Tony stood with his arms crossed, he considered the words which came out of Natasha's mouth, 'no, it has to be some kind of mistake,' he muttered shaking his head.

Natasha expelled a sigh, 'it isn't Tony,' she said firmly, 'I'm sorry.'

He shook his head again running his fingers through his hair, 'how the hell did I miss this?'

Clint stepped forward, 'you weren't exactly in the right state of mind,' Clint offered, 'you can't blame yourself.'

Tony shook his head, 'this is ridiculous, I can't believe it.'

This time Natasha stepped up to him, 'you placed your trust in someone like this before, Tony, I'm sorry that it happened to you, but we have to finish this, you won't be safe until we do.'

'The story about her husband?' Tony asked, 'was everything a lie?'

'Not everything, he did die due to a fire, but she was a suspect, I did some digging and it looks like she's good for it.' Natasha added.

Tony expelled a shaky breath, 'she knows everything then, she was positioned perfectly.'

'She was,' Natasha crossed her arms looking down at her feet, 'we've got eyes on Pepper, she'll be safe, but we have to do this soon,' Natasha explained.

'Who?' Tony asked curiously knowing that the only people he trusted to look after her save for himself of course, were the other Avengers.

'Thor,' Natasha said firmly, 'once word got to him about what was happening, he insisted on being a part of it, I told him that was the most important job at this stage.'

Tony nodded feeling slightly relieved, 'thank you.'

Natasha nodded and turned back to the job at hand.

'We do it tonight, I just want this over,' Tony muttered, he dropped the surveillance photos across the desk and gave a final disproving look at the photos of Mary looking up at him, photos of her handing his medical reports to an unknown man behind the hospital car park.

'Mary did this?' Pepper spat, 'who the hell is she working for?'

Tony sat with his shoulders slumped looking down at his feet and all he could muster was a shrug.

Pepper let out a heavy sigh, 'God Tony, I'm so sorry,' she said much quieter this time dropping into the sofa beside him.

He shook his head not making eye contact with her, 'it is what it is, another lesson to learn, I have to go Pep,' he muttered.

'Please be careful, you don't know who she's working with,' Pepper pleaded.

'I will be,' he said finally raising his head to look at her, 'I love you and I'll be home soon.'

Pepper reached over and hugged him tightly pressing her lips against his, 'I'll hold you to it.'

Natasha, Tony and Clint stood to one side of the entrance of the medical facility hidden in the safety of heavy shadows cast by the surrounding trees and makeshift offices, Steve and Bruce close by in their own shadowy fortress.

'We're up in ten, nine, eight…' Natasha began counting into the earpiece getting everyone ready for their assigned tasks.

Tony readied himself re checking his equipment before nodding to Natasha and Clint to cut the bolts on either side, 'we're covering you on all sides, you're good to go.'

Tony nodded and as soon as the bolts were gone he slipped in through the gap and kept low and in the shadows running toward the entrance.

'We're up,' Natasha kept her voice low following suit and making her way to her post motioning for Clint to stay low and follow her.

Tony reached the entrance within his allocated time frame and signalled that he was ready for Clint and Natasha to break into the power grid and loop the security feed.

A thousand thoughts flooded through his mind while he waited, as much as he hated to admit it, Obadiah had crossed his mind on more than one occasion since setting up for this mission, and he cursed himself for letting his guard down, again, 'I'm in,' he whispered shaking that traitor out of his memory.

'Got you,' Bruce advised, 'you're clear all the way in and down the hall, there are two guards in a room adjacent to the one you're heading to, stay silent.'

'Got it,' Tony replied rounding the corner and entering the building quickening his pace down the hall and coming to a stop to listen out for guards.

'Alright, you're good on my end, take a left and the room is third on your right,' Bruce explained.

Tony nodded to himself and quickly walked down and located the door, 'accessing the control panel now, wait for my signal.'

'Copy that Tony,' Natasha replied.

His heart raced in his chest, focus Tony, he expelled a shaky breath and got to work, 'how am I looking?' He asked retrieving a pair of pliers from his tool kit.

'Still clear Tony,' Bruce advised.

Finally, minutes later he had accessed the right wire and the door opened up for him, his next challenge stood at the end of the room, he retrieved his tool kit once more, opened the laptop he brought and connected the wires to the security servers and once again clipped in the router, 'ok downloading,' he said quietly.

'Reading you, Clint, Natasha, you're up,' Bruce announced.

'Heading in now,' she replied.

Tony waited by the door listening out for Natasha's signal, 'we're in the building now Tony,' she came across the coms.

'I need another thirty seconds,' Tony whispered back.

'Make them quick,' Clint muttered into the earpiece.

Tony rolled his eyes and looked back down at the screen, 'come on, come on,' he whispered.

Finally he heard the unmistakable sound of men falling to their knees with gargled, suppressed chokes escaping their lips.

That's my cue, Tony whispered to himself willing the progress bar on the screen to hurry up, finally the one hundred per cent prompt popped and he hastily pulled the wire free from the server and packed his laptop up.

