Ruby let out a groan as she forced her eyes to open. Her head was killing her, and pain was shooting up her back and through her ribs. She was struggling to remember what had happened, and work out why the hell she was in so much pain.
As she finally got her eyes to stay open and focus, it all came back to her, hitting her like a ton of bricks. The convoy had been attacked, Natasha and Clint failed to show up to get them out of there, and her father had been badly hurt. "Dad…" She whispered, remembering the amount of blood that he had been loosing. Ruby knew that it was serious, she knew that he needed help straight away if he was going to survive, but judging from the state of the room she was in, she doubted that he was going to get much help.
The walls were dirt, that was the only way for Ruby to describe them. The room consisted of a small cot, with a single blanket on it, a table with a basin of water in it, a tin cup, and a bucket in the far corner. Her heart sank, Ruby realised that they were going to keep her for some time, otherwise they wouldn't have supplied her with a bed, let alone water to keep her alive. Who ever they were, she knew that they were after something, and she was damned if she was going to let them get what they wanted.
She sat there, her torn tank top pulled up so that she could inspect her ribs. Two were broken and several more were bruised, but there was no serious internal damage so she would be able to get over it soon enough. When she ran her hand gently down her back, she couldn't help but flinch. Her back was seriously bruised, and she was unsure of whether that was from the explosion, or if something had happened while she had been unconscious. She hoped to God that it was the first.
The sound of men speaking started to drift in her ears, and she strained to hear them, to listen to what they were saying. "Three men, two speaking Hungarian, one not speaking at all." Ruby mumbled, listening to the footsteps that were getting closer. "Pointless to even try to escape." She knew that she wouldn't have a good chance, not yet at least.
A few minutes later and the talking stopped, as did the footsteps as they reached the large metal door that was separating them from Ruby. She wished she had been smart enough to hide her knifes in her boots like she used to, but she had more trust and faith in her friends than she used to. Trust and faith that was quickly fading.
The door opened and two men with rather large guns pushed a more slim and meek looking man into the room. They shouted something at him in Hungarian, before turning around and leaving the room. The door closed with a loud clang, and yet it didn't make Ruby jump. Her eyes were fixed on the man before her as she tried to determine how big of a threat he was, and what part he played in this game.
"My name is Yinsen, I am a doctor." The man told her, holding his hands up as he slowly walked towards her. "What is your name?"
Ruby was a little unsure of what was going on, but she could tell by the way his clothes no longer fitted properly, and the paleness of his skin, that he was not there voluntarily. "Ruby, Ruby Matthews-Stark." She whispered, still keeping her eyes fixed on him.
"Well, Miss Stark, I need to take a look at your injuries." Yinsen said, now almost standing right in front of Ruby. "I am not here to harm you. They keep me here as well, I am not here willingly."
"Two broken ribs, several more bruised. Sever bruising on my back as well. No internal damage caused by the breaking of the ribs, slight concussion due to head injury." Ruby told him confidently. "I think that about covers it."
The man looked at her, a slight hint of awe and amazement on his face, as well as concern. "And what about your leg, Miss Stark?" He asked her, his eyes looking at her right leg.
Ruby's eyes followed his and she looked down at her leg. "What the fu…" She mumbled, before ripping her pants a bit so that she could see the damage done. "When the hell did that happen?" A bullet was lodged into her leg, and she hadn't even felt it. That had happened to her once before, out on a mission.
Natasha had taken her out on a mission, a very simple one at that, and when everything turned to hell, Ruby managed to get shot in the shoulder. Even with the bullet lodged there, she carried one running and fighting, she hadn't even felt the pain from it. It wasn't until they got back to safety that Natasha finally pointed it out and started to freak out about it. But Ruby hadn't cared, because when she was in full Agent mode, pain didn't affect her, she was filled with adrenalin and drive, too focused to bother with anything else.
