Chapter Text
Pepper Potts knew that it doesn’t take much to be a bad guy.
You just have to get in the way of someone else’s happiness.
In the world of superheroes, being a “bad guy” usually comes with a few more requirements. You need powers, for example. Or at least high-powered weapons. In order to keep up with the demi-gods you grapple with.
And Pepper had neither. She was only human. And only human enough to have fallen for the very human side of a superhero named Tony Stark.
For a while, she thought the superhero had fallen for her, too.
But she should have known that she didn’t fit into his world.
That his eye would wander, and settle on others who had powers, like himself.
She was no fool. She saw how Tony looked at Stephen Strange. Saw how that look was returned, sometimes, when they thought no one else was paying attention (but she did, of course; she always did). She noticed how much time they spent alone together between battles. The way they stood near each other as often as they could.
And at around the time that started, Tony began to act differently around her. He became more evasive. More considerate, less confrontational.
It could only be because something had changed.
She’d tried to make him acknowledge it. Tried to ask, as gently as she could, if they were “okay,” if anything was wrong.
No, he had said, nothing was wrong.
Nothing was ever wrong.
Tony had said he loved her. Tony was going to stand by his commitments to her, and he had said he would never leave her.
Even if it was going to make him unhappy.
She was already the bad guy. Just by standing in the way of Tony’s happiness.
So, what does a bad guy with no powers and no high-powered weapons do?
She breaks the hero’s heart.
***
“Ms. Potts,” he said softly, “are you breaking up with me?”
These were his last words to her.
Hers, to him, were “Goodbye, Tony.”
She could see his heart crumbling to pieces in his eyes, as she turned away - every inch of him asking Why? Why?
She had asked for space. Made him promise to respect it. Afterwards, she blocked all avenues of contact with him that were anything but professional.
If she was going to be the bad guy, she was going to be the worst possible kind. She wasn’t going to half-ass this.
It was necessary.
As CEO of a major multinational corporation, she knew too well how sometimes - a lot of times - the most important decisions were the hardest ones to make.
This brand of cruelty ought to drive Tony into the right arms. Of the right person.
That was her calculated gamble.
But, like all gambles, there was still room for unforeseen variables to enter the equation.
Resulting in a chance of failure, however small.
***
Iron Man Defeated
It was breaking news everywhere she turned. And it happened several weeks after the split.
A supernatural evil had entered New York City. It was Doctor Strange’s department, but he called for help from the Avengers as well. He would not have done that if he had not needed it.
And of course Iron Man rushed to his aid.
True to his self-sacrificing ways, Iron Man took the worst beating. Perhaps Tony just didn’t think and impulsively used his own body to shield everyone. Perhaps he foolishly thought his armor could protect him from a being that likely did not even know what metal was.
As the being was sent back to its home dimension, Tony’s armor lay on the ground, battered and motionless.
The last that civilian cameras caught was Doctor Strange’s red cloak wrapping around the Iron Man, bearing him up and through a portal, through which Doctor Strange also disappeared.
***
Pepper ran out of the office as soon as she saw that video.
She knew where to go.
Predictably, paparazzi were already at the Stark Industries lobby, ready to assault her as soon as she stepped out of the elevator.
She didn’t care.
“Ms. Potts, have you heard? What are your thoughts?”
“How true are the rumors that you and Tony have broken up?”
“People are saying that Mr. Stark was off his game because of your breakup, what do you think of that?”
"Do you blame yourself for what happened?"
She walked straight-backed to the entrance to the parking lot, leaving Happy to handle the press.
If the press were expecting her to be emotional, anxious, everything she actually felt, they were set for disappointment.
She was the villain. She would play the part.
***
The New York Sanctum’s doors opened for her even before she could knock.
And Wong, the stern, taciturn caretaker, led her down its many hallways to where Tony Stark was being kept.
Doctor Strange was there. Of course he was. He had just finished some sort of incantation and was looking down pensively at Tony’s un-armored body, which was lying flat in the middle of a large glowing pentagram on the floor.
He turned to her without registering surprise.
“Ms. Potts,” he greeted grimly. “It’s good of you to come.”
Her stare was cold. “I just wanted to see him,” she said.
“He needs you to see him,” he agreed. “Over here. Please.”
He held out his hand to her. She ignored it. But stepped forward to the spot he indicated, close to Tony’s motionless form.
Once she was sitting, Strange walked around Tony’s body to sit on the other side of it. Tony lay between them. Pepper didn’t think she could see any sign of breathing.
“Sit. Place your hand over him like this.” He demonstrated. A blue light seemed to surround the hand he held out over Tony’s form.
It looked like magic. Pepper was skeptical that her imitating the gesture would do anything...
But when she held out her hand, a similar light wrapped around it. Pepper gasped.
It felt like something of hers was being pulled out - perhaps something from her lungs, or from her heart. Her breathing and heartbeat quickened in defiance.
But whatever was doing the pulling, was being gentle...and it seemed to take less, the more she resisted.
She realized she was in control. So she took one deep breath. Closed her eyes and concentrated on regulating the pull.
Only a little. Only for a minute.
When that minute was done, she withdrew her hand.
She opened her eyes, and saw Strange looking at her.
“Well done,” Strange said to her.
“What just happened?” Pepper asked.
“The creature we fought,” Strange began, prepared for this explanation, “hit Tony with a multitude of spells. I’ve put him on stasis, because it will take me days to clear all of them. But the trickiest and most urgent one to remove is the spirit drain. It eats away at his will to live, makes him more susceptible to the other spells.”
That did not sound good. “Can that...kill him?”
“Only if we let it. He needs people whom he loves to lend him their life force. He won’t take from anyone else.”
Life force. So that was the term for what was being pulled out of her.
Like a blood transfusion, of a sort.
“But, shouldn’t you -- “ be enough? That was the question.
She didn’t need to finish it.
“You’re the most important person in his life, Ms. Potts. Still. Without question. I am not enough.”
Pepper almost felt guilty, meeting his gaze. But she forced herself not to be.
The man was probably a mind-reader, too. And she was not up to talking to him about Tony right now.
“You can’t give him too much,” Strange continued. “This will do, for now. You must rest. The both of us can try giving him a larger dose later.”
“Both of us?” Pepper echoed, incredulous.
Strange glanced down at Tony. Brushed a lock of hair from the unconscious man’s forehead.
“Yes,” he said quietly.