All in all, Doctor Doom had accomplished, in less than an hour, more than what the entire Second World War achieved over a course of years. What was sure to be written into history books as the Doom War (assuming that Doom was ever defeated) was nothing more or less than the most devastating single event in human history.

A few retaliations had already been tried within a week following the attack. Of particular note, a coalition of Russian, Israeli, Greek, Turkish and Italian military forces had pooled together to storm Latveria and wipe out its capital city, Doomstadt, with particular emphasis on Castle Doom. The Greek members of this force had actually been an army almost exclusively made up of women – surviving wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and girlfriends of men who had been in Greece's army, nearly all of whom had been killed in the attacks on the Greek military targets. The result was a practical living river of female revenge, prepared to stop at nothing to honor the memories of their fallen men. In an unprecedented and nearly unfathomable display of soldierly goodwill and camaraderie, the men who made up nearly the full extent of the other armies joining the force had showed no exception or disapproval to the women-composed army whatsoever, and had welcomed them into the counter attack effort as if greeting longstanding brothers-in-arms – or sisters-in-arms, as was the case this time. The jets, tanks and troops of this force had rolled right through the tiny European country with no resistance from its population, eventually surrounding the Latverian capital city, and finally launching a single, massive attack.

In typical fashion, the tiny nation's tyrannical leader had showed his hand as technologically superior to all as his sole method of attack. Without even using his own armaments, Doom had eradicated the invasion force in minutes. Using some form of technology that one could only assumed had been learned from studying the Makluan ring that had once been in his possession, Doom had caused all incoming projectiles, including bombs and bullets which did not have guidance systems of any kind, to literally bend away from their paths of impact on the capital city and to return right back to their points of origin. Seemingly before the attack had begun, the response coalition army had been obliterated with their own weapons, practically on Doctor Doom's own doorstep.

It did not matter if one stared at the map left or right, up or down, near or far; the world's infrastructure and population had suffered greatly under the scientist's fury – and knowing Doctor Doom, it could have been much, much, much, MUCH worse than it actually was. It could have been devastating without a chance of redemption. It could have been planetary-scale annihilation. It could have been the world imploding from the inside out.

Perhaps those were going to be Doom's next steps. At this point, no one really knew what was to come.

"Our allies are going to be rather upset by this," Fury said with a sigh, his spirit broken after reviewing the data over and over again, as if willing it to change if he stared at it long enough but finding his efforts nothing more than wishful thinking.

"I know I am," Maria Hill replied, her saddened eyes also scanning the summary of the reports they were about to hold a meeting for in order to relay them to everyone in the base.

"If they're smart, this will motivate them."

"I think motivation is not something they lack, sir."

"Maybe not now," Fury lowered his head, his eyes denoting the million thoughts that currently crossed his mind. "But when they're finally out there, in the field… in battle… When giving up someone's life becomes the only chance they have to save the entire world, knowing what they're fighting for is what will make someone become a hero – a martyr. The motherfucking savior of the world."

"That's where you're wrong, Director Fury," Maria said pointedly, her eyes now on his. "Agreeing to this. Training like this. Getting ready to walk into battle against someone like Doom knowing they'll probably die in the process," she shook her head. "They're already heroes, in my book."

Fury scoffed, turned in place when he heard the door opening behind them, signaling the members of the resistance army were starting to arrive for the meeting, and then voiced his final thought.

"You need to raise your standards in that hero book of yours, Hill."

"I probably should," she replied with a smirk as she too turned around to welcome the trickling guests. "But if I did, you wouldn't have a place in it… sir."

Fury's reply was drowned out by the loud arrival of Team Iron Man.

xxxXXXxxx

It was way past the island's official night curfew, but she truly did not give a damn. She would work all night if she had to, if only to make sure that Fury did not try again to push a survival instinct out of someone who could not amount to doing so on his timetable. She should have known better than to trust Nick Fury to leave the safety protocols intact, but yet there she had been, a few hours ago, fighting for her life against mini-Makluan Overlords.

Tony had said that he would look into the protocols in the morrow; that he would fix them and make sure no one other than he could remove them, but Pepper did not want to wait that long. It was not so much that the task needed to be completed right this very moment, and it was not as if she did not trust Tony to do what he said he would do with the same or even more dedication and success than she was currently having; it was just that after finding out that he had doubted her – even if just for a second and even if only because she had been screaming bloody murder to be helped – she had needed some space from him.

She had needed to do something right, all by herself, without anyone's help, pity or doubt.

She was not even mad at Tony for it – they had not even fought about it after Gene, Happy and Rhodey had left the lab. Tony had simply said aloud what she already knew about them together: that he could not help his instinct to protect her, no matter what the situation was. He did not tell her anything new. She was keenly aware of how much Tony loved her and would do anything for her – just as she would for him. Yet, the doubt that he had felt about her abilities in the field had been a hit to her self-esteem. Not because Tony was wrong about doubting her, but because she knew that he had been right to do so.

The VTR experience, although fake yet challenging to her, had proven that she had much to learn and much to do if she wanted to be ready to help save the world and bring back her son, starting with attaching herself like a leech to Gene to learn more about what her Extremis abilities could do for her. She knew that Tony would be somewhat upset by this, but there was no one else on the blasted island that would understand her new skills better than someone who had helped her develop a way of somewhat controlling them, even if he had not known it at the time. Her particular abilities related to a plane of existence different than the one everyone else tended to live in, and this seemed to be right up Gene's alley: seeing what was unseen to the naked eye.

Poor Gene, the redhead sighed, suddenly feeling even that much more exasperated by the entire situation today during training. She was not sure what she was more upset about: Nick Fury messing with their code, Tony not trusting her, or Gene's feelings for her being exposed the way they had been – or being exposed at all. She knew how personal these things could be, especially for Gene, not to mention the fact that she had some experience with people knowing she had feelings for someone who did not return the sentiment.

"Some experience?" she scoffed derisively, thinking back on her crushes and how Tony and Scott had been the only ones she had been attracted to that had also shown genuine interest in her.

Actually, now that she thought about it further, her husband did not even really belong on that list, since she had gone a while having a crush on him and he had not noticeably displayed how he felt for her. She now knew that he had found her at least the tiniest bit eye-catching since meeting her, but the issue was that he had not recognized nor acted upon that attraction until much later – almost two years after their first meeting, to be exact. Even more depressing so was the fact that the only man that had immediately pursued her after finding her not bad to look at, had been Scott. And she was almost certain that, had she and Tony been involved at the time of meeting Cyclops, she would have politely declined Scott's advances from day one.

Gene did not make the list, since he had only started to truly become interested in her after she had already moved on and returned to crushing on Tony. Happy did not count, either, as she had not had a crush on him at first, and neither had he had one on her. Their dating had started off as a sham; just a way for her to save-face in front of Whitney and to make Tony jealous and feel what she felt as he dated the blonde. They had started to like each other along the way, sure, but it was not the same as how she had started liking the other men, and for her, it had reached its limit and could go no further. In that instance, she had been the cause of that depressing feeling for Happy, to her disgust.

"I wrote the fucking book on it," she added, almost angry at herself for it being true, to the dark and empty room right before she felt him appear in the room, standing by the corner of it, if her senses were correct.

He did not make any attempt to get near her and continued to make no sound, so she decided to ignore the newcomer for now in favor of finishing up what she had begun to do hours ago. Once the code was eventually running to her liking, she pulled away from the screen, rested the back of her neck against the top of the chair and looked towards the ceiling as she spoke again.

"Are you having a case of insomnia or did Fury send you to keep an eye on me?"

The man did not respond to her, prompting her to close her eyes and sigh. "I know you're there. I felt you the moment you got here about…" she quickly glanced at the clock on the computer screen before her and then closed her eyes once more, "forty-five minutes ago."

