When had it come to this?
“Tony!”
Rhodey’s shout made him look over the destroyed entryway. Seeing that his friend, who had hurried back to the army due to the mess with Ultron, had flown over immediately, he felt a bit better. He was drunk. His skull was stuffed with cotton and he was not in his right mind at the moment. He would need the help for when he went to rescue Pepper.
“Any news?”
Tony shook his head. He’d been waiting for Happy to bring up the footage from the executive floor. He hadn’t even tried to hack through the system. Ultron had built a wall too high for him to climb in so little time.
“I thought you were busy with the military.” he said, his voice sounding just fine, normal. Too normal. He didn’t understand why he wasn’t panicking. He felt dead. His body felt dead. Was it the alcohol?
“Pepper’s in trouble.” Rhodey said, and that was explanation enough.
What a nice way to put it, though. Pepper’s in trouble. Like Pepper got stuck in the elevator waiting for the firefighters. Like she is just locked in her office because the handle broke, and they have to wait for the locksmith. Like she is fine.
Thanks, he wanted to say, but it died in his throat. Thanks what? Thank you for being here supporting your s***-faced friend while your other friend is god-knows-where? Thank you for helping me save my kidnapped girlfriend from the clutches of my insane, semi-brainwashed AI child?
He said nothing.
“Mr. Stark!” one of the security guys called to him. SHIELD wasn’t here yet, and the cops certainly weren’t getting any place near here, so he had let the trained SI Security tackle the crime scene. The crime scene. In Pepper’s office. F***.
He was about to see what the employee who had beckoned him over wanted to say, when the elevator bell ringed, doors opening to reveal his teammates. That was fast. Why didn’t security call him to let him know the Avengers had entered the building?
He walked to greet Rogers, Romanov, Barton and Bruce as broken glass hissed under his feet. Oh, right. Security was stuck on the executive floor due to a Code Red, so the guys on the first floor probably thought the Avengers were needed over ASAP. Tony held an irrational desire to giggle. He still felt dead.
“Stark!” Steve called. “What’s going on? Was Ultron here?”
Was Ultron here? Yes, Ultron was f****** here. 2 hours ago. Bambi —the poor woman had been understandably shocked— had dutifully reported that a man by the name of James S. Ultron had an appointment with Ms. Potts right before things went nuts.
“We think so.” he said instead.
Romanov, the good little spy that she was, took one look at him and asked:
“Where’s Potts?”
I don’t know, he wanted to say.
He didn’t.
“Oh, man.” Barton said, as he probably realized what happened. His sounded genuinely sympathetic, something that made sense now that they knew he had a family tucked in somewhere in the countryside.
“Did Ultron take her?” Bruce asked, honestly concerned for her. He was always like that when it came to innocent, uninvolved people.
“Tony,” Rogers started, “we’ll save her. Don’t—.”
“Not now.” Tony said. “I’m not in the mood for optimism now.”
“What are you in the mood for then?” Romanov asked.
“Facts.” He answered. “I am in the mood for facts.”
She nodded as if that made perfect sense. It didn’t make perfect sense. In fact, it didn’t make any sense. In his head.
“Where’s JARVIS?” Rhodey asked, and a stab of guilt made Tony wince.
Certainly, the spies of their little assemble didn’t miss that. Neither did his old friend.
“Outside. Patrolling. Trying to find Ultron.” he said.
Trying to stay out of my sight, as I asked, he didn’t say.
Rhodey frowned but didn’t ask. “I’ll call him over. Ultron’s probably long gone. He might be of more help here.” He then put on his suit and flew across the office and out of the floor-length window that Ultron had broken in his escape.
“Mr. Stark, I have something for you to see.” the man who had called him before said. This time, he was holding a sheet of paper encased inside a zipped plastic bag. “We found this paper inside a folder hidden under the CEO’s table.” he said and passed it over.
Tony nodded at the man and held the plastic carefully. Maybe Pepper had left something for him to find? Pepper was always so clever.
