Apr 4, 2016 - This Pin was discovered by Stuart Limbrick. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest. The 1932 Ford Flathead Roadster, also known as the 'Hotrod' is a classic car in the collection Tony Stark maintained in his Mansion. After spending a night with Christine Everhart, Tony Stark descended to his workshop in the basement of his house. There, he started working on Ford Flathead Roadster, trying to fix the engine with J.A.R.V.I.S. 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.' Tony grimaced at the video, going back to tapping the Arc Reactor.
Tony Stark Hot Rod Screensaver. Faced with increasing personal turmoil and under pressure to testify against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Christopher Kelly first.
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Author's Note: This is the updated version of chapter one. Look for CHAPTER TWO within the next TWO DAYS!
(For those of you who have already read it, there isn't a huge difference, plot-wise in part one, just a few touch-ups here and there.)
Full summary: (Post-Avengers). When Loki returns to Midgard, he has not forgotten what happened the last time he was on Earth. He has a score to settle with Tony Stark's Iron Man. But going after Tony himself would be too easy, too predictable. And Loki is anything but predictable. He is the God of Mischief, after all - and a Frost Giant by birth, so serving cold revenge is in his nature. His plan? to make Tony Stark suffer for what he did. So Loki targets Pepper Potts - but not everything is as it seems. Pepper has no idea what's happening at first, and by the time she realizes something is wrong, she no longer knows if it's all a dream or the reality... So is Tony REALLY d- ...? Or is a darker game afoot?
Disclaimer: IRON MAN, THE AVENGERS & Co. are all property of MARVEL and its affiliates. No copyright infringement intended.
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TARNISHED
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**
'The tears come streaming down your face,
When you lose something you can't replace.
(Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones,
And I will try to fix you.') - 'Fix You', by Coldplay.
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1. (Cannot) Replace
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Tony Stark Hot Rod Screensaver Download
The small gathering of people they had invited over to their house on Christmas Day for lunch, was comfortably tucked away inside the large house with its stunning views of the ocean, their backs warmed by the cheerily roaring fire.
Though they were all familiarly jovial faces, the closest friends seemed to naturally divide their time amongst speaking to each other, and to blending in with the others.
The guests were happily plied with both excellent food and wine, and the very air inside the house was bright with merriment, and serene in its warmth.
Pepper smiled and as she listened to Bruce Banner's enthusiastic rendering of the time Tony took Steve under his wing to teach him about the wonders of technology.
It had all been a ruse to try to get him to admit that he was not great at everything, and was made even more amusing by the fact that Agent Coulson had somehow been roped in, along with Clint Barton.
Bruce assured her that when Clint told Steve to hit the send button, and Steve took this directive literally and hit the phone in his hand so hard it shattered, that Tony could not stop howling with laughter. Bruce had clearly appreciated it. Pepper shook her head wryly, smiling fondly at Tony's antics. Miss Ross then approached them, and the lambent quality on Bruce's gentle face was like beacons of happiness to Pepper, who murmured quietly that she had to go attend her other guests as she slipped away, a secret smile on her face as she left the two alone.
On the way to the kitchen she kept a watchful eye on the drinks and the food, wanting to make sure that neither was starting to dwindle, always the perfect hostess. The clock on the worktop next to the stove told her it was well after two pm. Its face seemed to be glaring its sharp truth, mocking her.
Tony was late.
A frown etched worry lines onto her face as she stepped closer to the large windows and looked out onto the chilly overcast afternoon. Her scrutiny scoured the horizon in search for that gleam of red and gold speeding its way superiorly across the skies. All she could see were hazy distant shapes in the grey light, and the ocean seemed to mirror perfectly the grey hue of the heavy clouds.
Rhodey came up to her in that moment, and laid his hand reassuringly on her arm.
'He'll be here soon, Pepper. Tony wouldn't miss his son's first Christmas for anything in the world.'
Pepper turned around to look at him and smiled briefly. Her stomach jumped into somersaults, and she felt queasy. Somehow, though she knew this to be the absolute truth, the endless pit of worry inside her would never be quelled until she saw her husband return safely to his home.
'This Christmas Day Gathering was his idea, especially with regards to inviting some of the people over from S.H.I.E.L.D. like Bruce. He told me that it wouldn't take long and that he'd be back well before our guests would be too stuffed with food to stand. I can't imagine what is taking him so long!'
Rhodey too looked over at the horizon and sipped his drink. He too had wondered what could possibly be taking his friend so long. When he'd heard him on the phone a few hours before, Tony had told him that he was needed in New York for a brief spell. It appeared that the lunatic hacker who had been trying to get past the New York Stark Industries Offices' firewalls was about to be apprehended by Iron Man himself, and be handed over to the authorities.
