Sometime later, Toni awoke in a cave, her chest wrapped tightly with bandages and a tube down her nose. She brought her hand up to it. "Shit." She breathed as she began to pull it out and groaned in pain at pulling it out. She reached out for something on the table next to her bed. She looked around to get her bearings and saw a man shaving in a small mirror. Toni turned over in bed to reach better for the item-a small glass of water. However, when she moved, a car battery moved with her.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The man said, continuing to shave. Toni turned back onto her back and saw the car battery. Frantically, she followed the wires down under the bandages on her chest, ripping them off to reveal a metal device implanted between her breasts and into her sternum. She began panting frantically, as if she were either about to have a panic attack or cry.
Later still, the shaving man was preparing food for the two of them over a small fire and whistling somewhat jovially as he did so.
Toni sat broodingly at the edge of her bed. "How long have I been here?" She asked.
"A few days." The man said. "You've been drifting in and out though, so it's nice to see you back with us fully."
"What did you do to me?" She asked quietly.
"I saved your life." He said. "I'm a scientist, but I'm also a practicing medical doctor. And to save your life, I performed surgery on you. Sometimes you weren't fully... unconscious." He admitted. "But I removed all the shrapnel I could. There was a lot left over and it's headed into your atrial septum." He put down the small pot and picked up a small glass tube.
"Atrial septum?" Toni asked.
"Your heart." The man picked up a small test tube and handed it to Toni. "This is what I removed from your chest. Take a look."
Toni peered inside, looking at the small scraps of metal rolling around inside. She sighed glumly and out the tube down.
"I've seen many wounds like that in my time. It's probably why I was charged with keeping you alive, actually." The man said. "I won't mince words. People with your wounds, around here they call 'the walking dead', because it takes a few days for the shrapnel to hit vital organs. And once they do..." He trailed off.
Toni pointed to the device in her chest. "So what's this for?"
"The car battery there is powering that electromagnet and it's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart." The man explained. "It's the best I could do under the circumstances."
Toni spotted a camera in one of the corners of the cave and covered her chest up.
"That's right. They're watching. Always watching." The man said, noticing Toni staring at the CCTV camera.
Toni cleared her throat. "So... you uh... do you have a name? Anything I can call you?"
"You don't remember?" The man asked.
"Remember what?"
"We met before, at a technical conference in Bern."
"No, I actually don't remember." Toni frowned. "Come to think of it, I can't remember ever going to Bern-where is it anyway?"
"It's the capital of Switzerland." The man said. "And honestly, I'm not surprised you don't remember. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits."
"Right. Yeah." Toni nodded.
"I'm Dr Ho Yinsen. Just call me Yinsen though. My father was Mr Ho. And it's a pleasure to meet you sober, Ms Stark." Yinsen put his hand out.
Toni shook it. "Toni. Just call me Toni. All my friends do. And it's a pleasure to meet you too, Yinsen. So where are we?" She asked.
Some shouting in Arabic from outside the room caused Yinsen to jump back slightly. "I think you know. Now come on, stand up." He pulled Toni up to her feet. "Just do as I do and put your hands up." Yinsen put his hands up and Toni, apprehensively, followed.
Some men entered the cave, carrying guns.
"Those are my guns. How did they get my guns?" Toni whispered.
"Stay quiet. Don't say anything." Yinsen said. "Not until you're spoken to."
One of the men, her captor, began to speak to Toni in Arabic.
Toni looked at him in confusion.
Yinsen spoke up to the man in Arabic and the man nodded.
Yinsen turned to Toni. "He says; 'Welcome, Antonia Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America'."
The man began to speak in Arabic again.
"He is honored." Yinsen translated again.
The captor again spoke in Arabic.
"He wants you to build the missile. The Jericho missile that you demonstrated." The captor handed a piece of paper over Yinsen, who showed it to Toni. "This one."
"No way." Toni said defiantly.
Yinsen sighed and translated what Toni had said.
Angered, Toni's captor punched her in the face, then he kicked her in the stomach, knocking her down to the ground. He snapped his fingers and two other men, the guards, dragged Toni away.
Yinsen picked up the car battery keeping Toni alive and followed closely behind, mainly because the third man was pointing a gun at him.
The captor and the two guards dragged Toni outside into the daylight and the third guard kept pointing his gun at both Yinsen and Toni.
