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.

12. Chapter 11

Guest Review Responses

Toni: I am enjoying the flashbacks through baby James eyes. Poor kid. Hope he sees his mum and dad real soon. Thanks for the chapter Miss Starfire :) – They're cute, aren't they? I don't think I have any more of them, though :( Poor James is a brave little guy. He deserves to see his parents again… for the last time… ;) And you're very welcome! The pleasure is mine, actually. I'm already working on the next chapter. This story is wrapping up! Thank you for still being here ^_^

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Chapter 11

"How does it feel not being able to use your powers? Is the Oh, so Great Mandarin not that great, anymore?"

Gene briefly narrowed his eyes at the inventor before he chuckled derisively, looked away from him, and replied in an equally venomous tone.

"Probably the same as being unable to use Extremis, Stark."

Tony smirked, happy that his desperate attempt at passing the time was being fruitful. He rested his back against the wall behind him and then crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm more than just Extremis. I still have my brain."

"And I have twelve years of–"

"Wushu training. Gold tiger. Blah, blah. I know."

"I'm still stronger than you. Even if you had Extremis. And even without the rings."

"Mind over matter, Mandarin."

"Perhaps," Gene shrugged. "But the mind is such an easy thing to… harm."

"So is a heart," Tony replied. "Easily broken. Hard to put back."

Gene Khan's frown was all the genius needed to see to realize his unintentional low jab at the Mandarin's unrequited feelings for the redhead had hit the still-sore spot.

"Ass," Gene said.

"Sorry," Tony retorted, much to Gene's surprise. The blue-eyed young man then frowned, walked to the middle of the room, sighed loudly, and then tapped the device before him. "Is this thing even on? We should've gotten a report an hour ago!"

"That high IQ of yours doesn't help with the patience, huh?"

Tony gave the half-Makluan an incredulous look before he narrowed his eyes.

"Like you're not also dying to know if Pepper's team reported in Bern. Why else would you be here, when it's not even your time to guard the night?"

An angry exhale from Gene's nostrils was his only response and the only sound between the two men, at least until the sound of another missile hitting the city made the underground safe house shake. Both Tony and Gene looked up – towards the would-be soil of their current location in Munich, Germany – and then held back a groan of anger when yet another blast was strong enough to loosen dust particles from the ceiling and walls.

"What the fuck does Doom think he's doing, bombing cities and people like that? Who wants to take over the world only to destroy it?"

Tony's shaking fists showed the effort it was taking for him to remain away from the battle as he was. They were outnumbered; low in supplies and in weapons, comparatively speaking. Even if he wanted to help – even if he so desperately wanted to do something to keep more innocent people from perishing or being severely hurt – all his team could do for now was what they had been doing all along: stay hidden in the shadows, push themselves to reach Latveria, and hope that their efforts did not turn out to be in vain once they were face-to-face with the ruler of one of the very few monarchies left in the world.

"Madmen don't use logic, Stark."

Tony narrowed his eyes in deep concentration, opened and closed his mouth a few times, and then groaned before voicing his grim thoughts.

"Do you… you-you think he knows we're headed there? Think these attacks are a way to try to stop us?"

Do you think he killed Team A already?

The inventor also wanted to add, but he held back his tongue. It was nothing but simple speculation on his part at this point – a mere passing thought. Yet, he did not want to invoke its realization by saying the words out loud. He had already jinxed himself one too many times before, after doing just that.

"I thought about that, too," Gene found himself replying in a somber tone. "But Doom doesn't make those kinds of mistakes. If he wanted to kill us, he would've done it already. However…"

"Just because he hasn't killed us, it doesn't mean he doesn't know we're on our way," Tony took the words right out of Gene's mouth.

"Right," Gene nodded.

Tony scratched the back of his head with his right hand.

"Well, Maya was supposed to be at S.H.I.E.L.D. for just a little while. She didn't return to Latveria when she was supposed to. That's enough of a giveaway, if you ask me."

"And he did also destroy the Makluan Temple. It's very likely that he does know that you and Pepper are alive."

"I guess… I guess it doesn't really matter if he does know by this point. We're seven days away from reaching Latveria. I just… I just hope that James… that he's still OK."

Gene Khan could be an ass – a ruthless killer, even, if he so wanted to or if the situation called for it. However, knowing from personal experience how difficult it was for a young boy to grow without his parents, to grow abused and overpowered by a man he could not run away from and who had also killed his mother, he could sympathize with the youngest member of the Starks – and with whatever the boy had been living through since his kidnapping.

Moreover, he would hate to see Pepper cry and mourn for her son again.

Before Gene could make any kind of retort, verbal or otherwise, the machine Tony had been hovering over, just moments ago, began buzzing into life. A couple of seconds later, the buzzing gave way to a bright light that forced both men to briefly close their eyes. Once the blinding light disappeared, Arthur Parks stood before the two men, agitated and breathing hard.

"Doombots," Arthur gasped before his knees hit the ground. His left hand landed on his chest, and he held his upper body's weight with his right palm against the cracked concrete floor of the basement they were hiding in.

"What?" a wide-eyed Tony kneeled next to Arthur.

"Doombots?" Gene asked, knowing damn well that neither Tony's nor his ears had misheard the Living Laser's raspy words. "Where are they?"

"Everywhere," Arthur said before he inhaled loudly, straightened his back, and then wiped sweat off his brow. "In every city I've zipped through getting here. Mostly major cities – the ones he hasn't completely wiped off the planet yet, at least."

"Doombots," Tony deadpanned and shook his head in anger. "DOOMBOTS and MISSILES and GRENADES and BOMBS? What's next? Fucking pirates, and ninjas, and lasers and shit?"

Arthur knew he did not have to respond, and neither Gene nor Tony forced him to do so. His face said it all.

Silently, and still in disbelief, Tony shook his head as he took a few steps away from Arthur and headed towards his backpack. From it, he fished out an energy bar and a plastic bottle of water, and then gave them to Arthur without another word. The Living Laser, while still recovering his energy by sitting on the floor and taking deep breaths, gratefully accepted the nourishment he needed at the moment. Halfway through chewing the bar, however, he almost choked on it when he remembered an important fact he had been supposed to deliver to the young Stark as soon as he found him here in Munich.

"They made it," Arthur said before he repeatedly hit his chest with his right fist and coughed, forcing the food to go down the right pipe, and refusing to let a small thing such as the need to breathe from keeping him from relaying the news to the genius. "They made it to Bern. They're all alive. They made it."

Bern, Tony's mouth hung as his eyes locked with Arthur's. Bern!

There was only ONE team that had a path that sent them through Bern. In fact, now that he thought about it, there was only ONE team, from all four of them, whose path would take them through Switzerland. Everyone else's path was too far away from it. Some had already gone past it, actually. In the end, and even though he did not want to instantly get his hopes up and jump to conclusions, the reality of the matter was that Arthur could only be speaking about Team A's whereabouts.

"You…" Tony swallowed hard. "You sure?"

"Yes," Arthur nodded fiercely before the other half of the bar disappeared in his mouth.

"How sure?" Gene asked, also not wanting to readily accept the good news as a fact of life. Now that they had been on the road for a while, the level of devastation had become that much realer to all of them. The hope that Team A had somehow survived such a terrible attack in Paris had almost ceased to exist within him.

"Super sure," Arthur held his palm up after his answer, chugged down the remaining water, and then cleared his throat. "They're about two or three days behind, and said they were going to pick up the pace. But they're fine. Perfectly fine. Last I saw them, they were getting ready to head to the Alps."

"You… you saw them?" Tony kneeled before Arthur and held the man by his shoulders. "Are they OK? Did they look OK to you? Did… did…"

"She's fine," Arthur smiled, knowing the well-earned relief his words would bring to the inventor. He knew that Tony had been beating himself up, all this time, for what they had all believed had happened to the young man's wife. They all knew that he was blaming himself for anything that could have happened to her and her team.

"She's fine, Tony," Arthur continued, "She… she actually gave me something. She asked me to give this to you."

"What?" Tony's wide eyes were everywhere on Arthur's form, frantic to see on him what it was that Pepper had sent his way. To his surprise, the item in question was nothing more than half a sheet of paper, but he still desperately took it from Arthur's hand and unfolded it with shaky hands.

It took the genius a moment to decipher the multiple strings of numbers he was seeing, but once he interpreted the binary code on the paper, he closed his eyes and smiled.

"Can you read that?" Arthur asked as he stood up from the floor.

"Yeah," Tony nodded and exhaled in relief.

"Everything OK?" Gene asked, almost not being able to deny the curiosity he had about what type of message the redhead had sent to the inventor for him to react this way.