Rhodey had asked him if he wanted War Machine to come along, but since this was pretty much a tiny fish that only needed one small hook, he stayed behind.
Someone called Pepper, who pasted a bright smile onto her face and she hurried away to the other side of the room. Rhodey wandered over to the buffet table and heaped some more food onto his plate. A close business associate of both Stark Industries' and the Air Force started chatting to him, and for the moment his puzzled (worrisome) thoughts were pushed slightly to the back of his mind.
The afternoon passed without incident, and by four pm the fires had seen the guests happily warmed as they all opened their presents. Pepper held her baby boy closely to her chest as she perched on the sofa, cooing softly at him. His small, alert eyes looked up into her face and sought her out when he heard her voice. He had allegedly Pepper's nose – Tony had said that was fortunate, as hers was far more elegant than his, he had jokingly told her once – but his eyes … Pepper caressed his brow lightly; her darling had his father's eyes. Brown and dark with a bright focus.
The last of the guests bundled into their cars and left the house, bidding her a merry Christmas and to give Tony their regards.
Only Rhodey remained now, along with the closest from their S.H.I.E.L.D. guests, like Bruce and Betty Ross.
Larissa, the jovial nanny Pepper had hired to look after her soon the second she had had to return to work, came over with the bottle, and Pepper gladly took it from her and gently offered it to her son's sweet round mouth. He hungrily latched on and drew the sweet substance that made him full and satisfied. His eyes did not grow heavy in complacency as he fed, no, they remained round and alert as they gazed up and unerringly found his mother's benign gaze shining down onto him.
Rhodey and Bruce were over by the fireplace talking quietly, an the others were scattered here and there in the house, like Betty, who had taken to wondering over to the large windows and gazing out into the darkened day as it sped towards twilight.
The feeling in Pepper's breast, that prowling animal that cagily snapped backwards and forwards, would not be calmed, even by her son's precious weight in her arms.
Rhodey and Bruce had seemed to come to the same conclusion, for they both moved away from the fireplace and came towards them, crouching down next to their perch.
Bruce spoke in that soothing tone of voice that was his by nature, but his eyes spoke of a mood that was anything but serene. They mirrored Rhodey's quite well in fact.
It was a welcome thing to Pepper to be reminded that others cared for Tony a very great deal, that she wasn't the only one.
'Pepper, perhaps we should have JARVIS look for him again? I've already contacted headquarters in New York, and they're looking into it.'
Pepper's breath hitched and her hands involuntarily clutched her son tighter. He did not like this and began snuffling in protesting. Larissa swooped in out of nowhere and took the baby out of Pepper's arms. Though she missed his comforting weight, she let him go in order to let him finish eating in peace.
She looked at Rhodey, and felt helpless.
And then she heard it.
The past few years had seen her becoming trained of sorts, attuned to that sound that would signal her man's return home. Because she had been doing this for so long, and had grown as accustomed to it as she was to the phone's ringtone, she was the first to hear it.
Pepper immediately rose out of the sofa and hurried to stand in front of the windows. She turned around to the others' puzzled glances, her face beaming, eyes alight with relief and joy.
'He's here at last!'
She barely had time to see the smiles on Rhodey's and Bruce's faces before she tore off in the direction of the stair. Her heart beat erratically fast, relieved beyond words that her husband had finally returned. Berating him for being so awfully late would come later, right now she just wanted to hug him and give him another Christmas Kiss.
Her heels clacked sharply against the floor, echoing in her ears with their urgency. Pepper could see it now, him standing on the platform as the robots disassembled the suit off him, as though they were slowly unwrapping a gift. Her gift. She couldn't have asked for anything better.
A happy giggle escaped her mouth, and she felt giddy like a teenage girl running off to meet her crush for the first time. With Tony it had always been like this, ever since the start of their romantic relationship, and it still was to this day years later, where they were married and had a beautiful baby boy. It would be like this for the rest of her life, Pepper was sure.
When the workshop finally came into full view, her feet, and their momentum, carried her all the way to the door straightaway. Her eyes impatiently looked over to the platform, which she could just about barely peek at, if she pressed her nose right up to the glass barrier. Her hand was still moving as she punched in the code, but her brain was already processing what her eyes were seeing.
And her eyes told her brain that Tony was not on the platform.
A tug of war began in her body. Her automatic responses were to grasp the handle and pull it towards herself to open the door. But in her mind, things began to slow down.
She walked on auto-pilot and entered the workshop, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the platform. He should have been there now, with the robots taking the armour and stowing it away safely. For a moment, she could not comprehend why she should not be seeing this familiar scene.
Pepper looked in confusion around the area immediately closest to her. The kitchenette area was empty, and there were no sounds coming from the small bathroom he'd had installed briefly after becoming Iron Man, so that he wouldn't have to wait to get upstairs in order to get clean.
