Tony was very tempted to make up something in order to rush to Jess's aid after her phone call was cut short, but she had made a very valid point. He needed a plan, and if he could get a hold of the Mandarin, then he would surely have more control over Killian's actions. On top of that, after what he'd heard about Jess's past, the woman was easily capable of handling herself, no matter what she believed on that matter. Sure, she could use a little more tactical training in hand-to-hand combat for those she fought with who had skills of their own. However, she had much more stamina and pain tolerance than he ever did and could take quite a few hits without slowing down at all—something Natasha had mentioned back when they had sparred previously.

Despite all that, she did tend to have a bit of a mouth on her when not being held to the standards that her job as a lawyer did. So, he didn't doubt that she'd end up giving Killian quite the headache by the time he did finally show up to get her safe. That's what worried him. He knew how people reacted when angry—as did she, though her dealings with her father seemed to have changed the way she handled it—and he could only hope that she kept herself from upsetting him too much. He wasn't looking forward to seeing what sort of shape she'd be in if she didn't.

Point was, he needed a plan and he was coming up with one while on his way to Miami. A few stops to a hardware store and a place where he could create his plans, and he was soon breaking into the mansion where the Mandarin was staying. And he had to admit, the tools he'd come up with turned out to be quite handy against the guards. He'd taken out almost all of them without raising the alarm and now had one of their guns as he entered the suite and reached for the blanket, he hoped had the man underneath. He whipped it off only to startle two scantily-clad women.

He shushed them as a toilet flushed nearby and slipped behind the headboard of the bed as the Mandarin came out. Tony finally gave in, a moment later out of frustration—stepping out, gun raised.

"Hey!"

"Bloody hell, bloody hell," the Mandarin muttered, hands up.

"Don't move."

"I'm not moving. You want something? Take it, although the guns are all fake because those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones."

"What?" Tony asked, confused by everything he was seeing and hearing.

"Hey, do you fancy either of the birds?"

Tony frowned—as did the women mentioned. "Heard enough. You're not him. The Mandarin, the real guy." Tony armed the pistol. "Where! Where's the Mandarin! Where is he!" He shouted, losing his temper.

With so much at stake, he couldn't be wasting his time with this lunatic.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. He's here. He's here, but he's not here," the man replied, sitting down and gesturing to himself. "He's here, but he's not here."

"What do you mean?"

"It's complicated. Hey, it's complicated."

"It is."

"It's complicated."

"Uncomplicate it. Ladies, out," Tony shooed the women away. "Get out of the bed. Get into the bathroom. Sit," he ordered the man, helping the women out and latching the door only to fire off a shot near the man when he'd tried to crawl away.

"My name's Trevor. Trevor Slattery," the man—Trevor—said once reseated.

"What are you? What are you, a decoy? You're a double, right?"

"You mean like an understudy? No, absolutely not."

Tony lifted the gun at the man, who flinched away.

"Don't hurt the face! I'm an actor!"

"You got a minute to live. Fill it with words," Tony said sharply.

"It's just a role? The Mandarin, it's not real."

"Then, how did you get here, Trevor?" Tony demanded, forcing the man to shuffle back uneasily when he stalked forward, only to have to give the man a little push to give him the information he needed and not the man's life story about drug abuse.

"Then, they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs."

"What did they say? They'd get you off them?"

"They said they'd give me more. They gave me things. They gave me this palace. They gave me plastic surgery. They gave me things."

Trevor began to snore then, and Tony frowned.

"Did you just nod off? Hey." Tony kicked him and the man snapped awake, continuing where he left off.

"Oh, and a lovely speedboat. And the thing was, he needed someone to take credit for some 'accidental explosions.'"

"He? Killian?" Tony asked.

"Killian."

"He created you?"

"He created me."

"Custom-made terror threat."

"Yes, yes. His think tank thinked it up," Trevor confirmed, getting up and grabbing a drink as he mimicked the Mandarin's lines. "Uh, the pathology of a serial killer. The manipulation of Western iconography. Ready for another lesson? Blah, blah, blah."

Tony sat down, trying to wrap his head around it, refusing the offered beer.

"Of course, it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life."

That set Tony off.

"Your performance? Where people died?"

"No, they didn't. Look around you. Costumes, green screen," Trevor waved around. "Honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff. When I was, it was movie magic, love."

"I'm sorry, but I've got a best friend who's in a coma and he might not wake up," Tony said, standing. "And my girlfriend's just been possibly kidnapped too. So you're gonna have to answer for that. You're still going down, pal. You under—" Tony stopped, sensing the man behind him and knowing he was there by the look on Trevor's face.

Tony whipped around but was easily knocked unconscious. When he woke up, he was tied to a bed frame standing up and Maya stood not too far away, typing on a computer before facing him.

