A/N: Guest reviewer (AKAAKAAK): "THIS IS THE WORST STORY TO EVER GRACE A WEBSITE! YOU ARE HORRIBLE AT STORYS! I WILL NEVER READ YOUR STORYS EVER! I HATE YOU!" Wow, my first flame! This is exciting. Although I'd hoped my first flame would be more well-constructed, at least pointing out why I am "horrible at storys." Darling, I applaud your effort, but please try not to sound like an angry second grader when you type. I'd take you much more seriously if you had a good argument for why you hate me and if you were more familiar with basic pluralization.

That being said, the rest of the support I've been getting from you readers has been marvelous! Thank you all very much!

Also yeah the update time wasn't a week, I'm sorry, we went on vacation and school started again. But i'm back with the final chapter!

Also, you know what's cool? This story took exactly a year to do. Published it September 15, 2013, and I actually didn't plan it that way.

Tony twitched as Obadiah yanked the arc's wired from his chest. That was the most frightening part, Fiona thought, that he was literally being killed before her eyes and the most he could do was twitch. She tried to cry out to him, but could only managed a faint moaning sound. Obie glanced over at her.

"Don't worry, Fiona, I haven't forgotten you!" He placed the arc reactor in his briefcase, closed it almost lazily and sauntered over, squatting down next to her. He flicked her leg brace, visible thanks to the cutoff shorts she wore. She could do no more than breathe shakily and give him what she hoped was a murderous glare. He unclipped the bands that wrapped around her leg and pulled it off, gazing at the delicate device.

"Powered by kinetics. You know, the possible functions of this are limitless. You Starks are so clingy with your inventions." He slipped the brace inside his case as well and stood up. "This is for the best, Fiona. The two of you will see." He appeared to reconsider. "Well...maybe you won't. He ground the heel of his polished shoe into the side of her knee. Fiona was unable to do more then let out choked whimpers. Obadiah chuckled and strode out of the room. Fiona strained her limbs, willing them to move again. To her relief, she found she could grasp at the carpet and began dragging herself over to Tony. It was slow going, though, and she found herself gasping for air after moving about three feet. There was a soft /thump/ from in front of her, and she raised her head to see Tony on the floor, slowly making his way toward her on hands and knees. With a burst of energy, she resumed her slow trek toward her brother. They met by the low coffee table and Tony, panting, raised himself up into a kneeling position. Fiona attempted the same, only to be halted by a stabbing pain in her knee. Obadiah's show had actually opened a small gash on her leg. A weak cry escaped her lips and she nearly fell back to the carpet, but a sweaty- yet firm- hand wrapped around her upper arm, holding her up. She put all her weight on her left leg and, with gritted teeth, pushed herself upright. With a huge effort, she managed to pull Tony up from his kneeling position. Together, supporting one another, the siblings made their shaky way to the elevator.

"Workshop," Tony gasped, and Fiona jammed a finger onto the button. They leaned against the wall as the elevator traveled downward. Tony's breath was coming in shorter and shorter gasps. Fiona pressed her fingers onto the side of his neck. His pulse was fluttery, erratic and weak. When the elevator slowed, Tony lurched away from her supporting arm and staggered out into the lab. Without him to balance on, Fiona's leg gave way under her and she went crashing to the ground. Tony followed quickly, falling forward and crawling toward his workbench. Fiona could hear his loud breaths from her spot in the elevator. She dragged herself forward as the doors began sliding shut and they bumped into her sides before reversing their course. Tony was stretching for something on the workbench. Fiona could see the top half of a glass box...her present! It had Tony's old reactor in it! Tony was just out of reach, his fingers brushing it and pushing it away from the edge. Finally, Tony was unable to hold himself up anymore and collapsed back to the ground, panting. Fiona was desperate to make it over to him, but what could she do? She could barely stand any better than Tony. Still, she half-crawled, half-dragged herself across the workshop floor to fall next to Tony.

"I'll rig up something," she mumbled. "I can reach it-" Tony's hand flopped onto her head, carding his fingers through her hair in a weak version of a familiar gesture of comfort.