"Pardon my intrusion, Liebchen," Nightcrawler said in a soft tone, knowing now without a doubt that he had been found. "My presence here is without ill."

"I know that much," Pepper swiveled the chair to face the corner where he still hid from her. "You don't seem like the kind of person that would spy on me to hurt me, even if Fury made you do it."

Kurt was using his feet to attach himself to the wall and balanced his weight with his back resting against it, his legs bent at the knee. The room was dark save for some light that came from the computer screens. Yet, thanks to what Nick Fury had forced her to do during training, she could clearly see Kurt's body-shaped aura and that in one hand he held a rosary while in the other he held a book that Pepper assumed was the Bible. She had seen the man carrying both items almost daily since they had met, and while she was not an avid religious person, she tended to acknowledge, respect and know more about it than her husband did.

"Did I interrupt your prayer?" she asked with a guilt-ridden frown. "I'm sorry if I did."

"Nein," Kurt shook his head. "I'd just finished the day's reading before I started searching for you. Your husband told me you might be here."

Pepper chuckled. "You can call him 'Tony,' you know? And you can also call me: Pepper. We're not that old."

Nightcrawler smirked and nodded twice. "Understood."

"So?" Pepper shrugged. "What can I help you with?"

After her simple, unassuming question, Kurt's face fell almost immediately. He jumped off the wall to gracefully land on the balls of his feet, almost silently so, before he then sat on the floor, cross-legged, his face stern.

"My lady –"

"Pepper."

"Pepper," Kurt stated with an even deeper frown. "That is a condiment, is it not?"

Pepper held back a chuckle and dismissed his confused look with a quick shake of her hand. "Yup. Just roll with it."

Kurt nodded again. "I… I wanted to speak with you to apologize on my friend's behalf. He spoke crudely of you. He harmed your friend. He broke the code. But I assure you: he learned. It will not happen again."

Pepper shrugged, her body further slouching in the chair. "All he said about me was just to rile up Gene. He didn't mean any of it. I'm actually kinda sorry that my friend popped your friend's shoulder out of its socket. Gene, he… he sometimes forgets how much damage he can inflict on people. It's rare that he forgets, but he does."

"Well, to be fair: your friend did pop it right back in, before even finishing his strike," Nightcrawler stated, still in awe that the Chinese man had been able to harm and help the same person in one swift move. "He fixed what he broke. And the mouth came back, just an hour ago."

Pepper barely covered a snicker with her left hand before she hurriedly cleared her throat. "Sorry. That's not funny."

"It kind of is," Kurt conceded.

Pepper threw her head back in laughter, prompting Kurt to join her in her cackling attack, even if just because her uninhibited guffawing made him want to laugh, too.

"Oh, God!" she dried tears of laughter from her eyes. "That must've been a sight."

"Not sure if that is the case, but it was the longest any of us have gone not hearing Iceman speak, that's for sure."

"Oh, boy," Pepper shook her head, hoping another round of laughter did not incapacitate her again.

"In any case," Kurt's face again turned somber, "He should've known better. I apologize for him."

"Kurt," she hesitated. "Can I call you: Kurt?"

"Of course."

"OK, thanks. Look, Kurt, this, whatever happened between Gene and Bobby, it's not really a big deal. At least not with my friends, it isn't. Or at least not in the way you might be thinking it is. Fighting… name-calling… teasing. It's all pretty normal for us. We all go way back. We've done worse things to each other. BELIEVE me."

Kurt's eyebrows shot up. "You've insulted each other's mothers?"

Pepper opened her mouth but closed it almost immediately, silently categorizing the circumstances of Rhodey finding out about Roberta's previous job.

"I wouldn't use the word 'insulted' for that. No. Definitely not insulted. But we've all done things we wish we hadn't. All of us. Some of us more than others…"

The way in which Pepper's voice had trailed towards the end of her response and how her eyes had briefly narrowed in deep thought told Kurt there was something else that had not been stated in its entire truth. Nightcrawler, though, being who and how he was, decided that it was not his right to question her about what had been left unsaid.

"I see."

"Yeah. Anyway," Pepper rubbed her tired eyes with the heels of her hands, "I think I'm done here but, I want to ask you something about what you said just now, if you don't mind."

"Please."

"What, uhm, what code," she air-quoted the last word, "did Bobby break?"

"Oh," Kurt's tone reflected his surprise at being posed such a simple inquiry. "The Mutant Code, of course: mutants do not harm other mutants. At least not without a good reason, and only if that reason is to save an innocent person's life."

Pepper frowned. "Mutant? You mean: Gene? I," she paused. "I know Gene's half Makluan but, does that really count as a mutant?"

"Mr. Khan is not all human. In a normal person's view, anyone with super abilities could be considered a mutant. Your husband could be one, but he has the advantage that he can turn off that side of him, and he was not born like that. Mr. Khan was born being different, but he is more, in my opinion, alien than mutant."

"Oh," Pepper shrugged. "So, I guess hurting anyone that could resemble a mutant is against mutant code?"

"Yes, in essence. Harming someone just because they're different is, at its most basic, against the teachings of our Lord," Kurt lightly waved his Bible to emphasize his point. "However, some people need laws and codes to be reminded that all life is precious and should be valued as if it were our own. Iceman is the type of person that needs a reminder here and there. And that day, when we all met for the first time, he forgot that you too, are one of us."

"What?" Pepper shook her head and pointed a finger toward her chest. "Me? A mutant?"

"Why, yes!" Kurt smiled. "A rather remarkable one. Resilient despite the times you were close to meeting our creator. Mindful of people's feelings and thoughts, even when they differ from yours. Compassionate even though kindness has not been extended to you all the time. You may not carry the mutant gene in your blood, but you were born with abilities that no normal human has, and like many of us, they did not reveal themselves until many years after your birth. You may not be the classic definition of a mutant, but in our book, a mutant is more than just what some people call a mishap of nature."

Pepper was at a loss. Her eyes traveled down from staring at Kurt's jovial ones to looking at the floor between her feet. She multiple times repeated his words in her head, all the while thinking about her own experience with and her initial thoughts regarding mutants, and she sighed when she realized what she had to do.

"I broke the code, too, Kurt," she began. "I… at some point in my life, I wanted all mutants to be identified. I was afraid of them. I didn't even want to associate with any mutants and thought they all belonged away from normal humans. I treated Jean rather differently, because of that belief. Because I was scared of what she could do."

"But, you dated Scott, did you not?"

"I did. But, I didn't know he was a mutant until he broke up with me. And when I was pregnant, I first thought Scott was the father. And I was terrified that my son would turn out to be a mutant because of it. Which, I know now that it was pretty stupid of me to think that because… because, I guess you're right: Tony is kinda of a mutant. And so am I. More than he is, actually. And my son…"

"Will be OK," Kurt assured her. "All three of you: Tony, you and your son, all look normal. What you can do, only a few know of it, and you were already born to a group of people that will support what you do and who you are, no matter what. The world already saw you as heroes, even before you signed up for this, and they don't yet know that you're –"

"An accident? A failure of science?" Pepper swallowed hard, remembering the words Maya had uttered about the circumstances of her conception, and of how Killian had seen her as nothing more than a fiasco when it had turned out she had not right away displayed signs of carrying Extremis as he had anticipated that she would. "An unexpected genetic screw up? A big, fat mistake?"

"God does not make mistakes, Pepper. Just like with all of us, He has a plan for you."

"Die trying to kill Doom? Make sure I take everyone down with me when I fail?"

"Change the lives of others. Be what your loved ones need you to be. A friend. A daughter. A wife. A mother. An inspiration. You."

Pepper scoffed, not immediately buying Nightcrawler's words.

