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[ The video begins with a dark-haired man centered in the middle of the frame. He’s got dark eyes, a precisely cut goatee, and hair that’s a little too styled to be naturally that neat. There isn’t a lot to see beyond his chin, he’s sitting too close to the camera, but what can be seen looks vaguely like a shirt of shiny red metal.

His brow knits almost immediately after the feed starts recording, his expression edging toward disbelief as his lips twist into a mild frown. ]

Look. I get it. In a time of crisis, rationing’s necessary to keep resources moving in the right direction. Perfectly understandable. You guys needed to save your turtle. What responsible citizen wouldn’t do their part for that noble cause?

[ There’s a slight hint f sarcasm creeping into his voice, as though he’s heard the whole turtle spiel already and not only hasn’t been impressed, but also doesn’t really buy it either. Not even after having spent half a day scouring the network for information about what’s really going on here before making this video. ]

But really? Twenty bucks?

[ The low, indistinct murmur of another voice can be heard, though what it’s saying and who it belongs to is anyone’s guess. Whatever it says, it’s enough to make the man roll his eyes. ]

Juulan. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. The point — [ Whether he’s talking to the camera or the unidentified voice is unclear. ] — is that it isn’t enough for a day, let alone the entire bogus adventure.

[ It isn’t so much the way he looks at the camera – his eyes have never left it – but the change of his tone, less querulous and more curious, that indicates that he’s talking to whoever’s on the other end of the console. ]

So really. Turtle propaganda aside. What’s a guy gotta do to get some decent money around here? Sell his organs? Hit the street corners? Scrub barnacles off the bottom of the turtle? What?

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And he's not you. There's more then just superficial differences between worlds. His whole personality is different; he's not you. You're the one I have a history with, the one I've been missing.

[She's not sure how else she can say it to make him believe it's him that they're looking for.]

Date night. We'd just gone to bed. Then I ended up in the water.

[ There's a misunderstanding here. Finally Tony sees it and he leans forward in his chair, voice getting subtly softer. He doesn't know how else to break this to her, but he has to try. ]

I know he's not me. But I'm not—The one that disappeared. The one that you and Bruce have been missing? That's not me. That guy's still out there somewhere. Someone's already confirmed that. But it's all right. I told him I'd find him.

[ He's always done the impossible. He can do it here too. ]

And I will, Pepper. I promise. So don't worry, okay? It'll be okay. I'll make it okay.

[Jack. Pepper knew it could only be Jack. Besides, she's been watching his network post, making sure that it was really Tony and not another Tony from another dimension.

She frowned, crossing her arms. Tony was stubborn and she knew that.]

Jack was wrong.

[The words are point blank and honest. After all, Pepper doesn't hold punches when it comes to telling Tony things. She's not going to start now. She purses her lips into a pert frown. This whole situation was ridiculous. She could understand it coming about with people he'd met here and who had never known him back home. But with her it was ridiculous and counterproductive.]

He knows the man that was here before, and maybe you'll get to know him again, but that isn't this. I've known you for over ten years, and if I have to choose between you and him; then I choose you.

You don’t have to choose between anyone. That’s not the point. The point is that things are really—They’re not right and everything’s a mess and I just need…

[ He doesn’t know what he needs. He hasn’t feel right since New York and this isn’t helping. Other worlds. Other versions of himself. Other versions of people he knows. Not being able to reliably tell who’s who. Clones. Especially the clones. But he can’t go into that here. Not when he doesn’t know if Pepper knows about it.

And even if she does, he’s not sure it’s something he can talk about. No, he’s pretty sure that he has to figure this out himself. Burdening people with his emotional issues – not that he’ll admit that he has them – isn’t something he can do any more than he could burden them with his palladium poisoning, once upon a time.

It takes a moment for what she’s said to penetrate the chaotic jumble of his thoughts, but when it does, he shakes his head and frowns uncertainly. ]

Who’s Jack?

[Time. She's heard this before and it always ended with her worrying. She moved over to his chair and crouched down to be eye level with him.]

Don't shut me out Tony. Not again.

[The last time he'd done that it'd almost killed her, and it literally almost killed him.

At the question of Jack she gave him an honest answer, as always.]

