YAY, i updated it a few days earlier than i thought i would! Reason being, is that the people i had to babysit, ended up not needing to be. And i woke up early today. I was honestly surprised that i updated today, you see i bought Sims 3 and Sims 3 Seasons yesterday, and i could hardly pull myself away from it to finish this chapter...0.o
Disclaimer: IMAA is not mine, i do not own it, so yeah... enjoy!
The first thing Tony registered that wasn't the cold, was the sound of water dripping. He couldn't bring himself to open his eyes. And for some ungodly reason, he felt sticky. It wasn't honey sticky or maybe glue sticky, it was more like dried up apple juice. Just a bit more fluid like. His arms and chest burned with almost unbearable heat, yet the rest of him was frozen like ice.
He groaned and tried to open his eyes. At first his vision was blurry, but soon enough it cleared up enough so that he could see. As far as he could see he was in the same place as he was last time. He looked down to see that the sticky stuff was his blood. He shuddered as he remembered what had happened. He supposed it could have been worse.
The ceiling leaked water causing each drop to fall to the floor with a constant drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. It was soothing to hear, but very unnerving to watch. It made it seem like the earth had frozen. Like he was the only person on earth that wasn't frozen. As if it was only him and the water.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
When he looked down to his chest, he didn't find any comfort in the little yet strong amount of heat. He found it unsettling and painful. A burning heat that was constantly branded to his skin. It didn't help that even with the darkened surroundings, he could tell that the skin under the dry blood was red and irritated.
He bit his lower lip and pushed himself to a sitting position and looked around. No one. He was alone. But was he really alone? Was this a trick? Apparently to Ghost, he was alone at some point. But would Ghost do that again?
Tony shook his head. It wasn't the time to think about that. He should try to escape before anything happened to his family and friends. He felt incredibly selfish. While they sat there a suffered who knows what, he sat there thinking he was the only one that could get hurt. Once he was dead, Ghost would move on to Rhodey, Pepper, or his dad…
No, he wouldn't let that happen.
But what was he supposed to do? It wasn't like he was tied up with ropes anymore. He was held down to the ground by solid chains. Ropes, were adjustable. He could stretch and loosen those easily with enough effort. But chains? He laughed at the thought of it.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The water from the ceiling lands two inches away from Tony's hand. He lets a few drop on his hand. He couldn't help but realize how thirsty he was. The water was just there to tease him. Just Ghost's luck. The small puddles of water that formed just taunted him. His stomach ached for water. His throat was sore and dry.
Almost subconsciously, he pulls at the chains. He tried to call out for someone. For who? He had no clue. But he did found out that he no longer had his voice. His voice was gone once again. His fingers were numb again and his legs were hardly noticed. The only thing left noticed the burning of his chest and arms. His insides burned with an icy feeling.
He just closed his eyes when he heard the door open. He contemplated playing dead or something. At least pretending to be asleep, but he knew it would be useless. It was pointless to play dead when you're sitting up. It would take a miracle for him to believe that.
But he kept his eyes close anyways. Even if he wasn't dead or asleep, he wasn't going to acknowledge Ghost's presence. If that who just walked in. He couldn't talk anyways, so why ask. He figured he'd say something sooner or later and Tony would find out if it was Ghost or not.
"Finally!" Ghost's voice said sounding almost cheery. "That was longer than the last time!"
Tony opened his eyes. The first thing his eyes focused on was the tray of food Ghost was carrying. It supported up what looked like a bowl of rice, and orange, and a glass of water. Either way, he was happy that there was food, but there had to be a catch. Either he would pay for it later, or he would have to do something in order to earn the food.
"Here" He said and simply handed him the tray.
With numb fingers, Tony grabbed the tray from Ghost. He still didn't trust Ghost. Not even if Ghost walked in offering him a kings feast.
"I figure it's not in my ideal plans to let you die of starvation or dehydration." Ghost said.
'So what's the catch?' Tony wanted to say. But his voice was lost, his throat dry.
Ghost seemed to read Tony's mind. "No, I didn't poison them and no, you don't have to work for it. At least if you cooperate with me. If you don't then I have no choice, but to speed things up. And you're payment for food is already partially paid for."
'What?' Tony thought.
Instead of trying to figure out what Ghost was planning, he began to eat his 'meal'. If he could really call it that. Ghost walked off setting something up on the tables. He called some Maggia on the radio they all were using.
By the time Tony finished, Ghost was back to push his tray away and in a swift move, he lashed out at Tony's stomach with a hidden blade, leaving the deepest mark yet. It wasn't as deep as it would kill him, (instantly) but it sure was painful.
Tony hissed in pain, but refused to make any other noise. Even if he couldn't' really speak, though having a bit of water helped a bit, he didn't want to risk the chance that he can still scream.
The next thing Ghost did was dump plain salt onto his chest and Tony cried out in pain, but bit his tongue cutting it off. His poor tongue, taking all the damage in his mouth. He was surprised at how strong it was. Though, the pain in his chest was already unbearable, but now it was just torture.
