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.

17. Chapter 16

A/N: Alright, my Faithful Readers, we are down to one more chapter that is pending writing (the next one). The ones after Chapter 17 are ready for posting. This is the expected timeframe: C16, this weekend. C17, next weekend (September 3rd or 4th). C18, September 10th. And then, to finally wrap up the story and the entire Last Chronicles Saga, the ending will be posted on September 17th – the day of my 6th-year wedding anniversary, AND also two days before the first chapter of The Last Month was first posted, THREE years ago!

Can you say: EPIC? I CAN!

BTW: This chapter contains some very, very graphic scenes. Not sex scenes, but gory scenes. You've been warned :)

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Chapter 16

The scene unfolding before them once they finally arrived at the main chamber was so blatantly deleterious that even someone as young as James Howard Stark knew it to be nothing but an excellent example of what downward spiraling pandemonium looked like – and he did not even know what the word pandemonium meant. Both Pepper and James stood by the entrance of the large room and looked left and right, unable to focus on one single horrible thing at a time. Their trip down the deathtrap-filled hallway to the Power Core Room seemed like a walk in the park now, compared to how the rest of the team appeared to be fairing.

Fallen heroes and Doombots alike were scattered throughout the floor. Long lines of broken robotic parts trailed what could only be assumed to have been locations in the room where significant attacks had already taken place in their absence – parts that, much to her chagrin, belonged both to Doombots and to Iron Man armors. Towards their right, by the farthest corner of the room, Clint Barton could be seen on the floor, holding onto a broken-looking Natasha Romanoff – and if that scene alone did not immediately summarize and reflect the magnitude of the situation at hand, then nothing else did.

Nevertheless, she could not stop absorbing the situation. She could not stop staring at what her team had been reduced to.

Oh, my God, Pepper gasped. How long were we gone?

The more her eyes took in the current status of the team, the more she berated herself for not being here sooner. Even if she knew there was nothing much she could have done to expedite the task she had been assigned to complete, the chaos before her was too much to even attempt to exclude herself from feeling responsible for what they had just walked themselves into. Some members of the resistance were still standing, fighting with whatever energy they had left within them, but most of them were incapable of doing much more than struggling to take their next breath.

Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Nightcrawler, Beast, Hulk, Mandarin, Black Panther, and Living Laser all appeared to be the only other ones she could still see fighting Doctor Doom by the opposite end of the room they were in. Despite her best attempts, nowhere to be seen were Jarvis, Happy, Rhodey, Rogue, Gambit, Maya, Whitney and, her one and only, Tony Stark.

Pepper felt her heart sink at the realization of it all: her entire family, for all she knew, was already gone.

"Mama?" she felt her son tap her right thigh over her suit. "M-Mama?"

Rescue looked down towards her son, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. She gulped down the bundle of emotions she knew that the child could sense in her – which only added to his distress, and then forced a strong front before opening her faceplate. She bent down onto one knee, wiped her son's face of the start of sad tears, and then held his tiny face in her armored hands.

"Jimmy? Jimmy, look at Mommy. Listen to me, OK? Are you listening?"

"Yes, Mama," the boy nodded and sniffled.

"Good. That's good. Do you… do you remember what Dada told you? You remember he said you're a big boy now?"

This time, James's only replied was a silent nod.

"OK. Jimmy, your Dad wasn't lying. You ARE a big boy. And I need you to be a big boy again. Can you do that for me? Can you be a big boy for Mama?"

"Uh-huh."

Pepper softly smiled, oddly proud of her son's resilience through it all.

"Very good," she nodded. "Mama needs to go find Dada…"

At the mention of his father, the boy smiled widely and his eyes sparkled with joy.

"I go?"

"No, Jimmy," her answer made the child's entire hyped-up demeanor wane. "I need you to stay here. Stay. Do you know what stay means?"

Once again, the child nodded without a word, his head hanging with disappointment.

"I no go."

"That's exactly what it means. You're so smart, Jimmy. Just like your Dada."

Some of his happiness returned at the implication that his mother thought that he was as good as his father, his chest swelling with excitement and pride.

"I stay, Mama."

"Yup. You stay here. Hide. No matter what happens, you hide, OK?"

"I hide."

"You hide."

"Yup!"

"I love you, baby."

"Love Mama."

The redhead gave her son a kiss on his forehead and ran her hands down his face one last time. She then stood up and made sure the child was covered by the shadows of the hall outside the main chamber. Even in the darkness, she could see his aura – such a powerful aura – pouring out of him; and she stated a quick, silent prayer to whoever cared to heed her pleas. Her son was the world to her, and to Tony. If anyone deserved to make it out of this with their life, it was he.

After a wink towards her son – one that the little boy tried but failed at returning, Pepper closed her faceplate and ran towards the battlefield.

She stopped in the middle of the room, a combination of her HUD and her Extremis-given abilities helping her get a better sense of what was going on. She could sense the auras of almost all of the people she could not see otherwise, and a sense of partial relief washed over her. Maybe they were not fighting Doom right now, but most of them were alive somewhere – for now.

"Pepper!"

Her head snapped to her left to see that the botanist was closer than she had thought she was. She was struggling to rise from the floor, using a pile of rubble as a crutch to stand up. Rescue was by her side in an instant, her suit and her powers telling her how much trouble the woman was really in.

"What happened? Did destroying the power core not work?!"

"It did," Maya hissed, her hand right pressing against the left side of her stomach. "It turned off everything for a few moments, but then Doom's suit powered on again. He must have a backup power source in his armor or something. I don't know how much energy he has left."

Pepper spared a glance towards the clearly uneven battle developing by the opposite end of the room before returning her attention to Maya.

"What about the Mainframe?"

"It's off. Doom can't plug Tony into it. The chips got fried, though. Doom used an EMP on us. The armors and weapons are done for. It's… it's just been awful! Everything is going to shit, Pepper! It's not good. It's not good at all! And then… Jarvis… Jarvis, he…"

Pepper felt her throat closing; the reason for not feeling the man's aura suddenly making sense to her.

"He took one for Tony," Maya continued. "And Tony… he… he…"

At the mention of her husband, the ginger's throat closed even more.

"Where is he? Where's Tony?"

Instead of replying, Maya's gaze and head turned towards where the genius was on the floor; his location hidden behind a mountain of debris – Jarvis's broken body still laying within inches of the billionaire. Pepper inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, her heart breaking into a million pieces with every shuddering puff of air. She could tell that Tony was not dead, given the status of his aura – but he did appear to be injured in some way. Jarvis, on the other hand, had already checked out of this world – gruesomely so, at that. The ever-loyal family butler and friend, was long gone.

"Jarvis," Pepper whispered and closed her eyes. I'm so sorry, Jarvis! I'm so sorry, Bambi!

The first casualty of a close-knit loved one in this war hit her with greater force than she thought it would. She was not sure if she would be able to live through whatever was to come.

"Pepper? Pepper! PEPPER!"

The ginger shook her head, inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, and then opened her faceplate yet again.

"I need you to go to my son," Pepper said in a commanding voice, very much in the fashion Maya had been told by Tony Stark to run for her life.

"Where is he?"

"Back there," Rescue pointed towards the hall she had come from. "I told him to stay put. But I need you to get him out of here. Now."

"OK," Maya nodded. "Magneto's outside. I'll get in contact with him somehow. I'll get Jimmy out of here."

"Good," Pepper swallowed hard. She ignored the thought that entered her mind of Magneto possibly recognizing her son as being the same as a mutant, killing Maya and immediately taking off with him instead of returning him to Muir Island, intending to raise him as his own just as Doctor Doom had attempted, and unleashing him on the world as some sort of mutant Messiah someday. One worst-case scenario at a time, she guessed.

"How long until the Earth Movers go off?"

"Less than an hour or so."

"Then you have half of that time to get my son out of here and run away with him as far as you can."

"I know," Maya nodded, knowing that there was nothing else to be said or done. It had been Nightcrawler's job to get James Stark out of the danger zone, but said man was too busy fighting Doctor Doom. As far as anyone could tell, this was probably the last time she would be speaking with the redhead. As far as she knew, this was probably the last time she would ever see any of them.

"Go," Rescue closed her faceplate and turned her back to the botanist, her shoulders squared and her hands in fists. "Take my son with you, Maya. And don't look back."

xxxXXXxxx

His body felt heavier than if he were trying to carry Titanium Man's entire armor with a broken pinky finger. He wanted to stretch his arm towards Jarvis, for whatever good that would bring, but he could barely force his lungs to expand enough to take yet another short breath. Even in this state of almost full-body shutdown, he could feel the blood he had been splattered with traveling across his pores, only to then settle somewhere once the trail of liquid thinned enough to start solidifying on his skin.