"Just like old times, huh?" She hummed.

"Oh, yeah. With zip ties. It's a ball. Where's Jess?"

"It wasn't my idea," Maya said, not answering him.

"Okay, so you took Killian's card."

"I took his money."

"And here you are thirteen years later, in a dungeon."

"No."

"Yeah."

"No, you're in a dungeon. I'm free to go."

Tony shook his head, muttering a small "yeah" as she sighed and got up.

"A lot's happened, Tony, but I'm close. Extremis is practically stabilized."

"I'm telling you, it isn't," Tony snapped before lowering his voice, trying to get her to see. "I'm on the street. People are going bang. They're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself."

"Then, help me fix it," she pressed, holding up a piece of paper with his handwriting on the back.

"Did I do that?"

"Yes."

"I remember the night, not the morning. Neither of which Jess would be proud of. I heard she was with you. Where is she?"

"You don't remember?"

"Is this what you've been chasing around? I can't help you. You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now, look at you. I get to wake up every morning with someone who… still has their soul. A broken, battered soul, but it's still there. After everything she's been through, she's managed to hang onto that, while you just waste away down here." He eyed Maya for a moment, who watched him back, feeling his words bore into her much like Jess's had the previous evening. "Get me out of here, help me find Jess. Come on."

She slowly turned away though, as Killian stepped into the room.

"You know what my old man used to say to me? One of his favorites of many sayings, 'the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.'"

"You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?" Tony asked cheekily.

"How can I be pissed at you, Tony? I'm here to thank you. You've given me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation." Killian approached him. "If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? For the first… twenty minutes? I actually thought you'd show up. And in the next hour, I… I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean."

"Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse," Tony quipped.

"But as I looked out over that city," Killian went on, ignoring him. "Nobody knew I was there. Nobody could see me. No one was eve looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. Right?" He asked Maya who gave a small nod. "You simply rule from behind the scenes, because the second you give evil a face—a Bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin—you hand the people a target."

"You're something else," Tony muttered, seeing the whack job under the man's bravado.

"Anyway, the point is," Killian continued after waving off some comments about Trevor. "Ever since that big dude with a hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety's kind of had its day."

"What's next for you in your world?" Tony asked, glad that the mention of Thor wasn't a trigger for another anxiety attack or that Jess had managed to finally help him past them.

"Well, I wanted to repay you the selfsame gift that you so graciously imparted to me."

Killian rolled the three marbles across the ground where they stopped and popped up a holographic image of Jess strapped down with boiling red skin and a pinched expression of pain stretched out across her face.

"Desperation," Killian hummed. "Now, this is live. I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment the body is trying to decide whether to accept Extremis or just give up. And if it gives up… I have to say, the detonation is quite spectacular. But until that point, it's really just a lot of pain."

Tony's gaze couldn't help but drift to Jess's face, seeing her mouthing curses under her breath at Killian, before her eyes snapped open in a glare aimed at the camera undoubtedly filming her. He almost cracked a smile, despite the glowing of her eyes. She still had plenty of fight in her and wasn't giving in just yet. And as he promised, he had to do the same. He owed her that much.

"We haven't even talked salary yet," Killian mused, heading over and grabbing Tony by the throat, skin glowing the same as the other people he'd seen who'd been changed. "What kind of perk package are you thinking of?"

"Let him go," Maya said, drawing Killian's attention to her as she brought a needle to her neck.

"Maya."

"I said, let him go."

"What are you doing?"

"1200ccs. A dose half of this size, I'm dead," she threatened as Killian sighed softly.

"It's times like this my temper is tested somewhat. Maya, give me the injector."

"If I die, Killian, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?"

"We're not doing this, okay?"

"What happens to you? What happens if you go too hot?"

Killian turned to Tony as though he was considering letting the man go, only to pull out a gun and shoot Maya himself.

"The good news is, a high-level position has just been vacated," Killian said without a hint of remorse as Tony's sad gaze drifted to Maya.

"You are a maniac," he murmured, unable to believe how much the man had changed and how it was quite possibly his fault.

"… if you blame yourself, I'm going to find something much worse to torture you with…"

"Don't let anything like some anxiety attack stop you from kicking this idiot's ass. You understand me?"

Tony took a breath and let it out slowly, letting Jess's words keep him calm as Killian argued that he was a visionary who was going to do yet another showing of the Mandarin that evening. He was going to have to be quick about this. Or, well, as quick as that stupid watch he bought would be. The alarm on it went off, alerting his bodyguards to check it out as Tony set up phase two of his plan.

"Careful there, it's a limited edition," he told the one guard as the man shook the watch, before looking to the other guard. "Hey, uh, Ponytail Express. What's the mileage count between Tennessee and Miami?"