Tony looked at it. He recognized it. Although he had distanced himself from the company affairs, he was still chairman. And Pepper often spoke to him about her work. This was a provisional data report for the first quarter of this fiscal year. It would have been utterly boring and useless if it weren’t for the hasty and somewhat ink-smudged message written on top. It was Pepper’s handwriting.
Unnoticed by him, the team had gathered around him and were all looking at the same message.
[Cassandra was right. They have Helenus.]
They stared incomprehensibly ahead at the paper. Tony found he could finally feel sick again. His armor smelled of puke. He had had to stop and vomit during the flight. His clothes were stuck to his skin due to sweat and his head hurt like someone had taken a hammer to it. He felt sick. He felt alive. He could breathe again.
“What does that even mean?” Rhodey asked first. Tony hadn’t even heard his friend walk over. JARVIS was standing right behind his friend. Tony met the android’s AI, wanting to somehow apologize, yet not knowing how. Not without talking at length about had happened between them. Not without breaking in fits. He tore his gaze away. They didn’t have the time for that. Pepper needed him. He stared at the message again. Ultron needed him too.
“It’s a code, obviously.” Barton said, sounding insufferable.
“Yes, but what does the code mean?” Rhodey repeated.
“It’s a very specific message.” Romanov started. “We probably can’t decode it. It is meant for a specific audience. Only they would be able to understand it. For others, it might as well be useless.” she explained, whilst staring suspiciously at Tony. She obviously had guessed he was the intended audience. This was Virginia “Pepper” Potts’s message, after all.
Tony made a confused face for a moment, before shrugging.
“I don’t know. Can’t think of anything.”
“Well, think again.” Barton said. Tony’s lack of effort toward retrieving his girlfriend, probably offending the man and his strong sense of familial duty.
Tony crossed his arms. He didn’t really have an excuse, and they were right to suspect him. “I have. This is my girlfriend who has been kidnapped, Legolas.”
“What about the names?” Rogers interrupted the fight before it could start. “Do you recognize them? Anyone you know named Cassandra?”
“While Sir is acquainted with a Miss Cassandra Moore, it is unlikely that a model Mr. Stark met at a charity event 9 years ago is relevant to Ms. Potts’ message.” JARVIS intervened, likely guessing that his creator was hiding something for a reason. “It is far more likely that Ms. Potts is making a reference to the characters of Cassandra and Helenus, two Trojan royals from Homer’s Iliad.”
Seeing the question marks on some of his teammates’ faces, Bruce explained.
“Cassandra was a prophetess who was cursed by the gods to never be believed by others. As such, even though she predicted the fall of Troy, the Trojans ignored her warnings and thought her to be insane.” he said. “Helenus was her brother, if I’m not mistaken.”
“He was also a prophet.” Tony added. Seeing the team’s incredulous looks directed at him, he continued, somewhat defensively. “What? I read.”
“Ancient Greek literature?” Romanov asked, eyebrow raised in disbelief.
“What can I say? I have sophisticated tastes.” he said.
“You don’t actually expect us to believe that, do you?”
Tony would say that their disbelief hurt, but it would be utterly untrue. He had called all literature quite a few nasty names in their presence before.
“Ok, ok.” Tony surrendered. “Pepper reads. I listen to her talk about it.”
“And you still don’t know what it means?” Barton asked.
“Look,” he said. “I am a genius, not an idiot. I understand this message is a warning of some kind, but I don’t know what and I don’t care to know. Not yet. Not now. I don’t see how it is relevant to Pepper’s kidnapping. It certainly won’t tell me how she is, nor will it tell me the location of Ultron’s hideout!” he ended up raising his voice near the end. He calmed himself before looking at the two spies. “Satisfied?”
Romanov nodded, nothing on her face like usual, while Barton looked guilty for presuming he didn’t care given Tony’s attitude.
Rogers, at least, looked ready to ask more questions, before they heard FRIDAY’s voice speak through his armor’s audio.
“Boss?”
“What is it, FRI?” he asked.
“There are reports of robots flying unauthorized in Nepal’s airspace.”
“Is Ultron among them?”