The thought of it was traumatizing in and of itself, but Tony Stark had survived worse things than this.

But maybe he would not survive this.

Jarvis, he closed his eyes and straightened his head, remorse and guilt almost crippling him. I'm so sorry, J!

Whatever Doctor Doom had hit him with appeared to be slowly going away. He still felt incredibly beat up and his senses shot to hell, but perhaps, if he focused on regaining control of himself, he could get up and once again join the brawl. He owed it to Jarvis, anyway. He was here because Jarvis was not. He would just have to mourn him later. Much later. Right now, he had to pull himself together and fight.

Then again, that posed the question: why had Doom not just killed him now, when he had had the clear chance to do so? Was it because he had become distracted by everyone else trying to stop him? Or was it because he did not find the inventor to be a threat to him anymore? Then again, again, Doom probably still needed him for something; of that much he was sure. Even without the Mainframe being active, he was certain that the ruler of Latveria had allowed him to live for a very specific reason.

And whatever that reason was, Tony knew he would not like it at all.

Maybe the man planned to kill the rest of the team, incarcerate him while he restored power to the Mainframe, and then finish taking over the world with Tony's unwilling help. He knew that Magneto had specific orders to stay outside, in case Doom tried to attack his own castle once more; so the genius was on his own. He was also aware that, if worse came to worst, the entire city would be blown to bits by the Earth Movers, in an hour, at most. This meant that Erik Lehnsherr's job would then be getting little James Stark out of here – and only him – and leaving everyone else trapped inside the castle to meet their doom.

Tony inwardly groaned. That had been a very poor choice of words.

Was it really going to come down to that? Had it all truly just been narrowed to certain death for them? And what if their deaths did not stop Doom? What if they all died and left his son to fend for himself, and to be left with no choice but to bow down to his adoptive dad?

Fuck that! Tony gulped. Fuck a bunch of that!

Tony gritted his teeth, took in another shallow breath, and then tried to stand up.

OH, SHIT!

Another wave of pain hit him; one that was much worse than the original one. For a moment, he wondered if this was what Natasha had been feeling all this time. It would make sense as to why the poor woman had not been able to respond very well, and why she was still down, but he had a feeling that what she had experienced had been much worse than this. Doom did not need her to be meddling around. But he did need him to be conscious enough to take orders from him.

Not gonna happen. Not. Gonna. Happen. Not. Gonna–

"Tony! TONY!"

His eyes snapped open and he gasped in surprise. He did not want to get his hopes up just yet, lest it turn out that his ears were deceiving him, but he knew that voice too well. Even in as much pain as he was, and despite how dazed he felt, he would recognize her voice anywhere.

"Pepper," he barely managed to say. "Pepper!"

He did not want to risk another bout of ache hitting and jumbling his brain, so he resorted to simply and slowly turning his head to his left. A small smile of relief tugged at his lips, and his eyes focused on her fast-approaching form. She was still in her suit – which meant he could use it to finish the EMP bomb he had made for Doom. And she appeared to be unscathed enough to be running towards him. His orbs then caught a glimpse of Maya Hansen running behind the redhead, heading the opposite way she was, and he hoped that it was because she was heading to wherever his son was at the moment and not because she was being a coward and was running away from the fight.

He curled his hands into fists, took in as big of a gulp of air as he could, and he then forced his wife's name to come out of his mouth once more.

His smile widened when he saw the clear signs that Rescue could tell that he was cognizant enough to recognize her presence in the room – perhaps had even seen the motion of his lips uttering her name. She was so close to him, so damn close now, that he felt his energy being renewed by just seeing her approaching him. He clenched his jaw as he pushed himself to his limits to slide his left arm away from his side and towards her, and then began lifting his hand.

He stretched his fingers in her direction, barely wiggling them up and down, as if calling out to her with the gesture. The redhead picked up her pace, retracted her faceplate and smiled at him, and then suddenly and without a clear reason for it, she halted where she was.

Tony narrowed his eyes, painfully breathed in once more, and then felt the world slow down around him.

He watched in confusion as Pepper's entire body stiffened and her mouth slightly parted, as if suddenly coming to a mind-boggling and horrific conclusion. She slowly began turning her head to her right, towards Maya Hansen's retreating, sprinting form, and the rest of her body followed suit. Pepper's head then turned to her left, and Tony's eyes followed what he assumed was the path of her line of sight. It was then that he saw what had caught the ginger's full attention just now and panic began rising in him.

The bright light emanated after a loud grunt of anger had filled the room – all coming from the heart of the battle happening behind them. The inventor's orbs quickly returned to Rescue's standing form, only to watch her head snap towards the opposite end of the incoming attack Doom had just unleashed upon them. The force of its release sent everyone who was still trying to take down the ruler onto their backs, the wave of heat traveling above them nearly scorching them to death.

Tony did not need to have his HUD available to know the massive ball of energy was not really heading towards him or towards Pepper. It was actually directed towards the botanist's location instead.

"Aya! AYA!"

No.

He did not need to be psychic to know that a similar thought and fear had just befallen the redhead as well.

NO!

The little boy ran out of the protection of the shadows, his legs taking him towards the center of danger at a faster-than-usual pace. He knew his mother had told him to stay put. To stay out of danger and wait for her, but he knew that Daddy Doom was not above hurting any of them. He knew his Mama was strong. And so was his Dada, for that matter. But he knew very well that Maya was not as strong as his parents. Doom had always been able to overpower the only person that had cared for him while here.

"JIMMY, NO!"

He almost halted his running when he heard the anger in his mother's voice, but it was too late to stop now. He was almost near Maya Hansen's location. He was practically near the stunned form of the brunette, her eyes wide as she saw the attack coming towards her. The amount of energy that Doom had released upon Maya was so grand that it made his entire body tingle. There was no way that Maya would not be hurt by it.

But maybe he could help her. Maybe he could do something about it. He was able to grow back parts of his body, was he not? Maybe, if he stood in front of Maya, she would be fine and he would be too.

He had made Doom back off once. Maybe he could do it again.

The closer the attack got it its target, the wider and taller it grew. Pepper's head moved left and right, alternating between staring at the blast approaching Maya and her son, and at the unprotected duo at the receiving end of the attack. She knew that, even if she sped towards her son and Maya, she would only be there to receive the blast as well. And if she tried to use all of her weapons to try to deviate it from its path, her son would be caught in the explosion of it anyway.

What she needed was not an offensive attack of epic proportions. What she needed was to erect a sturdy-enough defense for them.

Tony's eyes widened, feeling as weak and powerless as he had ever felt in his entire life. He opened his mouth to scream at Pepper, at his son, beg them to somehow run away, but only a croaking sound came out of him. He once more tried to get up from the floor to try to do something – anything – to keep his family from perishing in the blast, but all he managed to do was instigate yet another crippling spell of pain in his brain.

NO, PLEASE, NO! NO!

The inventor's pleas, however, were there for only him to hear.

As if suddenly snapping out of her reverie, Maya looked to her right and saw the inbound child stretching his arms towards her. Her eyes widened as the gravity of the situation became too real for her, so she forced herself into action. She closed the three-foot gap between herself and James, picked him up in her arms, and held him tightly against her chest. At the same time, she felt the whoosh of air generated by Rescue's form rushing in front her, and she was forced to close her eyes when the light of the beam was finally close enough to render her eyesight useless. She could feel the sizzling heat of the blast circling Rescue's frame, forcing the brunette to give her back to the heroine and curl her body around the small bundle in her arms. She tried to get up and run away from the pain of the heat, but she could barely force her lungs to breath in the baked air surrounding her.

"AAAHHHH!"

Tony Stark had never heard Pepper Potts scream the way she was doing so right now, and he could not even begin to imagine the amount of agony the woman was under at the moment. He had been on the receiving end of similar attacks before, and so had she, but he knew that, even inside the suit, the pressure of such an offensive move could become unbearable at the drop of a hat. The suit was added protection, not an unstoppable barrier, and all he could do at the moment was watch in a heap of incapacitation as this barrier began losing at what appeared to be its final act.

The force field she had erected was quickly crumbling under the pressure of Doom's attack, and this was the only thing separating his family from the deadly discharge of energy before them. It was going to dissipate, any moment now, and all he could do was watch.

"This is it, Tony Stark," the genius suddenly heard Doom's voice in his head. "Watch the woman you love die before you. Watch her die while you know you caused her demise, and that there is nothing you can do to stop it. Just as I did. Just as I did."