Soon enough though, once Ghost finished laughing, Ghost dumped a huge bucked of hot water on him. If it wasn't so burning hot, he would have liked it. Though, the burning of his chest and the freezing of his fingers, proved not to like the odd feeling of being warm.
The Ghost pulled out some kind of rod that had tendrils of electricity zapping around it. First, Ghost touched the ground with the electric rod, conducting electricity through the puddle on the floor and the water that soaked Tony.
Tony clenched his teeth. He was so close to making some kind of noise. A scream or not, he wasn't ready to give Ghost that pleasure. He hoped that he could get Extremis working. At least before Ghost got his satisfaction.
Then he'd be able to save Pepper…and the others.
…
Pepper after her rest, woke to a weird fishy smell. For a moment she thought she was at a fish store with her mom, but she remembered where she was a little too soon. She opened her eyes to see Rhodey and Howard munching on fish sticks, a banana, and a glass of water. She laid next to a tray like theirs.
After they encouraged her that it was safe, she dug right in. She hadn't realized just how hungry she was. She was starved! Though she felt selfish. What if Tony was still left unfed? What if he was starving? What if they didn't care if he was fed or not? She wished she could lose the negative thoughts.
"Rhodey, do you know what time it is?" Pepper asked already knowing the answer.
"No," Rhodey said. "There's no clock."
She nodded. "Right…"
She wanted to know the time. She could tell it was sunset, already, but she still wanted to know. She deserved that much. Anyone deserves to know the time. It's not like a clock will help them escape.
She bit her already raw lip and fidgeted around for a moment. She saw Rhodey looking at her worriedly, but she ignored it. She was trying to think. How could they escape? She decided she was no longer going to sit around and wait for something bad to happen. She was going to do something about this. She started to twist and tug her arms to try to loosen the ropes around her wrists. It burned and cut at her hand. She could tell it was bleeding after about ten minutes of trying. She didn't care.
The rope was starting to loosen a tad, but she knew it would still be awhile before anything major happened. Like the rope slipping off of her. So, for the next hour she switched from trying to loosen the ropes around her arms and her legs. Occasionally, she would take a break and chat up a bit with Howard and Rhodey.
Unfortunately for her, she had gotten far too tired to do any more at some point and she passed out. Though, when she woke up, she was relieved to find she was still with the loosened ropes. She feared that if she had fallen asleep, someone would come and tighten them back up, but no one did. So, she returned to what she was doing.
The redhead soon freed her arms. Almost instantly she finished off with her legs, and even the others. He stomach had gone wild with nervous butterflies. Not, the happy nervous like how she would feel if she had a boyfriend- namely a certain genius she knew…- and they were on their first date, or how it would feel when she was about to be kissed, by said genius…It wasn't even the butterflies one would get before speaking publicly.
It was more in fear that once they were free, they were going to get caught. Though, she wasn't going to let a bad feeling ruin her chance at saving Tony. She wasn't not about to have the last thing they did together was fight. That was not happening. At least not while she was alive.
For now, she was going to think that she was free. She was set free, and now she was going to use her freedom to save her best friend. She was determined not to fail. She would fight through millions of troops just to get to him, even if she died instantly after. She needed to see Tony, she needed to make up for that fight. She needed him.
…
Tony managed to pull himself up off the floor and onto the chair he had recently sat in before. Ghost had left him after pouring one more bucket of water over his head, with the following shock. Instead it was a bit more direct. Though, Tony had bit his tongue until he was spitting blood. He didn't scream or give Ghost any satisfaction, at least that he knew. Ghost left him grumbling something about plan B or something. Leaving Tony to ponder about what Plan B might be.
Tony shivered heavily as he tried to wrap his arms around himself. It didn't work. He only succeeded in hurting his arms and chest even more. It was almost like he still had the salt in his cuts, which had conveniently stopped bleeding. He was still not comforted by the irritate look it was giving off. He was starting to wonder if it had an infection. He wouldn't doubt it.
After pondering about that for a moment, he shivered some more and moved to the floor so he was a little bit more comfortable when he used his arm as a pillow, and rested.
…
It didn't take long for him to wake up again. At first he was aware that he wasn't really alone, but he decided to keep his eyes closed. He wondered if he should just keep his eyes close so he didn't have to know what was coming. If it was Ghost who was with him, he didn't really want to deal with anything Ghost might have planned for this visit. So he kept his eyes closed.
Though, he suspicions that it might be Ghost vanished the moment he heard the voices. Their voices. Voices he had wished to hear at least once more before he died. If he died, but he still need to work something things with them. And the third voice. He still wished to show him some things.
He kept his eyes closed in fear that they would stop talking. He wanted – no he needed to hear at least a little more of their voices before they realized he was awake.
"-my fault." That was her voice.
Pepper.
"No, it's not." The other two replied.
Howard, Rhodey.
"Yes it is." Pepper.
"You were only doing what you thought was best." Rhodey. "You were trying to help."
"I wasn't thinking." Pepper.
"No," Howard. Dad. "You probably wasn't, but because of the situation, I haven't been thinking smart either."
