You may not see me, but I'm still here

Summary: IRON MAN 3 SPOLIERS: How I think the Avengers found out that Tony was 'dead' and how they found out that he really was alive. -Disregards the awesome after credits scene-.

Disclaimer: I do not own the amazingness that is Marvel, Iron man (1,2,3) and The Avengers.

3rd POV

-SHIELD-

"There better be another alien attack." Bruce grumbled as he slid down in his leather chair around the conference table on the helicarrier. Clint, Natasha and Steve too where sulking in their seats, all having been brought in by Fury from their own pieces of the world. Bruce had been in Greenland, Steve had been backpacking around Europe and the two agents had been on their way back from a mission in Asia and just wanted sleep.

"No there wasn't, something much worse I'm afraid…" Fury stated, his hands clasped behind his back that was facing the four.

"If it is worse then where is Stark?" Clint asked raising an eyebrow.

"Stark…Well he is no longer part of the Avengers." Fury said gravely closing his one good eye,

"You fired him?" Steve asked in disbelief. He and Tony butted horns a lot but deep down Steve knew that Tony was a hero and was a big part of the Avengers.

"I didn't fire him…Hill…Roll the clip. This happened a day ago…" Fury waved his arm, his hands a fist so they wouldn't shake. He had watched all the footage over and over again, Howard was his friend and Tony was part of his team. It shouldn't have happened this way.

Hill pushed a button before stiffly leaving; she too had seen this clip many times and it weighed heavily on her mind just like when Tony flew that nuke into the wormhole.

The screens popped up on the table top in front of each of the Avengers, it was a news feed of a beautiful white house on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Malibu. Bruce's throat became dry when he saw the house; Tony had given him a tour there once. Natasha's stomach dropped since she knew that place like the back of her hand since she had been undercover there for a while.

"This is Tony's house." Bruce announced to the others before they could answer to this statement an explosion rocked the screen as missiles from three helicopters flew into the house. The four Avengers stared in stunned silence as they watched their teammates home destroyed. They saw two copters go down from repulsors blasts before they spotted Tony's beloved Audi crash into the ocean below, and with his super solider eyesight Steve spotted red and gold crash into the ocean. The blond put a hand over his mouth to keep his lunch down.

"Tony Stark's body hasn't been found." Fury said with no emotion as he tossed a newspaper onto the table, the headlines read 'TONY STARK PRESUMED DEAD'.

"No…" Clint breathed out as he scanned over the front page before quickly shoving it away. "He isn't dead, he's too stubborn for that!"

"I saw one of his suits go under the water after his car fell…" Steve admitted closing his eyes as the scene flashed over and over in his mind.

"Who did this?" Natasha demanded in a cold tone.

"He is known as the Mandarin, Tony felt more personally involved after one of his friends Happy Hogan was caught in an explosion caused by this man. He issued a threat to him on national TV and clearly the Mandarin responded. Miss Potts somehow got out of the mess with merely some scrapes. How she managed that we are unsure, but she too has gone off the radar. We know nothing else." Fury explained shutting off the footage.

"Give me a moment, I might be able to solve that mystery surrounding Pepper." Bruce said his fingers clenched around the metal armrest so tightly that the metal wrapped under his fingers. He released it and took some calming breaths, faintly hearing Tony's voice telling him to breath and keep calm. He pulled up a program on the tabletop computer and silent minutes passed before he pulled up a video feed. Tony had given Bruce all the access codes to the many cameras' he had placed in his house in case something happened.

"We may not get much but it might help?" Bruce offered before hitting the play button and a muted video started up.

Tony, Pepper and a brunette were standing in the living room talking. Suddenly they all turned to the bay windows just as they were blasted out. They all flew backwards screaming. Tony did some arm movements and new pieces of an Iron Man suit flew up out of the workshop and attached to Pepper. The other girl landed on the ground unmoving and Tony seemed to gasp in pain as he landed on his back. He looked up and horror flitted across his face as the ceiling above started to break up and fall down towards him. Pepper working the suit threw her body over him and she broke the falling ceiling. They seemed to say something before they started towards the exit, Pepper grabbed the brunette but Tony couldn't follow as the floor creaked and he shouted at Pepper who ran from the house with the girl. Tony ducked and dodged around his ruined house before another missile hit the house and the camera cut out to static.

"He made upgrades…He must have gotten the suit back before…" Steve mumbled as he leaned back in his chair in shock.

"He protected what he cared about most…" Bruce shook his head admiringly.

"But at the cost of his own life…" Fury added in.

"Not at his own life. He is alive." Bruce stated calmly.

"Bruce is right, it said presumed dead. Whatever we think about Tony is always wrong so this is as well." Natasha stated simply, pushing her chair backwards as she stood up, the other three following suit.

"I am sorry, but Tony is dead." Fury tried once more to get it into his team's minds.

"I must disagree sir. Tony is not dead." Steve denied it with all his being. "Avengers, to the Quinjet. We have a man to find." He turned on his heel and led the other three out of the room towards the awaiting Quinjet.

"Go find him." Fury smiled to him self as he watched the jet take off into the horizon.