"It sounds good and all, Kurt, but everyone in this suicide mission is counting on me making sure I make it to the power core and shut it down. And today… today I'm sure I didn't give them much hope that I can do what I have to do. I mean, I thought I could do it. I asked Tony to believe in me, to trust me. But after today… I don't even trust myself."

"And that's why I'm here," Nightcrawler stood up from the floor, walked slowly toward the redhead until he was a mere foot from her sitting position and then grabbed her hands in his. "Because my mission, what God has told me to do, is to make sure you believe in me, in all of us, because we believe you can do this. But we cannot do any of this without your help."

"Kurt, I… I don't –"

"You're the only person on the planet that is immune to Doctor Doom's brainwaves."

"And Jimmy –"

"Is here because of you. Because you exist and, without you, he wouldn't be here having the same ability to defy Doom's will. And if you weren't here, we would have no chance to stop him. We will all eventually lose ourselves when the Mainframe is activated. But you… he cannot do anything about you. You're the only one that can put a stop to him. That is no coincidence, my friend."

"So, what you're saying is…" Pepper sniffed. "That I was born to die a martyr?"

"No," Kurt gave her a smile that showed how much faith he had in her. "To live a hero."

xxxXXXxxx

It was like being in Antarctica all over again. Yet, this time, she was not contained inside a sub, but exposed to the elements. Also, this time, Tony was not going to save her. Gene was not going to save her. She could not even save herself; because there was nothing to save or rescue, yet.

There was just the frigid cold weather making her bones quiver; the bitter and blinding snow around her body, and the slippery ice under her feet; the loud, burning and unyielding wind making it practically impossible to see where she was heading, and the knowledge that were she to take a misstep, she would take four people with her to plummet to their untimely deaths by falling down the edge of the Alps.

Nope. There was really nothing or no one that needed saving at the moment. The mission was to simply make it out of the snowstorm alive, safe and sound, and with time to spare. The current goal was just to endure.

So far, she was not faring well.

"Red, you're lagging behind again!"

Pepper could hardly hear Iceman's voice over the raging wind that now swirled around them after hitting the mountain they were trekking around on foot. The vortex it formed around their bodies on its return trip away from the natural wall of snow-covered European mountain range made them wobble precariously closer to the edge of the narrow path they were currently taking. The sudden jerk of their bodies in tandem with the blizzard-like weather made them lose their sense of equilibrium rather easily, even if just for a second, and she knew all it took was a moment of disorientation to lose sight of the two feet in width of road they were trudging along.

"I'm sorry!" she yelled over all the noise. "I can't see anything!"

"You don't have to see," a fully-transformed Bobby reminded her as he pulled on the rope that surrounded their waists and bound them together, urging her to pick up her pace. "That's my job. Just stay close to me."

"Can you see how much further we have to go?" Maya Hansen asked, third in line in their little five-person parade, her teeth rattling so hard she could have sworn she was going to end up shattering them any moment now.

"What?" Bobby asked, his face partly staring over his right shoulder.

"How much longer," Pepper repeated for the brunette and she instantly regretted picking up her face from the comfort and warmth of her scarf.

"Oh! I guess another hour or so," Bobby replied, his eyes squinted despite his entire body being encased in rock hard ice.

"Are you sure?" Black Widow yelled from her fourth position in the roped line. "My GPS says we should've arrived at the next rendezvous point about ten minutes ago!"

"We had to take a detour," Iceman replied, his voice not loud enough to carry over the unforgiving howling wind. "Tony's directions didn't match anymore."

"He, what?" Widow inquired, leaning closer to Maya's back as she sought a repeat of his response and despising the fact that they could not use communicators to stay in touch.

"He said he had to detour," Maya reiterated. "Map didn't match anymore."

"WHAT? You decided we needed to detour? That's not how it works!" Widow snarled. "You're not the leader of this team, Iceman! I am!"

"Can't hear you," Bobby replied, and even though he had not actually heard every single word Natasha had said, he had an idea of what she had just stated as he had known all along that she would balk at his decision the moment she realized what had taken place without her input.

"Should I go ahead?" Kurt, the last in line, asked of their team leader.

"No," Natasha replied. "We're not supposed to split up! And, we're not supposed to deviate from the path!"

"Is she still bitching?" Iceman asked Pepper.

"She's pissed," the redhead replied. "But she's right, you know? We're supposed to stay on the path that Tony traced for us so that Arthur can track our progress and report it to Howard and T'Challa."

"Well, the road was blocked by a mountain of snow. There was nothing we could've done but to go around."

"Kurt could've teleported us to the other side of it," Pepper suggested.

"Nope," Iceman shook his head. "He's not supposed to use his powers unless we really need them."

"But, Bobby –"

"Stop!" Pepper's words were interrupted by Widow's orders, but her command was not heeded by the first in line of the group, provoking her to raise her voice a tad more than it already was. "Didn't you hear me, Drake? STOP!" Natasha screamed at the top of her lungs. "I said: STOP!"

"She wants us to stop," Pepper rested her hand on Bobby's shoulder. "We should really stop."

"And do what?" Bobby screamed back at Widow, completely ignoring Pepper's plea. "Set camp where we stand and drink some fucking tea? I'd like mine with ice, please!"

"Dammit, Bobby! STOP RIGHT NOW! WE'RE LOST!"

"Bobby, she thinks we're lost," Pepper leaned closer to the man, cut the distance between them, spoke softly to him, and hoped that he would remember that if he and Widow were in disagreement, the ginger's word became the tie-breaking one. "Let's just stop for a second and find our bearings."

"Pepper, it's not safe to just stand here."

"I know, but, it's not safe to argue either. We just need to regroup a little."

"No," he shook his head. "And tell her to stop screaming! This place is very unstable and if she keeps blowing her gasket, it's gonna cause an –"

"AVALANCHE!"

The words were spoken as loudly as the brunette could utter them in an effort to somehow spare them from the cascade of danger befalling them, but Maya's warning came too late. The landslide of snow, rocks and jagged ice easily pulled on their roped entourage, taking with it all five members of the team. In less than a second, the trail they had just been walking on became history, leaving the five of them dangling from the edge of the avalanche-unaffected path.

Kurt was the first victim of it all when he became unconscious after a large boulder hit him in the head, turning him into nothing more than dead weight at the end of the rope. Widow aimed her two trekking poles towards the mountain in an attempt to slow down their downward path by trying to stab them against the ice. All she managed to do was to break her right wrist and stab her left thigh with one of the poles in doing so, the second flying out of her hand in a spiraling motion. Maya, the least athletic of the bunch, slammed her face on the wall of ice on her way down, and she was now freely bleeding while dangling upside down. Pepper's left arm was being held by Bobby, and her right arm grabbed onto Maya's left ankle, attempting to minimize the weight the rest of the bodies placed on Iceman's back and preventing the brunette from slamming her body against the frost once more as the snow, rocks and ice continued to trickle next to them.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye, and they all now depended on Bobby's ability to hold on to the entire group's weight by his one-handed grip on the ice axe he had managed to stab into the mountain, seconds before the landslide pushed them off the path. The orographic change near them enlarged the space available for the blizzard to hit them harder than before, and what had been uncomfortable and highly difficult just moments ago, had suddenly become overly dangerous and life-threatening.

"Dammit!" the conscious X-Man spat. "Is… is everyone alright?"

"Kurt's out, but he's still attached to us," Widow said between clenched teeth before she pulled the pole out of her thigh and tossed it towards the abysm below them, the pain of her broken wrist sending spikes of ache up and down her arm.

"I think Maya's bleeding," Pepper said, her eyes narrowed as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing below her. "I think… I… Oh, no!"

"What?" Widow asked, her head shaking left and right to get rid of some of the snow on her face. "What do you see?"

"Maya? Maya, say something!"

"What's wrong, Pepper?" the redhead's panicked tone set off all types of bells within Iceman. "What happened to Maya?"