"You're kidding yourself," he gasped. "Not enough time." Fiona struggled to right herself but stopped at the sight of Dummy- wonderful, klutzy Dummy- holding the glass box in his "hand." Fiona sobbed in relief. Tony turned to see what was causing the reaction. Even dying, his mind was swift. He took the box from Dummy and with a quiet "Good boy," smashed it on the ground between him and Fiona. Fiona scrambled to free the reactor from the base, heedless of the glass shards digging into her palms. She worked swiftly, connecting the reactor to the ports buried in Tony's chest. Tony shuddered briefly before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out. Fiona splayed a hand on his chest, relieved to find that the rhythm of his heart was evening out. It was still weak, but it was better than before. The relief and adrenaline masked the pain in her leg for a minute, but it soon returned with a vengeance. She saw spots in her vision and she struggled to avoid joining her brother in unconsciousness. There was a nasty feeling in her stomach and he suddenly found herself emptying the contents onto the floor. Thankfully, she managed to turn away from Tony. She spit to rid her mouth of the acrid taste. She sucked in a breath through her nose, then pushed herself up onto her hands and good knee, holding her right slightly off the ground. She reached up with her left hand, slapping it on the workstation and placing as much weight as she could on it. In one swift and /incredibly/ painful movement, she hopped up into a standing position, hanging onto the table so tightly her knuckles turned white. And then she heard it.

"Tony?" Fiona nearly passed out with relief at the sound of Rhodey's voice.

"Rhodey, help!" she cried, her voice breaking slightly in the middle of the second word. She heard hurried footsteps coming down the stairs to the workshop. There was the sound of glass crunching underfoot as Rhodey came upon the destroyed windows. He took in Tony's prone form and Fiona clinging to the desk, and took a few hurried paces through the window frame. Gently, he scooped her up bridal-style and set her in a nearby rolling chair before dropping to the ground next to Tony. Fiona used her good leg to propel the chair first to the first aid kit on the wall, where she grabbed a roll of gauze and wrapped her leg. She then rolled herself over to the desk and pulled open a drawer. Inside was her original brace, the one the military brace doctors had given her. She buckled it on, knowing with a nasty feeling that without her kinetic brace she wouldn't be able to power her suit. There was a small amount of power left in the suit from her last flight, but she was still working on developing power stormed and it wasn't very effective. It would have to do, though.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Fiona faced her brother as their suits assembled around their bodies. Fiona relaxed slightly as her suit closed over her knees, relieving some of the pain.

"We can do this," Tony said. Fiona nodded as the faceplate slotted over her face. Her eyes flicked to the power readout. /34%/ blinked in red. She gritted her teeth.

"Tony, I can't hold out for very long, and neither can you and you know it."

"We'll make it work," he said after a beat of silence. With that, his boot jets roared and he soared out of the garage. Fiona followed.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The twins soared over the bright city toward the company plant. As they neared the complex, Tony called Pepper, putting it through Fiona's helmet as well. Fiona nearly fell out of the sky when she heard Pepper's panicked "He built a suit."

"Sir and ma'am, I am picking up unusual ground activity at Ms. Potts' location," said Jarvis.

"Pepper, get out of there now!" Tony yelled. The siblings were close enough to see the pavement crack and crumble near Pepper's feet. She scrambled back as a metal behemoth rose from the ground.

Fiona let out a few choice expletives.

"Where do you think you're going?" roared Obadiah. He laughed, looming over the secretary. "Your services are no longer required," he intoned menacingly as he lifted an arm, preparing to shoot. Tony dove.

"Stane!" he yelled as he shot towards the bulky suit on the ground. Obadiah turned the guns on Tony as he approached but was too slow as Tony crashed into him, knocking him through the side of a building. Fiona descended quickly, landing in front of Pepper.

"You okay?" she asked the terrified redhead. Pepper nodded. Fiona held out her arms. "I'm getting you out of here. Come on." Pepper wrapped her arms around the neck of the suit and Fiona wrapped one of hers around Pepper's waist before blasting off.

"Jarvis, put me through to Agent Coulson," she said. Jarvis did as asked, and momentarily she heard Coulson's voice in her ear.

"Miss Stark. What's your status?"

"Tony's fighting with Stane. I've got Pepper and I'm bringing her to you. Where are you?" Coulson gave her the location and soon she had dropped Pepper with the agents before soaring back to the SI complex and landing on the roof.

"Eighteen percent power, ma'am," said Jarvis helpfully

"Not now, please. Tony? What's going on?" She could see two figures rising into the sky, one small and swift, the other larger and releasing huge clouds of smoke behind it.

"Uh...setback," said Tony. She watched as Stane caught up to Tony, grabbing his ankle. She was beginning her flight up to help when Tony whacked Obadiah on the head, sending him tumbling down. "Heh. Icing problem," said Tony. Fiona couldn't help but crack a smile, which vanished as Tony's boot jets flickered and he dropped a few feet. "Oh boy."

