I finished writing this chapter today! I promise it would have been out sooner, but at school, there's a read-a-thon i'm trying to read as much as i can, but i finished the book i was reading and now i'm back to the previous book i was reading. For the moment, well, i'm just glad that i can get books for 50 cents at the thrift shop down the street...

Anyways, sorry to bore you...I love books...:) This chapter i think is a bit weird, i think...but it should be good. Again, i know its going on longer than i said, but really that should be a good thing...Anyways, THANKS for the awesome reviews for those of you that are reviewing my story. I really love to hear what you guys think, and so far, i've been rude not to thank you guys! SO THANK YOU! I really appreciate that you guys take the time to read my storie!

disclaimer: IMAA is not mine. As you know, i never will.

Tony ignored anything Ghost said to him. Ghost knew he could talk, and was almost determined to get him to speak. Tony wasn't going to make it easy on him. Ghost had already mentioned that what he wanted was revenge. So was his revenge just tying him up to a chair in the cold while he had his friends and his father tied up elsewhere?

After about an hour or pointless shouting to try to get Tony to speak, Ghost was ready to punch him. At least that's what it looked like, with his fists balled up in fists like they were. Though, he just pulled back and walked away. Only telling his 'guards' to stay put.

And Tony was left to himself again. Other than the three Maggia men watching him. He just ignored them and wondered off into his thoughts again. He was wondering what the three were doing at the moment. It was late and it was dark outside, maybe they were sleeping. Maybe they escaped. Probably not, at least not in that short of a time period. Maybe they just sat still and listened to whatever it was those Maggia men said to them. For all he knew, Ghost was visiting them while he got to sit here, unharmed. Well, hungry and cold, but otherwise he was pretty much untouched.

His mind traveled back to the argument he had with the other two the last time they saw each other. Which he believed it was about maybe two days ago. He wasn't really sure. He really wasn't keeping track of time. Even if he was, he wasn't told how long he was passed out. Making it almost impossible to track the time he'd been in there for. He knew, it couldn't have been long, but even without the help of Chloroform, he'd be able to sleep plenty over 12 hours, and it wouldn't surprise him if he'd fallen asleep for over a day.

Returning to his original though, since his mind seemed to wander sometimes. He thought back, again, to the fight he had with his friends. He remembered Pepper said she was going. Did she mean she was leaving him? He understood enough what 'go' meant, and he also understood that they were never a couple. So, really she wasn't leaving him. She was abandoning him. If she was going. He shook his head. He shouldn't be mad at Pepper. He shouldn't let himself think that way about Pepper. He must think positive about her.

Especially if she was right. He should have told them. Maybe the knowledge of Ghost hunting them down, would have made things easier. Instead of them almost dying. He nodded to himself. That was it. They were just upset to be outside the loop. That's all. Too bad now they may never forgive him.

"You going insane or something?" One of the Maggia men sneered.

One of the others punched his arm roughly. "Idiot, we're not supposed to talk to him!"

"Oh, yeah I forgot." The first one responded.

Tony could only bite his tongue so he wouldn't say anything he might regret. As weak as a villain those guys normally were, it wasn't in his best interest to bother them when he didn't even know what they had under those jackets. Plus, they were only weak when he was Iron man and iron man happened to not be there at the moment.

Just play it safe, He thought to himself. At least until I can figure out a way to get out of here with no harm coming to my friends.

…

It was what seemed like hours until half of the six Maggia men watching them had left. One had actually claimed that he'd rather face consequences than babysit. He left, apparently he quit. The other two, were called away via radio.

Pepper spent her time in the silence pretty much twiddling her thumbs, humming to herself, and glaring at the nearest Maggia member. She twisted her hands around and tugged at the ropes around her wrists. Successfully loosening them. Only, she was found out sooner or later when she tried to pull them completely off when she thought they weren't looking. So she earned a hard slap to the face.

"Ow!" She squawked as they started to tighten her ropes even tighter than before. Which was saying something.

"Hey!" Howard demanded. "Don't you touch her! She's just young."

Pepper eyed him as they just laughed and kicked him in the side. "We don't like it when you talk back."

Howard didn't even seemed fazed. He just glared coldly at them. She wondered if this was part of his business. Sending glares across the table until papers were signed and things were sold. Not literally of course.