"I… can't… breathe…" the brunette's hand flew to her neck.

"I think… I think I see something dangling from her neck!"

"What? What is it?" Widow frowned.

"I can only see the outline of it," Pepper called onto her aura seeing ability. "It's cold and long and pointy and… and…"

"And what?" Natasha asked, but the moment the now river of blood began dripping onto her and then said artifact that Pepper had described all but dashed past Romanoff's face, Widow finally realized what she had accidentally done.

Her trekking pole, the one that had flown out of her broken wrist, had pierced Maya Hansen in the neck, through clothes and all.

xxxXXXxxx

"Do you think I'm a mutant?"

Tony looked away from the electronic tablet in his hands to stare to his right at Pepper's back, startled that she was speaking to him at all. She had gone to bed about an hour ago, shortly after returning from coding in the safety features into the VTR that Fury had removed, but she had not said a word to him since arriving to their quarters. Tony had not pressed the matter and had not tried making any conversation with her, knowing by now that it was best to just let her open up to him when she was ready to do so.

It appeared that the time was now.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"A mutant," she repeated, her back still to him while they both lay in the bed. "Do you think I'm a mutant?"

"Why? Because of Extremis?"

"Yeah."

"No," Tony shook his head lightly even though she was not facing him. "I don't think so, Pep. And if you are one, then so am I. And who cares if we are mutants. I, personally, don't give a fuck."

Tony waited a few seconds to see if his wife would say or do anything else, but when she continued to be as still as a rock and as quiet as a mouse, he returned his attention to the tablet once again. He had gone from using a paper map to digitizing his efforts to create a plan to get everyone to Latveria, seeing as the information changed so much. He still had to wait for the final analysis, per city, of how the world currently faired after Doom's attack, but it would be another week before those results were expected to come in. For now, he had to work with what he had, and what he did not have, all the same.

"Kurt thinks I'm a mutant. He said Bobby broke mutant code by harassing me and attacking Gene."

"Who cares about breaking the mutant code," Tony stared at her back again. "He hounded my wife! He's lucky Gene got to him first."

"Tony!" Pepper sat on the bed and finally twisted her body to eye the inventor. "I'm serious! The X-Men think I'm one of them!"

"No, yeah, I got that part," he put the tablet on the ground before he shifted his body so that he faced her almost completely, their knees touching. "I just don't see what the big deal is, Pepper. Being a mutant, by definition or by principle, doesn't mean anything."

"Tony, don't you see the fucking irony of it?" Pepper's unusual use of expletives told the genius that the topic at hand was rather important to her.

"Which one? That you didn't think of me as a mutant until now and realize that not only did you date one once, but you married one, too? That you didn't want Howie to be one, but he is? That the X-Men think that you're one and that's the last thing you wanted to be?"

"YES!"

"Pepper," his voice softened. "What difference does any of it make? Do you love me less now that you know that I could sort of be considered a mutant?"

"No," she shook her head almost incredulously that he would even consider that her feelings for him would change because of it.

"Do you not want our son back because he's a mutant?" he air-quoted the last word.

"No! I still want Jimmy back."

"Do you think I love you any less because you can see what others can't?"

"I…" she looked away. "I hope not."

Unsatisfied with her response, he used his left hand to redirect her face back to staring at his. He then gave her a look that showed how unhappy he was with her current train of thought, and that he expected her to remove all traces of uncertainty from her mind.

"I…" she tried looking away from him again, but he kept her face from doing so. "I know you don't. I… I know it's stupid, Tony. But… can you blame me? I guess I'm still adjusting to what's gonna be the norm now. I thought I was over it, you know? I thought it didn't matter to me what Killian thought he had made me for. But, I guess there's still some doubt in there."

Tony gave her a warm smile he augmented by rubbing her cheekbone with his thumb.

"Doubting is not a bad thing, Pep. It helps you ask questions that you wouldn't otherwise even consider. Just don't let it keep you from seeing what reality is. And the reality is that there's a lot of people that care for you," he used his free hand to grab hers and pressed her right palm onto his chest, "that love you. That'd do anything for you. People that don't give a shit about who or what you are or may be."

Pepper closed her eyes briefly while she nodded to him, and when she opened her eyes once more, she closed them again almost immediately when she felt his forehead resting on hers. She pulled her hands from his grip to rest them on the sides of his neck, and she then pressed her lips against his a few times.

"Would you really do anything for me, Tony?" she inquired.

"Yes," he kissed her. "Anything, Pepper."

"Then, would you help me think of something else other than Doom, mutants and broken codes? Just for a while?"

"You didn't even have to ask," he whispered huskily to her before he hungrily captured her lips with his.

xxxXXXxxx

"She's bleeding out!" Widow said. "We need to stop the bleeding!"

"With what?" Bobby spat. "You want to finish the job and choke her with her own scarf?"

"Shut up!" Natasha replied. "You're not helping!"

"Neither of you are!" Pepper said as she tried to get a better view of the extent of Maya's injury, but found it difficult to do with the reduced visibility and their current wobbly positions.

"Pepper, stop moving," Bobby ordered after a short exhale of air from his mouth. "I'm barely holding on here!"

"Natasha, can you reach her?"

"I'm trying, Potts!" Romanoff responded, her own movements limited by Kurt getting caught between her feet.

"Try harder! I'm starting to slip!" Bobby yelled as he began to feel his iced hand giving up on holding to the axe.

"Attach your body to the mountain!" Natasha commanded.

"I can't! I need my hands for that!" Bobby retorted.

"Then let go of me," Pepper offered. "We're still attached by the rope. Let me go. I'll be fine."

"No!" Bobby shook his head and gritted his teeth when yet another inch of grasp was lost. "I'm not releasing you!"

"You have to!"

"No! The rope won't support all of us! It'll snap!"

"Bobby, let go. I have to help Maya!" Pepper tried to pull away from his grip, but he refused to free her.

"Ugh! HURRY UP, Widow!" Iceman replied.

"I can't stop the bleeding!" Widow announced. "I can't! I need a —AAAAHH!"

The second landslide was a lot less forgiving than the first, its weight almost immediately doubling the burden Iceman was already carrying. The subsequent round of uneven pour of snow and ice made the rope stretch to its limit only to then bounce back, as if it were nothing more than a never-ending bungee cord ride.

Except, that it was not.

"Pepper! Hang on!" Bobby grunted as he increased the grip on the redhead's arm in anticipation for the brutal hit of gravity and physics they were about to experience.

"What?"

No sooner than Pepper's single word left her, the ginger witnessed, in utter shock, what Iceman had meant by his warning. He momentarily released his hold on her, but he only did so that a spike of ice that emerged from his now free hand could extend towards the portion of the rope that bound Pepper and Maya together, and he quickly snapped the cord with a clean cut. The ricochet effect on the loss of the three bodies of Maya, Widow and Kurt caused Pepper to bounce up, allowing Iceman to slip off the axe, freefall until he and Pepper were aligned in midair, and then grabbed her by the waist.

"NO!"

Bobby pressed the ginger to his body, twisted in the air, and then used his previously overly-stretched arm to create an upwards path of ice towards the edge of the mountain, allowing for him and Pepper to safely land back on the narrow patch of land, all the while ignoring the echoing sounds of his comrades being lost to the abyss.

xxxXXXxxx

He was surprised to see that his father was shakily holding a bag of ice to Trish's hand, but only because for an instant he had forgotten where the woman's fist had been, just minutes ago. Even though everyone had left the meeting room to rest for the day, Howard had led his wife to the closest lunchroom and had asked the attendant there for something to reduce the rapid swelling Trish's knuckles were suffering from. Tony had come to the cafeteria to get himself and Pepper something to drink before they too faced the demons that had been unleashed today, and he already anticipated that his redhead would be fairly upset after finding out some rather painful facts about her life.