Inside the jet was total silence, each stuck in their very own words as Clint flew towards Malibu and Tony's old house. They each had a memory of Tony playing over in their minds. Bruce's was their time spent in the labs; Steve's was Tony waking up from going into the wormhole. Clint's was their banter and pranks and Natasha's was when Tony gave her an upgraded gauntlet and welcomed her into his small circle of people he cared about (after the whole Loki deal in New York). He couldn't be gone; he was the glue that held them all from breaking apart. They couldn't loose him; they were determined to find him.

Lumps grew in their throats as they came into view of the wreckage of Tony's house. It hit Natasha harder because she had been there many times before, it was all just a shade of it's former self. The cranes were already there working on moving the debris. Clint skillfully landed the jet on the huge driveway and they all rushed out and entered the wreckage. Smoke stung their eyes as they all looked around for any sign of Tony. They searched until nightfall, but they found nothing. Together the foursome stood where they saw Tony and Pepper get flung back from the attack.

"Damn it!" Steve swore as he punched a chunk of ceiling.

"I thought we'd at least find something…" Clint mumbled rubbing dirt off his face.

"I still can't believe it's all gone…" Natasha looked around the site and Bruce kept taking calming breaths.

"House party protocol, start up." A British voice piped up from nowhere.

"Jarvis?" Natasha's head shot up as she looked around. She rushed to the edge of the room and looked down and a smile lit up her face for the first time in a very long time.

"Guys!" She beckoned them over; they all joined her at the edge of the floor and stared down at the opening panel below them. It showed utter darkness before light after light faded in, cutting through the darkness. The ground started to tremble as the lights from the underground tunnel moved upwards.

"Yes!" Clint cheered.

"Son of a gun." Steve breathed in amazement.

"He needs a new hobby." Natasha grinned in amusement.

"He's alive." Bruce stated.

Around 40 Iron Man Suits of all varieties rocketed high into the air before they took off in a direction.

"Hello Avengers. Sir has a message recorded for you." Jarvis's voice rang out from one of more normal Iron Man suits that hovered in front of them.

"Hello there." Tony's voice said cheerfully. "Thought I was gone didn't ya? Well it takes more than that to kill me. Currently I am on my way with Rhodes to save Pepper and the President from Killian who is the head of A.I.M, who really is the Mandarin. I met the guy who played him, nice British fellow, insane but what can ya do? Anyways so if you are getting this message that means there is a chance I'm not gonna be coming back from this one alive. Now Rhodes is giving me a look, so I got to make this short. If I started this protocol that means we are in a battle and have slim chances of winning. So I just wanted to say this in case I don't get a chance to later… Thank you and if I do die then keep protecting the world so Pepper will be safe. See you guys around…Maybe. Bye Brucie, tell the jolly green giant I say bye as well you guy were my only real science friend. Nataslie it was a pleasure-kind of. Legolas keep your arrows sharp. Tell point break to keep reindeer games under-wraps and capiscle, my dad was right you are the hero everyone made you out to be. Tony Stark signing off." Tony's voice cut out and the suit flew off to join the others.

Bruce sank to his knees, his eyes going misty with a tinge of green as the Hulk cried out in sadness at the loss of his friend. Clint kicked the ground in anger, Natasha stared off at the dots that are the Iron Man suits blankly and Steve clenched his fists so tightly that blood was starting to drip down his knuckles.

Two more days passed and the four just sat in the wreckage of Tony's home, they barely spoke, they all were trapped in their own little worlds. They didn't even notice Tony Stark picking his way through towards the edge of the cliff holding a brown paper bag. He took out his reactor and stared at it for a while, before he did anything else he took one look around and almost fell over when he spotted the four Avengers just staring blankly off into space.

"Hello? Earth to Avengers? What's with the blank faces?" Tony strode over to them, putting the reactor back in the bag. Bruce was the 1st one to snap out of it.

"Tony?" He whispered in shock.

"In the flesh, miss me?" He asked cocking his head to the side.

"TONY!" Bruce roared and swept his science bro into a hug making Tony grunt before laughing.

"Missed me did ya?" Tony teased.

"You son of a bitch, never do that again!" Clint swore at Tony before hugging him as well.

"Tony…" Steve rubbed his eyes before grinning at him and joining the hug.

"Don't leave me hanging Nat, I know you missed me." Tony said cheekily at the red head who rolled her eyes but joined the group hug all the same.

"You have some major explaining to do." Natasha ordered as they all broke the hug.

"Give me a second, there is something I have to do." Tony said turning back to the cliff, pulling out his reactor once more.

"Tony, why is your reactor out of your chest?" Bruce panicked. "If you don't put it back in, you are going to die!" Tony just reared back his arm and pitched it into the ocean. "Tony!"

"That doesn't power me anymore. I got the shrapnel removed from my heart. I am back to being heart-powered like the rest of you." Tony shrugged his shoulders, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Okay I feel like a story is being needed to be told." Clint rubbed his forehead.

"It's a long one, just don't fall asleep." Tony warned. "It all started in Bern, Switzerland…"