Displaced Hero

By: Archer83 (Co-author, Brainstorming), SgtGinger (Co-author, Brainstorming), Envirosuit (Co-author, Brainstorming), and Captiosus (Beta, Brainstorming, Posting)

Inspired By: DN7

Summary: In a desperate attempt to save his life, after narrowly destroying an alien incursion, Tony Stark is forced to use untested technology... placing his body in stasis until a cure can be found. Stark wakes far into the future finding a vastly different world... one which he will change forever.

"Speech"

Thought

"AI Speech/Radio transmission"

Chapter 4

September 1st 2183

One Day Later - Tony POV

"Time to wake up Tony."

A groggy Stark forced his eyes open, and realized his surroundings were very familiar. A smiling Pepper cuddled up next to him in their bed as Tony let out a giant sigh of relief.

Jesus. It was all just a dream. A really weird dream, I should watch less sci-fi movies.

Pepper pressed her head against his chest and whispered, "I know your scared Tony, but it's alright to be afraid. I need you to do something for me, don't come for me if it means getting yourself killed needlessly."

Huh?

Tony gazed down at Pepper, who now stared up at him, and hesitantly said, "Peps, what are you talking about?"

A sad frown replaced her smile as she softly spoke, "You know Tony, and I need you to do one more thing for me..."

Wait... No. NO!

"... wake up Tony."

Tony stiffly snapped awake, back in his cold reality. It turned out the benches which passed for seats in the rear area of the shuttle weren't exactly conducive to sleep.

Before Tony could even get a nasty kink out of his back JARVIS informed him, "Ah good, you're up Tony. I have randomly traversed the relay network and we have landed on our relatively uncharted, but thankfully very habitable, destination. If we stay here for a few days, I 'm 99.997% certain that-"

"Fuck off JARVIS.", was all Tony muttered as he popped the hatch and exited the shuttle, not bothering to put his armor back on.

"Sir... Tony, at least take your omni-tool so that we can maintain-"

JARVIS didn't continue as Tony flipped the bird in the general direction of the shuttle and kept on walking.

Forty-Seven Minutes Later – Tony POV

How could JARVIS do that to me?, thought Tony, glancing back over his shoulder at the shuttle, as he looked over the rather barren landscape while walking toward the top of a small hill, kicking a pebble in front of him.

As he neared the top Stark continued fuming, I had a chance... even if it was an incredibly crappy one, to save her. And JARVIS rips it out of my hands. What gave him the right to- HOLY SHIT!

Tony dropped to the ground the instant he saw what was on the other side of the hill. They looked to be machines of some sort, at least half a dozen of them, and all were armed with nasty looking rifles.

First I have to deal with Ole Blue Eyes, and now terminators with flashlight heads. Great. I better call JARVIS for a pickup, Tony thought, and then glanced at his bare arm. Tony couldn't stop himself from face-palming at his own stupidity.

Shit!

Tony hadn't dropped quite fast enough to avoid the attention of all the machines below him, as one of them was already aiming at him.

A split second later, a commotion distracted it as some it's fellow troopers began to fall to the ground, seemingly disabled. As it turned back to focus on Tony a weapon blast caught it right in the chest, and a milky white substance began to leak from it.

The next thing Tony knew, someone shouted, "Stay down!", as they ran past him to his left.

Stark suddenly realized his soon-to-be-very-well-rewarded savior was a woman, and definitely not a human woman at that, going by her limbs and the very odd, fully sealed, suit she wore. More important to him at the moment, was fact that she was using a shotgun to blast any of the machines that were still active into little pieces. Then he noticed that one of the machines, which she must have disabled earlier, was starting to aim at her.

Stark instantly got to his feet, and as he pumped his legs to reach her as quickly as possible, yelled, "Hey! Hey behind you! Watch out!"

This had the opposite effect of what he wanted, as she turned away from that particular machine and faced toward him.

Damn it!

Tony ran as hard as he could, and at the last moment was able to jump towards her, tackling her to the ground, as he heard a rifle go off. Tony felt a stinging pain in the back of his right leg, as the women quickly shoved him off of her and shot the last active machine.

Expecting that he might get a shotgun blast to the face at any moment, Stark was pleasantly surprised when she instantly dropped her weapon instead. Then she apparently started looking him over for injuries, along with yelling at him.

"Keelah! You stupid bosh'tet, why did you do that?! I said to stay down!"

Even though it was impossible to completely make out her face, Tony instantly noticed how bright her eyes were, she seemed to sigh in relief after looking him over. Taking a quick glance himself, Tony saw why. He had been hit by the shot that was meant for her, and was bleeding considerably, but it had only grazed the outside of his upper right thigh.

Feeling just a tad faint at seeing his wounded leg Tony mused, Well, it could have been worse... wow, that's a lot of my blood.

"I have to stop the bleeding and seal your wound... this may sting at first, sorry."

