Chapter 10: Arnim Zola

Chapter 10: Arnim Zola

A/N: Tony is still working on Pepper, but that doesn't mean he can't multitask~

-x-X-x-

“F-Fuck... Tony...”

Pepper’s moan is like music to his ears, even as Tony drives himself inside of her once, twice... and then one final time before tipping over the edge. Beneath him, Pepper is laid out, covered in sweat and having drenched the bedding under her as well by this point. Her body shudders for a moment before relaxing as Tony smiles down at her.

“You alright, Pep?”

After catching her breath for a moment, Pepper huffs.

“... Fine, Tony. But... you’re still hard. I don’t think I can keep going.”

Smiling softly, Tony just pulls out of her and shakes his head.

“It’s alright Pepper. You don’t have to push yourself too hard.”

While it’s true that he could keep going, he’s not going to risk hurting the beautiful red head under him. He’s not going to demand anything of her that might risk her health. Though that doesn’t stop Pepper from glancing to the side where Maya Hansen is laid out, fucked into unconsciousness already.

The three of them have been going at it for a while now. Hours in fact. And Tony has barely broken a sweat. Pepper and Maya though... they’ve reached their limits. Biting her lower lip, Pepper lets out a shuddering breath.

“Maybe... maybe you could talk to Helen?”

Tony rolls his eyes with a laugh.

“I’m not going to proposition Dr. Cho just because I tired the two of you out, Pepper. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. Maya was one thing... I knew she’d be into it, being with us. Helen... well, we’ll see. I’m not some insatiable incubus just because I’m a little stronger, Pepper. Not about to pin Helen down and have my way with her. Of course, if you really wanted to keep up with me...”

Tony trails off there, even as Pepper’s expression shutters a little bit. He immediately raises his hands in surrender.

“Sorry. Not trying to bring it up again. Just... felt appropriate.”

Pepper bites her lower lip and shakes her head.

“I’m just not sure, Tony. It was one thing for you... you shouldn’t have had to live with a metaphorical guillotine blade over your head for the rest of your life.”

Tony wordlessly inclines his head in acknowledgment of her words. The pieces of shrapnel that the first the car battery and then the Arc Reactor had been keeping from entering his heart and killing him had indeed been akin to a guillotine just waiting to fall, or perhaps a Sword of Damocles if one wanted to go even further back.

To say nothing of the loss in lung capacity that his injury had given him. Humans weren’t meant to have a massive metal housing unit for an unlimited energy source embedded in their chests. Who knew? Tony had never felt better... never felt more powerful. And not just because he was a Super Soldier with a stabilized version of Extremis running through his veins either. It was more than that.

Unfortunately, while Pepper still didn’t know that the stabilizing agent he’d used for Extremis was Super Soldier Serum, she knew enough to be a little bit leery of his offer to dose her with the same stuff.

“It’s just... I’ve seen how strong you are now, Tony. I’m not sure I want to be that strong. Nor do I need to be that strong. I get why you want to be careful about what forms of Extremis we commercialize, because if everyone was as strong as you...”

Pepper is a smart girl. She’s had the same realizations as he had, especially after seeing Maya and Helen run Tony through several different tests. The Extremis was holding steady. Tony wasn’t going to blow up, probably not ever. But his strength was off the charts. And he could regenerate from pretty much anything.

He was starting to suspect that cutting off one of his fingers and regrowing it in front of Pepper’s eyes hadn’t been a good idea, in hindsight. While Maya and Helen had been engrossed in watching the digit regenerate all on its own, Pepper had looked rather ill.

The only problem was, Tony fully believed Pepper did need to be that strong. She thought she was safe because she had Tony. And to be fair, Tony was confident that he could protect her the vast majority of the time. But what about the times he couldn’t protect her?

Pulling Pepper into his embrace, Tony buries his face in her hair and breathes in her scent.

“... I just don’t want to lose you, Pep.”

She hugs him back as they cuddle there in silence for a moment. Finally, she responds, though her voice is already getting sleepy. He’s tuckered her out just as he did Maya.

“You won’t, Tony. You don’t need to worry. Everything... will be okay.”

Heh, she really has no idea. He’s almost tempted to tell her. Almost tempted to explain that no, everything will not be okay. But... Maya is right there. And Pepper falls asleep soon enough, with Tony still indecisive.

He lays there with the two women curled up against him for a brief time, before letting out a sigh and slowly extricating himself from their clutches. They’re both far too exhausted to actually wake up, and in the end, they wind up holding each other when he turns to regard them for a moment. Then, he glances up at the ceiling.

“We ready, J?”

“Yes Sir.”

