A/N- Tah Dah! :) Two updates in one day! Wow! I am getting good :)
No copyright infringement intended...
All Movie Scenes used here belong to Marvel Studios and their respective owners, I'm not out to profit from this work.
I made it purely for enjoyment purposes.
Terrorists are everywhere in the cell, scuttling around like a horde of ants carrying missiles and crates of weapons, tools and supplies almost like a worker ant would for their queen.
Tony rattles off directions at a speed almost too fast for Yinsen to translate. It is extremely difficult not to give in and help Yinsen translate his requests but then he remembers that he has a part to play and keeps strictly to English.
Once the terrorists have left them, Tony sets to work in sorting out the tools and the missile parts they had dumped over their workstation.
Tony sits at the head of a missile, his nimble fingers working a wire around until the head pops off and he throws it to the side.
"How many languages do you speak?"
"A lot." Yinsen replies watching Tony work as he slides out some of the inner workings. "But apparently, not enough for this place. They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian."
"I wonder how many Stark speaks?" Wanda ponders.
"I lost count a while back. In college he could speak German, Italian, Spanish and French and I know he picked up Arabic and Dari after 9/11. I think he might know Chinese and Japanese too." Rhodey answers with a cautious glance in her direction - she seems to be losing some of her misplaced anger for his best friend, but like Rogers her beliefs seemed to be hard to change so he is still wary.
Impressed, Sam whistles, "that's a lot."
"Who are these people?"
"They are your loyal customers, sir. They call themselves the Ten Rings." Yinsen informs Tony in a carefully controlled but deceptively calm voice.
'Loyal customers? What the fuck? Have those bastards been repeatedly stealing my weapons?! Who did they buy them from? Obie would've never approved this sale and I definitely didn't.'
Fuming at his undeserved trust in Stane, Wanda's eyes flash scarlet. 'But am I any better for trusting Hydra?'
Steve shakes his head in bemusement, surprised Tony really had put that much trust in Stane. Tony had never seemed one to trust easily and Steve had always viewed him as a bit of a lone wolf.
Tony slides the bundle of metal and wires out to drop it on the table. Yinsen adamantly watches, almost transfixed as Stark continues disassembling various missiles, guns and parts with ease.
"You know, we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process."
Deep in concentration, Tony doesn't answer whilst he removes a small chip from some sort of cylindrical gear piece.
"Okay, we don't need this," he says, throwing the contraption over his shoulder.
"What is that?"
Tony raises the forceps to show Yinsen the sliver of metal. "That's palladium, 0.15 grams. We need at least 1.6, so why don't you go break down the other 11?"
Tony methodically mixes and kneads a bowl of clay, smoothing the texture and drumming out clumps. His mind buzzes with plans and designs as his hands almost automatically create the mold, then hammering a small tube of metal into a cup of the clay to form a mold.
Thor watches far more avidly than he lets on. As a young child he'd loved to watch smiths and scientists create their feats, but Odin pushed him to martial activities and he'd hidden that passion. Even from Loki.
'I was so concerned about being the perfect son I drove a wedge between my brother and I. Yet I allowed that same gap to form again with the Man of Iron. I can no longer repair what I had with Loki. I must not continue to make the same mistake with Friend Anthony.'
The easy, familiar work calms Tony and allows him to almost forget about his pain.
The next step isn't anywhere near so easy.
"Careful. Careful, we only get one shot at this." Tony frets as Yinsen slowly walks to the table carrying the cup of melted 1.6 grams of palladium.
His hands ache with the desire to snatch the forceps and cup out of Yinsen's hands. However, between having to hold the battery and the subtle trembling of his hands he knows he'll screw up the delicate step.
'This needs to work or I'm dead.'
"Relax. I have steady hands. Why do you think you're still alive?" That gentle yet slightly teasing tone reminds him starkly of Jarvis, with that thought he can't help but remember he hadn't asked his cell mates name.
"What do I call you?" Tony asks as he places the battery on the table.
Rhodey shakes his head with a fondly exasperated sigh and chuckle, "took him long enough."
"My name is Yinsen." Whilst the doctor pours, Tony watches sharply and is left almost breathless with relief when the melted metal pools into the mould dead on.
"Yinsen. Nice to meet you."
Yinsen looks at him and smiles, seemingly bemused.
'Oh right we met in Bern before…'
Luckily Yinsen isn't offended by the slip up. "Nice to meet you, too."
