Chapter 9
When she woke up, the first thing she felt was pain. The lights in the room were flickering as a humming sound filled the room. She blinked, as the tube in her nose rubbed against her skin, and her throat felt dry.
"Water," she rasped, looking over at the jug on the counter, "Water."
The man humming didn't say a word and she tried to pull out the IV from her arm and get some water. Where was she? How had she gotten here?
She reached out for the jug, before feeling a restraint against her, a wire attached to her chest holding her back.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the man said simply, and her eyes followed his to where the wire went; attached to a car battery.
She felt panic fill her as she clawed at the bandages on her chest, remembering the red that had stained her blouse before she had lost consciousness. And there sure enough, was the wound in question, ugly, raw, and red.
"What did you do to me?" she asked desperately, trying to make sense of everything, "What happened?"
"What did I do? I removed what I could, but there's a lot left headed for your atrial septum. Do you want a souvenir?" The man asked, throwing a jar at her, filled with shrapnel. Filled with her shrapnel. She remembered the Stark Industries logo on that bomb before it went off. "I've seen many wounds like this in my village. We called them the walking, because it took a week for the barbs to reach vital organs."
"What is this?" she asked, gesturing to her chest.
"That is an electromagnet, hooked up to a car battery. It's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart," the man said, calmly, and she felt dread.
Oh Faraday.
She surveyed the room, trying to make sense of her surroundings. The first thing Aunt Peggy had taught her after she'd been kidnapped the first time was to always search the room. To look for weaknesses and vulnerabilities. It had gotten her out of kidnappings more often than not. Just because it had been a few decades since her last kidnapping didn't mean she'd forgotten everything. She looked up and saw the camera trained on the both of them and held her breath. Who had taken her?
"That's right, smile," he paused, "We met once, at a technical conference in Bern."
"I don't remember," Toni said softly.
"You wouldn't. If I'd been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a talk on integrated circuits," he said wryly.
She winced to herself internally. Of course she had been; it was the only way she had ever been able to deal with any of those events where people looked at her as if she didn't belong, despite the patents and the innovations and the papers she had continued to file.
And Obie always did tell her she was more pleasant to be around after a few drinks
But before she could retort, ask anything, the door flew open. Her jailers were coming for her.
"Stand up! Do as I do. Now!" The man told her urgently, and she tried standing quickly, despite every part of her body begging her not to. "Listen to me, whatever they ask you, refuse. You understand? You must refuse."
Two heavily armed men entered the room, and her eyes drew down to his wrist. Where Jimmy, the soldier's watch sat firmly on it. Their leader came through next, as his soldiers stood behind him, weapons all trained on her.
She felt anger fill her. They'd killed all those innocent soldiers. And for what? Because they wanted to get to her? What did they want from her? Why did they take her?
The man began speaking in Arabic, as the man who had wired her up translated.
"He says welcome Toni Stark, the greatest mass murderer in the history of America. He is very honored," The man said to her. "He wants you to build the missile. The Jericho Missile that you demonstrated."
The leader handed them a picture and the man took it as he showed it to Toni. Of her own missile, there on the page.
"I refuse," she said firmly, knowing what it would mean for men like that to get their hands on her technology. Her weapons which were supposed to save the world. To keep soldiers and Rhodey safe.
The water came afterwards.
She held her breath for as long as she could, screaming out loud in pain as her head was dunked down more times than she could count. She cried out, wanted to beg for air, as the men showed her no mercy.
The magnet in her heart lit up and she could hear a woman screaming her name.
A bag was thrown over her head when they were done with her, and she felt them move her through her prison. When they removed it, the light flooded in as she saw a makeshift camp where they had set up. They marched her through it, and she froze when she saw containers of weapons. Her weapons.
The man spoke again, and her prison cellmate translated, "He wants to know what you think."
"I think you got a lot of my weapons," Toni said, flatly.
"He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile," the man told her, and Toni clenched her jaw. "He wants you to make a list of materials. He wants you to start working immediately and when you're done, he will set you free."
"No, he won't," she knew all too well, despite smiling and shaking the man's hand. Because why would he? When they had gotten everything, they needed out of her, why would he?
"No, he won't," the man echoed.
