Chapter 27 – The Jericho
A/n: Hey y'all, not much to say here other than I hope you enjoy the chapter.
youwannabekate: Screw them indeed, and Coulson will be fine :) They'll be the same length as the movie so in some cases not long enough for heavy angst but I might throw some more in as a freebie. Poor Steve; and it's a possibility.
XxxBellaBellaxxX: They had to leave eventually :D It's a huge plot point for the sequel(s). Well, I think they are and he's spent enough time around both now that it's similarity spotting time.
Tranquillity's Chaos: Have an update. And I'm glad you like Toni
fiction reading chick: Give me a second, it'll be in this chapter
paisley15: Yay! ~#does happy dance because you liked it#~ I'm pretty sure he did more than quadruple it because his father was a billionaire too from his work and Tony is considered to have eclipsed his father by a lot.
LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: The one thing I really suck at is art so I didn't take it beyond my second year of high school. And GCSE's you're in the same part of the world as me then. Yeah, but I was struck by inspiration because she said 'need,' not 'want.'
Dragones: Your wish is my command :D
Booklover2526: Yeah, I like dropping bombshells on people. What can I say?
whitetigerwolf: Damn, I now have a Natasha/Toni plot bunny following me around. I sense another parallel story coming out of this.
Harm Marie: I'm glad!
"You're finally leaving," Toni said with a smile glad that Natasha had been able to successfully talk Phil around to the idea. She was even more thrilled that he was the one who brought it up because it meant he was fully on-board with the idea and wasn't just following Clint and Natasha's example. The others still seemed to be suffering from shock due to the announcement.
"No offense Phil," Steve said carefully considering each word before he spoke for once, "but what would you do after quitting SHIELD? Toni mentioned she's hired Natasha as her PA and I know Clint would be happy just being on the Avengers but…"
"Already sorted that out," Toni informed the group, "hooked up three contracts hiring you for Stark Industries on the off chance that Tasha could talk Phil into leaving. Natasha, I've officially recalled your Natalie Rushman identity and I've made some upgrades so your story is more airtight than it was before. You're now officially back as my PA and are unofficially acting as my 'bodyguard,' whilst I'm outside the suit. Clint, you've been hired to the testing facility so you can test all of the newest SI products and Phil I've put you in my liaison department so you'll be acting as the Avengers handler which disconnects us completely from SHIELD. It also gives me a reason to work extensively on improving our equipment as Stark Industries is now the official sponsor of the Avengers."
"Typical Annie," Natasha laughed, "you already have everything figured out."
"Just sign on the dotted line…" Toni joked handing over the contracts for the trio to look at.
"That's what I'm talking about," Rhodey slurred waving the bottle which contained the sake in the air as he leaned on Toni.
"Knew he wouldn't be able to resist your alcohol," Clint said not looking up from the contract. His lips were quirking into a smile at some of the little details Toni had worked into it.
"When I get up in the morning and I'm putting on my uniform," Rhodey rambled on, "you know what I recognise?" Toni herself looked thoroughly bored with this conversation as she sipped at her own drink, "I see in that mirror that every person that's got this uniform on got my back!"
The shot drew backwards to reveal that the air hostesses had changed into outfits that were much more skimpy than their formal attire and were dancing around as Toni replied, "Hey, you know what? I'm not like you. I'm not cut out…"
"Toni," Bruce said sadly. He didn't know Toni's exact reasoning for saying that but he suspected it had something to do with Rhodey's military affiliation and how he had high levels of loyalty and courage due to that affiliation. She seemed to have lacked the initiative to think about herself and realise that with a little push she would have those qualities in abundance as she did now.
"No, no. You don't have to be like me! But you're more than what you are," Rhodey exclaimed nonsensically.
As the others laughed at how Rhodey had sunk so far into drunkenness that he couldn't even string together a sentence properly Toni considered the benefits of drunken wisdom. Rhodey had been right after all; she had untapped potential that Afghanistan had awakened in her but it didn't encourage her to do the things that Rhodey thought it would. He had been horrified when she had abandoned her military contracts. She never could make people happy through her actions but she had managed to move past the point where that bothered her. Well, mostly.
