Chapter 7

(Transcript from Lp37451 on AO3)

The scene changes again, and the two hostages are back in the cave, huddled around a fire. Tony is staring into the flames, wearing a beanie, a pair of gloves, and a coat; the entire outfit is so different than what he normally would wear, making him appear more like a hobo than a billionaire.

"The hobo look sure suits you Tones. You should wear it more often." Rhodey joked lightly. Tony groaned punching him playfully,

"Shut up platypus I know you love me in my three piece suits."

Rhodey hummed thoughtfully, "Hmm...debateable."

"Oh fuck off." Tony shoved him playfully.

Bucky watched them banter slightly amused, it reminded him of himself and Steve. The love and the strong bond they had, the banter, the insulting each other yet standing up when someone else insulted the other.

"I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark. But they will never find you in these mountains." The other man takes a seat next to Tony before continuing, "Look, what you just saw, that is your legacy, Stark. Your life's work in the hands of those murderers! Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?"

"Why should I do anything? They're going to kill me, you, either way. And if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week." The billionaire's voice is quiet, almost hopeless.

Steve grimaced, he'd never seen Tony sound so, so defeated. That was just something you never associated with Tony Stark. The man always bounced back up no matter how hopeless the situation seemed. Steve admired that in him.

"Well then, this is a very important week for you, isn't it?"

Men are carrying weapons and supplies around the room, and the camera pans over, revealing Tony yelling orders and the man next to him translating,

"If this is going to be my workstation, I want it well-lit. I want these up. I need welding gear. I don't care if it's acetylene or propane. I need a soldering station. I need helmets. I'm gonna need goggles. I would like a smelting cup. I need two sets of precision tools."

"Working that attitude." Natasha commented lightly, to her relief Tony smiled and said, "Well I need my workplace in top order."

The camera reveals a Stark Industries missile, with Tony working on the end, "How many languages do you speak?"

"A lot. But apparently, not enough for this place." Tony gives a half-hearted smirk and the man continues, "They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian."

"That's impressive," Clint commented, "Yinsen too seems to know quite a lot of them."

Tony gave a half-hearted smile, "Yeah."

Tony slides something out of the missile before he responds, "Who are these people?"

"They are your loyal customers, Sir. They call themselves the Ten Rings."

There's a brief view of the security camera, then switches to the men holding them captive overseeing the process from TV screens, before returning back to Tony.

"You know, we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process." The doctor says, sitting next to the busy billionaire.

"You really should learn to work with a team Tony," Steve reprimands as Clint adds, "Yeah, could've prevented Ultron if you did."

Tony bristles but answers in an even tone, "Did it ever occur to you Rogers that I was working with a highly explosive missile and if one thing went wrong the whole thing would collapse on us? And Ultron wasn't just me as you all seem to think."

Steve huffs but stays silent and throws a warning glare to Clint who had opened his mouth to retaliate.

"Yuh-huh." He starts pounding on the missile with his forearm, demonstrating a considerable amount of strength, causing the end to pop off. He pulls something out, setting it on the table and picking something out of it with a pair of tweezers.

"Okay, we don't need this," He grabs the hunk of metal and tosses it over his shoulder.

"What is that?"

Tony holds a piece of thin metal up to the light with the tweezers, "That's palladium, 0.15 grams. We need at least 1.6, so why don't you go break down the other 11?"

"Tony...are you doing what I think you are doing?" Bruce slowly asks realization dawning in his eyes.

Tony nodded smiling slightly, "Yeah, it is, the original one."

Bruce shook his head incredulously so Thor asked, "What is Bruce talking about?"

Natasha replied, "It'll come up soon."

There's a bowl of red-like-sand, the billionaire grabbing a hand full and putting it into a cup. There's a smelting cup being pulled out of the fire by the other man, Tony behind him holding the car battery over his shoulder.

"Careful. Careful, we only get one shot at this." He warns.

"Relax, I have steady hands. Why do you think you're still alive?"

They walk over to the table, Tony setting the battery down on top of it. They lean over and the doctor starts to pour the liquid from the cup into the mould when Tony speaks up, "What do I call you?"

"My name is Yinsen."

"Yinsen. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

Wanda comments, "Oh so now you ask him?" She couldn't stop the question from falling, but she then decided she'd try to reign the comments in. She was surprisingly starting to like Stark, most of her hate was fuelled by her parents death and now that it was shown it wasn't him, her view was starting to change.

Tony rubs his forehead and sighs, "I know I was an ass, and at the time I had other things to worry about, like, oh I don't know, having a car battery in my chest, being kidnapped with no hopes of being rescued, having only a week left to live."

Tony was getting agitated by the minute and Rhodey put a hand on his shoulder and softly said, "I think she gets the point Tony."

Thor frowned at Wanda and said, "Can't you see little girl, that seeing this is hurting him, he doesn't need your accusations."

Wanda seethed, "I am not a little girl."

Natasha rolls her eyes and says, "Oh so now she admits it."

Thor coolly replies, "To me you are, with the way you act and your lack of control. Unless you learn to control your power and your childish antics, you won't be a lady in my eyes."

Rhodey and most of the team except for Steve and Wanda try to repress their snickers, and cover their mouths. Tony in particular is itching to laugh but he won't stoop to that level.

Tony is pulling a metal ring from the mould, holding it up and gently placing it into another metal disk, before the view changes and the billionaire is soldering pieces of metal and wire. The next thing we see is Tony twisting a dial, and the creation before him begins to glow a familiar blue.

"I still can't believe you built it in a cave with scraps, people were trying to replicate it for years, you are unbelievable Tony." Bruce said still in awe.

Thor raised his hand slightly and asked, "Is that the thing keeping Friend Tony alive?"

