BITTER

Abel, once again found herself at her computer in the dead of night, staring at a blank messenger page from the same person of last time. Nothing has changed though, for the words just didn't seem to want to come out, or more so she didn't want to relive what happened the previous night.

She sighed and slammed her laptop shut. Abel got up off her chair and laid down in bed. She wrapped her arms around her body and just laid their, motionless. Abel closed her eyes and tried to sleep. All lights were off and she was left in silence and darkness. The black crawled up over the walls and didn't even let a single bit of light from the windows come in. it was all just so silent now. Was it always like this? Have her nights always been this silent and dark? Abel honestly couldn't remember that far back and found it weird that she just now realized that.

The sound of her phone buzzing on her desk made Abel jump slightly. She turned her head to the side and saw the brightness of the screen lighting up a corner of the room. She got up off the bed and grabbed her phone. "Hello?" She answered without even looking and the voice on the other end sent shivers down her spine. It was something she didn't expect but wasn't all that surprised about.

"Hello, Abel." Obadiah's voice suddenly came in and he spoke with an awfully cheerful tone.

Her heart could literally jump out of her chest right now if she didn't try her damnest to calm her nerves. Abel couldn't' ignore it now because the situation has decided to show itself and her secret was already out. She always had a feeling that something else was creeping up in the shadows though, so hearing his voice on the other end didn't surprise her as much as it should any other normal person. She clenched her hands tightly and dropped the tone to speak seriously. "How did you get this number—no, more like, what do you want?" It was always there. It was something Abel trusted more than anything. Her gut feeling that had manifested so strongly throughout these long years on this earth. She knew something wasn't right with this man but couldn't place her finger on it and why it made her feel nervous.

"I was just wondering if you have time right now? You see, there is something that I have been dying to tell you." His voice was like venom in her ears but Abel remained unfazed.

Abel tightened her jaw. "What do you mean? Are you unable to tell me over the phone? Since you somehow got my number."

"I can...but I rather come face to face with you." The suspicious ton of his voice caused worry in her heart and she feared what he meant by that. Abel was not begging to understand this man. She remembered his gaze back then when he first laid eyes upon her. he looked in awe for some reason when he shouldn't be, that unless he already knew who she was. Thinking back with that incident with Garry, he was probably paid by Obadiah to let 'something' slip from her perfect persona that she hardened over the years. This man...he was planning things the whole time, just to get enough proof to confirm who she was, and by the looks of it, he got was he was after.

"What's so important that you have to meet me now. One word. If you can give me a one-word answer, then we can meet." Abel held her breath and closed her eyes, but what he did next made her heart stop in her chest and loud gasping noise come out.

"How about a date? September 11, 2001." His voice cased an old fear to rise in her gut. A feeling that told her to run.

Abel held the phone away from her ear and just took a moment to breathe. She felt her head spinning out of control and her heart racing past its limit. She was inside...the day the towers fell...and came out uninjured. That whole operation wasn't to expose who she was, no, but they bit off more then they could chew when her secret was exposed to them only. They sold her existence out to the Ten Rings and sought her out successfully. Abel tried to play it cool and bide her time to escape since she had all the time in the world, but Tony came along and plans had to be changed.

So, it wasn't just the Ten Rings who knew who she was. If she had to guess, Stark Industries double-dealing under the table, Obadiah was selling the weapons to them at the same time getting information on her location, her existence, her appearance, and who knows what else. God knows how long ago this thing was planned truly.

Slowly, She pulled the phone back to her ear. "Where do you want to meet?"

Tony wondered around his empty and silent house and tossed Abel's key back and forth between his hand before sitting down on the couch. He took a big sigh and clenched ahold of the key tightly in his hand. His head hasn't stopped spinning since Abel left, but it wasn't the fact about her secret that got him, it was the teary eyes she gave him before she left. No matter what he did he can't get that image out of his head. The pain was harsher then he thought. This loneliness and the bitter feeling was eating away at him and all he wanted to hear right now was her gentle and kind voice. All he wanted to see right now was her warm smile and beautiful eye brown eyes. He could give anything to have those things back, to have her by his side again.

He didn't give a damn anymore...he just wanted her back.

He heard the phone ringing and went to pick it up. He looked and saw it was Pepper. He answered but a ringing sound suddenly came up and he was left frozen in place. Black veins started to appear on his pale skin.

"Breathe." He heard Obadiah's voice behind him as he was slowly set down. Obadiah waved a small device in his face. "You remember this one, right?" He powered it down. "It's a shame the government didn't approve of it. There are so many applications for causing short-term paralysis." Obadiah walked along the front and forced Tony's head towards him. "When I ordered the hit on you," He reached into a suitcase and pulled a claw looking device. "I worried that I was killing the golden goose." he placed the device right over his arc reactor and activated it. It burned through his shirt. "But, you see, it was just fate that you survived that..." He pulled out the arc reactor. "But I was wrong. You had two last golden eggs to give. This." He gestured to the glowing arc. "And Abel." He yanked the plug from his chest.

The shock would have made him gasp but the paralyzing effect made him speechless at his words.

Obadiah placed the arc in the suitcase. "This thinks beautiful, but not as beautiful as her. The immortal that I have been searching for...for years now." he sat next to him and just gazed off. "You have no idea just how long was I've been searching for her. You see the pictures but don't believe it, but one.], the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center back in 2001. Those guys found footage of her inside the wreckage, totally unharmed. So they tracked her down and you know what...they found her before I could." Obadiah scoffed. "Imagine it though...a new generation of weapons with that at its heart and with the secret to immortality." Obadiah got up and was about to walk out before speaking one more time. "Now if you excuse me...I have a date with a lady to get too."

Tony was mentally screaming his head into a spiral of chaos. Obadiah left Tony there, pale and drying without his arc reactor, but he only thinking Tony had on his mind, the only thing he honestly carried about right now...was Abel's safety.

Tony struggled to move his feet after the effect wore off, but he could feel his heart beating very slowly in his chest as he sweated through his shirt. He stumbled out of the elevator and into his workspace, half dragging himself across the floor. He spotted it then. The old arc reactor that Pepper framed for him. It was sitting on his table. Glowing white like a beacon of hope and survival. All he had to do know what gets to it.

Tony crawled and clawed across the floor with all the strength he had left while it began to vanish from his body. Tony pushed himself up very slightly and reached for the glass box but for the tip of his fingers to only push it away more. He yanked at the magazine that it was sitting on but all his strength finally failed him and he stumbled against the desk. Even with a hazy mind the only thing that was clear to him now what getting to Abel. To make sure she was safe. Not to stop Obadiah. He just wanted to see her again. That...was all he wanted.

As he felt his heartbeat began to slow, something rather unexpected happened. The glass case holding the arc reactor fell off his desk and smash on the ground right beside him, freeing the shinning shimmer of hope.