It appeared to Tony that he and the ginger were not the only ones who would speak words that needed to be said.

"I told you I'm OK, Howard," Tony heard Trish say while she bid to pull away from his father's tight grip. "This is not really necessary. But if you insist on me doing this, then let me ask for a bucket filled with ice and we'll have this to go, OK? You need to rest."

"I'm fine," Howard replied, not yet realizing that his son was nearby, witnessing the scene. "I'm not the one who punched Nick Fury in the face."

"He deserved it," Trish defended herself.

"I know. He did. He does. And then some…"

Now that they were out of the meeting room and reality was hitting him harder than it had the moment he had found out about certain delicate incidents of his past, Howard was having a difficult time forming coherent sentences to reflect his thoughts. Despite the fact that Trish had known him for many years, in all that time, she had never beheld this side of him before. He seemed anxious, confused and very upset; almost as if he was expecting the world to collapse on itself and take everything and everyone down with it.

"I-I should've punched him too, or… instead of you. Please, don't do that again, Trish."

The brunette was visibly taken aback by Howard's request. She would have happily punched Fury a few more times if it had not hurt her like hell.

"Are you mad at me for it or something?"

"No! Of course not!" Howard instantly replied, his voice much louder than what was necessary. "It's just… just, don't put yourself in danger like that again, please. I… I…"

"Fury's not Killian, Dad," Tony said from his standing position, a couple of feet away from the bench his father and stepmother sat on. "They're both asses, but Fury knows better. I think."

"Tony," Howard began, but he then closed his mouth when Trish interrupted the rest of his response.

"Knows better about what?" Trish's confusion was evident on her face, her head shifting from staring at her husband to staring at her stepson.

"Trish, it's nothing, really… it's…"

"What's nothing?" Trish demanded of her husband. "What's going on?"

"Trish, please –"

"Just tell her, Dad," Tony walked closer to them, quickly being able to identify what his father's fears currently were. "Just tell her."

"Tell me what? Howard: tell me what?"

Trish's face went from looking upset about being confused to looking scared about what was obvious to both inventors but was not to her. Howard sighed loudly and gave his son a face that denoted he was not happy he was meddling in his personal affairs, but Tony understanding what was crossing his mind was a testament that it was more than just care and piety that ran in the Starks. In the end, however, the man knew that he and his son shared more than just DNA and a last name, and that just as they were due for a conversation to sort their feelings regarding today's events, so did Trish deserve to know what was currently making him shake where he sat.

"We'll talk later, OK?" Tony said when he recognized the look on his father's face that he and his wife needed some privacy. "Tomorrow, maybe?"

"Yes," Howard agreed. "Tomorrow, Son."

"OK," Tony gave his father's shoulder a pat and then kissed and hugged Trish before he took a small step back from the couple. "Goodnight, Dad. Mom."

"Goodnight, sweetie," Trish returned the hold and the kiss with equal fervor although she was still in awe that Tony had sporadically started speaking of her with what was such a sacred title for him, shortly after he had found out that she and Howard had wed. She knew how much that word meant to the young genius, which made her feel both honored and nervous that he referred to her as such, even just occasionally.

"Good night, Anthony," Howard finally said, Trish's injured hand still in his, but he then remained quiet until after Tony had grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and had then left without looking back at them.

"Trish, Tony's right. Fury is not Aldrich Killian, but that doesn't mean that some idiot recruit of S.H.I.E.L.D. will not hurt you if you attack their leader again. He… he definitely deserved it. There's no question about that. But please refrain from putting yourself in a situation where you… where… you…"

"Can die?" Trish gulped, just now realizing how frightening her actions had truly been for her husband.

"Yes," he replied and looked down.

With her non-swollen hard, Trish grabbed Howard's free one and gave it a tight, reassuring squeeze. Howard eyed their intertwined hands for a moment before he raised his glance to silently plea to the woman before him to never again make his heart be so close to losing the will to beat.

"I'm sorry, Howard," she said solemnly. "I… it didn't even cross my mind."

"I know," he responded. "That's what worries me. That the things we don't even consider that could happen, end up being the ones that take place."

"You're right," Trish shrugged and pulled her good hand away from his. "I never considered the possibility of marrying my boss. And maybe I shouldn't have."

"No, Trish. This… this is not about you."

"I understand that. This is about Maria and about what happened to her. What should've never happened to her, or to you, or to Tony."

"But, it did. It did happen, Trish. And I don't want to lose you, too."

Trish gave him a small, saddened smile and then looked away from him.

"We've never talked about it because… because there's no point to it, I guess. But, I know I'm not Maria, Howard. I could never fill her shoes. I don't intend to, and I hope that whatever I can give you is enough. I… I'll never hold a candle to her. But I love you, and I love Tony. And… if she were still around, I'd still be just as happy to continue being your assistant. I… I could go back to that, if you needed me to. If… if you now want me to since… since…"

"Mr. Stark," Jarvis sudden voice said, startling both Howard and Trish out of their wits. "Is Mrs. Stark doing OK? Miss Arborgast told me about the injury. I've brought a first-aid kit with me, if you require it."

Howard eyed the kit under Jarvis' arm and then stared at Trish's hand that was now starting to show signs of bruising, so he accepted his butler's offer without a second thought.

"Thank you, Jarvis. I'll take it from here."

"You are very welcome, sir. I'll be in my quarters should you need anything else. Good night, Mr. Stark. Mrs. Stark."

"Good night, Jarvis," the couple said in unison, both remaining silent until Edwin joined Bambi at the exit of the cafeteria and then left a second after that. While Howard inspected the contents of the first-aid kit, Trish's mind replayed Tony's and Jarvis' addressing to her, and had she allowed her fear to take over the reservations of her heart, she would have tuned out Howard's next words.

"I love you, Tricia," Howard smiled fondly at her, his fingers carefully rubbing lidocaine onto Trish's knuckles. "There's no doubt in me about that."

"Will that be enough, though? For you? For us? For this to work?"

"It is for me if it is for you. I'm not a teenager, Trish. I'm not 'trying things out.' I know what I want, and I want you. I also know what I don't want, and I don't want to lose anyone else to senseless killing."

"I'll never be Maria, Howard," she whispered.

"I wouldn't want you to," he replied as he finished bandaging her hand and beamed proudly at his work. Trish pulled her hand away from him, stared at the convoluted result of his aid with a chuckle, and then began removing the cloth with a smile.

"What are you doing?" Howard frowned.

"You've never patched up someone before, have you?"

"Uhm…"

Trish giggled and shook her head. "It's OK. I finally get to teach you something."

"Who says you haven't already?" Howard tilted his head as he waited for her reaction to his response, but when she continued to look dumbfounded after several seconds had gone by, he raised a single brow to inaudibly relay the hidden meaning of his retort.

"Oh," the woman's face reddened almost immediately when she finally understood what he was referring to. "Oh… well… uhm…"

Her gaze lowered and her voice left her, and as she began shaking in embarrassment from feeling at a loss on how to gracefully reply to her husband's revelation, Howard Stark was reminded once again why the discreet woman he had known for years had caught his eye.

xxxXXXxxx

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Pepper asked, her eyes large and red with anger as she tried to hit Iceman on his chest with her fists to no avail due to the closeness of their bodies. Her back was pressed against the mountain and she was towered over by Iceman's tall form; his front flushed against hers and his hands on either side of her head. "How could you do that to them?!"

"They were done," Iceman argued, his eyes piercing hers. "Kurt was probably bleeding in the head after a blow like that, Widow was trapped between him and Maya, and Maya had a fatal wound in the neck. They would've slowed us down!"

"But, you didn't even try! You didn't let me try!"

"Try what, Red? It was us or them!"

