Chapter Two

Tony groaned softly as he awakened to the sound of soft humming, his eyes flitting around him in confusion as he took in his surroundings. From what he could discern he was in some sort of underground room, a cave or something similar. The room was dank and dark despite its high temperature and there were two cots, including the one he was lying on, and small knick knacks scattered throughout the room. His gaze moved to the man humming in front of the mirror. He was a short man, only an inch shorter than Tony's own height of 5'9 with short greying dark hair and a thin waif like frame. His skin, a dark russet color went well with his kind chocolate eyes and seemed a bit sallow from malnourishment and captivity telling him that the man had been wherever they were for a while.

"You've awakened, . That is a relief. With the severity of your wounds I didn't expect you to wake so soon." The man said turning to him with a small smile.

The billionaire frowned deeply, remembering the all consuming agony he'd felt only a short while ago and the glimpse of hands removing flesh and bone from his chest. He glanced down and gasped in horror, bolting into a sitting position.

"What have you done to me!"

The older man chuckled, giving him a sad smile. "What have I done for you." He corrected. "I have seen many with wounds like yours. In my village they are called the Walking Dead because the shrapnel slowly sheds their insides before puncturing the organ, in your case your heart. Unfortunately, I was unable to retrieve all the shards, that should keep them from reaching your heart. It should last about a week if we're lucky. Here," He tossed Tony a small vial full of tiny metal shards. "Take a look."

The genius stared at him bewildered, then down at the shards in his hands and the electromagnet in his chest.

Shrapnel...from his own damn weapon!

And it was killing him.

Footsteps sounded, drawing him from his thoughts and Yinsen stood with a harried expression, gesturing for him to do the same.

"Who-"

"Do as I do!" The doctor ordered urgently, placing his hands behind his head. Tony followed the movement, fear and confusion warring in his mind yet expertly hidden from the world. Six large men, clad in black entered the room, two carrying a limp blond figure while the other for stood silent holding very familiar guns. His guns.

"Those are my guns!"

Yinsen shot him a warning glance. "Do as I do!" He reminded and Tony fell silent, watching as the blond person was thrown to the ground at his and Yinsen's feet. Another man stepped forward with a grin, cropped dark hair contrasting the thick messy beard lining his jaw. He spoke in a gruttal, foreign language, opening his arms in a grand gesture. Yinsen gave a terse response and turned to him.

"He says 'Welcome, Tony Stark, Most famous mass murderer in America. I'm sure we will do great business together."

Tony frowned. "Business? What business?"

The man spoke again and Yinsen sighed. "He says he wants you to build him a missile like the one you demonstrated." The leader handed Yinsen a picture, gesturing to Tony and Yinsen nodded showing the picture to the genius. "This one."

A sneer crossed Tony's lips and a resigned look enter Yinsen's eyes, as if he knew what the man would say.

"I refuse."

The doctor gave a pained look and nodded before turning to the leader and translating Tony's response, watching as the guards grabbed the ailing man. Tony stared ahead stubbornly, holding his car battery to his chest, never seeing just how heartbroken Yinsen looked when he was dragged from the room.

When Tony awakened from his torture, he found himself lying on the same cot from before with a tattered brown cloak wrapped around him. Yinsen sat by the fire reading a book silently, the blond from before sitting beside him cooking something in a battered tin pot, long golden curls pulled back to reveal a sharp aristocratic face and a strong smooth jaw. The man was tall, about 6'2, with the lithe frame of a swimmer or a dancer and lightly tanned skin. If his hair had been a little shorter and had it not been for the shadows in his eyes, Tony would've mistaken him for one of the college kids that frequented the beach near his malibu home. As it stood, there was something familiar about him, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

The man glanced at him and smiled tiredly.

"Nice to meet you when we're both awake, ."

Tony made a face, joining the two men by the fire.

"Tony, please. was my father."

"Brian O'Connor."

One of Tony's eyebrows rose in recognition of the name. The rogue cop that went native on an undercover case. It had been all over the news when it happened and he was honestly surprised to see that the guy was here of all places.

Brian chuckled softly at his look.

"Forgot you lived in Malibu. My name was probably all over the news, huh?"

The man nodded and smirked.

"Yep, aired the same day I was on the news so it was kinda hard to miss it."

His smirk faded, mind flashing back to just before he'd passed out. He'd always been aware of what happened to prisoners, to people held hostage by terrorists but he'd never actually had anything like this happen to him. Growing up the heir to Stark Industries or hell just the son of Howard Stark, he'd been kidnapped multiple times and even held for ransom but never tortured or anything like that, especially not with his not-godfather being who it was, so this was a completely new experience for him. A completely new, completely fucked up experience.

"You look like you're giving up." Brian commented softly and Tony frowned at him.

What the hell would he know?

"What else can I do? These people have my weapons, my weapons and they're using them to hurt people. To kill innocent people. Who are these guys anyway?"

Yinsen set his book down while Brian took the time to dish the stew he'd been cooking.

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

"Loyal...customers? But I don't- no!"

Brian nodded and he shook his head weakly. "I don't want a body count, their body count to be my only legacy!"

Yinsen smirked. "Then this will be a very important week for you."

"We won't be needing this." Tony muttered tossing the entire shell of yet another missile over his shoulder and Brian blinked, leaning over his shoulder to look at the small components in his hand.

"Palladium?"

The genius jerked then looked at the blond in shock. He hadn't pegged him as the science-y type. He looked more like a surfer or one of those frat boys not someone that could recognize palladium on sight alone. Even Yinsen was staring at the boy in shock from his seat beside Tony.

"How'd you know that?"

The kid smirked at him and shrugged. "I majored in aerodynamics and engineering in college before I dropped out."

The other two captives stared at him. "Why'd you drop out?"

"Money problems, family problems, me problems...just problems in general. I just took a year to get my head on straight then I joined the police academy just after my eighteenth birthday." He shrugged running a slim hand through his tangled hair. "I don't regret it."

"Why the police academy?"

Brian smiled. "I wanted to help people, but I didn't want to sit still. My brother helped me expunge my record so I could join."

Tony nodded, taking apart another missile then looking down at his plans.

His companions followed his gaze.

"That doesn't look like a missile." Yinsen murmured and Tony smirked wanly.

"It's not."

"This might go a bit faster if you included us in the planning process, Stark." The ex-cop retorted and Tony sighed pulling the palladium from the missile and tossing the hull over his shoulder. He held it up for them to see.

"This is palladium, as you said earlier. We need 0.16 grams so get to work helping me take apart these missiles."

Brian frowned deeply as he watched Yinsen implant the new device, this 'arc reactor' into Tony chest as a replacement for the electromagnet and car battery from before. In the week since Tony's arrival he'd found himself showing more emotion than he'd showed since being captured. There was just something about the billionaire that made it easier for him to open up both about his feelings and his past and it was disconcerting. He'd always prided himself on keeping things close to his chest, even with the Torettos, with Dom, he'd kept his innermost thoughts and feelings to himself. He didn't like this, not at all and it was all Stark's fault.

He narrowed his eyes at the billionaire.

This had to stop, he'd make sure of it.

TBC...