Seeing that the two men had notices the wings poking out of the back of my dress, which were not typical to humans, judging by their pale faces and gaping jaws, I relaxed fully, allowing the appendages to extend to their full length, the ends brushing the back of my calves. The wings were a faint green, the edging being of a darker shade than the rest, and seemed to shimmer with faint rainbows as the firelight reflected on them.
"What…" The man named Tony said again, taking a few steps forward. Flinching back, I kept suspicious eyes on him. "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you." His eyes were gentle, wide with amazement, despite the situation that they all found themselves hostage in.
I shifted my still folded wings back under the fabric of my dress self-consciously so that only the ends were visible under the torn hemline. I tilted my chin up in the false confidence that I seemed to be using quite a bit lately. "I'm not afraid." My eyes flicked around the cave, ignoring the still gaping Yinsen. "Can you tell me who those men are?"
"Terrorists," Tony murmured, his voice much lower than it had been. "They cause fear, destruction. They want me to build them weapons." He was frowning, his face regaining the hardness that I had seen a little while before, when he was arguing for the sake of the other man's life.
I tilted my head. "Are you a weapons maker?"
He snorted. "You could say that." He paced back and forth in front of where I stood. "They took the weapons I made and are using them against my own people." Glancing at Yinsen. "Against many peoples."
"And they want you to build more for them?"
He nodded. Still trying to understand the situation that I had landed in, I mirrored the motion. "Okay. And you will not, because they will use them to hurt your people. So, why are you still here? What leverage do they have over you?"
He clenched his jaw. Yinsen put a hand on his shoulder, leading him away from where I was standing so that they could have a heated, whispered conversation.
While they talked, I collapsed onto an overturned box, taking a moment alone to try and collect myself. Okay. I made it to Earth. Now I am trapped with the same sorts of people that I ran from. I glanced back at the two arguing men. I lasted about five seconds as an undercover alien. Something about these people reaches out to me. Despite my worries, I felt a slight tugging in my soul, the Fire trying to give me a message. It wasn't a painful pulling, as it sometimes was when I was being warned, but something gentler, softer. The Fire was telling me to trust these men.
Tony suddenly knelt down in front of me. I met his eyes and then those of Yinsen, over his shoulder. "We're still here because we are getting out. Tonight."
The rest of the day passed in a flurry of pounding hammers and heated metal. I tried my best to help, but the two mainly directed me to organizing and holding things, and I was too out of my element to argue. They showed me the plans, this was what they had been arguing about, which showed the assembly of a metal man-shaped suit, apparently intended to be worn by Tony and powered by the strange blue light in his chest.
When the pieces were finished and the wiring completed, we began helping Tony strap on the suit. Yinsen and Tony had rigged an explosive at the door as a precaution to people coming in, and they were nervously waiting for the computer to finish.
Computer, I reached out with my mind. How's it going?
Working on it, Lady. The slow, droning voice replied. I let out a shaky breath and shook my head when Yinsen turned to check on me. He went back to strapping Tony in.
"Okay? Can you move?" Tony nodded, clenching his hands and moving his arms underneath the heavy metal. "Okay, say it again." Yinsen was anxiously going over the plan.
"Forty one steps straight ahead. Then sixteen steps, that's from the door, fork right, thirty three steps, turn right." I could read the nervous energy pouring off of the men. It was infectious, and I continued glancing towards the door as the two of them tightened the bolts around the man, securing him in place.
I met Tony's eyes. "Be careful, Tony." He gave me a shaky smile and a jerky nod.
A sudden yelling could be heard. "Yinsen! Yinsen! Stark!"
"Say something." Tony whispered. "Say something back to him."
Yinsen was frantic as the two of them tried to work faster. "He's speaking Hungarian. I don't…"
"Then speak Hungarian."
"Okay. I know."
"What do you know?"
Yinsen shouted something back at the door. Focused on my work, I could not tell what it was, only that the men outside were angry and shouting back.
Then, there was an explosion. One of the men had tried to open their trapped door.
"How'd that work?" Tony asked.
"Oh, my goodness." Yinsen said, looking around Tony to see a gaping hole in the wall.
"It worked all right."
"I'd say." I added, eyes wide and ears ringing.
"That's what I do." Tony told them, a nervous smile on his face.
"Let me finish this." I said, tightening the last few bolts.
"Initialize the power sequence." Tony told them.
Yinsen jumped up to the computer. "Okay. Tell me. Tell me."
I kept half an ear listening to the sluggish computer as Tony gave Yinsen directions.
"Function 11. Tell me when you see a progress bar." Yinsen was shaking. "It should be up right now."
"Yes."
"Talk to me. Tell me when you see it." Tony was forcing himself to be calm.