Later, when she was huddled by a makeshift fire, her prison mate spoke to her once more, "I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark, but they will never find you in these mountains. What you just saw? That is your legacy, Stark. Your life's work in the hands of those murderers. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Toni Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?"
"Why should I do anything? They're going to kill me and you. Either way, I'll be dead in a week." Toni said, feeling the pain of the situation hit her.
"Then it's going to be a very important week for you, isn't it?" the man said, and she wanted to laugh out of hysteria.
When Peggy Carter saw on the news that her goddaughter had been taken, she knew what she had to do.
She stood up, and immediately grabbed her effects, as she packed a bag, and made plans in her head. She might have had to retire from SHIELD, but she still had enough contacts who could help her. She still had more than enough resources needed to find her goddaughter.
She would need to get a plane first, and she knew Fury would give her one if she demanded it. He was her protegee, and he best well remember who his superiors are. She wondered if the NSA or CIA had any intelligence on who had taken Toni and what they wanted from her.
She swore that if any of them touched a hair on her head, there would be hell to pay. She would make each and every one of them regret hurting her.
"Peggy," she heard a startled voice say, and she turned to see her husband enter the room. "Where do you think you're going?"
"My goddaughter has been taken, Daniel," she told her husband hotly. "Where do you think I'm going? I'm going to try and save her. Do you honestly expect me to sit around and let some incompetent fools search for her? She needs me."
"You can't go," Daniel told her, for the first time in their entire marriage, telling her what she could or couldn't do.
"How dare you tell me what I can do?" she hissed at her husband. "You have no right to tell me what I am allowed to do. My daughter is in trouble, and you have the nerve to tell me I am not allowed to do anything to help her? How dare you?"
"Peggy," her husband said, taking her hands gently, as he led her over to the bed. "You are everything to me, and you know I would never make any demands like this unless I had to. I love you too much for that. But you are not well enough to go on this sort of mission. Darling, we've had a good life, but we're not as nimble as we used to be. Especially given your condition. We would be more in the way if we tried to do anything than we would be of use."
He took a deep breath, as she felt herself shake, "Do you think I don't want to bring our daughter home? Do you think I am not making every call, not knocking on every door, trying to make sure she is brought home safely? None of us like this. James Rhodes hasn't come home despite his supervisors threatening to fire him for insubordination. Harry is on the field with other SHIELD operatives, following every lead given to him, and Ava and JARVIS are doing their best to use military satellites to try and find out where Toni has been taken. We all want her to come home. None of us are going to leave her there in the hands of those monsters. But you need to trust us. I promise, I'll let you be involved. I'll share everything I have with you and let you know exactly what is happening. But you cannot leave this hospital. Not when you could wake up tomorrow with no memory of how you got there or what is happening."
"I've always kept her safe," Peggy wavered as her husband held her tightly, "She's my daughter. I've rescued her every time she was in danger, and I knew I could keep her safe. Because I trusted myself and my instincts to bring her home. But now I have no control of the situation, and I need to just sit back while everyone tries to save her. What if we're too late? What if it's already too late? The world would suffer without her, but her family would break. I would break. My little ducky is in danger and I can't even do a thing to help her."
"We can't think like that," Daniel soothed her gently. "We need to believe that we will bring her home. No matter what the news outlets say, or what Obadiah Stane says. We need to believe that she is still alive and keep looking for her."
"What is Obadiah saying?" she felt herself asking, despite knowing that nothing that man ever said could be good.
Daniel closed his eyes, "It's been about a month and a half, and there has been no proof of life or demands for her. So he wants to have her legally declared as dead."
"How dare he?" she seethed.
"He is trying to file the paperwork but since the governments are still searching for her, he doesn't have too much of a case yet. But I'm worried the longer we go without being able to bring her home, that he'll finally be successful," Daniel said softly.
"Well then you better make sure they bring our girl home soon," Peggy told her husband. "Make sure they bring her home, Daniel."
"I will," her husband promised her, kissing her head. "None of us will stop until Toni is safe and back at home with her family."
If she was going to do this, then she was going to play the part of the engineer that she knew all too well. She kept her head held high, masking her features as she tattled on a long list of everything she would need to make this a functional lab, as if there was any way she could have a functional lab in a cave in the mountains while she was being held a prisoner.
She hated this, felt sick with the mere thought that any would believe that she would make weapons for terrorists.