"Can you excuse me if I'm just a little bit distracted here?" Toni deflected pointing to the air hostesses who were now dancing around a pole that had risen up through the plane.
"Only you Toni," the group chorused causing Toni to flash them a wide grin. She liked being unique.
"No! You can't be distracted right now!" Rhodey shouted, "Listen to me!" But Toni wasn't planning on being lectured as one of the air hostesses dragged to her feet causing her to laugh and go over to dance.
"It's pointless arguing with Toni when she doesn't agree with you at least partially," Natasha said earning a glare from Toni. She did argue with people when she didn't agree with them at all. They just didn't result in a particularly long argument that was all. After all she rarely got into arguments if she wasn't absolutely sure she was right.
When the plane landed it was on an airfield where soldiers were running back and forth running drills and following orders. Toni made her way down the steps now in the outfit of pure professionalism she had been wearing in the first moments of the film.
The others were not pleased to say this as they were now almost 100% positive that after this scene they would be shown Toni in captivity and it didn't bear thinking about. She was a civilian, not a super soldier or an assassin. Just a civilian.
"General," she said pleasantly once she reached the assembled group.
"Welcome, Miss Stark," the General said shaking her hand, "We look forward to your weapons presentation."
"Thanks!" Toni said before slipping neatly into Arabic as she greeted the rest of the soldiers shaking each of their hands in turn.
"I don't even want to know how many languages you speak," Steve stated, "I have a feeling it would give me a headache."
"Is it better to be feared or respected?" Toni stiltedly beginning her presentation, "And I say, is it too much to ask for both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line. It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once."
"You didn't believe a single word you were saying," Bruce said not even bothering to phrase it as a question. He could tell from her tone and the fact that her body language was as stiff as it could possibly be. And he just didn't understand why she deluded herself into thinking that a few mistakes made her a bad person. It just didn't make sense. Mind you very little about Toni made sense to him including her continued faith in him so maybe he shouldn't be so surprised.
"That's how dad did it," Toni said uncomfortably, "that's how America does it. And it's working out pretty well so far. Find an excuse," Toni said pointing to a missile launcher that was positioned to her left, "to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves."
Toni flinched at her past self mentioning caves. She didn't like caves anymore; they were too dark, too damp and there was always someone waiting around a corner. Caves and pain went together hand in hand and nobody would ever convince her otherwise.
She waved her hand neatly and the missile systems powered up as the soldiers turned to look at it. The one in the middle flew off at high speed leaving a trail of white smoke in the sky behind it. Once it was in the air the main casing was blasted off by a controlled explosion releasing as many as twenty miniaturised missiles.
"I'm not a big fan of the weapons development industry but I have to admit that's fairly impressive," Natasha said with a low whistle.
"Well there are none left in the world as far as I know," Toni said uncomfortable with the praise for the device that had caused so much pain and suffering to her and to others… Yinsen.
As the mini missiles fell they let off a sound like a high-pitched whistle as Toni reached the conclusion of her speech, "for your consideration, the Jericho."
The instant she finished speaking the missiles made contact with the mountains behind her and a line of explosions flew high into the sky as the gale force wind that was created by the high velocity impact carried the smoke from those same explosions towards the group. As it reached them most of the soldiers were relieved of their hats as Toni just stood there arms outstretched letting the effects of the explosion wash over her.
Thor thought that Toni had never looked more powerful than in that moment where she just let go and didn't let her environment touch her. Yet she didn't have any powers and back then she didn't even have her suit. So what made her so comfortable with something like that?
Once she had finished with her presentation Toni made a beeline for a chilled container with the SI logo printed on it. It turned out that this contained different varieties of alcohol as well as different types of glasses to put it in.
"I needed the drink after making that speech okay," Toni defended seeing Steve's judgemental look. Honestly they were going to have to have another conversation about past actions at this rate.
"I'll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more," Toni informed them retrieving the drink that she had been consuming in the opening scene and raising it, "to peace!"
"Oh god," Natasha muttered. She knew the basics of what would happen to Toni next and she didn't truly wish to know more about what had happened in Afghanistan even if it would satisfy her natural curiosity.
As she sipped her drink her phone buzzed and she flipped it open to show Obie on the screen who greeted her with a quick, "Toni."