As impossible as it seemed to him, the attack tripled in force following Doom's final warning. It cut through Pepper's body like a red, hot knife through butter, enveloping her in its overpowering strength. He heard his ginger scream in soundwave-laws defying intensity, only to then hear a similar noise coming from Maya Hansen and his son when the blast hit them as well.

As quickly as the entire move had come to life, from when Doom had surprise attacked them to when Pepper had put herself between the blast and their son, it all ended that swiftly as well; leaving behind an wide empty space where the trio had been standing just seconds ago.

His family was gone. His reason for being was gone. All while he had been nothing more than an incapable-of-action witness to it all.

xxxXXXxxx

"Pepper: duck!"

He flew through the front door of the Rhodes' home, not caring at the moment how they were later on going to explain the damage to Roberta. Surely she would understand, however, if they told her that the same man that had tried killing Pepper's dad had been after her, and that they had done what had needed to be done to stop him from harming the redhead.

Surely, Roberta would completely understand why he had gone all-out on a criminal and destroyed her front door. Then again, technically, it was not he or Rhodey who had caused the damage. It had been Iron Man.

"What do they call you: The Whipping Boy? Whip-o? Whip it Good?"

"Funny," Whiplash replied to him. "Fix thought he might run into you one day, so he made… me."

"Really?"

Tony could not care less about this man's backstory, but he played along. He was determined to do whatever it took to give Rhodey and Pepper a chance to escape with their lives.; even if that meant humoring this poor sap who had no clue what was coming to him.

"I'm flattered."

Before he knew it, the criminal had grabbed him by the neck and had pulled him down onto the ground with strength that he had not been anticipating from such wimpy-looking hand extensions – or whatever the weird fucking things were called.

"And by the way, the name's: Whiplash."

Yeah, Whiplash. That sounds about right.

When he opened his eyes again, he felt his lungs burn. With the suit out of commission, the oxygen supply had stopped functioning: he was suffocating. He really needed to fix that glitch. Later. Right now, however, he needed to get inside another suit to continue the battle, before Whiplash had another chance to take a shot at his redheaded friend.

How does Pepper always manage to get herself into trouble? He pondered. She got into more trouble than he did!

He finally got out of the now useless Mark I armor and ran towards the armory, his latest suit ready to be tested in the field. He really did not like using a suit that had not been beta tested under normal conditions, but there was not much that could be done about that right now.

It was going to be trial by fire. Just the way he learned best.

By the time he returned to the outside world, Whiplash had Pepper cornered yet again; his whips ready to cause some fatal damage to the girl.

"You really should have run," Tony heard Whiplash say before he raised his right arm towards the redhead. "Nothing personal."

No, you don't!

Iron Man caught the whip in his left hand, forcing the robotic man to look up and stop his would-be attack. Whiplash did not have much of a way to use facial expressions to convey his current emotions, but his head snapping back and forth between the empty suit on the ground that Pepper has been examining and the hero's flying form above him was clue enough to know the man was utterly confused.

"How? Who?"

"Don't strain yourself," Tony mocked Whiplash as he held the whip he had been readying to use against Pepper. "And by the way: the name's Iron Man."

Tony flipped Whiplash up into the air and then sent him to kiss the ground as hard as he could. Nevertheless, the man quickly stood up, extended his whips as far as they went, and then did something Tony did not expect him to do.

A fake out.

A pretend attack towards him.

A perfect distraction from his main intent.

Iron Man tensed up when he saw the whips heading his way, prepared to counter the maneuver, but was then stunned silent when the whips changed their path at the last second. They curved in the air, just inches from reaching his flying form, and then aimed straight down.

Right into Pepper's chest.

Right through her lungs and heart.

"PEPPER!"

She remained standing only because the whips were still inside of her, electrocuting her from within, frying all of her organs without mercy. As soon as the whips were pulled out of her, she fell on her back.

"PEPPER, NO!"

Iron Man flew straight towards her and instantly held her tightly in his arms, as if the force of his embrace would keep her in the land of the living.

"Pepper," he opened his faceplate to take a better look at her condition, the current whereabouts of Whiplash being of no importance to him. "Pepper, come on. Pepper, stay with me."

He adjusted her position so that he was still able to hold her with one arm and used his free hand to cup the side of her face.

"Pepper? Pepper, say something. More words, alright? More words. Please! Please say something!"

The redhead did not respond.

"No," he felt his throat starting to close. "No, please. Please, Pepper. Please…"

He brushed her red tresses from her forehead with a trembling hand. His eyes then looked down to the gaping wound on her torso, and he knew that she had been dead before she had hit the ground.

"Pep–" he could not finish saying her name due to a painful sob. "Don't… please… I… no… please… NO!"

He ran the back of his hand down her face; the guilt of not taking her seriously eating him inside. He had just told Rhodey that he was a jerk to her – that he could have been a better friend. He had thought of making it up to her. He had seriously considered bringing her onto the team, and now…

Now she was dead. Now she was gone. Killed while he had been standing mere feet from her.

Was this really happening? Had he really just lost his friend? Had Iron Man truly failed?

Had Tony Stark failed?

I'm sorry! He pressed her body against his armored chest and rocked her back and forth. PEPPER! I'M SORRY!

But sorry would not cut it, this time. Sorry did not bring back the dead.

xxxXXXxxx

The heat that she had thought was going to burn her alive suddenly ended, leaving her dizzy, dazed and confused. She shook her head a couple of times, and then waited for her senses to reconnect with her brain. Her entire body was shaking. Her ears were ringing. Her brain felt muddled by mental fog. Slowly and surely, however, her entire being began rejoining reality once more.

What the hell happened? She pressed her right hand against her armored forehead. Am I still alive?

Her palms landed on her chest, then her stomach, and finally on her upper legs. She licked her lips and swallowed hard, and then cleared her throat to speak.

"Computer: scan me."

She watched on her HUD as the SOS performed the requested task. An image of her body appeared on the display, different numbers and tests simultaneously being run on her form. It took the system nearly a minute to finish its task but, once it did, the results only served to confuse the redhead even more.

"User Rescue scan is complete. User's health is intact."

"How?" Pepper frowned, looking around at the unfamiliar location. It looked as if she was in a hallway of the castle that had not been touched by the battle, but she had clue zero as to how this was even the case for her. "Where am I? How did I get here?"

"Current location is: Doomstadt, Latveria. Mass displacement of user Rescue is a result of evasive maneuvers executed by Imminent Danger protocol."

"Imminent… danger? What the hell is that?"

"Imminent Danger is an executable file designed to activate the intangibility feature of the suit. The Imminent Danger protocol is to be run if the user's life is in danger of death."

The redhead's frown deepened, and her eyes stared at her hands as she spoke once more.

"Intangible? What do you mean: intangible?"

"The Rescue armor has been fitted with the same phase-shifting technology used by The Ghost."

"The… Ghost? My suit has Ghost's tech? Since when?

"User Iron Man integrated the new feature and its associated protocol as part of the basic design of the armor during its latest upgrade."

With this information, Pepper realized that she must have fallen right through the floor of the main chamber, passing who-knew how many other floors, before finally ending up here.

"Tony," Pepper felt a knot form in her throat. "Tony did this for me?"

"Affirmative. Feature is still in prototype stage, however. It cannot be used again."

"OK. I got it," Pepper's hand landed on her chest. "Can't get lucky a second time. Can you get me back to where Tony is?"

"Affirmative. Generating path back to user: Iron Man. Please wait."

Despite the situation, Pepper smiled. Tony had done for her what she had done for him: secretly augmenting their suits to keep each other alive.

xxxXXXxxx

Sir Mix-a-Lot and his Robo-horse were starting to get on his nerves. It had taken him longer than it usually took to defeat a guy this time around, but having finished his business with that knight-looking dude, he was now almost back at that abandoned warehouse where the Maggia and the Tong had been doing who-knows-what. He wanted to find out what kind of underground deal had been taking place between the two gangs – something he would have never become aware of, if the Mandarin had not used his rings of power. What had that been, anyway: a secret, criminal convention?

What did they call it: the Mob-Con?

Whatever, Iron Man scoffed at his silly thoughts. I just want to stop the Mandarin, that's all. Besides, I still need to make sure that–

The hero's thoughts were interrupted by the realization that the Mob-Con was over and done.

Yet, the warehouse was everything but empty. In fact, it was even more crowded than when he had left it, nearly half an hour ago.

