-Infinity Heart
-Paring(s): Tony Stark/OC
-Rated: T for language and slight adult situations
-Movie-based
Disclaimer: I don't own Iron Man. The characters belong to Marvel studios and Stan Lee. I only own the OCs used
Chapter Seven:
"Side Project"
"..After my dreaming, I woke with this fear
What am I leaving when I'm done here
So if you're asking me, I want you to know,
When my time comes, forget the wrong that I've done
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed.."
~Leave Out All The Rest, Linkin Park
"Stark Industries. I've got one recommendation! Ready? Ready?"
"Sell, sell, sell!"
"Abandon ship! Does the Hindenburg ring any bells?"
Tegan groaned, shaking her head at the host of Mad Money. "Why are we watching this idiot?"
Joven glanced at her briefly, turning back to the screen. "Because it's interesting to see what everyone is thinking of Tony's new plan of action."
"Well I find it annoying." she stated, "What Tony decided was what I've been telling him to do for years now. So I'm glad."
"Ever the optimist." her friend grinned. The young woman smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Someone has to be, sweetie." She gave him a kiss which he gladly returned.
"Pepper. How big are your hands?" came Tony's voice then from the in-com on the table. The two young people stared at each other, confused, before the female prodigy reached over to accept the call.
"Uh, Pepper isn't here right now, Tony. She had to go get something." she informed.
"Ah, okay. Then how big are your hands?" he asked her instead, sounding hurried.
Hayes raised a brow at the odd question. "What? I don't understand why.."
"Get down here. I need you." The call cut off. Tegan sat there, staring at the in-com. 'I need you.' echoed in her head. She managed to snap out of her trance and sighed, getting off Joven's lap.
"I better go see what he wants, then we can head to lunch."
"Hurry back." he smiled softly.
"As quick as a bunny." she told, pecking a fast kiss on his lips before leaving. Down in the garage, Tony sat in an elevated chair, shirtless. Several wires were attached to his chest and hooked up to a few computer screens that monitored it. Tegan froze at the entrance, eyes wide and staring at the object in his chest that hadn't been there before.
"Hey." he greeted once his successor stepped through the door. "Let's see them. Show me your hands." The heiress obeyed, raising her slender hands while still in shock.
"Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite, indeed." His gaze shifted to the glowing device in his hand. "I just need your help for a sec." Once out of her stupor, the young woman hurried over to his side.
"God..so that's what's keeping you alive.." she uttered in disbelief, having heard a bit about it from Pepper.
"It was. It is now an antique." her caregiver stated, holding up the new device. "This is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future."
"You mean to tell me..you managed to make a miniaturized arc reactor while captive in that cave?!"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, pretty much."
"That's.." She paused and he waited for her to continue with bated breath. "Amazing, and it's magnificent! This is, like, a huge step in arc reactor technology now! Oh my god, and I get to witness it! Ahh!" Tony laughed as the female genius literally bounced with gleefulness.
She stopped, serious-faced now. "So, what can I do to help?"
"Well, I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit," Stark explained, "And I just ran into a little speed bump."
"Speed bump?" Hayes repeated quizzically, "What's that mean?"
"It's nothing. It's just a little snag." He reached up to unscrewed the old arc reactor. "There's an exposed wire under this device and it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short. It's fine." The old one was handed to Tegan and she placed it on the metal tray table behind her.
"Okay, so where do my petite hands come in again?"
"I want you to reach in and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."
Grey eyes blinked. "Is that safe?"
"Yeah, it should be fine." Tony replied casually, not reassuring her one bit. "It's like Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes 'beep.'"
"Like the game? Okay..I get it." his successor readied herself and lifted her hand over the opening slowly.
"Just gently lift the wire. Okay? Great."
"Got it." As her hand neared it, almost going inside, she panicked. "You know, I-I'm a mechanic, not a doctor. So, I don't think I should be doing this."
"No, you're fine, McCoy." the man teased, earning a glare before saying, "Seriously though, it's not that much different than fixing a wire in a car engine and you've done that many times." There was silence for a moment. "Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I'm.."
"Alright already." the young woman sighed, unhappy. "Peer pressure, much?" She tried again, this time going through with it. A squishing sound was heard as her hand delve in further.
"Ew, there's pus!"
"It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body."
"It smells horrendous!" she shrieked.
"Yeah, it does." the billionaire agreed calmly, "The copper wire. You got it?"
"Uh-huh, I got it. I got it!"
"Now, remember don't let it touch the side when—Ahh!" A loud buzzing warning came from the monitors then, stating the wire had connected with the wall. "When you're coming out! Just like I said!"
"Sorry! I'm sorry!" Tegan apologized, bringing out the wire a little.
"Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't—" he tried to warn. But when she tugged it out all the way, a small round bit of metal was exposed. "There's a magnet at the end of it! That was it. You just pulled it out." The monitors were beeping erratically now.
"Shit! What do I do?"
"Okay, I was not expecting..Don't put it back in! Don't put it back in!"
"Oh, god." the female genius said, placing the magnet on the metal tray quickly. She turned back to Tony, seeing him stiff in pain. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest," Stark answered in a hiss, "'Cause you yanked it out like a trout—"
"You said it was safe, you bastard!"
"Name calling not needed. We gotta hurry. Take this." The new arc reactor was given to her hastily. "You gotta switch it out really quick. Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you—" With determination and the steadiness of a surgeon, she held the end clip on the wires tightly and reached inside carefully, attaching the pieces with a snap and earning a short yell from her caregiver. The beeping had stopped too.
"There, done." the heiress stated smoothly, screwing the reactor in tight.
"Nice. Was that so hard? That was fun, right?" Tony smiled at her.
Instead of answering, she asked, "You're fine now?"
"Yeah, I feel great." he assured, noticing she looked a bit pale. "You okay, heh-heh?"
"Don't ever, in a million years, ask me to stick my hands in your chest captivity again." the young woman told tiredly, "I'll be shock if I don't have a few grey hairs after this.."
"I don't have anyone but you." the billionaire told honestly, "Well, there is Pepper, but yeah..you know.." The two stared at each other intently.
"Same." she said softly with a warm smile. That was the one thing about them that others didn't get. They didn't have to always exchange sentimental words with each other to understand.
"Anyway.." he said, taking off the monitor wires before standing.
"What are you going to do with the old one?" Tegan queried while wiping her hands.
"Destroy it. Incinerate it."
"You're not going to keep it? It's the first of its type though."
"Teg, I've been called many things," Tony stated. She nodded in agreement with that. "'Nostalgic' is not one of them."
"Well, I'm keeping it then." the female prodigy told, picking it up. "It's too beautiful to destroy.."
"I knew you'd say that." he noted absentmindedly.
She glanced at him, curious. "What?"
"That it was beautiful. From the moment I first created it." Stark's eyes widen, realizing what he just blurted out loud. It was quiet after that, either knowing what to say or to speak first. Just as Tegan went to say something finally, a raping on the glass door behind them appeared. They looked to see Joven standing there, watching curiously.
"Oh, yeah.." Hayes remembered, "I'm having lunch with Joven."
"Ah, a date." the billionaire said teasingly, making her blush.
"No!" she denied in a rush, causing the blush to deepen. How she wanted to cover her face but won't give him the satisfaction. He raised a brow and she tried to correct herself then. "I mean, it's just a normal lunch between friends."
"Uh-huh..well, have fun, kiddo." He turned to Dummy afterwards. "Hey, Butterfingers, come here. What's all this stuff doing on top of my desk?" Spinning on her heel, his successor hurried to the door. She didn't notice Tony turning back, watching her go thoughtfully.
"So, what did he want?" Joven asked when she stood next to him.
"He wanted me to help change his old arc reactor with a new one." She lifted the one in her hand as proof.
"Wow.." her friend said, gazing at it.
Grey eyes stared at it as well with admiration. "Yep..wow.."
"Hey..what's that smell?"
"Inorganic plasmic discharge." the young woman stated simply, walking up the steps. "It's on my hands and the device."
McBride followed close behind, nose crinkled in disgust. "Well, it reeks!"
"Yeah, it does." she smirked, using the same line Tony had.
"The future of air combat. Is it manned or unmanned?" Colonel Rhodes stated to his group of fresh pilots as they walked towards some jets. "I'll tell you, in my experience, no unmanned aerial vehicle will ever trump a pilot's instinct, his insight, that ability to look into a situation beyond the obvious and discern its outcome, or a pilot's judgment."
"Colonel? Why not a pilot without the plane?" Rhodes looked to his right and saw Tony walking over.
"Look who fell out of the sky. Mr. Tony Stark."
"Speaking of manned or unmanned," Stark said as he greeted some of the pilots. "You gotta get him to tell you about the time he guessed wrong at spring break. Just remember that, spring break, nineteen-eighty seven." He glanced at his friend. "That lovely lady you woke up with."
"Don't do that!"
"What was his name?"
"Don't do that."
"Was it Ivan?"
"Don't do that. They'll believe it." James told serious before laughing. "Don't do that." He looked to his students. "Give us a couple minutes, you guys." They listened, walking away from the two friends.
"I'm surprised."
"Why?" the genius asked curiously.
"I swear, I didn't expect to see you walking around so soon." his friend said.
"I'm doing a little better than walking."
"Really?" the pilot questioned dubiously.
