Chapter Text
The first thing I notice when I wake up is the low murmur of a man’s voice. I don’t recognize the language, but considering I failed French in high school, that’s not much.
What worries me is the immense pressure on my chest that prevents me from breathing deeply. I open my eyes and see darkness. Oh god, I’m blind. Fuck! Fuckfuckfuckfuck…
The gloom starts to clear a bit, the silhouette of a person lit by the glowing brightness of fire. The person has their back to me, so I take the moment to look around me. The darkness makes it difficult to see, but I make out the unmistakable shapes of machine guns.
My gut twists and I struggle to sit up.
“I would not do that if I were you.” A man’s voice, low and accented. “I barely managed to stitch you together in the first place.”
“What?”
The man steps closer to me, the wire rims of his glasses flashing. “If you move, you will disrupt the wires.”
A chill seeps through my bones. Wires?! Then I finally glance down at myself and swallow a scream.
A massive hole gapes on my chest, multicolored wires threaded through the hole and seemingly connected to a battered car battery sitting next to my stomach.
“What did you do to me?” My voice wavers but doesn’t crack. Small victories. “What happened?”
“I saved your life.” The man takes a seat next to me on a small wooden stool I hadn’t noticed. “My name is Yinsen. I was … chosen to perform surgery on you after shrapnel pierced your chest. I created an electro—”
“An electromagnetic field to prevent the shrapnel from reaching my heart.” I finish for him.
Sudden lights flood the room. I’d thought I was in a building of some sort but with the light, I finally realize that I’m in a cave.
A hysterical giggle works it way past my lips.
I’d been ambushed in Afghanistan, survived, and now had a massive hole in my chest that houses an electromagnetic field generator. And to top it all off, the operation was made in a fucking cave.
A sudden slam grabs my attention. In front of the shoddy metal grate that I’d pegged for a makeshift door stood another man flanked by several others. Faces covered and armed to the teeth, they sent shivers down my spine.
He barked out a couple of sentences to Yinsen, the only words I can recognize are my name, before gesturing to me.
“He wants to know if the amenities are agreeable to your tastes.” Yinsen murmurs to me without taking his eyes off the man. “If the great Toni Stark approves of the Ten Rings’ hospitality.”
“He can shove his amenities up his ass. What the hell does he want from me?” I spit out angrily.
A wince crosses Yinsen’s face before he hurriedly translates.
“You build Jericho missile.” The man says in heavily accented English before giving me a wide grin. He pats his gun and gestures at the others who also have machine guns cradled in their arms. “Stark Tech very good.”
Fury rips through me. Fucking Obie.
“Go to hell.”
The funny thing about torture is that even though they use the same methods frequently, you never get used to it. I’d been waterboarded so many times I’d lost count and every single fucking time I scream like a child, the sounds gurgling in the water, my nose burning with every drop of water inhaled. They’d broken my toes one by one, and each one made me scream and sob like nobody’s business. Whips and flogs beat me daily, with methodic precision to avoid breaking skin, and the pain never gets any easier.
At the end they ask me the same question, “Build Jericho missile?”
And my answer is the same every day, “Fuck off.”
I have no idea how many days pass, but I grow resigned. No hope lives in my heart. I know I’m going to die in this godforsaken cave surrounded by demanding terrorists.
But at least I won’t arm them.
The door slams open, the same goon as always standing in the doorway. He spews a barrage of words at Yinsen before reaching behind him to throw a terrified girl into the cave.
I lurch forward unconsciously, only Yinsen’s hand preventing me from doing something stupid.
“He says that if you do not build the Jericho missile, he will rape the girl in front of you.”
I look up in horror at the smiling goon. He grabs the girl roughly by the hair. Terror is written all over her face, tears already spilling silently on her face.
She can’t be more than ten years old.
The goon must see something in my face because he laughs and says something with a mocking tone.
“He says that if you do not build the missile, he will rape a different girl each night for a month and then they will all rape you.”
Yinsen’s face is stoic as always but I can see a muscle jumping under his eye as he translates.
“All right. I’ll build the stupid thing.” I grit out. “But they have to provide me with material.”
Yinsen translates. The goon laughs before throwing the girl down again. She whimpers but doesn’t move a muscle from the dirty floor.
“He will bring you all the material you require.”
I rattle off a list of materials, Yinsen translating quickly and tonelessly. But as soon as the man leaves, he turns to me.
“Those materials are not for building missiles.”
I tap my battery. “I have to get off this piece of junk first. Ask the girl her name.”
Yinsen speaks to the girl softly and she slowly sits up from the floor.
“She says her name is Nadira.”
“Okay Yinsen and Nadira, we’re going to get out of here.”
They give me the materials quickly, a mere two days after I make the request. When they deliver the materials, Nadira and Yinsen are held at gunpoint, to ensure my compliance.
I grit my teeth. As if my martial arts knowledge would help me in this stupid cave.
As soon as they leave, I grab a sheaf of paper and pencil. Once my reactor is in place, if I can manage to stabilize the tech, I have to design the biggest WMD of my life. Back when my designs were of the warmongering type, I’d toyed with the idea of armor for the soldiers. The board had disagreed with me, of course, so I’d just created a bunch of new missiles instead.
But maybe I can build something for myself.
Something big, powered by the reactor. Of course, that’s supposing the reactor can be miniaturized and remain stable enough without blowing me up when I build it.