Once hardened Tony extracts the fine ring of palladium from the mold with tweezers and carefully plants it in a small container.
Returning to the main workstation he continues work on a small toroidal device about 3 ½ inches in diameter. He precisely solder's each delicate piece of machinery, various parts of the apparatus displayed in differing states of completion.
Scott focuses completely on the device Tony is building, the engineer in him trying to work out what it is.
Apart from Bruce, Rhodey and Peter most of team had never seen him while working and now watch almost rapt as he and Yinsen move about each other effortlessly.
It reminds Tony of the days he and Rhodey would spend hunkered down in the labs at MIT on one of their many projects. He hadn't realised how much he missed working with someone who could tolerate his company. Rhodey was the only lab partner he hadn't driven off by somehow being an ass. He was rarely even aware of what he did wrong. Most people just didn't want to work with him.
'No one wanted to work with a kid too smart for his own good. Or they just expected me to do all the work and for them to get the credit. Team sports were just awful; who wants a scrawny kid half their size.'
A frown tugs at Natasha's lips, she'd marked him off as not being a team-player without thinking about what past experiences in teams were like for someone who had always been out of place. However, she watches him now and the easy camaraderie with Yinsen and has to make her reevaluate that assumption.
"I know how that feels, people not wanting to work with you or just wanting to use you. I haven't even skipped any grades but I'm still the loser nerd that's only useful for homework." Peter sighs and looks down briefly to the cave floor. 'That's another similarity I've found with Mr Stark… no wonder he's such a good mentor to me.'
Bruce nods. "Skipping grades makes it even worse. People feel threatened when someone so much younger than them can out do them so easily. I remember even some professors looked down on me and I went to college at 16." Comprehension dawns on Bruce's face. "Tony went when he was only 14."
"You saw me getting bullied in college, but you didn't really see much of what happened to him. A lot of people thought Howard was paying his way, even professors could got riled when he corrected them. I had to pull him out of a lot of bad situations. Not that I was always the picture of responsibility mind you! We both got each other into and out of plenty of trouble."
What Rhodey says reminds Steve once more of him and Bucky.
They listen as Tony rattles off complex equations under his breath or explains the workings of something to Yinsen. He is patient while directing the Doctor, showing him the in's and out's of various tools.
Several times, Tony descends into complicated technical talk until Yinsen brings him back down and out of his own head or asks him to rephrase. Then he would make an effort to re-explain until they were both sure Yinsen understands. The technical translation is complicated further by English being Yinsen's second language.
Listening to Tony occasionally struggling to translate things that come so naturally to him, into understandable terms and the way Yinsen prods the discussions along until they are both on the same page makes some of them reconsider some of the times Tony had gone off on technical tangents and they'd assumed he was mocking them. They could feel his frustration at himself as he tries to translate complex engineering concepts that even Rhodey and Bruce don't always understand into terms that Yinsen can. He feels like he's trying to say something in a language that doesn't have the necessary phrasing.
He looks healthier and more alive than he has in days. He is still working through high pain levels but being able to work and finding camaraderie with Yinsen had given Tony back some energy.
So of course when the crash comes, it comes hard.
His trembling hands are the first sign but it quickly progresses to shallow breathing, chest pain and lightheadedness. He tries to work through it but the more he pushes the more grey he becomes.
"I hate watching this," Peter says.
"Y-Yinsen!" Tony groans when he almost falls out of his chair.
Wide eyed, the Doctor rushes over and a check of Tony's pulse reveals another cardiac episode. This time spontaneous. Yinsen has to almost carry him to the bed.
They get pulled from that memory as soon as they see Yinsen quickly preparing for another round of cardioversion.
Tony has appeared to have recovered from the cardioversion in this memory as the team watch him dialing up a battery connected to what is definitely an arc reactor. The lights of the cave dimming and flickering as he powers it up.
Thor openly stares at the midgardian machine, amazed by the similarities the arc is showing to the energy created by the Tesseract.
Bruce is astounded that he has accomplished building such a device in a cave. Seeing it as it was assembled was an amazing experience. He's only ever seen the surface of the reactor before and he's startled to realize the full size of it. 'For that to fit in his chest-' he starts feeling a little sick.
"Wow!" Scott exclaims in awe, "is that a cold fusion reactor?"
"Course not," Rhodey replies, "everyone knows palladium isn't a viable substrate for cold fusion."
