Saving Grace

Eighteen

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?"