Tony can't stay with the kid. The drones and Rhodey are still following him, and if he stays any longer, he only would put the kid in danger. He flies off, hoping the kid finds his parents.

Rhodey and the drones catch up to him. "You got multiples coming in on you," Rhodey says.

"Let's get this away from the Expo," Tony replies. He leads the drones as far away as he can get, under a bridge, over top of a parking lot.

"A pack just peeled off, they're heading back to the Expo," Rhodey says.

"Got it."

"I'm closing in on you! Ordnance coming in hot, Tony, watch it!" The suit begins firing rapidly, and Tony weaves around to dodge the shots, flying faster.

He flies higher, loops back to the Expo to pick up the drones that went back, then turns again. He flies over the long fountain outside the Expo. "Rhodey, you still locked on?"

"Yeah."

"Drop your socks and grab your Crocs," Tony says. "We're about to get wet on this ride."

He flies directly into the water, heading for the spinning globe sculpture — the nucleus from the city model, but real this time. "Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Rhodey shouts.

Tony flies faster, going into a hole in the sculpture. He turns abruptly before hitting the back of the continent of Africa. The drones, however, don't and crash straight into it, causing an explosion. Tony turns and flies away, Rhodey and a few drones still behind him.

"Sorry, buddy," Tony says. "Had to thin out the herd. What's your twenty?"

Rhodey's suit comes in directly above Tony, getting on top of him and sending them both crashing into the Oracle Biodome. They land in the a wide stream running through the middle of it, Tony a few feet away from Rhodey. Tony gets up and lunges at Rhodey, but Rhodey's suit grabs him and throws him to the ground, getting on top of him.

The gun fires like crazy, and Tony grabs the barrel, fighting to keep it away. "Tony-" Rhodey says.

Suddenly, the suit shuts down, and the force that Tony was pushing with causes them both to go flying upwards, Rhodey flipping off of Tony and landing about ten feet away. Tony manages to land on his feet.

Suddenly, he hears Natasha's voice coming through his suit. "Reboot complete. You got your best friend back."

"Thank you very much, Agent Romanoff," Tony replies.

"Well done on the new chest piece," she says. "I am reading significant higher output and your vitals all look promising."

"Yes, for the moment, I'm not dying. Thank you."

Then, surprisingly, he hears Pepper's voice. She sounds shocked and concerned. "What do you mean you're not dying — did you just say you're dying?"

"Is that you?" Tony asks, unable to keep the smile off his face. "No, I'm not. Not anymore."

"What's going on-?!"

"I was going to tell you-"

"You were going to tell me-!"

"I didn't want to alarm you-"

"You really were dying-?"

"You didn't let me-"

"Why didn't you tell me that-?"

"I was gonna make you an omelette and tell you-"

"Did Grace know?"

"No, of course not."

Pepper gasps. "Where is she?"

"With Happy," Tony replies.

"Well, then, at least he had a good reason for not being there when I needed him," Natasha says. "I had to steal someone's car to get to Hammer Industries."

"You're at Hammer Industries?" Tony asks.

"Where are you-?" Pepper starts, but then Natasha cuts her off.

"You got incoming Tony. Looks like the fight's coming to you."

"Great," Tony says. "Pepper-"

"Are you okay now?" she asks.

"I am fine," he replies. "Don't be mad-"

"I am mad-!"

"I will formally apologize when I'm not fending off a Hammeroid attack."

"Fine. I'll call Happy and check on Grace."

"Yes, great, good idea. Tell her I love her, okay?"

"Okay."

He pops his helmet up as he walks over to Rhodey. The suit is still down, so Tony taps on Rhodey's helmet. "Rhodes? Snap out of it, buddy." The system begins restarting. "Come on, let's roll. Get up."

Rhodey's helmet pops up. "You can have your suit back."

Tony laughs, helping him up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, thanks." He sighs. "Tony, look, I'm sorry, okay?"

"Don't be."

"No, I should have trusted you more."

"I'm the one who put you in this position. Forget it."

"No, it's your fault, I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

"Thank you. That's all I wanted to hear... Partner." He gestures to the opening they made in the dome. "They're coming in hot, any second. What's the play?"

"Well, we want to take the high ground, okay? So let's put the biggest gun up on that ridge." He points to it.

"Gotcha," Tony says, walking next to Rhodey, both heading towards the ridge. "Where do you want to be?"

"Where are you going?" Rhodey asks, stopping.

"What're you talking about?"

"I meant me."

"You have a big gun. You are not the big gun."

"Tony, don't be jealous."

"No, it's subtle, all the bells and whistles."