Pepper frowned and bit her lip worriedly.
She walked around towards the desks where his monitors were on standby with the screensaver activated, various paraphernalia scattered across the smooth surfaces, looking completely undisturbed.
Here she stopped for a moment to gaze at the photo activated as screensaver. It was a photo Tony had taken himself, and had later shown her proudly, his face beaming with a rare amount of happiness. The photo was of her lying back in a hospital bed wearing a pastel blue gown, holding a tiny bundle of white blankets. Her head was bent towards the bundle and not looking at the camera, yet the look of utter amazement and joy could not be mistaken, as Pepper looked down at their baby boy for the first time. From the angle this photo was taken, you could just about see the baby's little face, and it never failed to make her breath catch slightly in her chest every time she saw it. Tony had put this up as his screensaver instead of the hot rod on their first night back home from the hospital; and he'd also programmed the suit to have a tiny rendition of it inside the HUD when he was operating in it, to 'remind him of what he had to come home to.'
From the corner of her eye she finally noticed a gleam of red and gold.
She turned before her brain could fully register what was in front of her.
Her heart plummeted.
'Tony … '
He was lying behind one of the cars. That's why she hadn't seen him at first.
Tony Stark Hot Rod Screensavers
Her voice took on shrill tone. She couldn't help herself and was moving on instinct alone, the animal in her breast clawing her from the inside, feral in its demands to be let out.
'Tony!'
She sprinted over to his prone form, still cased inside the suit and fell to her knees beside him. The helmet was lying on its side, abandoned, a few feet away from him.
His face had never been so pale in all her years with him.
Pepper grappled his form and heaved the upper part of his bust onto her legs, uncaring of the crushing weight of the armour, with its dented surface scratching unforgiving into her tender skin.
His hair was matted with sweat and blood.
His eyes were closed.
He had made no sound.
He had given her no signs that he was-
Pepper was too far gone to realise that the harsh, desperate cries were being wrought from her mouth, as they echoed harshly around in the concrete cavern.
'Tony! Tony, oh god … Tony, talk to me please! Open your eyes!'
Her hands flew all over him, trying to get at his flesh, and instead all they were met with was the cold hard metal.
She grabbed at his face, supported his head when she saw that it sagged backwards, willing him to open his eyes.
Except for a shallow cut on his cheekbone, his face was unmarred. And the contrast between his dark hair and the paper-like translucent hue of his skin put her heart in an icebox.
Interspersed with her calling his name and bidding him to look at her, disbelieving, tortured cries escaped her lips.
JARVIS was silent.
Nothing else seemed to exist except for her beloved lying on the ground, unresponsive, the cold seeping into her skin as warm liquid flowed down her bent legs and onto the concrete.
She jiggled and shook and grabbed at him as much as the suit would allow. Breathing was painful, because her lungs sucked at the air in harsh gulps and her throat became instantly sore from her cries.
'Tony! TO-NY! Open your eyes! Please!'
Her violent outburst must have shaken something, stirred within that shell a dredge of existence, because he coughed and his head reared up weakly, opening his eyes into slits as though that alone took more effort than he could muster.
She had never been so terrified for him before this moment.
Pepper immediately supported his weight to try to get his head to stay up, avidly looking at his face, mere centimetres from hers, as he stirred. Her hands wanted to clutch at his sides, but instead they slid over the metal. There were scratches on her palms that already oozed rivulets of blood.
So much red.
And then she looked into his eyes.
And the keening began.
She yelled incoherent words, and her brain tried to deny what was in his eyes. She couldn't accept this. This couldn't be happening, she screamed, both silently and outwardly.
'Tony, what – how could this – TonyTonyTonyTony, oh god, please…you can't – oh, HELP!'
Tony whispered something, but she was too busy yelling, screaming.
'Help… Rhodey! RHODEY!'
The keening, the desperate way she rocked and clutched and screamed – she couldn't take this, couldn't take this, couldn'tbearthis, don't don't don't –
'HELP ME, PLEASE … RHODEY!'
Tony's voice was weak and no more than the whisper of a butterfly's wings.
'Amore … I don't wa- … I can't … I don't want to leave you…'
Pepper screamed and screamed, till her throat became raw, and then beyond. Whatever had happened to the thing inside her chest – her heart? – it was bleeding out of her, mortally wounded.
TonyTonyTonyTonyTony-
Thundering footsteps crashed down the stairs and stampeded across the concrete floor. Rhodey and Bruce were shouting but she couldn't look at them, couldn't hear anything but her husband's wheezing breath, couldn't see anything past the light dimmed in his eyes, couldn't feel anything but the torture of this moment that could not come, it could not come could not come –
As Rhodey approached them, and Pepper cried incoherently, her hands twisted into sharp maws trying to hold him to life… Tony stopped breathing, and, his eyes still open, his face slid sideways.
