January 9, 2010 – AIM Headquarters, Miami
The Extremis laboratory had been transformed into a war room.
Arthur watched from his usual position near the back of the room as Tony Stark and Maya Hansen argued over holographic displays, their hands dancing through molecular structures and protein chains.
In truth, Arthur had no business being in this laboratory at all.
Despite the clones working in parallel, despite the mental boost from Ravenclaw's diadem, he was still only one person with limited hours in the day. He'd had to make choices about where to focus his studies, and biotechnology hadn't made the cut.
His knowledge of biology only went as far as healing magic required—anatomy, how organs worked, the basics of fixing damaged cells. The molecular engineering Tony and Maya were discussing might as well have been a foreign language.
But that didn't mean he was useless. He had a way to contribute.
"The protein folding sequence they're discussing has a 73% failure rate based on my simulations," Eve's voice whispered through the earpiece hidden beneath Arthur's hair. "If they adjust the thermal decay trigger to activate on temperature drop rather than time-delay, success probability increases to 94%."
Arthur smiled. He waited for a natural pause in the argument, then spoke up. "What if you tied the kill-switch to temperature instead of time?"
Tony and Maya both turned to stare at him.
"The Extremis reaction creates a lot of heat," Arthur continued, walking closer to the holographic display. "When healing completes, the fever breaks. Body temperature goes back to normal. Use that temperature drop as the trigger. The virus shuts itself down when the body returns to its normal state."
Maya's fingers flew across the interface, typing in the new parameters.
The simulation flashed green.
SUCCESS PROBABILITY: 94.3%
Tony stared at the screen. Then at Arthur. Then back at the screen. Then at Arthur again.
"Okay," Tony said slowly. "The physics thing I accepted. You're good with numbers. But this is advanced biomolecular engineering. Graduate-level stuff. You're a hedge fund manager, Arthur. Why do you know about metabolic heat triggers?"
"I read a lot," Arthur shrugged, keeping his face innocent.
"You read a lot," Tony repeated flatly. "I read a lot. I read textbooks for fun. This isn't reading. This is specialized knowledge that takes years to learn. This is—I don't even know what this is."
Arthur just smiled, keeping that innocent expression.
Tony threw his hands up. "Fine! The wizard of Wall Street strikes again. Let's just make this magic potion and see if it works."
Maya was already adjusting the formula, talking to herself about thermal thresholds and cell death triggers.
—
The next six days blurred together.
Arthur helped when Eve gave him information through the earpiece, but mostly he watched. He saw Tony and Maya improve the formula through test after test. He saw Pepper keep her silent watch at competition. He saw Killian hover at the edges, his anticipation almost painful to see.
The plant trials worked perfectly. Then came the animal trials - disabled monkeys from a rescued testing facility. Monkeys that couldn't walk were climbing within hours. DNA tests showed no trace of the virus left behind. The Extremis did its job and vanished.
By day seven, they had their final product: two vials of glowing amber liquid. One to start the transformation. One to stop it if things went horribly wrong.
"It's time," Tony said, rolling up his sleeve. "I'm ready. Let's do this."
"No."
Aldrich Killian stepped forward from where he'd been reviewing the final test results. He had been watching the animal trials with an intensity that was almost frightening.
"It's my company," Killian said, his voice shaking slightly. "It's my life's work. My dream. I go first."
"Aldrich," Tony argued, "I have a literal hole in my chest. You have a limp. I think I win the priority contest."
"And if it fails?" Killian shot back, his jaw tight. "If Tony Stark explodes in my lab, what happens then? The media goes crazy. Investigations everywhere. AIM is finished. I go to prison. The technology gets buried under lawsuits and government red tape for decades."
He tapped his chest with one hand. "If I die, it's sad. But the company survives. The research continues. Besides..." His voice got softer. "I need to be first. I need to know this works. That I didn't waste my life chasing an impossible dream."
Tony looked to Arthur for support.
"It's his right," Arthur said simply.
—
The procedure was not for the faint of heart.
Arthur watched from the observation deck as Killian was strapped to the table. Maya gave the first injection with steady hands. The glowing amber liquid disappeared into Killian's bloodstream.
Within seconds, Killian began to scream.
His skin glowed with a terrifying, molten light. His outline became blurry from the heat waves, the air around him shimmering. The restraints on the table groaned as his body thrashed, muscles tearing and healing in seconds, bones breaking and mending with sickening cracks that could be heard even through the observation glass.
Pepper turned away, unable to watch, burying her face in Tony's shoulder. Tony watched without blinking, his face pale but his eyes locked on Killian.
Then, after what felt like hours but was only minutes, the heat peaked and broke.
Steam hissed off Killian's body as the temperature plummeted. The glow faded from his skin, retreating inward until it vanished entirely.