"Yeah..Rhodey, I'm working on something big." Tony told, "I came to talk to you. I want you to be a part of it."
Rhodes smiled, "You're about to make a whole lot of people around here real happy, 'cause that little stunt at the press conference, that was a doozy."
"This is not for the military. I'm not.." he informed cautiously, not really wanting to go into full details then. "It's different."
"What? You're a humanitarian now or something?" James queried angrily.
Stark responded calmly, "I need you to listen to me."
"No. What you need is time to get your mind right." the Colonel said in a firm voice. Tony chuckled in disbelief at his friend's reaction. "I'm serious."
"Okay."
"It's nice seeing you, Tony." Rhodey walked away then, leaving his friend to stand there and watch him go.
"Thanks." the billionaire said softly with a sarcastic tone. It seemed like he would have to work on his new project by himself..
Later that night, Tony sat at his desk and typed on his specially made keyboard that had keys with symbols only he and Tegan understood. On the computer screens, one had a three-dimensional model of the suit he had created in the cave with pop-ups of individual pieces of the armor. On the others, boxes of various codes could be seen.
"Jarvis, you up?"
"For you, sir, always." came the AI's reply.
"I'd like to open a new project file, index as Mark II." he told, picking his hologram pen and pointing it at the model. It was then dragged over to the holographic pad where it could be manipulated piece by piece to the genius' liking.
"Shall I store this on the Stark Industries Central Database?"
"Actually, I don't know who to trust right now." came his creator's honest answer, "Till further notice, why don't we just keep everything on my private server?"
"Working on a secret project, are we, sir?" Jarvis asked playfully. Tony stood in front of the image and removed certain parts to leave only the outer set of the suit.
"I don't want this winding up in the wrong hands." Stark said, "Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good.." It was true. There was really no one he could trust with what he was about to create. He thought Rhodey was one but that turned out to be a bust. The genius paused, remembering then.
"You can trust me, you know.."
"Maybe there is one person I can.." he uttered before rushing out of the garage.
Taking the stairs by two, Tony made it to the living room but didn't see anyone. He continued on, running through the hallway leading to the bedrooms. In the suite-like room across from his own, he opened the door and went inside. Like in the living room, no one seemed to be there and the billionaire would have thought so, if not for a path of discarded clothing leading to the bathroom and the faint music drifting out from the door left opened a bit. Knowing the right thing to do was to announce his presence but his feet started moving before his brain could register the thought. He walked over and went to knock but his eyes couldn't help but look through the crack, seeing the reflection in the mirror. Tegan sat in the claw-toed bathtub filled to the brim with bubbles; eyes closed. Her caregiver thanked God mentally while cursing himself before going in.
"Tegan—" Her grey eyes snapped open, wide and startled, before landing on him.
"Dude! What the hell? I'm—"
"Yeah, you're naked, need privacy, yadda yadda." Stark rolled his dark eyes impatiently. "I gotta talk to you, so meet me down in the garage in one minute." With that, he left as fast as he appeared, leaving a confused and slightly annoyed Hayes staring after him.
On the other side of the world, in a desert during a mild sandstorm, men in various spots on the sand dunes could be found. Some were digging while others were carrying pieces of metal parts to trucks. One of the men was digging something out with his hands, revealing it to be the mask of Tony's suit. He shouted in foreign language and earned the attention of Raza, the burned leader of the Ten Rings. Raza called out to the other man and was brought the mask. He glared at it behind his dark-tinted goggles..
When Tegan finally came down to the garage, she found her caregiver leaning against his desk causally. He looked up at her, mouth opened to say something but froze. The young woman stood in nothing but her blue silk bathrobe. Her dark hair was in a messy bun atop her head. The robe clung to her body some from her skin still being damp. It was all too enticing for him not to stare.
"You gonna talk about whatever it was you wanted me for or what?" she asked bitterly, bringing him out of his daze.
"Uh, right. You said I could ask you for anything." he began.
The heiress nodded. "Right."
"Well, before I ask you, I need to tell you what happen in that cave for three months." Tony continued, "Plus, I know you've been dying to know anyway."
"So has everyone in the human world." Hayes said, "So get talking." It took Stark thirty minutes to explain everything to her. She sat quietly at his desk chair, not saying a word, just absorbing it all in.
"So I want you to help me build a new modernized suit." the billionaire finished his proposal.
She leaned forward on her elbows, steepling her fingers. "Just you and me?"
"Yep, and no one can know. Not even Pepper." The female genius pondered for a moment before standing, walking to the stairs. Tony watched her, befuddled. "Where are you going?"
"To get dressed." Tegan told, glancing back. "I can't work in my bathrobe." She gave a smirk and he returned it with his own.
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