The daylight disoriented Toni slightly, she hadn't really thought about what time of day it was. Maybe because she had been in a dark cave, she'd somehow assumed it was night time, but now she was thinking it had to be midday at the latest. One thing there was no getting away from, however, was that the weapons stored around the facility, all had the Stark Industries logo on.
One of the captors turned to Toni again and spoke in Arabic to her.
Yinsen translated. "He wants to know what you think."
"Well, I think you got a lot of my weapons." Toni remarked.
Yinsen translated back to their captor.
The demeanour of the captor changed yet again as he spoke. He sounded irritated.
"He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho Missile and he wants you to make the list of materials." Yinsen said.
The captor carried on in Arabic.
"He says for you to start working immediately, but if you refuse to do it or get distracted because you're a woman and fail, he will kill you immediately."
"Hm. How sexist." Toni said emotionlessly.
Yinsen did not translate that to the captor, instead he 'translated' something else.
The captor simply nodded and continued his speech in Arabic.
"He says that when you're done and it is successful, he will set you free." Yinsen said. "And he asked if you have a deal."
Toni nodded. "He won't set me free."
Yinsen sighed. "No, he won't." He said something to the captor in Arabic that caused him to smile.
Later on, Toni lay at the edge of her bed, playing with the ends of her hair, which was in a scraggly ponytail.
"I'm sure they're looking for you, Toni." Yinsen said. "But they will never find you in these mountains."
"I don't think anyone's looking for me." Toni said glumly. "And even if they are, I don't want to be found."
"Why not?" Yinsen asked.
"Because... I'm going to die in a matter of days and my legacy-you saw my legacy, Yinsen. It's death and destruction." Toni sat up.
"I haven't seen your weapons, Toni." Yinsen sighed. "But I've treated wounds from them. It's how I knew to treat yours. They're... tell tale."
Toni sighed loudly. "I didn't want... I didn't think about-about the implications." She said. "People tried to tell me-but I didn't listen. If this stupid war isn't about Osama Bin Laden, what's it even about?"
"Oil." Yinsen said. "I thought it was obvious."
"If my weapons are ending up in the hands of the bad guys, does that mean America is also the bad guy? That NATO is a bad guy? I don't know any more, Yinsen."
"America has been known to sell its weapons on to other Middle Eastern terrorist groups, yes, but this isn't about that. You could always stop making weapons at any time."
"I can't stop now, can I?" Toni put her head in her hands. "If I do, they're gonna kill you and then they'll kill me and if I don't... I'll be dead within a week."
Yinsen sat on the bed next to Toni. "I can't pretend to know the turmoil you must be going through. But as you've learned the hard way, sometimes ignorance isn't bliss. You don't have to let a body count be your legacy, Toni. It doesn't have to end this way."
"It's going to end either way." Toni said.
"Toni. I know that deep down, despite what you've done, you're a good person." Yinsen said. "And you don't need to prove it to the world. But you need to prove that to yourself."
Toni's head snapped up and she looked around in thought. "I guess you're right." She stood up. "So we'd better get building."
Later on, a few guards came in and carried weapons and other items in as directed by Toni who was holding the car battery under one arm.
"Alright. So this is gonna be my work area, so I need it lit well." Toni pointed at the captors with the lamps to set them down. "Would hate to accidentally explode us all because I couldn't see properly."
Toni turned to another guard. "If you want this damn thing you're forcing me to make not to fall apart, then I need welding gear. I don't care if it's acetylene or propane-and that reminds me, I also need an area to solder and tools for it."
"Toni, safety first." Yinsen added.
"Yes!" Toni snapped her fingers. "Safety first! So that means I need two helmets and I'm also gonna need two pairs of goggles and two pairs of heavy duty gloves." She paused briefly to consider anything else she might need. "Finally, I would like a smelting cup."
After the guards left the room, Toni sat on the bed, picked up a screwdriver and began to break apart a missile.
Yinsen looked over her. "Do you need any help?"
"How many languages do you speak?" Toni asked, still trying to disassemble the missile.
Yinsen chuckled lightly "A lot. But it would seem, not enough for this place."
"What languages do you speak?" Toni asked.
"Let's see, there's English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, French, Urdu, Farsi... and a little bit of Hungarian."
"And what languages do they speak?"