"I think he's using the beta decay of Pd-107 as an electron source to capture pd-103 between two radioactive isotopes. The later ionized by an electric arc." Bruce says distractedly, still focusing on Tony's chest.
"So a type of nuclear decay and electron flux reaction?"
"Yeah, with the electron collision emitting and deflecting gamma rays into the core, catalyzing electron emission creating a self sustaining reaction, you actually know your stuff Lang." Rhodey says, looking to Scott with a surprised expression on his face.
"And the emitted light is from cherenkov radiation caused by the charged particles passing through a medium faster than the speed of light in that medium!" Peter pipes up.
"Can any of you speak English?" Cries a befuddled Sam.
"It-it's just really impressive," embarrassed, Peter murmurs as he looks back to the scene.
"Indeed, it is my friend," Thor claps a hand on to Spider-Man's shoulder, "what friend Anthony has produced is a brand of Midgardian magic through understanding the alignments of the shells of your Mortal elements and how they evolve. Science is truly a type of magic is it not?"
Spiderman straightens and shoots a surprised smile at Thor behind his mask, whilst the others, especially Bruce, appear perplexed at the Gods sudden knowledge and interest in Midgardian science.
Thor ignores them and turns back to the scene. 'At least I succeeded in making the young Spider feel confident in his knowledge. I only wish I had let my brother and friend Anthony know that I had always admired their craftsmanship.'
"Oh wow," Yinsen murmurs as he bends down to examine the glowing blue, fist sized reactor. "That doesn't look like a Jericho missile."
"That's because it's a miniaturized arc reactor. I got a big one powering my factory at home." Tony taps his creation on the side, "It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart."
"But what could it generate?"
"If my math is right, and it always is, three gigajoules per second." 'Now I just need him to agree to this.'
"That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes."
"That uh, does sound pretty impressive," Clint smiles.
"Yeah. Or something big for 15 minutes." Tony brushes him off. "We'll talk about that later. Cause I'm going to need your help getting this installed doc."
"Installed?"
Tony lightly taps the magnet, feeling disturbing reverberations in his sternum.
"It's far from 'pretty impressive' Clint," Bruce states, "It's cutting edge tech and he built it in a cave. But I'm more concerned about what it's going to do in his body."
"I won't do it! This is insane!" Yinsen exclaims. "Medically speaking you can never fully heal around this thing Stark! You must know that! Even if you don't die on the table you'll spend the rest of your life in pain! Your chest muscles will be agony! Your lungs-"
"What is he talking about?" Steve demands urgently as Yinsen continues to rant.
"Another surgery." Shifting uncomfortably, Bruce shares his realizations with horror. "Tony needs the arc reactor implanted, it's deeper than the magnet. The magnet is bolted to his sternum, but the - the size of the reactor, it would go through his sternum. I never realized how deep-"
"That's why Pincushion was freaking out earlier?" Bruce nods to a pale Clint.
"I always thought that thing just powered his suit!" Scott exclaims. Wanda, Sam and Peter had all thought the same.
"He had it removed after the incident with The Mandarin." Steve replies shakily.
"I'm already in agony!" Tony half screams, half sobs with frustration, interrupting Yinsen's rant. "I have been in pain since my own damn bomb - No tell me! What do I do? If you've got any better ideas I'm all ears, because I've got nothing else. Either I die in pain or I live in it! Maybe it'll be unbearable but if I don't take this chance I'll be dead in a few days!"
Tony's breakdown is shocking. They can feel his pain, but it's dulled and easily pushed aside. This is a vivid reminder that it's not the same for Tony and he's been in constant agony since the skirmish. He can't even allow himself the rest needs to heal, because he's in enemy territory and his life expectancy is measurable in days.
Tony has hardened, portraying determination he doesn't really feel. "If you've got an alternative great, but I've got nothing left to lose."
Yinsen's mouth thins and he pauses for a long moment. "I don't like this at all Stark, it goes against everything I promised I would do as a doctor… but if I don't do this you will die, so you leave me no choice… I will do it."
"Friend Banner? Is this likely to kill Friend Anthony?" There's a dark, grim look present across Thor's face, how out of place it looks only highlights the gravity of the situation even more.
Bruce swallows, appearing green for an unrelated reason to the Hulk. "It's invasive. Really invasive. I need to see the plans, but I don't like this."
Tony gives a small grim smile.
