The explosion sounded behind her.
Bella kept running. She didn't know if it would kill him or not – although she wouldn't grieve his death.
Her feet pounded up a set of stairs.
She slammed into a body, sending her staggering down a few steps.
Tony grabbed her arm to steady her, then yelled in pain, drawing his hand back.
"Oh, Tony, I'm sorry! Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"
"It's okay, Izzy."
She glanced backwards. She couldn't see Killian, but the wreckage of the suit lay everywhere.
"Are you okay?" asked Tony.
"The Extremis healed everything."
Tony reached out and grabbed her hand, inspecting the fingers.
"Just like I thought. Extremis heals the bones, but it doesn't set them, so they heal wrong."
"You mean I'm going to have to have them rebroken and set so they can heal?"
"Yup."
Bella swallowed.
"I wouldn't worry about that just yet," snarled a voice behind them.
Bella turned to look at Aldrich Killian. "And how do you think you're going to kill me?" It wouldn't be impossible, but it very nearly was, unless he could somehow make her explode.
His face fell.
"We create our own demons, Killian. Like you said."
"But you can't kill me, either. Even if you would, which you wouldn't."
"Then it would appear we have a problem."
"Not really."
He reached out, grabbing Tony by the collar. "You didn't deserve her, Tony. I could make her perfect."
"You're right," said Tony. "I don't deserve Pepper. But here's where you're wrong. She's already perfect."
He made a motion at Bella with his fingers.
Something hit her in the chest, wrapping around her. She yelled in surprise and fired before she knew what she had done.
A beam of light hit Aldrich Killian in the chest, sending him flying backwards. He landed still on the steps, but below them.
Bella ran forward.
Killian looked up, his chest already healing itself into a mess of mangled flesh.
"Like I said. You always did rely on Stark for everything."
Bella walked toward him, regarding him coldly. "I think we've already established you as being a bit of a hypocrite as far as all that's concerned, Killian. Maya Hansen created Extremis, just as Tony created the Iron Man suit. Nothing wrong with teamwork – you've surely heard about what happened with the Avengers in New York? But I can handle myself. I've saved Tony on more than one occasion. I came up with the plan to escape from you. I survived being injected with Extremis – neither of which I had Tony to help me with."
Killian stared at her as she came forward, voice rising.
Then he lunged at her.
An arrow to the chest caused him to stumble back and fall off.
Agent Barton dropped down onto the steps above them.
Bella stared. "What are you –"
"What are you waiting for? Go get him!"
He'd be lying stunned at the bottom. If she ran down, his body would repair itself before she got to him.
Extremis worked quickly, right?
She jumped off the stairs.
For a moment, she plunged downward, only then realizing exactly what she'd just done. She screamed.
And then her feet hit the ground.
Bones snapped in her ankles and legs. Burning increased as they healed. She screamed in pain.
Killian was already on his feet, bloody arrow in hand.
"You spent all this time looking for the Mandarin, Izzy? Well, I'm right here. No more false faces. I AM THE MANDARIN –"
Anything else he was about to say was abruptly cut off by Bella firing the unibeam of the suit again. The unibeam hit him directly in the chest, sending him staggering backwards. Killian started to scream.
The arc reactor died. Bella didn't hesitate – she drove her fist into his face, twice, three times, hating to use too much force and fearing that she wasn't using enough – that he'd be able to repair himself before someone could restrain or sedate him. Was either of those even possible?
She drove her fist into his chest – not even breaking the skin, but still providing a lot of foce.
He coughed and looked at her strangely. Then he toppled over.
Bella stared at him for a moment.
She carefully prodded him with her foot. Nothing.
She cautiously reached out for his wrist, checking for a pulse.
Nothing.
She screamed.
Tony was there in a moment.
"What's wrong? What did you do?"
Her voice rose with every word and the words came out far too quickly. "I was trying to keep him under control and I hit him a couple times and then I hit him in the chest and he just looked at me funny and fell over and I think he's dead and I think I killed him!"
Barton appeared a moment later. He reached out cautiously, pressing his fingers into Killian's neck.
He straightened up and shook his head. "You're right, Bella. He's dead."