She was a Stark, and she was made out of iron.
She would not break.
And she would not bend.
No matter how many times they tortured her, how many times they tried to extract things from her.
How long had she even been held captive? How many days had passed?
Was Rhodey alive? Did his Humvee make it out of the firing range unscathed?
She knew he was a solider and was used to war, but there was a difference between knowing that he was in dangerous situations and seeing first-hand the situations he had faced.
Was he still looking for her, or had he given up, thinking she was dead?
She thought about her mother on nights when she couldn't sleep because the ground was too cold, and her back was going stiff. She thought about her mother and her beautiful voice, how she always made the world feel safe when Toni lay in her arms. Even after her father had gotten too drunk some nights and had been too rough with her. Her mother always made things better. Always kept her safe and always did her best to protect her.
She thought about Jarvis, the man who was the closest thing she'd had to a real father. How he'd soothed her when she was sick and made her cookies when she had a particularly rough day at school. She thought about how he was proud of her through all her accomplishments and she wondered what he would think of the woman she'd become. Would he be proud? Disappointed? Would he hate the choices she made? Or would he want her to continue on.
And she thought of Aunt Peggy, who was so brave and strong. Aunt Peggy who taught her how to fight back and taught her how to hold her head held high. Who taught her that no man can hurt her unless she gives them the power to do so. She thought about how Peggy would handle this situation, and how she would be graceful even in the face of struggle. How Peggy would never stop fighting and looking for a way out of the situation.
So she did what she did best.
She built, she made, and she created.
She worked delicately to open up the missile she'd made a few years back. One that had been meant to serve the US military, and now was in the hands of terrorists. How many other innocents had died because her weapons had gotten into the wrong hands? How many had been hurt by her creations?
"Who are these people?" she found herself asking her companion.
"They are your loyal customers, Ma-am," he said grimly, and she felt her stomach drop. "They call themselves the Ten Rings."
She looked up at the camera once more and took a drill to her missile.
"Now we might be more productive if you included me in the planning process."
"Mm hm," she muttered, as she hammered away, unscrewing 'til she reached what she wanted. A single silver strip.
"What is that?" the man asked her curiously.
"That is palladium," she said, raising it to him, "0.15 grams. We need at least 1.6, so why don't you go break down the other eleven."
The man didn't question her, and instead moved away.
She hammered, shaped, forged the materials, as the man poured the material into a cup.
"What do I call you?" she finally asked for the first time.
"My name is Yinsen," he told her, and she nodded.
"Nice to meet you," she said, focusing on what they were doing.
"Nice to meet you too," he said, almost looking amused.
She picked up the metal ring that formed when it had cooled, placing it delicately in place, as she began the wiring process.
It took hours, and she was tired, but she knew what she had to do, knew she could not fail. She worked on perhaps the most important creation of her life. Something her father never had been able to do, but something she needed to.
And when it was done and glowing blue, she almost smiled.
"That does not look like the Jericho missile," Yinsen said, looking at it.
"That's because it's a miniaturized Arc Reactor," she told him, "I got a big one powering my factory at home. It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart."
"But what could it generate?" he asked her, awed.
"If my math is right, and it always is, three gigajoules per second," she told him touching it lightly.
"That could run your heart for fifty lifetimes," Yinsen said surprised.
"Or run something big for fifteen minutes," she continued. She trusted the man by now, so she gathered all the pieces of paper she'd been drawing on, placing them one over the other, to show him what it was she'd been working on all this time, to reveal a giant metal suit of armour.
She might not be able to get past all their guns, but she could protect their weapons from hurting her.
"Impressive," Yinsen said, and for the first time in days, weeks, or months, she'd felt hope.
Later, when the Arc Reactor lay firmly nested in her chest, despite the pain and discomfort she felt, she also felt a bit of satisfaction. Her father had tried his entire life to create a more compact Arc Reactor, and she'd done it in a cave, attached to a car battery, as she struggled to even breathe. But she'd bested her father and the things he'd never been able to do
She just needed to make sure she didn't die trying to get out of here, or it all would have been in vain.
She threw the dice as Yinsen explained the rules of the game to her, "You still haven't told me where you're from," she said, wanting to know more about the man.
"I'm from a small town," Yinsen began, "Called Gulmira. It's actually a nice place."