Then, three, concise taps on the door informed him that they were ready to go.

He pulled the door open and took the rifle Clint handed to him.

'All good?' He asked.

Tony smirked slinging the laptop bag over his shoulder while cocking the rifle, 'piece of cake.'

'Alright guys, you need to be on the third floor, and by my count you've got about sixty seconds to get there,' Bruce announced.

'You heard him, let's get moving,' Clint said with a hint of a grin, before taking off up the stairs taking two steps at a time.

'Keep a look out for any guards Bruce,' Natasha ordered following the two men ahead of her.

Steve stood back waiting with Bruce to make their move; so much was riding on this mission and the ongoing safety of their team, not to mention Tony's personal life.

He readied himself for his part of the job waiting on Bruce's word.

'They should be in place in a few seconds, once I get the signal you're up and remember you'll only have ten seconds before the back-up generator kicks in, you have to be quick,' Bruce spoke quickly bringing up the schematics of the building on the tablet beside him, he looked up and spotted the flashlight signal and immediately hit the switch and the whole building plunged into darkness.

As soon as the clock started ticking Steve sprinted across the field and rounded a corner jumping onto a ledge leading up to the second floor just in time to avoid the sweeping floodlights as the back-up generator kicked in.

He pressed his finger to his ear piece, 'I've got a visual on the nurse, I count five guards, two on the south entrance to the room and three by the window, I can take the three closest to me, but if we spook her she could run, we need someone else in there.'

'Romanov, got that?' Bruce asked still looking through the schematics locating the lab Tony needed to infiltrate.

'On my way, Clint stays with Tony,' she replied making a run for the stairs.

'Copy that, stay safe,' Bruce called.

Tony and Clint made their way down the hall and located the final part of their mission, a home run and finally, peace.

'You ok?' Clint asked quietly noticing the rigidness in Tony's stance as they approached the door.

He nodded wordlessly.

'Ok, do your thing,' Clint whispered raising his gun and taking post behind Tony.

Within a few seconds the door had opened up for him like it did with the previous one, 'we're good, let's go,' he tapped Clint on the shoulder.

Both men hurried inside quickly closing the door behind them and getting to work.

'Where do you need me?' Clint asked.

Tony located a bunch of folders stacked on top of the filing cabinets which he quickly flicked through looking at the contents before closing them and tossing them to Clint, 'get these into a bag and collect anything pertaining to me and the Extremis research.'

Clint nodded immediately rushing over the other cabinets and began rummaging through the files.

Tony found what he was searching for in the form of a hard drive; he pulled out his lap top and connected it, 'where have you been hiding?' He spoke aloud bringing up the contents of the secure drive and beginning the download.

'Tony,' Clint called out.

'What?' Tony called back not turning from the files before him.

'You need to see this man,' he called back.

'What is it?' Tony asked impatiently, 'I'm a little busy here,' he looked back down at the lap top.

'Trust me, you wanna see this,' he replied.

Tony expelled a sigh and quickly walked over to Clint.

'What do I need to see?' He asked quickly.

Clint handed him a small pile of photos and stood back.

Tony's expression quickly dropped from confused to shocked, he continued flicking through the images, picture after picture of him with Pepper, The Avengers and most recent shots of him with Katarina and Jack. His heart sunk; if they followed him there then Katarina wasn't safe.

He looked up at Clint.

'What?' Tony asked looking at him and then down at the papers in Clint's hands.

Clint handed him another smaller pile of papers and photos.

Tony's stomach dropped, 'Jesus,' he swallowed hard.

He looked at the files which had a messily scribbled inscription across the top of the page, "Proof of Death", and attached to it were shots of Mary and Jack's corpses laid side by side in the small cabin Tony had awoken in.

'I'm sorry Tony,' Clint said quietly.

Tony shook his head letting out a stifled groan, 'they died because of me, god damn it!'

Clint quickly stepped out of the way just in time to avoid a hit to the face as Tony lunged forward and slammed his fists into one of the filing cabinets beside them.

He continued hitting anything which seemed to be in his way sending papers flying and furniture toppling.

'Clint, what the hell is happening down there?' Bruce called over the coms.

Clint stuffed the files into his own back pack and made a move toward Tony, 'we've got a situation here, I'm taking care of it.'

'Then take care of it, you've got the attention of two guards heading your way,' Bruce retorted, 'and more to come I have no doubt.'

Clint nodded slinging the backpack over his shoulder, 'Tony, we have to go.'

Tony replied with another angry shove of a cabinet which helplessly toppled over.

'Seriously man, we've got company heading our way,' he kept his distance knowing well enough how much more power Tony had over him with the Extremis pulsing through his veins.

'Let them come,' Tony hissed.

Clint took a deep breath, they were going to come now whether they wanted them to or not, all he could do was stay out of the carnage long enough to let Tony get it out of his system before he jeopardized the whole plan.

Tony gathered the photographs he had sent flying all over the place and stuffed them into his pocket, he pulled his rifle up to firing position and waited for the guards to come crashing through the door.