"Yeah, it's called being-"

"Fine," Tony says. "Fine. You go up top. I'll draw them in."

"Well, don't stay down here. This is the worst place to be," Rhodey says.

"Okay, you got a spot. Where's mine?"

Rhodey walks back over to Tony. "It's the kill box, Tony. Okay? This is where you go to die."

They hear a blasting noise, then a drone lands on the ridge. Another lands next to them, then another a little farther away. Then, another, and another, and another. They just keep coming, surrounding them.

They're in the middle of the kill box.

They both snap their helmets down, and then the fighting begins.

Drones run at them, firing off round after round. Rhodey and Tony blast them back, dodging bullets. When they get close enough, they punch and kick them away. One fires a rocket at Tony, who dodges and fires three back, destroying three of them at once.

"See that?" Tony says.

"Yeah, yeah, nice," Rhodey replies, not an ounce of sarcasm in his voice.

The continue firing, but there's too many of them. They just keep coming. Tony gets an idea. "Rhodey, get down!"

Rhodey barely has time to duck before powerful lasers come out each of Tony's hands. He spins, cutting the drones and multiple trees down. Rhodey stands. "I think you should lead with that next time."

"Yeah, sorry, boss, I can only use it once," Tony replies.

Natasha has been listening the whole time, still connected to Tony's suit. "Heads up: You got one more drone incoming. This one looks different. The repulsor signature is significantly higher."

Not a second later, the drone lands directly in front of them. It's giant — much bigger than all the other ones. The helmet raises, revealing Ivan Vanko. He smiles. "Good to be back."

"Oh, this ain't gonna be good," Rhodey says. Ivan's suit begins powering up, then electric whips burst from the hands, ten times more powerful than the ones he fought Tony with in Monaco. Rhodey steps forward. "I got something special for this guy. I'm gonna bust his bunker with the Ex-Wife."

"The what?" Tony asks.

A compartment on the shoulder of Rhodey's suit opens, revealing a missile. It charges, then fires with enough power to blow up a skyscraper.

It bounces off Ivan's suit and lands in the water, fizzing out.

"Hammertech?" Tony says.

The compartment closes. "Yeah."

"I got this," Tony says. His targeting system locks onto Ivan, then fires about twenty small missiles at him. He closes his helmet just in time, and they all bounce off.

Ivan cracks his whips against the ground, then swings one down, splitting Tony and Rhodey apart as they jump back. Rhodey fires at him, but Ivan cuts the gun on his shoulder clean through with a whip. He turns to Tony.

Tony flies up, trying to get out of his whips' reach, but Ivan catches him around the waist with one and throws him back against a rock. Rhodey continues to fire at him. While Ivan's distracted, Tony charges and flies at him with all he's got.

Ivan notices and turns, stepping out of the way. Tony shoots off into the sky. Ivan wraps a whip around the neck of Rhodey's suit and pulls him forward. Tony comes back and resorts to hand-to-hand, punching Ivan. Ivan heads butts him and wraps a whip around him. His suit starts to go haywire. Rhodey fires at Ivan from the ground, but Ivan walks over to him and grabs him. Tony tries to run the other way, but it's no use. Ivan wraps the other whip around Rhodey.

They struggle, then Tony shouts, "Rhodes! I got an idea. You want to be a hero?"

"What?!" Rhodey asks.

"I need a sidekick," Tony says, trying to get him to understand without Ivan figuring out what he's planning to do. "Put your hand up."

"This is your idea?"

"Yep."

Tony puts his hand up, then Rhodey puts up his. "I'm ready! Go, go, go!"

Their blasters charge up, and Ivan watches, confused. Just before they shoot, Tony shouts, "Take this!"

The beams connect in the center, directly in front of Ivan, and then everything erupts in light.

Tony is thrown backwards, into a cluster of rocks. He gets up, spotting Rhodey against the bottom of the ridge across from him. Rhodey gets up, too.

Ivan is on the ground a few feet away, a large chunk taken out of the front of his suit. He smiles. "You lose."

His arc reactor begins beeping and flashing red. All of the reactors in the destroyed drones around them begin to do the same thing.

"They're rigged to blow, we gotta get out of here!" Rhodey shouts.

"Pepper?!" Tony asks. He knows Grace is safe, but Pepper is somewhere nearby. She was calling Happy.