"Yes. Everything's fine," Tony replied, opened his eyes, and a look of boundless determination suddenly appeared on his face. He folded the paper carefully, walked to his backpack to put away the message in one of the front pockets of it, and then returned his attention to Arthur Parks.

"I'm sorry to do this to you," Tony began, "I know you're tired. But… But if we have Doombots running around now, the rules have changed."

"Yeah," Arthur nodded. He had already anticipated for the original plans to be sent down the drain. "Team A said they may have to avoid Venice altogether. They said they'll try to stick to the path you gave them, but that if Pepper sensed Doombots nearby, they would go around them."

"Good," Tony nodded sharply before he rummaged through his backpack to locate the route map. Once found, he wasted no time unfolding it, laying it flat on the floor, and then using his walkie-talkie to wake up the rest of the team and call them over to where he, Arthur, and Gene now kneeled on the floor. Bruce Banner, Jean Grey and Rogue were all on their knees by their leader's side in just a few moments – looking more wide awake than anyone would have expected them to be near sunrise.

Then again, with the ruckus taking place above them, a peaceful sleep had evaded them most of the night.

"What's going on? What changed? Is Team A OK?"

Bruce was the first one to break the silence when he saw that Arthur was there with them. It was not part of the plan for Arthur Parks to stay with a team for longer than it took him to relay the status of other teams, or to gather a team's current location. If Tony had deemed it appropriate for the Living Laser to remain longer than anticipated, and for Tony's face to look as filled with purpose as it did, it was almost certain to Bruce that something major had taken place while they had been trying to sleep.

"Team is A fine," Tony relayed to his team.

"Really?" Jean smiled with hope.

"Really," Arthur nodded. "Everyone else is, actually. Team B had some… issues in Frankfurt, but… but they're fine. After they visited the safe house in Vienna, they stayed in the outskirts of the city today."

Tony's head snapped towards Arthur, suddenly feeling selfish and stupid for not asking about the other teams as well.

"What about Team C?" an image of gigantic Twinkies briefly crossed the inventor's mind.

"They're also behind," Arthur stared at the map, his finger hovering over it until he found the location of Kassel, Germany. "They were in the safe house here, yesterday. They only stayed for half a day, though. Doombots showed up."

"Doombots?" Rogue stared left and right, brow furrowed. From all the training they had received while in Muir Island, no one had ever cared to mention the term: Doombot. Or at least, not near her, they had.

"What the hell is a Doombot?"

"Doctor Doom robotic look-a-likes," Gene answered the confused mutant.

"They're above us right now," Arthur added, and the other members of Team D held back a groan. "Team C said they're going to continue on to Vienna and then head straight to Budapest. But," Arthur shrugged, "I stopped at Budapest on my way here… they should go around it."

"Let me guess," Gene arched a single eyebrow, "More Doombots?"

Arthur grimaced with a nod.

"Can we use the Earth Movers from now on?" Bruce asked the inventor.

"No," Tony shook his head. "T'Challa's mission is to get them to the final checkpoint. We can't risk exposing them until then. It's the only way we have to get into Castle Doom underground."

"So, how are we gonna evade these… Doombots?" the new word sounded so ridiculous in Rogue's brain.

"Avoid the major cities," Arthur suggested. "When I saw them in Kassel, I visited all the other safe houses. The only place I didn't see them in was at the final checkpoint, in Hungary. Every other place… even in Venice… there's armies of them, walking the streets."

"But," Jean shook her head in denial, her role as the voice of reason immediately kicking in, "Avoiding the safe house means we won't have any supplies. No supplies means no food and no water. No food or water means we won't be in the best shape to fight off a madman and his army of robots."

"But facing Doombots means Game Over, Jean," Bruce begrudgingly admitted. "Even if we could potentially fight our way through them, we would only be wasting even more energy and resources that we don't already have."

"But without food," Jean argued back, "We won't have the energy to fight Doom, even if we got to Latveria in one piece! Might as well give up now!"

"We're not giving up," Tony said sternly, Jean's words stinging him more than anyone cared to realize. "The last thing we'll do is give up."

"But Tony," Jean sighed, "Think about this… We… our next stop is at the final checkpoint. We have barely enough rations to last us. The other teams," she pointed at the locations of the other safe houses. "They each all have one more place to stop by before they reach Kübekháza. They won't make it there without food. Especially not Team A – they're hiking the freaking Alps!"

"Team A is fine," Arthur reassured them. "They avoided Paris, but they ended up in a village outside of it. Pepper… she said that they got loads of food there. She said something about someone there having an… Intel… crop?"

Tony faced the Living Laser with wide eyes. "Do you mean: Intelli-Crop?"

"Yeah! That's what it was!"

"OK," Tony's eyes practically showed his brain processing all the information he was gathering now. "So… if they stopped at a place with a working Intelli-Crop machine, then Team A is definitely fine."

"What's an In–"

"A machine that I invented that engineers the best types of hybrid seeds for growing loads of crops in any type of land. It was the first major invention Stark Solutions released globally after we bought out Hammer Multinational," Tony barraged his answer to Rogue.

"Slow down, Sugar," Rogue's southern accent reminded Tony of his pilot, Jonas. "Not all of us can understand you like your gal does."

"It just means Team A is set for food until they get to Hungary," Gene replied.

"But what about the other two teams?" Jean rubbed circles on her temples. "We still don't have a solution for that."

"The protein bars are supposed to give you energy boosts and make you feel full for longer," Bruce began. "Maybe, if they eat only half, they'll be OK until Kübekháza."

"Sure," Jean Grey sighed, "But the creators of the bars assumed normal activity conditions. Half a bar may be OK for someone who can't make lunch break during their desk job. But it'll do nothing for Team B and Team C's energy levels while traveling at a faster pace and through longer paths, now that they may have to avoid major cities."

"But half energy while trekking for long periods of time is better than depleting all of their energy trying to fight off Doombots to get to the safe houses for supplies," Bruce contended.

"Well, then… maybe they should sneak into the safe houses… at night or something," Rogue suggested.

"There's no sneaking into them," Arthur admitted. "I only got in and out without being seeing by Doombots because I'm fast as light and used the power lines."

"Well," Rogue began, "Can't you do that with the food in your hands? As in, sneak in there, grab some supplies and then… energy your way out?"

"I don't know," Arthur shrugged. "Tony? Tony, what do you think?"

"The food most likely wouldn't survive the conversion," Tony replied. "Besides, doing that to you will add extra weight and increase the work on you. It'll just make you use up more energy than… more energy than…"

Suddenly, the answer to half of their current issues befell the blue-eyed inventor. The word had been uttered so many times just now, and in so many contexts, that he felt like an idiot for not realizing its major implication until now.

Energy, Tony's eyes landed on the machine from which Living Laser had popped out.

"Energy!" Tony stood up with a start. "That's it!"

"What's it?" Rogue again looked left and right.

"I can't guarantee that the food would make it through the conversion," Tony flipped over his backpack to spill the contents within it, "But when we had that first bombing at the island, Arthur got some of us to safety by taking us with him through the power lines. The suit that made Arthur who he is today was designed to convert matter into energy, but my dad focused his efforts on human matter and clothing fabrics, not anything else."

"Yeah, so?" Jean vaguely recalled being informed this had been the case for some of the members of the resistance when they had been caught by surprise at the start of Doom's war.

"I can… maybe…" Tony began picking out his tools from the mess he had poured out of his bag. "Maybe I can modify Arthur's suit to minimize the feeling of the added load and increase the energy support to account for an extra passenger."

"Tony…" Bruce shook his head, already seeing where the genius was heading with his explanation. "The effects of the teleportation on regular humans are unpredictable. You were mostly fine after it, because you had Extremis activated at the time, even if just a little bit of it. Maya, and everyone else who was teleported by Arthur that time, were feeling unwell for days!"

"Yes, I know. But if Arthur can get us to the final checkpoint ahead of time, then we would have enough days to recover before hitting Latveria."

"I, what?" Arthur's eyes bulged. "Tony, I… I don't wanna hurt anyone."

"I'm with Bruce," Jean intervened. "How is this any different than not stopping at the safe houses for supplies? Teleporting with Arthur will make us sick, too!"

"Illness and hunger are only an issue when we have no way to stop them," Tony reasoned, already hard at work building a device to attach to Arthur Park's suit. "The Earth Movers are FILLED with supplies. T'Challa should already be really close to the final checkpoint. We… we'd just be meeting him sooner rather than later."

"But you said the food wouldn't convert properly," Gene interjected. "That means that we'd be forfeiting the food and water we already have with us if we travel with Arthur."