Jack's a friend. He actually reminds me of you a bit. He's ... hard to see though.

[ It's not necessarily that he wants to shut her out. It's that he can't talk about it. Physically can't get the words out of his mouth and mentally can't bring himself to focus on the problem long enough to vocalize it.

He shakes his head, not ignoring her plea but also unable to address it. ]

Seems like there's a rash of that going around. People who're hard to see. They don't have optometrists here?

[ It's either make jokes about inconsequential things or shut down and not say anything at all. He decides to err on the side of the former. ]

[She offers a small smile. Trust Tony to turn things into a joke. She didn't even know if he still thought she was the wrong Pepper. She worried that he'd keep hiding things, convinced that she was the wrong Pepper and he couldn't confide in her, couldn't come to her for support. ]

Jack's last name is Frost; so I don't think and opthomatrist is going to be helpful in making people see him.

[ He just looks at her a moment, not really sure how to take that and waiting for the punchline. Something about Santa Claus, maybe, or the Easter Bunny. But then he lets it go. He's got too much else to worry about. ]

So you and the rest of the Scooby gang are running a company here too? How's that going?

Since you left it's just me. Bruce has a few volunteers though; they help him with the hydroponic garden.

[Her legs were getting a bit cramped from her current position, so she stood up and perched herself on the arm of his chair. If he chose to move away, showed uncomfortableness with her being in his personal space, then she'd know that he still didn't think of her as the real Pepper.]

You're still head of the company Tony. Now that you're back the shares you left with me return to you.

[Go ahead Tony, fight her on that. You won't be winning.]

[ He doesn't pull away from her. If she wants to sit there, she's perfectly welcome to do so. But her stubborn insistence that the man who'd been there previously was him makes him sigh in frustration. ]

Pepper. I didn't leave. I didn't give you anything.

[ Quiet though his voice is, the tone is firm. He knows who he is. At least, he knows what his memories tell him, and he has never been here. He knows that, no matter what anyone says. ]

The man who was here before wasn't me. I was never here. And I don't need an identity crisis dumped on me in the middle of everything else right now. I know who I am.

[Pepper purses her lips in that frown of annoyance she gives when Tony is being unreasonable. If the man that was here for the past seven months wasn't him, then she'd been cheating on him for seven months and the thought made her sick.

On top of everything else he just looks so lost. She wants to help him, to acclimate him to this place and to make things better, but she can't, and that's what's killing her the most. Being helpless to do anything to make things better for him. Part of her wonders if just leaving would help him. Walking away and letting him be alone, but she knows what'll happen. Tony had always been prone to self destructive behavior.

She lets out a heavy sigh, not even sure what to say anymore.]

What do you want to do then?

[ That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? What does he want to do? Go home. Get a drink. Knock himself out for a few hours so that he doesn’t have to think. What he wants to do is to not have to deal with any of this. But that’s not an option. It never is.

He shrugs, affecting a casualness he doesn’t feel. ]

I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out. You’ve been here, what was it? Seven months?

[ If they’re clones, there’s no way they’re ever really going home. He can’t think about that, though. Not yet. It’s too overwhelming when he hasn’t processed the rest of it. ]

Something tells me I’m going to have a lot of time to do it.

Well,

[She sighed. This was going to be a long uphill battle and she wasn't happy about it.]

you have free reign of any materials you want at Stark Industries. Although I do have a problem I need a genius to figure out. If you feel up the the challenge.

[ He lets the comment about Stark Industries go. Bad enough that people expect him to just step into this other guy's life while he's not here, like an understudy filling in while the prima donna's sick. Now he's supposed to take his company too? ]

I do like challenges.

[ And if it's a problem he can solve, it'll get his mind off of other things. ]

What's the problem?

[That's hardly what Pepper means, and for Tony to even think she did mean that after their argument two seconds ago would have made her angry. Good for him he didn't voice it.]

It's the tribbles. Wherever they come from is apparently extremely hostile so they multiply at an insane rate. All the districts but the metal have been inventing new ways to kill them. The metal district thought of using them as an energy source instead. I've managed to make a few rough sketches based on what I saw, but I'm not a genus.