"I believe when you were being shot at, Miss Stark." Yinsen said, causing Ruby to glare at him. "I need to remove the bullet. You were very lucky for it not to have gone too deep or to have hit an artery."
Ruby scoffed at the man a little. "Yeah, lucky me. Getting shot at by a bunch of terrorists. Just about makes my day really." She said sarcastically. "Oh, no. Wait a second, no. Getting shot and kidnapped by them, yeah that makes it even better. I am just so lucky."
Yinsen just smiled at her slightly. "You are very lucky. They could have just killed you out there, and yet here you are, and alive."
She looked up at him, the man's eyes were full of sadness. "I'm sorry. You're right, thank you." Ruby mumbled, before ripping some more of her pants, trying to get better access to the bullet wound. "So, if you're a doctor, why are you here? And where is here?" She asked, looking around the room, for no real reason. "I mean, I know we're in a bloody cave in a mountain. Seen one, you've seen them all."
"These men, they call themselves the 'Ten Rings'." Yinsen told her, making her freeze and her eyes widen. "I would guess from your reaction that you have encountered them before?" Ruby slowly nodded, trying to pull herself back together and get over what she had just heard. "May I?" He asked, pointing to her leg and finally getting her to fall back down to reality.
"So, how long have you been here for, Yinsen?" Ruby asked, trying not to hiss in pain from the poking and prodding that was going on to her leg. She could definitely feel the pain in her leg now.
He just looked at her and gave her a sad smile. "Long enough, Miss Stark." Yinsen said, before going back to working on her leg.
"Just call me Ruby, please. Have you… have you seen Tony?" She decided to ask, trying to keep the tears from rolling down her face. She hadn't really stopped thinking about him, about where he was and if he was okay.
"I have seen Mr Stark, and I must say that you have come out far better than he has. One of the weapons that exploded…"
"Embedded shrapnel in his chest, which would have entered his body and tried to work its way towards his heart, killing him." Ruby said, knowing exactly what that weapon had done to her father. "I know what it was and what it does. But is he going to be okay?" Her voice was full of emotion.
"I have done what I can for him. I removed as much of it as I could, but there was much left." Yinsen told her. "Mr Stark now has an electromagnet in his chest, keeping the shrapnel from entering his heart."
Ruby's mouth fell open. "He… he's got a electromagnet in his chest?" She asked, getting a nod from the man who was working on pulling out the bullet still. "How… how is it being powered? I mean, we're in a damn cave." She pointed out.
Yinsen let out a sigh. "There is a car battery attached to it. It was the best I could do in this environment." He told her, wishing he could give her some good news rather than have to tell her what has happened to her father. "I am sure your father will be fine, Ruby. He is still currently sleeping, but I am confident that he will pull through."
She nodded at her, wiping away the few tears that had decided to fall. "So… uh, you got any idea why these guys want us here so badly?" Ruby asked, hissing once again as the man started tugging the bullet out.
"I wish I knew. They will not say or do anything until Mr Stark wakes up. And that could not be for some time now." The man told her, focusing as hard as he could on what he was doing. He didn't need to be doing even more damage than what the bullet had already done.
"Okay, why are they keeping me away from him? Well, there are several reasons." Ruby said, just rattling off to herself. "One could be to use me as a bargaining chip against my father. Two could be that they have no plans for me at all and that I am just of no use what so ever." She said, not really paying any attention to what Yinsen was doing now. "Or, there is that option that they might have realised who I am." Ruby whispered. She had thought about that, about the fact that they may have recognised her, or worked out who she was and who she used to work for. If they did, then she really was in some serious trouble, because not even Tony knew about some of her past.
"We will not know for sure until Mr Stark wakes up. So until then, you need to rest, otherwise your injuries are going to take longer to heal." Yinsen told her, dropping the bullet into her hand. "I will tell them I need to check up on you every day. They do not know the extent of your injuries, which we can use to our advantage."
