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.

18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Pepper propped herself up on one elbow, her forearm lying flat against the floor. Her heavy breathing from the attacks she had sustained was easily seen, even through the armor. She stared up at Aldrich, who smiled down at her, and felt her anger quadruple by just staring at his incoming form.

"I gotta say, Virginia, I wrote you off as a lost cause the day you were born. I detected no Extremis in you at all and knew it was time to move on, after clearing up loose ends, of course. But I see now that I was wrong to do so."

His tone then took on an admiring quality that made Pepper want to puke. She knew by now that the guy just loved to talk and talk, and that he did not know when to shut up – and who that reminded her of made her begrudgingly accept, if for just a fleeting second, that this man was really the provider of half of her genes.

However, she knew she could use this annoying trait of the family to her advantage. The Mandarin had once used it against her – way back when. There was no reason not to turn the tables on this man as well.

Keeping her armored head looking up at the man, her eyes darted around the room, looking for anything that she could use to gain the upper hand. Meanwhile, the weasel before her continued his boring spiel, unknowingly granting her some type of advantage for the time being.

"Even before Extremis woke up in you, you'd already made something of yourself. You had such drive. Such ambition. Such spirit! I can't deny that Potts did a fantastic job raising you," he knelt down so that he was more eye-level with her.

"It's no wonder that after meeting you, Stark really had eyes for no one else. Who else could possibly measure up, for someone like him? You're so much like your mother, it's truly incredible. I'm proud of you, Virginia, I really am. Extremis wasn't my only great creation after all. You've impacted and changed just as many lives as I have."

Pepper knew that she needed to make a move, and it had to be fast. She could not let him see it coming, either. And she also knew that the best way to throw him off-guard was to attack his pride in his life's work; assault his feeling of accomplishment. Mad geniuses always fell for stupid crud like that.

"You're so pathetic," she said in a flat, dull voice that she knew tended to irritate Tony to no end when he had been arrogantly sharing his latest invention with her and she had jokingly poked fun at him. Just as she had expected it to be the case, Killian's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but the excitement reflected on his face did not falter.

"An odd statement, coming from the little girl lying on the floor at my feet," he said with a chuckle. Pepper shook her head and opened her faceplate, wanting him to see into her eyes while she spoke.

"You are no savior. No great achiever. You didn't create Extremis to save the world… you did it to save yourself. You can tell yourself that you did it for humanity all you want, but everything you've done so far was to avoid facing reality. You're the biggest coward I've ever met in my entire life."

She silently cheered in triumph at the look that crossed his face; his disappointment, his irritation, at her calling him out on his bullshit.

In his mind, however, this child knew nothing of him and his struggle. She had no clue what he had gone through and survived his entire life. Unlike him, she had been handed a life of superior health and support. She had no idea what it was to be solely responsible for your own life. She did not know what it was to see your prime years slipping away from your grasp.

If there was only one moment in his existence where he called on his fatherly right to teach this insolent brat of his something about how the world worked, it would for her to realize that she knew nothing about what it meant to be dealt a shitty poker hand from birth and then still manage to spit success back at life.

"I saved myself from something no one else could have stopped. I took my life into my hands. My destiny. A real man owns himself, and that's just what I did," he ranted.

Pepper snorted at that. She then could hold herself back no longer and burst out laughing, loud and hard. Killian was taken aback by the out-of-place reaction, but Pepper could not see his expression due to her eyes being squeezed shut with the force of her laughter. Once she got control of herself and her laughter was minimized to light chuckles, she blinked away the tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes.

"Oh, nuts! I didn't know you were funny. You're no real man. I know real men. I've been around them my whole life. My father is a real man, for raising me on his own. My husband is a real man, for taking on the world to keep me safe. My three best friends are real men," she smirked in defiance at him as she said this, knowing that the truth of her statements would hit him right where it hurt.

"My God, even Doom is a hundred times the man you are! He owns himself. He took over a country – and now a fucking planet – on his own. He had real plans. Real ambitions. He understands what power is and how to take it for himself. But not you. Not. You. You're just a scaredy-cat trying to avoid death. A sniveling little nobody, who is too afraid to look into the light at the end of the tunnel. My son has more courage than you do. You? A real man? You don't even know what the fuck that means, Killian."

Without warning, Pepper lashed out and kicked him in the face, sending him stumbling back; her attack too fast even for his reflexes to block. She jumped to her feet before he could recover, reached behind her to grab from the table the first item her fingers closed around, and then flung the object forward just as he was turning to face her.

Killian took a step forward before realizing that he had been struck. He then looked down at his left arm, only to see a quick-use syringe sticking out of his bicep. Pepper had raised her gauntlet to shoot him in the face with a repulsor while he was distracted, but stopped when she saw his expression. For a split-second, an almost too-quick-for-the-naked-eye moment, absolute concern – perhaps even deep worry – had flitted across his face. He then scowled, held back a groan, and pulled at the syringe in his arm.

"Shit," he hissed, examining the puncture on his arm and then looking at the syringe, noting that it was now empty. These syringes did not require a plunger to be pushed after the needled was inserted; the pressure brought on by pushing the needle into the subject caused an automatic release of its contents.

Whatever had been inside that syringe had worried the asshole before her. That had to mean something. And she was sure as hell that there was more where that little number had come from.

Pepper turned to the table behind her, taking a good look this time at what was on it. She noted test tubes, petri dishes, a few microscopes, and numerous glass containers that all held what appeared to be the same green fluid she had just shot at Killian. She was not a certified genius like her husband was, but she was certain that she knew what this fluid was: the pure liquid form of Extremis – and it was probably also not one that was as merciful on the body as the drops Tony had injected himself with, long ago.

She also saw dozens of syringes set out in a row, pre-filled with the bio-enhancer, and looked back at Killian again. She saw that the small needle puncture had already healed, but a faint glow surrounded the area where it had been lodged in his arm. His expression was one of mild discomfort and this gave her an idea. She grabbed two more syringes, prayed that her assumptions were spot on, and then turned to face the man once again.

Killian looked up at her and took two more steps in her direction before she flung another syringe at him, this one puncturing the upper thigh muscle of his left leg.

"Goddammit!" he shouted before ripping out the syringe, but not before its full load had been pushed into his bloodstream. He winced as pain that resembled muscle soreness spread throughout his left leg, and he then continued to move in on Pepper. Before he got another step, however, the other syringe she had grabbed was thrown like a dart, burying its needle in his upper chest.

"Stop that!" he commanded, ripping the syringe out and throwing it to the floor before gasping out from the sharp pain that spread through him. Pepper noted that his eyes were beginning to glow an orange-red color, and it was then that she knew that she had guessed correctly. The many different strains of Extremis were incompatible with each other, at least when injected in large doses, without giving the host enough time to acclimate to the influx of new viral probes. She had experienced that herself, having barely survived her pregnancy, years ago.

"Why? You like science, right? So let's experiment. What happens when you combine all these different types of Extremis into one body… at the same time?"

She grabbed several syringes in each hand, turned around, and then began throwing them at the man, one by one. With each injection, Killian cried out in pain and tried to pull out the syringe before they could inject too much into him, failing to do so each time.

Pepper watched his skin slowly begin to bubble and writhe, as if small insects were scurrying around just underneath the skin. Steam seemed to be rising off of him, and she could swear that his shoulders were beginning to swell, like inflating balloons. His face was twisted in pain, and she began to see that same glow in his eyes was beginning to emanate from his ears, nostrils and throat.

"Warning: subject's core temperature rising to critical levels. Extremis build-up is accelerating cellular division to maximum capacity. Chain reaction with possible explosive potential is imminent."

Pepper did not ignore the warning, but continued to do what she was doing, wanting to reach that chain reaction, not avoid it.

By this point, Killian had fallen to his knees, his clothing beginning to smolder from the increased heat within his body, steam leaking out of the holes in the fabric left by the syringes.

Pepper grabbed two more handfuls of syringes, the last ones on the table, and ran over to the kneeling villain. Like a maniac in a horror film, she began to straight-up stab Killian in the neck, shoulders and chest, over and over again.

"How do you like it, huh?" she shouted, the steam from his body uncomfortably warm on her uncovered face, but not caring in the slightest. "How do you like having this shit shot into you, just to see what happens?!"

Killian screamed out in response, not really feeling the stab of the needles through the agony caused by the Extremis mixture wracking his body. His skin began to bubble more intensely now, some of the bubbles popping, sending globules of steaming, glowing blood flying every which-way. She could tell from his aura that his body chemistry was damaged to an unrecoverable point, and that he was in immeasurable pain

"This is for daring to take our son from us and putting your filthy hands on him! This is for what you did to my mother, to Tony's mother, to Maya's mother! For ruining our lives! For every life you ever ruined, you bastard!"

