Welcome back everyone! Here we go: The sequel to The Avenged!

Tony landed beside the unconscious body, he felt the ferocious wind nearly throw him off balance, he looked around trying to find a suitable shelter; he spotted an old makeshift cave, he picked the body up and moved it.

'Romanov, can you hear me?' Tony grunted against the throbbing pain in his head.

No reply.

'Romanov, open your eyes.' He instructed.

Nothing.

Tony looked around; the HUD showed an isolated wasteland as far as the eye could see. He closed his eyes and willed the suit away, within seconds the armour was falling away from his body, he was finally able to kneel down beside Natasha and inspect the extent of her injuries. Her eyes opened finally, and he stroked her hair away from her eyes, he made sure she was out of the wind and turned back to the wilderness. He ran his hand through his hair; Natasha's laboured breathing was the only sound around them, save for the howling wind.

The shelter of the cave was a huge help, but it still didn't stop the brute force of nature with which they were faced.

'Jarvis, can you get a fix on our location?' He spoke against the fierce wind.

'Negative sir, the positioning systems are down.' Jarvis replied.

Tony pressed his fingers to Natasha's neck, her eyes struggled to stay open, 'we need to get out of here, Jarvis are we able to connect to S.H.I.E.L.D?'

'Negative sir, coms to the helicarrier are down, I can try to contact them on an older unused channel.'

Tony nodded, 'got it, I need you to keep trying, before we went down I launched a beacon, hone in on that and do what you can to contact Rogers or Bruce, they'll be monitoring the coms.'

'Very well sir.' Jarvis replied and plunged Tony back into the silent darkness of the windy valley.

He leaned in toward Natasha and moved her body so that she was lying flat on her back; she stirred slightly, enough to catch Tony's attention. He removed the thin windcheater he was wearing and rolled it up to form a pillow, he elevated her head, 'you need to stay awake Romanov.' He said quietly.

She shook her head against the makeshift pillow, 'you'll freeze to death.' She stammered.

Tony smiled, 'you just focus on staying alive, I'll be fine.' He pressed his finger to her wrist and looked at the watch on his other hand.

They stayed silent for a minute.

Natasha broke the silence, 'how bad is it?'

Tony looked down at her face. 'It's not bad, your injuries will heal in no time, I'm worried about the cold.'

Natasha shook her head; she raised her self on her elbows and leaned her back against the cave wall. 'That's not what I'm talking about.' She looked at him without breaking eye contact.

Tony sat down and leaned against the opposite wall, he looked down at his feet.

'How bad is it?' She repeated.

Tony cleared his throat, 'it's nothing I can't solve.' He offered.

She nodded.

Tony leaned his head against the wall, 'Jarvis, any luck?'

'No sir, still trying the old channels.'

Tony closed his eyes and rubbed his temple, 'keep me posted.'

'Where are we?' Natasha asked quietly.

'No idea, somewhere over the Andes I presume.' Tony continued rubbing his head.

'You ok?' Natasha's voice seemed miles away.

Tony sighed, 'yeah, headache.' He looked up at the ceiling of the cave pinching the bridge of his nose to alleviate the pounding headache, 'Jarvis, how's the extremis holding up?'

'The reactor is holding at 78% and the extremis is still progressing as last discussed.' Jarvis replied.

'Ok, options?' Tony asked ignoring the concerned look Natasha was throwing his way.

'The only option without your medication is to stop it progressing further.' Jarvis explained.

'Ok, stop the progress how?' Tony asked impatiently.

'You must not allow your mind to drift off, keep in the cold to keep your body awake and using its own defences.' Jarvis offered.

'Ok, thanks.' Tony stood up briskly. 'We both need to stay awake Romanov.'

'What's wrong?' She asked trying to stand up.

Tony walked over and knelt beside her, he pushed her down gently, 'you took a hard hit, you need to stay still for a while, at least until you regain your bearings.'

Tony felt the cold creep through his veins, he felt himself shiver involuntarily.

'You should have stayed in your suit; you're going to freeze to death.' Natasha instinctively moved closer to him.

'I had no idea you felt that way Romanov.' Tony smirked at her.

Natasha rolled her eyes, 'we need to keep warm.' She said simply.

'Don't worry, I won't tell Barton.' He gave her a cheeky grin.

She nudged him in the ribs.

Tony wrapped the windcheater around her and sat beside her.

'You'll be ok.' He said quietly looking out into the night sky.

'What the hell happened?' Fury stormed into the communications deck of the helicarrier, the darkening stormy sky reflected his mood.