Rhodey threw himself on the ground in front of her on Tony's other side, his hand homing in with the speed of a hummingbird on his best friend's pulse on the side of his neck –
Bruce was shouting down the phone, calling an ambulance, but she knew, she knew she knew she knew she knew-
The expression of Rhodey's face was indescribable to Pepper in that moment; she could not have applied words to it if she tried.
The disbelieving grief that lined his face and edged it in pain was something she saw but was incapable of truly acknowledging.
Pepper wailed, and the sound was that of a mortally wounded animal, drawing its last cries-
She slumped over onto his chest, her arm still cradling his head, and still the sound kept coming and coming from her mouth, becoming more pronounced and louder as the seconds passed by-
'Why – why – what did they do – aa-haaaaaaa-'
And then Rhodey was tearing him away from her, and putting him fully on the floor, and as he bent over him and brought their lips pressed together, she realised that he was trying to resuscitate him, but she knew, she-knew-
Her clothing was stained with the last thing of himself he had given her, red and cold in its betrayal, but she could no longer tell which was hers and which was his-
Bruce rushed over to them along with their mutual friend Tom Hunt, a doctor, who had left their house not half an hour before-
As Dr. Hunt took over resuscitation, Rhodey shot up to his feet and bounded away, only to return a short time later with the tools they would need to extract Tony out of the suit-
And even as he tore at the locks keeping it together, Dr. Hunt's ashen face turned to his wife and numbly shook his head-
And everyone became still.
Even the monster that had tried to crawl out of Pepper's chest was no longer moving. It had left, it had escaped, and it had mauled her irreparably and left wide slash marks onto her breast-
And …
There was…
Nothing.
The grief seemed to bury Pepper with its weight all in one fatal blow. She wailed again and bent over her husband's body, caged in away from her by the armour, her face resting skin-to-skin onto his, his name the only thing she seemed capable of speaking coherently, and still she keened and screamed, but she got louder and louder, because no matter how much she abused her vocal cords, the shattering grief inside did not let up, and she couldn't hear anymore-
The other three men stood as though statues in the room with her, locked up in their pain, and the image she made bent over her husband's dead body, rocking and screaming-
'Why! Whywhywhywhywh … you fl- To- Tony! Tony-'
There were sounds registering into her brain, but were left unacknowledged, even that of her infant, fatherless baby boy wailing in the background, and Rhodey sobbing like a little kid, bowing under an invisible weight and crashing onto his knees. Bruce Banner's face had twisted into a grimace of grief so badly it would probably leave lines on his face, and their doctor friend was talking on the phone-
But none of this reached her.
Screensavers Hot Rod Cars
Pepper was so lost into her own grief that it was like knives were hacking away at her. Her maw-like hands scrabbled all over his form, slicking further with the blood in his hair, pulling at his arm. Her face kept wavering between pressing onto the space between his chin and the luminous arc reactor, and his own face, lips pressing onto his lips, always speaking, always muttering.
And then her hands were cradling it to her own, and she was trying to push into him, an apoplexy of movements as her soul tried to get him to respond to her-
Iron Man Hot Rod Screensaver
But he'd left her.
And for a moment her mind turned mad at the thought, because she wanted nothing more on this earth than to reach him, but now she didn't know how, and he was her sun and stars, and she was his satellite, and the satellites orbited without purpose or course when their planets were gone-
The sheer hatred galvanised her into action, but it was not a sane mind process.
She began shrieking and clawing at the armour that still clung and encased him, a premature coffin, and she had to take it off him, she couldn't stand the sight of him in it-
'Take it OFF, takeitoff, I wannit' off, get this off him! Get him out of it!'
She beat at it with the tools and her hands, injuring herself further, more sickly red slicking on the red, and she hated that colour, could never again look at that colour, would never again tolerate it anywhere near her-
Tony Stark Hot Rod Screensaver
And then Rhodey was there with her, attacking the suit with the specially-designed tools Tony had left behind, and the two of them cut him out of it. For every piece that ended up free in her hands, she flung it as far away and with as much force as she could, but it wasn't enough, nothing would ever be enough-
And then he was free.
And she could hold him in her arms again, hold him as he had promised to do for the rest of their lives-
'Tony…Tony…'
Her lips kissed out tattoos onto his face as she spoke his name over and over, tasting salt and iron, copper and rust.
She clutched at his dead flesh and wept.
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End of chapter one. Look for chapter two in the next two days! R&R!
ALSO: a huge thank you to those who reviewed, or added my fic to their favourites list, put it on their alert, and to those who keep coming back. It means so much to me. :)
And finally: I have made a fic banner for this story. If you'd like to see it, check it out here
Tony Stark Hot Rod Screensaver
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