With each shout into his bubbling face, Killian screamed out in torment and indignation.

"Stop! Stop it, you bitch! You-you can't do this to me! I-I made youuuu!"

With that, Pepper placed her armored foot on his chest and fired the thruster, blasting his chest open and knocking him onto his back, where he continued to writhe, actual flames beginning to flare up at his fingertips and burning through his shoes.

"That's right," she shouted as she knelt down and continued to stab the last few syringes into his body. "You made me, and now I'm unmaking you. Do you understand that, do you see the irony? I hope so."

She had one syringe left now, and she grabbed him by his burning neck with her left hand as she held the last needle in her right.

"You created me, and you created Extremis, and now we are both going to destroy you. Don't you forget that. Keep repeating it in your head, over and over. I want it to be the last thought you have!"

And with that, Pepper plunged the syringe through the opening she had made in his chest cavity, straight into his glowing, steaming heart. Killian screamed out like a wounded animal and Pepper stood up, stepping back from him.

"Warning: explosion imminent. Evasive action recommended."

Pepper was going nowhere; she was going to witness this. She closed her faceplate and put up the armor's energy shield, waiting for this crucial moment to finally go by.

"AAAAARRGGGGHHHH!"

Killian screamed out at last and, in the next instant, the entire lab around Rescue went white.

xxxXXXxxx

He held her limp left hand in both of his and pressed his lips against her skin. He had been staring at her still form for hours now, ever since he had returned from killing Rhona and he had been allowed to come inside the room. To anyone who was not privy of her real state, the ginger looked as if she was just sleeping peacefully, with no care in the world, but Tony Stark knew better than that.

"I'm sorry," he said with unshed tears. "I should've been here with you. I should've never left you, Pepper."

He had been holding back his tears for too long, so they were now threatening to drown him alive. Even though a birth was a cause for celebration, he could not force himself to pull away from her bedside to meet the perfectly healthy little guy that had been born hours ago. Even if he had not intended to, even if the baby had not plotted against his mother, the birth had been very complicated and Pepper had lost the chance to ever meet him at all.

And he, Tony, had lost his fiancée.

He closed his eyes, rested his head on her now flat stomach and inhaled slowly. He remembered the last time he had been like this with her – her unconscious body under his head, her hand in his. It seemed like a bad dream now, but he knew very well that it had been true. It had happened, long ago, and when she had woken up from it, she had left him for good. This time, however, history would not repeat itself... because she was not going to wake up again.

"Pepper," he began as he lifted his head from her stomach and then pressed their foreheads together. "Please, open your eyes, Pep. Please, please open your eyes. I just want to know you're alright."

Why he was asking and expecting a corpse to wake up was beyond him. He knew that it was nothing more than wishful thinking. Highly delusional thinking, in fact. He knew that she had not made it. He knew that she had died during childbirth while he had been away fighting Rhona Erwin. He had taken a life and had had a life taken from him. Perhaps, as irony would have it, probably at the exact same time.

His redhead – his fiancée – the only woman he had ever truly loved, had died giving birth to a child – his child.

Actually, now that he thought about it, it had not actually been simple childbirth that had killed his ginger. It had been him. Just him. Perhaps not quite directly, but it had been Extremis which had caused her ultimate demise.

Extremis; his Extremis, the one he had passed onto his son and which had momentarily lived in her while pregnant, had killed her.

He had killed her.

He had set her on this path to destruction. He had not really given her a chance.

This moment – this part of their destiny – he figured had been inevitable. It had been years in the making, born the moment he had met her; set in motion at the exact same instant his eyes had landed upon her while on the roof of the academy. If he had never met her, she would have never become his friend. If she had never become his friend, she would have never fallen in love with him, and him with her. And if they had never fallen in love with one another, she would have never become pregnant with his child.

His child. His baby boy, who no longer had a mother, solely because his father was a giant, selfish asshole who had been unable to let her go.

"Will you ever forgive me, Pep?" he whispered to her motionless body. "Will you ever forgive me for killing you?"

Unfortunately for him, she had no way of responding to him. And, if she had had any way of doing so, he knew that her answer would have been nothing more than a painful and resounding no.

I killed you, Pep. I killed you.

Surprisingly so, he found himself realizing that, if need be, he would gladly do it again.

xxxXXXxxx

The smoke was starting to clear a little, filtering out through the open doorway, as well as the several new holes recently made in the laboratory walls. Pepper lowered her shield, and small pieces of floating ash and soot began to land upon her, turning the light silver and purple colors of the Rescue armor to a dark grey and deep purple scheme.

She took a few steps forward, waving the remaining smoke out of her way, and looked down on the spot where Killian had been. All that remained was a shallow, smooth crater in the floor, black smudges all around it and on the wall behind it, and a faint silhouette of a human body in the middle of the crater; its outline bordered with ash. No flesh remained. Not even clothing. Nothing lingered of the pathetic man who had been sprawled before her, in his death throes, minutes before.

Pepper's pupils returned to normal, and she looked around the room, intending to destroy whatever was left of Aldrich's research. However, she noted that the shockwave of the explosion had smashed all furniture, equipment, and samples in the room into pulp along the walls. The intense heat that had immediately followed had burned, melted or just plain disintegrated all of the remains. Even the lead-lined suitcase he had been preparing to hide away near one of the exits of the castle had not escaped; it had been broken open by the blast and its contents charred beyond recognition or recovery.

There was nothing left of his work; nothing other than Tony, James and herself. There was nothing left of Killian's decades of research and labor. It was all gone.

Pepper looked back at the outline inside the small crater. She thought about saying something; some final statement or declaration over his grave, of what she had done and what for. Perhaps, some witty one-liner in the style of James Bond after having dispatched a bad guy. Even a simple whispered good riddance would have probably been acceptable as well.

But instead, for once in her life, Pepper found she had nothing to say. Absolutely nothing. And she realized that it could have not been more appropriate this time. There was nothing left of Killian; nothing left of his work that could truly be said to have belonged to him. Nothing left of his legacy. Nothing resembling a fond memory anyone would want to hold on to. And now, in this very instant, she had nothing to say on the matter of his passing.

So very fitting, indeed.

As he had been in life, so he was now in death: nothing.

With that strange feeling of forward momentum and converging destiny finally gone from within her – satisfied at last – Pepper turned away from the crater and made her way to the lab's exit, calling up the structural plans of the castle in order to find the quickest route back to the main chamber.

Now that the worthless insect that had spawned her had been dealt with – permanently – she focused her attention back to the matter at hand, and knew that she needed to get back to Tony and the others.

It was time for them to finish off Doom once and for all, pack up their shit, and go home.

Home. Wherever that ended up being now.

xxxXXXxxx

Fill my heart with gladness
Take away all my sadness

He knew that there were currently many eyes on them, but the only eyes he cared about were her loving hazel ones staring back at him. It was very likely that he looked like a stupid, dopey lover boy right now, with the way he was entranced by her presence in his arms, but he could not find it in himself to give a flying fuck about that. If anyone were to judge him for losing himself in the eyes of his wife, they were just bitter assholes with nothing better to do. This was his first dance with his redhead, as his spouse, and he was going to take in every detail of it.

You fill my life with laughter
And somehow you make it better

He closed his eyes and rested the side of his face against hers. He could not keep himself from pressing light kisses to her temple, cheek and jawline while holding her tightly and swaying them from side to side; leading their intimate and slow dance. She allowed him to do as he pleased with her, also obviously relishing the fact that, after everything that had tried to separate them, they were finally husband and wife.

There's a love that's divine
And it's yours and it's mine like the sun

She smelled of serenity and happiness, and he counted himself lucky to have her by his side. He had been scared that something or someone would end up disturbing their wedding ceremony, or maybe their reception. Even if that something was nothing more than an unexpected tropical storm, or that someone happened to be their very own son, he had hoped that nothing ruined their day. So far, everything had been going according to plan. The weather had been beautiful, and little James Stark had been behaving like a good little boy; enjoying every ounce of attention he was getting from his grandparents and uncles alike.

"You're so quiet, Tony," she whispered in his ear and he felt a shiver of pleasure run down his spine. "Already bored at your own wedding, Mr. Stark?"

"Not at all, Mrs. Stark," he teased, loving the way the title rolled off his tongue. "Just wondering if we could ditch the rest of the party and go straight to the honeymoon."