"You're a genius though." Pepper.
"So is Tony, but do you see him thinking straight 24/7?" Dad.
A sigh. Who's, probably Peppers. Oh, Pep. Tony thought to himself. Why do you blame yourself? I'm sure it wasn't too bad…
"I guess not." Pepper's.
He slowly opened his eyes, trying not to draw attention to himself through any noise. Once his eyes focused, he saw them. They were sitting a pretty far distance away from himself, but they were lucky enough to sit by the fireplace nearby. He wasn't so lucky. Plus, they all had shirts or sweaters on.
He moved a bit, but groaned when he realized just how sore he was. He was in no shape to do heavy or fast movements. The first one to notice that he was awake was Pepper, who must have super hearing to hear a voice, let alone sound, that soft from that distance.
"Tony." Pepper gasped out. She moved to get closer to him, but was stopped by chains around her wrists that was connected to the wall next to them.
"Tony you're awake." Rhodey said with a small smile.
Tony stared at them with tired eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but his voice couldn't be found. Instead, he found himself yawning tiredly as he moved painfully slow as he sat up.
"How you feeling son?" his father asked.
'Like I got dragged across a bed of nails…and dropped off of the Eifel Tower…'He would have responded. But he couldn't speak. He tried clearing his throat, but that hurt from a sore throat. His head hurt, almost as if it was being pounded with a hammer. He was wondering why his heart was mad, it was probably bouncing around in his head, it hurt.
"Tony?" Rhodey voiced.
"You okay?" Pepper questioned.
He nodded and looked away for a moment. He half expected Ghost to walk in taunting that he now had all of them together. He could almost see Ghost teasing him about the ability to hurt them then and there. Even if Tony was watching. He shuddered.
"Tony what happened?" Pepper asked. "You were asleep for a while."
He yawned again and winced as he stretched. Successfully opening his cuts again. He clutched his hand over them, just barely touching it. He really wished he could find his voice. They were all staring at him. He wished he could at least say that he was fine. But no, his voice was stuck in his throat with a sore throat.
"Tony." Rhodey said. "Answer us, please."
"You better not be ignoring us." Pepper said.
"You guys." Howard started. "Give him a moment."
Tony gave his dad a thankful look and his dad nodded. He took a deep breath, and opened his mouth, he was determined to find at least a little bit of his voice, but it was so cold. He was shivering like mad. Did they notice?
He found a tad bit of his voice, but when he tried to use it, it came out sort of like this. "I-I-I-I-I-"
Nope, his voice was still just a stuttering mess. So he shook his head and did his best to use his hands to tell them that he couldn't' talk. It took a few minutes, but his dad was the first to realize that his son couldn't talk.
"Guys, I don't think he can talk. Even if he wanted to." Howard said.
Pepper gasped. "What did he do to you?"
"I think he cut him." Rhodey said flatly.
"Well, obviously, but they had to have done something else. To lose your voice like that…they had to have done something worse."
"It cold in here. Maybe that's why. He was stuttering when he did try to talk." Howard said. "After all he doesn't really have a shirt on."
"You're right." Pepper said. "Oh, I feel so bad. If we didn't have that fight, Tony wouldn't have quit early on his project. He wouldn't have gone home early enough to get kidnapped."
"Pepper it doesn't matter if the fight happened or not. Ghost already knows where the armory is." Rhodey pointed out.
"Who's ghost?" Howard asked.
The two teens that could speak shared a look. But sure enough, they explained what happened the first time they met Ghost and the few other times that they had met him. Including the blackmail scheme. When they finished Howard was nodding.
"Okay, so its revenge that Ghost is seeking." Howard clarified.
"Yep."
They continued to talk about Ghost while Tony climbed back in his chair. By the time they finished the conversation, the door across the room opened. In the door way stood, Ghost.
He was followed by four Maggia men. He walked in and stood in front of Tony. "Good morning, sleepyhead."
"You stay away from him!" Pepper shouted.
Ghost whispered something to the Maggia men, and three of them moved and tied the three up and dragged them out of the room. Pepper still was kicking and screaming.
"Now, Stark." Ghost started. "They are now to stay out there while you and I get to have some fun. Oh, and remember, if I don't hear you scream soon, maybe I can get the red head to. Rhodey? Your father? Who knows?"
"You stay away from them." Tony warned.
"Make me."
So did you like it or did you hate it? I thought i did a pretty good job up until the ending, but yeah. Oh and PercyJacksonLover14, your questions, some of them, were almost dead on to what i was planning. It was almost scary...O.O No, it was scary. :) Good job then!
THANK you guys so much for reviewing this story! I work hard to please and glad to know it pays off sometimes! :) You guys are the best!
Fun Fact: Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing, and all the Sims games are my FAVORITE game in the whole wide world! I can play those games for hours without breaks. I find it sort of funny when my Sims get electricuted and they walk around in their underwear until they take a show...Does that make me weirder than i already am?
Okay, so i hoped you guys liked it and i'm off to play MORE Sims. Then, i'm going to finish the minichapter for Baby Phase. Seeya~!