"Mr. Stark's suit is running on emergency power." Tony descended choppily, dropping several dozen yards before his jets would kick in, slowing the fall. Finally, he crashed down a few yards from Fiona. She took a few steps and helped him to his feet.

"Help me out of this thing," he said, pulling off a glove and gauntlet. Fiona began disengaging pieces of the armor, but she'd only succeeded in removing a piece of the plating on his side when there was an almighty crash as Stane landed on the roof, power apparently restored to his suit. He swung a metal fist, which Tony ducked, but caught Fiona in the side of the head. She was sent bouncing across the rooftop. Her vision spun as she got to her hands and knees and there was an awful throbbing on the side of her head. The warm wetness trickling down by her ear couldn't have been good either. Meanwhile, Stane had Tony in a bear hug. Fiona could hear the metal screeching as he squeezed.

"Flares!" Tony cried. Bursts of light and smoke began erupting around his head. Obadiah's grip on Tony loosened and he slipped free. Fiona lost track of him in the smoke spreading to cover the rooftop, but on the upside, Stane didn't appear to be able to see her either. She ducked behind a large vent shaft.

"Fiona," Tony whispered.

"You all right?" she asked in the same hushed tone.

"This isn't working." This was one of those times when Fiona wanted to let her inner typical teen slip through and let loose a Duh, but she stayed quiet as Tony kept talking. "We're going to have to overload the reactor and blast the roof. You need to get down there and hit the master bypass button. It'll fry everything up here. I'll buy you some time." Fiona whispered her agreement and headed for the edge of the roof. She jumped, landed solidly, and wished she had slowed her fall as spasms of pain flashed across her head. She stayed in her landing position for a moment while she waited for her dizziness to subside, then hurried into the building. She began the bypass sequence and waited for Tony's word.

What came instead, however, was the sudden appearance of Tony's legs dangling from what remained of the glass paneling in the roof. Fiona cried out as the glass around him shattered and rained down on her. Fortunately, she had opted not to begin removing her suit.

The cover of the bypass button flipped open, signaling the completion of the sequence.

"Tony, it's ready! You need to move!" she yelled.

"Do it!" he shouted back.

"Are you insane?! You're going to be killed!"

"Just do it!" he yelled. Fiona let out something that was half-frustrated scream, half-sob and pressed the button. Electricity began crackling around her, licking at the suit. She tried to lift off, but her boots wouldn't jet.

"Jarvis, what's left?" she shouted over the growing roar.

"Five percent, ma'am."

"Everything to boot jets!" The jets sputtered and finally lifted her off the floor. She rose up, grabbing Tony around the chest and shooting through the hole in the roof. She dove to the side as electricity surged upward through the hole, taking Tony with her to land in a sprawled tangle of limbs near the edge. She fought the waves of dizziness sweeping over her as she watched Stane, unmasked, jitter with electricity and fall down towards the reactor. As the blackness edged in on her vision, the last thing she saw was a fiery mushroom cloud blossoming over their heads.

Tony...

Then she lost the fight, and slipped into oblivion.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Everything hurt. If she was dead, shouldn't she feel amazing? Maybe Tony could tell her. She should find him. Opening her eyes would help with that. She struggled to open her eyes, the lids of which felt like they'd been coated in lead. Finally, she cracked them enough to inspect her surroundings. In her line of sight was a white tiled ceiling. She let her head flop to one side. There was a window. She couldn't see much from her vantage point, just early- morning sky and the tops of a few buildings. The other side held much better things. Dozing in a chair near the foot of the bed, hair tousled and clothes rumpled, was her brother, alive and well.

"Tony..." Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. She cleared her throat, about to try again, but that sound had done it. Tony jerked upright, mumbling something incoherent before his eyes met Fiona's. She could see a few small scrapes on his face but nothing leapt from the chair and smothered her in a hug, lifting her off the pillows that propped her up. She draped heavy arms over his back as he moved one hand up to clutch the back of her head.

"Ow..." she mumbled, but she didn't really care.

"We need to stop with the near-death scares," Tony said.

"I agree..." Fiona said, slightly dazedly. She was starting to feel dizzy and held onto her brother like a lifeline. The hug would probably have lasted as long as the one they had shared when Tony had returned from captivity had a young nurse not entered the room carrying a clipboard.

