Judging by the faint light he saw as he was carried past the entrance to the cave, Harry had been tortured well into the early hours of the morning. Both Stark and Yinsen were asleep, but woke up when the heavy metal door was unbolted and slid open, and rushed to pick him up from where he had been dropped.
Stark practically carried him over to the camp bed, then set about wiping away the worst of the blood, Yinsen straightening Harry's broken leg.
"How long do we have?" He asked softly. Judging by the strong smell of sweat and metal all over him, he had been up most of the night finishing the suit.
Harry shrugged, then yelped in pain when that jolted his almost certainly dislocated shoulder. "Raza won't be up yet." He grimaced. "At most? Two hours."
Tony nodded, then absently patted Harry's shoulder. "Rest up then."
Harry winced as he stood up, and tried to block out the sounds of the hydraulic crane they appeared to have made to assemble the pieces of the suit, hidden from the security camera by a metal screen.
Tony was tapping at a laptop computer when Harry began to hear Raza's men shouting amongst themselves. He hauled himself off the bed and hobbled over to Stark. "Out of time." He said.
Tony swore, then began pulling of thick leather protective clothing, helped by Yinsen. Harry stood by, unsure how to help. Stark quickly moved to stand under the crane, and Harry began moving the armoured plates into position as Yinsen screwed them together with a handheld drill.
"Yinsen!" The shout came from the other side of the door as Harry lowered the chest-plate over Tony's head. "Peter! Yinsen! Stark!" The man began shouting in a language Harry didn't understand.
"Say something." Tony hissed. "Say something back!"
"He's speaking Hungarian!" Yinsen replied. "I don't know Hungarian."
The men were shouting, more arriving at the door.
They heard the bolts slid open, and the door was pushed forwards, triggering an explosive tied to the frame. Harry ducked as shards of wood and metal flew from the door.
"How'd it work?" Stark asked.
Yinsen glanced at the place where the door and four of Raza's men had been a few seconds ago. "Oh my goodness. It worked alright."
"'course it did." Tony grinned, and Yinsen laughed. The sounds of running and shouting were getting louder now.
"Initialise the power sequence." Stark said urgently, and Harry moved over to the small computer as Yinsen finished screwing the suit together.
"How?" He asked.
"Press function-11." Stark replied, and Harry counted along 11 buttons and hit it. "Tell me when you see a progress bar."
A green blur had appeared on the screen, obscuring anything else Harry might have been able to see if his eyes weren't so sensitive.
"It should be up right now, tell me when you see it."
"Now."
"Ok, press control, I." Stark said. "I, then enter. Yinsen, keep screwing."
Harry glanced over his shoulder at the man, who was staring at the slowly filling progress bar on the screen.
"We need more time." He said softly.
Harry tried to block out the rising sound of soldiers with weapons running towards them.
"What do you mean?" Stark asked.
Yinsen looked between Harry and Stark. "I'm going to go buy you some more time."
"What?" Harry cried.
"Stick to the plan!" Tony said, but Yinsen had already left, picking up one of the dead soldier's rifles. "Yinsen!" He yelled in frustration, and Harry had to keep from clutching his head at the sensory overload: gunshots, shouting, running, the scent of burnt gunpowder.
"Harry, come here. You need to finish this." Stark said, and Harry moved as quickly as he could to finish Yinsen's job of putting the metal suit together. "We're gonna be ok, yeah?" Stark said, managing a weak smile. "We're gonna get out of here."
Harry nodded, wincing as he pulled at unhealed cuts. The lights began to flicker and dim, and soon the only light came from the green glow of the computer as the progress bar slowly filled and the bright white of the arc reactor in Tony's chest powering the metal suit. He tried not to think the worst as Yinsen's shouts stopped.
"You stay behind me." Tony said. "I know you can handle yourself, but you're not in the best shape. You stay behind me and let me do the firing."
Harry ignored him, picking up the helmet and attaching it. The computer gave a soft beep as the progress bar reached 100, and Harry heard Tony take a deep breath.
