Chapter 6
It was finally time for us to get out of this hellhole. The plan was for Tony and I to be strapped into the suit and clear out the place so Yinsen could follow us safely. Whether or not the plan would work remained to be seen but it was the only plan we had. We only had one shot at this.
Tony and I stood out of view of the camera, strapping ourselves into the robot suit as Yinsen set up the computer.
"It's not working! Reset the system!" Tony yelled at Yinsen but he just shook his head before replying.
"It's just very slow but it is working." I scoffed.
"I built it! I know it works. Are you—" I got cut off by an explosion at the door of our prison.
Yinsen eyed the slow moving bar on the laptop as Tony spoke to him.
"Get to your cover. Remember the
checkpoints - make sure each one is clear before you follow me out." But Yinsen wasn't listening. He darted out of the room without us.
We were trapped inside the suit until the computer reached 100% so when we heard the gunfire, there was nothing we could do.
There was silence until we could hear the pounding of feet and yelling. "C'mon! C'mon!" I muttered under my breath.
Suddenly, the lights dim as the suit powers up. "We're getting out of here, sweetheart!" Tony tells me.
Two men entered the cave and it was a blur of gunfire, metal, and the flame throwers as we made our way out. Until we found Yinsen and got attacked with a grenade launcher.
Tony quickly took care of our attackers with the flamethrowers before we kneeled next to Yinsen. "We could've made it. All of us. You could've seen your family again." Tony told him as I cried, knowing what was coming.
Yinsen gasped out his final words, "I am going to see them again. They're waiting for me." His words made me cry harder as he died with a smile on his face.
Tony was pissed as we stormed out of the cave and into the intense desert light with a hail of bullets fired at us.
A bullet slipped through the seam of the suit an hit Tony in the shoulder before he could use the flamethrowers. "Fuck! That hurts! Remind me not to get shot again."
I just kept crying and yelled at Tony, "Use the goddamn rocket boots, Tony!" At my command, Tony flipped the switch and up we went.
Until the boosters fell apart. Then we were falling, crashing down to the ground. The suit falling apart around us until we hit the sand with a loud boom.
Tony pulled me out of the wreckage and put my arm around his neck so we could slowly hobble away hopefully towards help.
A day later, we slide down a sand dune in the hot, hot desert. We're dying of thirst, Tony has a gunshot wound, and I'm missing a leg so when Tony stumbles to the ground, I follow. "I love you." I mumble to him.
"I love you, too." Tony replies as we clutch each other, too tired and hurt to get up and go on.
"Saving your asses is getting to be a full time job." A very familiar voice calls out from behind us.
"I love you, too, Rhodey." I reply back to the voice.
—
It was all a whirlwind after being rescued. There were doctors, soldiers, and debriefings until suddenly we ended up on a plane back home. Tony's arm was in a sling and he managed to find a suit and his sunglasses. I had on a nice dress since pants were a little strange until I got a prosthetic.
Tony carefully pushes my wheelchair down the ramp after it opens to Pepper and Darcy at the bottom. Both of them had clearly been crying but so had I so I didn't judge them.
"Mom! Dad!" Darcy hurdles towards us before throwing her arms around Tony. He did his best to hug her with one arm. Even though his sunglasses hid it, I knew he was tearing up. I was practically bawling. Darcy's arms wrapped around me as best she could with me in the wheelchair. "Mommy, I missed you so much! I didn't know if I was ever going to see you again!"
I squeezed her tighter in our hug. "I'm here now, bug. I'm never letting you out of my sight again!" I let her out of our hug just enough to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "I love you, bug. I love you so much."
With some careful maneuvering of my wheelchair, we all end up in the car with Pepper and Happy. Pepper had clearly been crying, her eyes were red and a little puffy, so I give her hand a good squeeze and a little smile when she looks at me.
"Where too, boss?" Happy asks from up front.
"We're due at the hospital." Pepper replies but Tony quickly shakes his head.
"No, no hospitals yet. Head to the office. We've been in captivity for three months. There are two things-well three things-I wanna do right now. First, I want cheeseburger. And I want to hold a press conference."
Darcy furrows her brow, "That's only two things. What's the third?"
Tony looks at me before replying to Darcy, "Your mom."
Darcy makes a noise of disgust and Pepper speaks up before Tony can say anything else. "Tony, Jasper is missing a leg. We need to go to the hospital."
I shake my head at her. "I'm fine, Pepper. The doctors gave me an okay for right now. We need to have this press conference."