The battle appeared to be over, but the scene was now littered with police cars, a firetruck, and a couple of ambulances. It appeared that someone had tipped off the authorities about the illegal gathering, which had prompted them to show up. Better late than never applied here, so it seemed. They should have been here over an hour ago, though.

Iron Man slowly descended onto the ground, his HUD allowing him to scan the dozens of bodies on the scene.

Bodies?

He frowned at the thought. It took him only an additional moment to remember that these were gangs and/or mobsters – they did not take prisoners. They killed.

Based on a quick look, it was safe to state that both sides had taken a considerable amount of loses. The sight of shot-to-death ninjas and Chinese-star wounded-to-their-last-breath masked men would forever haunt his dreams.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to talk to an attorney and have him present…"

The sound of an officer reading someone his Miranda rights caught Iron Man's attention. He lifted his eyes from the sea of deceased bodies around him to find the origin of the voice. He could tell the general direction where the voice was coming from, but it was not until one of the officers near the area moved that Iron Man was able to see who had just gotten arrested by The Law.

Gene?

Tony could not believe his eyes. Gene Khan was being handcuffed and lead towards a patrol car. He was by his friend's side before he even realized he had moved. And before he realized that Gene had moved and had attempted to kick his armored self, the police officers had already started restraining the boy even more.

"You're too late, Iron Man!" Gene spat, his eyes red with anger. "You're too late!"

Tony stood there, still in his suit, wondering what the hell he had done to deserve such poor treatment from his friend. Then again, Gene did not know it was Tony behind the armor, but that did not explain the sudden hostility between them.

"Get in there! Get. In. There!" one of the officers yelled at Gene while he shoved him inside the back of the car.

"You were supposed to save her!" Gene growled. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SAVE HER!"

Tony was taken aback by the random statement, but before he could ask what the heck was going on, an officer spoke to him instead.

"Can you believe it? You're starting a trend, Iron Man."

"Huh?" Tony frowned, his head turned towards the man now standing to his left.

"A trend," the officer rolled his eyes. "Vigilantism, you know?" the man added before he pointed towards Gene with his chin. "That kid there… we gotta arrest him. But I hope he goes free. Yeah, he took the law in his hands, but he at least killed someone who deserved it."

"What? Who? Who did he kill?"

"Count Nefaria," the officer sighed. "Put one right in his brain."

"He… he, what?"

"Killed Nefaria," the man repeated while he pointed behind him with his thumb. He then patted Iron Man on the back and began walking away from the hero.

"Anyway, you better get going. The Constable is on his way, and he'll arrest you if he sees you here."

"Oh… OK."

As the cops that had taken Gene into custody drove away, curiosity filled every inch of Tony's being. He slowly looked over his shoulder towards where the officer had pointed to and, sure enough, he saw a covered body on the ground.

Gene killed Nefaria? Why?

Then again, there were plenty of reasons to kill the leader of one of the strongest crime families in the world, and being the stepson of the man suspected of leading the rival group of said crime family was certainly one of them, but none of that explained why Gene had just up and done it here and now.

Unless…

"You were supposed to save her!"

"No," Tony shook his head of the grim thought before he sped-walked towards the bagged body to calm the sudden fear that invaded his soul. "No. That's just ridiculous. She wouldn't…"

He paused and pursed his lips.

She would. She totally would.

His heart began beating faster than just a second ago.

Was Pepper here as well? Had she been arrested too? Or was she in one of the ambulances right now, hurt and confused? Maybe her Dad had already picked her up and she was being lectured on the way home? Maybe she was going to be grounded for months?

But what if… What if she had been caught in the crossfire? What if she was wounded? What if… What if…

No. It's just… no.

It did not make sense for Pepper to be here, in any case. What would she be doing here, anyway? Was she not supposed to be with Gene, working on that amazing extra homework assignment that they had all gotten as punishment, thanks to her? Was she not supposed to be arguing with Gene about not getting any help to complete the project? Was she not supposed to be safe, at home, biting her nails because she had gotten herself into trouble, yet again?

Trouble. That girl was not only trouble; she caused trouble. She probably got in more trouble by herself than Iron Man ever got while actively looking for it.

Rhodey had warned him, though: the redhead was a little bit on the crazy side – and she was also extremely reckless; that was for sure.

But, at the same time, she was also very kind and loyal: a true friend when the going got rough. She had helped him and Iron Man, even before she had known for a fact that they were one and the same. Just like James Rhodes, Pepper Potts was a one-in-a-million friend to him. He knew he could trust her with anything.

Nevertheless, he had kept it from her that Whitney Stane was Madame Masque.

Yeah. That had been very stupid on his part.

No. He would not do it again. He most certainly not do that again.

I wonder if she's still mad at me? I wonder if she's… here…

"No. Stop thinking like that."

Tony swallowed hard, fought his instinct to flee, and then walked towards the body bag.

He did not hesitate to unzip the bag knowing that, if he stopped to think things through, he would not be able to do what he knew had to be done. The evidence was not as gruesome-looking as he thought it would be. It was, actually, just as the police officer had described: a very dead Count Nefaria, with a bullet hole in the forehead.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Well, that's that. Now to call Pepper and find out if–

CRACK!

"Oh, crap!"

He lifted his armored foot from the ground and flinched when he saw he had broken what was probably evidence of the crime. He aimed one of his repulsors towards the item he had just stepped on, shone a light onto it, and then his heart stopped.

The screen was cracked, and the device had obviously seen better days. But he recognized it immediately. He knew exactly what it was.

It was the redhead's cellular phone.

No.

He immediately bent down, grabbed the phone, and unlocked it to try to read the screen. The image was bleeding onto itself, making it almost impossible to make heads or tails of what was on display. He did, however, see his name flashing on the top of the screen – something he knew popped up when the user was about to make a call.

Pepper was going to call him. But she had not. Why had she not?

"Hey, Iron Jerk! That's tampering with evidence! Get your hands off that, right now!"

"Where did you get this phone?" Iron Man was on the man in a second, holding the officer by the front of his shirt. "Where did you get this? Where did you find it?"

The officer, surprised by Iron Man's sudden outburst, lost his voice. He could tell, even without looking at the suit's pilot's face, that the hero was angry – extremely angry. And he knew he was about to become utterly pissed off.

"Answer me!" Iron Man shook the officer. "WHERE did you find it?"

The office did not verbally respond, but his eyes traveled to his right side, stopping only when they found their target. Tony followed the same path, leaving him staring at another body bag; the only other body bag on site.

There were at least two or three dozen bodies on the ground. But there were only two bodies in bags.

One of them was Nefaria's…

The other…

NO.

He ignored everything else that was happening around him, his single goal being to unzip the bag the officer had reluctantly directed him to. He could feel his entire body starting to shake, his blood rushing to his feet, and his eyes starting to lose focus. He knew he was getting ahead of himself – perhaps even making mountains out of mole hills – but he had to know. He had to find out and see for himself.

However, the moment he saw what he had not wanted to see inside the second body bag, he wished he had never known.

"No," he choked. "N-NO!"

He fell to his knees, Pepper's phone still in his hand. His eyes widened behind his faceplate, unable to be open large enough to take everything in. His brain refused to process and to accept what he was seeing. It just did not make any sense. There was no reason for her to be here! There was no reason for Pepper Potts to be shot in the head!

Then, similar to the feeling of being showered with a bucket filled with ice, Gene's words finally made sense to him. His angry bout against him became completely justified. The reason for him to kill Count Nefaria was before him, in full clarity.

"Hey! Get away from her!"

"You can't be here, Iron Man!"

"Someone arrest this guy!"

"Wait, does he know her? Can he tell us who she is?"

"No need to. We already called her father. He'll be here any moment now."

The conversations taking place around him were muffled by the ringing in his ears. The face of his redheaded friend was clouded by his tears. He did not register when they had begun handcuffing him. He did not listen to the reading of his rights. He did not even answer Rhodey's phone call to tell him that Pepper had been killed by the Count.

No.

Nothing was getting through to him.

Nothing external mattered to him right now.

Nothing could pull his attention from one simple thought: Gene's last words to him. Words he would remember until the day he died.

"You were supposed to save her!"

But he had not known that he should have.

xxxXXXxxx

Her fingers slid over her modified necklace and she groaned in frustration. She could have really used her mask right now. She had not been aware of how much she relied on the damned thing until this moment in time. While it was true that she had taken on greater and longer beatings while training under Natasha Romanoff's extreme techniques, nothing her mentor had ever put her through had prepared her for this. In fact, she was certain that there was nothing anyone ever could have done at all to prepare her for what she had done in the past few weeks.