"I have it."
"Press Control "l"."
""I." Got it."
" "I." "Enter." "l" and "Enter." Mira, button me up."
My fingers flew over the suit, fastening the last few pieces."Okay. All right."
"Every other hex bolt." I glanced up at him.
"Yes, I know." Our eyes locked, fear and adrenaline running through the irises.
"They're coming!" Yinsen cried out.
Tony nodded at me. "Nothing pretty, just get it done." I worked as fast as I could as Yinsen came over to help. "Just get it done."
"They're coming." He was frantic. As soon as the bolts were all tightened, he flew back to the computer.
"Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out, okay?" Tony told them.
Yinsen shook his head. "We need more time." He whipped around, taking in my pale face and bandaged arm, still doing my best to help Tony get ready. "Hey, I'm gonna go buy you some time."
"No!" I said, firmly.
Tony was in agreement. "Stick to the plan!" Yinsen ran towards the hole in the wall. "Stick to the plan!"
"Yinsen!" I cried as he left the room. Gunfire quickly followed.
Tony glared at the computer, still under halfway finished. I followed his gaze and thinned my lips.
"Right." I pulled myself up and rushed over to the piece of ancient technology.
"Mira?" Tony sounded worried, as if he was concerned that I was about to rush out as well.
Pulling both arms in front of me, ignoring the pain of the broken left one, I placed them both firmly on the keyboard, closing my eyes. I took every scrap of energy that I had left, called upon every spark of the Fire, and pushed it through my fingertips. Suddenly, the progress bar shot quickly through its process, leaving Tony gaping. As the loading finished, the lights cut out and I collapsed, panting, on the dirt.
"Mira!" He hissed as the facemask to the suit closed over his face. I pulled myself onto my knees and crawled over to the side, just in time for men to come rushing into the cave.
Then, Tony attacked. He knocked out everyone that had invaded their cave, pulled me back to my feet, and rushed towards the exit. "Stay close!" He called out.
The two of us rushed through the tunnels, bullets flying around us. I did my best to stay behind Tony, keeping the protective metal between me and the ammunition, but did catch a stray bullet in my injured shoulder, almost knocking me to the ground.
Tony beat down a metal door standing in their way. Swinging his arm at one of the men, he missed, getting the heavy suit wedged into the stone of the walls. A man tried to shoot him, but the bullet bounced and killed the shooter instead. Pulling his arm free, the metal giant continued to lead me down the halls, keeping us moving forward towards the exit.
Then, we turned the corner.
"Yinsen!" Tony cried, rushing over to the man bleeding on the floor. I hurried behind him, stumbling over my feet and cursing my lack of energy. If I weren't out of Fire, I could help him.
"Watch out!" Yinsen cried as the bald man from before shot what seemed to be a rocket at them. Tony and I dodged out of the way and Tony fired a rocket of his own at the man, causing the cave to collapse on top of him. My heart had never beat so fast.
We turned back to our dying friend. "Stark." He got out. "Mira."
"Come on," Tony said. "We got to go." I could see the desperation in his eyes as I moved to take Yinsen's hand. "Move for me, come on. We got a plan, we're gonna stick to it."
"This was always the plan, Stark." Yinsen whispered, giving me a sad smile as I let tears fall.
"Come on, you're gonna go and see your family. Get up." His eyes were growing glassy.
"My family is dead. I'm going to see them now, Stark." He gave my hand a soft squeeze. "It's okay. I want this. I want this."
Tony let out a soft noise. "Thank you for saving me."
"Us." I said.
"Us." Tony agreed.
"Don't waste it. Don't waste your lives." He let out a last gasping breath, then was still.
"May the Sisters watch over you in your slumber." I murmured a prayer from home and pressed a soft kiss to the man's forehead. Glancing up, I saw the devastation and fury in Tony's brown eyes before he turned to the exit of the cave.
The men outside opened fire, the bullets ricocheting off of the metal suit. Tony stood for a moment, taking it all in, and then retaliated with a wave of fire.
"My turn." He walked along, burning everything around him, destroying the weapons that I could see were tagged with the name that Yinsen kept calling him. Stark.
Flicking open my wings and unfolding them fully for the first time since I had boarded my shuttle, I watched the destruction numbly. With a push, I used what little bit of strength left within me to launch into the air and began flying in the direction that we had agreed upon going, trusting the man to catch up with me. I looked back at the sound of a large explosion and let out a relieved smile as I saw the metal form rising from the flames and smoke.
Glancing down at the flames, I wondered if this was what my home would look like, whenever I made it back.
I tracked Tony as he suddenly began to fall, flying in the direction of his crash landing and praying to all six of the goddesses that he was alright.
