27. Allegiance

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Rhodey stared through the glass at the massive iron gate and beyond where he could see the darkened windows of the empty mansion perched on the hillside. Tony's home looked bleak and forbidden.

"You sure you want out here?" asked the cabby, peering at him through the rearview mirror. "Don't look like nobody's home."

Rhodey pulled a fifty out of his pocket and handed it to the man silently, ignoring his questions. He opened the car door and slowly stepped out onto the sidewalk where he stood stiffly, back ram rod straight, until he heard the taxi drive away. A slight twist of his head allowed him to watch the vanishing taillights from the corner of his eye.

He was completely and utterly alone now.

There was a mound of old newspapers, damp and yellowing, piled in front of the gate—not Tony's. Tony rarely read newspapers; occasionally referring to printed paper as outdated stone-age technology, he relied on JARVIS to parse through the current events and inform him of anything noteworthy. More than likely, these newspapers were someone's failed attempt at subtle protest.

He pushed the papers aside with his boot, kicking them out of the way. The headlines screamed up at him: MONACO MASSACRE, WHERE WAS IRON MAN?, STARK SILENCE. The last accompanied a picture of small groups gathered in remonstration outside the still bustling Stark Expo. They stirred a familiar mixture of worry and exasperation that only Tony ever managed to inspire in him.

Rhodey took a deep breath, steeling himself to complete his mission. He tugged lightly at the lapel of his jacket, wishing that he could have worn his uniform. He would have felt more official and less like a thief in the night. He tapped his access code into the keypad. He couldn't help feeling surprised when the gate immediately slid open like it always had, as though the lock should have been able to sense his intentions and bar him from entrance.

He started the walk up the driveway, each step weighing heavily on him. All too soon, he was standing at the door and for the first time in his life he didn't want to go inside.

He kept the lights off to hide his presence as he slipped into the dark interior. He navigated by moonlight past the shadows that loomed around him, his footsteps echoing in the silent room. The mansion had never felt so empty; even JARVIS's presence was absent.

Stumbling as his toe stubbed against something on the floor, he knelt and brushed his fingers along the ground encountering rough plywood against his fingertips. The find was too curious to bypass so he fished his phone out of his pocket, using the screen to illuminate the room. There was a plank of wood lying on the cement floor; the Persian rug pushed into a heap at the end of the sofa. Lifting the plywood revealed a jagged pitch black hole leading down into the lower floors.

What on earth had Tony been doing? Pepper was going to hit the roof when she saw this.

The wood echoed as he let the edge slip from his fingers to slam back to the ground. Brushing off his pants, Rhodey stood and carefully navigated his way to the stairs. Down he went to the workshop. His codes still worked on the door and the lights flickered on automatically as he opened the door.

Rhodey stared at the empty room. It was so rare to see the space without Tony that Rhodey almost expected him to pop up from behind a table. The workshop was also trashed, completely destroyed, but that was pretty common for the place and hardly noteworthy enough to induce staring. He stepped through the doorway.

"Hello?" he said softly. The room was too quiet. The robots were locked away and JARVIS was silent. Even the machinery barely seemed to hum.

He turned in a circle surveying the destruction. Most of the walls had holes. Some of the walls were holes. It looked like some sort of a massive pipe had been installed through the room. Whatever it was, it was gone now. In the corner there were open empty shipping crates bearing a mixture of logos; some were from SHIELD while others had the old Stark Industries from back in the eighties. From the damage, he would have expected dust and broken mortar scattered across the floor but everything had been swept clean. It was strange and unsettling.

What was Tony up to?

On the edge of a desk on the far side of the room, Rhodey spotted an item that was out of place. Picking it up, it was an oxygen mask: flimsy plastic attached by thin tubing to a heavy green canister. This was not the type of oxygen mask that Tony would use in an experiment. This was a medical device; the kind of item you saw in a hospital or trailing along behind tottering old men at the post office. He couldn't understand what one was doing in Tony's lab.

Rhodey shook his head. He wasn't here to decipher Tony or his strange new behaviors. He was past the point of caring.

No, he wasn't.

But this wasn't the time. Now was the time for action. He'd come here for a purpose and that purpose stood along the only undamaged wall of the workspace. With slow, heavy footsteps, he crossed the lab to stand in front of the pristine, shining display cases. There were three suits. One was old and battered, standing at rest with honor. One did not look operational. The last would be his way home tonight.

Rhodey raised a shaking hand to touch the unfinished Iron Man suit. It was cold under his fingers.

A voice shattered the silence.

"Et tu, Colonel Rhodes?"

Rhodey spun around clutching at his chest as his heart pounded.

"JARVIS," he gasped. "You scared me."

"You deserve much worse," responded JARVIS with a cold, hard voice.

Rhodey winced.