Or for what she still had to do to Tony Stark.

She was exhausted. Out of ideas. Almost out of hope. The members of the resistance were falling like flies around her – some out of injury; some out of pure defeat. Doom was being held back only because Mandarin, the only member with enough energy left to stand against the madman – was as stubborn as fuck – perhaps even more so that the damned Doctor himself. And all three members of the new Stark family unit were down for the count.

Rescue had been disintegrated by Doctor Doom's attack aimed at the botanist. James Howard Stark was probably dead under Maya Hansen's awfully still body. And Tony Stark, while alive and breathing, was in a state of catatonia.

Or whatever the hell this could be called.

And all she could do at the moment was lie here and play bodyguard for someone she was not even sure would make it past the end of the fight.

What's wrong with him? Whitney narrowed her eyes, Tony's head on her lap. Maya didn't say this would happen to him. Not like this. Am I supposed to take a shot at him now?

She knew that timing was everything as far as succeeding in her mission was concerned. This was her one job; the reason she was here to begin with – she refused to fail at fulfilling her one goal.

The genius did not appear to be aware of his surroundings, but his eyes were wide open and full of tears. He had also been randomly shaking, groaning, and breathing hard, but no amount of external stimuli so far had been enough to snap him out of whatever trance Doom had him under. She had tried talking to him, pinching him, and she had even slapped him once or twice. Yet, nothing had worked on the billionaire. As far as she could tell, and as far as she was concerned, he was down for good this time.

He appears to be alive… but also not.

Whitney swallowed hard at her own thoughts. She was not sure what to do now other than wait. Anyone who could have helped her make a decision was either gone or preoccupied with something else. The only weapon she had to use against Tony was fried. She had nothing to injure him with other than her own two hands. But even she knew that it would not do. This had to be done a certain way – and twisting his neck right now was not part of the plan.

She would just have to continue to wait. Either for him to regain consciousness… or for Doom to kill her dead on the spot.

xxxXXXxxx

Just wait 'til I get my hands on that bald, old, buzzard-looking son of a…

How dare he? How dare he?

How dare he steal his designs and then sell them? How dare he steal from Stark International? How dare he use the Iron Monger to threaten his family? How DARE he take her?

Her. His friend. His Pepper. His…

Tony felt his jaw pop.

He had just gotten her back from Rhona Erwin's crazy deathtraps at school! He had just realized that he… that he…

"Hold on, Pepper," he gritted his teeth. "I'm coming for you."

Obadiah Stane was so going to get it. With the Hulk Buster in his hands and War Machine on the way, the Iron Monger was going to beg for mercy.

Beg. For. Mercy.

But Iron Man knew that he was not going to get any from him. Especially not if Pepper was not intact. Especially not now that Stane had taken her against her will.

How. Dare. He.

How dare he take his girl away?

OK. So maybe she was not his girl… yet. But she would be. He would make sure that she would be. He was getting ready for it. He just had not found the right time, place, or words to tell her how he had been feeling about her for a while.

You're gonna pay for this one, Stane. You're SO going to pay!

He did not even realize he had raised his arms and shot at Iron Monger until he had heard Pepper scream. He immediately turned back around in midair, grabbed the flailing redhead, and kept her under his left arm. He had very little time before Stane recovered from the surprise attack. He had but precious seconds to get Pepper out of the fight and somewhere remote and safe.

He reached the top of the building, opened his mouth to ask the poor girl if she was fine, but his words were halted when he was forced to look away. A bright light made him lose his focus and his grip on the ginger, which led to them being separated yet again.

"Tony!" he heard her scream his name, sounding as scared and as desperate as he felt himself. He had fallen onto the roof of the building, but she was falling towards the ground. He slammed his hands against the floor to stop his skidding and then looked up.

"Pepper!"

She had been in his arms already, and now she was in danger again. He had to get to her immediately. He had to keep her from reaching the ground. He had to–

"Iron Man!" she screamed again.

"UGH!" Tony felt his efforts become for naught when Stane grabbed him in the air.

"Hulk Buster armor, eh?" Stane teased. "I used a lot of that tech in Iron Monger."

I don't care! The genius wanted to say, but the words never made it out when Iron Monger slammed him against the concrete roof of the building.

"NO!"

Iron Man stood up as quickly as he could and tried to rush towards the edge of the roof, but Stane stepped on him instead.

"Rhodey!" Tony screamed at his partner via internal communication, the pain in his back not overpowering his need to know if Pepper had made it. "Rhodey, can you hear me? Did you catch her? Did you save her?"

"You ruined me, Stark! Ruined me!" Stane continued his ruthless attack on him.

"You ruined yourself!" Tony replied, if just to have something to say, before he tried reaching War Machine once more.

"Rhodey! Answer me! Did you help her? Did you help Pepper? Is she alright?!"

"Tony, I… I…"

"Rhodey! What happened? Is she OK? Let me talk to her! Let me talk to her!"

"Tony… she can't… she didn't… I…"

Tony gritted his teeth and clenched his eyes shut.

"Rhodey…Is she? Did she…"

"I… I'm sorry, man. I… I couldn't get to her in time."

"Rhodey… w-w-what are you saying?"

"I'm sorry, Tony. I'm so sorry. But Pepper… she… she's gone."

xxxXXXxxx

Pepper reached out her ability to sense auras as far as she could, trying to determine what had happened back in the main chamber. While she was too far away to identify specific individuals, by her count, everyone who had been there moments ago was still there, minus one. The only aura that she could identify – barely – was her son's, and she was just slightly calmer knowing that he was alright, for now.

She needed to get back to him and the others, quick, fast, and in a hurry.

Before she could continue down the right path that the SOS had laid out for her, however, her suit alerted her to the presence of a large concentration of Extremis near her location. The readings were emanating from a location she had seen on the castle blueprints back on Muir Island; it was where Maya had said her stepfather's main laboratory was, where he kept samples of all of the various strains of Extremis he had ever developed. The scans also currently showed the presence of a single person inside the laboratory, and the redhead knew who that person was.

Killian.

Aldrich Killian.

Pepper's brow furrowed as her expression morphed into a scowl that no one could see. Inhaling deeply, she began to march with determination and purpose down the empty hallway, heading directly for the lab. She would not get another opportunity like this, and she was going to take it now while it was presented to her. Doctor Doom might have been the great evil, but this was a personal matter that she alone had the right to resolve.

As she closed in on her new target, she felt a certain sense of providence; as if she had been moving towards this moment her whole life. In a way, she supposed she had. She had always felt as if her life had had some unknown forward momentum, different from the average person's basic awareness of time's inevitable march. She had never really known what it was, and for a time it had disappeared after she had met and befriended Tony Stark. However, it had reawakened the day she had discovered that she was adopted. With the crazy rollercoaster her life had been over the years since then, she had never really given much thought to that strange feeling.

But now, at this very moment, she could feel it building again, stronger than ever; a feeling of events coalescing, converging to a moment of fate – a moment of destiny playing itself out at last. Along with this, a slow-boiling rage began to fill her, and she knew without a doubt that it was the same kind of rage that Tony had felt when he had heard their son say Daddy Doom. At this moment, she could fully relate to how her husband had felt; to lose sight of all else, to cease caring about any other concerns except destroying the one who was responsible for ruining his life. She understood that feeling all too well right now.

With these feelings consuming her whole being, Pepper moved with single-minded purpose toward the main Extremis research lab, determined to make sure that destiny's course was played out to the letter.

Let Tony have Doom.

Killian was hers.

xxxXXXxxx

"What in the world?"

Tony landed on the floor of the room and was immediately reminded of his own lab on a bad day of inventions gone awry.

What is it with all these wires?

But it was not just wires.

Around him and underneath him, covering every inch of the room, were parts of electrical devices and various tools: metal plates and covers, cut up wires, bulbs and circuit breakers, pliers and electrical tape, and every other part or tool Tony could think of.

What the hell happened here?

He reached a second door at the end of the first room and he immediately opened it. The door led him to another room, much darker this time, but its floor was still filled with spare parts of electrical components. The second room led him to another door, and that door led him to another room. This particular room also had empty wrappers of protein bars, old plastic containers of water, and torn blankets and clothes on the floor. To the blue-eyed boy the scene was one of a college after-party gone wrong.

With every step he took toward the backside of the room, the more the littering increased, and the more varied it became. And, the more he paid attention to it and flashed his light to it, the more the littering made sense to him when he began recognizing some of the schematics as his own.

A radar, a mini Stark Pod, a repulsor… someone's been trying to build my designs!

