"Ma'am." JARVIS's voice breaks the silence she was working in.

Toni tilted her head, blank expression twitching. "JARVIS?"

"It seems—" His voice darkens. "—That we have an unexpected visitor."

"Oh?" Her brows raised in mock surprise. "Well, best go greet this visitor. Drop Pepper a text, would you, Baby-boy?"

Toni stood and moved for the door, a smirk curling onto her lips.

JARVIS had not spoken a word once she left the safety of the workshop because while Stane believed to have shut him off, it was far from the truth.

As if Toni would allow something like that to affect her child.

She purposely made noise to draw Stane's attention—perhaps it was stupid, but in that moment, she knew it was what she needed to do.

Toni hears a whisper of fabric, footsteps behind her, and whirls around.

She sees Stane, recognises the blinking blue lights in his ears, and then her body stiffens and she falls, paralyzed, to the floor. Stane catches her arm and sets her down, before crouching, bringing up a familiar black box to wiggle it tauntingly.

"You remember this one, right? It's a shame you and the government didn't approve. There are so many applications regarding short-term paralysis." He removes the earplugs and puts the device away.

She stared up at him, body frozen and mind twisting in panic. She could barely breathe and her muscles refused to listen.

"Oh, Toni. Toni, Toni, Toni." Stane repeats as he took a moment to just look down at her.

Despite how she knew this face to face would happen, she didn't know how. Didn't know Stane had managed to get his hands on an STP when she herself made the effort to collect and destroy them.

"You know, when I ordered the hit on you, I never even gave the idea you'd survive a thought. But you came out swinging, didn't you? I'll give you that, Toni." Stane looked almost fond. "You might have done good work for SI, built it up further than Howard ever could, even with me holding his hand. But I'm sick of being second to you and your whims, sick of sitting back and watching as a little girl runs the company I dedicated my life to—that should have been mine! Howard was weeks away from revamping his will after years of me playing him. So I figured the Ten Rings could take care of you. I admit I was worried that I was killing the golden goose."

He reached to tug her vest down further to reveal the Arc-Reactor in its entirety.

"But, you see... it was just fate that you survived it, leaving one last golden egg to give." He pulled down a sleek and sinister-looking metal device from inside his coat pocket.

Toni's heart thud against the metal of the Arc-Reactor in realisation.

He pressed the device against the Arc-Reactor and Toni feels her entire body jerk as it locked into place and then…

And then it moves.

"Oh, it's beautiful. Ah, Toni... This is your Ninth Symphony." He grinned as he held the Arc-Reactor up in awe. "What a masterpiece! Look at that. This is your legacy. The next generation of weapons...with this at its heart."

Toni could feel the scream that began to build up in her throat, but she can't move, can't speak because she's locked into place, terrified and paralyzed with her heart being ripped out of her.

And yet, at the same time, there's a part of her where she's thankful and grateful Stane had never been a father figure to her, grateful they were never close. Because the betrayal would have hurt far worse because Toni wouldn't have suspected him, wouldn't have thought she'd been sold out.

"Too bad you had to involve Pepper and that young man in this. I would've preferred that they lived." Stane gives her a smarmy smile before leaving.

Hell no.

"What do you mean he paid to have Toni killed?"

"I mean Stane was the one to sell Toni to the Ten Rings! Now he's used the original suit she left behind to build his own!"

"Where is Toni now?"

"I don't know, she's not—she's not answering her phone. All JARVIS said was that Stane was there! Please go and make sure everything's okay."

"I'm turning around now."

"Thank you, Rhodey."

"Ma'am." JARVIS's voice was frightened, urgent, and Toni wants to move, wants to sooth her son but she can't.

"Ma'am, please." Her heart clenched at the frantic tone. "Mr Rhodes is on the way, he should be here soon but you must replace the Reactor or you will die."

She knows that. She knows.

But she still can't move.

"Mother." JARVIS's voice turned to a whisper and her eyes burn with tears. "You must get up. You can't leave us again. Please."

Toni moves.

Toni moves because she won't leave her children again—won't disappear again, only this time there would be no coming back. No miraculous moment in which she survives because she will die.

She rolls onto her front and drags herself foot by foot in agony towards the hall the leads to the workshop. She clings and slides down the staircase with one goal in mind.

Her spare Arc-Reactor.

Thank you Yasha, she gasps her breath, shoving the workshop door open, thank you for recommending I keep a spare. Next time I see you, you'll give you the best-goddamn kiss of your life.

"You're almost there." JARVIS is half coaxing, half encouraging and his voices helps her gather the strength to push on.

She could see the safe at the other end of the 'shop but she makes it halfway before her body gives out on her. She collapses to her knees, barely managing to retain from slumping down onto her side.

But she can't move.

She sits there for a moment, mouth moving to speak but her voice catches in her throat each time.

She's dying.

A whirling and movement pulls her attention and U, her passive-aggressive camera baby, beeps angrily at her. Butterfingers appears to her left and they drag her by her arms, their own arms supporting her by her armpits.

Dum-E was waiting for them at the open safe, where he beeped in a quiet and concerned way.

JARVIS had obviously told him the passcode.

Toni reached into the safe and to the black box, which held a fingerprint scanner. It unlocked to reveal the second Arc-Reactor.

With shaky fingers, she fumbles to slot it into place. The first breath is painful and her chest aches, it pulls at her scars, but it was accompanied by a rush of energy.

"Thank you." She warbles, petting each of her physical babies. "Thank you, you beautiful children."

"We are family, mother." JARVIS answered. "Is it what family is meant to do."

Toni turns to U when he beeps angrily again, she peers into his camera and for a moment she thought her dark eyes appeared several shades lighter but she blinks and—no, nothing had changed.

She played it off as her exhaustion.

"I think I need a minute. How are out is Rhodey?"

"Two minutes, ma'am."

Two minutes, yeah, Toni could use two minutes to gather some strength.