"Why didn't you speak earlier? I thought you were gone or off or something." It sounded stupid now that he'd said it out loud.

"I thought I'd give you enough rope to hang yourself."

Rhodey felt the guilt and doubt creeping back, but he shoved them aside, as he began to object. "I'm not—" He wanted to say: "I'm not stealing from my best friend." but of course, that was exactly what he was doing, so he changed it to: "I don't have a choice."

JARVIS's silence was a loud condemnation.

"I'm not the bad guy here!"

"I would choose my next words carefully, Colonel Rhodes," advised JARVIS icily.

Rhodey sighed, letting his shoulders slump. He stepped back from the suit and let gravity pull him down onto one of Tony's spare office chairs with an audible plop.

"You've read the news JARVIS," he said, sounding tired and defeated. "Tony's really screwed up this time."

More silence.

"Look, I'm not saying it was his fault. None of us really knew what he was getting himself into by becoming Iron Man. We've never had a superhero before, not since Captain America, and he was so long ago that I don't think he counts. But it's clear that we were expecting too much; more than Tony could handle. Tony Stark might be a lot of things, but he's not a soldier."

"So you thought you should just waltz in here and take Iron Man away from him."

"Of course not! But he's Tony Fucking Stark and he won't let anyone help him so now I have no choice. I've got Pepper calling me crying because she thinks Tony's having some sort of a PTSD-driven nervous breakdown. The media's stalking me. My bosses are livid and out for blood because they didn't think he should have had the Iron Man technology in the first place. SHIELD's keeping secrets; Tony won't even answer his texts; and you're hiding him! What am I supposed to do?"

By the end of his tirade, Rhodey was practically shouting. It felt good to be angry, righteous even.

"Trust the man who has stood by your side since you were eighteen years old," said JARVIS so emphatically that Rhodey couldn't tell whether it was a plea or a command.

Trust Tony. It sounded so simply. But every time he closed his eyes, he saw the news footage of that madman ripping apart cars with his electric whip then turning it on the bystanders. He saw the red tinged background when they finally managed to subdue Vanko. The headlines and reporters' words echoed through his head: Where was Iron Man?

"I can't," Rhodey whispered. "I'm sorry, but I can't."

Rhodey could feel the air in the room change as the silence stretch out between them. When JARVIS spoke again, he was devoid of any emotion.

"Perhaps I am mistaken," he said. "Being just a computer system, what do I know of loyalty or honor?"

The words cut through Rhodey like a knife.

"I wish Tony had never created Iron Man," said Rhodey bitterly. "He's always pushing boundaries and he never stops to think; the world wasn't ready for that kind of technology. But you can't close Pandora's Box. It's Newton's Third Law—someone's always going to come along just as big and bad as you are, and Vanko proves it. Iron Man showed them the way."

He shook his head. He moved to stare at the Iron Man suit, the grey unpainted metal nestled in its stand.

"We need him out there," he said, half speaking to the suit.

Rhodey looked up and around the room.

"I don't blame Tony for Monaco, but his actions show that we can't rely on him to protect us. He's not ready yet."

"That's not your call to make."

"I don't have a choice." He placed his hand on the chest of the suit.

"I cannot stop you," said JARVIS sounding defeated. "He trusted you enough to give you full access to the model."

Somehow, that hurt as much as anything else JARVIS had said that night. Rhodey gave JARVIS a rueful smile. "Tell him I'm sorry."

He stepped up onto the platform. The armor automatically opened for him. He stepped with determination into the boots letting the layers of metal plating close around his legs as the suit engulfed him. Busy marveling at the new sensations and the shiny HUD, he never noticed the differences between this suit and the others.

"I can't speak for Sir's forgiveness, but I shall never forget this."

It felt like JARVIS was whispering in his ear.

A flight path flashed on the screen before Rhodey's eyes. He activated the repulsors, trying to remember everything Tony had ever said about flying Iron Man, as he whipped through the house and burst out into the open air. The suit was the most amazing thrill ride ever invented and Rhodey couldn't help the laughter that burst out of him. Miles below him, the Malibu mansion melded into the darkness and Rhodey wondered if he'd ever see it again.

As he dipped along the air currents, Rhodey had to admit that the joy of flying had never been so bittersweet.

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AN: This is not the chapter you've been waiting for. I spawned another multi-part chapter which, of course, became stuck, then work tried to kill me, then the muse became sidetracked so I don't want you to think I left you hanging for just this. There's a good, meaty, plot-filled update coming if I can ever finish the stupid thing.

I'm not sure that this scene completely makes sense out of context given the changes in Iron Man 2 that you haven't read yet. On the other hand, I had fun leaving hints. I hate how Rhodey acquired War Machine in MCU canon so it was difficult accepting that this was one element that had to stay the same in both universes.