"832 miles," he answered, surprisingly quick.

"Very nice."

"I'm good like that. Can you, uh, stop that?"

The other guard dropped the watch.

"You break it you bought it," Tony said just as the man's foot went down on it.

"I think I bought it."

"Okay, that wasn't mine to give away. That belongs to my friend's sister. And that's why I'm gonna kill you first."

"What are you gonna do to me?" The guard questioned, not really threatened by Tony in his strung-up situation.

"You'll see."

"You're zip-tied to a bed."

Tony lifted his hands. "This."

Nothing happened so he tried again.

"That."

The guards eyed him.

"Trust me, you're gonna be in a puddle of blood on the ground in five, four, three—Come on! Two…"

"How did we get this shift?" The guard questioned his coworker.

"All right, I'm going to give you a chance to escape," Tony said, desperately wishing his suit would move a hell of a lot faster.

He didn't doubt that Killian was going to move Jess. Like she'd said, Killian was pulling the typical villain moves. He'd want to keep her close and as far out of Tony's reach as possible. So, if his suit would just show up…

"In five, four, bang!"

"Wow," they said unenthusiastically.

"You should be gone by now. You should've already been gone."

"I am just beyond terrified," one muttered sarcastically.

"Here it comes. Three, four—"

"Shut up."

"Five, four, three, two, one!" Tony said quickly just as the gauntlet of his suit came flying through the window and attached itself to his hand. "Told you."

He fired off a shot, knocking back the guards and untying himself before attacking the second one just as his suit's leg flew through the other window and he grabbed the guard's gun, eyeing said glass.

"Where's the rest?"

More guards started to head down to investigate the commotion and he fired another shot to keep them back, flying and shooting haphazardly with only two of his thrusters. He was doing well though, killing or knocking out all the guards except the last one who surrendered.

"Honestly, I hate working here. They are so weird."

Tony wiggled his fingers, letting the man run off after dropping his weapon, before heading out as the rest of his armor started to show up and attach to him.

"Ah, better late than never."

He caught the faceplate before it could slam into him and let out a sigh out in the open air.

"Ah, it's good to be back. Hello, by the way."

"Hello, sir," Jarvis greeted as he spotted the army helicopter flying away with the suit of the Iron Patriot behind it.

When he went to try and fly after them though, his suit sputtered and failed.

"Ah, crap."

So, he started walking just as a call came in.

"Tony."

"Rhodey, tell me that was you in the suit."

"No. You got yours?"

"Uh, mm, kind of. Main house, as fast as you can. There's somebody I'd like you to meet."

Once dealing with the guards in Trevor's little penthouse, Rhodey aimed his gun at the startled man.

"You make a move, I break your face."

"I never thought people had been hurt. They lied to me," Trevor explained, rather poorly.

"This is the Mandarin?" Rhodey questioned.

"I know. It's, it's embarrassing," Tony apologized.

"Hi, Trevor. Trevor Slattery," Trevor offered a hand, but Rhodey smacked it away. "I know, I'm shorter in person. A bit smaller. Everyone says that. But, um, hey. If you're here to arrest me, there's some people I'd like to roll on, imme—"

"Here's how it works, Meryl Streep," Tony cut him off. "You tell him where Jess is and he'll stop doing it."

"Doing what?"

Rhodey pressed the hot gun barrel to the man's ear.

"Oh, I get it. Ow, that hurt. I get it. I get it. I don't know about any Jess, but I know about the plan."

"Spill."

"Do you know what they did to my suit?" Rhodey asked.

"What? No. But I do know what's happening off the coast. Something to do with a big boat. I can take you there. Whoa! Olé, olé, olé, olé!" He shouted to the soccer game going on in the background, startling Rhodey.

"Tony, I swear to God, I'm gonna blow his face off."

"Oh, and this next bit may include the vice president as well. Is that, is that important?"

"Somewhat."

"Yeah, a little bit," Rhodey scoffed and it didn't take long before they were zooming down in a speedboat.

"If he's right about the location, we're twenty minutes from where Jess is," Tony explained to Rhodey, eyes sharp.

He and Jess had only just begun fixing things and to have this happen now was the worst possible timing. He would owe her a million times over for this, and her plan to have combat training was beginning to look like a must have. Along with giving her the sensors for the suits as well, if she even wants to at this point… I don't know if I can handle something like this happening again. If she can. He pushed the thought aside, for now, knowing that he'd have to think about it later once he'd gotten her back.

"But we also have to figure out this vice president thing, right?" Rhodey reminded him.

"Right. I wonder who I'm calling right now. Oh, that's the vice president."

Rhodey rolled his eyes as Tony made the call. The vice president having agreed to send help, but Rhodey gave Tony a look as they got closer to their destination.