"Got a family?" she asked him, curiously.
"Yes, and I will see them when I leave here," he said, without looking at her, "And you, Stark?"
She thought about Rhodey, her brother who had been there for her through everything. Whose mother all but adopted her and who's sister often made fun of Rhodey saying that she liked Toni more than her.
She thought of Aunt Peggy and Uncle Daniel who never made her feel like she was anything less than their daughter. How Ava looked up to her and followed in her footsteps. And Harry who was her little brother. Who would fight against the world for her.
She thought about her bots and JARVIS, and how they were her children, despite the lack of convention. They were her creations, and she loved them more than words could even say.
She thought about Pepper and Happy, whom she'd hired but had come to care about her more she could even begin to imagine.
She had a family.
But she couldn't say that. Not when she was already at risk. She couldn't put them at harm's way. Not when the bad guys could try and use them to get to her. She refused to put them in that sort of danger.
So instead she said, "Nothing."
"Yeah. So you are a woman who has everything and yet has nothing," he said, giving her a smile.
The week progressed on, and she began to build. She wielded together crassly as she made the pieces fit together. She knew she had to make it look as much as her missile as possible, otherwise she would draw their attention. And the last thing she wanted to do was gain their attention.
When the doors opened and they came to check on her once more, she stood firmly, hands on her head, as their leader stepped forward.
And in perfect English, he spoke, "Relax."
She dropped her arms carefully, looking at Yinsen.
"The bow and arrow was once the pinnacle of weapons technology. It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to the Ukraine. An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great," he said to her, before moving to look over her work, "And four times the size of the Roman empire. But today, whoever holds the latest Stark weapons rules these lands. Soon it will be my turn."
He turned to Yinsen and began speaking in Urdu, and before Toni knew it, they'd grabbed Yinsen.
He took a hot set of tongs and brought it closer to Yinsen.
"What does he want?" Toni asked urgently.
She moved forward as they began screaming and all of a sudden, all the guns were turned on her.
"I need him," she said finally. "Good assistant."
"You have until tomorrow. To assemble my missile," their leader said, before turning and walking out of the room.
So she created, fast than she ever had before. More than she ever had before.
She taped up her hands, as if she was ready to fight, and she began putting all the pieces together, lowering the armour onto her body, as they recited a map of how to get out safely. They were running out of time, even working in the blind spots. It was only a matter of time before the guards came back.
They had attached a bomb to the door, ready to go off when it was open. But they were not ready, they needed more time. And as the door opened, the bomb blasted them backwards.
"Initialize the power sequence," she said, in anticipation, and he moved to the computer. "Function eleven. Tell me when you see a progress bar. Tell me when you see it! Press control 'i'. "I'. Enter."
"Got it," Yinsen said, as it began.
"Come over here and button me," Toni said and he moved back to help finish getting her ready. "Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out, okay?"
"We need more time," Yinsen said, looking worried. "I'm going to go buy you some more time."
"Stick to the plan," she tried commanding him, but he went anyways, grabbing a gun and running forward. "STICK TO THE PLAN!"
He began shooting and she screamed after him, but it was too late. He had gone. And all she could do is watch the progress bar slowly move forward, as it hit fifty one percent.
She watched the power go out as it completed, and she took a step forward, it was game time. She listened to them come. And as the first one came, she raised her fist and punched.
They began shooting, but her suit deflected it all as they shot blindly into the darkness. She moved, knocking them out one after another, as she moved to get out of the mountain cave. She took out terrorist after terrorist, knocking them out as their screams filled her ears.
Good.
They had tortured her, hurt her, and made her feel weak. No more. Now she was in control.
She moved until she saw Yinsen, lying on the ground and bleeding.
"Yinsen!" she screamed, her voice echoing in the suit.
"Watch out," he screamed, as an RPG fired her way.
She raised her arms as she moved to trigger a flame thrower, hitting the stone behind him as a rock knocked him out.
"Stark," he said weakly.
"Come on we got to go," she said desperately, "We have to move. I'll help you. Come on we have to go."
"This was always the plan, Stark," he told her softly.
"Come on, you're going to go see your family," she tried; he had to make it.
"My family is dead," Yinsen shook his head, "I am going to see them. It's okay. I want this. I want this."
"Thank you for saving me," she said, trying to stay strong.