And that someone was lying on the floor, face down, still as a rock, two feet away from where he had just stopped.

"Pepper!"

The inventor got on his knees and with trembling hands pulled Pepper's body up from the cold, hard ground. As Whitney had described her, her leg was bent in such a way it was obvious to him that it had been broken, but was also being held in place by metal plates and wires that Pepper had used as tourniquets. Her clothes were torn and bloodied, and her hair had been cut uneven in some places, and bleached in others. Her lips showed signs of bruising, and the fact that she was as cold as ice did not sit well with him.

"Pep, can you hear me?" he brushed her bangs out of her face and lightly shook the girl by her shoulders.

"It's me, Tony," he retracted his helmet despite the inhospitable environment around them and pressed his ear to her nose and mouth. He could feel and barely hear her shallow breathing and he felt partially relived at this. But when he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers and was hit with the clamminess of her skin, Tony knew she did not have much more time left.

"It's OK, Pepper," he reassured her with a kiss on her cheek. "I've got you, Pep. I'm going to take you back home with me."

"T-To-o-o-ny?" her voice was hoarse, her lips barely moved, and her eyes were still closed, but he could tell that she was conscious enough to hear him.

"Yes," he breathed. "It's me. I-I've found you. I've finally found you. I'm sorry I took so long. Just hang on, OK? Just hang on. I'm gonna get you all better. I promise. I'm never letting you go again."

"You… came… for me… You… you didn't forget… me."

"Never," he placed yet another kiss on her face. "How could I forget about you, Pep? I…" he inhaled in sharp breaths, the memory of Private Eye returning to him. "I saw your message, Pepper. I did. And… and I do, too. I love you, too."

Despite the amount of pain he could tell she was in, the redhead smiled. He then grabbed one of her hands in his, kissed the back of it, and then watched her smile slowly disappear. Her head tilting back followed this. Her body feeling heavier tacked on after that. And when she became limp in his arms, Tony felt his heart explode.

"Pepper?" he licked his lips, the taste of her skin still on them. "Pep?"

She did not respond, and a sense of inexplicable déjà vu hit him.

"Pepper? Can… can you hear me?"

He retracted the gauntlet on his right hand to press his fingertips on her neck. He closed his eyes. He held his breath. He counted to ten. And after a few more seconds of pointless hope, he screamed, its intensity echoing throughout the submarine's interior, louder and with more pain than he had ever felt before.

xxxXXXxxx

Aldrich Killian continued to fill the lead-lined suitcase with all of his essentials. His notes, his identity papers, his most precious Extremis samples: all of it was to be packed away.

He had not gotten to where he was today without being prepared for various outcomes to any situation. For the particular situation unfolding in the castle above, he most certainly needed to be ready for whatever today's events resulted in. The chances were very good that Doctor Doom would win the battle, and that the world would fall under his control soon after, providing that the Stark boy survived. If that scenario played out, he intended to be Doom's lieutenant; his right-hand man, which he had rightfully earned through his contributions to Doom's plot.

However, there still existed the chance that Doom would fall, and although the world would be in chaos for several weeks or months or perhaps years afterward, it would still eventually recover. For that, Killian needed to have a way out – a means to slip away and disappear in the confusion so that he could continue his work elsewhere. With his essentials protectively packed, all he had to do was wait to see who would emerge victorious from that little scuffle upstairs.

Wait, see and then adjust. It was what he did best.

"That should do it," he said to himself. Talking out loud when no one was around was one of his bad habits that he had never bothered nor cared enough to rid himself of. "Now it's just a waiting game."

He looked around his laboratory, taking in the wonderful sight of his work. All of the beakers and flasks, the pre-filled administration syringes; all of them containing some version of Extremis that he had developed over the years. Maya had helped in cultivating several of the newer strains – as well as Stark and his family, with their unwitting contributions – but most of it had been all him. Decades of minor successes and devastating failures, but his patience and tenacity had paid off better than he could have dreamed.

Before he could move on from mentally patting himself on the back to the next item on his agenda, he was forcefully wrenched from his inner thoughts. He spun around to stare behind him as the double sliding doors to his lab exploded inward without warning, and with such violence that they were ripped clean off their frames. One door landed on top of his workbench, shattering every container on it and causing the table's legs to collapse, while the other door was embedded halfway into the lab's far wall.

He stood as still as a statue, gazing upon the scene in astonishment as the dust and plaster kicked up by the disturbance began to settle. As it did so, he heard heavy, metallic footsteps and watched as Rescue stomped through the dust cloud and into the laboratory. The armored heroine looked around the room for a moment until her gaze fell upon the scientist, who merely stared back at her, too stunned to move yet.

Slowly, Rescue's left arm rose up until it was leveled straight at him. The index finger extended from her closed fist until it pointed at his face. As she spoke, he could hear the hate and contempt that filled her voice, even through the armor's voice modulator.

"You."

xxxXXXxxx

"What are you doing, Pepper? PEPPER!"

Tony Stark screamed when he saw the three bodies about to hit the ground. He boosted his speed faster than he thought possible, but it was not fast enough to prevent what was about to come. In seconds that ticked by both quickly and slowly, his worst nightmare became true before his eyes.

"Transfer X-51 onto target, NOW!"

The suit immediately responded to Pepper's command and it freed its user from the protection it provided. The suit immediately enveloped the other woman, adjusted to her pregnant body, and kept her in the air just as two bodies hit the ground with a loud thump.

"PEPPER, NO!"

He was kneeling by her in an instant – an instant that was too late, nonetheless. Yet, his eyes refused to accept what was unfolding before him. He slammed his hand twice against the center of his suit to retract it into its backpack form; rain above him be damned. His hands then hovered over the ginger; her eyes were wide open but also completely devoid of life.

He did not need to have his suit on to know that she was gone. The trail of blood coming from the back of her head and the scattered parts of brain matter were more than enough to prove that she was dead. Her skull had shattered open on impact. Her internal organs and bones were probably burst or broken as well. There was no way she had survived this.

So close.

He had been so close.

Yet, he had failed.

He could have saved her. He could have helped her. He could have prevented her from thinking she had to sacrifice her own life, if only he had left the other building a minute sooner. If only he had not wasted time fucking around with Sasha Hammer. If only his suit had been built to be faster.

If only…

"Pepper," his lips trembled while he carefully placed her in his arms, as if moving her too roughly would have any effect on her at all.

"Pepper, I'm sorry," he pressed his face against hers. "Pep, I love you. Please, don't leave me! Please, Pepper! PLEASE!"

His words fell on deaf ears. Dead ears. She had passed on.

He heard the paramedics asking him to move out of the way so that they could do their job, but he did not react. What was there to do? His redhead was gone. His beloved fiery friend. His soulmate. The woman he had seen himself marrying… she was gone. Limp in his arms. Her heart no longer beating for anyone – not even for her own self.

All because he had not been quick enough.

All because she was here for him.

All because he had been selfish enough to keep her with him, involved in a life that would always be full of danger, no matter what he did to minimize any assaults.

This was the life of a hero – a life of constant danger and the risk of death.

This was the life she had chosen to live… with him.

xxxXXXxxx

Finally feeling able to move again, Killian set his briefcase on the ground, beside him. He then stood up straight and casually placed his hands into the pockets of his lab coat; his pose one a normal person would take when greeting an old friend. Rescue's faceplate retracted, revealing beneath it the scowling visage of Pepper Potts-Stark. As he looked upon her face, staring back at him for the first time, Killian allowed his lips to spread in a smug smile. Seeing it infuriated Pepper, making her scowl deepen as she glared at the scientist.

"Welcome," he said with a tone of politeness that almost seemed sincere, as if he were welcoming an honored guest into his home. "I've been waiting for this moment a long time. We finally meet face to face, Virginia."

At his words, Pepper's scowl instantly changed into an expression of surprise, and she blinked a few times before regaining her senses. His words served only to anger her further, and this time she did not so much scowl at the man as look daggers at him.

"Do not call me that," she said, coldly. "That's not my name."

Killian, despite the woman's warning tone, appeared unfazed by her words or response.

"Oh, but it is. That was the name your mother and I agreed on when she was still seven months pregnant with you. We weren't sure whose last name you should have, but I decided that it sounded prettier with your mother's last name. So that's who we decided you were going to be: Virginia Hayes."

Pepper took another step forward, practically stabbing her index finger at him with the emphasis of her words.

"Do not call me that. My name is Patricia Potts-Stark. My friends and family call me: Pepper. You are neither. You have no relation to me and have no right to call me by any personal name. To you, I am: Rescue."