Yinsen looks over the plans Stark has drawn to secure the reactor into his chest while the other man rests. The plans are disturbing. It is mutilation, plain and simple. But also necessary if his patient has any chance of getting out of here alive. The magnet was only ever a temporary solution.
'This goes against every principle. It makes a mockery of the hippocratic oath!'
As Yinsen begins marking up the plans to make this sick idea potentially survivable, Bruce analyzes them over his shoulder.
"Bruce?" It's Natasha who eventually prompts him for the details they're all waiting for.
"Um, these are the plans for the hub that the reactor sits in. It replaces his entire sternum and is clamped to the ribs. Parts of ribs 2 to 5 will need to be removed."
Everyone is pale. Scott looks like he's going to retch again.
"Yinsen's making the socket shallower - Tony had it deep enough to go into his heart - but they'll still need to remove portions of his lungs, parts of his muscles and I think they'll still have to push his heart backwards. His pectorals and some abdominal muscles will be displaced by the metal implant replacing the bones they anchor too, they'll need to reattach them artificially somehow.
"The parasternal lymph nodes - that's part of his immune system - will need to be removed. It looks like they plan to build something to manually drain the lymph fluid through. The veins, arteries and nerves that run between the ribs would be shoved out of place."
"How bad is all that?" Rhodey begs softly.
"Bad. Pincushion and Yinsen were right when they said he'd never heal around it. This thing will be nearly 4 inches deep, it'll push his heart at least an inch backwards! The reduced lung mass would lead to breathing problems. His immune system would be compromised. The muscle displacement would be painful. Basically he would be physically disabled and in constant pain...Fuck!" Bruce growls, eyes burning green. He now knew what Tony had meant when he said about the Arc.
'Terrible privilege indeed...shit Tony. You weren't kidding.'
White as a sheet, Steve remembers that time some magazines were speculating about him having chronic pain after some incident shopping. Mostly it was written off as a joke and Tony had denied it. Steve himself had laughed it off and the team had followed his lead. Now he felt sick to his stomach, thinking of his own childhood and myriad of chronic illnesses. 'How was I so blind!'
Judging by her glare towards him, Natasha remembers the incident.
Tony looks up suddenly upon Bushy Beards entrance, both he and Yinsen tense at his arrival, cease their discussion and stand up immediately.
Bushy Beard moves subtly in front of the camera's view and Tony tenses even more, wound tight like a bow string.
"You." He points at Tony, "you being operated soon, yes?"
Tony nods cautiously. He knows Yinsen has talked to their captors about it and managed to wheedle use of their infirmary. He was impressed by the amount of concessions that Yinsen had managed to wrangle; they had a small stock of morphine, a ventilator, a heart monitor and he would be allowed time to heal.
Bushy Beard frowns, an expression that Tony deciphers as concern when he looks past at him at the ration Yinsen was about to prepare. "Too small. Need more to get stronger. Work better. To Survive."
"The hell is this guy playing at?" Shouts Rhodey.
Natasha and Winter are too suspicious of this supposed act of kindness, in enemy conditions like that privileges aren't just given out of the goodness of the captors heart.
Yinsen's eyebrows rise as Bushy Beard takes a handful of biscuits from his pocket and places them in Tony's hand. "You eat, quickly. Don't let see. Great risk, I get you food."
Tony is about to save two for Yinsen but Abu makes a vaguely panicked gesture with his hands. Tony gives Yinsen an apologetic look before shoving the whole lot in his mouth, chewing and swallowing them quickly. He is lucky that years of drinking to the excess and sleeping around had mostly killed his gag reflex, otherwise he is pretty sure he would've thrown it back up again.
"Thank you." A truly genuine smile flashes across Tony's face despite feeling wary of Bushy Beards motives.
'Whatever it is I highly doubt it's Lima Syndrome. I should just be thankful he gave me some food.'
"You call me Abu." Bushy Beard - Abu smiles widely, similar to the smile he gave when Tony shook hands with him before.
"Don't trust him Stark," Bucky says with a growl, past handlers had tried this method of control with him before they realised he wasn't falling for it. That was when the active brainwashing torture started.
He suddenly turns to Yinsen and speaks to him in Dari about the washing and how ill Tony is whilst the man in question pretends to be oblivious.
'Thankfully I've had enough practice. Howard seemed to be under the delusion that I didn't know about S.H.I.E.L.D growing up… At least Pegs realised I didn't buy her lies about S.H.I.E.L.D when I was quite young but apparently that was purely because of my facial expression when she talked about the 'phone company'.