"That's a possibility," Tony admitted, sparing his team only a quick glance before continuing his tinkering. "But it's the lesser of two evils. The food may or may not make it there. But we get to Kübekháza ahead of schedule, we get a few days to rest and recover from the teleportation, and we avoid these fucking Doombots and other attacks until we get to Doom's castle."

Everyone else in the room stared at one another, slowly and silently making sense of Tony's crazy new plan. Bruce then stared at the map once more, made some mental calculations of dates and time zones while perusing it, and then frowned.

"OK, let's say we go for it..."

"No!" Jean stood up from the floor. "This is insane!"

"Wait," Bruce lifted his arms in a placating gesture. "Just… let's hypothesize the situation for a second."

"How are we going to get everyone else?" Gene stood up as well, spouting out the same question Bruce Banner had been about to pose.

"Team B might still be near Vienna," Tony reasoned.

"What about the Doombots?" Rogue asked.

"Last I checked, Vienna had none," Arthur replied, purposefully and for the inventor's sake, leaving out of the conversation the fact that Team B could very well still be camping near Vienna for another day or two to make sure Rhodey was ready to trek again. At least, that had been the impression he had gotten from Nick Fury himself.

"But they may have them now," Jean suggested.

"But they may not," Tony retorted.

"Team C should be visiting Vienna tomorrow or the day after that, depending on how far behind they are," Gene pointed out.

"And if we miss them, they might still stop in Budapest," Tony said before cursing aloud when another shake of the ground above them made him drop his screwdriver.

"What about Team A?" Rogue stared at Arthur. "You said Venice had Doombots, too."

"And Team A already plans to avoid Venice if Pepper sensed Doombots there," Jean sighed. "Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure that Pepper will be able to tell they're around."

"Think Team A is still in Bern?" Tony asked the Living Laser.

"Maybe, I don't know. They knew they needed to pick up the pace. They may be in the Alps already."

"Then we check for them in Venice, just in case. And if they avoid it, we wait for them in Hungary."

The silence that followed Tony's response was broken only by the inventor himself after he finished the new device that would help the Living Laser teleport the members of the resistance to Kübekháza.

"Alright, Arthur," Tony said as he attached the device to the man's suit. "You won't feel any different, and it won't hurt you either. In fact, you might feel a little lighter and faster now."

"We're doing this?" Jean asked.

"Yup," Tony replied before he began putting away his scattered belongings.

"Even after all the drawbacks we just listed, and the fact that we might not even get Team A to be teleported to Hungary, we're still doing this?"

"Yes," Tony answered. "Go get your things, everyone. We're leaving right now."

"But," Jean shook her head. "Tony–"

"Don't you want to see Scott?" the inventor stared at the redhead before eying the southern woman standing next to her. "Gambit? Everyone else?"

"Yeah, but–"

"We have no choice," Gene's support for Tony's plan was unexpected for the genius. "It's stupid, and crazy, and reckless. But so is continuing to walk amidst these attacks and robots we didn't account for. The only thing that would we better than this would be for me to teleport us there, but Doom's technology would detect my energies and he'd know we were right on his doorstep. Next to that, the best option would be to fly there – but we know there's no way to just fly to Latveria without being spotted and shot down."

"Or," Rogue shrugged, "If this new plan was always an option, we could have just done it from the start to get us to Latveria and saved us a lot of time."

As soon as the words left Rogue's lips, everyone's eyes landed on Tony's form. The look of shock on his face was evidence that he had not even considered this idea as a possible means of getting to Latveria until now. The looks on everyone else's face at learning this fact showed how unamused they currently were at his blunder.

"Huh," Tony gulped, his left hand embarrassingly rubbing the back of his neck. "Oops?"

"Mind over matter, huh?" Gene spat after a short pause.

"Yeah," Tony cleared his throat. "My bad. You-you can kick my ass after this. I won't even fight back."

"You wish," Gene narrowed his eyes. "I'll just let Pepper do that."

Tony's bashful groan was his only response, guilt instantly filling him at recognizing the appalling repercussions of his own stupid act. Pepper's team was currently trekking the Alps, in the middle of winter storms, only because he had not thought about using Living Laser's abilities to get them to Castle Doom in the shortest amount of time. He had immediately seen the energy man as a way to keep the team in contact, but not as a way to take the team from point A to point B. He had dropped the ball, in the worst of ways, and he had sent his redhead to take the most perilous path of them all, all under the belief that it would keep her from being spotted and being somewhat safe.

In truth, part of that had probably been because he had forgotten that Arthur Parks was even still around for the longest time, and so had not really taken the time to dwell on his condition further since seeing him again on Muir Island. He had once told Maya that he had had to watch the Living Laser die three times. But shortly after the third time, he had received a text message from the man, telling him that he was alive and laying low. Other than the guilt he carried for not being able to cure him, Parks had mostly been out of the inventor's mind for the past few years.

In addition, the thought of altering Arthur's energy composition to allow safe travel with another person with minimal side-effects had simply not occurred to him. The Mandarin could not teleport them to Latveria because Doom would detect his Makluan energies; Nightcrawler could not take them there because he had to have seen or visited a location first, or risk severe injury or death upon arrival when teleporting blindly. Living Laser's energy conversion caused negative side-effects to anyone he carried along as a passenger, but the Laser's condition was science-based, and that meant something could be done about it – he had simply never thought of fixing the complications involved.

How he had missed such a clever, simple, and obvious solution during his cautious planning was beyond him; beyond everyone, in fact. If he could have, and if he had known that the action would not have any negative effects on their plan, he would have run his head through a wall just about now. He did not deserve to be calling the shots. He should have just given up being the leader of this counter-offensive before they had left Muir Island and they would probably be in better shape for it right now.

High IQ? Genius? Technology inventor? Fuck a bunch of that! His early mockery of Gene's powers being out of reach had turned around and had slapped him in the face.

Him? Tony Stark? A leader? He was everything but.

But then, just as quickly as the thought of giving up on his leadership post and passing it on to someone else entered his mind, the message that Pepper had sent via Arthur Parks returned to him… And he felt his pity party vanish, even if just for now. There was no reason to pout about his mistake at the moment. If the idea had been really that simple and that obvious, someone other than he would have pointed it out way before Rogue had mentioned it just now.

He was aware that this did not absolve him, though. He knew that this did not change the fact that he had messed up. He knew that if someone perished in this fight, he would forever carry the blame of it on his shoulders – even if no one else blamed him for it, and if even if the death was not related to the travel method itself, which was the issue at hand. Once in Latveria, anything could happen, and the means of transportation would have no bearing on what happened during the actual fight.

Yet, Tony Stark being who he was, knew that he would always wonder if they would have been better suited and better prepared for fighting Doctor Doom on his turf if they had been teleported to the final checkpoint directly from Muir Island, rather than walking their asses there. However, he also knew that there would be, or so he hoped, more appropriate opportunities later on to pity and blame himself for not thinking about this idea sooner. Now was not the time to think about it – or the time to relinquish the responsibility he already had.

"I love you, jerk. Don't give up."

Despite everything bad and depressing taking place around him, Pepper's message made him inwardly smile.

xxxXXXxxx

They were already behind, all thanks to him, so when Nick Fury had suggested they waited in Vienna for Team C's arrival, no one had batted an eye. Then again, even if he himself had verbally stated his belief that the idea was stupid – that the concept of wasting even more time for a team that could also be as behind on schedule as his was, Nicholas Joseph Fury was still the leader of the team and his superior at S.H.I.E.L.D. It would have been even more of a waste of time to try to start an argument he knew he would lose before it even got a chance to start.

Then again, again, perhaps strength in numbers was what they would need from now on, seeing as the attacks were becoming more and more reckless, prolonged and intense. Even in the dead of night, the sound of bombings would not stop – not even slow down a bit. Even if they were a few miles outside of Vienna, the sounds of war were as clear to James Rhodes as if they were originating a few feet away from him.

He closed his eyes and tried his best to ignore the sounds of innocent people dying at the hands of Doom's attack while he just laid here on the grass and kept vigil on his team's slumber. Nonetheless, the fact remained that War Machine was as useless to anyone as a winter coat would be at noon in the desert.

"Closing your eyes is probably not the best way to guard our sleep."

Rhodey's eyes snapped open, but he did not move or look at the blonde in the eye. He was still to come to terms with the fact that this woman had saved him, nursed him back to health, and advocated for him against Nick Fury himself to get some rest in the past few days, all the while he had been loathing and damning her mere existence in his life. Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for him and his dignity, Roberta Rhodes had raised him with better manners than he had hoped to have at this point in time.

Unceremoniously, the male agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. sat up on the ground, locked eyes with the woman, and then bit down his pride.