Pepper pulled away from him, her mouth opened wide.

"Ditch the rest of the party? You mean ALL of the party, right? It hasn't even really started yet, Tony!"

"It hasn't," he feigned ignorance, a wide smile on his face. "Well this is taking forever, if you ask me. We've got a very comfortable bed that needs to see some use."

"Tony," she said with embarrassment, rested her forehead against his shoulder, and he chucked in response.

Fill my heart with gladness
Take away all my sadness
Ease my troubles that's what you do

He closed his eyes again and placed his chin on her head. They continued to move to the tune, stopping only when he could no longer hear the music or feel her.

He slowly opened his eyes and realized that Pepper was no longer standing in front of him. He had not felt or heard her move. He had also not become aware of when the music had stopped playing altogether. Or of when he had left the center of the dance floor and placed himself in the middle of this room.

"I'm so sorry, Tony," he heard Rhodey say, followed by a heavy pat on his right shoulder, as his friend walked by next to him. Tony looked over his shoulder to trail his retreating form with a frown, the always proud agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. dragging his feet away from his childhood friend, which left Tony only that much more confused about his current situation and whereabouts.

As his head returned to face the front, he expanded his field of vision and realized that he was now alone in the room. In addition, based on the floral arrangements that covered every square inch of the stage, the situation he was a part of was slowly starting to make sense to him.

He gulped and made careful and deliberate steps towards the front of the room. He took in a deep breath and held it in his lungs, preparing himself for what – or whom – he feared he was going to see inside the open casket before him. He glued his eyes to the expensive-looking mahogany cover of the coffin, noticed the fine, rich silver and purple-colored satin fabric that covered it, and he then forced his gaze to lower and lower until his eyes landed on her.

Her. Pepper. His Pepper. Was lying dead before him.

W-what?

He shook his head from side to side in disbelief, his brain refusing to believe what his eyes were showing him.

She… we… we were just… and I… but how… I mean…

"Pep?" he fell to his knees before her coffin. "Pepper?"

His eyes lingered on her face for another minute before he began examining every inch of her body. He could not tell what had caused her demise. She did not appear to be injured. She actually just looked to be peacefully sleeping. She did not look dead at all.

"How, Pepper? How did this happen? When did this happen? I can't… I just can't… I…"

"Poor man," he heard someone behind him say, possibly believing he was too entranced in his mourning to really pay attention to the hushed conversations by the other end of the room.

"Tell me about it," a second voice said. "First the little boy, then his wife. Both died of unknown causes, months apart. It was just like with his mother. No one knew what caused her heart attack. What are the odds?"

He frowned as he processed the comments. They were not talking about his son, right? They were not talking about Maria Stark, right?

Months apart? Unknown causes? What unknown causes? What the fuck is going on?

"Why didn't you kill me first?" Pepper suddenly opened her eyes and stared directly at him; startling the hell out of him and almost making him trip on his own two feet when he stood up.

"Pepper," he held on tightly at the edge of the coffin, his eyes wide in incredulity. "Pepper, you're alive!"

"Why didn't you kill me, Tony?" the redhead asked again. "You promised you would!"

"I promised? When… when did I promise that? When did I… did I… AAAHH!"

Before he could do anything about it, Pepper had sat up inside the casket and had placed her hands around his neck. Her grip on him was strong – stronger than he would expect a dead person to have. He closed his eyes in pain, tried to pull her hands away from him, and he then heard her utter his name in the sweetest of tones before her hands were on his neck no more.

"You've done it before, Tony. I know you can do it again."

Done it before? Done what?

He opened his eyes once again, and he was shocked to see that he was no longer at a funeral home, but with Pepper in their bed.

"It is the same," she responded before she slowly ran her fingers through his hair. "It'd probably be easier to do it on me than it was on those before. You… you told me once that you didn't know you had it in you… until you did it. You told me that you didn't regret it, remember? You told me you'd do it all over again, if your loved ones were in danger. You told me it got easier every time."

"On them. On the ones who tried to hurt the people I love. It's… it's different to do it on the people you're trying to protect in the first place. Especially you."

"Are you saying you regret doing it all?"

"No. I only regret the way I killed one of them… Rhona, actually. But when it comes to protecting you, Pepper, I regret nothing at all."

"Then protect me now. Be the one who ends it, not S.H.I.E.L.D. I… I can't do it myself… I don't have what it takes. I… I don't think I'll ever have what it takes to do this to anyone. You have to do this for me, Tony. If you don't… if you let it happen on its own… S.H.I.E.L.D…. they win."

"They've already won. For now, at least. Until I deal with them myself, that is. But I'll do it. It'll be just the two of us, away from everything, secluded. It'll be just between you and me, like it should be."

I did, Tony recalled the conversation very clearly, the scenery before him changing once more. I did promise I would save her. I did promise I would be the one to… the one to…

"I never thought it would end like this," Pepper's voice pulled him back to reality. Her back was resting against his chest, both of them on the ground at her island. "But you promised that you would kill me, right? You haven't forgotten your promise, have you, Tony?"

"No, I haven't," he said in a serious tone. "I promised I would do it. And I will do it, Pep. I will be the one to free you from them. From all of them."

"Then do it now. Do it now, Tony. Set me free. Keep me safe. Kill me."

"I will," his tone was even, as if he were just talking about the weather, his hands moving towards her head. "I will do what I must, Pepper. I'd do anything for you."

"Because you love me, Tony?"

"Yes," he pressed his fingers against her scalp. "Because I love you, Pep."

No sooner than the words left his mouth, he violently twisted her neck, letting her go only when she grew limp in his grip. He then stood up from sitting behind her, adjusted her dead body on the ground, and then silently admired his deed.

She's safe, he smiled fondly at her. She's free. She's… dead.

xxxXXXxxx

This time, she relied more on her aura abilities than on the suit or the castle's blueprints. Not surprisingly, she got back to the main chamber faster than the first time around. And, just like the first time she had arrived here, she remained in the shadows to assess how much the situation had changed.

Whoever was left standing was still battling Doom. Tony was still on the ground near Jarvis's body. And where Maya Hansen and James Stark had been, there was nothing more than a pile of debris.

Jimmy, where are you?

She could sense that her son was alive, but she could not tell exactly where he currently was. She did not want to rush into the chamber again, lest Doom decided to send another surprise attack her way. Her armor had warned her that the intangibility feature was a one-off – something that would not save her a second time if her shield gave in.

Pepper frowned in deep thought, her eyes on the spot where she had almost lost her life. Whether it was smart or not, she had to walk over to the mountain of rubble that Doom's attack had left behind and dig through it. She could feel that James and Maya were somewhere near it; she just had to pinpoint their actual location within the mass.

She looked towards her right to see that everyone seemed to be busy fighting their enemy, so she rushed towards the wreckage and began scanning and rummaging through the remains. To her surprise, a lot of the concrete and stone parts easily turned to dust in her hands as soon as she touched them; mostly due to the heat from the blast. Pepper was certain that, if sand had been nearby at the moment of the attack, she would be digging through glass right now.

It was not long after she had begun plowing that she found Maya Hansen under the rubble, her back facing the redhead. Hope rising in her, she increased her digging efforts to uncover most of Maya's head and shoulders. And she then inwardly gasped when she exposed the rest of the brunette's form.

Rescue opened her faceplate, covered her mouth with her hands, and then exhaled through her fingers. There was no doubt that the botanist had not made it. There was no reason to believe that the woman had been blessed with a final miracle when she needed it the most. Now she knew why she had sensed a change in the number of auras and their patterns after she had gone through the floor. Now she knew what it felt like when someone's aura ceased to exist.

The once-promising geneticist's final act had been a selfless one: she had taken a hit for James Howard Stark. Just as Edwin Jarvis had taken a hit for the father of her kid.

To properly thank her, there was nothing that Pepper could do for her now; she had already disposed of Aldrich Killian – she could not make him suffer more or again. Perhaps all she could do for Maya at the moment was ending this war. Saving the world. And then perhaps taking her and her mother's bodies back home.

As careful as she could be, Pepper moved Maya's body to the side to reveal the current location of her child. He was unconscious and burnt, but just as she had witnessed during their trek to the playroom, the ginger could already see the signs of Extremis kicking in to repair the damaged tissue. His body was not regenerating as easily or as quickly as it had when his arms had been chopped off by one of Doom's traps, but she knew that her son was going to be alright if she managed to get him out of here before the Earth Movers went off.

