Pepper made her way down the stairs to the workshop.

"Hey! Ow! Ah-ah-ah-ow!" Tony grunted. Scarlet found it funny that it was easy for him to get into the suit, but the reverse was taking a long time. Mechanical arms moved around Tony to unscrew and take the suit apart, but it was proved to be difficult when he kept moving too much.

"Sir, the more you struggle, the more this will hurt." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him.

Pepper got to the bottom of the steps and stood gaping through the place where the glass panes had once been.

Tony was having the Suit removed piece by piece, quite painfully too by the sound of it, by a larger robot than Dum-E or Butterfingers.

"Be gentle, it's my first time," Tony told his AI. "I designed this to come off, so - ow, hey! - I really should be able - ah -"

"Please try not to move," J.A.R.V.I.S. told him as Pepper came slowly into the room.

"What's going on here?" Pepper asked confused as she walked further into the lab and Tony turned only just realising that she had entered the room.

Tony's head turned at the sound of her voice. The arms of the bot paused. "Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing," he blurted out.

Scarlet rolled her eyes and hid her face in her hands. Pepper's eyes widened as she took in the pieces of the Suit. "Are those bullet holes?" she asked.

Pepper turned to Scarlet. "Why is he in that— that suit? And why are there bullet holes?"

"It's hard to stop a grown adult who's insisting on doing all of the dirty work himself," Scarlet calmly replied. "J.A.R.V.I.S. was tracking his location for me the whole time."

_________________________________________________________________

It was night in Afghanistan, and into the new Ten Rings camp a row of black SUVs came rolling up. Raza approached the foremost one with a couple of guards beside him.

Obadiah Stane stepped out of the back seat of the car, flanked by men of his own. He walked up to Raza. His eyes appraised the state of the camp.

Obadiah's eyes flickered to the side of Raza's head.

"Compliments of Tony Stark," Raza explained, pointing to the damage.

Obadiah's smile was wry. "Well, if you'd killed him when you were supposed to, you'd still have a face," he said. Collateral damage wasn't something that he was really interested as long as it didn't interfere with his plans.

Raza was clearly not happy. "You paid us trinkets to kill a prince," he warned, dangerously clearly not afraid of Obadiah. Or at least not afraid enough to be scared of standing up to him.

"Show me the weapon." Obadiah demanded ignoring his last statement.

Raza seemed to hesitate for a moment before deciding that Obadiah would get what he came for. "Come," Raza told him. "Leave your guards outside."

Obadiah held up his hand to the men behind him, and followed Raza. As the two leaders left, the guards stared each other down, clearly ready to go to blows if anything went wrong.

_________________________________________________________________

Obadiah stepped into a tent, and at once his eye fell upon the reconstituted Mk I which had probably taken the Ten Rings weeks to reassemble even with Tony's original plans. "His escape bore unexpected fruit," Raza informed Obadiah, coming in behind him and going around to a table at the side of the tent.

"So this is how he did it," Obadiah said admiring the suit, folding his arms as he walked forward to examine it more closely.

"This is only a first, crude effort," Raza informed him, looking around. "Stark has perfected his design. He has made a masterpiece of death. A man with a dozen of these could rule all of Asia." He looked shrewdly at the American. "And you dream of Stark's throne." Raza continued obviously thinking he had hit on something he thought would buy him a new deal with Obadiah Stane.

Obadiah, who had been pacing around the Suit all the while, turned and looked back at Raza, his face for once revealing nothing.

"We have a common enemy." Raza said coming forward, he wandered over to a table and sat down clearly becoming more relaxed now he had the possibility of making a deal. "We're still in business," he added, pouring some drink into a cup.

Obadiah was examining the circular hole in the middle of the chest of the Suit.

"And in turn," Raza said directly to Stane raising his cup. "And in return, I hope you'll repay me with a gift of iron soldiers." He held out the cup to Obadiah.

Obadiah smiled, and walked up to Raza. He put his hand on the back of Raza's shoulder, and there was a shrill, metallic, buzzing whine. Something bright blue glowed in each of his ears. A small object which had been hidden in his hand shone a red light at the back of Raza's head.

Raza's body stiffened. His olive skin paled visibly, and a network of spidery blue veins appeared on the side of his head and neck. He tried to move, his reddening eyes darting in panic, and at last looking up into Obadiah's still smiling face.

"This is the only gift you shall receive." Obadiah told him in Urdu before switching back to English. "Technology," Obadiah said in English, straightening and folding down the little device and taking the cup from Raza's frozen hand as he sat unmoving in the chair.