"Glad you see you're up, Miss Stark," he said. "Mr. Stark, if you don't mind, there are just a few things I'd like to check with your sister- she has a fairly large concussion." The nurse proceeded to run through several tests, both physical and mental. After a positive prognosis, the nurse left, leaving the Starks alone again. Tony pulled the chair closer to the head of the bed.

"I know you just woke up and all, but are you dealing with all of this okay? I mean, in the past 24 hours, the man who was basically like our father tried to murder us several times." Fiona stared at the ceiling tiles.

"I guess. Honestly..." She hesitated to voice her next thought.

"You're not surprised, are you?" Tony asked quietly. "I know. He's changed over the years. I saw it happen. I guess he just finally slipped over the edge." Fiona nodded. The two slipped into silent contemplation. And a nap on Fiona's part- she was exhausted.

Towards midday, Tony's phone rang.

"Hello? What? No, are you joking? I can't do that, my sister is...I don't care if people want answers, I want to know Fiona's okay!" He passed a hand over his eyes. "Dammit...fine. Twenty minutes. No more." He hung up. "I need to make Pepper my PR manager. They want to do a damn press conference about last night. I told them no because you're here, but they wouldn't budge. I'm so sorry, Fi." Fiona shook her head.

"I'll be fine here, Tony. Really. And you've been here all night. It'd do you good to go and put something fresh on." Tony looked affronted.

"Is that a subtle way of telling me I smell?" Fiona smirked.

"Maybe. Now go get ready." Tony leaned down and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"All right. You win." He picked something off the floor and handed it to her. She unfolded that day's paper. "You might get a kick out of that. I'll see you later." Tony slipped out of the room. Fiona glanced down at the paper

New hero "alloys?" Iron duo protecting the skies proclaimed the big type. Fiona snorted at the headline, then began to read the accompanying article. It was just as ridiculous as the headlines because of how little was known about the fight at Stark Industries. What little was known was there were robots fighting, several explosions, and a huge blackout. She tossed the paper aside and reached for the TV remote.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

When the press conference was scheduled to begin, Fiona flipped channels until she hit a major news network. Tony was stepping up to the podium.

"Please don't mess things up again, Tony," Fiona prayed out loud, as though her brother could hear her. Tony cleared his throat.

"Been a while since I was in front of you. I figure I'll stick to the cards this time. There's been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway and the rooftop-" He was cut off by a journalist in the front row.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared, despite the fact that you-"

"Cards, Tony, cards," pleaded Fiona.

"I know that it's confusing. It is one thing to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusations, or insinuate that I'm a superhero." The journalist paused.

"I never said you were a superhero." Tony blinked.

"Didn't? Well, good, because that would be outlandish and fantastic." Tony sighed and shuffled the cards around in his hand. "I'm not the hero type. Clearly, with this laundry list of character defects and the mistakes I've made, largely public. But...Fiona, my sister, she makes up for everything and helps balance me out."

"That's sweet but don't you drag me into this," Fiona muttered.

"And where is your sister?" the journalist asked. "Was she involved in last night's events?" Tony opened his mouth. Rhodey, behind him, leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Tony blinked again. He scanned the crowd, his face going oddly blank.

"The truth is...my sister and I...we...we are the Iron Duo." Fiona fell back against her pillows with a groan, covering her face with her hands. On screen, the reporters were clamoring loudly, dozens of flashbulbs going off. Fiona was about to reach for her phone and call Tony right then and there while she could see him on TV, but something stopped her. Maybe Tony was on to something. Maybe they could do something really good with the tech they'd created. Maybe the Iron Duo wasn't such a bad idea- but that name had to change.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The next day, Fiona was released from the hospital. She and Tony made their way home via a small, plain car. Tony greeted the house with the usual "Jarvis!" but tonight, nothing happened. The siblings slowly made their way further into their darkened house. Tony stopped dead in view of the living room. Fiona peered around him. A dark figure was standing in front of the panoramic window.

"'We are the Iron Duo,'" he said. "You two really think you're the only superheroes in the world?"

"Uh, I-I don't think we ever-" Fiona placed a finger on her brother's mouth, silencing him.

"Who are you?" she asked. The man turned around. He was African-American and wore a black eyepatch over his left eye.

"You two have become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet."

"Again, who the hell are you?" Tony asked.

"Nick Fury. Director of SHIELD. I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative."

Aaaaand it's done! What did you guys think? Should I do IM2 or The Avengers? Leave a review and watch out for a X-Men story coming! Hope you enjoyed it!

-Ophelia