“I will have to hack into the nearest satellite, before I can confirm that.”
Tony looked at his teammates, who certainly didn’t appear to be backing down anytime soon, Fury’s and the Council’s orders be damned.
“It’s fine, FRIDAY. We’ll fly over anyway. Let us know when you have more.”
“Right to it, Boss.”
Rogers addressed those who could fly after the his girl finished.
“It has to be Ultron. We cannot let him go this time. Will you come with us on the jet or—?”
“I’ll be staying here.” Romanov interrupted.
“Nat?” Barton said, surprised.
She shrugged and it was so natural that Tony immediately became suspicious.
“I cannot fight in the air. It won’t make much of a change if I go with you. Clint can fly you and fight with the jet at least. I will be more useful here.”
It all sounded very logical, except for the fact that this was not their first time, they weren’t newbies, and it was quite easy for a fight in the air to end up in the ground after a few explosions.
Rogers nodded, convinced.
“What’s your plan then?”
In lieu of answering, Romanov addressed Tony.
“Were there any witnesses?”
JARVIS nodded in his place. “Ms. Arbogast and Mr. Singh are resting in the office down the hall right now.”
“I’ll see what they have to say. Good luck.” she said and left, no one stopping her with explanations that others had interrogated them about it before her arrival. She was skilled, she could notice something others missed.
“And you?” Rogers continued his earlier question.
“I have to make a stop at the Malibu mansion and change suits before I fly over.” Tony said. “I’ll probably arrive before the jet in a lighter suit.”
Rhodey looked at Tony, probably wanting to call b******* on him, before looking at JARVIS and then back at the Captain. “We’ll fly. We can reach Nepal sooner, however little time that might be.”
“Good.” Rogers agreed. “But do not engage Ultron on your own. We’ll need to work together on this.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Tony said, along a two-fingered salute before putting on his helmet and flying through the window. JARVIS and War Machine after him.
Barely in flight, JARVIS immediately opened a three-way call line.
Rhodey’s voice was exasperated as he spoke.
“Now you want to tell us about Pepper’s message?”
Tony chuckled guiltily. “Something tells me you knew I was hiding something.”
“No s***, Sherlock. Explain now. Is Pepper safe?”
He set course for Malibu, letting FRIDAY fly the suit.
He wasn’t sure how to explain his relief and worry, so he settled for, “Yes and no.”
“Tony—,” Rhodey started.
“I’m—I’m not kidding here. Pepper is alive. Fine. Probably. But I don’t know for how long.”
“Sir,” JARVIS spoke, sounding hesitant. Hating the uncertainty in the android’s voice, Tony vowed to himself to speak with JARVIS again as soon as they saved Pepper. “I took the initiative to contact Mr. Hogan during this time. He has sent the footage of the hallway cameras and those covering the outside of the building. Would you like to view them now?”
“Yes, put them up.”
Immediately, they saw the image of a white-blonde man entering Pepper’s office after checking with the secretary. JARVIS speeded through Pepper’s entrance until…
“Holy s***!” Rhodey cursed.
They had just seen Ultron fly— no, be thrown through a wall (judging by the sound) and then the office door, until finally, he crashed into the hallway walls, cracking their surface.
“Damn. Was Thor waiting in the office, too?” his friend continued.
“Nope, Pepper was.” Tony said, as he finally had evidence for his theory. It was still good to see proof that Pepper was fine.
And that she lied to him. Repeatedly. For years.
Nope, he wasn’t thinking about that. Repress. Repress. Repress.
She was alive. Pepper was alive. That was all that mattered.
JARVIS sped through the footage again. They finally saw Ultron leave the building via window with Pepper in his arms.
Tony noted only one thing: She wasn’t on fire. But her skin was glowing somewhat orange.
The evidence kept piling up.
“Pepper can’t do that, can she? She isn’t hiding a suit you made for her in her office, right?” Rhodey asked, seeming uncertain of the answer.
“No suit, for now.” Tony said. He had plans about that, but nothing in the works yet.