After the Maggia men backed away from them at a fairly distant length. She looked at him with gratitude. She wished she could talk more, but that would only get her and them in trouble. She learned that the hard way last time. Now Rhodey might have a black eye...and Howard now might have a bruised rib, or worse...

"Sorry." She whispered. She had to say something, it was just eating at her.

He placed a hand on her shoulder, telling her that he understood her well enough. She sat back at the wall, her cheek still stinging. Rhodey had fallen asleep already and she wished she had the spirit to sleep. She wanted to fall asleep, she was so tired. Though, she knew she couldn't, she feared that nightmares would haunt her sleep. Her fear that something might be happening to Tony and the last thing they did was fight, was just too much to bear.

Her mind wouldn't give her a break about it. Sure, it was just a simple argument, they had those all the time, but to have such a heated argument like that...she wasn't sure if it was just a simple argument. Especially when Tony hardly said anything, nor did he shout back at them. Which made her pretty guilty about leaving him behind. She was being selfish, she knew that. She destroyed his spirit to finish that project. That project he'd been working on for weeks, months even.

She ended up passing out from fighting her sleep for too long, though she didn't get much time to sleep. For she was awoken not to long later. She could tell because it was still a bit dark.

The Maggia men walked over to them holding a laptop. She could see it was recording something, or just viewing a recording, and as they got closer she saw the similarity to the place on the screen to the place where they were at. Though, what really got her attention was the chair that seemed to be placed in the middle of the room, a raven haired teen sat, tied up in the seat. His head was down and his hair was covering his face, so he wasn't recognizable. The darkness that covered the video really made it hard to see, but she just knew that the teen was Tony. Why else would these people be showing them this?

"Boss said it was for encouragement to listen to the rules we set." He said. He being the Maggia man who held the computer up the three awake captives.

Pepper watched the screen closely as a light seemed to turn on. The teen moved and looked up tiredly. Yep, it was Tony alright. She felt her heart swell up at the sight of him. Unharmed. Though now she could see he didn't have a shirt on...she shook her head mentally slapping herself. Of all the times she's seen him without his shirt on, well, to be honest she had the same thoughts running through her head, but at those times she didn't have to worry that something might happen to him.

She also noticed that like themselves, there was three Maggia men guarding over him. Though, they seemed to keep a closer watch. Meaning, they stayed closer to him. She watched as Tony looked at them and around him almost like he forgot where he was. Maybe he was just waking up from whatever it was that knocked him out. If that was what happened.

But then she saw the annoyed tired face that he made, which clearly meant that he'd seen the place. Apparently, he was tired of the place already as if he'd been there for years. She imagined how bored he must be. All alone, to his thoughts, no one but criminals to talk to him. She saw him start muttering to himself, there must not have been volume since it seemed like the Maggia member closest to Tony turned to snap at him. Or shout.

Whatever the Maggia said, it must have hit a nerve. For Tony shot him one of the deadliest glares that she's ever seen him make. But almost as quick as it came, it was gone. His face showed no emotion again, he just looked so passive that someone might slap him and he wouldn't care. For all she knew, they were being just as rude to him as their own Maggia guards were to them.

She heard Howard mutter something, but she couldn't understand, but when she looked to him, his face wasn't worried, well it was, but he looked almost as if he was warning Tony not to do something. She worried that Tony was going to do something that could get him hurt. Or worse...no, she had to stop thinking of that.

Later, when the laptop with the video was pulled away she had asked Howard what he'd said. When the Maggia guards left to attend to a call, he told her what he'd said. He told her that it was something he'd taught Tony.

When Tony was a kid, just after his mother died, Howard was worried someone would take advantage of their loss and kidnap them. And if the captor asked questions, especially personal ones, he was to ignore them. Show no emotion at all. Shut out everyone. The intention was to try to get the captor or investigator to give up trying to get him to speak. Another idea was to show that they couldn't hurt you no matter what they did. Which also meant that who ever held him captive might try to do whatever it takes to hurt him. That was the flaw of the plan. It might cause the captor to lose faith that torture wouldn't' work, and he'd drop it or move on to easier methods. Or the captor might never stop until the captive gave in to the pain.