[It's not that Pepper looks down on herself. She just lives in a world full of brilliant people and is fully aware of her average ness. She's not gifted with false bravado or a competitive nature, and she knows others can far exceed her own ideas; especially someone like Tony.]

Would you be interested in looking into it?

Pest control?

[ His brow wrinkles, not entirely thrilled with the idea. Though it's less about dealing with little balls of fur and more the mental image he's getting that would do the Wachowski brothers and their vision of the future in the Matrix proud. ]

Are you talking put them on treadmills or hook them up to batteries? Because I'm not keen on running afoul of whoever runs the Turtleworld branch of PETA.

It's not pest control so much as keeping them from being killed by the other districts.

[She frowns, pursing her lips close together. He doesn't sound pleased, which she knew he wouldn't be, but she doesn't have any projects that he would be interested in that he wasn't already on. ]

The metal district was working with treadmills, I was hoping you could do something better, but still humane.

You probably want to get a tribble expert for that. Figure out, I don't know, behavioral patterns. Territory. Whatever people learn from animals when they watch them for hours.

[ He's talked to one already, hasn't he? What's his name? Lory? Cory? Jory? Something like that. ]

Talk to Cory. [ That sounds like a better bet that Lory or Jory. Those don't even sound like names. ] He's the tribble-whisperer. He might have an idea. Biological things... [ He shakes his head. ] Not really my forte.

[She raised a brow.]

If it'd make you feel better I can ask him to be your assistant.

[Pepper has no idea who Cory is, but she gets the feeling his name is actually Rory. This is why she stalks Tony's conversations.]

I don't need an assistant.

[ Assistants don't work out. They can't keep up. And eventually, they get tired of it and leave. Working alone, he's found, is better for everyone. ]

And I'm not really sure I should be minding a tribble farm. There are other forms of energy production that don't require using living creatures. I'd rather stick with those.

Then what do you suggest?

[Yes Tony, she's baiting you. Baiting you to start a long term energy project and remind yourself just who the hell you are. You're Tony Stark, the man that has been a pain in her ass for over ten years, the man that could put McGyver to shame if he were a real person.]

What do I suggest about what? Tribbles? I don't know. Energy production? Does it matter? This isn't my world. I don't know what it needs. I don't even really care. I didn't ask to come here and no one asked me if I wanted to be here either. I woke up on the floor in some room and then got brought to this apartment like someone putting away a pair of shoes in the closet.

[ This place isn't his problem. Until he's given a damn good reason why it should be, he's not going to start caring about it. ]

I just got here. I don't even know who I am and you expect me to, what? Put on a tie and go sit in a office somewhere? This isn't my home. I'm not going to start treating it like it is.

Oh please. I can tell you exactly who you are. If you can't figure it out then I'm scheduling you to get an examination.

[To Pepper there is no question. Tony is Tony. She's already settled it with herself that the Tony she knew for seven months is dead, but that doesn't change the fact that this is still her Tony.

she knew her anger was getting the best of her. That she was starting to say things that she shouldn't, that he was starting another argument, but at the same time, she wanted to argue back. Tony wasn't someone she handled like everyone else. She got angry and yelled and argued with him. She'd wanted so badly for this to be a good meeting. After Tony almost dying, then dying and now coming back she needed this to be a good meeting, but it wasn't going to be. So finally she let herself loose her temper.]

No one asked to be here Tony. I was sleeping before I showed up here. I'd finally gotten you out of the workshop and into bed. I woke up to being fished out of the ocean like the catch of the day, paraded through town dripping wet and in your t-shirt and stuck in an apartment with nothing but the bed sheets for clothing.

This isn't any of our world, we're just doing the best we can until we can find a way back home.

[ He can tell her exactly who he is too. A man with no name, no past, no future, and no memories of his own. All he’s got is a head full of someone else and those thoughts are so toxic that they make it difficult for him to think. ]

Then maybe accept that I’m trying to do the best I can too.

[ Does she know that they’re clones? Maybe. He hasn’t asked and on the off-chance that she doesn’t know, he’s not going to be the one to break it to her. It’s enough of a mindfuck for him. He’s not going to impose it on anyone else. ]

I just don’t have a lot to work with right now.

Then let me help you. Tell me what you need and I'll get it for you. Talk to me, I'll listen.

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