"NO!" she shook her head at him. "NO! That's not how this works! You're supposed to try to save people! You don't just drop them off a cliff to save yourself!"

"Not all of us have armor, Pepper!" Iceman spat even though Pepper was not to carry her armor with her until they arrived to Latveria. "Not all of us have the chance to put our high-tech armor on a pregnant woman and hope we don't die with the fall!"

Pepper inhaled sharply in surprise. She was not aware that Iceman knew about that particular incident she had been a part of during her undercover mission with the Maggia. Clearly, he had been doing his homework on them.

"I had no choice," she murmured, as if doubting her own argument when she remembered she had wanted to die that day. "Glenda wouldn't have survived the fall if I hadn't protected her with my armor."

"And we had no choice and no armor! We can't let the mission be compromised by wanting everyone to live through it!"

"And we don't win the mission by failing our team!"

"We didn't fail them! They failed to keep up!"

"We DID fail! WE failed! You-you just cut the rope! You didn't even hesitate!"

"And I'd do it again if I have to! My job is to – Oh, shit!"

Whatever Robert Drake was about to say, whatever argument he was about to use against his ward's logic, was drowned out by a third landslide that buried them both where they stood.

xxxXXXxxx

The contrasting back-to-back visits she had just received were still making her body shake in anxiety and fear. She knew she had no right to complain about being placed in a situation where she had been yelled at by her former love and friend, only shortly after being technically pardoned by the woman she had hurt so much in so many ways, but even someone like her needed a break sometimes. Sadly for her, no respite appeared to be in sight.

She had assumed that as soon as Tony left the interrogation room, that agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would quickly mobilize to get her back into her cell. She was not looking forward to being locked up again – especially since they kept her under tight surveillance and restrained all the time – but after the day she had had, she had hoped for some type of relief from having her head chewed off by Tony Stark. His anger-filled words still scalded her soul, and even though she felt she deserved to be yelled at for everything she had done to Pepper, it still hurt to be reminded that her current discomfort had come from someone who, at some point, she had dated and loved, albeit if only briefly.

How was it possible that someone who had been so close to her now hated her so much?

Her thoughts were cut short when she heard the door to the room open once more. This time, when her gaze lifted from staring blankly at the table, she was shocked to see Nick Fury and Black Widow standing before her, both in at attention stance. Neither of them looked as if they wanted to be there in the first place, and in her personal experience since waking up, meeting with any of them had never resulted in hearing good news, but there was also something that felt different from all the other times she had encountered them before.

Luckily for her, she did not have to wait long to find out why.

"Escaping an international detention center," Fury began, a look of contempt marring his face. "Aggravated assault, wrongful imprisonment and murder of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Impersonation of a civilian. Financial fraud, slander and falsification of records. Illegal use of a stolen, highly advanced technological masking device. Breaking of a UN peace treaty by the burglary and the unsanctioned use of a decommissioned military ship. Kidnapping, torture, assault, battery and attempted murder of a minor across international waters… and that's without the crimes against Howard Stark, Tony Stark, James Rhodes and every civilian that got caught in the crossfire when you pretended to be your father to poison Stark Sr."

Fury paused for a second, dumped a rather tall stack of folders on the table, and then eyed Natasha from the corner of his good eye. "I kinda lost track there, Agent Romanoff. How many years in prison are we talking about so far?"

"About four life sentences. Give or take. Maybe even the death penalty. It depends on whether any of these charges are considered acts of treason or terrorism," Natasha replied.

"And on whether or not Ms. Stane here is tried by an international court or individually per affected nation and individuals."

"That too," Natasha agreed.

Whitney's eyes shifted from staring at Fury to eyeing the very much unstable tower of overflowing folders filled with evidence against her. Her gaze slowly traveled up and down the mountain of papers a few times before she licked her lips and swallowed hard.

"When… when will I be sentenced?" her voice was barely a whisper.

"Don't you mean: when will you be tried?" Fury asked, his weight resting on his hands and his palms flat on the table that separated the blonde's sitting position from his standing one.

"The trial is pointless," Whitney replied. "I know what I did. I know the damage I've done."

"I don't think you do, Ms. Stane," Fury stated while he shifted his position and opted to sit halfway on the edge of the table as if the situation developing was nothing more than a chat among old friends.

"I do. I know I hurt a lot of people. I know I killed at least one of them," the blonde retorted, not failing to recall leaving Agent Brand in the cell that was meant for her, to find her death.

"But you also tricked Iron Man and his group," Fury said, matter-of-factly. "You pulled a stunt so outstanding on possibly one of the smartest men on Earth. You changed his and Ms. Potts' lives in ways they cannot even imagine yet. And, had Ms. Potts' mother not shown up, you would've gotten away with it. Flawlessly. Almost… commendably so."

"I'm not proud of it," Whitney narrowed her eyes. "I wish… I wish I could take it back! All of it!"

"But you can't," Fury shrugged and stood up.

Whitney closed her eyes when she felt tears coming to her – more tears than what she had wanted to further shed after all of the ones she had already let fall. Why was Fury doing this to her? Why was this torture necessary? Why could they not just drag her back to her cell so she could rot for the rest of her days? Was that too much to ask? Was her willingness to face the music for her actions not enough for any of them?

"I know I can't," she gulped. "I just want this to be over with."

"Oh, it'll be over alright. There's no stopping it and you have no control whatsoever over that. But," Fury paused for an instant in which the blonde dared to once again open her eyes to stare at him.

"But?" Whitney shrugged.

"But, you can change how it ends, Ms. Stane."

Whitney chuckled in disdain. "You mean I get to choose the lethal injection over the electric chair?"

"As a matter of speaking, if you call: trial, the electric chair, and: joining S.H.I.E.L.D., the lethal injection."

"What?" Whitney's head recoiled.

"What General Fury is trying to say," Natasha interjected, "is that, like it was the case for some of us, we believe your skills have been… misused, Ms. Stane. We could turn you over to whatever court wants to have you first, or we could… redirect your efforts to more productive tasks."

"You… you-you want me to join S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"We want you to consider it for up to 24 hours," Fury replied nonchalantly and stood up from the table. "After that, I can only guarantee a one-way ticket to a hungry pack of attorneys ready to make you take the stand."

"So," Whitney began, "what you're saying is that, instead of punishing me, you want me to become part of S.H.I.E.L.D.? That… that doesn't make any sense."

"That's because that's not what we're saying," Fury clarified. "We have some intel that's disturbing, to say the least. We need someone who's crazy enough to do some missions for us to confirm that intel and maybe even get some more information. We need someone who has nothing to lose. You have no friends, no family… Well, no responsive family members, I should say. You're completely disposable. We could use that to our advantage and you could use an alternative to being burned at the stake. Unless, of course, you're still bitter about Stark choosing Miss Potts over you."

Whitney furrowed her brows. "What does Tony have to do with it? Would I… would I have to hurt him if I join you?"

"24 hours, Miss Stane," Fury replied with another lazy shrug and began walking towards the exit. "Let me know what you decide."

"Wait," Whitney stood up and called Fury's name, but the man did not stop his trek despite her pleading words. "WAIT!"

The door slamming shut was the only response she got from the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The blonde was at a loss as she sat back in her chair, her mind yelling at her to demand some sort of logical explanations to aid her in making sense of what Fury had just told her. Was Tony in some sort of deep and irreparable trouble with S.H.I.E.L.D.? Did they want to recruit her because she had almost taken down Team Iron Man? Was S.H.I.E.L.D. so bitter of Tony's vigilante life that they wanted her to finish the job she had started before?

Did they want her to kill Tony and die herself while doing so, just so that they took down two birds with one stone?

Was S.H.I.E.L.D. not supposed to be the good guys?