Ruby just nodded at him. "Look after my dad, Yinsen. Or I swear to you, you will be more scared of me then those men standing outside with the guns." She threatened. Ruby didn't know why she was suddenly being like that, the man had just helped her after all.
She noticed that he was chuckling a little. "Of course, Miss Stark. Clearly your father means a lot to you."
"He's my dad, of course me means a lot to me. He's the only family I have left now, and I'm the only family he has as well." Yinsen watched her as a tear finally decided to roll down her cheek. "I don't have many people in my life, Yinsen, many people that I can call friends or that a trust. Tony Stark is my father, and even though I've only just found him, he means everything to me." Ruby told the man, brushing away the wetness with the back of her hand quickly.
"I will take care of him, Ruby. And I will see what I can do to get you to see him." Yinsen assured her. Neither of them knew why she was being kept away from her father, but the man had a feeling that the young woman was on the right track with wanting to use her for something.
"Thank you, Yinsen." Ruby said, before the man knocked on the door for it to be opened so that he could be taken back to his part of the cave. She was glad that her father was alive, that he had so far survived what had happened. However, she was certainly concerned by the fact that he had an electromagnet stuck in his chest and being powered by a stupid car battery.
Ruby dragged herself over to the little cot, wincing as she stood on the leg that had been shot. Yinsen had done a good job at taking out the bullet and stitching it up again, before tightly wrapping it up. She couldn't believe she hadn't spotted it when she had been checking herself over, nor could she believe that she hadn't felt it in the first place. But then again, she was running on adrenalin and had to focus on keeping her father alive.
After a while, she passed out. Ruby didn't fall into a deep sleep, just a very light, dreamless yet restless sleep. She was still on high alert, waiting for someone else to come into the room, for someone to either come to kill or torture her. She had very little hope of getting out of there alive, her guns were gone, everything from her pockets had been taken. The only thing of hers that they missed was her ear bud, which was useless. They were in a cave, there was no way she could reach SWAIN or JARVIS.
Ruby almost fell off the bed when she heard the bolts to the door being pulled away before it decided to swing open. A man stood there, his head bald and his skin rather tanned. "So, you are the daughter of the great Tony Stark." He said, stepping further into the room, three men following behind him. "You killed several of my men, maybe I should just kill you now?"
Ruby just looked at him, her face emotionless and her eyes glazed over. She knew not to let her face or body give him anything, to give anything away as to how she was feeling, how afraid she was, and how much she wanted to just jump at him and beat the hell out of him. She was glad that she had managed to kill some of his little henchmen, because they killed those service men and woman as well as almost killed her father.
"No, you are worth more to me alive at the moment." He told her, tilting his head and looking down at her. "We need something from your father, and you are going to make sure that we get it. Otherwise you will be begging to be killed."
"What is it you want him to do?" Ruby asked, her voice actually coming out rather stronger than how she was feeling.
The man smiled at her, glad to see that she was actually able to speak. "The Jericho missile. He will build me one."
Ruby nodded a little. "And if he refuses, which I know he is going to do, what then?"
"Oh, Miss Stark, do you really want to know what will happen if your father refuses to create the missile?" He asked, staring down at Ruby. She didn't flinch, she didn't even blink, she held her façade. "We will make him watch as we torture you, in the most painful of ways. Do you know much about torture, Miss Stark? I can assure you that I know many methods which will get your father to do as I ask of him." Ruby really didn't like the smug grin that was on the man's face. She had been through torture before and hadn't cracked, she sure as hell wasn't going to do it this time either. "But until that time, you are here as a guest, Miss Stark. Enjoy your stay." He said, before turning and leaving the room.
The thing that Ruby was not impressed with, was the fact that only that single man had left. Those that were left were just looking at her, muttering between themselves. It was making her feel more than just a little uncomfortable. There was a glint in their eyes as they took a step towards her, which made Ruby going into a defensive stance.