"It's always been your Achilles' heel in this part of the world." He pocketed the device and removed the blue things from his ears. "Don't worry," he added as Raza stared at him. "It'll only last for fifteen minutes." He passed his hand over Raza's head as he walked by. "That's the least of your problems."

_________________________________________________________________

Obadiah strode out of the tent. "Crate up the armor and the rest of it," he said to his guards as he walked to his SUV. "All right, let's finish up here." There was a noise of machine guns going off as he got into the car.

_________________________________________________________________

In the back seat of the car, Obadiah was on his cell phone. "Set up Sector 16 underneath the Arc Reactor," he said. "I'm going to want this data masked. Recruit our top engineers. I want a prototype right away."

_________________________________________________________________

It was as if the perfect opportunity arose when Scarlet and Tony discussed the need to get into Obadiah's office. Immediately, her mind drifted off the last conversation she had with Phil Coulson, and she knew this was her chance to get any sort of evidence on Obadiah.

Pepper swung the door of the workshop open to find Tony once again at work on the Mk III.

"Hey," he said as soon as he saw her. "You busy? Mind if I send you on an errand?"

Pepper's hands were on her hips as she walked up to one of Tony's work surfaces.

"I need you to go to my office," Tony went on. "You're going to hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests." He had walked over to the tabletop and now picked up a small jump drive, which he handed to Pepper. "It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they've put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading."

Pepper looked sharply at Tony. He had now walked away and was in front of his desktop computer, scrutinizing the design. "And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?" she asked.

"Same drill," Tony deadpanned probably sensing that Pepper was not going to be happy with this idea. "They've been dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them."

"Tony," Pepper said taking a deep breath before she continued. "You know that I would help you with anything, but -" Her face hardened. "- I cannot help you if you are going to start all of this again."

"There is nothing except this," Tony replied. "There is no art opening, there is no benefit, there is nothing to sign." He turned to her, and his face was grim. "There is the next mission, and nothing else." Tony moved so that he was looking Pepper dead in the eye.

"That so?" Pepper said sadly, looking keenly into his face. "Well then, I quit." She threw the jump drive down on the table, and she turned and walked away.

"You stood by my side all those years while I reaped the benefits of destruction," Tony retorted, making her stop and turn around in the doorway. "And now that I'm trying to protect the people that I put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?"

"You're going to kill yourself, Tony," Pepper retorted. "I'm not going to be a part of it." She shook her head.

"I shouldn't be alive," Tony deadpanned, turning away from Pepper and sitting down. "Unless it was for a reason. I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do." He looked back at her, his eyes full of conviction. "And I know in my heart that it's right."

Pepper was still staring at him. She blew out her breath in a long sigh. Then, after a moment, she came back to the table and picked up the jump drive. "You're all I have too, you know," she said.

Tony gazed after Pepper as she walked away.

_________________________________________________________________

A set of elevator doors opened, and Pepper stepped out of them. She looked cautiously around as she walked. All three of the assistant's offices were empty.

_________________________________________________________________

Pepper pushed open the door to Tony's office, slipped inside, and shut it behind her.

Pepper cast an uneasy glance over her shoulder as she walked to the desk (which was of course in the middle of the room right in front of the door) and sat down in front of the computer. She brushed the mouse, and the screen saver disappeared. A Stark Industries logo appeared on the screen, followed by a login and password box.

Pepper pulled the jump drive out of her purse and plugged it into the USB port.

A red warning box with the words 'Warning: Security Breach' appeared momentarily on the screen, blinking and blaring quietly. Then a box with lines of code appeared on the side, and in a moment the red box turned green and the words 'Access Granted' replaced the warning.

The jump drive brought Pepper straight to a ghost drive, just as Tony had predicted, and she clicked the latest file. It opened, and a pile of shipping manifest documents flashed onto the screen in quick succession. The next file back yielded much the same results. But the file after that brought up a number of images of the Mk I with the words 'Sector 16' on top of them.

"Sector 16?" Pepper murmured. "What are you up to, Obadiah?"

But the next file was even more damning. It was a video. Tony was slumped in a chair, surrounded by men with the Ten Rings insignia hanging behind them, half a dozen guns trained on him. A voice was speaking, and the words were not in English except for the name 'Tony Stark.'

Pepper clicked a box and typed "TRANSLATE" into it.