Clint looked at him with his own gun ready to fire taking a few steps closer to the other man, despite his acquired strength he was still a man just like he was and bullets could still kill him.

Without more than a moment's notice an external blast blew the secure doors open and they were met with a shower of bullets raining on them, 'take cover!' Clint yelled.

Tony threw himself across the room and dropped to his knees behind a steel workbench and covered his face with his free hand aiming over the counter while firing off shots with the other, 'get the files and get out!' Tony called.

'And leave you?' Clint shouted back while the bullets continued ricocheting around them.

Tony fired off another few rounds and silenced one of the men, 'yes, go!' He yelled again.

Clint rolled his eyes from his vantage point and fired off another few rounds just as Tony had, 'not a chance, do you have any idea what Pepper would do to me if I left you?'

'Do you have any idea what I'll do to you if you don't?' Tony called back reaching above his head and shooting again.

Clint nodded to himself, 'touché, cover me!'

'Go!' Tony yelled in acknowledgement shifting in his position slightly to get a good aim at the men who had spilled into the room, one by one he began acquiring his targets still wishing that Jarvis was here with him.

Unfortunately due to the tracking skills Mary's people had, any connectivity on his part to the grid would set off a neon sign above his head.

He fired and took one guard out giving Clint a clear pass through the back part of the room and just as another had raised his gun to fire in his direction Tony had neatly placed a bullet in his head.

'Bruce, Clint is on his way, he's got all the papers we need,' he spoke into the coms.

Bruce's panicked voice cracked through the radio, 'what are you doing?'

'Holding them off, they want me, they don't know what he's got,' Tony answered truthfully.

As much as any of them hated to admit it, he was right, in the grand scheme of things; those documents were all that mattered. Now that they were away from the wrong hands, he felt much better about his odds.

'I'm sending Nat down, she's subdued the guards and Steve's got Mary,' Bruce called back maintaining as much composure as his green counterpart allowed.

Tony took a mental noted that if he got through this, he would really focus on finding Bruce's cure, some way to inject a little more self-control into Bruce, not that Tony thought he needed any help, but Bruce did, so he would help him all the same.

'Hope she's packing, these guys are serious,' Tony mused reloading the riffle.

'Don't worry, she is,' Bruce replied quickly.

Tony held his ground as best as he could before the heaven sent sound of C4 explosions rocked the outer walls of the room he was in and right behind him appeared a perfectly sized hole for him to climb out of.

'Let's go,' Natasha called through the dust, a hint of a grin adorning her face.

'You really love blowing stuff up don't you?' Tony asked crawling through the space.

Once outside she quickly grabbed his arm pulling him in the right direction, 'anything for a bit of excitement,' she mused.

They ran side by side with the guards closely on their heels, 'Clint is heading toward the rendezvous point to meet Bruce and Steve, we're heading to an old CIA safe house, it's not in use anymore,' she explained as they rounded a sharp corner.

'Where's Mary?' He asked dodging a spray of bullets from behind.

'She's with Steve, she's not going anywhere,' Natasha yelled.

They rounded another corner quickly scaling a wall and jumping to the safety of the other side, 'which way?'

Natasha continued running pointing out a black SUV tucked away at the end of the street, 'that's our ride.'

'Hurry!' Tony yelled chancing a quick glance behind them and once again being forced to duck, dodging a spray of bullets.

'They're relentless!' She yelled over the noise, 'here, you drive,' she tossed him the keys which he quickly caught.

'We're not going to lose them any time soon,' he pointed to a set of headlights quickly coming toward them.

'I know, but I can buy us some time,' she pulled out a cell phone and began dialling a number.

'What, are you ordering pizza?' Tony yelled with a disbelieving look.

'Not quite,' she smirked as they reached the car, she pressed a button on the cell phone and four simultaneous explosions reverberated around them.

Tony threw himself inside the car followed by Natasha on the opposite side, 'go!'

He slammed his foot down and floored it sending the car screeching away leaving a bright glowing mess behind them.

Tony glanced back in the rear view mirror and then at his charge, 'nice,' he mused.

'Like I said, anything for a bit of excitement.'

'No kidding,' Tony laughed, 'good work.'

Sirens in the distance echoed as police and the fire brigade neared the building they had just left, knowing that they could never go back, Tony hoped that Clint had taken everything they needed, this was it, this was finally going to end it all.

Natasha reached into the back seat and retrieved a black case and pulled out a lap top, she then turned to Tony's back pack and pulled out the hard drive, once everything was connected she began accessing the files Tony had downloaded into the hard drive and began sending them to relevant law enforcement agencies, Tony had learned that apparently most of the men working for Mary had outstanding warrants across seven states and some were wanted for treason and suspected terrorism.

For nearly an hour they drove in silence while Tony occasionally glanced back through the rear view to make sure they were alone and occasionally even looked over at what Natasha was doing.

Finally she broke the silence and looked up from her laptop, 'it's nearly over.'

Tony nodded and continued driving, 'I know.'

And next chapter will be the finale! Thank you for joining me on this adventure :)