"Thank you," he swallowed hard and ignored the churning feeling in his belly at speaking words of gratitude to the blonde. "For saving my life, Agent Stane. Thank you."

The look of surprise on her face was not lost to him.

"I…" she looked away from him, stared beyond his position on the ground and towards the rest of the sleeping team, and she then bit on her upper lip. "I mean… yes. Of course, Agent Rhodes. It was nothing. Don't mention it. It's… it's what we're supposed to do."

Rhodey gave the woman another moment for her to collect her thoughts, compose herself, perhaps even to tell him what the hell she was doing awake when her turn to guard the night was not for another hour or so. But when she continued to stand there and fidget uncomfortably, Rhodey returned his back to the ground. He had just swallowed his ego and hatred for her to thank her as earnestly as he could have possibly done so: what more could she want now? Until he got an opportunity to return the unsolicited favor and settle his debt to her, Whitney Stane could go fuck herself, for all he cared.

The sound of her footsteps would have otherwise informed him that she was retreating to her sleeping bag, but given that her stomps were getting louder, and that the ground underneath him was slightly shaking with each passing step, Rhodey soon realized he was now in the undesirable company of his most hated enemy – Doctor Doom notwithstanding.

Actually, now that he thought about it, he would have very much preferred to ask Victor von Doom on a fucking blind coffee date – perhaps even take him to a movie afterwards. They would probably have more in common, or at least more to talk about, than he and Whitney Stane did.

However, after five minutes of silence and against his better judgement, Rhodey found himself starting up a conversation with the blonde.

"How did he die?"

"Excuse me?" she frowned in confusion even though it was obvious to her that Rhodey could not see her face from his vantage point. She was sitting a few feet behind him, and his head was propped up by his arms under it, leaving him with no way to look at her unless his neck shifted around.

"Your dad," Rhodey clarified. "How did your dad die?"

The long silence that followed his question made it clear to him that the inquiry had hit a sore spot. Nevertheless, Rhodey figured, if he had to deal with the unwanted presence of the Stane girl within breathing range, then she would have to deal with the uncomfortable questions he knew he could pose to her.

To his surprise, the woman calmly began her response.

"His body gave up on him," she gulped. "The lack of movement got to him. His old age got to him. The fall got to him. He just… he just never improved. By the time I decided to pull the plug, no organ was working on its own anymore. He had an artificial respirator. A machine for his kidneys and liver. His legs and arms had begun developing sores and gangrene. The nurses… they had to clean his tongue… scrape it from dead tissue, almost every day. His body just… gave up. It… it gave up long before I did."

Once again, Whitney Stane almost made him regret his bitter thoughts and feelings about her.

Damn. Her.

When he had found out about what Whitney had done to Pepper, and knowing that Obadiah Stane was still in a coma, Rhodey had considered the idea, and had waited and waited for the chance, of spitting scornful and insulting words about the fate of her father to her face, even if just to have something to hurt her with, as much as she had hurt the girl whom he considered to be his sister. The Madame Masque persona would have surely been enraged to be so openly mocked for something that was dear to her heart. Chameleon, on the other hand, sounded just as pained about the loss of the only parent she had had as much Rhodey figured he would be if his father or mother had suffered the same misfortune.

He could only imagine how hurtful it would be for anyone to helplessly see one's parent in the same deplorable and decaying condition Whitney had just described her father had been in. The worst of it all, however, was the fact that, while he would have another parent, close friends, and other family members willing to help see him through the agony and mourning, Whitney Stane had no one else in the world to support her. Her father had been the last family she had had, and he had left her all alone in this world, and not too long ago.

He opened his mouth to apologize for his insensitive question, but he instead pursed his lips once more. No good would come from him apologizing for what was already said and done. No level or amount of apologies would bring her father back to her, anyway.

He thought about ending the awkward discussion there, but before he could call it quits, Whitney surprised him with a question of her own.

"After this… if we make it out alive… what are you going to do? Do you have any major life plans?"

"I…" his voice trailed for an instant, shocked that he was giving serious thought to a question from this woman. He had been pondering this very question himself, the last time he had been guarding his team, but even after almost kissing the hands of death, James Rhodes was still uncertain about what to do with his life.

"Not sure?" she offered, and he shook his head.

"No," he admitted to her. "Not really. Depends on what happens, I guess. You? What are your plans?"

Whitney chuckled bitterly, stretched her numbed legs, and then rested her weight on her hands behind her back.

"Me? Oh, yeah! I have big plans! I will be S.H.I.E.L.D.'s loyal slave until the day I die."

In spite of himself, Rhodey lifted his head from his arms, pivoted his neck, and then frowned at her. The blonde pursed her lips, half shrugged, and then looked towards the sky.

"That was the deal: my unconditional lifetime service to S.H.I.E.L.D. instead of being tried and sentenced for what I did to Pepper, to Howard Stark, and to countless other people as Madame Masque."

"Really?" Rhodey arched a single eyebrow.

"Really," Whitney retorted with a curt nod.

"Is that why you're here then? Because you owe it to S.H.I.E.L.D. that a jury didn't give you the electric chair?"

"I'm here because it is my duty as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. But I took the deal to be an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. because I owed it to the memory of my father. To myself. To Pepper and Tony. To you. All of you trusted me – wanted to see me become a better person. But I let all of you down when I allowed the mask to take over me. The least I could do for the people who thought better of me was to join S.H.I.E.L.D. To put my skills to good use and help those that can't help themselves. I thought maybe, if my father ever woke up someday, that Fury might let me go so that I could care for him, and we could both start anew. But, he's dead now. So now my only goal is to right my wrongs, and protect others from being wronged by people like me. That's… that's really why I'm here."

The two agents remained quiet after her response: Whitney wondering if she would ever regain Rhodey's, Tony's, or even Pepper's trust; and Rhodey trying to gauge how honest her answer of just now had been. Their quiet musings were interrupted when Rhodey's watch beeped to signal the end of night guard, and he wasted no time standing up from the ground. He patted his clothes clean off dust and leaves, and then began walking towards his sleeping bag. He was only able to take a handful of steps, however, before he voiced a somber thought to the blonde.

"Well, look on the bright side, Whitney. If you die in Latveria, you won't be their slave for too long."

Despite it all, she laughed aloud at his retort, only much later noticing that, for the second time since finding out that she was alive, Rhodey had once again addressed her by her first name. She did not believe that he had even noticed that he had, but she knew that he would notice if she used his nickname to address him.

Perhaps another day. Perhaps another time.

"Always so full of optimism, aren't we?" she said after she calmed down a tad.

"Almost dying would do that to you."

"So I've been told," she replied. "But don't worry, Agent Rhodes: I won't let you die."

"So I've been told," he answered after a pause, eyed the blonde one last time, and then quietly returned to his bedroll, purposefully failing to bid her goodnight.

Dying in Latveria to be freed from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s deal would have sounded somewhat appealing to her, if she did not already have a mission to fulfill during this war; a personal and rather important assignment that had been bestowed upon her by the brunette girl.

Maya Hansen, and Nick Fury too, to some extent, had entrusted her to see it through to the end. And by golly: she, Whitney Julieta Stane, would not fail at this task.

Tony Stark, when deemed appropriate, would expire by her hand.

xxxXXXxxx

She watched from behind the wheel of the patrol car as the bouncers of The Boom Boom Room brought the young man out through the front door of the building's first floor. She checked herself in the rear-view mirror, making sure nothing would give her away. As usual, the effect was flawless, and she knew that she would succeed. She needed to; this was the first official assignment Fury had put her on, and she knew it was only the first step.

She opened the car door and stepped out, approaching the front door of the establishment with a walk that signified boredom, but purpose. She saw that the bouncers were not really needing to restrain Kevin very much. He was clearly drunk, and judging by the clothing he was wearing – which was neither the right size for him nor matching – the report that had gone out to the local PD dispatch had been accurate.

"Good evening," she said to the men in her new, deep voice. The new mask was working as perfectly as the old.

"Evening, officer. This is the guy, here," one of the bouncers, a large man with a bald head and mustache, gave Kevin Kowalowski a little shake. Whitney made a show of raising her eyebrow at the look of the fellow she was here to take into custody.

"He really stripped naked in the women's restroom and tried to assault a woman who went in?"

The bouncers nodded at the question. "Yes, sir. Not just any woman either: it was Pepper Potts."

Whitney already knew this to be the case, but played along. The bouncers witnessed the eyebrows of the tall, African-American police officer shoot up at hearing that statement.

"Tony Stark's wife?"

"Yup."

Whitney shook her head in disbelief, but inside she was struggling not to laugh. She was sure that the situation was a lot more complicated that what had been reported through dispatch. She would have to find out later.