She shook her head lightly and, had her hands not still been bound, she would have rubbed her face in desperation. Nothing of this made any sense to her. The only thing she somewhat understood was that, in their own sneaky way, S.H.I.E.L.D. would spare her the trouble and woes of a long and painful trial if she worked for them for about, more than likely, the rest of her life. She doubted the agency would take anything less than all of it seeing as the punishment for her crimes would last at least that long. It only seemed fitting that her commitment to them lasted as long as she continued to breathe.

Fighting her own demons, the blonde either did not realize or did not care that the other agent still remained inside the room with her, silently passing judgement on her features and inability to process what had just befallen her at the hands of a manipulating Fury. Unbeknownst to the potential new recruit, Natasha Romanoff currently saw herself in Whitney Stane. The similarity of their situations was uncanny. The irony of her coming here to witness another woman being asked to choose between a life in a four-walled prison and a glass-walled one was almost satirical.

Yet, it was not satirical enough to laugh.

"Look, Miss Stane," Natasha's voice forced Whitney back to reality. "It's really not that complicated: just take the deal."

"But I," Whitney shook her head. "I can't just accept something to avoid the law. Not until I know that I won't be made to hurt people. Not until Fury promises me that he won't make me hurt Tony or Pepper! Or anyone else I know, for that matter!"

"Beggars can't be choosers, and there are no promises or guarantees in this business. But I can tell you that you won't hurt Tony or Pepper. Or at least not in the way you're thinking."

"But I will hurt others, right?"

"It's part of the job," Natasha shrugged. "Bottom line is that I know exactly what you're going through right now. What you're feeling. I know you regret what you did, and I know that, at some point, you thought that what you did to others was needed… maybe even justified."

Whitney avoided her pointed gaze and looked towards the door Fury had just walked out of, minutes ago. It was eerie how accurately this woman she barely knew was pinning down her current emotions and thoughts, leaving the blonde to wonder if it was personal experience that was speaking for the spy. When it became clear to Natasha that Whitney had nothing more to say in the matter, the redhead continued her speech.

"Now you know that it wasn't justified at all. And you also know that nothing's gonna change what you did or make it better for you. People… they don't have to forgive you. Every now and then, we just have to forgive ourselves. And, believe me: sometimes, the only way to forgive yourself for hurting others is to help the ones you hurt, even if they don't want your help."

Fury's words replayed in Whitney's mind, along with Tony's and Pepper's she had heard earlier in the day. It did appear to her as if a fallout had taken place between the redhead and the inventor, so much so that Pepper was engaged to another man. And, while Tony strictly blamed her for him and Pepper not being together, Whitney knew that there was no way that her evil deeds were the single cause for the genius to abandon his pursuit of the ginger.

As much as it pained her, Whitney knew how much love the young billionaire had for the chatty girl. And while her actions had played an important part in separating them, if what Tony had told her about Pepper forgetting him was correct, there was simply no way that Tony would have just given up even after that. He had also stated that he could not allow someone else to hurt her the way she had. Perhaps there was someone out there who was after the redhead, or maybe there was someone else who was out to hurt Tony through harming the woman he admitted to love.

"Are you saying...," Whitney's voice hesitated, but she finally locked eyes with Natasha, hoping against hope to gain some perspective on what she was considering signing up for, "Are you trying to tell me that Tony's life is in danger? Are you saying that Tony and Pepper need my help?"

Natasha nodded once. "More than they can ever imagine. Maybe even more than they will ever need anyone's help, in their entire lives."

That was all the information Whitney Stane had needed to know and hear.

Twenty-four hours now seemed to be too long of a time to think about her final decision.

After listening to the Black Widow, it only took her one minute more to accept the offer and pay her debt to those she had wronged in the only way she could: by forfeiting control over her actions and handing herself to work for S.H.I.E.L.D.

For the rest of her life.

xxxXXXxxx

BUZZ

The prolonged and annoying-sounding bell signaled the end of yet another failed simulation for Team A. The virtual world vanished. The lights immediately turned on, and Pepper found herself pinned between Iceman and the floor.

"Get OFF me!"

"Yeah, sure," Bobby stood up and took her with him even though she was clearly reluctant to receive his help. "You're welcome, by the way."

"You're welcome?" Pepper snatched her hand away from his. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"What the hell was that?" Nick Fury yelled towards the duo as he approached them at a fast pace with Kurt, Natasha and Maya following behind, all shaking their heads with disappointed looks on their faces. "Are you intentionally trying to fail these simulations?!"

"It's the best one so far," Bobby crossed his arms over his chest, his body language clearly depicting he was tired of being lectured on how awful the results of the VTR tasks were turning out to be for his team.

"The best one?" Fury's head recoiled in disbelief. "Because two out of three people made it out of this one, instead of no one?"

"We didn't make it," Pepper said, her hands patting down her pants before she began taking off the layers of clothes she had on that made it difficult to move freely now that she was back to a normal environment. "That last avalanche killed us."

"No, it didn't."

"Yes, it did," Pepper argued. "The simulation stopped because all of the subjects died!"

"That's bullshit, Pepper!" Iceman pointed a finger at her. "The machine is only playing it safe. I covered you in ice to keep the avalanche from hurting you. We would've gotten out of it after a few minutes."

"To do what, exactly?" the redhead was fuming. "To realize we were out of our supplies, were lost in the Alps and couldn't keep going anymore?"

"WE COULD'VE KEPT GOING! THEY ARE THE ONES WHO DIED!"

"You let us die, Drake!" Widow spat. "You wouldn't have made it past the mountain without supplies!"

"Then why are we going around mountains?!" Iceman's eyes rose to stare at the standing form of Tony Stark, watching the scene from the command center, high above the floor of the VTR, with no amusement whatsoever displaying on his face.

"Because that's the path that we need to follow!" Pepper replied.

"No," Bobby turned his face away from staring at Tony to watching the redhead, "We don't! If I didn't know any better, I'd said that your husband wants to kill you, Red! That's the most difficult path of all the four he traced!"

"And that's why I'm sending you with her," Tony's voice echoed from the speakers in the room. "Because you're made of ice!"

"And I did my job!" Bobby replied and again glared at the genius.

"How exactly did you do your job?" Fury questioned.

"How did I not?" Bobby countered and pointed towards Tony. "You were all there, in the same meeting I was, when Stark broke down the missions for us, gave us our individual objectives and the paths. My job is to make sure she," he then pointed at Pepper, "makes it to Latveria in one piece. She's the only one that matters to me in this mission and her safety is my assignment. Everyone else is disposable to me!"

"How the hell did you ever convince Professor X to let you be part of his team with that attitude?!" Widow was having none of the man's babble. She was tired of failing these simulations, over and over again, even as they neared the two-week mark of practicing them, just because of his persistent insubordination and short-sighted decisions. "There's a difference between making someone disposable for your convenience and someone becoming disposable by circumstance, Drake!"

"I agree," Bobby said. "And that avalanche made the three of you disposable."

"Dammit, Drake!" Fury snapped. "Everyone else… every other team, has been given challenges for their simulations, and they've all made it out of the struggle without losing anyone! My team survived an extended famine and the explosion of a safe house! Hill's team made it out of a shipwreck! And Stark's team took down a raging Hulk! All your team had to do was find a way around a roadblock!"

"And we did! We went around it!"

"You didn't consult with any of us," Pepper walked closer to the man and stood on her tiptoes to reach his now normal-looking face. "We didn't even know you took the decision to go around the path! There's a reason we have a chain-of-command!"

"This has to stop, Drake," Widow also closed the distance between her and Iceman. "We leave for Latveria in two weeks! Two weeks! We won't have a button to bring us back to life if you decide to do this in the real world!"

"So, what?" Bobby shrugged. "If you don't keep up and don't accomplish your missions, that's all on you. Your shouting caused the avalanche, anyway. This failure is on you."

