Beacon.

I am Ironman

Pepper walks carefully down the stairs towards the workshop stepping over shattered glass and looking stunned at the destruction of the glass entrance. She can hear voices.

"Hey!" Tony yelps in pain.

JARVIS speaks and the AI manages to sound impatient. "It is a tight fit, sir. Sir, the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt."

"Tony, stop moving or it's gonna take longer to get it off." Kindle admonishes.

"Be gentle. This is my first time." Tony cracks. "I designed this to come off, so... Hey! I really should be able to..."

"Please, try not to move, sir." JARVIS requests.

Pepper looks around the corner and a half dozen mechanical arms are attempting to remove the red and gold armor and are having difficulty because of the damage. And because Tony won't hold still. Kindle is circling with her tablet in her hands making notes on upgrades to the process.

"What's going on here?" Pepper demands and Tony, Kindle and the machines all go still.

Tony shrugs. "Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."

"Are those bullet holes?" Pepper demands and Kindle hustles her away while JARVIS gets Tony out of the armor. A few minutes later he comes striding around the corner and heads towards his desk.

"Hey. You busy?" He calls to Pepper. "You mind if I send you on an errand? I need you to go to my office. You're going to hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests." He hands her a heavy duty looking USB drive. "This is a lock chip. This'll get you in. It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading."

Pepper blinks at him then turns to Kindle to see if he is serious but Kindle's expression is just a intense. "And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?"

"Same drill. They've been dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them." He tells her.

Pepper sighs. "Tony, you know that I would help you and Kindle with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all of this again."

Tony stares her down. "There is nothing except this. There's no art opening. There is no benefit. There is nothing to sign. There is the next mission and nothing else."

Pepper nods. "Is that so? Well, then, I quit."
Pepper throws the lock chip on the table.

Tony opens his mouth to say something that he will probably regret but Kindle beats him to it. "I expected better Pepper." The other woman looks at her shocked and takes a step back. "All these years. Art collections and fashion shows and rubbing elbows with celebrities and politicians. And it didn't matter who got hurt. And now that he's trying to protect the people that we all put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?"

Pepper takes a deep breath. "He's going to kill himself Kindle. I'm not going to be a part of it." Pepper notices Kindle faint flinch and thinks briefly that she and Tony are both hiding something.

"I won't let that happen." Kindle picks up the lock drive. "I'll do it." She walks upstairs and Tony and Pepper watch her.

Tony looks at Pepper. "I shouldn't be alive, unless it was for a reason. I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right. I have no intention of dying, not now that I have something to live for."

Pepper nods and heads upstairs, she catches up to Kindle by the front door and grabs her arm. "You two are my family, I'm with you."

Kindle nods and they head to the car together.