She pressed her son tightly against her body, turned around in place to face the battlefield, and then screamed a single name towards the crowd.

xxxXXXxxx

"KURT!"

His vision started clearing up with every hard blink of his electric blue orbs. The sounds of battle around him gradually came together to form a discernible picture in his mind. For a moment, he was unsure of where he was – of who he was, and of what he was supposed to be doing right now. However, with every passing second, his brain slowly began piecing together his reality for him.

He was Tony Stark.

The Tony Stark.

And he had a very important mission to complete.

He inconspicuously eyed the woman that was half holding him, half propping him up. She was too distracted watching something in the distance to notice that he was aware of his surroundings once more. He became instantly curious as to what was capturing her attention with such intensity, and he considered maybe making the effort to find out for himself. This decision was then made for him, however, when he heard that voice once more.

"Take him! Now!"

Tony turned his head to his side, just in time to see Nightcrawler grab something from Pepper Potts and then disappear half a second later. He had expected the man to reappear shortly thereafter. Yet, after several seconds of no action – and after seeing that the redhead was now coming towards him – he understood that the members of the resistance where short yet another soldier. There was now one fewer person to stand against the might of Doom.

Who cares? The genius thought with both utmost disinterest and disdain. Whatever we do, it doesn't matter, anyway. Doom will kill us all. Kill. Us. All.

"But not Pepper," the whispering of his random afterthought caught Whitney Stane by surprise. "Not. Her."

"Tony?" Whitney smiled at the man. "Tony! You're back!"

"Not Pepper," the inventor repeated as he slowly sat up, his eyes staring directly at the incoming form of Rescue, completely disregarding the confused blonde sitting next to him.

"She's mine… I'll take care of her. I'll save her from life."

"Tony?" Whitney furrowed her brow, his words making no sense at all. "What are you… Are… are you alright?"

The billionaire snapped his head to his right, narrowed his eyes at the blonde, and then backslapped her with such force that she ended up face down. The move was then followed by the blue-eyed man standing up and locking eyes with a shocked-still Rescue, her jaw practically hitting the ground.

"Nobody threatens her," he took a decisive step towards his wife. "Nobody touches her," he took another step. "Nobody ends her life."

If someone's going to kill her, he clenched his hands in anticipation, quickly closing the gap between them. It'll be me.

"Only me."

xxxXXXxxx

"Tony?"

She hesitantly stretched her right arm towards him, but she then pulled it back when he picked up his pace; his movements resembling a predator about to pounce on its prey.

"Tony, why did you–"

The redhead's question was cut short by Tony's hands on her neck, squeezing it tightly despite the protection of the suit.

"T-Ton-ny," Pepper was in shock, too stunned to properly react to the man's clear intentions. "Ton-n-y… it's… it's m-m-me…"

"AGH!"

She dropped to her knees when she felt his hold on her disappear. She took in deep breaths; her right hand around her neck to make sure it was still there, her eyes wide in disbelief. She was breathing hard, her gaze lost. Or as lost as it can be until one hears the sound of fierce scuffling just feet from where you are.

"Tony, snap out of it!" Whitney Stane said while she exchanged punches and kicks with the inventor. "It's Pepper! PEPPER!"

The genius did not verbally respond to the blonde – he just fought her back faster and stronger than he would normally do so; anticipating her moves quicker than she could think to change them. He was hardly physically responding to the hits she did land – it was as if he did not even feel them. It was as if they were actually fueling whatever blind rage he was in.

Did Doom take over him? Pepper gnawed at her lip as she stood up and closed her faceplate to scan the genius. Did Doom turn the Mainframe back on?

While her theory was not too farfetched, given everything they had gone through so far, no one else appeared to be affected. She used her HUD to scan his chip, only to find it burned out. She then sought possible remains of the Mainframe's waves lurking around them, but she was quickly disappointed for being unable to spot any at all.

She looked over to where Doom was still battling with Mandarin, Black Panther and Jean Grey and, for a moment, the villain looked back at her and she swore that their eyes locked. Somehow she knew, from that one look, that it was he who was responsible for this, if not how. She saw in those red orbs that served as windows to his soul, all of the cruelty, all of the malevolence he held towards the world; his grudge against happiness and anyone who experienced it. If evil could kill by evil alone, she would already have been dead ten times over just from that one brief glimpse into his eyes. He might not have been controlling the love of her life, but he had triggered this violent behavior in the young man she shared her existence with. In that moment, she wished upon Doom the worst suffering imaginable for it.

"AAH!"

Exhausted from battle, Chameleon had not much left to give against the inventor. After a few well-placed hits from him, Whitney was down for the count. Tony stared at the unconscious woman on the ground for a moment, as if waiting for her to show signs of being ready for round two. However, when she continued to lie still, barely breathing, Tony turned his full attention to his wife once more.

"Tony," Pepper aimed her repulsors at him, if just to have something to use to deflect another attack from him. "Tony, what are you doing? Stop, please. It's just me. It's Pepper!"

"I'm going to keep my promise, Pep," the use of her nickname in such an offhanded manner in spite of the situation made her flinch. "I'm going to make sure I do right by you."

"Do right… by me?" Pepper took a step back, unsure of what scared her most: her husband, or the fact that she was becoming afraid of her husband. "What… what do you mean?"

"I'll do it, Pepper," he began slowly walking towards her. "I'll do it."

"You'll do: what?"

"What else?" he was in front of her in the blink of an eye, his hands on the sides of her helmet, effectively unlatching it from her. "I will kill you."

xxxXXXxxx

"NO!"

Her helmet fell to the ground, only to then be kicked out of the way by the inventor himself. He then reached for her neck once more, but the redhead took to the air. Tony looked up at her flying form for a second, then towards the discarded helmet, before he ran towards it at full speed.

What is he doing?

He skidded on his knees and grabbed the helmet. He put it on, waited for the SOS to recognize him, and then spoke into with a cold, calculated tone.

"Disable User: Rescue. Revoke SOS access. Permanently."

No sooner than the words left him, the flight stabilizers of the suit turned off. Simultaneously, the armor retracted into its backpack form, sending the ginger tumbling down from several feet above the ground.

"Aaaahhh!"

"Pepper!"

Iceman rushed to her aid, opting to ignore the losing battle against Doom on the other side of the chamber. He stretched his arm towards her, extended yet another bridge of ice, and she landed on it with a thud. Bobby's eyes then landed on the inventor, who he had just now realized was wide awake again, and it took him only two seconds to realize what had just taken place.

"Is he… oh, no…" Bobby turned to his friends. "Hey! Tony's lost it! He's trying to kill Red!"

For a brief second, the battle stopped. All eyes turned to the inventor, who was slowly taking off the Rescue helmet off him and was clearly seething in anger at the interference. He did not have time for this. He had a job to do. He could not waste time with anyone who tried to keep his wife alive long enough to meet a terrible death under the hands of Doom.

If he had to kill everyone else before getting to Pepper, he would gladly do so.

"Get away from him!" Jean said, her right hand on her temple. "Something's wrong. I can't reach him."

"Get her out of here!" Fury yelled at Bobby. "Get her out!"

"NO!"

The unexpected order was followed by a blast of energy that emanated from Doom himself, breaking the wall of ice that Bobby had been building around the redhead to aid in her escape. To ensure that his plans continued their path, Doom raised his arms in the air, screamed, and then opened a portal right above where he stood.

"No more games. No more mercy. The era of Doom begins now."

Just like that, to everyone's shock, the entire room became filled with creatures from other worlds.

xxxXXXxxx

"Charles, are you seeing this?" Magneto asked, unsure that what he was seeing was real.

"I can feel it," the Professor replied. The entire castle had become engulfed in a transparent force field.

This prompted Professor X to send a telepathic communication to the rest of the X-Men, who were currently on their way to Latveria via the team's jet, the Blackbird. He advised them to remain where they were, as the situation at Castle Doom was about to reach a critical point that would likely reach its resolution long before they arrived, and they would not be able to enter the structure now in any event. It was just as well, as the momentary activating of the Mainframe a while ago had nearly caused the aircraft to crash into the ocean.

He also took a moment to focus in on Nightcrawler, who was currently doing a series of teleports across the longest stretches of distance he could manage, carrying his precious cargo of James Howard Stark with him. He was already almost halfway across the European continent, and Xavier expected him and the boy to arrive here on Muir Island within the hour.