"That's enough," Tony's stern voice made everyone snap their face in the direction of the entrance of the VTR. "I'm fucking tired of listening to the two of you fight!"

"Perhaps we should swap team members," Maya suggested, but her idea was instantly shot down by a shake of the younger Stark's head.

"It's too late to swap teams now. The other three work perfectly. It's just you," he pointed to Widow, "and Bobby," he eyed said man, "who need to shut the fuck up, get over whatever it is that you have against each other and start working well together."

"The hell, Stark?" Widow asked angrily, insulted beyond belief that the inventor was putting her in the same category group of people that display irresponsible behavior in dire situations,such as Robert Drake. "The only issue here is him! If you want this to work… if you want Pepper to make it to Latveria alive, then replace Drake with Parks."

"Arthur has his mission already. He's supposed to keep us all connected while we travel. No one else can do what Parks can do, and no one else can do this."

"Then our team should be of only four."

"We need him," Tony said with reluctance. "Latveria is fucking cold. And now that we know that Doom was the one who caused the blizzard in New York that killed all of those innocent people and sent me to the hospital for a week, we need someone who can withstand whatever cold weather conditions Doom uses against us."

"Then give us an easier route," Maya sighed, growing weary of listening to the same argument they always had after a failed virtual mission.

"I can't. This route is the one with the least chance of Doom monitoring. Anything else can result in him finding out about Pepper heading his way."

"Then have us take the Earth Movers before we reach the last checkpoint," Widow suggested.

"I can't do that either," Tony retorted. "T'Challa is reframing them with vibranium. He'll barely have time to drop them off at the last checkpoint before he has to head to Latveria himself. And since you're the first team that will get to Latveria, I can't push anything back now."

"Which is why what I did," Bobby pointed a finger to his chest, "is not wrong. It was heartless, yes. But not wrong."

"It was stupid," Widow countered.

"Says the person who not only managed to break her wrist and stab her leg, but also killed a teammate," Bobby rolled his eyes.

"That was an accident!"

"Yeah, that's my point," Bobby nodded. "I don't kill people on accident. I kill them when it's needed."

Tony sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose with his left fingers and closed his eyes. "Let's not do this, alright?"

"Do, what?" Drake snapped. "You know what I'm talking about! You've killed a lot people when you had to! You know exactly what I mean!"

"I never killed my friends," Tony deadpanned.

"Yet," Iceman replied. "But when the Mainframe goes online and Doom messes with your brain, I bet Pepper will be the first one to go."

"Bobby!" Pepper's eyes aimed towards his. "Shut it. Now."

"He doesn't know what that means," Widow mumbled.

"Widow, stand down," Fury said.

"But –"

"You're dismissed," Nick continued. "See me in my office in ten."

"But, sir –"

"Romanoff," Fury raised his voice. "Dismissed. Office. Now."

The spy held back a groan and instead gave her superior a curt nod before she turned around in place and headed towards the door. Fury waited until his agent was out of the training room before he too began walking in the direction of the exit, but not before he whispered in Tony's left ear as he passed him by.

"Get your team to get it together, Stark. The operation starts in two weeks, whether Team A is ready for it or not."

This time, it was Tony who waited for the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be out of earshot before he resignedly turned to face his team once again.

"Kurt, Maya and Pepper: take a break. We'll do this exercise again in about an hour or so. Be back here by then."

"What about me, Boss?" Bobby scoffed. "Am I gonna get detention, or do I just have to stand in the corner until then?"

Tony did not respond, but he also did not take his eyes off Iceman even when Pepper grabbed the inventor's hand for an instant and gave it a squeeze as she walked next to him. Briefly losing eye contact with the troublesome man, Tony surprised her when he quickly lifted her hand to his lips, closed his eyes, lovingly kissed the back of it and then gave his redhead a look of longing before he allowed enough time to guarantee that it was only he and Bobby in the room.

"You know," Bobby began once they were alone, his arms folded over his chest. "I cut that rope so that you can have a chance to do that again with her when all of this is over," he lazily pointed with his chin towards Tony's hand and the door Pepper had used to leave, to indicate that he was referring to the genius' display of affection towards his wife.

"I know," Tony retorted, his eyes blank for a second before he continued, "but that won't happen, no matter how many ropes you cut."

Iceman wrinkled his brow, stared questioningly at Tony while the blue-eyed genius looked behind himself over his shoulder and towards the command center to make sure the microphone was muted, and then returned his gaze towards Drake.

"What do you mean that won't happen?"

Tony shrugged, almost in irreparable resignation, breathed heavily through his nose and then replied.

"What's gonna happen once we get to Doom's castle…" Tony gulped and lightly shook his head. "I… I'm not coming back."

Bobby's face further scrunched as he stared at Tony up and down, waiting for the other shoe to drop or for any minor indication that he was joking, but Tony's voice only turned that much more serious with every word that came out of his mouth.

"It's a one-way ticket for me, no matter how it's sliced. Doom won't let me come back… at least not alive," Tony scratched the top of his head with his right hand.

"And you… you're just gonna… like that? And…" Bobby sighed, paused for a second, and then just stared past Tony, towards the door. "Does-does she know?"

Tony's lack of immediate response and hung head were louder and clearer than any words he could have spoken to the man. Yet, the inventor still felt he had to make sure that his point hit home.

"I built the teams the way I did for a reason. Even if Pepper had her suit on, you're still the strongest one in your team," Tony raised his eyes. "And you have the worst mission of all, I know that. But I also know you can make it. That's why I gave it to you. Not to Gene, not to Fury… not even Scott. You. All you're missing is making sure that Pepper trusts you, because… because if she doesn't, there's no fucking way she'll make it easy on you to protect her. Trust me: I know my girl."

Bobby silently eyed the inventor as he processed what the younger Stark had confided in him, easily understanding the implication of his words. His gaze then shifted to the emptiness of the VTR, his mind's eye replaying the virtual mission of moments ago and listing for him all the things he could have done differently – even if they were not as easy as just killing off half of his team – and he sighed.

"Fine," he relented. "And I guess, you'd rather her not known she'll be a widower when all of this is over?"

"Yeah," Tony replied, a sad look on his face as he stared at the pictures of his wife and his son inside his pocket watch before he snapped it shut. "I'll just make sure she thinks I cut my own rope."

"Well," Bobby sighed once more. "That mission is worse than mine. Good luck with that."

---

A/N: A lot of flashbacks here, but I think they're needed to understand the stuff that happened in the background throughout the other stories. Up to The Fifth Year, we only got to see, mostly, Tony and Pepper's progression. Now, we get to see how lovey-dovey they are and what happened behind the scenes with the other characters, all-in-one. It's like a two-for-one deal!

And now, as it has become custom, here's another tidbit for one of my future stories:

"Seriously, Pepper! Go! NOW!"

"He hacked the temple!" the redhead stated via the wireless earpiece of her phone. "I couldn't get a hold of any of you! I thought he got you both! I couldn't help you from there!"

"And what do you think you can do here?" Rhodey asked, as exasperated and worried as Tony felt while he simultaneously evaded and attacked Ghost. "Get your butt out of here, Pepper!"

"I can help!" she insisted and barely ducked out of the way of one of Ghost's rogue laser beam attacks. "I figured out how!"

"Pepper, I mean it!" Tony yelled immediately before he sped up his flight towards her position with the intention of getting her out of the zone himself if he so had to resort to that. "You're just gonna get hurt!"

"Just one second," she replied to him while she took out from her purse one of his latest inventions, and he finally realized what her plan was.

"Pepper! NO!"

His warning came too late. She had already hit the trigger. She had already flown backwards with the intensity of the blast. And while her plan would work and Ghost would be stopped, the price she had been left to pay was just too high.

Too high.

The loud scream coming from Iron Man uttering her name was the last thing she heard before everything went dark.