Stark cried out before he could even ask her what she meant, as she gently applied some type of gel to his injury. Within a few seconds most of the pain went away, and Tony watched, amazed, as the wound completely sealed itself up and stopped bleeding.

A few moments later Stark realized that the woman was staring at him, a concerned hand holding on to his left arm.

Stark grinned at her as he said,"Thanks... you know, usually I get to take a girl out to dinner before she cops a feel."

She seemed mildly confused as she replied, "Does what?"

Tony's grin deepened as he told her, "You know... slaps her hand on my ass, great job fixing that up for me."

"Oh. OH! Um... sorry for just doing that without asking first... I ah... I was just worried and..."

Tony couldn't help noticing that this woman, this girl he mentally corrected himself; after hearing her speak a bit more she sounded fairly young, who had been tough as nails a minute earlier, had turned into a nervous wreck and was now rapidly wringing her fingers together. Three on each hand he noted, but curiosity would have to wait since he still had the minor problem of blood loss and having been shot at the moment.

Trying to calm her down, Tony introduced himself, "I'm Stark, Tony Stark... and your welcome for the whole I-saved-your-life thing, honey."

Instantly, her nervousness was replaced by the tough young woman Stark had first seen.

"My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya-"

"Wow. That's really a mouthful isn't it?"

Irritated with him she continued, "and you didn't save me, if anything, I saved you."

Tony winced in pain as he tried to stand up, telling her, "Okay Tali'Zorah, can we split hairs later on who saved who? Still got a gun shot wound in my ass here."

Her body language seemed to soften again, and she gently helped him to his feet.

"I promise I'll get you some proper medical attention soon, I just need to get something first. Just... just wait here, and don't pass out on me, okay?"

"Will do.", Tony said sarcastically, and gave her a shaky thumbs up, as she ran over to the nearest enemy machine that was still mostly intact.

As Tali began it tinker over it with what Tony recognized was an omni-tool, his curiosity getting the better of him, Stark gingerly limped over to watch what she was going.

After observing for a few seconds he said, "I'm going to take a highly educated guess that your trying to retrieve something from that thing's memory core, aren't you?"

Tali just stared at him for a moment before continuing her work, and asked, "Yes... but how did you-"

Tony quickly interrupted her repling, "Oh, that's easy. I'm a genius."

Stark almost jumped a few minutes later when she squealed, "I found something! It looks like an audio log of some sort!"

Tali quickly opened another program on her omni-tool, and they both listened to the rather cryptic conversation that followed.

"Eden Prime was a major victory, the beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."

Tony brow creased as he asked her, "What the hell is a Conduit? Secondly, what hell is a Reaper?"

Tony didn't miss a fearful tone in her voice as Tali told him, "I don't know Stark... but this looks bad, really bad. The log is encoded with an algorithm usually only used by Council Spectres. That can't be good."

Tony frowned saying, "Okay, so this 'Council' obviously runs everything and... I give up, what's a Spectre? I'm guessing your not worried about ghosts."

"Spectres are special agents of the Council. Basically they only answer to them, and are allowed to use any means they want to accomplish a mission."

Tony nodded in understanding, "Actually they remind me of a few people I used to work with... a long time ago."

Suddenly a static filled message emitted from Tali's omni-tool.

"-tain Breizh to Tal- ... we are und- ... tack- ... nemy is jam- ... cations Get bac- ... Honorata immedi-"

Tony watched with concern as Tali quickly responded.

"Tali'Zorah to Captain Breizh, if you can hear me, I found some incredibly important information. I need evac with a wounded passenger, can you reach us?"

"-orry Tali evac is n- ... ossible at this ti- ... -ou have 10 minu- ... reach the sh- ... -ore we are forc- ... -eave"

"Damn it! The Honorata is over 2 kilometers from here. You'll never make it in 10 minutes with that injury!", The tone in Tali's voice was all too telling.

I can probably get back to the shuttle before whoever is attacking her friends can get here, maybe JARVIS and I can distract them. And without me slowing her down, she can make it safely back to her ship on her own...

Tony just put on his best shit-eating grin, and said, "Hey, don't worry about me! I got a ride, a couple hundred meters that way." Stark pointed over the hill he had walked up, as he started limping in that direction.

"No."

Stark stopped is his tracks, and turned to face her, "Listen to me carefully. I'm only going to slow you down. If you get going now you can easily get back to your ship in the time I'm going to need to get back to mine. Please, just go."

Tali walked up to Stark and grabbing his arm told him, "I will not leave a wounded man to fend for himself so I can run away." Then she opened a com link on her omni-tool saying, "Tali'Zorah to Captain Breizh, I have another way off planet. I will contact you with rendezvous coordinates later. Leave now, I repeat, leave immediately! Keelah se'lai."

"Understood Ta- ... -lah se'lai."

