Synopsis
In Darkhold Alpha Dr Doom unearthed the very original Darkhold and thus allowed Chthon to get nearer to escaping back to Earth. He and Scarlet Witch read in it about 5 Darkhold Defenders who in ancient times defeated him. Wanda summoned 5 modern heroes who would mystically correspond to the original Defenders (Black Bolt, Blade, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Wasp) and perform the same deed. But 1st they each had to read a bit of the book to prepare them, but not so much as to drive them mad. The book would show them each an alternate life which led to twisted versions of themselves. But after reading them they were all transmuted into these versions - the Darkhold Defiled.
The 5 1-shots of which this is 1 will show the alternate timeline which produced the Defiled version of its hero.
The story is told by Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, top scientist and executive at Stark Industries, and she starts by saying it is the story of how she died.
Chapter 1: The most tragic figure on Earth
She and chauffeur/bodyguard Happy Hogan find Tony Stark lying weakly inside his original clunk grey armour getting a recharge. This is the 1st time they've seen it (it seems like he's just got back from Iron Man's origin wherever in Asia it's supposed to be). As they remove parts of it he has to tell them to leave the chestplate because it's the only thing keeping shrapnel from piercing his heart and killing him. He's also got lots of other lesser injuries. He tells them to leave him while he works on improving the armour. But Pepper stays to read the company's computer files on its biomedical tech and such.
When she awakes in the morning Tony's back in the armour and he's added dermal regenerators which have already healed his face. It transpires that he's done much more. A semi-AI controlled by his brainwaves is mending his flesh and organs. He's created a mobile hospital which will keep him alive as well as protect him from harm. Pepper removes 1 gauntlet to see what it's done to a damaged hand. But it takes the skin with it! Happy and butler Jarvis rush in when Tony cries out in agony. They manage to get his gauntlet back on and the armour calms Tony with an anaesthetic/tranquilliser.
Now Tony's back to figuring he can iron out the bugs and make the system work properly. The AI obviously decided that melding the skin with the armour was the best solution. Luckily only that arm is the only part affected so far. He and fellow-scientist Pepper then work through the day and night to redesign the algorithm to make it regenerate his skin and do better with the rest of his body. At 1 point he confesses to her that while he was held by terrorists he worried about his obituary being as an arms manufacturer, and he intended to lead a better life. And then he donned the armour and killed all his captors. But he now intends to dedicate his life to helping people. And as an afterthought he asks Pepper to marry him.
They continue working on separate parts of the project until Jarvis interrupts Pepper with breakfast. But when Tony joins them he's put all the armour back on and it's leaking fluids.
Chapter 2: My heart still beats
Tony says he didn't realise he'd put the rest of the armour on while he was intent on working. All he remembers is his hand stopped hurting but pain started in various other parts of his body. And then they were OK too. Pepper runs some diagnostics and informs him that his skin has all gone. If he removes the suit now he'll die. But to her horror he asks why he'd *want* to take the armour off! Then he says he's only joking, but he'll have to stay in the suit while he fixes it. Meanwhile he can't eat Jarvis' food so they better make him some nutritional drink.
But when Pepper and Jarvis return Tony has sealed himself off in isolation, but he doesn't sound good. Pepper runs scans and tells him that the suit has infiltrated his whole body and brain. His skeleton is going, including his skull. But now Tony says that's OK, an iron skull is better. He staggers to his workstation saying he just needs to fix the leakage.
He puts the whole building in lockdown. Jarvis and Pepper are trapped just outside the isolated lab along with Happy who's joined them. After a long time the transparent isolation screen opens and Happy and Jarvis enter. Tony is saying how he's seen how to keep everyone safe from accidents and illness. The screen closes again and Pepper sees the 2 men gassed and dragged away. She taps into cameras and sees Tony loading both men into 1 duplicate of his armour. After a lot of bone-snapping and leakage the armoured combination starts to help Tony at his work.
The next morning the lockdown ends. Pepper looks out of the penthouse window and sees open armours walking out and telling people they can cure what ails them if they climb inside. She smashes the window with a chair and warns the crowd not to do it, but some take up the offer and the screaming starts - and then stops.
Then she feels Tony's iron hand on her shoulder and he leads her to her own bespoke armour.