After all the terrorists were taken care of, Rhodes brought the president back to the White House, while Tony and Dio drove to the restaurant. But in the middle of the way back, Dio’s phone started to ring.
“What’s the matter, Zeppeli?” Dio asked as he was curious why Zeppeli was calling him like this.
“Sir! You have to come back immediately!” Zeppeli said in his robotic voice.
“Tony! Do you mind putting the pedal to the metal?” Dio said quickly as a bad premonition made him anxious.
Tony nodded and immediately stepped on the gas to rush them back to the restaurant. As they arrived at the restaurant, Tony and Dio immediately rushed towards the vault. But all Dio saw was Crystal watching some Tv Program while Pepper was fast asleep on the couch beside Crystal!
“Is she your daughter?” Tony asked while smirking tauntingly. Dio was already prepared for this kind of comment, so he just ignored it!
Dio immediately shifted his attention back to Crystal, for he had to know what happened. “Crystal, what did you do while I am gone? Can you tell me in detail?” Dio asked Crystal carefully.
“Nothing, I am just playing some video games and then watched some Tv shows.” Crystal said innocently. On the other side, Tony immediately ran towards Pepper and sighed in relief as soon as he knew that Pepper was just asleep. Tony then picked her up to move her to his house.
“Tony! I think its better for Pepper to stay here for a while. It may be dangerous for her out there right now!” Dio said casually after he saw that Tony was trying to move Pepper.
“What? Do you think I couldn’t protect her?” Tony asked challengingly. However, Dio was just looking at Tony while raising one of his brows.
“Okay, I know that the last time was all my fault! But I will not let it happen again! After all, the danger was already eliminated! But I advise you to stay back! I know that Pepper and I have a few rough patches, but I am not giving up on her!” Tony said coldly.
Dio just shrugged his shoulder as he didn’t have any intention to steal Pepper from Tony. But before leaving, Tony sure left some sarcastic word behind.
“You know, you better keep the relationship with a minor like this under the rug! It’s illegal! If you ever get caught, I don’t mind providing you the best lawyer to try to reduce your sentence later!” Tony said as he left with Pepper on his arm.
Dio just gave him his middle finger as he was not in the mood to argue. But as soon as Tony and Pepper left, Dio then immediately shifted his attention back to Crystal.
“Did the kind aunt earlier accompany you playing some games? Did you really stay awake while I am gone?” Dio asked curiously.
“Yeah, we do many things together, but I am afraid that she would an accident will befall her or something like that, so I keep my interaction to a bare minimum!” Crystal said confidently.
“Okay, so what do you want me to do for your reward?” Dio asked curiously. Crystal suddenly became shy and stopped talking altogether.
“If you can’t decide now, it’s okay. just save it for later. This promise I made would always be valid!” Dio said warmly. Crystal nodded and immediately headed back up to her own room. When she entered her room, she immediately fell into the pillow while sighing. She couldn’t muster enough courage to tell Dio what she really wanted, but she hoped that she could have the confidence to tell Dio in the future!
. . . . . . . . .
After sending Crystal back to her room, Dio stayed in the vault while watching the surveillance tape of the time he wasn’t here. Sure enough, everything Crystal said was true! Pepper was trying to bond with Crystal, but sadly, Crystal was playing hard to get! The weird part began while they were playing games together. After some yawning, Pepper suddenly fell asleep! Then Crystal started to shiver like she was cold while making a horrified face occasionally!
Zeppeli clearly saw this abnormality and immediately reported back to Dio by calling him early on. Dio was a little bit surprised. This meant that Crystal was falling asleep with her eyes open! That also meant that the Black Mist from earlier was a sentient being that worked differently than Crystal’s mind.
Sensing that an accident was prone to happen, Dio immediately ordered Zeppeli to cancel all the restaurant appointments for the next three days to ensure that the accident wouldn’t befall the unsuspecting customers.
The next thing that fell under his concern was Pepper. She fell asleep in a strange kind of way. There was no doubt that she was under the black mist’s influence at that time! He wondered whether he should warn her of the upcoming accident or not. But then again, he decided not to as he didn’t want Tony to have the wrong idea.
Now that he has already taken all the precautions, he wanted to know what the black mist had in store for him!