Chapter 8

For Yinsen, the time alone in their shared cell dragged on and on. He was worried about what the guards were doing to his fellow prisoners. He feared mostly for the woman's safety – she was clearly the tool they were going to use to exploit Tony. Would Tony Stark give in, or would he allow his friend to be tortured? Both options were impossible, and he had no idea what the outcome would be.

As he waited, he prepared his medical equipment – he had his bag down by the seating area open and ready for use. Then he paced, back and forth, until finally, hours later, he could hear the warning sound of the rusted bolts being pulled back. Yinsen stood by the door, hands on his head, eyes on the ground, anxious to see in just what state his guests were returned.

The door opened, and as it did, Yinsen heard the commotion, before a hysterical Pepper was dragged in by two young guards – hitting and clawing and fighting the men as they moved her. With the door open they threw her in, she stumbled backwards but then ran towards the door, trying to get back out before it was closed. Pepper wasn't fast enough, and she screamed and hit the steel door before collapsing to her knees. Yinsen picked his kit up and moved over to the distraught woman, he stood for a moment, looking over her, she was bloody, bruised, her shoes were missing and she was, to put it simply, traumatised. Yinsen feared the worst had happened, and tried to be as gentle as possible in his approach.

"Pepper," he whispered, then repeated it, louder, as he laid his bag down on the floor before kneeling down beside her.

"Pepper," he said, gently prodding her shoulder, scared how she would react to his touch. "What happened?"

Pepper shook her head as she noticed the older man's presence. She felt embarrassed about her emotions, but couldn't stop herself. "Are you okay?" Pepper could see the fear in his eyes and reached out to him, wrapping her arms around him, clutching him to her as she cried. Yinsen simply held her. After ten minutes of crying and holding Pepper finally stopped, took a deep breath, shuddered once, and gained control of herself.

"What did they do to you?"

"I'm fine," Pepper said, her voice scratching in her throat, coming out all husky sounding. "I'm okay. Tony, he isn't, and he's still there with those-"She felt her eyes welling up again, closed them tight, clenched her fists and calmed herself once more. "I'm okay Yinsen," she said, seeing how worried he was.

"And Tony is still with them?"

Pepper could only nod, her fear momentarily withholding her ability to speak.

"What happened?"

Pepper sighed, ran a hand over her face, gently minding the sensitive bruising. "They took us to some room. They asked Tony to build the bomb. They said they would – they would... hurt me, if he didn't." She took a deep breath. "Tony – he, said all of these mean things about me, acted like he didn't care about me at all. Then they hit me, and he just – he did nothing."

Yinsen listened quietly, watching her as she fought to gain her composure. He held her hand and could feel the tremor's run through it as her body shook from the shock.

"Then, I, I," she smiled, then laughed in disbelief, "I stomped on this guy's foot, with my heel – so hard, I felt his foot crush-"

"Oh Pepper!" Yinsen looked excited but scared at the same time. "Those men are very dangerous. You should never try to fight him, you are lucky to be alive. In future, you must not antagonise them."

Pepper shrugged his warning away. "After that, they said that Tony was a coward, and they would see how long he could last himself."

Yinsen shook his head. "Mr Stark isn't a coward. He just knows that he can't build them the bomb."

Pepper sighed, then held her head in her hands. "I was so confused by his actions, his attitude; it was like I was nothing to him, just a stranger."

"Are you too together?"

Pepper smiled, shook her head softly, used to the assumption. "We're not romantically involved. We've worked together for years, we're very close. But he was just so – cold." She paused. "I don't want him to give in – he can't build them the bomb, I know that, and I agree. But he acted like I really don't mean anything to him, and for a while I believed him. But then I realised what he was doing – he was-"

"Trying to protect you," Yinsen finished with a sad smile on his face.

Pepper nodded. "When they said they were going to leave me alone he looked so – relieved."

Pepper felt her eyes well up again. "And now I feel so bad, I mean, I should have trusted him all along. And now he's alone in there, and they aren't going to stop, they're going to keep hurting him until he says yes, and he can't say yes, so they're going to kill him, probably."

"He is strong," Yinsen said, not knowing what else to say.

Pepper shook her head. "You didn't see him. He was laid on the floor, black and blue, his face all swollen, it didn't even look like him, he could have been anybody. And his chest – they kicked him – he was bleeding… I'm so scared." She quietly began to cry again, not having the strength to hold her emotions back. It was all too much.

