Everlasting • Tony Stark✔️

15 | sector sixteen

LYRA had gotten an urgent call from Tony that sounded as if he was in the air. She immediately thought of the suit as she made her way inside the mansion from headquarters where she was working with Pepper. Pepper had asked her to inform her of what the hell Tony was up to, but Lyra had fibbed a bit, keeping the suit out of it. Well, when Tony had called, Pepper had heard it. She followed Lyra home.

When they walked into the lab that had no glass walls anymore, Lyra snorted a laugh while Pepper looked horrified at Tony fighting with his robots to get the suit off of him—suit filled with bullet holes.

"Please, try not to move, sir," Jarvis said.

"What's going on here?" Pepper asked while Lyra raised a quizzical brow as if to ask as well.

Tony paused, grinning at Pepper and Lyra's faces. "Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've both caught me doing."

"Are those bullet holes?" Lyra asked to make sure. Tony nodded with the same shit-eating grin.

After Tony was out of the suit, he gestured for Lyra and Pepper to come closer. He looked at Lyra. "Hey. You mind if I send you on an errand?"

Lyra nodded. "What do you need?" she asked because she knew it had something to do with what Obadiah had said to him the night of the gala. When she returned home, she found Tony trying to hack into the computers in his company, but Obadiah had blocked him. Tony told her about the woman he slept with before he went to Afghanistan—the photos she showed him. "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. 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 stepped forward. "And what do you plan to do with this information if she brings it back here?"

Tony gestured to the suit. "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."

Pepper groaned. "Tony, you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all of this again. You're going to get Lyra stuck in this."

Tony became annoyed. "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 growled out, "Is that so? Well, then, I quit."

Lyra grabbed the flash drive from his hands as he stared at Pepper's retreating figure.

Tony stood up. "You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. And now that I'm trying to protect the people that I put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?"

Pepper turned slowly, looking at Lyra in disbelief as she pocketed the flash drive. "You're going to kill yourself, Tony. I'm not going to be a part of it. Lyra can do what she wants, but I'm through."

"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. If you don't want to go, please, give Lyra your badge."

Pepper begrudgingly handed Lyra her badge with a sigh. "You need to be careful. I'll try to hold Obadiah off," she said softly. She nodded to Tony as the two females left back to the office in which they came from. "He's insane," she mumbled to Lyra in the car.

"He's trying to do what he thinks is right. He's more than building weapons for people to trade under the black market. If his company is doing it under his nose... he needs to put a stop to it," Lyra said confidently.

Pepper nodded as she drove to the building. They walked briskly, using Pepper's card to get in. Pepper stayed down below to find Obadiah while Lyra used Pepper's card to get to the top floor where Tony's office was.

Lyra made it in without anyone calling her out. They had seen her there before, after all, but never without Pepper. Once she clicked the computer on, she plugged the flash drive into the computer with a sigh. Many files popped up, but one in secret had her eyes widening. "Sector 16? What are you up to, Obadiah?"

A video popped up of Tony when he was captured. She clicked the translate button with tears blurring her vision at how horrible he looked. What had he gone through? "You did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Tony Stark. As you can see, Obadiah Stane—"

"Oh, my God," she whispered.

"—your deception and lies will cost you dearly. The price to kill Tony Stark has just gone up."

She saw the door jiggle, so she turned off the video as the flash drive continued to copy all of the files.

Obadiah walked in with a slight scowl at seeing her. "So, what are we going to do about this?" He sat on the couch. "I know what you're going through, Lyra. Tony," he paused to make himself a drink. "He always gets the good stuff, doesn't he? I was so happy when he came home. It was like we got him back from the dead. Now I realize, well, Tony never really did come home, did he? He left a part of himself in that cave. Breaks my heart."

Lyra nodded. "Well, he's a complicated person," she said softly. "I think I know him best."

Obadiah nodded as he stood to walk behind her. She covered the flashdrive with the newspaper. "He's been through a lot. I think he'll be all right." She made sure everything was hidden as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "You are a very rare woman. Tony doesn't know how lucky he is to get a second chance with you."

Lyra nodded as she stood. "Thank you. Thanks. I'd better get back there," she said softly, picking up the newpaper that held the flash drive in between it. She let the flash drive fall into her hands as she pocketed it. Before she could make it through the doors, Obadiah called her back.

"Is that today's paper?"

Lyra nodded softly. "Yes."

"Do you mind?" he asked, pointing to it.

"Not at all," she said, handing it to him.

"Take care," he called as she left the room.