Bella stared at the final page of results. The black ink stood out starkly against the white, proclaiming the final news.
Extremis would have to remain in her system for at least five more years before it would be safe to stabilize it.
"Are you okay?" asked Tony.
She set down the folder and walked to the window, staring out at the ocean – the house had nearly been rebuilt.
The familiar glow of Tony's arc reactor was gone, forever. She had watched the doctors remove it. He'd done it for her and Pepper, she knew that. But that didn't mean she agreed with his decision.
He'd pitched the arc reactor off a cliff. Bella had later dove into the water with her suit and retrieved it.
This life was really the closest to normalcy she'd ever had. And now it was all falling out from underneath her.
Normalcy… not really the most accurate description, but she didn't know any better words for her life.
Tony wrapped an arm around her. "I'm sorry I couldn't fix it."
"Don't blame yourself. It's nobody's fault except for Aldrich Killian's, and he's gone."
They stared out at the water for a moment.
"Tony… I've made up my mind to accept the director's offer."
He pulled away, frowning. "What?"
She took a deep breath. "I know you wanted us to settle down, to be a family. And I want that too. I don't think we can. The world might be done with Iron Man, I don't know. But it's not done with Silver Shield. I know I was never your sidekick, but now it's different. You know why I chose the name Silver Shield. And now I've been asked to step into a role where I can serve best. How can I say no?"
He regarded her for a long moment. "You remember what happened with Loki… that could happen again. The director won't hesitate to lie to you and manipulate you. You know that."
"Yes. I'm willing to take that risk. He had the best in mind, the plan simply went wrong." She'd long ago forgiven him for putting her through that – how was he supposed to know that Loki would know what he did?
"You remember what happened after Vanko blew up Stark Expo – and you can't forget how you met Barton and Romanoff. She lied to both of us."
"She was doing her job."
"And you met Barton when he came through the window to attack you."
"Again, he thought Coulson was in trouble. He simply did his job. I spent enough time doing that, I can hardly judge them for it, can I?"
"How can you trust them after that?"
"I said nothing about trusting them, Tony."
There was a long silence.
"I thought you said you wouldn't develop weapons for them or anyone."
"I won't. I've made that very clear. They want me to help them deal with others who have superpowers."
The waves below them slammed against the rocks.
"Don't you ever want to be normal? Maybe even go to school or something?"
Bella snorted. "I doubt I'd fit into groups of anyone my own age. Enrolling myself in a school would probably go badly. And besides, normalcy is exactly something I'm good at."
"You could get better at it. Now that I've taken the arc reactor out –"
"That's what I wanted, this whole time. While I was looking for you. I wanted things back to normal. Tony, think about it. I was created to be different. I grew up building weapons for terrorists. And then met you and became a superhero." She'd never been sure how accurate the 'hero' bit was, that wasn't important at the moment. "I fought aliens in New York. I have superpowers now." That was what Extremis was, she guessed. "I don't think normal was ever an option for me."
"Are you sure this is what you want?"
She nodded. "I've been practically your sidekick ever since I woke up – no that I'm complaining. But that role's over. You might be done with being Iron Man, but I don't think the world's done with Silver Shield yet."
"I told you I'd support you if you wanted to take up that offer. Should have known I'd have to make good on that. But you're capable of making responsible decisions. Did you contact all the other Avengers first?"
She forced a laugh. "You're the first to hear my decision. I wanted to tell you before I contacted the director or anyone else."
"It'll be lonely around here without you."
"I don't know about that. Pepper will be around to keep you company."
"Tell Fury that if he doesn't let you off to come to the wedding, I will build another suit to fly to where ever he's brought you to and bring you back."
"I've already covered that, but I'll let him know. Just in case. What was the date you picked?"
"No day yet, but Pepper wants it sooner rather than later, so we said mid-April."
They stood in silence for several minutes.
"Come with me," said Tony.
She followed Tony to the place in the wall where his Iron Man suits had once been. The glass cases still stood, empty.
He pressed a button on the wall.
One case spun, revealing a new blue and silver suit.
"Since we never found the one Killian took and because your old one is an antique now."
The glass slid aside. Bella cautious stepped toward it.
The suit spread apart for her.
"It's coded to your DNA, and it can only be used by someone else if it receives verbal permission from you."
She stepped inside. The suit encased her.
The screen on the side displayed several new functions which she recognized from Tony's old suits.
"It has some functions from my old suits," he said. "It also monitors your body temperature and can cool the suit to help keep you from overheating. Call it a late Christmas present. Had a feeling you might take Fury up on his offer, so I figured I'd get one ready."
She wrapped both metal arms around him. "Tony… thank you. For everything."
And with that, she went to place a call to the director.
And that's it. It's been a while since I started, and it took a while to finish. This will be the last of this story. I hope everyone enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Bye!