"Stay here." The man's voice echoed strangely from behind the protective visor.
Harry nodded.
He listened to the clanking footsteps, gunshots and screams, trying to ignore the strong smell of blood that permeated the air. Flexing his fingers, Harry counted to fifty, then limped out into the tunnel, his bare feet padding over the rock.
Tony had cleared the path, and he met no resistance as he followed the trail of bullet casings and screams. He gave a small, impressed whistle at the sight of the mangled metal door lying six metres from its frame, but stumbled past it, leaning against the wall, his ankle and back screaming in protest, his head pounding.
"Yinsen!" Tony's voice sounded close, and Harry began hobbling down the corridor, falling to the floor when a rocket grenade smashed into the wall behind him sending shards of rock flying in every direction.
There was a clank, a whir, and then an explosion as Tony sent an answering missile, and Harry rounded the corner to find Tony kneeling by a stack of sandbags. The scent of blood was thick and cloying, and Harry bit back a sob as he saw Yinsen lying on the sandbags, his torso shredded and breathing laboured.
"Come on. We've got to go. We've got a plan to stick to." Tony said, visor flipped up.
"This was always the plan, Stark." Yinsen replied, voice weak.
Tony shook his head. "You've got a family to get back to, get up."
"My family is dead." Yinsen said, shaking his head and wincing. "I am going to see them now."
"No." Harry said.
Yinsen managed a faint smile. "It's okay, Peter. I want this."
"No!" Harry repeated, tears pricking at his eyes.
"It's okay." Yinsen repeated.
"Thank you for saving me." Tony said.
"Don't waste it." Yinsen gasped. "Don't waste your life. And look after Harry's." He closed his eyes and winced, and Harry heard his uneven heartbeat slow to nothing.
Tony's expression hardened and he flipped down his visor.
Harry gripped the front of Yinsen's shirt, tears slipping down his face. This was Ginny all over again.
Tony stood up and lay a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Come on kid."
"No." Harry repeated.
Tony's metal arm slipped under his shoulder and pulled him to his feet, and Harry followed him towards the cave entrance, Tony supporting his weight. The growing daylight stung his eyes, and Harry was blinded as they left the cave.
The assembled men in front of them were petrified with terror for almost five seconds when they saw Tony in the suit, giving Harry time to hide behind the bullet-proof metal before they opened fire.
Tony stood still as they emptied their ammunition, a few bullets catching Harry in the back of the leg, then lifted his arm. "Our turn."
Harry moved from behind the man and raised his hands, and together they began spewing fire.
Harry assumed they set light to the tents and the boxes of missiles and the men in front of them. All he could see was red, as fire from his palms joined with fire from Stark's suit which all blended in with the bright sun and red sand. Screams mixed with the smell of burning as they began walking forwards.
"Let's go." Harry shouted over the screams and explosions. His lips were cracked and dry, and he could only imagine how Tony was feeling inside the metal suit.
Tony nodded and straightened, and the rockets in his feet fired off, shooting him skyward.
Harry followed after him, not a moment too soon as the valley exploded underneath them, the hot air currents created battering them from below.
Harry's whole body ached, and saw black spots appearing in his vision.
He managed to catch up with the dark blob that was Tony, whose rockets had stopped firing and was now free-falling.
Harry's arms were exhausted, but he managed to get a hand around Tony's wrist where the metal casing was falling off. His added weight was too much to him to remain in the air, and their landing was more of a semi-controlled crash, hitting the soft sand hard.
Harry heard a snap, and Tony let out a loud "oomph", the metal suit no longer held on at all, pieces strewn around in the sand.
"We made it." Tony said.
Harry managed a weak laugh, and then everything went dark.
A/N: Hi guys, I know that most of my chapters in this fic are really short, and that's something I'm trying to work on further into the story. I end each one where I think is a good break in the story, but I get how frustrating it is when you get less than 1000 words in an update! This one is a little longer, and I'll try and up the word count in future, but no promises!
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far - they really do make a difference. I hope you're still enjoying the fic!