"Boy, you are lucky to be alive, trying to come on to Rescue like that. She might have blasted your junk clean off. Never mind what Iron Man might have done to you."

She took out a pair of handcuffs from the belt the cop outfit came with, and approached Kevin, turning him around as the bouncers stepped back slightly to let the officer work.

"What's your name, son?" Kevin did not respond with more than a grunt and moan, and started to sway when the bouncers let go of him.

"We got his clothes out of the toilet bowl in the restroom he was in,' one of the bouncers held up a plastic bag filled with soaked garments. "Found his wallet in there. His name's Kevin Kowalowski."

Whitney nodded. "Well, Kevin Kowalowski, you're under arrest for public lewdness and sexual assault."

She proceeded to read him his Miranda rights, thanked the bouncers, and then marched Kevin back to the patrol car. After putting him in the back seat – where he proceeded to pass out – Agent Stane got behind the wheel and began driving away to the rendezvous point, where Hawkeye and Black Widow would be waiting. Afterward, she and her mentors would take Kevin to the Helicarrier to be interrogated.

Yes, it seemed her first mission was a success.

xxxXXXxxx

The many simulations in the VTR did not do justice to the actual and current extreme weather in the Alps, even with the added protection they had picked up in Bern before taking on the treacherous mountain range. The layers upon layers of clothes they now wore felt quite inadequate at keeping the raging snow and the frigid wind gusts from chilling them straight to their bones. Their backpacks felt heavier and heavier by the second, and not just because snow kept piling on them, but also because their bodies were having a tough time staying balanced and at a decent body temperature.

The only saving grace, so far, was that they had managed to avoid encountering any Doombots.

As opposed to their practice runs, this time, it was Bobby Drake who was at the front of the five-person parade. He was in full ice mode, and even he could feel the unyielding and unforgiving rage of the inclement climate around them. He could not imagine what his team members were currently experiencing underneath their thick garments, but he knew it had to be at least ten times as worse as he felt it to be – and he felt like shit. Nevertheless, he soon realized that he did not have to imagine the effort it was for them to continue walking in the middle of a blizzard when Maya Hansen suddenly dropped to her knees.

The brunette felt as if her lungs, nose, and throat were freezing from the inside out. Her arms and legs shook as if she had run five marathons, back-to-back and nonstop. Yet, they had only been trekking around the icy mountain for half a day. The first thirty-six hours at the Alps had been uneventful and kind of pleasant, but they now knew that the stroke of good luck they had experienced so far had simply been the calm before the storm; literally and metaphorically.

And to think, they still had about two more days of this; two days that had been charted and calculated to be just one more day with the assumption that the weather would be bad, but not as awful as it currently was.

"I can't," Maya coughed loudly and held her throbbing head between her hands. "I can't do this… I… Sorry. I can't."

The other four members of the team looked at one another – or as much as they could in the midst of the barraging snow. Bobby looked ahead of himself, and then towards the hyperventilating brunette, before he began undoing the ties of the rope around his waist.

"I'll carry her."

"No," Natasha shook her head. "You need to be available to protect Pepper at all times. Doombots may be around."

Bobby narrowed his eyes at the older redhead.

"Last time I did that, you bitched at me for killing the three of you."

"Let's not start anything, alright?" Pepper immediately intervened, something that was easy to do, since she had been walking between Bobby and Natasha.

"We're not," Bobby replied. "Unless Natasha tells me NOT to help Maya and instead gives us a better idea than standing here in the middle of this storm."

The agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. returned the glare the member of the X-Men was offering her, but before she could open her mouth to speak, Nightcrawler spoke up first.

"I'll carry her."

"Kurt, no," the botanist tried to protest, but she could barely breathe.

"It's no problem," Nightcrawler began untying his ropes. "I'm closer to you, anyway. It makes more sense for me to help you than Iceman maneuvering his way back here."

"Heard the Voice of Reason?" Natasha began. "Let him do his job and let us carry on."

"Are you sure, Kurt?" Bobby's frown of concern was visible, even in his ice form.

"Yes," Kurt replied as he easily adjusted the brunette's position to rest on his back. "Back in my country, when I was young, I used to help the mules carry bags of sugar. I sometimes even carried the mules."

"I heard that," Maya whined.

"I said it loud, did I not?" Kurt said in an obvious teasing tone, channeling Bobby's previous jab at the botanist, knowing that some light humor was sorely needed by the team at this point in time.

"What does that make me?" Maya asked despite herself. "The sugar or the mule?"

"Pick one," Bobby yelled from his position at the front of the line. "But last I checked, Nightcrawler wasn't a mule."

"Bite me, Drake!" Maya spat with more energy that she had believed she had.

"Don't dare him," Pepper said, a small smile on her face. "He might just take you on it!"

Even the agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. had to laugh at that.

xxxXXXxxx

"So, what you have to remember to do, though," Happy continued his tale between bites, "Is that, before you stick the blade in its neck, you have to put a little bowl underneath the goat to gather up the blood. You can use it as some sort of gravy for the meat, or you can use it as its own side dish. I prefer it as a side dish. It ends up looking like ground beef, but it tastes so much better."

"I don't believe I have ever had the chance to try that," Jarvis replied. "I've had my fair share of hunting opportunities when I was in active duty, but I don't believe delicatessen goat was ever on the list of options."

"My dad loves to hunt," Happy shook the piece of meat in his hand with every word spoken. "I've hunted alongside him for, like, ever. I've taken down rabbits, quail, armadillo, deer, elk, ducks, goats… even hogs. But hogs are nasty! They stink and aren't really that good for eating."

"Well, thankfully for us, deer are in order around here, and not hogs," Jarvis pointed to the already cooked game that Hawkeye had helped take down for them tonight. Having a former Olympic archer on their team had turned out to be a great asset when they had first realized, upon arrival to the checkpoint, that they would have to resort to hunting down food sources, without calling much or any attention to themselves. At this point, nevertheless, the team doubted that any of their shooting noises would have been at all noticed by civilians – they were too busy fleeing the city or avoiding Doom's constant attacks. When they had arrived in Vienna, not twenty-four hours ago, there had not been that much activity around the city. In the past twelve hours, though, the attacks had begun growing in scale, forcing the team to circle around their assigned checkpoint.

Being behind schedule despite their short-lived stay at their previous checkpoint had made it difficult to reach the Vienna safe house as a group, especially now that the Doombots presence they had encountered in Kassel had reached Vienna, leaving them with little opportunity to get any food supplies from the location. As a result, the team had decided to send Maria Hill and Beast to the city to try to collect at least their medical supplies and to notify the other teams that they were in route, while Hawkeye, Jarvis, and Happy Hogan took care of finding something to eat and setting up camp to rest for the night.

The deer had been killed, skinned, gutted, prepared for cooking and roasted over their small camp fire, a long time ago. The rest of their team, however, was yet to return from their attempt at reaching the safe house in the chaos that was now the city of Vienna. Maria and Hank had left the campsite about six hours ago; gutting a deer, and talking and listening about hunting had kept the three men busy for a while. But when one hour of waiting turned to six, and the sounds of war and destruction were all around you, it became more and more difficult to stay on task – to remain calm and pretend that you were not worried about the fate of your teammates, or that you were not dying to rush into the city to help out.

And Clint Barton, despite his neutral-looking face throughout the entire waiting period, had had just about enough.

"We should go searching for them," the archer, who had been quietly listening to his teammates exchange hunting stories, stood up from his spot on the ground.

"Or we should wait until the morning. If they're not back by then, we should keep going to Budapest."

Jarvis's retort almost made Happy choke on his food.

"What?" Hawkeye narrowed his eyes at the older man.

"Agent Hill and Dr. McCoy are capable of taking care of themselves," Jarvis calmly replied. "They know the plan, the paths, the timeline, and the location of our camp. They have their supplies, their walkies, and their skills. If they're unable to return by morning, for whatever reason, it's only sensible that we proceed as planned. They will catch up with us when they can."

Hawkeye opened his mouth to reply, made some unintelligible sounds, and then shook his head from left to right.

"Hogan," Clint directed his attention to the youngest member of the group. "Pack up your things. We're going into the city."

"Uhm," Happy's eyes darted from Clint's to Jarvis's before he pointed towards the Stark family butler. "I'm actually with J, on this one. Agent Hill is no pushover, or a weakling. And Beast is… well, Beast. They're probably fine."

"Probably fine?" Hawkeye was unable to believe his ears. "Am I the only one worried about them?"