"Don't waste it," he told her, "Don't waste your life."
She could hear the loading of weapons once more and knew she had to keep moving, keep going forward. She could not let his sacrifice be in vain. So she moved out of the cave and into sunlight for the first time in months.
They began firing and she stood still, trying to let their weapons run dry.
"My turn," she said, lifting her arms as flames emerged, and threw them backwards. She shot it at her weapons, destroying every last one of them. And as the shots continued to rain down on her, she buckled.
She shot a container, causing an explosion, as she lifted the panel and hit a red button, flying straight into the air and out of the flames she had caused.
Before she started to fall.
Just like Icarus who had flown too close to the sun, her wings began to melt.
And she fell down, crashing into the sand, her armour scattered all around her.
"Not bad," she said, because despite everything, she'd escaped. She'd gotten free. She'd done it.
She just needed to make sure she wasn't recaptured before she'd managed to find anyone who could help her.
She covered her head with her hood as she moved through the sand, desperate to find anyone. But all around her there were sand for miles, spanning in every direction. She stood up, and walked, in the opposite from where she had flown from. Her arms were burned and there were injuries all along her body but none of that was important. What was important was that she needed to get out safely, and she needed to get out without the wrong people finding her first.
She walked for hours, the sun coming down on her made her just want to lie down and let it be done with. Just let her take a break, just a small break. She wanted to cry, to let her anger and her frustration out, but it would not accomplish anything. So she kept moving, when all she wanted to do was let it end. But she pushed on forward anyways.
And as she walked up a sand dune, she nearly cried to see nothing but endless desert in front of her, without a bit of civilization in sight. There was nothing, and she was going to die out here without anyone ever knowing what had happened to her.
She suddenly heard a chopper fly by overhead, and a part of her wondered if it was a mirage. She had seen countless lakes already, and it was probably her mind deluding herself. But the wind it caused, and the sounds it made could not be part of the delusion.
She screamed out, desperate to get their attention, begging them not to leave her here.
"Hey!" She screamed, waving her arms frantically, "HEY!"
She began to laugh, as tears also streamed down her face.
She fell to her knees as it landed in front of her, feeling relief and happiness all at once. She was finally going home. She was finally free.
And as Rhodey ran out of the helicopter, she swore she could see his tears too.
"How was the Funvee?" he asked her, and she nearly cried as she stood and wrapped her arms around him, happy that he was here. "Next time you ride with me."
She could hear the desperation in his voice, and it hit her then how much grief he must have felt in her absence. He held her tightly and she felt safe for the first time in months.
He helped her to the helicopter and during their flight he turned to her.
"Did they hurt you?" he asked her carefully, as he gestured to the glowing Arc Reactor in her chest.
She shook her head, "I did that to me," she said softly, "I'll tell you about it more, when it's safe, but it's keeping me alive. They wanted me to build them the Jericho. And when I said no, they weren't all too happy with my answer."
"I saw what happened to their campsite," he told her, "I'm glad you made them pay. I-Toni. I don't know what I would have done if something would have happened to you. If you had been hurt, I never would have forgiven myself. I should have protected you and kept you safe. And instead, you were kidnapped on my watch."
"It wasn't your fault Rhodey," she told him gently, taking his hands in hers. "It was no one's fault but theirs. But I'm safe now. You found me in the middle of the desert. And you saved me."
"I never would have stopped searching until I found you," he assured her. "None of us would have. Harry and I have been looking everywhere. Ava and JARVIS hacked into other countries security agencies. DUM-E, YOU and Butterfingers threatened to leave the house to hunt you down, Peggy was ready to leave the hospital to come find you, and Daniel kicked up a storm until the US President himself announced that they would keep looking. None of us would ever have left you there. We would have gone to any extreme to bring you home."
She felt her throat tighten and she remembered telling Yinsen that she had nothing, and she knew despite the lie, that it had been wrong. She had so many people who loved her and were willing to do anything for her, and she felt so grateful to have them all in her life.
"I missed you," she said softly, and he put his arms around her gently, trying not to touch any of her wounds. "I missed all of you when I was taken, and the thoughts of you kept me going. I don't know what I would have done if you didn't find me."
"You're safe now," he told her. "I will never let anyone hurt you ever again. We're taking you home."
She closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief.
It was finally over.