'I don't know, sir, the jet just went off radar, I think it's been shot down.' The S.H.I.E.L.D operative replied trying to locate the jets transponder. 'Everything's been fried on board, the beacon is lost.'

'Sir, Romanov and Stark are offline, what happened?' Steve's voice came in over the coms.

'Stand by, still working on it.' Fury replied. He stood beside the agent and looked at the screen as he brought up the last moments the jet was in the sky. A blinding flash erupted across the radar and engulfed the small dot which was the jet, when the flash dissipated, the jet was gone.

'They've been taken down, Captain, last known location, somewhere over the Andes, sending coordinates now.' Fury said firmly.

'On our way.' Steve replied.

'What's this?' Fury pointed to a small flashing button just above the console.

The agent looked intently at the button, 'it's just an old communications channel, it's not in use anymore.' He replied.

Fury looked down at the man, 'generally speaking, when something is flashing, it means it's getting used.' He turned to walk away, 'find out what it is, we don't need any more surprises.'

The agent nodded.

'What was the last known location?' Bruce pulled out a laptop and began bringing up satellite feeds.

'Fury's sending them through now, stand by.' Steve took a seat beside Thor.

'What is the plan?' Thor asked looking back and forth between Bruce and Steve.

Bruce looked to Steve.

'We need to get on the ground, start searching.' Steve offered.

Bruce shook his head, 'there's no use, there's too much ground to cover, we need to try to track their location first,' he started typing in the coordinates Fury sent them, he looked over the screens before him, 'if I can just recalculate the possible trajectories of the fall I may be able to triangulate a possible location.'

Steve leaned back in his chair. 'What are the odds that we'll find them down there doctor?'

'I don't think there's a way to tell, I'm not-' Bruce rambled on.

Thor cut him off, 'Doctor?'

Bruce sighed, 'not good.'

Steve nodded, 'then we better hurry.'

Bruce continued searching.

'Why didn't you tell anyone you were dying?' Natasha broke the silence.

Tony didn't turn to look at her, he continued looking out at the sky, lightning cracked through the night sky, Tony admired the ferocity of nature.

'Because no one needed to know.' He said simply.

'You were afraid.' Natasha said quietly.

Tony glanced at her; he smiled weakly, 'I think the cold is getting to your head.'

'Why do you avoid talking about yourself?' Natasha asked.

'Same reason you do.' He smiled. 'Am I right?'

She laughed at this, 'well played, Stark.'

'Jarvis, any updates?' Tony asked quietly.

'No progress yet, sir.' Jarvis replied.

Tony nodded silently. He leaned back against the wall.

'How do you do that?' Natasha asked

Tony tapped the side of his head, 'The extremis, it's a nanotech, bonded with the Nano virus which I was infected with; I'm connected to Jarvis and anything he's connected to.'

Natasha looked intently at him, 'you wrote all that into the virus?'

He nodded, 'it was the only way to repair the damage'

'And what damage have you received in return?'

Tony looked up at her, he smiled weakly, 'you're good.'

'Have you got a plan?'

'Yes, a serum that keeps the symptoms at bay.' He answered.

'What happens without your serum?' Natasha asked seriously.

Tony ran his fingers through his hair, 'well, I haven't ever needed to find out.'

'What symptoms have you been experiencing, aside from the headaches and blood nose?' She asked firmly.

Tony looked up at her again, he laughed, 'you really do know everything don't you?'

She smiled proudly, 'when I need to.'

Tony nodded, 'makes things easier for me.'

'Not having to talk about yourself?'

'Exactly.' He laughed.

'How do you feel?' She asked.

'Like someone is drilling through my skull.' He pressed two fingers to his forehead, 'and I'm getting really tired.' He felt himself growing weak, his eyelids were heavy, staying awake became an almost impossible feat. He felt his head lull to the side; he tried to focus on Natasha.

'You can't sleep, Tony.' She said moving to kneel in front of him.

'You need to be resting.' Tony said quietly trying to push her back to sit down.

'I'm alright, Tony, just focus on staying awake, eyes on me.' She tilted his face to look at her.

'You might have a concussion, need…to stay…awake.' Tony managed weakly.

She slapped his cheeks, 'come on Tony, eyes on me, focus.'

He felt his body slowly going limp; he fought against every desire to fall asleep.

Jarvis snapped Tony back to reality, 'I've broken through to S.H.I.E.L.D Sir, they've located you, they're on the way.'

'They've found us.' Tony said finally, he closed his eyes.

Hope everyone enjoyed the intro here; getting back into the swing of things is always a bit difficult, however he we are, and hopefully I still have some followers and fellow Pepperony fans!

Let me know how you thought this went :D

Thank you!