A/N Hello again, thank you for reading. Hmmm I hope you like this chapter. I think its ok but slightlyn OOC... But enough chatter, I hope you enjoy Gene's refletion.
Gene kneeled on the cold floor of the temple, the cold of the tiles seeping into his ripped dirty pants, he shivered. His black tee shirt that had once come from an exclusive store was now too small and blood stained. His trademark tinted sun glasses were cracked but still were propped on his face, slightly lopsided. The rings around his neck swung slightly on the chain around his neck. He had all five now, he was hunting for the next five and had been living in a flat that the council were planning to knock down. He used to come to the temple when he needed to think or after his step father had hit him particularly hard it was his secret place of Refuge.
Outside of the temple a harsh snowfall was falling heavily in the early morning darkness, it had started snowing while Gene was still outside and his running footsteps he had left had already become invisible in the short time he had reached shelter. Gene hated snow. It was too white. Too pure and too… too.. Too good.
His forehead touching the floor as he bowed to the stone figure of the Buddha who was surrounded by burnt out red candles that sat in pools of crimson wax. Rotten offerings of food sat on the edge of the table were the statue sat. Small jade animals were broken some of them smashed, missing heads and ears laid at the statue's feet. The temple walls were large and stretched high, spray-painted with obscenities and false name of the "artists" who had desecrated the sacred place covering the walls etched with Chinese characters that told of the ancient Chinese Lore. Painting comical faces onto the large fierce dragons who still peered at Gene through their cold black eyes. Peeling red lacquered furniture adorned the temple various mismatched pieces knocked around. Bottles of alcohol in various amounts of emptiness were strewn; most of them were Gene's. The Buddha was the only thing untouched in the room, a light in the otherwise darkened room of destruction.
Thoughts swirled in his head as he dizzily recounted what had happened in the last month. It seemed almost a dream and he could only remember flashes of what had happened in the Fin Fang Foom. Glimpses of Pepper, Rhodey, Tony and that damn Iron Man. Images of the huge dragon red armor swirled around his head. He had lived in the cave of the dragon for a few days, studying the arrangement of the hologram map that betrayed the hiding places of the rings. He had somehow gotten a lift back to America but had not even tried to go to his old home knowing he could never be accepted by the Tong who had been my followers. The steady ache in his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten in- How long? The weeks after the cave were a blur of fights he had gotten into with the local gangs when they had found him scrounging around their neighborhood. After a particular bad one he had dragged himself, injured and bloody to an empty flat afterwards. It had been abandoned by previous squatters, it wasn't a home, just place of shelter. Once he had been the feared and merciless leader of the terrifying groups in the city. But as he was being punched and pummeled, kicked by mere wannabes with the same mercilessness he had dished to much bigger fish. The ironic karma filled him and as they left him in an empty and dark car park he laughed hard, making his chest cry with pain. He ended up spewing dark blood from his mouth onto the pavement and violently vomiting up the food he had stolen.
The rings now were only a weight around his neck that he could not use, swinging slightly while he stared at the floor of the temple. The early morning sunlight making the rings glitter slightly. He could not use the suit for too much time which was partly the reason he hadn't used it to defend himself. He had tried numerous times but had realized that with his failing health the fact that he was either in the state of getting drunk, drunk or with a hangover. He could not establish the suit for more than a few minutes and on especially bad days not at all. He had a scary experience when he had tried to put on the suit when he was drunk, with the idea that if he jumped off a bridge if he would gain the permanent silence and isolation he wished for. A complete separation from the world. When he was about to jump from the bridge into the rocky waters the suit began to feel thin. There was no other way to describe it, the suit simply started to fade away until Gene found himself in his ordinary clothes, panting hard and with the rings banging along with his pounding heart. It made him shiver now in the cold abandoned temple, the fear of the unknown slightly bigger than the fear of the death he had so closely encountered with.
Gene came to the temple to pray and to be at peace with himself and to think of a strategy of finding the next rings. He had stared at the hologram map for long enough but the continents were always distorted and it was obvious the rings would not be easy to find. Gene had to admit finding the first five rings were mainly thanks to Stark. Now that Stark knew that he was the Mandarin and, more importantly, Gene knew that Tony was Iron Man he had to find another person to help him find the rings. Just thinking about them made his head hurt. He had though that…that. That the five rings would be enough. Would be enough to bring his mother's life back. To make his life right but NO! There had to be another five rings. Another five tests and more wait for his life to return to normal. That was all he wanted, for his mother to come back, for a normal life and maybe even a girlfriend. Someone cute, that he shared a lot in common... someone like Pepper. When thoughts like these sneaked into Gene's head he normally washed them away with alcohol or went to spy on his "friends".
He had taken to watching his old life. Silently being the second shadow to his old friends. Friends, if that was what you could call them. Friends represented weaknesses he knew that from far before but at the beginning of the year he had needed them to work for him. It had almost been too easy to deceiving Stark into friendship, the Rhodes boy had been slightly harder to convince for trust but Gene had done it. Having friends was not as great as they said it was in books and on the TV but they were entertaining, running around, pretending to be heroes looking for the Makluan rings. The memory that Stark was actually Iron man and a real hero sobered the amusement for Gene but he still enjoyed watching his former friends around their ordinary lives. He had started looking at all three but gradually took to only paying attention to Pepper.
Pepper.