Thirty long minutes later, after Maya had run every test they had, she announced: "No trace of active Extremis in his system. The virus is completely gone. Cell structure is perfect. No problems."
Killian's eyes opened.
He lay gasping on the table, chest heaving, looking like he'd run a marathon. The restraints were loose now, stretched by his body's growth during the transformation.
Slowly, carefully, he sat up.
Arthur felt a flicker of recognition. The man sitting on the table was the Aldrich Killian from the movies—the handsome, physically powerful version. His jaw was square and strong. His chest was broad with clear muscles. His skin was perfect, unmarked by years of stress and neglect.
But when Killian looked around the room with wonder, his eyes were clear. There was no madness behind them. No burning need for revenge against the world that had dismissed him. Just pure joy.
He stood up. Carefully at first, then with growing confidence. He took a step. Then another, without the limp that had defined his walk for decades. He jumped, landing lightly on his feet.
"My god," Killian whispered, looking at his hands. "I'm... perfect."
Arthur watched from the observation window, quietly casting diagnostic spells that would show any hidden problems. The magic told him what the monitors confirmed: Killian's body was healthy. More than healthy - optimized. Every system working at peak efficiency.
"The physical enhancement is significant," Maya noted, reviewing the post-procedure scans. "Muscle density increased by approximately forty percent. Bone density up thirty percent. Reflexes, coordination, sensory acuity—all well above baseline human parameters."
"That's going to be a problem for public release," Tony said. "You can't sell a product that turns everyone into a super-soldier. The military would take it over overnight. The social problems would be huge."
"Agreed." Killian was examining his own body with clinical interest, flexing muscles that hadn't existed an hour ago. "The public version needs to focus only on healing. Fixing damage without the enhancement. We'll have to modify the formula."
"That should be pretty straightforward," Maya said. ""The enhancement is basically a side effect of aggressive cell regeneration—the body rebuilding itself better than it was. If we dial back the repair intensity, we can get healing without the physical upgrades."
"Good. Start on it right away." Killian pulled on his shirt, which didn't fit properly across his newly broad shoulders. "I want a civilian-ready formula within six months. Affordable. Available to everyone who needs it, not just rich people."
"You're not going to take even a day to celebrate?" Eileen asked with a gentle smile. "You just accomplished something that will change the world. This will save millions of lives."
"The job isn't done until that change actually happens." Killian's expression was focused and driven but not crazy. Not obsessed. Just... determined in a healthy way. "There are people out there right now struggling like I struggled. Trapped in broken bodies. Waiting for hope. I'm not going to make them wait any longer than I have to."
He practically skipped out of the room, his old limp now a distant memory, his mind already racing toward the future and all the work left to do.
"He's a workaholic," Tony noted with something like approval. "I can respect that."
He turned to Arthur. "My turn?"
"Tomorrow," Arthur said. "First, we need to get the shrapnel out. The Extremis can heal the hole in your chest, but it can't dissolve metal. We need a surgeon."
"I know a guy," Tony said. "Best hands in the world."
—
The Next Day
The door to the briefing room opened, and a tall man walked in with the kind of confidence that comes from knowing exactly how good you are at your job and how much people need you.
Dr. Stephen Strange was everything his reputation promised - brilliant, arrogant, andblessed with hands so steady they seemed to belong to a different species.
"Mr. Stark," Strange said. "I've reviewed your scans. Fascinating case. Twenty-three fragments of different sizes, several positioned in extremely delicate locations near major blood vessels." He smiled slightly, and it was the smile of someone who viewed impossible challenges as fun. "Should be interesting."
"Interesting." Tony raised an eyebrow. "That's the word you'd use? Not 'challenging' or 'dangerous' or 'you're lucky to be alive'?"
"I don't take cases that aren't interesting, Mr. Stark. The routine ones bore me. The challenging ones are just more fun." Strange's gaze swept the room with casual authority, landing briefly on Arthur before moving on. "I understand there's some kind of experimental regeneration therapy planned after I remove the shrapnel?"
"That's correct," Maya said carefully. "You've signed the non-disclosure agreement?"
"I sign a lot of non-disclosure agreements. Rich patients value their privacy." Strange's tone suggested he found such concerns boring but tolerated them as professional necessity. "My job is to extract the shrapnel without killing Mr. Stark. What happens after that is your business, not mine."
"Confident," Tony observed dryly.
"Accurate," Strange corrected without a hint of modesty. He began pulling up Tony's scans on the room's holographic display with precise movements. "I don't make mistakes, Mr. Stark. I make miracles look easy." He highlighted the shrapnel positions, fingers moving through the three-dimensional image. "Your case is complex but not impossible. I estimate three to four hours for complete removal, depending on complications."