-x-X-x-

Stark’s AI suffered no such issues. And from what Arnim could see now... the creation was neither an uploaded mind like Zola’s, nor was it shackled. Stark had created an unshackled Artificial Intelligence. Panic seeps into Zola’s voice, even as he finds himself being hemmed in rather quickly now that Stark’s AI is no longer hiding his true capabilities.

“Do you know what you’ve done, Stark? Do you know what you’ve unleashed upon the world?!”

Stark laughs at Arnim’s terror.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. J wouldn’t hurt a fly. Nazi Scum on the other hand...”

“Taking out the trash, Sir.”

Arnim tries to scream, but the sound doesn’t even leave his speakers. In an instant, he’s boxed in, trapped in his own systems as the much larger, much stronger Artificial Intelligence takes over. He’s still alive, for as much as something like him can be alive. But he’s no longer in control. He’s nothing more than a puppet for his new Masters. Tony Stark... and a being that designates itself as Just A Rather Very Intelligent System.

JARVIS for short.

-x-X-x-

“Done then, J?”

Standing there under the bunker in Camp Lehigh, Tony raises an eyebrow as he glances at the ceiling. Old habit at this point. After a moment, JARVIS’ voice comes through, posh and British as ever.

“Yes Sir. Arnim Zola is contained. All of the information he was privy to is now ours. All the backdoors he had into SHIELD and HYDRA databases now belong to us, even if they manage to block me from the ways I’ve already been using to plunder their information.”

Tony grins, unable to help muttering under his breath.

“All your base are belong to us...”

“Indeed, Sir.”

Grin widening, Tony looks around for a moment. With this... with this, the first step towards dealing with HYDRA and SHIELD had been taken. And while there would be many, many more steps to go, this first step would definitely make the rest a whole lot easier. Because with this, JARVIS had effectively taken over as Arnim Zola. It was the perfect bit of treachery. HYDRA was always on the lookout for double agents, of course. So was SHIELD.

But Zola? The uploaded intelligence was so far beyond reproach it wasn’t even funny. He was the father of Modern Day HYDRA, specifically the HYDRA that had been regrown and nurtured within the rotted corpse of SHIELD. They trusted him implicitly, especially since he acted in more of an advisory role rather than like some dictator who expected his every order to be obeyed.

... Technically, Tony could have used JARVIS to destroy the HYDRA branch in SHIELD in a matter of days now that they had Zola as a façade. He wouldn’t though. Because Tony had plans and those plans involved using HYDRA right up until they weren’t useful anymore.

Pierce and all of them would get their due one day. Just not today or tomorrow.

Still, the smile fades from his face after a moment as he finds himself thinking about his current real problem. One Pepper Potts and how to convince her to join him in the realm of superhuman. He wanted to offer the Extremis Super Soldier Serum to a few others as well, but until she said yes, he wouldn’t expand his net. Pepper had to be second after him, or no one else would get it at all. Just... he wasn’t sure how to convince her of how dire the need was.

“If I may, Sir.”

Blinking, Tony looks up from his thoughts.

“Yeah J?”

“I can tell you are struggling with how to convince Ms. Potts that she needs the most powerful form of Extremis. Have you considered telling her the truth?”

Tony’s mouth opens... and then closes. After a beat, he laughs.

“Of course I have, J. I just... I know you believed me, but what if she doesn’t? What if she thinks I’m lying? What if she thinks I’m crazy?”

“Based on all current projections, it is the best method of getting what you want, Sir. Of course, your other option is to dose her against her will, Sir.”

Tony flinches at that. He doesn’t want to do that. He’s still been tempted a few times, but he doesn’t want to do anything to hurt Pepper and that breach of trust would be pretty damn harmful. That said...

“Fuck J. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I have to tell her.”

Tony’s mind whirls as he considers the dilemma. Pepper needs to be safe. And that means she needs to be strong and capable of defending herself. Removing Extremis from her in the original timeline had made the most sense since it wasn’t stable and she would have died the same as all the others without constant monitoring and fresh doses of the drug. But Tony couldn’t deny that he wished he’d just stabilized the damn thing instead so she’d survive the plane crash just a few years later.

Now... he refused to let Pepper stay so squishy, so weak, so... vulnerable. And that meant JARVIS was right. He only had two options. Tell her the truth to convince her of the danger... or dose her without her knowledge.

-x-X-x-

Plug: If you're interested in reading more ASAP, you can sign up over on right now to read EIGHT chapters ahead!

If you like what you read, please throw me a Favorite, Read, or even a Review so I can try to get this in front of as many eyes as possible!

A/N: Not to worry, the whole 'keep Pepper safe' situation gets handled next chapter once and for all~

In the meantime, what do you guys think Tony will ultimately do with Zola as a facade? Admittedly, it's gonna be a little while before he actually makes use of his new toy, heh.