Pepper's body quivered inside the armor as she shook with rage. She was not exactly sure what she had come here to do, but she knew she had come here to do something, and if this man continued to piss her off, she was going to do that something pretty fucking soon.

Killian merely chuckled and waved his hands around in a dismissive gesture.

"Say whatever you like, Virginia. In any event, I'm glad to see you've made it this far," he continued to smile at her as he placed his hands behind his back. "I had thought, the day you were born, that you were another failure. One that was admittedly stronger than the rest, since you actually survived, but a failure nonetheless. You have no idea how thrilled I was the day I got the test results that confirmed who you were. That Extremis was in you after all, and that it had finally awakened. It was like you were calling out to me, in a way."

He took a few casual steps around her as he spoke, his face showing reminiscence. It sickened her, but she made no move other than to slowly turn her head as she kept her eyes on him.

"You're the proof that I had succeeded. That Extremis can bond with humans on the genetic level, so completely, that it is impossible to tell them apart. Impossible to know that it's not a natural development of the body. Less detectable than even the mutant gene that the world has been seeing lately."

He stopped his slow pace and turned to stare at her again. His face was no longer looking smug. He now wore an expression of gratitude and – she would swear to it – worship.

"You gave me the knowledge I needed to perfect the serum for me. After decades of extending the clock little by little, but never by enough, you were what finally helped me to save my life."

He spread his arms wide, palms out, indicating the lab. Rescue looked around and saw all of the equipment he had been using here, the table that held the display of what she assumed to be Extremis samples. Most disheartening of all, nevertheless, was a display case that held jars filled with what she assumed was formaldehyde. Inside the jars were tiny dissected arms and legs, hands and feet, fingers and toes, some ears, and in one case, an eye. A very small, electric blue eye. Pepper immediately knew exactly from where all of these samples had been taken. The loathing that filled her was beyond measure.

"You, Virginia, made all of this possible. Made all of this worth it."

Pepper merely sneered back at him, disgusted by his tone of reverence.

"And just what was it worth? Saving your own miserable life?"

She turned fully toward him, her armored hands both clenching into fists while he frowned at her in disappointment.

"My life is one worth saving," he stated his answer as if it was common knowledge. "There are billions of people in this world, all of them nearly identical in their meager capability. Just a bunch of cattle, shuffling around, accomplishing nothing of any real value while taking up space and using up resources."

Killian swept his arms around the lab again, as if the obvious answer was all around them.

"I've created a miracle. The next stage of human evolution is in this room. The man who created the foundation for Extremis only allowed it to be used for making little war toys for small-minded men who had no idea what they had. But, I took it further. I took the so-called Super Soldier Serum and made something truly worthwhile."

His smile now was beginning to look like a madman's as he finished his rant. Pepper was tired of this already. And she decided a metaphoric splash of cold water was needed.

"You lied to, cheated on, and then murdered countless women and their children. Their babies. And you didn't even get anywhere until Tony was able to actually use Extremis. You're nothing but a killer. A killer and a failure, whose only successes were accomplished by others while you just sat back – waiting to take the credit for what others had done."

She felt a swell of pride as the self-satisfied look was wiped from Killian's face. After a moment, however, he smirked back at her.

"It was because of my achievements that little James has the power he does. He would be just another mindless brat, if it weren't for me."

Pepper took a step forward, her fists clenching even tighter, forcing herself not to growl.

"Don't you talk about him," she commanded. Killian just raised his eyebrows and tilted his head in an expression of obvious condescension.

"And why not? He is my little grandson, after all. He's spent more of his lifetime with me than he has spent with you."

At this, Pepper nearly combusted with rage. Her pupils dilated as they had done that time when she had pinned Maya to the wall, and her nostrils flared. She knew that if the self-obsessed scientist did not shut the fuck up in the next five seconds, things were going to get ugly.

For him.

"He's not yours! NOT. YOURS. His grandfathers are Virgil Potts and Howard Stark! Don't talk about my son as if you have any right to him. There is nothing of you in him!"

Killian shook his head and wagged a finger at her.

"Tsk, tsk, Virginia. I'm afraid there is. And I don't even have to point out Extremis as an example. That adorable head of hair he has is enough. Looks just like a blend of yours and Tony's, doesn't it? But, have you ever noticed how, in the right light, it has a slightly blondish look to it? Now where do you suppose he got that from?"

Killian then grinned a knowing smile and pointed to his own head of blond hair. "Right here."

That did it.

Pepper's patience and restraint had been reduced to exactly zero with that little comment.

Rescue's faceplate slammed shut before she took two steps forward, raising her left hand and grabbing for the collar of his lab coat. Before she could take hold of the fabric, however, Killian's right arm shot up faster than she could follow and grabbed her wrist, stopping her arm from reaching further forward.

Before Pepper could even register how impossible this should have been, she instinctively lashed out with a punch from her right arm, aimed straight for the scientist's face. Killian's other arm shot up, catching her fist in his palm and holding tight, stopping her punch halfway to its target.

Without waiting for further action from the heroine, Killian lifted his tennis shoe-covered foot, planted it on Pepper's armored abdomen, and shoved full-force with his leg, sending Rescue flying back and slamming into the wall next to the destroyed entrance, leaving a decent-sized hole.

Shaking her head back and forth for an instant, Pepper pulled herself from the wall and aimed her repulsors at Killian. Just as she fired at the man, Killian flung off his lab coat, leaving him in his t-shirt and slacks, and jumped out of the way of the beams of energy. Pepper immediately switched her aim, trying to blast him back to keep some distance between them, but Killian performed two extremely fast tuck-and-roll maneuvers and ended up right in front of her again.

He lashed out with two punches to her chest plate – the reverberations of which she could feel in her bones – and then another punch to her helmet before sweep-kicking her legs out from under her, dropping the young woman onto her back. The scientist took a step back and his hands enveloped in fiery energy as he waited for his biological daughter to make her next move.

"Full scan of target, now!" Pepper ordered her suit. A grid outline surrounded Killian in her display field, feeding her information on the screen, none of it looking good.

"Subject identified as a genetically-altered human male. Presence of Extremis enhancements detected," the system said. Pepper gritted her teeth and caught her breath, getting ready to get back into the fight once she had a better idea of what she was up against.

"What version of Extremis is being detected?" she asked.

"Extremis version: unknown. Multiple strains of Extremis nanoprobe virus may be present. Subject's physical enhancements include: increased strength, speed, agility and stamina. Other detectable enhancements include: combustibility manipulation, and electrical discharge projection. Subject's estimated upper limits exceed recorded limits of previously documented Extremis subject, designation: Agent Mallen."

"Oh, well, that's just great!"

The suit had just basically informed her that Killian was Mallen on steroids.

Peachy! Just peachy!

Deciding to try a new approach, Pepper aimed a repulsor at Killian's feet and fired. The man jumped into the air to evade the blast, and Rescue took this opportunity to propel herself directly at him with her thrusters, grabbing Killian right out of the air and slamming him into the far wall of the lab next to the door that still stuck out from the wall. She then punched him across the face, snapping his head to the side. Then, in a rather creative move that she made up on the spot, she opened that same fist, fired her repulsor and let the kick-back of the blast propel her hand back the way it came, back-handing Killian across the other side of his face and snapping his head the other way.

Before she could strike him again, he reached up and grabbed her faceplate with his fire-engulfed hand. The contact began to interfere with the armor's systems. Pepper reached up to grab the man's wrist in an effort to pull her face free, feeling the heat through her gauntlets in the process.

Killian threw Pepper back, where she skidded on her armored feet across the floor until she came to a stop, waving her arms to keep her balance. Killian then shot an arc of electricity from his fingertips, which hit her in the chest. Although Pepper was protected from major damage by the suit, she could still feel the shock of the charge coursing through her skin and she cried out in pain. The systems began to fluctuate, and her HUD became covered in static as she was forced down onto one knee.

Killian walked forward, still sending the charge into her, and then kicked her in the head, sending her flying to the far side of the lab, where the Extremis sample display table was located. The Rescue armor scraped the floor, slowing down her momentum until she bumped into the table holding the samples, rattling beakers and syringes, but not damaging them.

Pepper was breathing hard, her nerves on fire from the shock. Killian had ceased his electrical attack after the kick, and she was now able to get her bearings as her display image became clear again.

She watched as Aldrich Killian slowly walked toward her, grinning in satisfaction, random sparks of electricity coming from his palms.

This was not going to be good for her.