'Why won't you or Daniel contact me anymore?
'I bet they're worried sick about me.
'I don't think they meant to lose touch, they'll contact me when I get home - if I get home.'
"I can't believe Peggy or Daniel wouldn't contact him?" Steve says, shocked.
Rhodey scowls darkly, "They probably tried. Guess who would've blocked it."
"Obadiah Stane," Natasha hisses out the name between her teeth like a particularly vicious curse.
Tony sighs as Abu gives him a gaze full of concern before leaving.
Tony eyes the fully finished reactor hub resting in a sealed container to keep it sterile. It's gleaming titanium. The main hub is porous titanium encased in paper thin titanium foil. The porosity of the metal maintains the strength of the structure while reducing the weight. The porous metal will also allow for the ribs to grow into and bond with the implant and increase its stability.
The new magnet is already installed in the bottom waiting to be connected to the arc reactor. An array of wires and sensors flare from the underside of the device. He can see the two ICD wires that will be threaded through the subclavian vein and into his heart while the other wires will be connected to the outside of his heart and lungs.
Below each side of the rib connectors is a group of tiny nodes and tubes with a tube trailing up to ports attached to both sides of the hub that will rest just under his skin. They would replace the lymph nodes behind the sternum that would be removed to make room for the reactor.
There were small brackets running around the tube that would be used to secure the muscle tendons to the implant.
They all stare at the monstrosity of an implant; all the metal and wire that doesn't belong in a human body. The reactor wasn't anything like they'd thought it was. They'd all assumed that it just sat on his chest or went no further than his sternum.
Rhodey was the only one who'd had any idea how deep it went but he'd never considered how it could impact the body and he hoped it wasn't as bad as Bruce was worrying about. 'Surely he would've said something if it hurt that badly?'
Bucky clenches his metal arm tightly, feeling the pull on his shoulder and torso muscles. The metal arm is fully functional but had never been pleasant, not that Hydra had cared for his comfort. With his botched serum, the pain is usually easy to push aside and he doesn't want to know how painful it would be otherwise.
For something made from scraps Tony is quite pleased with the outcome, even it's slightly bulky and cumbersome appearance. But it also terrifies him because now they were preparing for surgery and this thing would be implanted in his chest.
Within the next hour he would be stepping into the same room where he'd been strapped down and operated on while awake and now he was going to be opened up and cut into to make room for a tube of metal the size of his fist like some madman's lab experiment.
They can all feel the fear itching under his skin as they all see brief flashes of what happened to him before pass in front of their eyes; scalpels cutting into muscles - his chest split open - Yinsen's hands digging inside of him, touching his heart-
"Fuck," Rhodey spits as he looks briefly to the floor. 'God, I hate thinking of Tony having to go through that once - let alone twice.'
"Stark,"
Tony lets out a shaky exhale at Yinsen's concerned voice. 'It's going to be fine you trust Yinsen and you know the math is right…' he tries to convince himself unsuccessfully.
"I-I'm scared I might wake up. I remember it the first time -" He's horrified at how close he sounds to crying and the trembling of his body and curses to himself for admitting fear.
Yinsen's hand settles on his shoulder and he almost flinches away.
"I'm sorry for what happened Stark," Yinsen's voice is soft and calming. "I tried to reason with them, but they refused to listen. But they will this time, I promise. I've made it clear that you will die if this isn't done properly. You won't be awake."
"You can't promise that," he says, rubbing at his aching chest. "You can't promise that whatever anaesthesia they've got will work, you're not a anesthesiologist. You can't even promise i'll survive. We both know the odds of my making it off the table are abysmal, let alone that nothing will go wrong. We've got a twenty percent chance this will work."
"But I will promise to do my best."
They all blanch at the odds, Rhodey looks horrified.
"It was really that dangerous?" Steve responds in shock.
Bruce gives a jerky nod. "Add in the fact that he hasn't been able to fully recover from the previous surgery and yeah it's bad."
"Just, if something does happen… don't bring me back," he whispers.
Bruce hisses, although Tony feeling like that wasn't a surprise it still doesn't stop him from rearing back like he was on the receiving end of one of his father's hits.
"Stark! You don't mean that."
"Maybe," Tony hisses back in a slightly high pitched panic. "I know I can't wake up again."
"Do you wish I hadn't have saved you Stark?"