"We gotta make a decision. We can either save the president or Jess. We can't do both."

Tony didn't want to be the one who make that call. He knew who he'd chose in an instant, but her words kept ringing through his head.

"…I swear to God that if you fly down here without a foolproof plan to stop this guy because he has me…"

"I won't let them hurt you, Jess."

"You might not have a choice…"

"Sir," Jarvis chimed in. "I have an update from Malibu. The cranes have finally arrived, and the cellar doors are being cleared as we speak."

"And what about the suit I'm wearing?"

"The armor is now at 92%."

Tony removed the wires charging it. "That's going to have to do."

Up in the air, the president had just been stuffed into the Iron Patriot, leaving Chad Davis doing one last check to make sure there was no one else who may cause him trouble. He heard voices coming from one of the rooms and peaked out the window only to get thrown across the plan. A smirk lit up his features as his eyes whipped around in search of Iron Man, who snuck up behind him and slammed him into the wall.

"The president?" Tony demanded to know, hand poised to blow the man's face off if he didn't receive the answer. "Now."

"He's not here," Chad replied, heating up his hand and grabbing Tony's arm. "Try the jet stream? Speaking of which, go fish."

Chad blew off one of the plane's doors, sending people flying out of the plane as Tony tried to hit him, only to get stopped by a heated hand again. Tony began to fold, only to push away and fire a blast through Chad with a beam from his chest piece.

"Walk away from that, you son of a bitch," Tony bit out before taking off after the people. "How many in the air?"

"Thirteen, sir," Jarvis answered.

"How many can I carry?"

"Four, sir."

He grabbed the first person he could, trying to calm her as he thought up a plan. "Slow down, slow, down. Relax. What's your name? Heather?"

The plane exploded up above, sending the woman into hysterics.

"Listen to me. See that guy?" He asked, aiming for the next person he could. "I'm gonna swing by, you're just gonna grab him. You got it?"

"What?"

"I'll electrify your arm, you won't be able to open your hand," Tony explained. "We can do this, Heather."

Tony started having everyone grab people as he flew around, before managing to slow them down enough that they could land safely in the ocean for later pick up. Of course, when he tried to fly the suit away, it was smashed to pieces by a passing semi-truck, making his holographic screen glitch.

"That came out of nowhere. Wow."

"Give me some good news, man," Rhodey begged, checking in on him inside the boat.

"I think they all made it."

"Thank God."

"Yeah, but I missed the president."

Rhodey sighed. "You couldn't save the president with the suit, how are we gonna save Jess with nothing?"

"Uh, say, Jarvis? Is it that time?"

"The House Party Protocol, sir?"

"Correct," Tony smirked, glad he'd come up with this plan ages ago, despite the look Jess had given him at the time when he'd mentioned it. I'm coming, Jess.

I snapped awake, not appreciating that the first face I saw while not riddled with pain was Killian's and I reacted as such.

"Come closer so I can tear that stupid look off your face," I snarled. "Oh, wait. That's just your face."

"Hello to you too," he smiled.

"Fuck you, asshat," I spat, body coiled tensely as heat welled up in my body that I ignored. "He'll never help you, you know, even if you have me."

Killian stepped closer and I growled threateningly. "Having you here is not just to motivate Tony Stark. It's, um… Well, it's actually more embarrassing than that."

"I swear to God, if you've got some stupid infatuation with me, I'm about ready to shove a nice foot up your ass to help put your brain back into place so you can rethink that answer."

"You're here as my, um… trophy."

I gave him a cold stare. "Again, fuck you. And I think you'll find, I'll be the rudest, most annoying trophy you could ever think to have because I don't put up with people like you who think they can own someone. I've dealt with that once and I'm not about to have it happen again without a hell of a fight."

A suit landed then, the Iron Patriot standing before us and for a second, hope filled my chest—ebbing away the heat that had started to settle there. Then, it opened up and the President of the United States of America stumbled out. But now, there's a suit within distance of me. A hint of salt brushed over my nose and my gaze drifted to the door the president had come through. Ocean. We're on a boat. Good. No place for him to run. When I get out of these manacles… Killian went over to talk to the president and I closed my eyes, focusing on the new heat in my body and lightly nudging it. I grimaced, the energy still new to me and not exactly used to it or the burning sensation it brought me, but it shifted ever so slightly, so I pressed on as sweat ran down the back of my neck. Come on, come on. Just move to the manacles. They're undoubtedly used to heat, but not focused heat. If I could just get this stupid stuff to work, then I can get in that suit. I can help Tony. I can fight. And when they put the president back in the suit and left, I wasn't discouraged. No. I still had one thing on my side that had never once failed me.

Surprise.