I do not own Iron Man or Percy Jackson.

Takes place during Iron Man 1

Time: 1:26:10-1:36:35

Tony's Age: 26 years old

Percy's Age: 40 mentally, wolf body 4 (thought by others to be 7 and a half years old--aging)

When Tony did come back to the house, this time through the garage instead of the roof of the house, I could tell he wasn't quite the same man that had left.

It was one thing to speculate that your weapons were being sold and possibly see them in a terrorist's cave. But it's another thing to see them in action, to see them out in the open in the hands of people that would use and abuse them against innocent civilians.

While I couldn't know what had fully happened when Tony had been held against his will, I knew that it was bad enough that he had created a way of escape just using scrap metals and whatever else was around.

He tried to play it off with J.A.R.V.I.S as the A.I tried to take off the bullet-ridden and slightly bent armor that was the Iron Man suit. Tony not quite helping as he was being pulled and slightly poked by various arms that J.A.R.V.I.S was hooked up to.

Watching from the stairs as Tony joked for J.A.R.V.I.S to be careful since it was his first time, I perked as Pepper made her way down, slightly careful as she noted the glass shards at the bottom and the fact I was fully laying on the last step and not inside the lab with Tony.

"What's going on here?" Pepper asked in shock as she entered the lab.

I almost wished she went through the door instead of the windows that were broken, I would love to get back in there and stay with Tony.

Tony paused in talking as he slowly looked over to Pepper, seemingly slightly shocked that she entered his lab without him noticing. Not that it was very hard.

"Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing," Tony told her. I was sure that if Tony wasn't being hung up like some Christmas lights by J.A.R.V.I.S that he would've shrugged and waved his hand away from her comment.

"Are those bullet holes?" Pepper asked in horror as she stared at Tony.

Tony himself looked down, as much as the armor on his chest allowed him to, and really did shrug as J.A.R.V.I.S moved with the action.

"Hey, could you do me the favor and clean up the glass?" Tony asked with his dazzling smile that usually stole the attention of reporters and female whores he seemed to enjoy.

I couldn't see Pepper's eyes, but the way she flung her arms in the air and turned her back to Tony said a lot. Especially as her eyes held exasperation as they met mine as she walked determinedly toward the exit of the lab.

"You can deal with him," she muttered slightly angrily as she walked past me, nearly stepping on my tail that was draped over the stairs in her rush to get up the stairs.

Huffing in amusement, I got off the stairs and carefully made my way inside, weary of the glass that littered the floor and withheld the wince when one particularly small shard pierced my paw while another clung to the fur.

"Hey, no, Percy, off of that shit," Tony yelped, both because of my actions and because J.A.R.V.I.S gave a particular tug that finally got the chest away from Tony.

Picking up the paw that now held the two shards, I walked calmly toward Tony and carefully sat in front of him, my tail slightly wagging as J.A.R.V.I.S finally made headway on the armor as he got one of the legs off as the other mechanical arm started unscrewing some of the bolts in the opposite leg.

"Christ, I swear you're more accident prone and needy than me," Tony muttered to himself as he shifted to get one of the arms off of him. Watching with a small wince as it collapsed and rattled as the sound echoed through the lab from falling due to gravity.

"Shit, right, J, make a note about improvements toward getting this shit off," Tony told the A.I. as slowly the rest of the armor got off as J.A.R.V.I.S figured out how badly it got deformed.

Finally, eventually, Tony had gotten out of the suit and instead of handling the bruises that he no doubt had, he grabbed tweezers from his desk and knelt in front of me.

Oh sure, worry about a small cut on me when you quite literally could have internal bleeding. That makes perfect sense. Gods above why do some men who are supposed geniuses have to be so stupid something.

With a slight huff, I held still because I knew if I moved Tony would just spend more time worried about me than on himself. A small wince as the glass was removed from my paw, I dealt with Tony wandering hands on my legs and paws, looking for other glass shards that neither of us noticed.

Finally, Tony did check over his bruises and proceeded to then connect and suspend half of the Iron Man suit to his computers to check over data and what could be improved.

He was going to starve himself at this pace as Pepper silently cleaned up the surrounding glass and went back upstairs to dispose of it. Tony was head deep in the computer and never noticed until Pepper was reproaching, her hands on her hips, seemingly ready to finally talk to Tony about what she had walked in on.

"Hey, you busy?" Tony asked her as he finally saw her approach and stood up to reach something else I remember him working on just before Pepper came in, "You mind if I send you on an errand? I need you to go to my office. You're going to hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. This is a lock chip. This'll get you in. It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading." Tony explained in nearly one breath as he showed Pepper a drive he had created for her to use.

"And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?" Pepper asked as she looked between Tony and the drive that he had handed her.

"Same drill. They've been dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop them." Tony told her, his voice slightly hardened as he checked one of his monitors. I felt my ears pull back, wishing for a moment that I had shown Tony just who I was earlier or perhaps talked to my mother about a different deal with my aging because I would love to watch over Tony, to be there beside him as he went through this pain and wanted to stop just some of the madness in the world. "I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them."

"Tony, you know that I would help you with anything," Pepper said softly, her voice sounding like she was seconds away from breaking, "but I cannot help you if you're going to start all of this again," she told him as she indicated toward the armor and himself.

"There is nothing except this," Tony told her, his voice hardened even more, his stance stiff as he stared at Pepper, employing her to understand what he was saying, to understand where he was coming from.

I did understand, even just a little bit. I watched this company grow, watching the beginnings, watched Tony lose his innocence and fall under depression. Watched him slowly push out of the mental instability he had fallen into as he flourished the company he threw himself into with a passion. To know that passion was dealing under the table, that innocent people were dying because of his weapons. I couldn't fully comprehend what Tony was going through, but I felt angry and upset on his behalf.

I had spent hours with Tony, watching him create the very missiles that nearly killed him. Hours watching the nightmares from the cave as they continue to haunt him even now without letting anyone know.

Tony Stark was a good man.

He just finally reached his own breaking point for everything, and he was finally going to do something about it. If that meant going into a suit of armor that he created and taking care of them himself, then I suppose the only thing I can do is lend him my support.

With that thought as Tony and Pepper finally stopped the argument with Pepper reluctantly agreeing and leaving with the drive, I crept from my spot as Tony practically collapsed in the closest chair and held his head in his hands.

Stilling in front of him, I nuzzled his hand and rested my head in his lap as he moved his arms out of the way. They dropped onto my head and slowly messaged me, a soothing motion not just for me, but for Tony as well.

"At least I can always count on you to have my back, right?" Tony hesitantly said out loud with a small questioning tone of voice. It seemed his self-confidence was slightly wobbly due to his conversation with Pepper.

Giving Tony a small bark and a wagtail, I borrowed my nose in his lap until it tickled his side as it used to when he was a toddler and enjoyed the laugh it got in return.

Always I thought with a small grin.