Tony nodded and said, "Sort-of, that's the original miniaturized arc reactor, I've upgraded it a lot now."

Tony's eyes briefly flickered to Steve, a movement which did not go amiss by Sam.

Bucky chimed in, "That's seriously impressive, I think I was awake at that time in HYDRA there were buzzes when you escaped about there being something in your chest."

Tony replied, "It wasn't exactly a secret but not many people knew what it's true purpose was."

Yinsen approaches and leans over the table, gazing in wonder at the contraption glowing on the table. "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." He explains, tapping the table next to the reactor,

"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."

"That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes."

"Yeah, or something big for 15 minutes."

"That's a crazy amount of energy Tony," Bruce commented his gaze slightly far away.

The billionaire lays down a pile of papers, turning the light on next to them. Yinsen shuffles through some of them before setting them back down.

"This is our ticket out of here," Stark says, pointing to the papers.

"What is it?"

"Flatten them out and look." He reaches forward and smooths out the papers, revealing what could only be a suit of armour.

"Oh, wow. Impressive."

"Wow, that's ingenious." Steve whispered. He hadn't known that Tony had built the first model in a cave, with scraps and being held a POW. He had messed up. Steve didn't voice the thoughts out loud though.

"That looks brilliant and terrifying," Sam commented.

Tony shrugged, "Of course it had to be, to strike the fear of Tony Stark into the men."

Bucky wrinkled his nose, "Isn't it generally fear of God?"

Tony again shrugged, "Well I'm an atheist, so..."

Bruce looks at him puzzled, "You've literally met two Gods."

Tony explains, "I don't believe in Christ and that there is supposedly only one God who controls everything and everyone, if there was I would very much like to go and punch him in the face. I think most of us here would, except of course Mr Good and Righteous over there."

Steve bit his tongue to hold back the angry retorts. Though there were more than a few head nods at this. Rhodey looked at the general response and his thought that Sam seemed to share was These people really need therapy.

Bruce hummed, interesting thing to ask Thor later.

The snowy mountains are revealed, men huddled around a fire for warmth before switching to the security surveillance, where Tony is shown laying on the cot with Yinsen stood over him.

A moment or two passes before the genius stands, the addition in his chest glowing with a bright, gentle, blue light, appearing larger than it actually is on the cheap cameras. He takes a few steps forward and the men share a handshake that could almost pass for a high-five.

A pair of dice is being rolled on a wooden board game, the two men gambling with silver bolts.

"Good roll, good roll." Yinsen praises the billionaire, reaching for the dice to shake them in his hand for his own turn.

"You still haven't told me where you're from," Tony mentions nonchalantly, lifting the lid off of a jar next to him.

"I'm from a small town called Gulmira. It's actually a nice place."

Rhodey exchanged an understanding look with Tony and Sam asked, "Wait, wasn't that the place where Iron Man was first spotted."

Tony nodded, voice a little tight as he replied, "I think it will be shown but yes."

"Got a family?"

"Yes, and I will see them when I leave here." Yinsen says, looking up from the board to face the billionaire, "And you, Stark?"

The two make eye contact for a brief moment before the genius looks down, taking his turn in their game before looking back up. He shrugs and replies with a quirk of his lips, "Nah."

"No? So you're a man who has everything, and nothing?"

Rhodey turns towards him, "Tony you have me, Pep and Happy. You know how upset mama would be if she heard you?" He added the last part hoping to make Tony laugh. It worked.

"Oh she would absolutely threaten to disown me, but at that time I didn't have much left, I didn't know if you were dead or alive, and..."

Steve quietly spoke up, "Tony, you have the Av-"

Tony harshly looked up, "Don't even finish that sentence or spout the bullcrap Rogers. If you really think so, please tell me where was this family when I was trying to keep everyone together and keep Ross off your backs or how about the time when I was in critical condition? Oh, that's right, breaking international law and harming civilians and public property."

Almost everyone seemed taken aback except Rhodey and Vision who looked smug and Bruce and Thor who looked confused.

Steve tried amending, "Tony you know the Accords were wrong and we never signed them."

Vision replied evenly, "That does not give you the authority to break them and become international fugitives Mr Rogers. If you did not sign the Accords it meant that you were giving up your status as a superhero and could not just use your powers even if your intention was good."

Bruce interrupted sensing this would get out of hand really soon if he didn't intervene, "Guys, stop, how about we just watch the movies and then everyone can think about their actions."

Nobody answered him but nevertheless turned back to the screen. Bruce got the feeling that either he or Thor were going to be the mediators until the said movie came to pass.

The leader from the beginning walks up to the door, opening the hatch quietly and peering inside. Satisfied to see that they are working, he nods in approval and turns away.

Suddenly, music can be heard over the speakers, and the camera is panning over a table full of supplies, some makeshift pieces of armour and tools forged from pieces of scrap. Some sparks can be seen flying from where Tony is using a blowtorch. When he turns it off, he lifts the goggles off his face.

Their captors are seen huddling over the TV's again, holding up the picture of the Jericho and arguing in a different language as they compare it to the process on the screen.

"It doesn't look anything like the picture," complained one.

"Maybe it's been modified," another man suggests.

"The tail is wrong," The first man argues.

"It's just backwards." One reasons.

"God, they're morons." Clint says. Tony nods and replies, "Exactly the fact I was counting on. If they were stupid enough to give me whatever I asked without clarifying first, they really were morons."

Sam laughed, "I guess the moral of the story is don't kidnap genius scientists and lock them in a place with all their toys. 10/10 chance of you being killed, idiots."

This caused ripples of laughter across the room. Rhodey smiled and agreed, "I've learnt that lesson the hard way."

A/N Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed! The next chapter will be up on 9th April.

Ben Turner1: Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it!