IRON RESOLVE

Life came at you fast. If there was one thing 2008 had taught Pepper Potts so far, it was that simple fact. At the start of the year, she'd lost her boss to terrorists and it hadn't been certain whether she would get him back, whether Stark Industries would survive without him, or whether she would even have a job by the time it was all over.

Then, three months later, he'd been recovered and suddenly everything was moving at lightning speed. Pepper found herself entering a relationship with Tony Stark, falling even more madly in love with the man than she ever had been before, and ultimately conspiring with him to seduce a woman to their bed so they could have their way with her together.

Funny, two hours ago Pepper's greatest priority had been trying to figure out how to seduce the OTHER woman in their life into Tony's bed. Tony might not want to make a move on Helen Cho without seeing some very clear signals from the South Korean Scientist, but frankly Pepper already felt like they were there. He was just too busy to really notice them. She fully believed she could get Helen to join their strange bedroom dynamic, adding a third woman to Tony's stable and potentially exhausting the now-superhuman billionaire that she was dating.

But then, two hours ago, Tony had come to her and asked her to come with him. He'd brought her to this room, which Pepper was now realizing was probably the most secure room that Tony had available… and he'd begun telling her things. There were videos. There were files. There were records of illicit activities. There were reams and reams of evidence. But even still, the things he told her were… hard for Pepper to swallow.

"So… so you killed Stane and Killian because… because you had visions of the future that let you know they would be dangerous? I still don't fully understand, Tony. Why not just expose them to the proper authorities so that they could be arrested?"

Tony just sighs, looking as exhausted as Pepper feels. This reveal hasn't been good for either of them and part of Pepper almost wishes he'd kept it all a secret from her. But at the same time… the far larger part already feels betrayed as it is. And like she doesn't even know the man in front of her anymore.

"Not just because of what I know they would have done in the future Pep. I showed you the videos. Stane was the one who had the Ten Rings take me in the first place. You saw their ransom video from his servers."

Pepper winces but nods. Yes, she'd seen the video. It made things abundantly clear. If Stane had his way, they would have assassinated Tony right at the military convoy rather than kidnapping him. But the terrorists had double-crossed him… trying to extort Stane for more money while also trying to force Tony to make them weapons. They'd tried to have their cake and eat it too, and it had blown up in their faces.

She was well aware that Tony hadn't just killed Aldritch Killian and Obadiah Stane. That he ' d also killed dozens if not hundreds of terrorists when he'd gone over to Afghanistan and destroyed every single trace of the Ten Rings in the region. Tony hadn't held anything back. He'd shown her that too. And yet… she couldn't bring herself to care about those killings. Maybe because that felt more like war? But Stane and Killian…

"As for Killian, I showed you his human trials. I showed you his future plans. He would have gone on to blow up many more people just to perfect Extremis. I put a stop to that. And we developed Extremis humanely, with Helen Cho's help and my future knowledge."

Again, Pepper is forced to concede that point. The work that Killian had been doing behind Maya's back was revolting. It was as blood-curdling as it was stomach-churning. Pepper hoped that the biologist never had to find out, truth be told. What Killian had been doing in the name of progress was chilling. Still… killing him and making it look like a suicide? Pepper just looks at Tony, still waiting for an answer to her original question. Luckily, he's already gathering himself to give it.

" As for why I didn ' t report either man to the proper authorities to let them take care of it… it's because I can't trust anyone, Pepper. Nobody but you and JARVIS. If I'd told the federal government about Stane's under the table dealing, what do you think would have happened?"

Pepper furrows her brow… but only for a moment. She's not stupid and her eyes widen in understanding as she plays out the scenario in her head.

"They would have put the entirety of Stark Industries under audit. They would have crippled us, if not tried to semi-nationalize us outright." Tony points a finger at her.

"Got it in one, Pep. And maybe that's what should have happened. Maybe in a just world, my father 's company doesn't deserve to continue existing. If that was all I could have expected, I might have gone that route and washed my hands of the whole thing. Started a new company, free of the rot, taken you and the other important people with me… and just put it all out of my mind. But I couldn't, because they would have wanted more. They would have wanted to know how I knew about Stane."

At first Pepper thinks he's talking about the fact that he's apparently seen the future. But then Tony gestures overhead and says six words that chill Pepper to the bone.

"They would have come for JARVIS."

… Of course. That was another thing in a long list of insane things that Pepper had learned in the past two hours. JARVIS wasn't just an advanced user interface for Tony's properties. He was a full fledged Artificial Intelligence, like something straight out of Science Fiction. And as Tony had told her near the start, the first thing the man had done after returning from Afghanistan was to make JARVIS a hundred times more powerful.

Now… Pepper wasn't too afraid of JARVIS. The basic idea of a Super AI certainly unsettled her, but JARVIS himself was not someone Pepper really feared. And she'd realized after the reveal that even without knowing what JARVIS really was, she'd been thinking of the AI as his own independent being for a while now anyways. It was the easiest part of this all to stomach, truth be told.

Sensing he'd gotten his point across there, Tony grimaces.

"As for Killian, AIM, and Extremis… I'll admit that one was a little bit more selfish. I could have anonymously tipped off the authorities to what Killian was doing in a way that would have never been traced back to me. However, it would have destroyed AIM. And it would have left Maya and her Extremis Research in the wind, to be picked up by unscrupulous actors just as bad as Killian. By… taking matters into my own hands, I stopped that from happening. And I brought Maya and Extremis to us instead."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for choosing this novel, visit us

And access the complete novel in PDF format : ko-fi.com/abrahamsmith1b