In Tony's garage, the air felt frozen.
The smell of burnt metal and acrid smoke still lingered, mixing with the scent of cologne to create a strange concoction.
Pepper Potts stood amidst the wreckage, looking at the man before her.
His T-shirt was stained with grease, a streak of soot smeared across his face, but his eyes were startlingly bright, like two flames burning in the dead of night.
"I went to Gulmira." Tony's voice was calm, as if stating an insignificant fact. "I cleaned up the thugs, along with the Stark weapons in their hands."
Pepper's heart sank.
She had considered countless possibilities, but she never imagined he would be so direct, so reckless.
"You... you wore that suit?" Her voice trembled slightly.
"It works well." Tony didn't answer directly. Instead, he walked over to a workbench, picked up a wrench, then set it down again. "But that's not the point. The point is, someone is using Stark Industries to sell weapons to people we shouldn't be selling to. This isn't an accident. It's deliberate."
He turned, his gaze burning as he stared at Pepper.
"I need your help, Pepper. I need you to get into the company servers and find all the shipping manifests. Especially the off-the-books ones, the secret shipments. I need to know who's pulling the strings."
"You're insane! Completely insane!" Pepper could no longer contain her emotions. "Tony, you're going to get yourself killed! You're not an army, you're not the police, you're just one man! Who do you think you are? God?"
"I'm not God," Tony interrupted, his tone carrying a heavy sense of responsibility for the first time. "But those missiles have my name on them. I saw the destruction they caused with my own eyes. So, I have to do something."
He walked toward Pepper step by step, stopping in front of her. The once-frivolous look in his eyes was now replaced by exhaustion and resolve.
"You're the only one I can trust."
That sentence was like a key, instantly unlocking the final defense around Pepper's heart. She looked at him, at the man she had taken care of for years, at the bloodshot eyes and the undeniable vulnerability beneath his forced stoicism.
She knew she couldn't refuse.
"...Fine." The single word was forced from between her clenched teeth.
Tony breathed a sigh of relief and pulled an inconspicuous black flash drive from his pocket.
"Use this. It'll let you bypass most of the security protocols. Go straight to Obadiah's office. He has the highest clearance."
"Why Obadiah's office?" Pepper asked, confused.
"Because..." Tony's eyes darkened. "There's something I need to confirm."
...
Night had fallen.
The Stark Industries tower loomed like a dormant steel beast in the heart of the city, silent and imposing.
The top floor, the chairman's office.
It was empty, save for the dim glow of emergency lights that cast long, distorted shadows from the massive desk and bookshelves.
In the silent office, the sound of Pepper's heartbeat was magnified a thousand times.
Every breath drew in cold air that pricked at her taut nerves.
She sat in Obadiah's large leather chair, feeling like a thief about to be judged. The cool touch of the leather sent an involuntary shiver down her spine.
Taking a deep breath, she inserted the black flash drive into the computer's USB port.
The screen lit up, its eerie blue light illuminating her tense face.
There was no complicated password prompt; a simple search interface popped up immediately. It was the backdoor Tony had made for her.
With trembling hands, Pepper typed keywords like "shipping manifests" and "Jericho missile" into the search bar.
Countless streams of data instantly scrolled across the screen. She read through them one by one, her brow furrowing deeper and deeper.
Something was wrong.
All the records were too clean, as if they'd been meticulously wiped. There were no loopholes. Every weapon shipment was directed to the U.S. military, and every transaction had legitimate approval.
This was impossible.
What Tony had seen in Afghanistan was definitely not standard-issue military hardware.
Just as she was about to give up, Paul's seemingly casual reminder suddenly flashed through her mind.
—"Ms. Potts, you should probably keep a closer eye on Obadiah, especially his private projects."
Private projects...
As if guided by some unseen force, Pepper abandoned the keyword search and started browsing Obadiah's personal files instead. Most were encrypted, but one folder had a strange name—"Sector 16."
She tried clicking on it.
There was no password.
The moment the folder opened, Pepper's pupils contracted.
On the screen were design schematics for a massive, monstrous suit of armor.
It was an iron behemoth, far bulkier and cruder than Tony's suit, imbued with a raw, violent aesthetic. Every component radiated a chilling, murderous intent.
In the bottom-right corner of the schematic, its designation was marked in red font: "Iron Monger."
A chill shot up from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head.
This went far beyond illegal arms deals. Obadiah was secretly developing his own iron suit! What was he planning?
Her hand moved uncontrollably as she scrolled further and clicked on a video file in the folder.
The filename was a string of dates. The very day Tony had disappeared in Afghanistan.
The video began to play. The footage was shaky and dark, the location a mountainous region in Afghanistan. A group of terrorists armed with Stark weapons were surrounding someone.
As the camera zoomed in, Pepper saw the man's face clearly. It was the leader of the Ten Rings, the man with the scarred face.
And the person standing opposite him, the one he was talking to...
Pepper slapped a hand over her mouth, stifling the scream that threatened to erupt from her throat.
That man, the one who had sold Tony out to the terrorists, was Obadiah Stane! The "Obie" Tony had always respected and trusted like an uncle!
In the video, Obadiah's voice came through clearly, laced with a condescending chill.
"...Kill him, bring the suit back, and Stark Industries will be ours."
Boom. It was as if a bomb had gone off in her head.
Rage, fear, betrayal... a tsunami of emotions crashed over her. Staring at Obadiah's familiar face on the screen, she felt the world spin, her stomach churning violently.
It was him!
He had orchestrated everything! Kidnapping Tony, stealing the armor, trying to take over all of Stark Industries!
Pepper forced herself to calm down. She couldn't panic. She absolutely couldn't.
She had to get this evidence out. She had to tell Tony the truth!
Her fingers flew across the keyboard, copying the entire "Sector 16" folder—including the damning video—onto the flash drive.
The progress bar crept across the screen, each second feeling like an eternity.
[COPY COMPLETE]
The moment the notification sounded, Pepper yanked out the flash drive, clutching it tightly in her palm.
She stood up, stumbled, and grabbed the desk to steady herself. She had to get out of there. Now.
But just as she turned, the office door swung open without a sound.
A tall figure stood in the doorway, blocking all the light, leaving only a dark silhouette.
"Pepper?"
Obadiah's voice was as gentle as an elder concerned for a junior. He was holding a glass of whiskey, that trademark, affable smile on his face.
"Still here this late? You work too hard."
Pepper's blood ran cold.
She instinctively moved the hand clutching the flash drive behind her back, forcing a smile that was uglier than a grimace.
"O... Obie. I... I just came back for a file." Her voice was an uncontrollable tremor.
Obadiah walked in slowly, his leather shoes making dull, rhythmic thuds on the floor, each one landing like a blow to Pepper's heart.
His gaze swept over the illuminated computer screen before settling on Pepper's pale face, his smile growing more meaningful.
"Is that so?"
He walked right up to her, his massive frame completely eclipsing her.
"Did you find what you were looking for?"
Those words plunged Pepper into an icy abyss.
He knew.
He knew everything!
As if sensing the suffocating pressure, the office lights began to flicker.
The smile on Obadiah's face didn't change, but the kind light in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a bottomless cold and murderous intent.
He slowly raised his hand, not to strike, but to gently place it on Pepper's shoulder.
"Child, you shouldn't have come here."
His voice was as soft as a devil's whisper, yet it carried an undeniable force.
"Some things, once you see them... you can never unsee them."