"Obie, what are you doing up?" she asked curiously.
There was a brief break here as everyone attempted to explain time differences to Thor. It took a few comparisons to things that he already knew about to get him to understand but eventually Thor seemed to get why it was strange that Obie was calling Toni from America when it was daytime in Afghanistan.
"Well I couldn't sleep till I found out how it went. How'd it go?" Obie informed her.
"It went great. Looks like it's gonna be an early Christmas," Toni told him.
"Hey!" Obie exclaimed clearly pleased, "Way to go, my girl! I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"
Bruce flinched upon hearing Obie say this because if his suspicions were correct then there was no way that Obadiah would be seeing Toni the day after this.
"Why aren't you wearing those pyjamas I got you?" Toni quipped.
"Good night, Toni," Obie concluded as Toni hung up on him climbing into the Humvee which contained the soldiers who would eventually die due to the terrorist attack.
The entire room was stiff and on the edge of their seats aside from Toni who just wanted all of this to end. Why did Amora have to butt into her life and show everybody else? It was going to earn her pity; she hated pity, in fact she preferred nearly being murdered to being pitied.
"Hey, Toni," Rhodey said walking up to the Humvee.
"I'm sorry," Toni joked, "this is the 'fun-vee.' The 'hum-drum-vee,' is back there."
Sensing that Toni was messing with him again Rhodey simply sighed at her, "nice job."
"See you back at base," Toni said as the engine of the car roared into life and the screen switched to a shot of the Humvees making their way down the dirt track once more with 'Back In Black,' blaring out.
And that was the final nail in the coffin for the hopes of the Avengers that they would have some more time before they had to see Toni deal with being held captive in such a highly injured state. Plus the fact that being a woman in captivity was arguably always more risky especially when all your captors were men but they couldn't dwell on possibilities right now. They'd only get angry over things that might not happen.
Suddenly the first explosion was displayed again as a blurry picture of Toni conscious on an operating table with only wearing bandages over her chest was displayed.
"You never told me you were awake for this," Phil said horrified. How could she live her life remembering that moment and not want to break down? For that matter surely there would be residual pain from everything that had happened during the surgery.
"Yes, well, you know terrorists," Toni deadpanned, "they're not really interested in using anaesthetic to get rid of the pleasure they get by torturing their captives."
Natasha's eyes had darkened significantly and it looked like she was about ready to fly off to Afghanistan and kill every last one of the people who were involved in the torture of her friend.
Toni had shut her eyes and hoped that the sound wouldn't be too graphic. She didn't need another flashback to happen. She thought she had finally managed to rid herself of the things outside of her nightmares. But she didn't sleep often enough for those to be of a huge amount of concern to her.
The screen showed something being removed from Toni's chest wound as she screamed out in pain. One of the men surrounding her lowered a metal cylinder towards her chest as what appeared to be a primitive version of the arc reactor was placed there following it.
The group flinched collectively as Toni kept her eyes firmly shut, she didn't want to see this. She couldn't live through it. Not again! Never again! Why?!
Finally once the surgery was over they knocked Toni out with what was probably chloroform so she fell into the bliss of utter unconsciousness.
The group suddenly realised what Toni had meant exactly about the terrorists wanting to cause her as much pain as possible because it wasn't that the place was too primitive to have the anaesthetics. It was that they refused to use them for Toni's benefit. Toni cracked open her eyes hearing the screams fade and looked into the enraged faces of her team members and suddenly felt that the men of the Ten Rings were lucky to be dead.
The next time Toni woke up she was lying on a cot in a room in the cave with walls lined with electronics. She wore a nasal cannula now and the bandages and jacket had been placed back on her fully but she still looked like someone who was being humiliated through a state of undress.
"How…?" Natasha began haltingly, "how much does the arc reactor hurt you?"
"It's not generally beneficial to my health let's put it that way," Toni said attempting not to give a real answer but one look at the faces of the team and she knew that wouldn't cut it, "to get it in they had to cut out sections of my muscle and it puts a significant amount of pressure on my lungs. I can't lie on my stomach for any amount of time anymore as it starts hurting fairly quickly."