"You did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Tony Stark," came the translated words. "As you can see, Obadiah Stane,"

"Oh my god..." Pepper exclaimed suddenly confronted with the blatant fact that it had been Obadiah who had instigated Tony's kidnapping.

"Your deception and lies will cost you dearly." The spokesman continued." The price to kill Tony Stark has just gone up."

Pepper, seemingly unable to watch anymore of the video, initiated the process of copying all of the files that were on the ghost drive over to the drive that Tony had given her so he and Scarlet could see them.

"So," Obadiah said from the doorway, shocking Pepper so much that she visibly jumped. "What are we going to do about this?" Obadiah asked as Pepper sat in front of the computer, files copying away.

Pepper watched as Obadiah walked to a small side table on which sat a glass bottle with whiskey in it and a few drinking glasses. He picked one up and poured himself a drink.

"I know what you're going through Pepper," Obadiah told her as Pepper glanced nervously at the screen that still showed that the files were being copied over. Obadiah took a deep breath before taking a sniff of the scotch. "Ah Tony. He always gets the good stuff, doesn't he?"

Pepper just smiled and nodded, and when Obadiah looked down for a moment she picked up the paper, which was lying beside the computer, and slid the edge over the jump drive.

Obadiah poured a second glass, picked it up, and came around the desk. Pepper's hand was on the mouse. The last of the files copied. She hovered the mouse over the top of the screen and clicked 'Screen Saver' as Obadiah came and stood behind her.

Obadiah, standing so close to Pepper that he was almost touching her. "It was like we got him back from the dead." He moved around and sat down on the desk beside her. "Now I realize - well - Tony never really did come home, did he?"

"He left a part of himself in that cave." Obadiah's eyes flickered to the screen saver. "Breaks my heart."

"Well," Pepper said as he looked back up at her. "He's a complicated person." Obadiah took a sip from his glass.

"He's been through a lot," Pepper went on. "I think he'll be all right."

Obadiah looked over the woman in front of the computer. "You," he said. "are a very rare woman. Tony doesn't know how lucky he is."

Pepper looked down and tried to smile bashfully. "Thank you," she said. "Thanks. I'd better get back there." She got up, taking the paper and unplugging the jump drive in the process, and walked toward the door.

"Is that today's paper?" Obadiah asked, pulling Pepper up short.

"Yes," Pepper replied, turning around with a smile.

"D'you mind?" Obadiah asked, coming up to her.

"Not at all," Pepper responded, handing it back to him. Her hand curled as he took it.

"Puzzle," he said, matching her smile.

"Of course," Pepper answered, and she turned and walked through the open door.

"Take care," Obadiah told her as she left.

She looked back briefly at him standing in the middle of the office. She glanced down at the jump drive in her hand as she went.

As soon as she was out of sight, Obadiah slammed the paper down on his desk and brushed his hand over the mouse. The screen saver vanished, and up came the desktop with a box in the middle. The box showed the number 100, and the words 'Download Complete.'

Obadiah ran his hands over his head, and practically leapt to his feet.

_________________________________________________________________

Pepper made her way down the stairs, clutching her purse.

"Ms. Potts?" A voice asked from in front of her.

"We had an appointment," Coulson added as she came clicking up to him. "Did you forget about our appointment?"

"Nope, right now," Pepper informed him. "Come with me."

"Right now?" Coulson questioned, getting up.

"We're going to have it right now," Pepper replied. "Yep, walk with me."

"Okay," Coulson said springing from his seat and following Piper obviously wondering what was so urgent, suddenly finding himself nearly running to keep up with her (he was not a tall man, and his legs were short).

Pepper glanced up and behind her. "I'll give you the meeting of your life," she said as she and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent passed out of view. "Your office."

Behind and above them, Obadiah Stane stood watching. 

_________________________________________________________________

Next moment Obadiah Stane strode into what could only be Sector 16. A group of men in white lab coats were hovering around a station on the bottom of the great Arc Reactor, one of them on the phone. "Yeah, we've been working our best to do it," he said. "Absolutely, and we're -" The door slammed and he looked up to see Obadiah walking up. "I'm going to have to call you back," he said, and hung up the phone.

All the assistants fled, leaving the one who'd been talking on the phone to face Obadiah. "Ah, Mr. Stane, sir," he said. "Ah, we've explored what you've asked us to, and it seems as though there's a little hiccup - actually, ah -"

"Hiccup?" Obadiah asked looming dangerously over the unfortunate man.