A moment after feeling the energy bubble engulf the castle, the ground then shook violently, as if an earthquake had suddenly struck the entire region. Once the tremors ended, the sky turned red and portals started appearing everywhere in the air and along the ground below, all of them spewing out abominations in droves. They were repulsive, maddening creatures: giant insects with their limbs in the wrong places, slimy reptiles with bodies pulsing more like jellyfish; humanoid beings with bat wings and black ichor dripping from their goddamn eyes. Both of the long-time frenemies had seen some bizarre things in their lives searching the globe for their fellow mutants, but these alien monstrosities Doom had summoned from God-knew-where were hard to look at.

"This is it, Erik. It's the end," Charles said with a tone of resignation and incredulity.

"So it is," Magneto replied, turned around in place and then, summoning all of the metal in the region that he could grasp with his power, he began to fight.

xxxXXXxxx

As soon as the creatures that Doom had unleashed began battling the others, Tony ran towards Pepper with a murderous look on his face. The woman inwardly gasped, looked left and right, and then began running away from him as fast as she could.

"Get back here!"

He caught up to her quicker than she had expected, and he wasted no time in further limiting her options for defense. He grabbed her by the backpack, viciously flung her to the side, and then released her in the direction of a wall. The backpack came off her as Pepper bounced off the target and landed on the floor, face down, the right side of her body burning in pain.

"Please, Tony," she slowly got on all fours, breathing hard. "Please, stop… please…"

"Don't fight it," he walked over to her, cracking his knuckles as he did so. "It'll only hurt more. I'll make it quick and painless, I promise."

The redhead shook her head left and right, her left hand pressed against the wall behind her to help herself stand up.

"Tony, this isn't you. You're not… you're not thinking straight. I mean, listen to yourself! You want to kill me? Kill me? You would never do that, Tony! You would never do that!"

"It's for your own good," he towered over her, leaving her between him and the wall. "I'm only doing this to protect you."

"How the heck is that protection?"

"Nobody can hurt you… if you're already dead."

From the corner of her eyes, she noticed that Tony was raising his hands again, and she knew what he was trying to do. She knew that he had every intention to do what he had just said he would. She did not know why he was so determined to do this – she blamed Doom for it, in fact. But she also knew that, whether she liked it or not, she was going to have to fight back.

She stared him in the eye, gave him a weak, trembling smile, and then blinked tears away.

"I'm sorry, Tony. But I can't let you do this."

Without warning, Pepper punched him in the stomach with her right hand, then on his chest with her left fist, and finally on his chin with her right fist again; the triple-hit combo forcing him to take a few steps back from her. She then pivoted on the floor to sweep him off his feet, and ran towards the forgotten backpack on the other side of where she had just stood.

She knelt before the backpack, rummaged through the pockets, and then found what she was looking for. She eyed the syringe in her hands, thought about Maya Hansen's words, closed her hand on the item, and then sighed.

Was this the only way? Was this all she could do to save herself? To save him? Was this really the only choice she had? She clearly would not survive long against Tony in a fist-to-fist fight – he was much stronger and more experienced in battle than she was, even with his Extremis turned off. But she also did not have the guts to kill him… especially if there was no good reason to do that.

But what if that was the trick? What if Maya had lied to her? What if Maya had orchestrated all of this, just to have Pepper kill her own husband as a last act of revenge?

Then again, the brunette had sacrificed herself for her son. In the end, Maya Hansen had kept her son alive, even if it had cost her life. It just did not make much sense for the woman to try to off them both after protecting their son, all these months. Then again, again: nothing in their entire eccentric lives had ever made sense. Maybe this was yet another oddity for them.

No, Pepper closed her eyes tightly and shook her head. I can't risk it. I can't just inject him with whatever this is!

Memories of Aldrich Killian's reaction to being injected with differing strains of Extremis further clouded her judgment. She definitely did not want Tony to blow up or suffer in the same way her biological father had met his demise. She did not want to lose her husband, either, or for her son to grow up without his dad.

There must be another way, she told herself as she put away the syringe and began to stand up. I just need to find it. I just need to–

"AH!"

Tony grabbed her by the hair, pushed her knees back on the ground, and then pulled her head back, all in one swift motion. On instinct, Pepper's hands reached over her head, trying to release herself from his grip, but she could not even see where to aim her attempts to. She tried to turn around to face him. She tried to kick him from behind. She even tried to dig her nails into his skin to force him to let go of her, but he was relentless. Unyielding. He was not giving her an inch of a chance.

"Stop fighting it," he growled and scrunched up her hair in a way that made her whimper. "This is for the best!"

"Tony, no!" she felt him pull her head even more. "IT HURTS!"

"Only for a little while," he replied, knowing that, with one more swift pull, her neck would snap. "Just relax."

"NOOO!"

Tears pooled in her eyes when she felt the slight push and pull of his hand, readying for the final effort it would take to bend her neck in a way that would disconnect her brain from the rest of her body. He further twisted her hair against his hand, placed his left foot against her back, and then inhaled deeply to gain even more strength for the task he was about to set in motion.

Pepper closed her eyes, whimpered loudly, and then heard the sound of a single gunshot being fired nearby.

xxxXXXxxx

He felt a sharp sting in his right shoulder blade that made him hiss in anger more than in pain. He looked behind him to search for whoever had dared to take a shot at him; whoever had dared to interrupt him – and then narrowed his eyes at the second-in-command of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Get away from her, Stark!" Maria Hill spat, her arms to her front and extended towards Tony, a gun in her hands.

Tony eyed the woman up and down with contempt before he returned his attention to Pepper, as if he did not have an armed agent standing behind him.

"Stark! Stop!"

Before he could try to harm the redhead again, Maria Hill ran towards him and hit him in the back of the head with the butt of her gun. The genius groaned and stumbled to the ground, allowing Pepper to scurry away from him and turn around to face him once more. She watched as he angrily rubbed the back of his head with his left hand a few times. He then pulled his hand away, and growled when he saw the trail of blood on his palm.

Leaving Maria very little time to prepare, Tony stood up and engaged the agent in hand-to-hand combat. He punched and kicked her without mercy. He fiercely hit her until she was on her knees. And then, with one last punch to the face, Maria Hill became unconscious and fell at his feet.

xxxXXXxxx

Pepper awkwardly slid across the floor, trying without success to put as much distance between her and the blue-eyed man walking towards her; the loaded gun that Maria Hill had been holding now being in his right hand.

Her eyes were wide, her mouth hung, and her entire body shook, still unwilling to believe this was really Tony standing before her – coming at her with a weapon in hand. He had just taken down another person – another friend, with no visible remorse. He had just tried taking his wife's life – twice. And he was now slowly approaching her with a gun pointed directly at her.

"One to the head and it'll all be over, Pep."

"Tony… please… please don't do this. What about our son? What about him?"

"I'll kill him, too," he reasoned. "Then I'll kill myself. And then we'll all be happy, Pep. We're only happy when we're dead."

Pepper frantically shook her head from side to side.

"What did he do to you? What… what did Doom do to you, Tony?"

"I see the truth now, Pepper. I see how stupid I was. I could've never protected you from everyone. I was never going to keep you safe all the time."

Tony finally stopped walking when he stood two feet away from her sitting form, her back pressed against the wall. He then aimed the barrel of the gun to her head and smiled compassionately at her.

"I'll see you on the other side, Pep," the genius said before pulled the trigger until he emptied the gun, hitting a body multiples times square in the chest.

xxxXXXxxx

Victor von Doom stared at the genius from afar and groaned. He had thought that the man had been tortured enough by the mind attack he had used on the inventor with his last strike upon him from before, but it appeared that he had not suffered as much as he thought he would. He should have killed the redhead by now. He should have completely lost his mind already. In fact, now that he thought about it, the rest of his team should have been dead by now, too; defeated either by him, the demons he had released, or by exhaustion, at the very least.

But this was not the case. They still remained.

They still stood and fought him.

They still defied his power and will.

And Tony Stark was yet to learn his lesson. He was yet to truly suffer to the level Doom wanted him to feel ache.

No. His first attempt at breaking the man's spirit had not been merciless enough.

He still owed the billionaire a lot more misery and pain.

xxxXXXxxx

She was not sure when she had closed her eyes. Yet, when she opened them again, she saw that Tony had truly emptied the rest of the ammunition in the gun… just not upon her.

The head of S.H.I.E.L.D. fell to his knees in front of her, his palms briefly landing on his bleeding chest. He coughed up blood, eyed the deadly wounds in his torso, and then glared at the inventor one last time.

"I warned you, son… I told you this… would happen."