Arthur stood in the corner, arms crossed, watching with interest. It was fascinating to see Strange before his fall—before the car accident that would shatter his hands and humble his ego, leading him to Kamar-Taj and a destiny he couldn't imagine yet. The raw talent was undeniable, blazing bright. And the arrogance... well, if you were this good at what you did, you'd earned the right to be arrogant.
"Let's begin," Strange said, as if he were the one who had called this meeting.
—
The surgery took three hours and forty-seven minutes.
It was a delicate dance of removing the Arc Reactor housing and extracting the tiny shards of metal slowly working their way toward his heart.
Strange's hands were steady as rock. He removed the casing. He plucked the shrapnel out with tweezers, dropping them into a metal dish with soft tinks.
"Pericardium is clear," Strange announced after removing the final fragment. "But there is a massive cavity in the sternum. He'll need extensive grafting, months of recovery—"
"Not today," Arthur said calmly.
Strange frowned above his surgical mask. "Excuse me? What—"
"Maya," Arthur said simply.
Maya stepped forward and injected the glowing amber liquid into Tony's IV line.
Strange watched, his eyes widening above his mask in real shock, as Tony's chest began to glow with an orange-gold light.
Heat poured from the operating table in waves. Strange stepped back instinctively, raising one hand to shield his eyes. "What's happening? Is he crashing? His vitals—"
"He's healing," Arthur said.
As the glow faded over the next several minutes, Strange leaned in close, professional curiosity overriding his shock. He pulled back the surgical drape with careful hands.
Where there had been a gaping hole of metal, wire, and scar tissue just moments ago, there was now smooth, unmarked skin. Perfect and whole. The scar tissue was minimal—barely visible. The chest bone had completely re-fused, knitting together as if it had never been broken.
Dr. Stephen Strange, a man who believed only in what his hands could touch and his textbooks could prove, looked completely shaken.
"That's... impossible," Strange murmured. "The cellular regeneration rate... it defies every law of biology. Tissue growth that should take months happened in minutes. This is..."
"Nothing is impossible in this world, Dr. Strange," Arthur said quietly, handing him a towel. "The universe we live in is far more magical than your textbooks say."
"What?" Strange looked up, confusion and irritation on his face.
"Nothing." Arthur's smile gave nothing away. "You'll understand when it's time."
Strange was clearly frustrated by the cryptic answer, but he wasn't the type to play guessing games. He looked at Tony, sleeping peacefully on the table, chest rising and falling in perfect rhythm. He stripped off his bloody gloves with sharp movements. "I need a drink. Possibly several."
—
Recovery Room
Tony woke up feeling... light.
That was the only word for it. The heavy, cold weight that had sat in the center of his chest for so long was simply gone. The constant awareness of the arc reactor, its hum and glow, had vanished.
He took a deep breath. His lungs expanded fully, completely, without restriction for the first time since the cave.
He opened his eyes to see Pepper sitting by the bed, holding his hand like a lifeline, her eyes red from crying.
"Hey," Tony croaked.
"Hey yourself," Pepper smiled, tears spilling over her cheeks.
"Is it...?"
"It's gone," she whispered. "All of it."
Tony sat up slowly, testing how his body felt. He felt strong. Clear. Alive in a way he hadn't felt since before Afghanistan. He pulled open the hospital gown with careful hands. He ran his fingers over his chest, feeling smooth skin where there had been metal and scar tissue.
He looked at Pepper. The woman who had stuck by him through the kidnapping, the PTSD, the drinking. Who had watched him work himself to exhaustion while pretending everything was fine. Who had loved him even when he was barely capable of loving himself.
"Happy," Tony called out, his voice growing stronger.
Happy Hogan stepped forward from the shadows, grinning. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet box. "Right here, Boss."
Tony took the box. He swung his legs off the bed. He didn't stumble. He didn't feel dizzy.
He dropped to one knee.
Pepper gasped, her hands flying to her mouth.
"Pepper," Tony said, looking up at her. "I've spent the last year dying. It really puts things in perspective. I don't want to waste another second—"
"What?" Pepper's voice went sharp. Her face paled. "What do you mean dying? Tony, this was about the shrapnel—"
"The palladium was poisoning me," Tony said quietly. "The arc reactor keeping me alive was also killing me. I had weeks left, maybe days."
Pepper's hands started shaking. "You were dying and you didn't tell me?"
"I didn't know how." Tony's voice cracked. "I was scared. I handled it the worst way possible, like I always do. I'm sorry. No more secrets. I promise."
He opened the box. The diamond sparkled under the harsh fluorescent lights.
"Will you marry me?"
Pepper didn't hesitate.
"Yes," she sobbed, dropping to her knees to hug him. "Yes, Tony. Yes."
From the doorway, Arthur watched them, a warm smile on his face. Eileen leaned her head on his shoulder, her own eyes bright with tears.
"Good work," she whispered.
"We did alright," Arthur agreed softly. He took her hand. "Come on. Let's give them privacy."