"Come," Yinsen said, carefully pulling her up from the floor and directing her towards the wash room. "We need to put a cold cloth on that eye of yours; it will help with the swelling." It was true, it would help, but Yinsen hoped it would also help distract her. It didn't.

Pepper leaned into him as they walked, tired and hurting and terrified. As Yinsen gently dabbed at her lip with a cloth she asked him, "What's going to happen to him?"

"It will do you no good to think of that. As I told you last night, you have to be strong for him. I can take care of you now, and then together we will take care of him."

Pepper closed her eyes, winced as the water made her lip sting. "What are we going to do?" She had never heard herself sound so desperate before, but she was – their situation was hopeless.

"Honestly?" Pepper looked at him, saw the sincerity in his eyes. "The best thing would be for them to break him."

Pepper shook her head, unable to respond.

Tony woke, with a bucket full of cold water thrown in his face helping to rouse him. He coughed, blinked, tried to raise his head an inch off off of the ground, stopped immediately when he felt the migraine like pounding in his head and face intensify. He opened his eyes again, realised only one would comply, the other was too swollen to budge. It was then that he noticed the gun in his face, the fat bearded man looming over him, smiling hungrily. Tony groaned, he didn't mean to, he couldn't help it, the sound made his lips hurt, hell, everything hurt.

Then everything hurt a hell of a lot more as his arms were suddenly grabbed and Tony was pulled upright, a third man kicking the battery along the floor behind him as Tony was pulled across the room. He was too weak to fight the arms dragging him forcefully – his chest hurt again, like before, when he had first woken from the surgery, and Tony remembered the kick to his chest – the pain – the judder that seemed to reach inside his body and radiate only pain and hurt.

He was no longer moving, and he managed to stand fully, his legs now working, the two young men still holding his arms, keeping him upright anyway, sensing his weakened state. Tony opened his eye, looked around, saw Razza, leaning against a wall, watching Tony carefully. Then he noticed the – what was it, a trough? Tony was pulled over to it. The fat man stood by it, his hand resting inside it – in – was that water? Realisation hit Tony as he was suddenly pushed against the edge hip-height trough and a hand was on his neck and he was thrust down head first into the dirty, freezing water. Tony managed to take a short breath before he was suddenly submerged in the water, head first.

He jerked under-water – more from the shock of the cold sensation attacking his chest wound, making it sting and tingle. Surprisingly the cold seemed to soothe his swollen, aching face and Tony kept his eyes squeezed shut, trying to enjoy the moment of numbness as the throbbing of his face faded. But then he needed to breathe. He needed air. Need air. Can't breathe. He pushed up against the hand on his neck, felt another hand grab his hair, helping to force him down. His back hurt from the position he was held in, and his face banged against the base of the trough. It hurt and he couldn't stop from opening his mouth to cry out and then he was taking in water and choking and thrashing and oh God, this is it, can't breathe, choking, this is –

Suddenly he's on the floor coughing and choking and vomiting water and his chest, oh God, it hurts. He tries to stop coughing as it hurts his chest wound, making it burn, but then he ends up vomiting again and he can hear the guards laughing in the background and something slaps him around the back of the head. Then he's coughing up even more water and his vision is blurred, it feels as though he is still under water, but he can feel the ground, feel his body shivering against the hard floor, he's not in the water anymore. Then he feels a hand pulling at his hair, another wrapped around his arm and they're dragging him back up and Tony feels blackness approaching, his vision going darker and Tony pleads for it, begs for it, he isn't sure if he's pleading silently in his head or out loud but it doesn't matter, because he slumping in the men's grip, and then he's unconscious again, and they have to leave him alone for a second, they can't throw him back in just yet.

Razza looks down at the pitiful man, slumped between the two men, unconscious, his body covered in blood and water, shaking between the two men's powerful arms. The fat man looks disappointed, he was enjoying this. Razza sighs, makes a decision. "Take him back," he orders, "tell Yinsen to fix him."

The fat man looks at him, like a child looks at an parent who has taken their toys away. He is still mad about his aching foot, and had been enjoying his retribution.

"Later," Razza commands. "We don't want him to die. Not yet."

Apologies for this short chapter - I've been pretty busy! I know what's going to happen though, just need to get it written – soon, hopefully!

Once again thank you to everybody for the reviews, favourites and PM's, I really appreciate it, and love hearing from people - so please keep responding!

I will hopefully update this in the next few days or so. Thanks for reading :)