Where did she go?

~~~~

Tony shoots off the ground with Rhodey, both flying as fast as they possibly can. Tony heads straight for the Expo center.

When he gets closer, he sees her — Pepper. She's standing there, just outside. Right next to her is the drone he destroyed when he saved that kid. It's beeping.

He lands, immediately grabbing her, and she screams, but he shoots off anyway, just as the drone explodes.

He holds her tightly, looking for a place to land. He spots a nearby roof and lands on it. She pushes away from him, still screaming.

His suit is sparking and broken in a few places. He yanks his helmet off and tosses it away.

"I cannot take this anymore," Pepper says. She's on the edge of hysterical.

"You can't? Tony asks.

"I can't take this."

"What are you- look at me!"

"My body literally cannot handle the stress. I never know if you're gonna kill yourself or-or wreak the whole company-"

"I just- I think I did okay." Behind him, something explodes.

"I quit! I'm resigning." She takes a deep breath. "That's it."

Tony stops. "What did you just say? You're done?" He walks towards her. "That's surprising- no, no, it's not surprising. I get it. You don't have to make excuses."

Pepper steps towards him, too. "I'm-I'm not making any excuses-"

"You actually were just making excuses. But you don't have to-"

"No, I wasn't making an excuse, I'm actually very justified-"

"Listen. Hey, hey, hey." She quiets, then he sincerely says, "You deserve better."

She looks down. "Well..."

"You've taken such good care of me and Grace." Understatement of the year, he thinks as tears prick his eyes. "I've been in a tough spot, but you got me through it, so..."

"Thank you," Pepper replies. She's crying, too.

"Yeah."

"Thank you for understanding." Then, she adds, "And this doesn't mean I won't come to visit Grace-"

"Yeah, yeah," Tony says, cutting her off. "Let's just- Let's talk clean-up.

"I'll handle the transition, it'll be smooth."

Tony grabs her hand, pulling her closer. Everything that's coming out of his mouth is in the back of his mind right now. "Okay, what about the press? Because you only had the job for a week-"

"Well, with you it's like dog years," she says.

He almost lost her. He can't stop thinking about it. She could've died today, just when he'd figured out how not to, just when he had hope that he could tell her — that she would know how he feels about her. "I know."

He doesn't want to waste another second.

"I mean, it's like the Presidency-"

He pulls her even closer, pressing his lips to hers, his mind going back to that dance that meant the world to him and the balcony where he almost did this the first time.

She reaches up and wraps her arms around him, kissing him back, finally knowing what that kiss would've felt like had she went through with it, but somehow, right here, on this rooftop, while half the city is burning below them, it's so much better. It's so much more than she ever could've hoped for.

He pulls back, the conversation they had on the balcony fresh in his mind. "Weird."

Pepper shakes her head. "No. No, it's not weird."

"It's okay, right?"

"Yeah."

"Run that by me again."

She does, kissing him again. She wouldn't mind staying up here for hours with him, just like this.

But then, another voice joins the conversation. "I think it was weird." They jump apart, turning to look at Rhodey, who's also sitting on the rooftop. "You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape."

"I just quit, actually," Pepper says.

Tony nods. "Yeah, so we're not-"

"You don't have to do that," Rhodey says. "I heard the whole thing."

"You should get lost."

"I was here first. Get a roof."

Tony chuckles. "I thought you were out of one-liners."

"That's the last one."

"You kicked butt back there, by the way."

"Thank you. You, too." Rhodey sighs. "Listen, my car got taken out in the explosion, so I'm gonna have to hang on to your suit for a minute, okay?"

"Not okay," Tony replies. "Not okay with that."

"It wasn't a question." With that, he takes off.

Tony sighs deeply, then turns back to Pepper. "Ah, well." He leans in to kiss her again, and she almost kisses back, but she stops herself.

"Wait," she says. She's starting to panic again. "Wait."

"What?" Tony asks, brows furrowed. "What's wrong?"

"Grace," Pepper says, eyes wide. "Grace. We never asked her if she would be okay with-"

Tony laughs. "Oh, no, that's taken care of. See, we were watching The Little Mermaid, and that song came on — you know the one — and she asked me when I was gonna kiss you. That was the night of my birthday party, actually — I was drunk, so I don't remember clearly, but I think I mentioned it to you-"

Pepper remembers now, sounding relieved. "Yeah... Yeah, you did."

Tony just smiles and hugs her to him. "Thank you. For everything you've done for her."

"Tony, you don't have to thank me again-"

"No, I do." He pulls back, tears in his eyes again. "You're the mother she never had, ya know? You're... You're the closest thing she's got..."

"Well, she's like a daughter to me, Tony," Pepper replies, crying again, too. "From the first time I meant her, I... Gosh, who wouldn't fall in love with that cute little face?"

Tony laughs, kisses her again, then sighs. "How are you gonna resign if I don't accept? I mean, how?"

Pepper just laughs.