Not good at all.

xxxXXXxxx

"Stay close," he told her and she complied.

They both began taking small steps out of the closet and into the room, and the crows immediately started to slam themselves against the shield. Neither of them was worried that the shield would give under the strain of crazy birds hitting it with everything they had, but the sight itself was horrifying.

Now that they took a better look at them, they both realized that these were not normal crows. The animals were slightly larger and bulkier than they should have been, their red eyes were so large they practically bulged out of their sockets, and if they did not know any better, they would have sworn they were snarling at them, as if they knew who they were. Their bouts against the shield were vicious, and when the birds began to attack the back of the shield more than the front, Tony realized that these animals had not just accidentally crashed into their apartment; they had been sent here.

They had been sent here to attack her.

Rhona, the genius thought and his grip on the redhead tightened. The ginger, shortly after he had, also put two-and-two together when the flock began gathering themselves behind her and pecked at the shield, pushing her to press herself against the armor even though she knew they would never penetrate the force field.

"Tony," she whispered. "They… they're after me."

"I know," he gulped. "I know."

He stared left and right as they stood in the middle of their room, taking in everything around him to come up with an action plan. Leaving was not an option since the flock would just follow them to wherever they went and, if it was not just him in the suit, the idea would have been a good one. Staying put and hoping they left was also not an option, as it appeared to him that these animals had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do but terrorize the girl. Using his weapons against them would also not help, as it would require him to lower the shield, which he definitely could not do as it would leave Pepper unprotected, and a brief second was all that was needed for one of the hundreds of talons or beaks around them to gauge an eye out.

This left him with only one choice, and while it would leave him out of the picture for a few hours, he felt that there was nothing else either of them could do at the moment. He turned around to face Pepper, retracted his faceplate and grabbed her face in his armored hands.

"Listen to me, Pep. I have a plan."

"What is it?"

"We're going to use the sonic blasters and knock them unconscious."

"OK," she said with a slight nod. "But, that means I'm going to be knocked out, too."

"No," he shook his head. "I'm going to put the suit on you and then you're going to use the sonic blasters."

"What? But… but what about you? They're going to knock you out for hours! And the headache afterwards…"

"I know. But I'd rather be unconscious than risk hurting the baby. Happy, he-he told me what happened. I don't know what effect the sonic blaster could have on him, so we better not take the risk."

Pepper's eyes landed on her bump and exhaled in immediate defeat. Happy was not supposed to tell Tony what had happened yesterday but she figured that, at this point, it did not matter. They had more important things to worry about at the moment, like the fact that it was looking very likely that Team Iron Man was going to become extinct after being taken down by fucking birds.

"OK," she finally said. "But as soon as they're out for the count, I'm taking us to the armory."

"What? No. I want you to run out of here and find Happy and…"

"NO!" she grabbed onto his forearms. "I'm not going to leave you here with these… things… they're not normal, Tony. They… they look rigged and… are probably carrying mini-lasers in their eyes or disease or something and… and…"

"Pepper…"

"No," she said with a shake of the head. "You're going to be knocked out, anyway. You won't be able to stop me. I'm just telling you what I'm going to do. I'm not asking you for permission."

Tony rolled his eyes in exasperation and groaned. "What if more come?"

"Then we'll be safer at the armory. I doubt they can fly at Mach 3 speeds, anyway. They'll never catch up with us."

Tony closed his eyes and hung his head in resignation. "Pepper, why don't you understand that–"

"I do understand," she told him. "And I don't plan on either of us dying before we say I do."

Tony chuckled bitterly but finally nodded. She was right and he knew it. Even if he ordered her to leave him here, she would do whatever she wanted to do or whatever she thought was best even if it went against what he wanted her to do. This was one of the reasons why he was marrying her, anyway; her inability and unwillingness to take crap from anyone, especially from him, so he was not one to talk about how her stubbornness irked him in situations like these when it also turned him on.

"Fine. But this conversation is not over."

"And neither is the one from last night," she added with a glare and he cringed. He then stole a last glance at her, gave her a small smile and closed the faceplate. He immediately overrode protocol 7871 and prepared to transfer the suit onto her…

But it did not go as planned.

The protocol did not finish its sequence.

The suit remained on him.

And as soon as the shields disappeared in anticipation for the transfer of the armor, the sea of red and black engulfed the unsuspecting woman, pecking and scratching at her as if there was no other thing to do in the entire world until their last breath.

"PEPPER!"

"TOOOOOONYYYY!"

He tried to get to her position, and to scare away the crows with his arms on his way to her, but the mass just grew thicker and thicker, separating them more and more. He thought about using his repulsors to fry the birds, but he could not force himself to run the risk of hurting the redhead instead. He could hear her scream in pain and call his name for help, but he just could not reach her, no matter how hard he tried. He attempted to erect the force field once again, but he only managed to push the birds closer to her side.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

"NO! PEP!"

Seeing nothing else that he could do to speed up his trek, he began kicking and punching birds in every direction, angrily shoving his way towards her. His desperation helped him gain a couple of inches of ground, but he quickly lost them when more birds came inside the room. The whole scene was surreal – suffocating, even, and in a frantic attempt at saving his now awfully-quiet fiancée, Tony Stark did the one thing he had not wanted to do in the first place: he set the sonic blasters at maximum power and released its relentless strength onto everything that surrounded him.

As a result, all of the birds in the room suddenly dropped to the ground, converting the carpeted floors into an ocean of thick feathers. At first glance, Pepper was nowhere to be found, so he began digging through the mountains of twitching animals in the bedroom. It took him nearly a minute to finally find her, pick her up in his arms, and pull her out into the hall, away from the fucking nightmare the crows were turning out to be. Yet, it only took him a single glance at her form to know that he was too late.

Way, way too late.

"Pep… Pepper… PEPPER!"

It did not matter how hard he thought of screaming, he knew the dead could not hear the living. And dead was what Pepper Potts now appeared to be.

The crows had not shown her any mercy, and the current condition of her body was evidence of this. Her eyes had been gouged out. Hundreds of bites covered her once-pristine skin. Parts of her flesh had been torn inside out, and the presence of gnawed at bones made Tony look over his shoulder and retch. Even her womb had been savagely targeted, and a trail of blood oozed out from between her legs, dripping onto his clothes and scurrying down his pants' legs.

It had not felt as if he had taken that long to save her – but his eyes told him that he had been more than just too late.

"Pepper," he dropped to his knees with her still in his arms, the taste of bile still present in his mouth. "Pepper!"

He pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, raging sobs threatening to crush his ribcage. He cried over her for nearly a minute, whispering to her long and meaningless apologies for failing her, until his heart skipped a beat when he heard a light moan coming from her.

He pulled his face away from hers and stared at her intently for a few more seconds. When no other sound was heard, he slowly placed her on the floor on her back. He inhaled sharply, eyes wide, as his trembling fingertips reached her neck. Filled with terror, he pressed his digits against her skin, held his breath, and then his jaw dropped when he realized that she was still alive.

"Oh, Jesus!" he swallowed hard. "Oh, Jesus! Pepper! Can you… can you hear me?!"

Another agonizing lament erupting from her lips was her only response.

Tony covered his mouth with his hand, his eyes and brain unable and unwilling to take in the truth. Pepper had somehow survived the attack, though not for much longer, he knew. And while she was still able to breathe and think, he knew that the pain she was experiencing was unlike any other he had ever felt himself before.

"To… ki… m-m-me…"

"Pep…" he grabbed her face in his hands. "Oh… Pep…"

"Ki-i-i… me…"

It took him a moment to decipher her message; and another moment for his brain to process her request. Yet, once it dawned on him what she had just asked for him to do, he found himself reluctantly agreeing with what she was wanting of him.

She had just been mauled and irreparably mutilated by an army of angry crows. Who would want to survive this?

Nobody, he answered his own question, eyes stinging with unshed tears. Nobody would want to live like this.

"To… ny… p-p-p-pleea… se…"

Not believing what he was doing, he gave her hand a tight squeeze before standing up in place. He took a moment to give her entire body one last look; to ingrain in his brain the memory of what he had done – of what he had allowed to take place to her. He would take this mistake to his grave. He would live the rest of his life knowing that he had been responsible for the death of the woman he loved.

"To-o-o-n-n-n-y."

"I'm sorry," he exhaled as he raised his right hand and aimed his repulsor at her face. "I'm so sorry, Pep."

There were worst ways to die, he knew. But between an option to die slowly after being attacked by rabid birds and getting your head swiftly blasted into pieces by blunt-force trauma, quick but painless was always the better way to go.