Furious that she was endangering herself, for him of all people, Tony yelled, "Goddamn it! Didn't you hear what I just said, or did that helmet get in the damn way?!"

Roughly pulling him along towards the hill, Tali shouted back, "I can hear you just fine, you ungrateful bosh'tet! Now move!"

As they reached the top Tony was relieved to see that JARVIS had already started the shuttle's engines and was heading for the base of the hill.

JARVIS must have picked up everything that's happening on his sensors, and decided to come riding to the rescue. Good timing, I'll give him that.

With Tali's help, Stark was able to stumble down the last few meters of hill and into the open shuttle hatch. As he climbed up he turned around and gave Tali a hand as she climbed in as well.

As the hatch closed Tony snarked, "Welcome aboard, mi casa es su casa. JARVIS get us the hell out of here!"

JARVIS's voice wreaked of sarcasm as he replied, "Excellent plan, sir!"

As the shuttle rocketed away, and they both strapped in, Tali spoke up, "Thank you for letting me use your shuttle. At least the Honorata got safely away, since they didn't have to wait for me."

Tony frowned saying, "What was I supposed to do? Leave you behind?"

The way she lowered her head greatly disturbed Stark, as she told him, "Most probably would have."

The frown on Tony's face almost turned into an angry stare, as he said, "Why the fuck would you say something like-"

Tony was cut off by JARVIS, who informed him, "Tony, unfortunately the Quarian race, which Ms. Zorah is part of, have been treated, and I am greatly understating this, in a disgusting manner by the rest of galactic civilization for the last several centuries. I hope you'll pardon my bluntness Ms. Zorah.

Tali seemed stunned at JARVIS's simple act of politeness, "Thank you JARVIS... most people don't see things that way. Oh, and you don't need to call me Ms. Zorah, Tali is fine please."

"Of course Tali, as you wish."

Is she actually giggling right now? JARVIS, the ladies AI... that's a scary thought.

As Tony rested his head on the wall behind him Tali leaned over, saying, "I can't wait to meet your pilot in person, he sounds nice."

-DH-

"Tony, could you join me in the cockpit please?"

Tony thunked his head against the wall, complaining, "JARVIS, I'm really, really tired right now... also I've been shot. This can wait, right buddy?"

"No Tony. Cockpit. Now."

Stark heard a soft, quiet snickering sound next to him, and realized that Tali was trying not to laugh at his expense.

"Yeah, JARVIS is real funny sometimes, enjoy the ride while I deal with this."

Tony entered the small piloting area and closed the hatch behind him.

"Okay, what's the big deal JARVIS? You wanted to talk in private, I'm here."

"I may have forgotten to add one important fact about the Quarian people in Ms. Zorah's... Tali's presence. Their race was decimated over three centuries ago in a conflict with AI's which they had built to serve them. They now have no planet to call their own because of this and are still, quite understandably, afraid of and hostile towards any form of AI."

"Damn, bad luck for you buddy. I don't think the cute alien girl with a crush on you is going to take this well at all."

"Tony... are you laughing? Stop it, this isn't funny!"

When Tony could manage to speak between fits of laughter, he blurted out, "Actually it's kinda hilarious, if you think about it."

Just then Tali decided to enter, because somehow JARVIS and Tony hadn't thought to lock the hatch, a mistake they were both intensely regretting right now.

"Sorry to bother you two, but I just wanted to say thank you to... where's JARVIS?"

Tony, for the first time in his life, couldn't think of a good lie, as he mumbled, "Well you see, the thing is, um you wanna take this one JARVIS?"

Trying to sound as comforting and friendly as possible JARVIS spoke to her, "Hello Tali, please try to stay calm. We, I especially, mean you no harm and will let you off at the nearest safe planet of your choosing... Oh dear, I see you have already begun hyperventilating."

At this point Tali had devolved into rapidly repeating, "Oh Keelah!", over and over again, as she began to pass out.

Then addressing Tony, JARVIS added, "Please help Tali lay down before she falls down Tony. Also you may want to take any weapons, knives, pointy objects, and her omni-tool away form her before she regains consciousness."

As Tony grabbed the young woman before she could hit the deck, he muttered, "Jesus... you weren't kidding when you said her people are afraid of AI's."

"Whats wrong Tony? Your not laughing anymore."

"Point taken."

-DH-

Poster note: Not much to say here, except for Merry Christmas.

A/N: Hello, and happy Holidays to all of our awesome readers out there! Archer83 here, I thought it was about time to introduce myself and tell you how amazing it's been helping to write this story. I'm sure this is going to be a wild ride for all of us, and I hope you enjoyed this last chapter! Oh, one more thing... Every good story needs a great theme, and since Tony probably feels like the whole world is on his shoulders right now, I've picked Two Steps From Hell – Atlas as the main theme of Displaced Hero. Be sure to check it out, and remember that reviews = love. :)