50 Shades of Tony

by Virodeil

Tony chooses to think differently, see the little details, in the aftermath of the Battle of New York. The arc reactor in his chest is failing for the second time, at that. These, coupled together, sees him pelting down quite a different road than what anyone expects, including himself. An alien family, a pre-made romance, some inherited species change… oh, my! – *(MULTICROSSOVER)

32. His Stop-Gap Solutions

50 Shades of Tony
By Rey

Chapter 32
Tony Stark and His Stop-Gap Solutions

General warnings for: violence, bad prisoner treatment, sexual allusions

Warnings for:
Piece 779: Heavy Teens: semi-graphic violence
Piece 780: Explicit: violence, graphic death of a child

Chapter notes: The OC Sai'yo is from my story A Reason to Live. And here comes the new fandom, officially.

Los Angeles, California, United States, 17th August 2016

771. Wooden
"The government failed you, and you still want to celebrate its independence day?" Tony inquires, baffled, when Chan-Chan's about to go attend the event. She, now somehow back in her handicapped-human form, gives him a wooden look from behind her bottle-bottom specs. Then she says softly, "Governments change. Nations don't."

772. Space
Chan-Chan's assertion gives Tony an idea about what the human magicals he helped rescue should do first of all: Wherever they end up living, the new government and society must be conducive for healthy living. The space can wait, especially since they seem to have a penchant for space expansion.

Malibu, California, United States, 18th August 2016

773. Demand
It's irritating, to apply for assistance to the magical version of the UN and be replied with demands to hand the severely traumatised refugees over to them and forget things ever happening. Tony cuts off the lobbying effort right on the first try and prepares to ship the refugees away.

Spaceskiff on Travel Outside the Solar System, Beginning of September 2016

774. Scarf
The refugees booted Tony out – with profuse thanks – after he delivered them to their next temporary home in Antarctica. Fié suggested he roam before he explodes. So here he is: fingering the scarf the refugees gave him while staring at the starfield beyond the spaceskiff, on the way to who-knows-where.

Chulak, Middle-End of September 2016

775. Capture
Tony's been travelling light, person-wise though not logistically. He's accompanied only by four milaða guards, Ýmirheim's second-best commando team. And he's spent long enough wandering. He's about to return home, in fact, when he's separated from the guards and got captured by soldiers with some snake symbol on their helmets.

776. Raucous
Knowing that Fié'd kill him after overturning the galaxy to rescue him if he really got kidnapped, Tony tries to escape his captors time and time again, making quite a raucous noise each time to alert his guards of where he is. But the snake-helmeted soldiers are so never-ending, skill-and-number-wise!

777. Hirsute
It's incongruous and ludicrus, maybe, but in moments like this Tony wishes he were Chewbakka from Star Wars. However tall and strong he is now, he bets that hirsute guy could knock these tenacious soldiers like bowling ball on some poor pins! Then again, a lightsabre would do well, too!

778. Communicate
However often he communicates mentally with the milaðen, Tony's still rather unaccustomed to it. It's a boon, though, now, as he's stripped from everything – including communication devises – and redressed in a single robe. `Too many soldiers on the way. Don't come yet. Wait for my signal,` he tells his guards.

*779. Hostage
"What are you?" the interrogator barks for the umpteenth time. Grasped by his hand is a little boy's neck, and he squeezes it when Tony refuses to answer yet again. Glancing at the helpless, hopeless look of the little hostage, Tony snaps at last, "A person! Now let him go!"

**780. Horror
The snap of the little boy's neck breaking is sickening. Tony sees red. But the horror-induced berserker moment sadly doesn't last long, when faced with a roomful of numerous skilled soldiers. However many he kills, more replace them. And, no longer berserking, Tony feels sickened by his own kill count.

781. Heal
Tony isn't allowed long to heal and stew alone. Somebody calling himself Apophis likes to come to taunt, torture and pry things out of him. Worse yet is the lust that Apophis likes to stare at him with, also the questions hinting about a milaða being trapped here with him.

782. Swim
Desperation lends clarity and strength. Tony's mind swims free from fear-horror-panic-worry-fury, and he plots. He was able to escape a cave with minimal assistance and preparation, so why not now? He can only hope that the half-milaða turned snake-helmeted soldier that Apophis shoves into his cell will live, unlike Yinsen.

783. Otherwise
Tony's new cellmate is a reserved, wary, even skittish two-hundred-year-old "Jaffa" named Sai'yo. He interrogates them – gently, gently, gently – mentally, otherwise silent. Apophis claims himself a "generous god" and Sai'yo's a "gift" for Tony to do what he wishes before he becomes Apopis' new "host." Tony seethes, even more sickened.

784. Ethical
Apophis tortures Sai'yo in front of Tony, when Tony refuses to do anything to the "Jaffa" except to exchange brief words. "Take him for your pleasure, and he will be spared," the "god" says at the end of each session. It's not ethical, though, let alone right, so Tony refuses.

785. Tickle
Sai'yo becomes weaker and weaker. Tony's conviction begins to waver, ironically in concern for the poor half-milaða caught in his troubles. To distract both of them from this problem, Tony shares select stories about the sprogs with them, mind-to-mind, such as the tickle war, the water-gun war, the sleepy pile-ups….

786. Right vs. Easy
It's so easy to do whatever to Sai'yo now, they're so helpless and discouraged, ironically after Tony shares his domestic stories with them. Still not right, though. Tony knows well it's a psychological war, and Apophis is trying to soften him up for whatever that madman wants to do next.

787. Sender
`Reinforcements have arrived, Aslakonnar,` comes the mental message one day, and the sender is a quietly wrathful Týo. Cuddling Sai'yo at one corner of the cell to give the image of him giving in to any voyeur out there, Tony allows himself a slow, wolfish grin, hidden in Sai'yo's hair.

788. Doormat
Despite all the meekness and skittishness, Sai'yo's apparently far from being a doormat. When soldiers come to drag Tony without them in tow, apparently for "implantation ceremony," they… do something, darting about so fast, and both prisoners end up with a group of dead Jaffa and a pile of weapons.

789. Dumb
Tony's very, very, very glad that the unplanned breakout that he and Sai'yo have agreed to follow through on unspoken consensus turns out not to be a dumb idea, for once. It's a good idea, in fact, as they're encountering the friendly reinforcements just as things begin to look hopeless.

790. Pillow Talk
`I am not letting you out of my sight ever again,` Fié hisses vehemently as they cuddle close with Tony on his bunk in the spaceskiff he's been using to roam the galaxy. He sighs and glares. What an unromantic pillow talk after such a lousy end to his adventure!