"You're in the way," Tony coldly replied, no hint of repentance in his tone, before he grabbed Nick Fury's head in his hands and broke his neck.

xxxXXXxxx

He could not let this happen. He could not allow Doom to do this. He was the one and true Mandarin. Earth was his to protect. It was his job to make sure the entire planet lived to see another day.

And that Pepper did as well, for that matter.

Gene looked around himself to quickly assess the situation. The living offenses to reason that Doom had conjured were horrible looking and numerous, but relatively weak, and most of them had already been killed off by the team and were now liquefying on the stone floor of the castle. But the effort to defeat this final scourge summoned by the mad doctor had taken its toll on what was left of the resistance. Jean Grey had passed out in exhaustion just a moment ago. Cyclops was safeguarding her from the demons Doom had unleashed. Iceman could not move another inch, and even the Hulk, despite doing extensive damage to the enemy, had taken a break and left an unconscious Bruce Banner in its wake. Beast and Living Laser were doing their best to protect the two men. Everyone else, save for Tony and Pepper, was either dead or out of commission. It was now just down to Black Panther, Doctor Doom, and himself.

Or it had been, until a nanosecond ago, when Doom sent a final attack towards all of them.

Gene Khan gritted his teeth and got down on all fours, the intensity of the attack making him want to scream in agony; yet, he bit down on his tongue so strongly that he drew blood from it, refusing to give Doom the pleasure of knowing he was causing him agony.

Once the worst of it faded away, he slowly sat up, pointed towards the madman with his palms, and then grinned with arrogance behind his helmet.

"Is that all you've got? I can do this all day."

Without sparing the Mandarin a second to react, Doctor Doom rushed towards the half-Makluan with full force, all with the single goal of killing him dead once and for all.

xxxXXXxxx

The moment his hands let go of the General, the deceased man fell to the side. Tony briefly stared at the body with disinterest, as if he was watching a dead insect or pest. He then bent down to grab something from Nick's right boot, locked eyes with his stunned silent wife as she got up from the floor too, and he resumed his trek towards her.

He was near her in an instant, his face inches from hers. Pepper's eyes dilated, desperately searching for something – anything within him, that would tell her what she needed to do to make him come to his senses. Nevertheless, she was disappointed to find that Tony's aura had not changed one bit. It was practically intact. There was no visible external influence that she could see that could have been driving his words or actions. Whatever atrocious acts he had committed since waking up from his apparent trance, were all him.

All. Him.

Just as when he finally stabbed her in the heart with Nick Fury's knife any moment now; it would all be on her beloved blue-eyed boy.

All on him.

She slowly dug her right hand inside her pocket, held onto the syringe, and then watched as Tony's form was suddenly flown away from her, courtesy of a very angry Gene Khan.

xxxXXXxxx

"Dimwitted fool!"

Tony Stark had been so close. So damned close. But the Mandarin had foiled his plans, yet again.

How was he even still fighting? Everyone else had been defeated! Why did he remain?

It must have been the rings of power. No human could stand up to Doom and last this long. If Stark's wife had not messed with his power generator; if she had not meddled into matters that did not pertain her, his quantum-dot energy suppressor would still be working. If it had not been for that stupid redhead woman, it would be down to just the three of them by now: Tony, Pepper, and him.

"Can't be much of a fool if you haven't been able to stop me," Mandarin replied, hoping that his attack had been strong enough to knock Tony out cold. He was unsure as to why the inventor was attacking his own wife, but there was not much time to stop and ask questions at the moment.

Doom returned his full attention towards the Mandarin, a sense of being close to succeeding at a life-long challenge driving his next attack. He knew that, even with his limited yet advanced technology currently at his disposition, it would still be tricky to stop the Mandarin altogether…

But when it came to hurting the man inside the suit, the doctor knew that it would not take much. He still had one more card to play against Gene Khan – a final ace in the hole that he knew would stop the Mandarin in his tracks.

The time for pulling all the stops had lastly arrived.

"We shall see about that, Gene Khan," Doom replied with a frown. "We shall see about that."

xxxXXXxxx

The attack that Gene had delivered had slowed him down, but it had certainly not stopped him. Sooner rather than later, the inventor was back on his feet and in front of Pepper once again, his face turned into one of pure rage at being kept from doing what he believed he had to do next. He had tried to reason with her – explain to her that this was the only way for him to keep his promise to her. He had already attempted to make her see the flawlessness of his plan. The brilliance of it all. But she refused to see logic – just as she always did. She refused to take orders from his smarter, more rational brain.

And now, at this this critical point in the game, he had no intention of wasting his breath any more. Mandarin would surely be disposed of any moment by the madman, he knew; which would then leave Doctor Doom free to release all of his power on her.

Did she not understand that he knew better? Did she not see how pointless it was to fight something as inevitable as death?

He was done trying to make her see his way was best. He just had to do things the hard way now.

He lunged himself at the ginger and aimed a punch at her face. Pepper moved her head to the side to avoid the hit, but he quickly reacted to her evasive maneuver with a knee to her stomach. She moaned and almost fell to the ground in pain, but she knew that she had to keep herself alive long enough to find a way to make him realize what he was doing to her. She refused to believe that he would beat her to a pulp until she died if he truly understood what he was doing to her. She refused to believe that he really wanted to check her out of this world.

This was the last trick up her sleeve – save for the one that Maya Hansen had left behind with her. Maybe Tony was not completely processing what he was doing. Maybe, if his mind cleared somehow and he saw that he was attacking his own wife, he would finally stop.

Or so she could hope he did.

Forcing herself to see the man before her as yet another enemy to be stopped, she began giving as many hits from him as she was taking.

He grabbed her by the arm and kicked her in the stomach, a move she knew was meant to set in motion a shoulder-dislocating attack. Training with Gene for months had prepared her for this, so she was able to execute a counter-maneuver to prevent him from finishing the exchange. She then responded by slamming the heel of her right hand against his nose, but he was to dodge it at the last second.

He took hold of her wrist and used it to twist her in place, embracing her in a chokehold to minimize her ability to fight back. She groaned in frustration as she tried to set herself free by shaking, kicking and trying to elbow him, but he did not give her an inch. He strengthened his hold around her, making her ribs press together, and she knew that he was trying to break a bone – preferably one that could fatally puncture a vital organ inside of her.

She was starting to see dark spots all around her. The room was starting to spin. Her moves were becoming uncoordinated. Her legs were losing the ability to keep her on her feet. And just when she thought this was the end for her, she ignored all rules of honorable fighting and dug her teeth into his skin.

"AAAGH!"

He pushed her away from him in an instant, furious at her for the unexpected move. She scrambled to her feet, ran towards the backpack armor, picked it up, and then swung it at his head as hard as she could.

He fell on his face and cursed loudly, but he was the back up a second after that. Pepper continued to use the backpack to keep some distance between them, but even she was growing tired of the back and forth. For his part, Tony showed no signs of slowing down, let alone stopping, and in one of her backpack-swinging attempts he was able to snatch the would-be weapon from her hands.

He ran towards her and she purposefully fell to her back, using the momentum of his speed against him. She grabbed him by the shoulders, kicked him up in the air, and then sent him flying off above and beyond her head. She got back on her feet a moment later, but he was quicker than she had expected him to be. Two seconds after she had just propelled him away, she found herself being slammed against the wall once more.

He circled her neck with his right hand and then tried to pin both of her hands above her head. The attempt at getting her in that particular position brought memories of intimate moments between them, which almost caused her to hesitate. At the last second, she was able to snatch away her right hand from his grip, but he was still able to hold her left hand above her head.

She tried to make him physically uncomfortable with her right hand, but he appeared to be unaffected by her constant poking and prodding of his face. The more she tried to provoke the slightest discomfort in him, the more his hand pressed against her neck. The more she tried to wiggle herself free, the more he dug his nails against the wrist of the one hand he still had control over.

She was losing it. She was losing the final battle. She was going to die because of him.

"Tony," she gasped. "Tony… please…"

Her words appeared to further anger him, since his only response to her pleas was applying more force to his grip.

"T-Tony… I… I… please…"

The genius narrowed his eyes at her, as if he was more than just a little annoyed by her voice. He then put even more weight into his task by pressing his body against hers, limiting that much more her ability to take in the air she so desperately needed to live.

The tears were starting to cloud her vision. Her right hand aimlessly patted at his head. Her sense of self-preservation was starting to kick in. The Extremis within her was starting to lose its patience. It was starting to send her to that place she had been to before: a state of mind in which she did not distinguish friend from foe. A side of her that she knew would not hold back and would take Tony down with her.