"So you don't want him to ignore their questions?" Pepper asked.

"No, I want him to, I'd just wish that I didn't teach him the whole ignore everything deal." Howard whispered. "Maybe listen, just don't answer the important ones."

"I see, if he answers some of them, he's not being completely disobedient." Pepper said.

Then she winced. How she'd said that, it sounded like she was calling Tony a dog. Clearly he wasn't a dog, and in the situation, she couldn't even laugh that she accidentally called him a dog. Normally, if she was with him, they'd probably laugh about that. But now...not so much. He was tied to a chair. It was no time to make jokes.

She closed her eyes with a sigh, and like Rhodey, she fell into a much needed rest.

…

Tony woke up again, and this time it was bright outside, so some light peeked in through the two visible windows. He groaned from a major headache. He felt achy and shaky and to be frank, his stomach hurt like mad.

But he ignored it. He concentrated on the now naturally lit atmosphere. It seemed almost peaceful in there. The Maggia guards aren't even there anymore. Unless they were hiding from him, but that was just pointless. It wasn't like he was going to go look for them. Even so, if they were hiding then they must have thought that he was dangerous. Which, clearly, he wasn't.

"Where are they?" He asked.

He looked around and only saw the machines running as usual. As usual as that was, something didn't seem right. The Maggia wasn't there anymore, and he didn't see Ghost either. They didn't leave him alone did they. No, it had to be a trap. To test to see if he would try to escape the minute he thinks he's safe. So, he sat still in his seat. Not bothering to try to escape. He was constantly trying to get Extremis to work, but with no luck.

For a few hours he just sat there quite, but cautious. He kept thinking back to his friends. He wondered if they were okay. They hadn't shown him the video they seemed to be recording of his friends since they first showed him. He hadn't seen Ghost since he last woke up. And that was only for a minute.

Which brought him to another thought. If Ghost was trying to get revenge, why wasn't he down here getting it? Why didn't he demand for answers or demand that he do something for him? Normally when someone kidnaps another, they'd try to get the business finished before the captive finds a way to escape or the police find out. Unless Ghost was trying to intimidate him by being all mysterious, Tony had no idea what Ghost was up to.

He pondered at the thought when the door opened. In walked Ghost who looked like he meant business. Maybe that meant he was done toying around. "You must be tired."

Not really. Tony thought. But he didn't speak aloud. Let the guy think what he wanted to. It didn't make it any more true than it was. He was thinking he could get to him by tempting him to something he needed.

It wasn't really working.

"I must say," Ghost started. "I thought you'd go crazy trying to escape to save your friends. Since you were, after all, left alone."

A trick? He wasn't left alone. There had to be someone. Cameras at least.

"For hours I waited for you to do something. At least try to untie yourself, that would have been something." He sounded almost disappointed.

Tony just rolled his eyes. Ghost underestimated him. He was smart enough to know if his captor was smart enough to know not to give their captives a chance. He had to admit, Ghost was pretty smart. He did after all, escape yet another prison just to get Tony.

"Still giving me the silent treatment eh?" Ghost said noticing Tony's silence. "Well, I'm not going to ask or demand of anything of you. I've decided to get better revenge. After all this time, I've been all talk, no action."

Ghost was pacing back and forth across the floor in front of Tony. His gaze downcast, his arms crossed, and his posture straight. When he stopped, he turned to Tony, "Now, I get my revenge."

So the next chapter might be a bit harder to write so it will take longer for me to update...that plus the read-a-thon...but i promise, i'm working hard! I'm even half way done with the next chapter of baby Phase!

Which reminds me, for those of you reading that story and are following it, i put a poll on my profile for Baby Phase and i wish (please and thank you) that you would please check it out if you haven't. I don't mean to sound like i'm begging, but it'd be nice to hear what you guys believe. Again, please check it out. It will take 2 seconds. Thanks :)

Fun Fact: In 3rd grade, i was in 8th grade algebra, but i dropped out due to stomach issues (the start of my lactose Intolerance). Plus, my mom was pregnant.

Well, i'm off to write some of the next chapter, baby phase, but please tell me if you're going crazy for some of my other stories. Then i'll try my best to work on at least a chapter while i work out the next chapter. So for now, BYE! :)