Hey guys! I'm not going to write out every scene of the Iron Man movie, we have all seen it and I really think it's unnecessary. Again, I want to thank everyone for favoriting and following my story. I would also usually thank my reviewers but for some reason, even though it tells me there are more reviews, I can only see the ones from the earlier chapters. If you reviewed, thank you so much! Hopefully, fanfiction will let me see it at some point, lol.
I do not own any marvel characters or movies. All rights go to Disney and Marvel.
Tony was trying not to completely spaz out at the moment. Everything was going great, the military loved the missile, the deal was done, and Tony was going to go home 3 days early. But then he had to get blown up. Now he was stuck in a cave, strapped to a car battery in order to stop shrapnel from entering his heart and killing him. Not to mention the whole torture and 'you better build terrorists a fancy new missile or you're getting a bullet to the brain' thing. If he survived this, he was never going to do a favor for Obie ever again.
Hell, he was going to tell Obie to shove it since he was the one that guilt-tripped him to go to Afghanistan in the first place. The man could kiss his ass. And if he got out of there, he was shutting down the weapons department. Whenever he closed his eyes, he kept seeing that soldier drop dead. He had just been a kid and Tony had indirectly killed him; SI was supposed to help protect the American soldiers—not betray them. He would find out who was selling to the terrorists under the table and he would make sure they got what they deserved. He could never live with himself if this happened again. There had to be a better way of helping people. He had to set a better example for Elli.
And Elli. His poor, sweet Elli. She probably thought he had abandoned her. He had to get back—if it weren't for her, he probably would have just let the terrorists kill him. She was the only thing he lived for now.
A sudden shock drives Tony out of his thoughts. This damn battery would need to go first. No way was he going to be able to get anything done with wires hanging out of his chest. He looked up at the man who was imprisoned with him. Fine beads of sweat ran down the man's neck as he helped Tony get the nose off of the missile. Yinsen was his name. He definitely didn't trust the man, but he was grateful toward him for saving his life. Once Tony found what he was looking for, he dropped the metal piece on the ground to inspect his prize more closely.
"That doesn't look like a Jericho missile." Tony barely glances at Yinsen as he begins to fiddle with the device in his hand.
"That's because it's a miniaturized arc reactor. I got a big one powering my factory at home. It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart."
The color of the light the device produced reminded Tony of Elli. He was always a little curious as to why her eyes glowed the same color as the reactor. Before he had left, Jarvis had been helping him analyze a sample of the energy his daughter could control. He wanted to understand it so one day she could understand it as well.
"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." This had to work or he would never see his daughter again. Hopefully he didn't fry himself on accident.
*******mini break*******
Huddled at the fire, Yinsen and Tony ate the slop that was passed off as food by their captors. The man was on board with his plan of escape and Tony couldn't be happier about that. It made sneaking around a lot easier.
"You still haven't told me where you're from."
"I'm from a small town called Gulmira. It's actually a nice place."
"Got a family?"
"Yes, and I will see them when I leave here." So they had the same goal, good.
"And you, Stark?"
He paused in his eating, he might not ever get to talk about his daughter with anyone again. And honestly, he doubted Yinsen would run to the press about his secret child if they escaped. He would have better things to worry about. Tony reached into his back pocket to pull out a photo. Pepper had convinced him to carry it on his person despite having a million photos on his phone—which had been lost when he was kidnapped. Somehow the picture had not been discovered or destroyed in the past month. The edges were starting to fray though, and the ink was slightly faded. He handed it to Yinsen, who treated it as though it was priceless. And to Tony—it was.
"That's Elli, she just turned 3." The toddler had messy white hair and the most unusual gold colored eyes. The photo was taken from above, the little girl stretching for the photographer to pick her up. Yinsen looked up to see Tony wearing the fondest smile on his face as he looked at the child in the picture.
"I thought you were unmarried?" Tony snorted at the man.
"So you did know the answer, you were just being polite. No, I am a single father. I adopted her when she was around 2 months old and kept her a secret from the press. Only a select few know of her existence. You are the sixth beside myself. Congratulations."
"But why tell me?"
"I feel like you can keep a secret. And I think that if we are going to get out of this alive, I need to trust you, and Elli is the most trust I can give a person." The man handed the photo back and Tony carefully tucked it back into his pocket.
"I am honored, Mr. Stark."
******line break*******
The burning men made Tony cackle with a murderous glee. These assholes had killed Yinsen. He felt no remorse killing them. It was when missiles started going off like fireworks that Tony knew he had to get out of there. Flying was cool, he could see why Elli had so much fun with it. The crash landing wasn't exactly his favorite thing though.
After wandering through the desert for hours, Tony almost started sobbing when the helicopter spotted him. He definitely shed a tear when Rhodey came to get him—not that he would ever admit it. Despite being rescued, Tony still felt as anxious as when he was stuck in the cave. It was only when his feet touched American soil for the first time in months that he was finally able to relax. He had made it; he was going to see his daughter again.
Thankfully, there were no reporters to swarm him—he had Rhodey to thank for that, the press didn't think he was coming home for another week due to medical issues.
"Happy, let's go see Elli. I think I owe her a whole lot of ice cream." His driver laughed and put the car into drive, eyeing his passenger in the rearview mirror.
"That you do, Sir."
****line break****
Tony snuck in the front door having texted Jarvis to unlock it. Happy informed him it was around 8 A.M., so Elli should be waking up soon. He was going to make her favorite—blueberry pancakes. It would be difficult with one of his arms in a sling, but he would manage.
"Tony?" Pepper walked into the kitchen startled to see the back of a man rummaging through the fridge. He turned around to see Pepper's hands over her mouth, tears streaming down her face.
"Hey, Pep. How's it going?" Pepper only shook her head and went to lean on Tony's chest.
"I thought you were dead. I didn't know what I was going to do. Elli has missed you so much, she has refused to eat ice cream, kept saying she had to wait for you." Tony blinked as Pepper rubbed her eyes and then began lightly pounding on his chest, "You stupid, stupid man. I thought we lost you."
"I'm ok, Pep. It's over."
"Peppa?" Both adults snapped their heads to see a sleepy Elli walking towards the kitchen, rubbing her eyes as treaded forward. The toddler stopped when she removed her hands from her eyes, her face blank as father and daughter stared each other down.
"Daddy?" Tony was getting down on his knees as Elli whispered his name.
"Yeah, munchkin. It's me." A pitiful sob escaped the toddler as she launched herself into her daddy's chest, causing both of them to fall to the ground.
"Daddy…hic…daddy…hic…daddy I missed you. I missed you so much," Elli's face was buried in her daddy's neck, soothing circles being rubbed on her back as Tony locked her in a tight embrace.
"I know baby girl. I missed you too," Tony kissed his daughter's head and breathed in her favorite strawberry shampoo, he was finally home. Elli trembled in his arms as another sob was muffled into his shirt, "I'm so sorry I kept you waiting so long."
There isn't much Elli-Tony interaction in this chapter which was kind of sad, but they're reunited so next chapter will be more interesting! Sorry it is a little shorter than the previous chapters, it felt a little awkward to keep going so the next chapter will most likely be very long!