"Lots of different languages. Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian-"
"So who are these people?" Toni asked, interrupting Yinsen.
Yinsen sighed. "Ah. They call themselves the Ten Rings. And as you've probably noticed, they're loyal customers of yours."
"Yeah. Not for long." Toni muttered, finally having broken into the missile.
"Do you plan on including me in your... whatever you're doing?" Yinsen asked. "After all, you are rather pressed for time."
"You're right..." Toni picked up a pair of tweezers and carefully pulled out a small, circular part of the missile. "And we don't need this." She threw the rest of the missile to one side, and held up the small part for Yinsen to see.
Yinsen frowned. "What is that?" He asked,
"Palladium." Toni replied. "We need 1.6 grams, but this is only 0.15."
"And you're going to get the rest of it from these missiles."
"Sure am." Toni said. "And lucky you, you get to help me break apart the other eleven missiles."
Later on still, Toni and Yinsen were making something. Toni was holding a circular mould while Yinsen carried a small cup of molten metal over to her with metal tongs.
"Please, please be careful." Toni winced. "Like really careful, because we only get one shot at this."
"Toni, please relax. The only reason you're alive is because I have steady hands."
Toni gave a small shrug. "What can I say? I'm a perfectionist."
"Yes. I've noticed." Yinsen slowly and carefully poured the molten metal into Toni's mould.
After working for possibly days on a small, complicated device, Toni and Yinsen looked over the small, blue glowing circular device they had created.
"I've never seen one in my life, but I'm pretty sure this is not a Jericho Missile." Yinsen said.
"It's an arc reactor." Toni said. "I got a big one powering my factory at home. I figured this was priority because I can't make that Jericho Missile if I'm dead."
"Good point." Yinsen agreed.
"So I'm pretty sure this will be able to keep the shrapnel away from my heart." Toni nodded. "Yeah."
"You said you have a big one powering your factory," Yinsen began, "so what could this one generate?"
"Well, if my math is right-and it always is-then, three gigajoules per second."
"Wow." Yinsen looked at the arc reactor and at Toni, impressed. "This could run your heart for fifty lifetimes."
"Yeah." Toni nodded in agreement. "It could do that. Or it could run something big for fifteen minutes."
"Big? How big?" Yinsen asked.
Toni handed Yinsen a few papers. "This is our ticket out of here."
"What is it?" Yinsen asked, unfolding the papers.
"Flatten them out and take a look." Toni said, still admiring the arc reactor. "Little warning though, it's not a Jericho Missile either."
Yinsen held the papers down and turned to Toni. "Impressive." He said with a raised eyebrow.
That evening, Toni and Yinsen settled down to play a game of Backgammon. The arc reactor was firmly embedded in Toni's chest and emitting a pale blue glow.
"Good roll. Good roll." Yinsen said.
"So, Yinsen." Toni began. "It just hit me earlier that I don't really know anything about you."
"Go ahead then, Toni, ask me any question and I shall answer it." Yinsen replied.
"Where are you from?" Toni asked.
"Originally, China. I guess you figured that one out already. But being a doctor, I decided to come and help civilian casualties of the American 'War on Terror'. So I recently settled down in a small town called Gulmira. It's actually a very nice place." Yinsen smiled.
"How is it that you speak so many languages?" Toni asked.
"As a doctor, I travel around. As a scientist, I travel around." Yinsen explained. "In my travels, sometimes I settled down in a place, like I did here, and that's how I pick up different languages."
"So, have you got a family?" Toni asked.
"Yes I do. I have a son. He's actually quite young, only six years. Lives in America." Yinsen replied. "And you, Toni?
"Uh... No actually. No." Toni shook her head, sadly. "Mom and Dad both died when I was fourteen. No brother. No sister. I haven't settled down with anyone. Definitely no kids. No pets."
"No family?" Yinsen asked, surprised. "Surely you must have friends?"
"Just one." Toni gave a small smile. "My best friend. Jane Rhodes. I call her Rhodey because it gets on her nerves. I hope I get to see her again. I'd apologise for being... difficult."
"Only one friend?"
"I have a PA and a chauffeur as well." Toni shrugged. "Though I wouldn't call Pepper or Happy my friends, exactly."
"Only one friend and no family." Yinsen repeated. "You're the woman who has everything, but also has nothing."
"In a nutshell." Toni sighed.