“You are telling me Pepper just punched Ultron through the wall.” Rhodey continued, in sheer denial.
“We do not know whether it was a punch or kick, Mr. Rhodes.” JARVIS added, oh-so-helpfully.
Tony smiled at those words. “She couldn’t do that until three years ago.” he hinted to his friend.
“Three years… Oh! Extremis!” Rhodey realized before asking. “But didn’t you make a cure?”
“I did. Or so I thought, at least.”
“The cure didn’t work.” the man continued. “And neither of you told me?”
Tony didn’t answer. He hadn’t had anything to tell. The silence quickly became uncomfortable.
“Mr. Stark wasn’t informed of this either.” JARVIS explained.
“Tony, she…” Rhodey started but said nothing in the end.
“She’s alive.” Tony said.
“Of course she is. Why would Ultron hurt her?” Rhodey said.
“Before the message, before the footage, I spoke with Bambi, Pepper’s secretary.” Tony began. “She went into the office when she heard the noise. She said—” and Tony breathed, the mantra of —Pepper’s alive— keeping him from returning to the dread that had controlled him before, “She said Pepper was burned pretty badly and was still on fire. She didn’t recognize her first, when she left.”
Dual voices rang out at the not-so-well hidden tremor in his voice.
“Tony, man…”
“Sir…”
“I didn’t know it was Extremis back then. It didn’t even occur to me that it could be.” Tony continued before they could start comforting him. “I don’t care right now. Pepper’s alive. Anything else is… everything else.”
He excelled at compartmentalization, after all. All his psychologists over the years had said so at one point or the other. They hadn’t meant it as a compliment back then, but Tony sure thought it was one right now.
“And the message, Sir?” JARVIS asked.
“Pepper’s brilliant.” Tony said, admiration clear in his voice. He was always considered the genius in their relationship due to obvious reasons, but Pepper… Pepper hadn’t become the intelligent, powerful woman she was, without being something special in her own right. Their fields of expertise were simply different. “I have no idea how, but she managed to learn about Ultron’s plans somehow. She wrote what she could when she was alone.”
“That would be when Ulron was incapacitated in the hallway.” JARVIS inferred.
“Yes.” Tony said. “It’s the only time that makes sense. Which means she wasn’t on fire at the time because the paper the message was written on shows no signs of burning. Yet, Bambi saw her in flames.”
“So that is how you realized it was Extremis before you saw the footage.” Rhodey added. “You realized she could control the fire and probably set it herself.”
Tony hummed his agreement.
“I thought Pepper’s message meant something like [I am safe. Be back soon.] once I saw your attitude adjustment. Couldn’t figure out why you wanted to keep it a secret, though.”
“Attitude adjustment?” Tony repeated. “I wasn’t that obvious.”
“Tony, you went from a still corpse with all the personality of a rock, to the stupid, arrogant genius that you usually are.” Rhodey said.
Before Tony could contest the ‘stupid’ part of his statement, JARVIS said, “Ms. Romanov most certainly noticed as well. Mr. Barton too, but only Ms. Romanov seems to have decided to stay behind to investigate the cause for your behavior, Sir.”
Ah yes, that. The spy would most likely find out about Pepper’s Extremis in the same way as Tony. Could explain his ‘attitude adjustment’ from reading the message, too. After the mess with HYDRA, Tony wasn’t feeling enthused about SHIELD learning about Pepper’s condition.
“We’ll deal with that later.” he said as they landed in front of the rebuilt mansion.
“Wait, we’re really stopping here?” Rhodey said. “I thought that was an excuse you said to the others.”
“It was an excuse.” Tony said. “But I also do need another suit.” Stopping his friend from continuing with his questions, Tony addressed Friday. “FRI, can you check if Ultron’s code has been here? Just check, don’t go near it.”
“No, Boss. The mansion’s clean.” the AI said. “All servers are clear.”
“Great.” Tony said, before undressing his armor.
“Any explanations anytime soon?” Rhodey asked.
“I have a plan.” Tony said, as soon as he was unarmed, before leading them into the mansion.