"Of course not," Jarvis stood up. "But rushing into the city isn't going to help them, or our ultimate plans. There are many non-dangerous reasons we could choose from for why they haven't returned yet. Maybe they decided that it would be best to stay there for the rest of the night. Maybe they will wait until just before dawn to return. We don't know if they made it to the safe house, or if they're still there, or if they're even thinking of staying in there tonight. But we do know that they also know what the final destination is and how to get there. Even if they're behind, they know where to go once they get the chance."

Clint's mouth hung in disbelief, briefly stared towards the location of the city, and then groaned.

"I get it that you're the Voice of Reason and all, but I'm second-in-command. And I say that we're going to the city to look for Maria and Hank, right now. We can't just sit here and sing Kumbaya. We-we just have to try!"

"And do what, exactly, Agent Barton?" Jarvis's tone was serene, cool, and sympathetic despite the harsh reality of his words. "Roam aimlessly in chaos while they may already be in route back here? Go search for them and miss them on our way there, only for them to have to wait for us here, or repeat the cycle from the start?"

"But–"

"Dude," Harold Hogan began, "I know that you want to go help. I do, too. I…" Happy looked down. "If I had my way, I'd be searching for Pepper instead of being here. And I know that… that you'd be looking for Widow, too, if you could. But Jarvis is right. This is bigger than us. If we go to the city, we may help a few people here and there, but that's all we can do right now. We have to get to Latveria, if we want to help everyone. And you… you have a special mission, too. The team needs you to be in Latveria when we all get there. Tony and Pepper can't sneak up into the castle without you."

"Or Natasha," Clint replied, his head hung. "We need Natasha, too."

"And I'm sure she's on her way there," Jarvis said with a comforting smile. "I'm sure that–"

BOOM!

Whatever other words of support the retired member of the Royal Air Force had planned to say to the antsy archer were halted when the sound of Vienna being given the same treatment as Paris, sent all three men flying toward the tree line.

xxxXXXxxx

"Are you sure your husband's not psychic?" Iceman asked the redhead standing behind him, his arms crossed over his chest.

"He's not," Pepper sighed, her shoulders as deflated as Drake's. "He's just… way too smart."

"Now what?" Bobby turned around in place and pointed at the mess of snow behind him. "Our path is totally blocked."

"Damn," Widow groaned.

"Can you build a bridge of ice to go around it?" Pepper asked, her eyes briefly looking towards her right and down, once again taking in the vast, dark hole they had been trekking around for hours. Even in the middle of the blizzard, it was clear that there was nothing but a large abyss to their right, and a ragged mountain to their left. The fall alone could kill them – and if that did not do the trick, the thick glacier that she knew rested below them would do the honors, without a doubt.

"That might work," Bobby's head moved from side to side, already trying to determine the best way to test the redhead's theory.

"Can we go through it, instead?" Maya suggested, still piggyback riding on Kurt. "I'm not so sure that we should add any more weight to the trail. Ice thick enough to support us would be very heavy."

"Could we climb above it?" Natasha wondered aloud. "We do have the tools for that."

"The wind gust is pretty bad," Bobby replied.

"What if I take a look at it, see how much space is after it, and then teleport each one of you there?" Kurt proposed.

"The wind gust is pretty BAD," Bobby repeated, uncertain of how much, if at all, in such harsh weather conditions, Nightcrawler's ability to attach his hands and feet to surfaces would actually help with the dangerous task. "Can you even stick to the mountain? It's kinda slippery."

"I could use some of the tools to help me. But I think I should be fine. If it gets too dangerous, I can always teleport back here with you."

The silent deliberation took a moment or so. From all the options they had just listed, Kurt's was the one that made the most sense. Even if he did not end up teleporting them to the other side of the blockade, it would still help their problem solving efforts to know what awaited them on the other side of the mountain of snow. Seeing no better choice at the moment, especially now that the night was starting to fall, the four team members begrudgingly agreed with Kurt's suggestion.

"Alright," Widow said as she helped Maya Hansen climb off Kurt's back. "But if you don't feel comfortable with any movement…"

"I will come right back," Kurt assured the worried team leader with a nod.

It took one minute for the ropes to be tightened around Maya's waist again. One more minute for these same ropes to be removed from Kurt to give the man free range. It then took ten minutes for him to reach the needed height on his climb, even though he only needed to travel what could be considered to be a couple of stories high. However, and much to his disappointment, it took him only one second to realize the gravity of the situation at hand.

There would be no going around the obstacle, through the obstacle, or even above the obstacle. In fact, the visible obstacle was not even the real issue they needed to overcome. The true hitch – the actual hurdle before them – the one Kurt would then share with his team, was that, past the barrier of snow, there was no longer a path.

As far as he could see, and as far as they were concerned, their planned trek on Mount Matterhorn had come to a sudden and unexpected stop.

Their only immediate foreseeable solution: walking right back to the start.

xxxXXXxxx

The buzzing in his ears made his head hurt and his eyes want to remain shut. However, the burning sensation he felt on his arms and legs forced him to ignore the bitching attitude of his eyes, and to listen to the urgency delivered by his brain. He blinked a few times to clear the blurriness, rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms a couple of times, and then shook his head to will the ringing in his ears to stop.

The first object he recognized was his own body, even if it appeared to be moving in slow motion despite how much he wanted it to react as quickly as his brain told him that it should. The second thing that caught his attention was the sound of his name being called. The third and final piece of the puzzle came in the form of being pulled to his feet by his left arm, only to then be shaken by the shoulders while jumbled words made their way to his ears.

After not being able to make sense of what he knew had to be some kind of important message being relayed to him, he forced his eyes to stare at the person before him.

The look of panic on Gambit's face was enough to shake more sense into him.

"Can you walk?" Remi asked again, partly slapping Rhodey's left cheek with his hand.

"Yeah," Rhodey's voice was raspy. "Yeah… yeah, I can."

"Then take her!" Gambit took a step back and pointed towards his left and the ground. "Scott and I will take Nick."

"Take her?" Rhodey's brain was still somewhat cloudy. "Take who?"

"Whitney," Remi kneeled on the ground and picked up the blonde in his arms when it became obvious to him that the agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. needed to be set on the right path.

"Whitney?"

"I think she might still be alive!"

Might, what?!

The thought never left Rhodey's mouth.

"Oh, shit!" Gambit growled while looking over his right shoulder.

Before he realized it had happened, Gambit had deposited Whitney's body in his arms and had then rushed away from him. Rhodey shook his head once again, finally regaining the bearings he needed to make some sense of the matter at hand.

"Whitney?" his eyes landed on her bloodied, limp form and he shook her in his arms. "Whitney, wake up!"

His head snapped up when he heard the unmistakable sound of Scott Summer's laser eyes being used. Said sound was then followed by the noise made by Gambit's explosive cards, and Rhodey's jaw nearly dropped to the ground when he realized who the two X-Men were fighting against. Who they were trying – and failing miserably – to keep at bay.

"Doombots?"

What the hell is going on?!

The last thing he remembered was falling asleep shortly after his night guarding round had ended – after his partly awkward talk with the woman in his arms had come to a close. He did not even remember if he had been asleep long enough to have been dreaming or not, or if his morning alarm had gone off or not. For all he knew, it had only been two seconds since he had closed his eyes to rest and then opening them up just now to witness whatever this was.

War, Rhodey swallowed hard when it finally dawned on him. This is war.

Suddenly, flashbacks of his first-hand encounter with this type of terror back at Frankfurt threatened to keep him frozen where he stood. Nevertheless, when he began staring left and right, and then up and down, the gravity of the situation finally hit home and gave him the push he needed to act.

Vienna was gone. The thick cloud of smoke that was as high in the sky as the eye could see at night all but confirmed the demise of the city. Their former checkpoint was now nothing more than a memory – just as Paris was.

"Fuck!"

Rhodey looked behind him, saw that he was mere feet away from the tree line, and rushed towards it. He kneeled as soon as he became protected by the shadows created by the thick foliage around him, and then laid Whitney on the ground. He spared a glance towards the battle arena before him to assess the situation, noticed that Cyclops and Gambit continued fighting off the bots, and then realized that Nick Fury was lying still, face down. Gambit's words about the general hit him again, prompting Rhodey's legs to spring him off the ground.

General Fury was a heavy man, but the War Machine alter ego somehow managed to bring him into the same area where he had left the unconscious blonde behind. He then reached for his walkie-talkie, pressed the talk button on it, and looked up to watch Scott's back as he spoke into it.

"I've secured Fury and Stane. They're off the field."

"Are they away from view?"

Rhodey hesitated for a second. "Somewhat."

"Then get over here! We need help!"