Even with all these conflicting sensations and emotions; even with so much at stake and with little time to stop what she knew was to come, a memory of one of their many conversations flooded her mind. A moment in time when she had made a promise to him…

A promise that she had never ever wanted to see fulfilled.

"Pepper…"

"No, Tony!" she snapped her eyes open. "Don't ask me to do this! I can't!"

"I know you can," he whispered to her and she closed her eyes again. She could not face him, not like this. He was breaking her resolve. She was going to give in to his request. She could feel it. She knew he was right. She knew what he was saying made sense. That did not mean she had to accept it.

He shut his eyes when the silence extended, rested his forehead against hers and then spoke softly to her.

"Don't let me hurt you. If Doom takes over me, don't let me hurt you."

"Tony–"

"Promise me."

"But, Tony…"

"Promise me, Pepper."

"I…" she hesitated. "I promise."

"On our son," he insisted. "Promise me on our son."

The redhead opened her eyes slowly, pulled away from his face and locked eyes with him. They remained quiet for an instant, and when her eyes dilated for a short nanosecond, Tony recognized she was reading him.

What she saw there, she did not like.

There was desperation – a crippling need for reassurance. He expected her to make good on her promise. He expected her to follow through with her mission, no matter what. He expected her to make the call, if it came to that.

What else could she have done, but to agree to it? How else would she have been able to calm his fears?

"I promise," she finally said with a nod. "I promise, on Jimmy."

She closed her eyes tightly, wanting to forget that moment had ever taken place. She wanted to pretend that it had never happened – that he had never forced her to make that promise. She wanted to think that it was just her mind playing tricks on her. She wanted to believe that it was the lack of oxygen just getting to her.

But she knew better. She knew that she was not making it up due to being at death's doorstep. She had told Tony that she would keep him from hurting her. She had promised him that she would not allow him to go on with his life knowing he was the reason why she no longer lived.

And even if she had not remembered this pact between them, Extremis was ready to do for her what it did best: keeping her alive – no matter what it took.

She opened her eyes and blinked away the tears; the hazel in her eyes completely overlapped by her dilated irises – the only warning anyone got before she lost herself to the innate enhancements in her genes. She gave the inventor one last moment to redeem himself; to prove to her that he had no idea what he was doing to her and that all he really needed was help – not death. Yet, just as it had been the case when she had searched his aura for the slightest hint that he had not meant his words when he had asked her to kill him to save her own skin, what she found in him at the moment was not what she had been looking for. It was not at all what she had wanted to see.

It finally hit her. She could see it all over in his aura. She could see it all over his face. He knew what he was doing. He really knew what he was doing. He wanted to finish up what he was doing. He truly and absolutely wanted her dead.

Tony…

She swallowed hard when she realized what she had to do to stop him. She held back a whimper of utter defeat.

He knew what he was doing.

And she now knew what she had to do next.

"I love you, Tony," she somehow managed to whisper to him, tears freely streaming down her face like rivers. She ran the back of her free hand against his cheek, felt his hold on her neck increase as a result of it, and she then lowered her right hand to dig inside her pocket; blindly and desperately clinging onto a false sense of hope and redemption that never came.

xxxXXXxxx

It was only a microsecond – shorter than it took to blink an eye – but it had been there. It had existed: the instant had been given life. It had been but a minor distraction; a moment of hesitation. A swift yet costly slip of the mind.

It had been practically insignificant in duration, but it had been there.

And this was all it took for Doom to strike. This was all it took to break the Mandarin's last line of defense. Great things came to those who waited for them – and a patient man Doom truly was.

Gene had turned his eyes towards the redhead for a second, fearing he was not going to prevent her from dying at the hands of Tony Stark. He had focused all of his attention on her – on watching as she fought for her life. His gaze had then returned to the ruler of Latveria, only to find him gone.

What?

Before the Mandarin had an opportunity to use his abilities to track the whereabouts of the man, an image of what he knew to be a farce hit his mind.

Pe… Pepper?

He watched her, clear as day, as she writhed in unbound pleasure beneath him. One second, he had been trying to find Doom. The next, he found himself in his bed, lying atop the naked redhead; flushed, sweating, and moaning his name.

"Oh, yes!" her voice was loud and distinct in his head, her hands scrunching the sheets beneath her. "Oh, Gene!"

"Pepper?" he exhaled, his eyes on her head as she threw it back, her eyes shut tightly, and her mouth open to take in deep breaths. He could even smell her natural scent permeating him. He could feel the heat radiating from her onto him.

He knew it was not real. He knew this had never happened. He knew it would never happen.

But that did not keep him from letting his guard down. That did not keep him from wishing it were true.

And this was how and why the Mandarin was forced back to reality… this was how he ended up with his heart ripped out of his chest; his eyes staring at the organ in disbelief while his body came to the realization that the main pump was gone. Both metaphorically and literally. Both in his soul and in his brain.

"Your luck has run out, Mandarin," Doom hissed from behind Gene, his metal arm sticking out from Gene's chest, straight through his armor. "I take your insignificant life today."

Doom's words meant nothing to him. His life slipping away did not scare him as much as he thought it would. What truly filled him with utter fear was the look of resignation on the redhead's face as she ran a hand down the inventor's face. What actually flooded him with regret was the fact that he would not be around anymore to tell her how he felt. Not with a stolen kiss or with implied phrases – but with the uttering of three simple words he had never had the courage to say.

Then again, he had one final chance to ensure her safety. He had one last trick up his sleeve. It was Doom himself who had given him the idea, having summoned those demonic obscenities from some other realm, and making the Mandarin realize now, in this moment, that he could perform similar magic.

Before said glimpse of hope left him, his right hand grabbed hold of Doom's wrist – the same hand that still held his heart in it. He used half of the rest of his slipping strength to keep Doom's arm where it was, and used the other half to call onto one final use of his rings.

He spared Pepper one last glance, closed his eyes as she stabbed the genius in the neck with what looked to be a syringe, and he then called upon a particular ring of his. As the ring that contained the Darkforce began to shine, Doom's vast powers of calculation must have caused him to realize at the last moment what Gene Khan intended, and knew that he had finally made an error; one he had no time to correct. In a sudden and uncharacteristic panic, Doom attempted to wrench his arm free of the younger man's torso through which he had plunged it, but Gene held fast.

"No! Release me! Release Doom this instant!"

"You're doomed, fucker," Gene responded smugly, keeping his final thoughts on his destination while simultaneously replaying his last glimpse at Pepper behind his eyelids. An instant later, both he and Doom were bathed in a deep purple light that seem to shine from within them both – a light that quickly ratcheted up through the spectrum until it was pure white, consuming every atom in their bodies as Gene Khan prepared to quark off to the Void.

In a final blinding flash, followed an instant later by a very loud blast of sound, all those who left fighting the last remaining demons and Doombots, and those who were just now barely coming around to consciousness, all looked in time to see the final sight… all but Tony and Pepper, who were too busy locked in a dance of death to see how it all finally ended. When the light cleared and the sound faded, all those who took that last glance knew that, other than a little bit of mopping up, it was over.

Doctor Doom was gone.

And so was the Mandarin.

xxxXXXxxx

The nanobots took effect almost immediately, very much so as they had done with Killian, and prompted Tony to release Pepper from his death grip.

"AAAHHHH!"

He could feel the liquid coursing through his veins. It was much worse than when he had first injected himself with Extremis, and it was taking much longer than it had taken to wrap up back then. His legs gave up under him; the weight of his own body being too much to bear, and his body began convulsing against his will.

Tony!

The scene was worse than she had imagined it could be. She had hoped that he would just fall asleep in an instant. Perhaps groan loudly in annoyance and then hit the ground. But this was not what she had wished for him. This was much more painful and heart-wrenching than she had believed it would be.

The billionaire ended up on his knees, his nails urgently scratching at his neck to the point that he tore his skin. He threw his head back in anguish. He started gasping for air. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and, after a loud and long scream of pain, his eyes finally closed and he collapsed onto the floor.

"No! NO!"

Pepper knelt beside him and held him in her arms. She pressed her body against hers, whispered heartfelt apologies to him, and begged for him to come back to her. She was at a loss. Afraid of whatever damage she might have just caused him, and wished she could undo what she had done.

But she could not. It was too late. The serum was already inside of him. It was already working within him. It had already done its job. Extremis was partly working within her, if just because she was on high alert due to the state of the man he loved.

"I'm sorry, Tony! I'm so sorry! Please, don't die on me! Please, don't die!"