"Yes." William, the scientist said nervously, not sure how Obadiah would take the news that something obviously wasn't going well. "To power the Suit. Sir, the technology actually doesn't exist, so it's -"

Obadiah cut him off. "Wait, wait, wait, the technology?" Obadiah's arm went around the smaller man's shoulders and his head came down till his face was about an inch away from the other's. "William, here is the technology," he said, gesturing with his other arm to the Arc Reactor in front of them. "I've asked you to simply make it smaller."

"Okay, sir," William said quickly trying to get through to Obadiah. "And that's what we're trying to do, but honestly, it's impossible."

Obadiah came just short of strangling the man. "TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE!" He thundered, poking William's chest with his finger. "WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!"

"Well, I'm sorry." William said trying to placate Obadiah. "I'm not Tony Stark."

_________________________________________________________________

Back at the Malibu mansion, Tony walked into his lounge just as his cell phone rang. He looked around, and then picked it up. It was Pepper.

He flipped open the phone and put it to his ear. "Tony?" came Pepper's voice through it, and at the same instant a high, buzzing whine sounded in the room as a small device appeared beside his head.

Obadiah pulled the phone out of Tony's hand and hung it up. He eased Tony's head onto the back of the couch. "Breathe," he crooned. "Easy, easy."

Tony's reddening eyes followed Obadiah's hand as he tried to keep breathing. Obadiah held up the little device before his eyes. "You remember this one, right?" he said as he clicked it off. "It's a shame the government didn't approve. There are so many applications for causing short-term paralysis."

Obadiah got up and came round the couch. He pulled Tony's head around so that he was looking straight up into his face.

"Ah, Tony," Obadiah said as he began to pull the little blue plugs from his ears. "When I, ah, ordered the hit on you -" Tony's eyes widened even further while Obadiah briefly leaned aside and reached into a bag for a tool. "I worried that I was killing the golden goose."

Obadiah put the tool over Tony's shirt where the Arc Reactor clearly glowed through the fabric. "But you see, it was just fate that you survived then." He punched the handle, and the tool poked through Tony's shirt straight to the Arc Reactor underneath. Tony gasped and choked as the Arc Reactor was pulled from its socket. "You had one last golden egg to give," he finished, his face lit up in the Arc Reactor's glow. He leaned forward over Tony, the short cable dangling into the socket.

"Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?" Obadiah asked Tony.

Scarlet stepped out of the darkness. "Of course, an idea belongs to him!" Her lips started to pull up in that wicked, devilish smirk, that always made a chill run down the back of Tony's spine. To some people it might have looked like she was trying to do a sexy crooked smile, but Tony knew better. The way her mouth slowly moved upward, making lines where is mouth and cheek connected. "He doesn't have to share all his ideas with the world!" With a flash of burnt orange, black oozed out of her pupils and coated the entirety of her eyes until they shone with darkness.

With an ominous whoosh, Scarlet's wings flared out, arching high over her head in an impressive display of anger sending out a wave of emerald green energy.

"Thanks," Tony choked out, surprised at her reaction.

"Your father - he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?" Obadiah asked Tony.

Scarlet's teeth crunched together. "Despite his faults, Tony isn't as selfish as you believe him to be! Why would he share an idea with the world that is keeping him alive? Anyone could find a weakness if he did, putting Stark in danger!"

Then, with a jerk, Obadiah yanked the cable up, the magnet dangling at the end of it.

The thief held up the glowing marvel before the eyes of its creator. "Oh, it's beautiful!" Obadiah breathed, turning it over in his hand. "Oh, Tony - this is your Ninth Symphony." He sat down beside Tony, still holding the Arc Reactor aloft. "Oh, what a masterpiece!" he jeered. "Look at that! This is your legacy! A new generation of weapons, with this at its heart!"

Scarlet was growling, a low rumble like the thunder that comes when the storm is far away.

Tony choked and gasped, blood leaking from the ear, his body clearly fighting to keep him alive.

"Weapons that will help steer the world back on course," Obadiah continued, his face so close to Tony's that he could feel Obadiah's breath on his face. "Put the balance of power in our hands - the right hands."

Obadiah leaned over and stowed the Arc Reactor away in a small case. "I wish you could see my prototype," he said, smiling down at the genius. "It's not as. . . conservative. . .as yours. Too bad you had to involve Pepper in this. I would've preferred that she lived. . ."

That was the last straw for Scarlet. "Oh no, you don't!" She roared. "If you dare -"

Tony's eyes slid over toward the older man as he got up and walked away, his black case held in his left hand.