Iron Lightning; Valuable [ II ] P. PARKER

XIX. NOOBMASTER69

CHAPTER NINETEEN
"noobmaster69"

Once Tony pulled himself together, he turned all of Jade's things off and when downstairs where Pepper was. She was sitting on the couch, in front of the burning fireplace reading a book.

"Not that it's a competition, but she loves me 3000. You were somewhere on the low 6 to 900 range," Tony smiles, trying to pretend he wasn't just in Jade's room.

Pepper scoffs jokingly, "What are you reading?" Tony asked, not fully paying attention to her. His mind went back to the time machine model he figured out and how Jade wants him to do it.

"Oh, it's just a book on composting," Pepper said.

"What's new with composting?" Tony asked slowly.

"Just—"

Tony cut her off quickly, "I figured it out, by the way,"

"You know, just so we're talking about the same thing—" Pepper said confused.

"Time travel," he said and flopped onto the couch.

Pepper's mouth opens, "What? Wow... That's amazing, and... terrifying,"

"That's right," he said.

"We got really lucky," she said.

"Yeah, I know," Tony sighed.

"A lot of people didn't,"

"No, I can't help everybody," Tony shrugged his shoulders. He hoped Pepper would talk him out of it— tell him it wasn't possible or a death trap for them.

"It sorta seems like you can..." Pepper said softly.

"Not if I stop. I can put a pin in it right now, and stop,"

"Tony, trying to get you to stop has been one of the few failures of my life," Pepper smiles gently making Tony smile too.

There was a short pause between them and Pepper looked at Tony and at how uneasy he looked. She knew he went in her room, she heard the first video of Jade's and knew Tony would go in there.

"You went in her room, didn't you?" She asked, placing a hand on Tony's, even though she knew the answer.

Tony looked up at her, his eyes wide. He waited before speaking again, "... Yes. She wants me to do it. She wanted me to figure it out and try to fix everything,"

"And you did," Pepper said. "Why are you trying to talk yourself out of it?"

"I feel like I should... put it in a locked box and drop it at the bottom of a lake... go to bed," Tony said. "I don't want to ruin or mess up anything of what we have now."

Pepper paused, she thought that too, but she knew Tony, she knew what would happen if he did that. He'd be in guilt, wishing he did it and wishing he could have brought her back, "But would you be able to rest?"