It was all too familiar for her; the situation hitting too close to home. It was just like when he had flat-lined on her after taking him out of the frozen lake and she had had to wait for the paramedics to come help him. It was like that moment he had risked his life to save hers. But this time, it was a lot worse. Much, much worse. This time, he has not chosen to suffer to protect her: she had actually caused it. This time, she could feel his body growing limp in her arms. She could sense his aura slipping away. She was losing him. She was losing him all over again. For good, this time.

"Don't give up, Tony. Don't you dare give up! Fight it, Tony! Oh, please, God! Help him fight it!"

She could hear his breathing attempts become sharp and painful. The time between breaths was becoming longer and longer by the second; as if he were waiting for permission from his lungs to inhale yet again. His chest was not rising as high as the previous attempt at filling himself with the oxygen he needed to live. His body was no longer convulsing. His eyes were wide open and his eyelids still.

She whimpered when she heard him exhale the last of the air within him. She sobbed when his eyes remained opened and glazed. She pressed her forehead against him, closed her eyes tightly, and then began doing aloud what Maya Hansen had told she needed to do throughout the wait.

"10 Mississippi…"

Without needing to utter a word since her arrival, the couple's lips inevitably found each other, and they began slowly kissing. His left hand rested on the back of her neck, his right hand on the small of her back, and he pulled her body flush against his own. The ginger circled his neck and shoulders with her arms, tiptoed to better reach his lips and, a second after feeling this, her feet left the floor.

Next thing she knew, she was sitting on the vanity, with Tony standing between her slightly parted legs. His hands abandoned their current locations on her body to explore the rest of it, despite how many times he had previously mapped her curves with his pores. Just as with anything that merit learning, he would always discover something new that would set her off – something new that he enjoyed doing with her, or to her; no matter how many times before they had been together like this.

She bit on his lower lip, ran her tongue on his upper lip, and then took her mouth to his left earlobe. She nibbled on it both carefully and hungrily, all the while her hands began removing some of the fabric barriers between them. He did what he could for her clothes as well. He felt her lips trailing down from his ear to his neck, and he took the opportunity for his hands to slide under her blouse, up and down her chest a few times, and then unclasped her bra. Once the popping sound of the garment opening was heard, he wasted no time in removing both it, and her blouse, from her.

"9 Mississippi…"

"You're so quiet, Tony," she whispered in his ear and he felt a shiver of pleasure run down his spine. "Already bored at your own wedding, Mr. Stark?"

"Not at all, Mrs. Stark," he teased, loving the way the title rolled off his tongue. "Just wondering if we could ditch the rest of the party and go straight to the honeymoon."

Pepper pulled away from him, her mouth opened wide.

"Ditch the rest of the party? You mean ALL of the party, right? It hasn't even really started yet, Tony!"

"It hasn't," he feigned ignorance, a wide smile on his face. "Well this is taking forever, if you ask me. We've got a very comfortable bed that needs to see some use."

"Tony," she said with embarrassment, rested her forehead against his shoulder, and he chucked in response.

"8 Mississippi…"

Tony grabbed Pepper's left hand in his, and he slowly slid the ring onto her finger as he softly yet clearly said his part of the vows.

"I, Tony, give you, Pepper, this ring as an eternal symbol of my love and commitment to you."

As soon as Tony finished, Pepper mimicked his moves and also took his left hand in hers.

"I, Pepper, give you, Tony, this ring as an eternal symbol of my love and commitment to you."

The officiant smiled once the rings were in place, and he then turned to the crowd.

"And now, by the power vested in me, I hereby pronounce you: husband and wife. Anthony, you may kiss your bride."

"7 Mississippi…"

"Tony… what… uhm… I… I thought… my dad…"

He lightly shook his head at her and he held the left side of her face in his hand. His thumb lovingly stroked her cheekbone a couple of times, his eyes stared deeply into hers, and he then chanced a quick kiss on her lips that she did not return but did not stop either. He then pulled back from her face and, while still holding to her cheek, he used his free hand to touch the baby's clenched fist and rubbed the soft newborn skin.

His left hand then mimicked his right one, pulled her to him, and kissed her again, longer and deeper. She returned the kiss this time around, albeit with some hesitation, brought on by the shock of seeing him here when she had been sure he would never speak to her again. When the kiss ended, he wiped some of her tears with his thumbs, and as they stared into each other's eyes, he finally spoke.

"Are you two ready to come home, Pep? Place feels huge without you."

She bit her tongue to keep herself from weeping in happiness and relief, and instead gave him a nod and a smile.

"If you're ready to take us in… if this is really what you want, then yes. We're ready to come home with you."

Tony smiled at her, wiped away the rest of her, now happy, tears with his hands and then pressed their foreheads together, forcing them both to close their eyes.

"This is what I want, Pepper. This is what I've always wanted. It might have come to me sooner than expected, but it still is what I want."

"6 Mississippi…"

Despite the song being foreign to her and this being the first time she had ever heard of it, she became immediately aware that what the band was singing and what Tony was currently whispering in her ear were not the same words. At the start of the next set of lyrics, when he sung the first line, it appeared that his and the band's singing were going to match. However, when she realized that the final lyrics to the actual song only had three lines and he continued to sing even when the band was not doing so anymore, she became aware of the crucial moment that had finally arrived.

Give your heart and soul to me
And say you'll marry me
It's you, the one I want

Pepper's eyes filled with tears as she saw and felt him slide his palm back up to her hand, ring held tightly in between his fingers as he readied to slide it on the appropriate finger of her left hand. He then stared deeply into her eyes, still swaying them to the wordless tune of the melody, and continued singing his version of the song.

And if you want to marry me
Just go and say 'I do'
And let everyone know the one I love is you

"5 Mississippi…"

Knowing that the pancakes still had a few more minutes to fully cook, Pepper turned around and rested her arms on his shoulders and continued their dance. Tony's grip on her hips tightened and he took a step closer toward her to make their virtually tuneless dance work. After realizing he was having a difficult time following her lead without listening to the song, she took out one of the wireless earpieces from her ear and placed it in one of his. Tony immediately adjusted his movements to lead the redhead into a more graceful dance.

Within seconds, they were moving as one and ended up in the middle of the kitchen. With more room to move, Tony began twirling with the ginger only to force her to have to press herself against him even further to keep her balance and from falling on her butt. As the song was coming to an end, the inventor pressed the side of his face to hers before making them both twirl in fast spins. His left hand rested behind her back to keep her steady and his right arm shot up straight to the side with hers mirroring it. With every crazy spin he put them through, her fingernails dug deeper into his skin. When the song finally ended, he stopped their rotating motion, but he did not let go of her.

"4 Mississippi…"

"Is that the only reason why you wanted to tell me?" he probed.

"Is that the only reason why you kissed me?" she spat.

"I kissed you because I wanted to."

"Well, I was going to tell you because I wanted to, too!" she was beginning to shout now; the intensity he loved so much about her finally showing its face.

"I want to kiss you right now," he smirked.

"Well, I'm not sure I want you to kiss me right now," she said in a final attempt to save face but her tone and her eyes staring down at his lips betrayed her true feelings, giving him back his confidence and the final push he needed to make his next move.

"Well, tough luck," he said and he pressed his lips on hers. His kiss was soft and slow, both savoring every second of it while it lasted. When he finally pulled back it was not all the way; his face was still inches away from hers, and they were both breathing hard.

"3 Mississippi…"

"Can I just say one thing to you?"

"You could, but there's something I'd like to say to you first."

"Huh, another diversion, hey?"

She watched him nod, the start of a smile on his face. She feared he was going to reject her. Tell her that they were better off as friends. But he surprised her by placing his right hand on her lower back and planting a tender yet strong kiss to her left cheek.

"Oh, Tony," she managed to say before they both wrapped the other in a tight embrace, finally realizing that he felt for her the same way she felt for him.

"2 Mississippi…"

She almost choked on her sandwich when she saw him walk through the access door and towards the roof. She knew that he had joined the Tomorrow Academy today, had already shared a class with him in fact, but she had not expected to have a chance to meet him one-on-one just yet. He looked so lost and confused, his eyes fixed on something beyond the boundaries of the academy, and her interest was instantly piqued.

She silently watched him lose himself in whatever was crossing his mind, his shoulders slumping in defeat. She then followed the possible path his eyes were taking, and it was then she realized what he was staring at.

"Your dad used to work there," the words left her before she could stuff her mouth with enough food to not make a fool of herself.

"What?" he looked taken aback, obviously just now becoming aware that he was not alone on the roof.

"You're Tony Stark."

"1…"