A wave of unwanted emotions swept Gene into thoughts that he wanted to shut away forever as he bent his head lower and shutting his eyes hard against the unwanted but not completely alien feelings and thoughts. The feelings he had for her were not the same artificial friendship that was inches away from contempt he had for Stark and Rhodes but a true caring and even… No. He didn't deserve those feelings for Pepper. She deserved better, she deserved anyone else even… even Stark.
But not him, never him.
The last few moments of their friendship when he had pushed her out of the way from the dragon were the seconds he himself he had admitted to himself that he loved Pepper. He had felt those feelings for her for a long time but he had always prem back rather than admitting it. It was true that he had done many things that he was proud of that others would rather forget. But her knew it would always come to this, that Pepper would realize who he really was the only question was when. So he had taken to haunting her life. Being her second shadow so to speak, he watched her as she slowly recovered from what had happened in the cave. He had seen her squealing and dancing around her room with her new phone. Gene had sent the phone to her remembering that Pepper had told him about her mother. Forging her mother's handwriting had been an easy task and Gene had easily shoplifted two phones. One for Pepper and one for him to keep and keep in contact. Keep in contact. Yeah, that was right. He had been messaging her, his phone was his only contact to her. His thin piece of yarn tying to Pepper and connecting to his old false life. He had been texting her, it had given him some comfort that he could still effect people's lives. He liked to think of himself as a puppeteer and Stark, Rhodey and most importantly Pepper, his puppets.
Over the passing days he had found comfort inside the bottle, in the drunk hazes after consuming too much of the deadly mix of rum, vodka and spirits he would awaken with a pounding headache strewn on the temple floor. Sometimes lying in a pool a vomit other times propped outside a doorstep but always with his cell phone in his hand and a bank of sent messages of threats and apologies his drunk addled fingers had texted and sent to Pepper. He had a special ledge on the opposite building to hers where he could see straight into her room. He spent most of his time there, transforming into the Mandarin and transporting himself there and watching for hours at a time. Gene never watched when Pepper was changing or anything else. Just thinking about it made Gene blush a ferocious red, but he did enjoy watching her sleep. Then she looked the most peaceful, the stress wrinkles on her forehead that were so often deeper then the smiling lines smoothed away. Her now frowning mouth curved into a satisfied half smile. It was when he was watching her sleep it was easiest imagining her forgiving him.
Gene's mind staggered slightly and as he came out of his bow. The beatific smile of the Buddha now seemed to be making fun of Gene. He felt the anger mount inside him. The pressure slowly building up, the anger making his ears ring loudly he grabbed around for a bottle and bringing it up he heard a roar as he smashed the glass against the Buddha's face. As he staggered backwards he looked at the chipped face of the Buddha one side of the face was completely chipped away while the other half was still recognizable. Collapsing to his knees his hand blindly groped around for the certain bottle that he knew was close. His hand clenched slightly at the bottle neck as he tilted the liquid into his mouth. The strong flavored liquid ran through his throat slipping down his chin. As the bottle emptied Gene felt. the buzz starting and before he could judge his actions he felt his body making its own independent movement. As he stepped out into the morning sunlight that was shining palely in the snowy morning, he carefully slipped on his rings. For a moment Gene hovered between his normal clothes and the metal suit. When he had totally transformed his mind focused on the special ledge as he disappeared in a swirl of color and light, only the good half of the Buddha was witness to his disappearance.
On the ledge Gene slipped the rings off his hand and transformed back to his normal self. He lifted his gaze slightly to the window and nearly jumped out of skin in surprise to see Pepper was already up. His eyes strained to make out the details but the ledge was a good viewpoint and he could easily make out her face resting against the window. She was staring down at the road, obviously unaware of another watcher spying at her. Gene absent mindedly swept off the falling snow and he became memorized with the red headed girl staring out her window. This was the most painful bit, Gene thought as his throat clenched. Knowing that he could never be inside with Pepper but always on the outside looking in. He brushed away the snow that disguised the single cool tear making its tracks on his face. As he looked he saw Pepper's face disappear from view. Gene felt his head hurting despite the alcohol effects. He put his hand into his head as the thrumming increased, he felt his hand slip into his pocket and pull out the mobile phone. His fingers punched in the number he had memorized. As he heard the ringtone it suddenly stopped and his breath caught as he heard the dial tone stop. His mouth seemed to move as he watched through the window he could see Pepper in the room and saw her turn and instantaneous pale white. His heart beat increased as he watched her as she dropped his present. The change that had happened in the month struck him and he started to laugh his pained laugh as he hung up. He could not make himself look up into the window and instead his almost hysterical laugh slowly turned to a cry of anger and sorrow. The high of the alcohol finally caught up with Gene and as he stood up he flung the black mobile phone off the rooftop he watched it fall and shatter, he wondered if taking his own life would hurt.
A/N Meh, this was slightly OOC oh well, the next chapter will be up in a week or so. Thank you to everyone who read and/or reviewed, tell me if you like this or not. I tried to make it as convincing as possible but hmmm. I'm not sure if I like this or not. I like the fact that Gene really liked Pepper and it always seemed to me that he was doing it to for a deeper reason than power.
Update: So I have removed the third chapter from this story because it didn't really suit and it kind of (really sucked). I may write a final conclution but if I don't this is it- Thank you to everyone who have read this- maybe keep an eye out for another story.
THANKS!