Rhodey returned the walkie-talkie to his hip, checked that his gun was unlocked and loaded, but then hesitated once again. He only had a few rounds left, and even if he took Fury's and Whitney's arsenal, he would only add a few more minutes of fire power to the fight. Not to mention, he would leave his teammates without any weapons they could use to protect themselves if they suddenly woke up. It was a damned if he did, damned if he did not situation but, for the life of him, he could not quickly discern which damn was the lesser of the two evils.

The massive explosion that he was now certain had taken place while he had been asleep had either scattered or completely destroyed their supplies, so it was not as if he could just walk up to one of their backpacks for more guns, bullets, grenades or any other helpful device or weapon they could somewhat afford to spare. Staying behind to guard Whitney's and Fury's out-cold forms was also not an option, but it did appear to be the better choice at the moment if he would only hinder Gambit's and Cyclops's efforts more than he could help. The last thing the two X-Men needed was to worry about protecting him too, once he ran out of ammo.

His fists trembled at his sides, wishing he had his War Machine armor with him. Hell! Even the X-51 would be of better use to him right now than his shitty gun. He felt useless. Completely powerless. An absolute burden to his teammates and their cause. Everyone else had something they could rely upon in dire situations like these – something they could offer as help. Even Nick Fury would have jumped into battle right now with the little advantage he knew the general had. But Rhodey was a man of reason before he was a man of action – and reason told him that he had nothing to contribute to the battle taking place before his eyes.

If only he could be like everyone else. If only he could be anyone else. If only…

He gasped in realization when his disappointed words gave him an idea – a possible solution to his current predicament.

And he once again silently cursed his friend for being a fucking genius at heart.

Rhodey kneeled before the two unmoving bodies, checked that they both still had a pulse, and then carefully lifted Whitney's head with his left hand. His fingers hovered over the gray metal band that surrounded her neck, pressed his right thumb against the digital scanner of said item, and then watched in awe as the new iteration of the Madame Masque mask unlocked from the blonde's neck. Rhodey wasted no time in putting the adjustable collar around his neck, locked it into place, and then stood up.

"Subject: James Rhodes. Use of hard light camouflaging tech authorized," the collar's AI said aloud.

Rhodey smiled at the shrewdness of his plan. He did not have to wish he could be anyone else at the moment – he could become someone else. And given the fact that they were outnumbered, and that two members were conked out, he could only think of one member of the resistance who could be of the best assistance to them all.

Without hesitation, and without warning Scott or Remi, James Rhodey Rhodes used the hard light hologram emitter Tony had modified for Chameleon and became: the Hulk.

xxxXXXxxx

The roar was unmistakable – completely recognizable, in fact. But what did not make sense to them; what certainly did not compute at all at the moment, was the fact that they were hearing it right here, right now.

"What the fuck?"

Even though they did not voice it, both Jarvis and Hawkeye echoed Happy Hogan's puzzlement and shock. One moment, they had been arguing about returning to Vienna to find Hank McCoy and Maria Hill. The next, they had been flung towards the woods by an explosive wave that had left them dazed and confused. Their camp was destroyed. Their supplies nowhere to be seen. And now, as if that had not been hectic enough for them, they had just heard the Hulk's distinguishing battle cry.

"Is Team D here?" Hawkeye asked no one in particular, too bewildered to even bother directly addressing either of his two companions.

"I… no… I don't…" Jarvis shook his head. "Vienna is not even in their path."

"But, dude…" Happy scratched the top of his head. "That was the Hulk!"

A second, much louder growl made them wonder if their information was even up to date. The three of them then exchanged uncertain looks, stared towards the smoking city, hoped their two other teammates had miraculously escaped the bombing, and then rushed towards the possible origin of the Green Machine's angry scream. There was only one Hulk in the world, and if it had not been he who had just snarled for a third time, then they had much bigger issues about to fall into their laps.

xxxXXXxxx

They had thought that the elements had made them feel as cold as they would ever be in their entire lives, but after hearing Nightcrawler's grim description of their now vanished path, their blood had rushed to their feet. They had planned to make it out of the path by sundown, reaching the tourist-known cave that had been mapped out for them to use as their final stop for the night, but now it appeared that they had to return to square one.

If it had been the start of the day, the issue would have not been as serious as it was at the moment. Adjusting their path after a good night's sleep would be annoying and inconvenient, but not deadly. Trying to do so after a long day of trekking in a taxing blizzard that was expected to worsen by nightfall, was a whole other animal on its own. The return to the bottom of the mountain would eat up time they did not have; use supplies they thought would be spared. But, most importantly, it would force them to travel all night, in the dark, if only to not allow the cold winds to freeze them to death.

Hypothermia was not the worst way to go, all things considered. But dying in the Alps was also certainly nobody's plan.

Staying put was not an option, either. Yet, traveling back to the start was a fool's choice. Suddenly, Iceman's joke of being able to create an igloo did not sound as stupid or silly as it had done so in the VTR.

"The path is only three-feet wide," Maya reasoned. "We would need to be flush against the mountain to leave room for the ice wall."

"I'd rather be cramped inside an ice structure than walking back in the middle of the storm," Natasha adjusted the position of her backpack, waving it lightly from side to side to loosen up some of the accumulated snow on it.

"What about in the morning, after the storm?" Pepper rubbed her hands together. Staying still was making her toes and fingers lose sensation.

"What about it?" Widow asked.

"If the snow keeps falling at this rate, we'll be covered in who knows how many feet of it," Iceman replied.

"What about oxygen?" Kurt brought up. "We would have to stay close together to keep warm, but we'll quickly run out of breathing air like that."

"I can make a window," Bobby shrugged. "It'll let some of the cold inside, but we won't suffocate."

"Or you could make a path of ice," Pepper rubbed her face with her hands.

"Red, if it wasn't so stormy, I'd do it without batting an eye," Iceman said with disappointment. "But with the wind the way it is, and the snow, and who knows what else is out there until we reach the other side of the path… I could just be building us a very fancy bridge to hell."

"Can the bridge go up?" Maya asked, her head aimed towards the sky.

"I thought you didn't want to add weight to the path?" Iceman reminded the botanist.

"I don't," Maya admitted. "But if we can't go left, or right, and down is not an option…"

"We could try to reach the next path above us and keep going," Kurt finished for the brunette.

"Huh," Bobby rubbed his chin with his right hand. "Maybe you can do more than just wash our plastic ware after dinner, Hansen!"

"I am the fucking scientist of the group, remember?" Maya's use of an expletive made Pepper snort aloud.

"You may not be the sugar after all," Bobby said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Maya narrowed her eyes.

"What?" Bobby shrugged. "I heard mules are smart!"

"You're such an ass!"

"Hey, how about we tackle one issue at a time, huh?" Iceman replied with a smug smile, glad that they would probably not have to camp on a narrow path in the Alps. "First, let me see how high up the next path is. And then we can worry about measuring up my level of assholery and compare it to your similarity to a mule. Agree?"

"What for?" Maya smirked, arms crossed. "You've already won."

At that, and once again, Black Widow laughed aloud.

xxxXXXxxx

Whitney Stane took a seat at the small table, the only light in the room coming down directly from above, leaving the rest of the room obscured in shadow. It was not lost on her that this was the first time she had ever been on this side of the table in an interrogation room. It felt good.

Seated across from her, Kevin Kowalowski had his hands locked into place on the surface of the table, preventing him from making any aggressive movements… although Whitney doubted he would do so anyway. His hangover had ended yesterday afternoon, and now that he had been fed and given time to rest, he looked completely unsurprised to be where he was; he did not even seem too concerned with what was going to happen to him.

"Hello there, Kevin," the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent said, removing the mask that covered her face and revealing herself to him, her dark hair turning back to its blonde state with the mask's removal. Kevin's face did take on a look of surprise at seeing who had been hiding behind that creepy goddamn mask.

"Whitney Stane?" his voice made it clear that he was not sure if what he was seeing was real.

"Yes, it's me. You remember me, after all?"

Kevin scoffed and chuckled a little. "Of course, I remember you. Everybody who went to the Tomorrow Academy during those two years you were there remembers you, I'm sure."

He looked away from her, trying to scan his surroundings, but the room was too dark to reveal details.

"I wasn't aware that I had made such an impression," Whitney said with honesty. She had hardly even looked at Kowalowski during her time at the Academy, and she had never spoken to him.

"Oh, you made an impression, alright. Every school has the stuck-up rich bitch who thinks she's better than everyone else, and turns her nose up at any attempt by normal people to be friendly to her. That was you. And then, you try to kill some of your classmates. None of us were surprised when the news report came out that you had kidnapped Pepper and almost killed her," Kevin smirked after saying this, seeing a brief flash of discomfort flit across Whitney's face, but she ignored it.

