The silence was more deafening than the battle.
Tony hovered mid-air, chest heaving, his arc reactor blinking a weak blue as Rescue-X emerged from the dimensional breach.
She was familiar—painfully so. Her red and silver armor shimmered with arcane engravings, clearly Doom's enhancements. But her stance… that was all Pepper. Proud. Unflinching. Devastating.
"Pepper?" His voice cracked. "That you?"
Her head tilted slightly, like a predator analyzing prey.
"You are classified as Stark Prime. Immediate neutralization required."
"No," Tony whispered. "This isn't you. He twisted you."
She fired.
Twin pulse cannons launched from her palms, the recoil throwing her back in air—but her aim was perfect. Tony barely twisted out of the way. The blast sliced through three Stark variants behind him, vaporizing them. She wasn't holding back.
She wasn't aiming to scare him.
She was aiming to kill.
Tony dove low, repulsors flaring as he barrel-rolled under a second barrage. Explosions bloomed behind him, lighting up the fractured chamber like a strobe of destruction.
"I know you're still in there, Pep!"
"That unit is no longer operational," Rescue-X replied.
Her voice had no echo of the woman he once loved. No warmth. Just cold data.
But her eyes—behind the mask—flickered.
For a split second, the HUD caught it: Heart Rate Spike. Neural Flicker. Memory Loop Detected.
She's still in there. Somewhere.
Tony landed hard, sliding behind a crumbled pillar. His suit groaned, and the nanotech began to glitch. Systems at 18%. Overheating. No backup.
He tapped his wrist, calling in the EXO-CORE—a prototype armor that could sync with his neural signals. But it was still locked in another timeline. Not ready. Not yet.
"Pepper, listen. I died once to save this world. I won't let Doom use your face to destroy it."
"You died," she said slowly, "and left me alone. Doom found me."
Her voice wavered.
Memory pulse detected.
Suddenly—FLASH.
Tony's vision was hijacked.
[Memory Flashback – DOOM'S LAIR]
Pepper stood in a containment pod, eyes filled with rage and grief. Doom loomed before her.
"He left you in a world of rubble. But I can make you more."
"What do you want in return?"
"Your loyalty. Your mind. Your grief."
He raised a silver gauntlet. Magic and tech intertwined. "And your heart."
She stepped forward willingly.
[Back to Present]
Tony stumbled backward. "No… no…"
Her cannons recharged.
But instead of firing, she hesitated.
A voice—tiny, breaking through static—whispered from her.
"Tony... run."
That was her.
The real Pepper.
Before he could speak, she screamed in agony. Her armor spasmed. Doom's override protocols fought for control. Her helmet retracted, revealing a tear-streaked face flickering with blue data veins.
"RUN!" she shouted.
He didn't.
Tony surged forward.
Midair, he grappled to her, slammed his chestplate to hers—arc reactor to arc reactor—initiating a shock-link.
"If you won't come back to me," he said, "then I'm diving into the dark with you."
Their armors synced. Memory streams collided.
Tony fell into her mind.
Inside Rescue-X's neural net lies a secret Doom buried deep in Pepper's soul—A memory too dangerous to be known.And it's about Tony himself.
But what he'll find there… could change everything he thought he saved in Endgame.