"I wouldn't bother to take another step if I were you." She growled at them, making them stop in their tracks. All they could do was look at her, and her empty threats. "I swear, I will snap your necks if you come any closer." There was a fire burning in her eyes now, and the men slowly back off, before leaving Ruby alone in the room.
That was when she finally let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't sure what they were going to do, but she wasn't going to risk it. All Ruby wanted was her father, she just wanted to see him, to know he was okay, she wanted to be there for him.
Now that she was alone, she was thinking over everything that had happened. Natasha and Clint hadn't been there, so where the hell were they? Had something actually happened to them? Had they been caught as well? She knew that she had been more than just a little annoyed at them for not showing, but now that she had the time to think about it, she knew something must have gone wrong. They never would have just left her, and now she just had to wait for them to come and find her. Who knew how long that was going to take?
Ruby had been in that room in the cave for several days, all on her own and thinking about what had gone so wrong. Yinsen did manage to get to check on her every day, it was the only time she had someone to talk to, and he told her that her father was doing well, but still had not woken up, which worried her.
It was a few days after that, when Tony finally began to wake up in the room with the doctor. He started to remember what had happened, and panicked a little as he opened his eyes and took in his surroundings and pulled the tube out that had been feeding him. The first thing he realised was how thirsty he was, and reached out of the tin cup that was beside the cot that he was lying on.
Unfortunately he couldn't quite reach it, and ended up knocking it on the floor. He reached over a little further, only for something to tug at his chest. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The doctor, who was looking in a small mirror, shaving, told him.
Tony checked the wires on the car battery and followed them, finding them attached to something in his chest. He was frantic at pulling the bandages away, trying to get to the source of the pain he was feeling and the link to the battery. He gasped at what he saw, a round metal device stuck in his chest.
The man, Yinsen, gave him a small mirror so that he could check out what the hell it was. Tony sat on the bed, looking at it, while Yinsen stoked the pitiful fire some more. "What the hell did you do to me?" Tony asked him quietly. His voice was hoarse, and his throat was hurting. "And where is my daughter?" He said in a panic, as the image of her holding two guns and taking a stand flashed through his mind.
"What I did… what I did is to save your life." Yinsen told him. "I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left, and it's heading into your atrial septum." He picked up a little glass jar, with tiny bits of metal rattling around inside it. "Here, want to see? I have a souvenir. Take a look." He tossed it and Tony was quick to catch it. "I've seen many wounds like that in my village. We call them the walking dead, because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs."
Tony looked at the pieces in the jar before back at his chest. "I asked you where my daughter is." He said, the worry for her flooding through him. "What is this?"
"That is an electromagnet, hooked up to a car battery, and it's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart. And your daughter is safe, she was much luckier than you." Yinsen told him, before Tony noticed the camera with the red light flashing in the corner. "That's right. Smile." He said. "We met once, you know, at a technical conference in Bern."
"I don't remember." Tony mumbled. His mind was on his daughter, his Ruby. He needed to see her, to just know that she really was okay.
Yinsen chuckled a little. "No, you wouldn't. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits."
"What happened to Ruby? Where are we?" He couldn't get his mind off his daughter. She wasn't there with them in the room, and his mind just kept running through so many different things. The man said she was safe, but safe where?
"She has broken and bruised ribs, they are healing but it will take time." Yinsen told him. "She has a souvenir as well, a bullet that only just missed an artery." Before he could say anything else, there came shouting from outside, and the sound of the bolts on the door being shifted. "Come on, stand up." Yinsen ordered him. "Stand up! Just so as I do. Come on, put your hands up." He said, as the men walked into their little room in the large cave.
Tony did as he was told and watched the men closely. "Those are my guns. How did they get my guns?" He whispered to the man beside him.
"Do you understand me? Do as I do." Yinsen hissed at him. He knew what the men were like, what they would do if disobeyed. It was when one of the men started speaking that Yinsen had to translate for Tony. "He says, Welcome, Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America. His is honoured. He wants you to build the missile. The Jericho missile that you demonstrated. This one." He said, handing the photograph of the missile to Tony.