Steve was wondering how he had managed to be so wrong about Toni. Clearly she wasn't a privileged rich kid who had destroyed her father's legacy. And truthfully he had known that since the Battle for Manhattan but didn't know how to reconcile it with the Toni he met in Stuttgart.
Toni's breaths came out pained and ragged as she reached up to pull the cannula from her nose deciding that anything that kept her in the bed wasn't a good thing.
"Toni," Bruce said softly but Toni quickly interrupted him, "I know now and I knew back then that I shouldn't have done that until I knew what it was for precisely but I was in constant pain and I knew I'd been kidnapped. For all I knew they were pumping harmful drugs around my system instead of oxygen." She had a point so Bruce conceded his rant about her disregard for her own health for the inevitable next time she did something reckless in these movies.
She reached out for a vessel containing some sort of liquid on a cabinet nearby but her weak efforts at reaching it only succeeded in knocking it to the ground spilling its contents. She coughed several times each one sounding more painful than the last as she spotted the doctor who had been working on her humming as he shaved.
"He was used to being in captivity by then," Toni said before anyone said anything bad about the man who had turned her into who she was today, "so don't start yelling at him for keeping some form of a routine in his life."
Toni leaned over to see if she could get off the cot but wires connected to some sort of battery became taught and she stopped moving abruptly.
"Tell me that you weren't," Clint said nervously.
She neatly rolled back and spotted the battery overcome by shock as she began to pull of the bandages frantically wanting to see what had happened to her leaving only just enough to preserve what little modesty she had left. Her breaths became more and more panicked and difficult to take in as she pulled them away sufficiently enough that the crude electromagnet was displayed still surrounded by dry blood.
The sight of the device made Bruce want to throw up. How had Toni managed to cope with something that horrible polluting her system? He had no doubt that it was sending feedback into her system and he hoped it didn't take her long to get out so she could make the arc reactor. He hadn't seen any medical signs that it had been in too long thankfully.
Later on Yinsen was cooking what little food was provided for them over the fire as Toni zipped up a hoodie that had been left for her to use. "What the hell did you do to me?" Toni asked hoping there was a good reason for his actions.
"What I did?" Yinsen chuckled, "What I did was to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left and it's headed into your atrial septum."
"Her what?" Steve asked confused.
"Her heart Steve," Bruce said quietly.
"Here, want to see?" Yinsen said shaking a container which obviously had bits of shrapnel in it, "I have a souvenir. Take a look," with that he tossed it to Toni who caught it neatly and turned it around looking at the pieces with a sort of morbid fascination.
"You have more of those in your chest," Natasha said her voice noticeably choked.
"Yes," Toni stated plainly not willing to tell her how close her scans revealed that one piece was. It had ended up lodged in her aorta but scar tissue had developed around it and it would be ill advised to ever try and remove it from there. It had about a 90% chance of killing her if she ever tried and despite what many people thought she didn't actually have a death wish.
"I've seen many wounds like that in my village," Yinsen said more seriously, "We call them the walking dead because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs."
"What is this?" Toni inquired.
"That is an electromagnet," Yinsen informed her, "hooked up to a car battery, and it's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart."
Natasha truly felt that she might throw up if she was forced to watch too much more of this. All Amora was achieving in Natasha's view was getting the team closer together and breaking their loyalties to SHIELD. That and making Natasha want to go to SHIELD headquarters and murder her superiors for criticising Toni before handing in her notice.
Toni's eyes darted to a camera in the corner of the room and Yinsen turned to see what she was looking at before saying jokingly, "That's right. Smile," before reverting back to his serious tone, "we met once you know, at a technical conference in Bern."
"I don't remember much about that conference," Toni admitted.
"No, you wouldn't," Yinsen said amused, "If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits." As he spoke Toni was taking in her surroundings clearly looking for ways to escape.
"That was a bad weekend," Toni gave as the only explanation for why she had been drinking so much that she couldn't remember an entire conference.
"Where are we?" Toni said quick to attempt to get information about her surroundings from the only other person she had.
Yinsen was about to reply when a shutter on the door was slid open and a shout in Arabic came through making him stop instantly.
A/n: Another cliffie that isn't a cliffie :D And I'm writing a sort of character study on Toni related to this story that may be up soon if anyone is interested in reading it.