Yinsen proves himself invaluable, helping me melt down the palladium to form the core and functioning as my hands when the tremors in mine became a dangerous nuisance. Not that I don’t have nerves of steel but months of torture atop of starvation and major chest surgery can do a number on anyone. Of course, switching from the battery to my arc reactor doesn’t grant me any favors either.
Unfortunately, as the days go on and no signs of a missile appear, my captors get antsy.
The day that things get even worse starts out as any other. I’d slept a total of three hours, making my already shaky hands even worse, so Nadira was holding the soldering iron as Yinsen sleepily translated my commands. When the door suddenly slams open it’s pure luck that prevents the girl from dropping the tool on her foot.
The goon, whom Yinsen says is named Khalil, looks at me angrily before shouting out commands to his lackeys. Two of them march into the room, one grabbing Nadira by the hair and drags her before Khalil while the other points their weapon at me. She screams, tears running down her face, but she quiets immediately when he places his weapon against her forehead.
I lurch forward, stopping only when I see Khalil’s guards pointing their own weapons at me.
“He says that he is getting impatient. He wants the missile within the next week or there will be consequences.” Yinsen is pale next to me.
“Tell him that even I can’t manage miracles in this cave.” I stare at Khalil in the eyes. When I get out, I’m going to make sure he never terrorizes another person.
He smiles at me. Then he pulls the trigger.
“No!” Uncaring now about the guards, I make my way next to Nadira’s corpse. Ignoring the burning in my eyes, I cradle her small head in my arms. “Tell him that he will receive the weapon in three days.”
Yinsen translates, his voice shaken.
Khalil says something in a derisive tone but walks out with most of his guard. Only two remain and they wrench the small girl’s body out of my arms. I let them take her, my hands falling limply beside me.
I swear, on Nadira’s memory, I will give them front row seats to the best weapon I have ever made.
“Come on Yinsen, we have to finish the soldering.” I ignore the tremors in my hand and pick up the iron. This has to end.
He says nothing but firmly takes the iron from me. “Tell me where.”
I dictate his movements, urgency in both my words and his actions. When Yinsen can do no more, I tell him to eat and sleep to recover some energy.
In the meantime, I start to cobble together the code necessary to arm my armor. Even though it’s going to be rudimentary, I have to have a system integrated, at least to avoid missing any shots. I know that this is going to be the only shot I have at survival. Vengeance of course is another deciding factor.
By the time Yinsen is awake, I have the code uploaded to the main hub I’d installed inside the back plate. In theory, once I have everything correct it will serve as the brain to my weapon. Instead of placing it in the face plate where it will overheat and obstruct my view, I can have it functioning as a spine instead.
Once my helper is awake, I set him to work and soon we have the main body ready.
“What will you do when you become free?” Yinsen’s voice is rough, understandable considering we’d spent at least 18 hours in complete silence.
I still my hand, taking the moment to answer him truthfully. “I don’t know.”
“Your legacy will always be war.” I turn to face him and he’s as solemn as ever. “You shut down your weapons division, but the world will never forget that the Stark weapons were the deadliest.”
I have no desire to return to my previous humanitarian work. Ballrooms and fundraising will no longer cut it. The work in poverty-stricken areas will always be a priority but I can’t waste away my time like I used to do. I have to do more.
“I don’t know.” I confess. “I guess I haven’t thought that far yet. What about you?”
Yinsen gives me a small smile. “I will finally be reunited with my family.”
“This is the first time I’ve heard about a family.” I halfheartedly tease Yinsen. “Who’s the lucky girl?”
“She was my childhood sweetheart.” He gets a faraway look in his eyes. “We married in secret, despite her parents’ wishes. We lived happily for twelve years: our three girls the biggest blessing in our lives. Once this is over, I will finally be with them again. In peace.”
I envy him. He looks completely sure that he’ll return to his girls. I wish I could be half as optimistic as he. But I will at the very least ensure that he gets back. It’s too late for Nadira but I will give everything for him to be able to make it back.
“I promise you’ll see them again.”
It takes another fourteen hours to finish my armor. I start up the program I’d written, initiating the code and stepping inside.
My toes are still mangled and hurt like fucking hell when I take steps, but I can work through it. As soon as everything is good to go, I aim at the door and blast it to high hell. Immediately, I hear a siren. I look at Yinsen through the gaps of my faceplate.
“See you on the other side.” He gives me a smile. Something seems off though, so I repeat our plan to him. “Remember, at the end you will find me using our homing beacon.”
“I remember the plan.”
Then I heard the thundering steps of the terrorists and hell let loose.
I kill so many as I make my way out of the cave, the sounds and splattering of blood almost making me lose my resolve. But I always remember Nadira and I kill many more with grim satisfaction.
When I’m finally at the mouth of the cave, I start to load my launchers but notice that the lag is greater than I’d calculated.
Fuck.
Suddenly Yinsen runs out in front of me, screaming and firing at the men who were starting to reload. He doesn’t last more than thirty seconds, but when he’s finally hit, he turns to look at me and smiles.
“My family is dead.”
And then he crumples, face slack with death.
Fury rages through me. Worse, I can’t do anything but flee like the coward I’ve been my entire life.
But I will regroup. I will survive. And I will come back and eliminate every single one of these worms until Ten Rings is nothing, but bones turned to dust.