Straight away Tony had his answer, the answer that Ruby knew he was going to give. "I refuse." He told the man simply. The next thing he knew, the car battery was being shoved into his arms and he was dragged out of the room with a cotton sack over his head. Panic was rising in him, he had no idea where they were taken him or where his daughter was. He was regretting not listening to Pepper and making her stay back home with her now, at least he knew she would have been safe.
When the sack was removed, his eyes widened. In the middle of the room was a large barrel of water, and he knew that it wasn't there for drinking. His attention was drawn to the door when it opened again, and his heart sank when he saw his daughter being dragged into the room with a sack over her head as well.
The man said something to him, something that he didn't understand, before the sack was pulled from Ruby's head and he saw her face. She wasn't looking all that great, there were a few cuts and bruises on her face, and he could see that she was having trouble standing on her leg, a bandage wrapped around it tightly.
"Ruby? Ruby are you okay?" He asked her in a panic, the concern just flooding his voice. She looked at him, her eyes just seemed glazed over, as if she wasn't paying attention to anyone or anything that was going on around her, like she was working on autopilot. "Ruby, honey?"
A moment later, she was pushed forward and towards the barrel, her arms tied behind her back. He saw her taking a deep breath before one of the men grabbed her by the hair and dunked her head into the water. Tony started shouting at them, begging and pleading for them to stop.
The time was ticking away, and finally they pulled her head back up. He watched her gasping for air, sucking it in greedily, before they dunked her once more. His heart was breaking into pieces, they were torturing his daughter to try to get him to make a missile for them, and he knew what he was going to have to do.
Tony just couldn't watch it any more. "Okay! Stop it!" He shouted, getting them to look at him and pull Ruby up once more. "Just leave her alone!" Ruby was pulled away from the barrel and thrown to the ground beside Tony, where she was taking deep breaths.
Before he could ask her if she was all right, the sacks were placed back over their heads and they were dragged out of the room. When they were next taken off, they were squinting at the bright light that was burning their eyes. Yinsen was there with them now as well, and Tony was just holding onto Ruby. She was clinging onto him as well, as if her life depended in it.
The three of them were lead by armed guards through a camp just outside of the cave, where all around them they could see crate loads of weapons. All the weapons were branded with Stark Industries.
"He wants to know what you think." Yinsen told him, taking a quick look at Ruby's new injuries as they walked. He head heard she had caused a little scuffle when they had brought her food, resulting in the new cuts and bruises.
Tony just looked at the man who seemed to be taking charge. "I think you got a lot of my weapons." He was still trying to get the image of Ruby being dunked in that freezing cold water out of his head.
"He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make the list of materials." Yinsen said, translating what the man before them was saying. "He says for you to start working immediately, and when you're done, he will set you and your daughter free."
Tony had his moved his arm from around Ruby, reaching out and shaking the man's hand. "No, he won't." He said quietly.
"No, he won't." Yinsen agreed, as Tony put his arm back around his daughter and held her closely.
He was blaming himself for getting her into this, for dragging his daughter into the world of weapons and terrorists. He was kicking himself for letting her come, for not seeing sense and listening to Pepper when he had the chance. It was killing him to know that she was hurt and suffering all because he was her father, and he had brought her along with him to Afghanistan and to a weapons demonstration.
A/N: So, there you go. Ruby has officially been kidnapped along with Tony. Ruby clearly knows more than she is letting on. Natasha and Clint are still no where to be seen. How will she get out of this one alive?
As always I would like to thank everyone who has added this story to their favourites and who have followed as well. I send out an even bigger thank you to everyone who has reviewed.
I really do appreciate all of your wonderful reviews. They honestly make me smile and let me know that I am doing something right if you guys are still reading.
Well, enough of my rambling. Until next week, my lovelies.
Pippa.