"Well, Kevin, I'm sorry if I turned my nose up at any attempt you made to talk to me. And, I'm sorry if what I did to Pepper bothered you. But, it seems that you've gotten yourself into some bad business of your own. Shame on you."

Her words were said in a tone of clearly false sympathy. She wanted him to know that she could play the game, too.

"Just get on with it," he said with impatience. "What do you want?"

"We want to know what's going on with your boss's plans, and what instructions you've left with the rest of AIM."

Kevin turned to the side, startled at the deep voice that had come out of the shadows. He watched as General Nick Fury stepped into view from where he had remained hidden all along. The general took a stance next to his newest agent's sitting form, scowling down at Kowalowski with his one good eye.

"And you're going to tell us every detail, Kevin."

xxxXXXxxx

The next available path was located forty-feet above them. It was a more traveled path; one that saw frequent traffic from repeated hikers and tourists alike, but one that also led them away from the cave they would have been in able to stay in tonight. The tradeoff was going to be not having to return to the bottom of the mountain after all, but they would now have to break out their tents earlier than anticipated and set camp.

Then again, Natasha silently mused to herself as she stabbed her ice axe within a solid piece of rock and pulled herself up, after they finished climbing forty feet of slippery yet ragged mountain side in the middle of a blizzard, having the opportunity to pass out for the night inside a tent rather than out in the cold was its own reward.

"When I see… Tony… again," Pepper said between huffs, "I'm going… to kick…his ass… for this…"

"You and me both, Red," Iceman replied, his everlasting stamina slightly irritating the redhead. He was as tired as everyone else was, but with his ice exterior, the storm did not fight him as much as it slowed down the rest of the team.

"You're gonna… have to get… in line…" Maya Hansen added.

"I got dibs after… Potts," Natasha said.

"There'll be," Pepper pulled herself up before finding the next best spot onto which to place her right foot, "NOTHING left of him… when I'm done! I'm gonna– UGH!"

"Pepper!"

Bobby quickly aimed his right arm down, stretched a small column of ice out from it, and then surrounded the redhead's right hand with it, stabilizing her wobbly form before she could fall to her death… and take everyone else with her on the way down.

Her entire body shook for an instant, the color gone from her face as she took in deep breaths to calm herself. She chastised herself mentally for her silly mistake; she had thought that her right foot had found safe purchase for her next step in her climb. She had believed the small patch of rock to be supportive enough to withstand her weight. Evidently, she had been wrong. Evidently, she had miscalculated what had seemed certain to her.

Or, had she?

She looked down for a moment, realized her right foot was still atop the jagged rock she thought had disappeared under her, just a second ago, and then shook her head. She then looked up to see Bobby's face of concern looking down at her as he slowly released his icy grip on her. He frowned at how confused she looked, silently asking her with raised eyebrows if there was anything wrong, but she lightly shook her head from side to side to answer his question. The redhead then looked at her right foot one more time, and wondered if she had simply slipped a little bit – or just enough to believe the rock had given under her weight.

It had felt real, though. At least for her it had, as Black Widow showed no signs of even acknowledging that a piece of the mountain had almost hit her in the face. If the piece of rock had actually chipped off, there should have been some sort of reaction from any of the three members below her.

Surprisingly, and dreadfully, there had been none. Surprisingly, because a spiky piece of mountain falling towards you while you climbed should have spooked the beejesus out of anyone. Dreadfully, because what Pepper had thought had taken place, had not.

Had she really slipped, or had her temporary loss of balance been the cause of something else?

"Pepper?" Bobby's voice made her look up again. This time, however, she put on a fake smile.

"I'm good," she lied. "I'm fine. But we probably shouldn't talk anymore."

"Yeah. That sounds like a good idea," he gulped, not at all falling for her façade. Nonetheless, they were still halfway to the next path. He would question her actions of just now when they were back on solid ground once more; when their lives and the fate of the planet was not – literally and metaphorically – hanging by a thread.

The ginger's suggestion of remaining silent and focused on their task was followed until Bobby reached the edge of the next path. He grunted loudly as he pulled his body up to the trail. He then busied himself nailing his ropes to the mountain, before he proceeded to help Pepper up. Pepper repeated Bobby's previous safety precautions once she reached the trail, and then the two of them helped Black Widow reach over the path. The pattern repeated two more times and, soon enough, Team A was again back on track.

They continued to walk in silence after the ropes returned to their waists. At this altitude, their steps became slower and more tiresome than before. The atmospheric pressure was greater than what it had been just forty-feet below. Not to mention, the storm was even less unforgiving up here than it had been through their previous path. It was at least three degrees colder up here, too. Overall, the new path, while shorter and more widely known, was a lot harder on their already exhausted bodies than their original one had been.

Kurt felt Maya's hands land on his shoulders for support, and the man slowed down his steps for her. He would have offered to carry her once more, but he was rather tired himself, thus he feared his good intentions would end up biting him in the tail. Perhaps, in a couple more hours or so, he would be in better shape to help her again. At the moment, however, he could barely carry his own soul.

Natasha Romanoff was also feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders. She had been training her entire childhood for facing and getting out of the most extremes of situations; the direst of places around the world. Yet, nothing she had been put through before compared to this. She was smart, athletic, and rather scrappy, but not even the efforts and energy expended during the Makluan invasion compared to this. She knew that this part of their path was the hardest one, however. Which meant that, as soon as they were out of the mountain range, everything else would seem like a piece of cake compared to this. That was, until they reached Latveria and began their counterattack on Doctor Victor von Doom.

The leader of Team A was already thinking how they would have to adjust their plans to account for this holdup. She was busy recalculating the path in her head, counting supplies, taking into consideration the extra days they had to somehow make up for, and trying to imagine any other possible setbacks. She was busy doing what she was supposed to do right now: think, adjust, forecast – but this made her too busy to notice how tense and on edge the redhead in front of her was.

Pepper held back any visible reaction when she felt that same sensation of falling into an abysm return to her. It was the same one she had felt while climbing the mountain, moments ago – the one she had mistaken for a slip of her step. This time, however, there was nothing that would justify this sudden nauseating feeling. Nothing that would immediately explain why she was feeling this way. In fact, the sensation was proving to be confusing; turning further and further away from being described as a simple case of vertigo.

She knew what vertigo felt like, in fact. And it felt nothing like this.

She briefly closed her eyes to try to pinpoint when and where she had felt this way before, but she could not concentrate hard enough to do so. For a moment, she feared that her Extremis abilities were warning her of Doom's presence near them, cloaked somewhere in the middle of this winter storm, watching them like prey, but she quickly dismissed the possibility. If Doom was anywhere around them, she would instantly know it – cloaking device or not. Her training with Gene had enhanced her senses in a way she never thought possible. And perhaps in ways that were now crippling her usual normal, human-like sixth sense. Perhaps it was even confusing her new abilities granted by her fully activated Extremis.

She had always trusted her gut instinct, and it was never that far off. But, oh, for the life of her, she hoped that this time, it was wrong.

She pressed her left palm against her chest, feeling something strange constraining her inside of it, and then whispered her protector's name. Bobby's head turned to his right, watched Pepper over his shoulder, and then opened his mouth to speak. Unfortunately, fate had other plans, and he never got a chance to ask her what was wrong.

The tongue-curling warning scream coming from Natasha made everyone react at the same time; all knowing exactly what to do in this situation. They had practiced this perilous circumstance ad nauseam inside the VTR, allowing their bodies to react quicker than their brains could command evasive actions to be taken, even if just due to muscle memory and nothing more. The spikes that came out of their belts, the metal collars around their thighs and the ones on their upper arms, all smacked the front of their bodies to the mountain wall. The joke that Tony had made about the strength of the tiny devices he had made for them to be used in a case like this – stating that he was not responsible for broken teeth – was even less than amusing right now than it had been before.

The small avalanche of mostly fresh snow was gone as soon as it had arrived, leaving a shaky and panicky team in its wake. Most of the snow had made its way down, rolled almost perfectly out of their way, and not really affected the path they were on. For that, Natasha Romanoff was glad. On the other hand, the snow HAD made its smooth way down… but it had not done so alone. Seconds after opening their eyes, Widow, Kurt and Maya all realized with fear that their little group of five was now short two very important members: Bobby Drake and Pepper Potts.

---

A/N: Soooo, I was so excited about watching Civil War in a couple of weeks… until something on Tumblr spoiled the crap out of me to the point of devastation. I won't spoil it for anyone else but, I know, I just KNOW that NONE of you are going to like it. Now, if you excuse me, I have a dark corner to return to *sobs* There's more space in there to join me, if you need company, too :(

P.S. Whitney flashbacks credit goes to the hubby (Teen Tyrant).